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.

That cat picture is hilarious!

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?

Post included in: [Steemprentice Spotlight for September 27th](https://steemit.com/steemit/@virtualgrowth/steemprentice-spotlight-for-september-27th-the-search-for-steem-n-good-posts)

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.

I was going to write this post, but see that you did it for me....

We as a community need to find the most neutral and results driven person who also possesses intelligence and empathy to be a mediator.

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.

This post has been linked to from another place on Steem.


  - [☼ Steemprentice Spotlight for September 27th - The Search for Steem'n Good Posts ☼](https://steemit.com/steemit/@virtualgrowth/steemprentice-spotlight-for-september-27th-the-search-for-steem-n-good-posts) by @virtualgrowth


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