Wikipedia:Mediation Cabal/Cases/2007-01-04 Template:Animal Crossing series

Mediation Case: Template:Animal Crossing series
Please observe Etiquette and Talk Page Etiquette in disputes. If you submit complaints or insults your edits are likely to be removed by the mediator, any other refactoring of the mediation case by anybody but the mediator is likely to be reverted. If you are not satisfied with the mediation procedure please submit your complaints to Wikipedia talk:Mediation Cabal.

Request Information

 * Request made by: TStein 08:33, 4 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Where is the issue taking place?
 * Template:Animal_Crossing_series


 * Who's involved?
 * myself and A_Man_In_Black


 * What's going on?
 * I came to the template to clean it up. I removed unnecessary stuff, added stuff, fixed formatting--which started a whole lot of reverting back and forth on a number of issues.  The one that remains has to do with the article Animal Crossing (GameCube).  A_Man_In_Black wants the article to appear on the template as Animal Crossing (because anything else would be excessive and unnecessary) and I want it to appear on the template as Animal Crossing (GameCube) (because it's a game series and users could get confused).  I've tried to discuss this on the talk page, but A_Man_In_Black doesn't seem interested in discussing it with me, and when I went to his talk page I received no reply.  Basically, we have two completely opposing points of view, but I've been willing to discuss the issue and A_Man_In_Black at first simply repeated his point and now won't reply to anything but still reverts any change.


 * ''What would you like to change about that?
 * This is a really, really minor issue. I think that it should have been really easy from the get-go to have a quick discussion and come to an agreement.  I'd like for A_Man_In_Black to either discuss the issue, or stop reverting all of my edits.  I prefer discussion but this isn't a matter of national security.  I'm pretty sure I can make this call.  I'm not sure how much mediation can work when there's no discussion taking place.  That's why I'm here.  Not because there's a big blowup, but because A_Man_In_Black has decided that he's right and I'm not and it's not worth discussing, just reverting.  Maybe you could at least give me advice on what to do or where to go.


 * Would you prefer we work discreetly? If so, how can we reach you?
 * I don't have a preferance.

Mediator response

 * I'll take this one. TheronJ 19:11, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Update: I've posted some initial questions on the template talk page, here, and think intial discussion should go there. I've also asked A Man In Black if he wants to mediate.  This seems fairly discrete, so hopefully we can get a good result without too much pain.  TheronJ 19:42, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Update: The parties appear to be deadlocked.  After discussions with the parties, I have started a request for comment to see if some outside opinions can help resolve the issue.  TheronJ 21:55, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Compromise offers
This section is for listing and discussing compromise offers.



Notes closing the mediation
In my opinion, we has accomplished everything we can in this mediation, and I will be closing it. To summarize: TStein, A Man In Black, thanks for your participation, and I apologize that I wasn't able to resolve the issue. If you disagree with any of my summary above, or think that I left out something relevant, let me know and I'll be glad to fix it. TheronJ 22:12, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
 * 1) A Man In Black and TStein (now editing as Miss Mondegreen) have a good faith dispute over whether Animal Crossing (GameCube) should be included in the Animal Crossing series template as "Animal Crossing (GameCube)" or simply "Animal Crossing."
 * 2) Simplified, TStein feels that the word "(GameCube)" should be included to distinguish the game from the series as a whole, and that the word doesn't do any harm. AMIB believes that because Animal Crossing (GameCube) is currently the only game in the series actually named "Animal Crossing," the word "(GameCube)" is inappropriate metadata, and that it should go.  (See, ).
 * 3) Initial discussions didn't lead to much progress. Neither I nor either of the parties was able to identify an acceptable compromise, or any relevant policies or guidelines to resolve the issue.  A Man In Black felt that the issues had been fully discussed, and we ended up posting a request for comment asking for outside opinions.
 * 4) In response to that request (posted on the RFC page and the Videogame WikiProject), we got three comments, two of which favored AMIB's position, and one of which was neutral. However, that RFC did not help to resolve the issue -- TStein disagreed with the reasoning offered by the respondents, and felt that I didn't articulate his position as accurately as I should have.
 * 5) IMHO, TStein is withing his rights to continue to disagree - we don't run Wikipedia by majority rule, so if he's not convinced, that's completely fair. However, I don't believe additional mediation will be helpful on this issue, so I think the parties will need to agree to disagree for now.
 * 6) With the mediation over, I will offer my personal opinion - I don't think the issue matters. The template would not be particularly offensive with the "(GameCube)" or without.  If I were one of the editors, I would post the question on the WikiProject Video games general discussion page and abide by whatever recommendation came out -- if nothing else, it would increase consistency with similar templates.