Are you having a conflict with someone on LocalWiki? Unsure of how to move forward?

Here is some advice and lessons learned.

This page is under eternal construction! Conflict resolution in the world of online communities is a constantly evolving topic. Times change, technologies change, and online communities change. If you have any advice or resources you'd like this guide to have, please feel free to add them or contact Vicky at <vicky at localwiki dot org>. 

• Examples of conflict resolution across LocalWiki
  • Humor on Oakland Wiki resolved style dispute
• Examples of conflict resolution in other online communities
  • Wikimedia Gender Gap
  • Geek Feminism Code of Conduct (Vicky suggests forking this for LocalWiki!)
  • IRC Freenode #feminism
• Conflict resolution modalities
  • Nonviolent Communication (NVC)
  • Safer space
• Other resources

Examples of conflict resolution across LocalWiki

Humor on Oakland Wiki resolves style dispute

Horace W. Carpentier. Funny, right?In February 2013, a dispute arose between editors on how to talk about the city's controversial first mayor, Horace W. Carpentier. One person wrote a funny article chiding him as a "stereotypical 19th-century greedhead". Another person came in and reframed the language of the page into a serious historical article. A couple of observing editors took this moment as an opportunity to nip a potential edit war in the bud and started the funny yet serious Conflicting Oakland Wiki Philosophies page (in the same vein as Conflicting Wikipedia Philosophies). This article led to a larger discussion on style guidelines, and a general consensus that Oakland Wiki is big enough for everyone (humorists and serious scholars alike), so long as the content we write is not abusive, defamatory, or pretends to be true when it's not. (See also: LocalWiki Code of Conduct)

Examples of conflict resolution in other online communities

Wikipedia's Gender Gap

The Wikimedia community has a really active gendergap email list that organizes around attracting more female editors and understanding the dynamics that have led to few female-identified editors in their community. They talk about gender and Wikipedia all the time. Vicky is asking them for conflict resolution resources and examples of conflict resolution in their community...

Geek Feminism Code of Conduct

A very important (and forkable) example to look at and consider using for our not-yet-written Code of Conduct: http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Community_anti-harassment/Policy

IRC Freenode #feminist

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Conflict resolution modalities

Nonviolent Communication (NVC)

Nonviolent communication is a powerful communications framework that has been used to address conflict by folks around the world (from Martin Luther King Jr. to Thích Nhất Hạnh to local therapists and counselors). The core pillars of NVC are honesty, empathy toward others, and empathy toward yourself.

NVC Resources

• Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life (Marshall Rosenberg) - Rosenberg is the person who first coined the term! This book is a good introductory text.
• Nonviolence in Theory and Practice (Holmes and Gan) - A very practical guide to NVC, with essays written by activists from around the world.

Safer space

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Other resources

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