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?