Re: [Wikimedia-l] Reducing stress and friction in interactions between WMF, affiliates, and community

Hi, Recent events have brought to mind the recurring challenges of stress and friction in the Wikiverse that can happen in interactions, or lack of interactions, between WMF, affiliates, and community members. I realize that some friction is inevitable, but the feeling that I get is that the levels of stress regarding these interactions are, on average, fairly high. This stress can happen on both sides. My understanding is that some staff are afraid to communicate in public because they worry about making people angry for unpredictable reasons. Affiliates and community people may feel frustrated or ignored. For me, this situation is painful and frustrating, and I'm currently feeling worn by the friction of our groups. The Wikiverse will probably always have a some friction, and some of that friction may lead to insightful conversations and good refinement of ideas, but the average level of WMF-affiliate-community friction feels high. I'm not saying that there should be no conflicts or no difficult conversations. Sometimes I think that being frank is the best thing to do, and a high level of stress is difficult to avoid in certain situations. However, I would like for the average level of stress and friction in our interactions to be more moderate. I would like for staff to feel generally okay regarding communicating in public, and I would like for affiliates and community members (in which I include myself) to feel less pain. I think that the mission to share verifiable and reliable knowledge with the world is amazing, and I'm grateful that we do this. However, the stress level regarding WMF-affiliate-community interactions feels high in a way that I think that this is a problem. Maybe a question to ask about our interactions is, "How can improve the quality of our interactions in a way that is generally beneficial for all groups and beneficial for our common goals?" Would anyone like to make suggestions? Thanks, Pine ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine ) _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>