Wikipedia:NAVCON

When you're in a conflict with another person, there's an adversarial relationship established. Anything that reinforces that relationship tends to prolong a conflict. Thus, it's great to weaken that dynamic. There are various good ways to do that. You can probably invent many examples; here are two:

Each of us writes in our own voice. Thus, you might be someone who would not phrase those comments as above, and that's fine. There is still some way of getting the same messages across in your voice. Don't say it if you can't say it with sincerity.

You can dignify another editor as a human without compromising your commitment to encyclopedic principles. In fact, doing so is a good way to make it clear to any reader that you recognize the distinction between the editor and the edits.

Note: Some editors don't respond well to this technique: if you're too nice, they don't trust you. You've got to play it by ear.

See: . Put "his" facts in the article, neutrally. Represent his perspective better than he does. It's difficult, but if you can do it to the point of ending a conflict, you win on multiple levels.

Boring but useful: If someone reverts several changes you've made, or makes several changes that you want to revert, don't go back to your last preferred version. Break it into pieces. Make one small edit - a single source, or one sentence. Wait a day. Repeat. This can pare a conflict down to the heart of the matter, and it lowers the heat generated by rapid back-and-forth edits. Slow but steady "wins the race".

Remember that edits are not protected by default. If someone questions content in an article, they may remove it, and it should not be re-added until any questions about it are resolved. The questions may prove to be groundless, or not well-based in policy or in good sense, but this should be clearly established on the talk page for all to see.

Don't argue with one person on one page. Once you've gone three rounds, you can tell whether you're getting anywhere. If not, post a note somewhere relevant and ask what others think. The more people in the room, the lower the heat, on average. When you ask the question, phrase it as neutrally as you can. RFC is one way to do this, but you can do it informally as well.

Many talk pages have banners at the top linking to one or more ; these are good places to start. You may also want to try talk pages of relevant policies and guidelines. Word to the wise: some project space talk pages are dominated by one of several . It is therefore sometimes desirable to ask in more than one place. If you do this, it is considered good form to indicate in each venue that you are cross-posting to multiple venues.

Stay super-focused on edits; don't mention motives. When someone is editing tendentiously, it's very easy to want to "call them out" on it. That's a bad idea, because then you end up arguing about that, and you're one step further removed from improving an article. Also, the less you are willing to descend to any kind of ad hominem, the better you look to outsiders. (That may sound cynical and Macchiavellian, but it's true.)

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