Wikipedia:Be specific at DRN
 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: DRN doesn't look into the process of editing articles, but at the articles that readers view. |
This is originally a response to a particular editor in DRN who raised issues of undue weight, false balance, stonewalling, and consensus. It is intended to address any editor who has concerns about the process of editing an article, or general comments about an article that do not refer to specific paragraphs. The purpose of the dispute resolution noticeboard is to improve an article. Wikipedia consists of several million articles that are read by millions of readers via the Internet. The Wikipedia community is an organization that provides those articles to our readers. DRN handles disputes over article content. This means that, at DRN, if an editor thinks that there is undue weight to a point of view, they should propose to change it by changing the wording of one or more paragraphs. If an editor thinks that there is false balance, they should propose to restore a better balance in specific parts of the article.
If an editor thinks that the process by which an article or articles are being edited is problematic, and is causing multiple content issues, there are several things that they can do:
- They can discuss specific points in the article, and DRN is a forum to do that.
- They can raise issues about the conduct of specific editors, and discuss the conduct issues at WP:ANI or Arbitration Enforcement (knowing that their own conduct may be discussed also); but this is not done at DRN.
- They can contribute to a WikiProject.
- They can propose ideas about improving the editorial process, such as recruiting new editors. This is not done at DRN, but at Village Pump or elsewhere.
DRN is not a place for discussing an article in general terms or for discussing general issues about editorial process. There are other forums for that. DRN is not a place for discussing problematic editors. It may be a place for cleaning up the problematic edits. Problematic editors can be discussed at WP:ANI, or sometimes at Arbitration Enforcement.
If a DRN volunteer says that we will not talk about stonewalling, that is why. (Stonewalling is a refusal to discuss in good faith. Complaining at too much length about stonewalling can itself be a refusal to discuss in good faith if the complainer is not specific.) Discussions about undue weight or false balance should be about restoring weight or balance to specific points in an article.
If an editor at DRN says that all viewpoints must be discussed, they may be asked what viewpoint they think is not discussed, and may be asked to provide a discussion of that viewpoint. If an editor at DRN says that an article contains BLP violations, they may be asked what text in the article should be either removed or reworded to remedy the BLP violations.