Conflict Resolution

Veterans Affairs Team
	"Sim long and prosper" Overview; VA Team Members; Past Accomplishments; Building Community User Right-to-Leave; Democracy in UFOP Voting; Fair Process; Backroom Decisions; Open Process; ; Importance of Online Identity; Building Stronger Community Barnraising; Radical Inclusiveness; ; The Dark Side of Community; Conflict Resolution The Conflict Paradox; ; How a Group is its own Worst Enemy; Vested Contributers; Community Security; ; Veterans Affairs Forum; Facilitator: Roshanara Rahman Edit this Nav

More to come, but until then...

Wars

Wars within an online community often follow a typical cycle:

Private e-mailing: Two people exchange words publicly or privately, resulting in a back-and-forth over private e-mail.
Mediators step in: A few people try and mediate the conflict by suggestion methods of resolution. Both sides are too emotional to listen, though.
Threats: From "I'll leave if..." to "You'll be forced to leave if you don't..."
The hardline: Someone finally says "Either you ____ or you leave!
The White Flag Confession: One or more people in the conflict admit one of the following:
- They may have been too harsh.
- They have stress in their life that caused this problem.
- They did something that inadvertantly led to this conflict, even though they didn't mean to.
Calls for more rules: People suggest rules which will avoid this future situation. --FltAdml. Wolf 15:09, 3 Dec 2004 (EST)

Defend eachother

From Meatball Wiki

If you are personally attacked, don't defend yourself. That may be surprising - but defending yourself is not your job, it is the job of the other members in the online community.

Reasons:

* it is much more credible to the reader

* it's too hard to stay emotionally balanced when you defend against personal attacks, it is much easier even not to defend at all

* the experience to be defended is incredible, it is pure joy, enjoy it to defend and be defended creates strong emotional bonds among members, it builds trust

* And remember, most of the time personal attacks need not be defended at all, because the attacker only hurts his own reputation and credibility. However, ModelDesiredBehavior: if someone else is attacked, defend them.

While conflicts are typically seen as negative, they hold big chances to grow as a community, to build trust among the members, to grow in valuable experience. Observe and learn for the next conflicts.

--FltAdml. Wolf 15:18, 3 Dec 2004 (EST)