Nonviolent Communication & Dash

Syntheist

Syntheist

Active member
I see many debates happening inside the forums and between people on slack that are respectful and intelligent.

When I see that happening I feel hopeful about the future of Dash as a technology that serves people. I value clear and open communication.

I also see debates, articles and adverts which take an adversarial approach and then I feel a bit depressed. I want to see people become allies rather than enemies.

Are we able to change the way we communicate with people we disagree with or who attack Dash?

Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is a set of principles and techniques that serve to facilitate communication between people by removing judgement and blame. It has been used to help resolve armed conflicts and is just as applicable in everyday life.

I encourage people to research it for themselves, I did a workshop in it earlier this year and the benefits have been so clear to me. With it I have turned potential conflicts into honest dialogues, freeing up a great deal of time and resources.

I have been thinking that it would be really powerful for mods, journalists and the core team to receive training in NVC from qualified people local to them.

Perhaps funding a professional and personal development strategy for the DAO would enable us to be better ambassadors for a technology that has liberation and consensus at its heart.
 
You can make suggestions to people when you see something you don't like. I think to get to where you wish it to be it's unrealistic to expect much. It's worth pointing out to people who are receptive and going from there.
 
"Violent" is not a quality that any method of communication can possess.

Much in the same way that math cannot be wet, or evil.
 
Syntheist said:
I encourage people to research it for themselves, I did a workshop in it earlier this year and the benefits have been so clear to me. With it I have turned potential conflicts into honest dialogues, freeing up a great deal of time and resources.

I have been thinking that it would be really powerful for mods, journalists and the core team to receive training in NVC from qualified people local to them.

Perhaps funding a professional and personal development strategy for the DAO would enable us to be better ambassadors for a technology that has liberation and consensus at its heart.
Click to expand...

I definitely agree with you. Maybe in the meantime you could post some links for the people who want to get started ?
 
I agree with you ampp that it is good to take personal responsibility for replying to people. Perhaps I'm also being idealistic and unrealistic, then it's also my responsibility to make my ideas more practical and realistic.

If you define violence as "doing harm" then it is certainly possible for communication to harm people. Maths might not be wet but the mathematics of fluid dynamics carries messages about water and while maths is not evil in itself people can use it for evil purposes.

Just on my phone so I'll copy in some links in a bit.
 
camosoul said:
"Violent" is not a quality that any method of communication can possess.

Much in the same way that math cannot be wet, or evil.
Click to expand...

I knew the term "violent communication" would trigger you ;)

Perhaps more accurate would be to say non-aggressive or non-confrontational

@Syntheist, while there might not be much that can be done with respect to just anyone in the community who wants to take an aggressive approach, I do agree that at least for people who are paid from our blockchain budget and are thus acting in a more 'official' capacity, it is more important to have a professional approach. I'm not sure exactly what examples you might be referring to though
 
Thanks for clarifying my point, I am thinking about people who are paid by the blockchain. In this respect Amanda is a great representative because she deals in facts and shines a positive light on Dash without slinging mud at other projects. You can also see it in the way that Andreas Antonopoulos conducts himself in his public talks, that professionalism and honesty is a reason he gets called on by state governments to explain bitcoin to them.

Certainly NVC is really useful for maintaining professionalism and it can be a really useful tool that serves everyone involved.

If you look at the posts on r/btc and r/bitcoin you can see two groups which are no longer able to communicate without aggression because painful emotions override the debate.

Here is a set of slides which gives a basic outline of NVC: https://www.slideshare.net/RaiPratiksha/non-violent-communication-54766010

I'm not going to point out particular examples here, it's my responsibility to raise any concerns directly with those people or let it go. But in general lifting up dash by pushing down other legitimate blockchains doesn't bring more power to the cryptosphere, we don't need to fight for a bigger slice of the pie if we can work to make the pie bigger.
 
Syntheist said:
I see many debates happening inside the forums and between people on slack that are respectful and intelligent.

When I see that happening I feel hopeful about the future of Dash as a technology that serves people. I value clear and open communication.

I also see debates, articles and adverts which take an adversarial approach and then I feel a bit depressed. I want to see people become allies rather than enemies.

Are we able to change the way we communicate with people we disagree with or who attack Dash?

Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is a set of principles and techniques that serve to facilitate communication between people by removing judgement and blame. It has been used to help resolve armed conflicts and is just as applicable in everyday life.

I encourage people to research it for themselves, I did a workshop in it earlier this year and the benefits have been so clear to me. With it I have turned potential conflicts into honest dialogues, freeing up a great deal of time and resources.

I have been thinking that it would be really powerful for mods, journalists and the core team to receive training in NVC from qualified people local to them.

Perhaps funding a professional and personal development strategy for the DAO would enable us to be better ambassadors for a technology that has liberation and consensus at its heart.
Click to expand...

Perhaps you can recommend a book for MNOs.. https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/dash-edu-mno-recommended-reading-list.14535/
 
"When I see that happening I feel hopeful about the future of Dash as a technology that serves people."

I think working with the Dash Nation, myself, Tao and others who are actively building human communities around these core values would be beneficial. Perhaps it's better to lead by example, building a movement that utilizes what you are describing than trying "fix" others. I have had similar thoughts as yourself because I see a lot of wasted energy on fighting others instead of building something that really matters, and gains massive momentum. I, along with many others have decided to align our energies in the "building massive momentum" arena, and it is working rather nicely so far.
So, feel free to talk with me, Tao, @Aniinl and others in Dash Slack so that we can build upon each other's ideas and energy.
 
I have found NVC to be a very useful tool for interacting on forums.

Some will be aware of the history of the Slack Channel for Dash. The first incarnation was....tense and confrontational.

Eventually, a second version was started with (correct me if I have this part wrong)

No swearing
No personal attacks
No passing off speculation as fact

While this is not NVC, the two Venn diagrams overlap significantly.
And it is obvious to me that the new DashNation Slack channel is head, shoulders and bellybutton better than the first version.

In fact, I think it would not be overstating the case that the reputation of Dash being a supportive and just generally nice community, flows almost directly from those 3 rules being (mostly) enforced over on the slack channel.

While I personally am not offended or put off by the full and colorful use of the english language, a community will be measurably different if that full and colorful language gets used routinely.
 
A lot of social problems are due to the fact that most people have not worked on themselves extensively.
Everyone has flaws, and it's necessary to figure out our emotions.......I am a hyper-sensitive person who has been through one too many bosses in life.
Peaceful, artistic people usually find themselves easily enslaved, at least this is what I went through. It took me 7 years to understand how to get myself free, so that is my pain point. I do not want anyone bossing me around, nor do I want to boss around others. When people understand this fundamental aspect of personality (in my case), they know how to deal with me effectively. This comes as years of experience and knowing what creates sadness, and what creates happiness.
 
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