Drama is Going to Happen, But We Need a Better Place for it.
The Problem with Escalated Drama
As I've stated before, I honestly see Steemit to be more than just a site, it's a society. It is a given that disagreements and/or conflicts are going to occur periodically for any group. As we've seen here, some of these conflicts are able to solve themselves by being posted on as usual (sometimes with separately posted response) and through replies by those directly associated with the issue as well as other voices from the community.
Unfortunately some of these issues just seem escalate and fester. For these conflicts we desperately need a place to take this to for some form of mediation. More importantly, taking this already escalated situation out from posts for a few reasons:
- Users who don't have all the information, nor gone down the full rabbit hole typically presented, tend to take sides. There is nothing wrong with stating a for/against statement, however many people get swept up by the escalation only making the situation worse.
- Do we really want Steemit to be factionalized over time? We are in reality all part of the same community here and to sustainably grow, building and nurturing well placed trust is necessary.
- Steemit is still being watched by those outside our community, many of whom we are trying to woo into joining us here. When escalated drama occurs, it makes the trending pages, and what do those without a login see? The Trending Page!! These are the people already turned off by the crap they've seen on other social media sites. Seeing the same on the trending pages here is an absolute turn off for them.
- If we constantly upvote and PAY escalated drama, we are just in big trouble. Imagine if the 'easy money' trend switches from plagiarism to creating drama! Up to a point conflict posts are a great thing, especially when it leads to a resolution. But at another point, when it's rather obvious that things aren't heading to a fix, the plug on rewards needs to be pulled and the issue taken somewhere other than posts (or at least have it posted by a mediator.)
Recommendation
Since there are truly valid points and concerns behind these escalated conflicts we need to ensure that they are at least de-escalated if not actually resolved. I would like to see a place such as a #mediation chatroom in steemit.chat where all parties involved and anyone else that want's to be a part can go. I don't see this as any form of censorship, since it's open to everyone, even non-Steemit users (who could just make a chat account.) Ideally some form of log would need to be kept and later put onto the blockchain along with the agree to disagree or a resolution statement.
Obviously somebody would have to play the role of mediator to at least achieve de-escalation. Similar to Steemprentice model of crowdsourcing mentors, once enough mediators offer their time/service, it's easier to stay ahead of needs while minimizing burnout.
Conclusion
There really isn't a code based solution for human conflict. With this in mind we can't expect something in the development pipeline for this, we have to figure this one out ourselves. We've seen user groups emerge to solve immediate problems such as @curie, @robinhoodwhale, @steemcleaners, @steemverify, @projectnewbie, @steemprentice and I'm sure there are more.
We as a community need to find a way to better deal with these heated conflicts that aren't solving themselves. I really don't care how we go about this, just so long as we do. The current method is only going to drag us all down in the end.
And just to make sure you leave with a smile on your face:
Image Sources:
Faces
Information Lacking Quote
Choose Mediation
It's Team Time
Smiling Cat
You make a lot of good points. I think some sources of conflicts are being eliminated by improvements in the site or in introduced solutions to problems that are causing conflict.
There was a lot of drama about malicious downvoting recently, but @seraph seems to be helping counteract that, just as @cheetah and @steemcleaners are helping with the plagiarism problem. Kudos to @anyx for @cheetah and @seraph and to @anyx and everyone else involved in @steemcleaners.
I think people are being conditioned to expect drama by reality TV and cable news. I know I found some of the Steemit drama quite entertaining and some of it necessary if that's what it took to deal with abusive personalities. When I believed I understood what the conflict concerned I knew I was understanding the site a little better, and I also felt a bit sucked in by egregious behavior.
But yes, it would be nice to have another way to handle conflict that won't show up in Trending. I think your point about how Steemit appears to the wider world is important. That negative stuff is going to be out there, and people reading it won't necessarily know the site was in fast-moving beta stage at the time of the conflict.
Some of the posts reporting problems could be eliminated if it didn't take so damn much work to understand where to go for what.
I would love to see well-developed FAQs at the entrance point to Steemit--a limited FAQ pinned to the top of the page you see when you come to the site as a non-member and a more well-developed FAQ sent with a confirmation email to new people who sign up, divided into sections so you're not overwhelmed with info.
I know Steemprentice is developing information and other help for minnows, but I don't know if there is a plan to get it to minnows immediately. Even before people sign up, they need to know they're going to given a very long random password, and they have questions about how the site works. Based on the link a friend sent me, I initially thought Steemit was solely an anarchism site.
Starting on Steemit is a lot like showing up for a new job in a big building and being told at the front door to find your office and figure out your job duties. If people are suffering in silence because they don't know how to solve problems, their suffering may eventually boil over into a negative post.
Correcting misconceptions from the start might eliminate issues that result from unrealistic expectations, especially regarding earning money.
Mediation done right requires certain skills. How do you think that should be addressed?
Honestly i wasn't thinking of minnow drama when i wrote this. But all your points are still valid. (Except usually minnow drama doesn't make trending pages)
It's late so I'll keep this brief and expand later if i miss things.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U4BacoM5E_m90K-DK3rdS-MUdQ68NLAG1D_3yP0AiuI/edit?usp=sharing
That is the Google doc for the Faq. It accepts suggestions so anyone can contribute. But it gives good basics for brand new people. We do have a bunch of other resources in the #Steemprentice pin tab (rather unorganized atm).
The group has let other projects know are there to direct people to. (Like abuse channel, curie, rhw, and project newbie who even has steemprentice mentioned in their channel and comments . Exposure has really been our biggest limitation, which working with the other groups helped.
Some of our members also watch for newbie or frustrated posts ourselves and reaching out to them with an offer to answer questions or help.
Recently virtual growth, kriptik, and gonzo have all done posts to advertise the group and successes.
I'd love to see something pinned for those being onboarded to see, or have steemprentice be a default chat channel...but I'd not really thought on that one, seeming out of reach for now i guess. On the up side, we're at 157 members in channel and we launched only 3 weeks ago. :)
Certain people have mediation skills already and others can quickly learn. To some degree it's like the mentor group in that many joined because they wanted to help. I'd suspect that similar would occur if a need for mediators for escalated conflict.
The vast majority of all conflicts solve themselves through simple discussion or someone offering to help. It's the high profile, prolonged issues that might prove useful with mediation
I do see your point about minnow conflicts not making the trending page.
Thanks for letting me know that anyone can offer suggestions on the FAQ.
No prob, it's really a minor minor point out of the whole thing. I probably needed to be more detailed in the types of issues I was thinking of, but at the same time I don't want to really see those things back in the limelight...hence not mentioning it.
I has seemed that in the last month or so the 'frustrated' or leaving steemit posts have gone down. I don't see them floating around the chat room like before. Which ideally means less frustrated people. (and unfortunately I'm sure some left)
I've seen several conflicts resolved in just the comments section, some pretty severe ones too (one of them, one guy had 15 bots flagging everything the other guy posted). Unfortunately, we're not all this kind of person and so a mediation room would be great.
The majority tend to find a fix, and I agree, that's one of the best reasons for having conflict publically. But yea, it's those rare few that just spiral..and even if the posts and comments themselves go silent...without resolution it just breeds more animosity and distrust.
I like your idea because, actually, the ability to disagree with someone in a civil manner, is a skill that can and should be learned. Your mediation room would therefore have an element of education-always a good thing. Also, having civil disagreements is healthy, with the parties forming deeper relationships and trust. When everyone is in constant agreement, they aren't interacting at all and the result is a dead, "Stepford" environment.
I dedicated a poem to Papa Pepper, on one of his posts that touched on the Stepford thing.
Thank you!
If as a society we truly want to move towards a more free society (define that however is wanted) we have to able to have and deal with disagreements. Just like you said..we can't all just go around superficially smile and nodding, it really gets us nowhere.
We have to be able to have a useful takeaway from disagreements or conflicts, hence the importance of either reaching an 'agree to disagree' point or a mutual resolution. Otherwise, like in the Stepford sense...people just agree (commonly because their scared of conflict) which doesn't really solve any issues.
I'll check out your poem!
I think mediating and communicating is always the best course of action in any dispute, misunderstanding or conflict. But these sort of things are normal. They are going to happen. It has always sort of bothered me how so often people feel a need to pretend that they are not human. That their community or group is immune to the frailties and flaws of regular people.
I used to belong to and be pretty active on a sailing forum or message board or whatever you call it. Over the years, they started to make it seem like you were welcome if you only expressed opinions about sailing. If you had so-called off topic thoughts, you were some sort of low class person. Eventually, they made it so you needed a special password to enter the off topic section and made it entirely invisible to those who weren't members.
I'm a real person. Whether I'm on line or if you walk into my shop. Sometimes I'm going to want to talk about sailing. Sometimes I'm going to want to talk about Anarchy. Sometimes I might just want to listen or read and not talk at all. But it pissed me off that they would call themselves a "community" and at the same time. Not fully accept me as the multifaceted person that I and everyone else in the world is.
Maybe there could be a header on the page that those who aren't logged in see where in it says something like;
This Online Community is Made Up Of Human Beings. Human Beings Can Be And Often Are Real Buttheads.
The Sentiments And Opinions Expressed By These Buttheads Are Theirs Alone And Do Not Represent The Sentiments And Opinions Of Anyone Else On Steemit Except For Those Who Have Upvoted It. Some Of Whom, Just Like In Real Life Have More Power Than Regular People."
That should be sufficient to inform people that Steemit isn't perfect. Just like the real world.
I think the disclaimer is a great idea.
My intentions here aren't to hide that there are conflicts that arise, especially with the vast majority of them working themselves out on the blockchain. Showing both the conflict and the resolution is very important. This really shouldn't be a place where one feels like they are 'walking on eggshells' when openly speaking their mind as it seems from reading occurred to some degree with the sailing forum you mentioned.
In the last month or so there have been a few 'high profile' conflicts that really seemed to end by flagging/hiding posts and really didn't end with a resolution. There's one that's continuing right now, but I don't want to be drawing attention in that direction, hence my lack of specifics. These rare situations that are being flagged/hidden are what imo need to be taken somewhere so they can actually come to some end, instead of users merely being resigned to silence, which the distrust caused looms and typically grows until boiling over again.
Similar to the sailing forum, I see flagging/hiding posts akin to putting certain topics behind password protection (even though many others are reblogging the post to maintain exposure.) This right here is where I feel some mediator needs to step in to move things to some agreement to disagree or ideally an actual resolution. Honestly, I wouldn't have an issue if this took place on the posts themselves. I merely see a longer term problem with issues being silenced vs truly dealt with, and being a rather steadfast optimist, I will admit I tend view others in the best light possible but I do get shown otherwise at times.
Idk, I'm open to any ideas. The only thing I know is that code won't fix these communication and (perceived or hidden) intention issues. If the parties involved can't resolve it on their own, I feel we need some other method to move towards some common understanding.
That cat picture is hilarious!
Haha, thank you!
I felt it was necessary to end with a smile :D
Post included in: Steemprentice Spotlight for September 27th
I guess I haven't been here long enough to see much steem drama. To me, everything seems pretty positive. I guess I'll see some examples of this over time.
Most of the new and/or frustrated user issues have died down, especially with the various project now in place to help out. There's been a little more bigger fish conflicts that have been around, but I really don't want to draw attention to those.
Right now people choosing to flag (or not) has been the primary method of dealing, but even with the posts not being seeing or people going silent, it seems like something that's going to just end without an actual resolution..my fear is that things will just fester until boiling over in the future.
This is one of those scenarios that I'd love to be proven wrong and the issues are truly dealt with and moved past.
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