Volume 4, Number 1, Oct 2003
CR Strategies for Conflicts in
Cyberspace - Meatball Wiki
by Trevor Richards
From the early days of the
internet people have used it to build online communities
where people
can discuss topics and exchange ideas. Just as with face-to-face
discussions, conflict can occur in online conversations.
People
can easily misunderstand what was meant by a particular phrase
or comment and have been know to take offence to minor things
such as typos and messages posted in all-caps by accident.
A good source for strategies to deal with online conflicts,
and conflict in general, is the conflict
resolution page at Meatball
Wiki. Collected on this page are some techniques to resolve
conflict. Strategies discussed include:
- Assume Good Faith
- Forgive And Forget
- IgnoreMalice
- Assume Stupidity NotMalice
- AvoidConflict
- NameTheConflict
- SmoothItOver
- DontLookAtTheFinger
- OpenDiscussion
- SuperordinateGoal
- EnlargeSpace
- SeekThirdParties as ConflictMediator
- CompromiseAgreement
- SeekCommonGround
- ChangeThePeople
- ChangeTheStructure
- TimeOut
- AgreeToDisagree
- SurrenderWithGrace
- Vote
- TacticalDistraction
- TacticalEngagement
- Fork the community
Since the web site is a wiki you can add your own strategies
and edit existing ones - a Wiki is a piece of server software
that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content
using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a
simple text syntax for creating new pages and cross links
between internal pages on the fly. They first appeared in
1995. For more information on wikis see http://wiki.org/
So next time you have a conflict arising from an online discussion
go to Meatball Wiki and see if any of the strategies listed
will help. And if you have a new strategy or thoughts on an
existing one you can also add them at the Meatball Wi site.
|
