  In this work we study the dynamical features of editorial wars in Wikipedia
(WP). Based on our previously established algorithm, we build up samples of
controversial and peaceful articles and analyze the temporal characteristics of
the activity in these samples. On short time scales, we show that there is a
clear correspondence between conflict and burstiness of activity patterns, and
that memory effects play an important role in controversies. On long time
scales, we identify three distinct developmental patterns for the overall
behavior of the articles. We are able to distinguish cases eventually leading
to consensus from those cases where a compromise is far from achievable.
Finally, we analyze discussion networks and conclude that edit wars are mainly
fought by few editors only.
