Scanner Controversy - Community Conflict Resolution Process?

Reading the On-rez High Altitude Land Scanner thread made me think that perhaps we as a community should think about our Conflict Resolution Process with regards to disputes that effect SL in general.

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(If you want to skip my little diatribe, just go below to see recs for a Process and add your own)

This is analogous to the difference between a robber taking a single car and corporate malfeasance affecting a broad range of customers and setting precedent for better for worse for what one can get away with, aka known as "sharp edge business practices".

It applies in particular to things that are in the "grey area". The above thread seems to involve issues that fall into the legal but possibly unethical behavior category. Someone told me something a while ago that stayed with me (although it is a bit trite and a generalization): "Criminals make the laws” or rather it's they who provide the motivation for the creation of those laws.

The LL TOS was probably written a while ago by LL and their lawyers (maybe if someone has the back story on its development and conceptual foundations that might be an interesting thread) and as such couldn't cover all permutations of the VR world that has manifested itself here.

I see people responding in various ways to the above mentioned incident ranging from:

venting on this forum
defending the action
telling people to IM the person
"outing" accused individuals
emailing the Lindens
filing abuse reports
seeking to stop the action in kind on their land
“eye for an eye” tactics/ aka vengeance
attempting to prod the Lindens to act via duplicating this action en masse
creating tools to deal with the situation

Many of these methods are used in situations other than the one described above.

All of these methods will have either better or worse efficacy depending on the situation.
However, it all seems a bit hit or miss to me. In some situations certain actions are appropriate and in others they aren't.

LL is our defacto "government" and we are its "citizens". As its citizens, I feel that we'll have an easier time of getting our voices heard and issues addressed that we believe effect the community as a whole if we develop a process that seeks to resolve conflicts at different stages and also "vets" the issue to determine if it is something that merits a system wide policy change. This might be similar to how the US Supreme Court decides to hear a case involving constitutional law. Every case does not immediately go to them but undergoes an evaluation to determine if it is something that might involve an overall rethink of the fundamental rules by which we participate in society.

As always, care must be taken to balance the needs of the individuals against the needs of the overall community. I prefer to live under a system where one is presumed innocent rather than one where one is presumed guilty. The Golden Rule can be applied in many situations "do unto others as you would have done unto you". It applies to offenders and would be accusers. However, sometimes examples need to be made. If justice is perceived as not being served and this may lead to individual retributions/vigilantism.
Where societal justice is not present, individuals and groups make their own with varying results.

**I'm not a lawyer, so maybe someone who actually is can chime in. I'd like to hear what you think.

My Recommendations for a Conflict Resolution Process on issues possibly affecting the Community as a whole (SL style):

***Gradual Process for Conflict Resolution***

1. Instant Messenger

Politely IM the person/Group and express your problem with their actions. Refrain from personal attacks or offensive language. Copy and paste that conversation for future reference and note the day and SL time for potential forwarding to Lindens but not posting or sharing with other members and the public. Every person involved should do this (or choose a representative). Representatives should clearly state what they will say and do to the people they're representing and say and take no other action than what was agreed to.

Perhaps IM with conference Calling Cards so those represented can listen in. The alleged offender should be made aware that the information is being recorded and that the others are listening and maybe giving their input. Pictures and detailed info on the problem might be documented.

Goals:

-seek to arrange a compromise

-try to address the motivation of the behavior. Maybe there is an inoffensive alternative to their behavior that is acceptable to them and you

-if both of you find a solution perhaps agree to post the solution so others can benefit from your experience and not have to reinvent the wheel

2. In world meeting

The same details should be adhered to if a meeting takes place. It's tougher to be a hard case when you're "face to face" and a lot is lost in chat. People should meet in a relatively private place on neutral land. Conversation should still take place via IM to avoid making it a general public issue as of yet.

3. Linden Referral

Issue is run by LL reps to determine if it is a violation of TOS or constitutes potential harm.
The alleged offender should be notified that this action is being taken. Note day and time of LL contact and if there's a rep, the written complaint should be sent first to the group and then to the Lindens on approval of its content by the group.

4. Bringing up issue in Forum

Stay away from the public naming of individual or Group involved. Describe the problem and more importantly their response. Try to be objective and present their side with as little bias as possible. Tell them you are doing so and give them the opportunity to respond and state their position. Seek to determine if this issue really is something that affects the Community in general or if it's a more local/personal grievance. Ask people for their views. I call this the "reality check”. Are you freaking out over something substantial or superficial?

5. Poll

Polls may be good to determine a Yay, Nay or Maybe viewpoint of the community in general as to whether or not this is an important issue that needs to be examined. Don't skew the wording of the poll to favor one side or the other. Just state the facts as agreed to by both sides. This gives the Lindens a decent barometer of community interest, without tons of emails or abuse reports at this stage. How many responses constitute a high level of interest is something that needs to be determined... This is a variable sample, since it’s limited to people reading the Forums and the random number of people who are present or choose to participate in the poll.

6. Email Campaign to Lindens

If a high level of Community Interest is determined to be present then emails/phone calls may be necessary to ensure Linden involvement and reexamination of the issue. How many emails should be sent, so that it does not constitute an obnoxious action in itself, is also something that needs to be determined...

7. Arbitration or Mediation

Neutral third parties act as go-betweens to arrive at a solution. Parties involved in the dispute agree to abide by the decision. Go-betweens preferably have a legal background and are verified by LL not to have a conflict of interest in the matter (i.e. alts who are actually either party).

8. Call for meeting on Events Listing

Since I understand a good portion of SL's population rarely visits the Forums (or is even aware of its existence) a meeting about the issue with a short non-provocative description of the problem should be posted and its pros and cons discussed, along with a suggestion to visit the Forum discussing the issue, since it's tough to hold large scale meetings in-world as things stand right now. Notecards should be made up and distributed, but not spammed...

9. 2nd message campaign to Lindens and Offending parties

After a reasonable period of time, so that people who usually don't visit the Forums have an opportunity to discuss the issue and be polled, a new message campaign is launched with greater involvement (assuming a large interest) and a compromise/solution is once again attempted with the alleged offenders.

10. Extreme action A (some actions may leave the door open to Opportunists)

Large scale in-world protests in person or on objects
Targeting of social events to explain issue (with owner/hosts permission)
Mass actions that effect LL’s bottom line cash flow.
Reasoned expression of problems to outside press
Mass exodus from world to other online games/worlds

For en masse actions, LL should be given written notice by representatives and a last chance to resolve the issue before the action is taken.

When things reach this point, discussion should also probably take place on sites that are not affiliated with LL in order to aid communication and coordination of actions.

11. Extreme Action B (these may result in suspension, banning or cancellation of accounts)

Coordinated Duplication of offending Action (to prod LL to respond)
Outing of alleged offenders in public
Retaliation of some nature
Civil disobedience of the kind typified by Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King.

I do not advocate many the Extreme Actions above as constructive or effective solutions to people’s problems. I’m only presenting them as an example of what people might turn to when they perceive that their needs or concerns are not being dealt with effectively. This is based on RL parallels. Since LL (and we) are simulating a Society, whether they or we intend to or not, certain societal challenges of this kind are bound to occur as the population gets larger and larger.

I wrote this Process list and started this thread to spur discussion and hopefully forestall or provide an alternative to people moving immediately to step 4, 10 and 11, which they seem to be doing.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Additions? Constructive Criticism?

not meaning to belittle your work but it seems kinda more than we need. i find the whole "abuse report it and if the Lindens think it's a problem or breaks the rules they deal with it and if not they don't deal with it" works for problems i've had. course they don't respond instantly but they usually do respond. and if they don't.....got to think it might not be a rule violation after all.

Polls are not suitable for this kind of thing because respondents are self-selected. The only people who will vote are people who care enough to do so. Because of this, the community may predominantly hold one opinion, but that may not be the same opinion held by the "vocal minority" who may wind up voting. It is also susceptible to gaming.

There are other "dispute resolution needed" threads, especially regarding nonrepudiation of transactions, landlord-tenent disputes, deffective or misrepresented objects, etc. So I would not say dispute resolution isn't needed.

I think in THIS case a small TOS rules change is all that is needed, because this isn't a dispute between parties. Its one person (or more) doing something that most people think should be outlawed or regulated.

So outlaw it or regulate it.

Dispute resolution make sense with contracts that are intentionally and knowingly entered into by two or more parties. That isn't the case here.

Buster

Hi,

Thanks for the input! Please don't take it to mean that I think my process notes should be followed verbatium and I do know it's a lot more info than people generally need. Some of the things I outlined aren't suitable nor wanted in all situations. The later steps apply specifically to issues that seem to affect the general public and that significant numbers of people have a problem with, not just this one particular issue.

I know polling isn't a great option, but isn't this happening anyway in an informal way, with much the same consequences? (Vocal minority sways opinion) At least you possibly have more data and participation in a structured manner trying to resolve problems gradually.

I'm trying to look down the road for when SL is hopefully bigger and recommend some sort of structure be applied by members towards Conflict Resolution (not just the strict definition of Dispute Resolution). Steps 1 and 2 emphasize our attempting to solve our problems by ourselves on a one on one basis, which will hopefully do the trick 90 percent of the time.

I guess I'm basing my definition of Conflict/Dispute too off of Rosseau's theory of Social Contract under which there is a implied agreement between members of a society to seek to abide by certain rules of conduct governed by an amount of self interest in maintaining the status quo.
When the agreement is percieved to be broken either way it can lead to conflict.

If people who invest thousands of dollars or its equivalent in time aren't happy with LL's intial call on how the TOS applies to the complaint what alternatives besides leaving SL do you recommend?

**edited because it needs to be said**
However, it does sound that LL has really tried to be fair and responsive in most situations and I applaud their efforts and work. I write these things because I'd like to foster constructive action by members (as opposed to destructive actions) to occur and the basis for unnecessary drama reduced. More systematic efforts on our part to resolve our differences with each other peaceably hopefully means more time for the Lindens to focus on other things and less micromanaging on their part.
***

We can be proactive in our dealing with each other or reactive. Which will it be? This is applicable not only in SL but in RL too.

This thread is the perfect example of why we should never have self-government in SL.
SL is the home of the 5-minute lynch mob. I've seen this pattern over and over and over again.
People get awfully worked up about the littlest things, but for only 5 minutes. Then they see something shiny, get distracted, and forget about everything.
If only Jeska would lock the stupid drama threads like she's supposed to, we could cut down that time from 5 minutes to 30 seconds.

Eggy, you really need to look up "Tragedy of the Commons". Wikipedia has a great article on it.


What if I gave an object that did the same thing free to anyone who wanted to use it? This doesn't scale and you know it.

Eggy,

I normally really respect your posts and your opinion. But don't you think you're belittling people's concerns and feelings by that comment? Do you think that people shouldn't talk about things that bother them here in a reasonable way? And if they get distracted, fine, then it wasn't that important anyways....

I do agree that things shouldn't turn into a witchhunt. That's why I rec trying to work things out every step of the way before bringing the issue into a Public Forum and in-world. Perhaps, this should be emphasized more often in the Forums and in-world.

I know you've been around for a while...can you tell me why this thread is a perfect example? Am I encouraging people here to run off immediately and "lynch" someone ?

If I am, I apologize, because that's not what I intend. I do think that if one doesn't get any real response to your concerns a certain amount of escalation is called for. You start as gently as possible and then move from there step by step.

For the record, I'm not for self-government in this context either. However, I am for input from members and access to the information that we're not alone if we're facing certain mutual problems and I think LL and Jeska is making the right call by allowing a measured amount of free speech. She seems to put the lock down pretty well when things get personal and ugly. Maybe she doesn't think it is a stupid drama thread? A few individuals get nasty in them and it appears that their comments get edited out, which allows others to still communicate their views in a reasonable fashion.

Well, to be more correct, the SL forums are the home of the 5-minute lynch mob (why does that make me think of Minute Rice?). This place is very much the nasty tabloid of Second Life.