This is an explanatory essay about the edit warring and title changes policies. This page provides additional information about concepts in the page(s) it supplements. This page is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community.

Shortcuts WP:PMWWP:PMW WP:PMWARWP:PMWAR WP:MOVEWARWP:MOVEWAR

A page-move war occurs when editors repeatedly move a page to a different title or conduct an ongoing disagreement with each other's opinions on a suitable title, similar to the situation of an edit war. Like edit warring, page-move wars are considered disruptive and cause confusion for readers. Editors should avoid such actions by reaching a consensus or settling a dispute with each other.

Wikipedia holds that an open system can produce quality, neutral encyclopedic content. This requires reasoned negotiation, patience,^[1] and a strong community spirit, each of which is undercut by antisocial behavior like incivility and move warring.

Besides this, page-move wars create a lot of double or even triple redirects in some cases; this is a bad thing because these redirects confuse those who are not familiar with the MediaWiki software. Following these redirects is like going around in circles. Double redirects are also bad for server performance. Although editors shouldn't worry about performance, it's not an excuse to move war.

The right way to deal with page name disputes is to stop moving the page and try to get a consensus on the talk page of the article. If you think a page move might be controversial, it's best to make a move proposal on the article's talk page and list it at requested moves. In case of persistent move wars, administrators may block involved editors or move protect the subject page until the page name dispute is resolved.

• Wikipedia:Edit warring
• Wikipedia:Three-revert rule
• Wikipedia:Moving a page
• Wikipedia:Requested moves
• Wikipedia:Dispute resolution