From: Tom Haws <hawstom(a)sprintmail.com>
JAY JG wrote:
Thus, hypothetically, if Cheese Dreams had said
Jesus was born in 100 BCE,
and Steven had insisted it was 4 BCE, the mediator would have insisted
that they should both compromise and say that Jesus was born in 52 BCE.
More often than not, a root of the problem is the POV-pusher (and often the
valiant defender) has not read [[WP:NPOV]] at all, or maybe has only read
it quickly once. In your example above, both editors could be sentenced to
read it twice and do a report on it. Then they might com up with the
singularly NPOV idea that P-ists says P and Q-ists say Q.
Well, in this case the problem was compounded by the fact that Cheese Dreams
refused to bring any sources for her claims, and the arbitrator didn't think
that sources were important anyway, just compromise.
These disputes are usually not all that difficult; the
combatants simply
lack a common framework, and they spend all their time digging in against
each other instead of finding common ground. Adam Carr in this case could
have done much better at winning over Peter as a true Wikipedia ally.
Maybe in that case, maybe not. Armchair quarterbacks have an easy time
hypothetically solving other people's disputes. However, in the real
Wikipedia (the one, by the way, which is also inundated by vandals), there
are real trolls who are not amenable to any sort of reason.
Jay.