[WikiEN-l] Wheel warring

[Michael Snow]

Conrad Dunkerson wrote:

> The 'first reverter' is NOT always the problem and 'discussion' does 
> not cure all ills. I don't think I've ever seen a serious wheel war 
> where discussion WASN'T going on.

Discussion does frequently develop, but usually it fails to involve both 
of the participants in the actual "war". If both sides were busy 
discussing instead of serially undoing each other's actions, then that 
problem wouldn't come up, and they'd hopefully be able to make progress 
in terms of resolving the underlying issue.

Unfortunately, the situation is sometimes aggravated by those who are 
late to the party, see that a dispute has come up, and decide to join in 
on the *action* rather than the *discussion*. Quite a bit of the userbox 
fiascos can be attributed to this, I think.

To prevent this, I think the obligation needs to fall on the original 
participants. If you've helped precipitate a dispute that has moved to 
discussion, in order for that discussion to mean anything you need to 
prevent people from actively perpetuating the dispute. Specifically, you 
should be stepping in when your would-be allies arrive, as those are 
people who ought to listen to you, telling them to stop and join the 
discussion instead.

--Michael Snow