Preface

Slow down for a second.

Clear your mind of the forest fire that we are on the edge of, because it's looking like we've ran out of water and need to find another solution.

It's of my opinion that we - the community - are the solution. We are the users of the site, and if we want the SE staff to listen to us clearly, we need to communicate more effectively than the standard that they have set over the last few weeks (although, it looks like something may be in the works. I'm cautiously optimistic due to them taking their time, rather than rushing it like the posts that brought this division into the light).

Communication

We need to be open with each other, without allowing emotions to run too hot, or our passion about a subject take away from the fact that we are talking about people who are in the same room us.

We need to remain mindful

Communication is key to keeping a community alive, and when infighting happens it becomes increasingly difficult to get answers. The community has become enthralled by their collective frustrations with each other and the actions of those who are more interested in causing disorder for disorder's sake, rather than actually finding a solution to the problem at hand.

The concept of diversity is something that causes issues on its own. The lines between dividing people by their differences, and unifying people in spite of their differences is a very blurry one, separated only by a single step.

Inclusion

In terms of how we can try to minimise avoidable fallouts in the future, an option is to (as a community) adopt a mindset where we consider the impact of new changes for a variety of different users.

We have users on this site who are part of the LGBTQ+ community, who are autistic, suffering from mental illnesses like depression, anxiety and eating disorders, users who's first language isn't English or are from cultures that do not align fully with what is seen from the USA. We have users who are Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, Christian, Atheist and users that span across generations, with a massive amount of varying life experiences.

There are a lot of people that we need to include in our thoughts when writing and enforcing rules that are intended to rally the community behind groups that are contained within - and there is no way of making everyone feel included in this, if they are feeling like their opinions aren't being listened to.

"Walk a mile in my shoes" - picture yourself in the position of the people who the change is trying to help, and try to understand what it's like for those users, but also for the users who you are asking to change.

There are a lot of people's toes to step on

Some will struggle with some changes, others will refuse to do exactly what is asked of them, but both groups will be more likely to try their best to change if what they are being asked to do is a suggestion rather than a commandment handed down to them by a team that they already feel isn't listening to them.

Humans have a tendency to fear what they don't understand.

Allow them the opportunity to understand.

Unification

There are 7.53 billion us on this planet, and yet we're stuck. We can't stop arguing about things that are surface level. It's a problem that seems to have been amplified for the users of SE over the last few weeks.

We can learn to judge people on the content of their character, rather than our arbitrary differences, but it will take effort.

When asking people to change their mindsets for the benefit of others, think about the impact that that will have. It requires being selfless in a time where people are simply trying keep their heads down in order to look after themselves.

Take a second.

Users are worried about the policing of thoughts, or that a slip up may end with them being made an example to the community, and there are others who simply don't understand the problem due to lack of experience with the issue at hand, and naïvely state that it's a non-issue.

There's no denying that this is an important subject matter.

We're talking about potentially changing the way that individuals communicate, and we need to remember not to "other" people who are different to us, no matter how much we have been othered ourselves.

We know what that is like, and we need to be better than that.