Ground Rules? I Don't Need No Stinkin' Ground Rules!

[kgregglv]

You should enjoy this: http://www.mediate.com/articles/grayE1.cfm?nl=123

This is the approach that I've taken in mediation sessions. It gives the parties greater control over the process as well as the conclusion, and I feel that it more information from each party and has a better success rate than when an arbitrator tells the parties how the results are divided.

Best to you,

Just Ken

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Ken,

Thank you for posting the link to that article. (I bet many people will not read it, though, because of the need to provide an area code for access).

T’ai Chi is a wonderful approach and I especially liked this quote from the article:

Orthodox T'ai Chi schools say the study of T'ai Chi Ch'uan is studying how to change appropriately in response to outside forces…In order to be able to protect oneself or someone else by using change, it is necessary to understand what the consequences are of changing appropriately, changing inappropriately and not changing at all in response to an attack.

In a fight, if one uses hardness to resist violent force then both sides are certain to be injured, at least to some degree. Such injury, according to T'ai Chi theory, is a natural consequence of meeting brute force with brute force.… Instead, students are taught not to fight or resist an incoming force, but to meet it in softness and "stick" to it, following its motion while remaining in physical contact until the incoming force of attack exhausts itself or can be safely redirected... Lao-Tzu…wrote, "The soft and the pliable will defeat the hard and strong." (Emphasis added.)

On discussion forums, this is not always the best way. There has to be a minimum of value on both sides for it to function and an Internet forum is a place open to all for free. The belligerent and imbalanced show up with the rest and they are not interested in negotiating anything. They merely wish to use a formed audience to scratch their neurotic urges. Still, when I have had to suspend privileges (and there have only been a couple of instances), in general I have tried to be quiet about it to keep the focus off the disruptive person.

Michael

[Judith]

On discussion forums, this is not always the best way. There has to be a minimum of value on both sides for it to function and an Internet forum is a place open to all for free. The belligerent and imbalanced show up with the rest and they are not interested in negotiating anything. They merely wish to use a formed audience to scratch their neurotic urges. Still, when I have had to suspend privileges (and there have only been a couple of instances), in general I have tried to be quiet about it to keep the focus off the disruptive person.

Oh, I don't know -- ignoring trolls is analogous to a soft response to force, and I'd consider it to be a very effective tool.

Judith

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Oh, I don't know -- ignoring trolls is analogous to a soft response to force, and I'd consider it to be a very effective tool.

Judith,

For users, certainly. For everybody the vast majority of the time, certainly. For administrators in some few very irritating cases, no. (We even had a disgruntled troll make a hacker attack on the site and delete our databases, prompting us to move to a much more secure proprietary sever with several backup routines.)

Michael

[John Dailey]

Michael/Kat:

~ I swear that I'm not sure if you're talking Tai Chi or Aikido (metaphorically or not) but you do a good job in handling trolls. You also have no prob with heatedly arguing with supporters-for-your-'X'-view about subject 'Y', which clearly keeps away 'yes-JR; right-QB; sure-thing-LP' posters seeking to join a 'pack' that has some Alpha-Leader.

~ Haven't seen a 'troll' here yet; some posters I want no comm with, yes, but, no chronically-baiting 'trolls' and, no pack-joiner searchers fill up your forum anywhere I've 2-centsed at.

~ I have some reservations about some of your views, but, your forum may out-do/-perform all others yet.

LLAP

J:D

[Judith]

For users, certainly. For everybody the vast majority of the time, certainly. For administrators in some few very irritating cases, no. (We even had a disgruntled troll make a hacker attack on the site and delete our databases, prompting us to move to a much more secure proprietary sever with several backup routines.)

Agreed.