HOWTO: Avoid drama and conflicts

There are several topics in this forum holding some tension between people, so I would like to write my ideas and thoughts on the subject of relationships between people, and ways to reduce conflicts occuring.

To start off, it is entirely up to the staff how they choose to run the server and forums, everything I write here is just my personal opinion and you are free to agree or disagree.



Treat everyone equally and with respect.

That means, if you feel like lashing out at someone, regardless of what they did or said, ask yourself the question, would you give a friend or, let's say, the server owner the same response as you are about to give said person?
If no, then you should reconsider what you are about to do.

Even if someone griefed your house, or wrote something you find offensive or against your beliefs, or you simply don't like the person, it shouldn't be an excuse to act impolite.
They will anyways have to respect the punishment they get, wich might be a ban, or a warning, but it shouldn't be someone being rude to them. If noone is rude to an 'offender' they might even feel bad about what they did wich would discourage doing whatever they did again.

If someone says something you find incorrect, and you feel like correcting them, there is always a polite way to do it, and there is no reason to be rude about it, even if it is to someone you never met before.


You are not better than anyone else

You might have more money than someone, you might be smarter, better at gaming, having been longer in the community, being a staff member.
None of these gives you the right to treat someone as a lesser person than you, because they are unique, and so are you. Everyone has their strong sides and weaker sides.
Being picked on for whatever your shortcoming might be never feels good, so don't do it to others either.


Server governing form

You might wonder what this has to do with drama. If it is entirely up to staff to make all descisions, the community will eventually be split with one side agreeing with the changes, and the others not. The latter part will eventually move on to somewhere else, and depending on how well the server is run, only a handful of people might stick around long term.
In the traditional game communities, you have content designers wich get their work approved by a board of people. Many game developers allow the community to come up with suggestions, and the most popular ones get implemented. This is however on quite a large scale, not comparable to the community and staff involved with a Minecraft server.
On a Minecraft server scale, I would say it is highly recommened to allow the community to have a say in how things are done. Not just for the purpose of getting the community more involved, but for the purpose of having a better general opinion of what is good or not.
It is simply not possible for, let's say, 5 people, to make all the descisions and expect it all to be the right ones.
But again, the staff could be in good touch with the community, resulting in the majority of the people staying just because it's an awesome server.


Rules

Rules of conduct are needed, and everyone should be expected to follow them.
It should be written short and simple so everyone takes the time to read them.
Upon violation, there should be defined punishments for various violations, with increased punishment for repeated violations.


That's all I have to say for now. I hope this can help some get along a bit better, perhaps even help improve the server and community.
After all, we are here to have fun, right?
There is no reason to let drama and conflicts arise to ruin that for everyone.


Yours truly
Rey Hooves


PS Love & Tolerance

I suppose the Love and Tolerance kinda somes it all up. Ponies just gotta care, you gotta share~

You forgot one thing

williamcll wrote:You forgot one thing

This.
All the this.
whenever I'm angry, it's pretend anger, unfortunately people think me talking lengthily is me being angry.
I'm at worse slightly annoyed

Beatrice does not hate! She loves with a Mallet! I love all! I hug all and Smooch all! >_> And swing a mallet at all? And bite all? And drag some to Hades? But it is all out of Love for Pony Creatures big and small!!