Wikipedia talk:Mediation Cabal/medintro
Okay, we are doing a mediation
- Alice: person having trouble with Bob
- Bob: person having trouble with Alice
- Mary: our gentle Mediator
First of all, Alice and Bob might not be talking with each other, so Mary is a go-between and filter.
- Mary should try to find out what Alice wants, and what Alice is able to concede
- Mary should try to find out what Bob wants, and what Bob is able to concede
- Mary speaks with both, applying active listening, as necessary
- Mary filters what both say, until they're comfortable enough to speak with each other directly
In a worst case scenario, Alice and Bob should not see each other at first, else they might just fight. Later you can bring them together.
- Mary: Hello Alice, what's up?
- Mary *listens...
- Alice: That ($*(@#$*(#*($* BOB! He ($893489*$(#*$($*($ and (*(@*#(@*#(* to *(@#*(@#*(@# so he can just go and take a ($@($*(*$ and stuff it up his (*$($*(#*($#$#$ with a (@#*(#!(@#*@!(#!!!!!!!!
- Mary: So you're saying you disagree with some of his edits?
- Alice: You can *@#(*(# bet I do! He totally (@*#(18239!# Foopage.
- Mary: I see, so what would you like to see changed about that?
- Alice: Bob should @(#(@#*(@# leave that alone, and maybe listen to me for once!
Bob is slightly less mad in this case, (else I have to type all that #*$&#*$& all over again ;-) )
- Mary: Hello Bob... so what's up?
- Bob: I'm having some trouble with Alice. All I hear is "@&#*@&#*#"
- Mary: Hmm, odd... well, I've talked with Alice and she was quite reasonable with me really. She says you made some edits to Foopage she disagrees about...
- Bob: Wow, that's much more coherent than anything I've ever heard before. Maybe I misjudged Alice.
- Mary: Yeah, and she wonders if maybe you'd listen to her, what would you like in return?
- Mary * listens...
- Bob: You're serious? Well, if she could stop reverting edits about flurbles... I triplechecked those!
Back to Alice
- Mary: Heya Alice, I talked with Bob, and he seems like a nice guy, if you're polite to him
- Mary: He made a compliment about your reasonableness in this case even!
- Alice: The @@#*(@#*... he DID? Wow...
- Alice: Maybe I misjudged him just a little...
- Alice: So what else did he say?
- Mary: Well...
- Mary: He's a bit unhappy about flurbeling
- Alice: Oh no, flurbeling... didn't we discuss that like, 10 times... what's his hangup with that?
- Mary: Well, he did say he researched it really really well, he even has references. I guess he doesn't like just getting reverted after all that hard work... does that seem reasonable
- Alice: Hmmm... maybe
At this point, both parties are already less mad. You've reduced the temperature enough that they might be able to speak with each other directly...
Talk pages are where people discuss how to make content on Wikipedia the best that it can be. You can use this page to start a discussion with others about how to improve the "Wikipedia:Mediation Cabal/medintro" page.
