Essay on Creative Problem-Solving

It is easy to troll and criticize others' work. There is a fine line between complaining and creating, and all of our moderators should become familiar with what it means to be constructive. As our project grows, people's stakes in it increase, and emotional charge of participants will also increase. Emotional charge increases because we are proposing potentially disruptive changes that crack peoples' preconceptions, inspire, and cross boundaries in an iconoclastic fashion. This means that there will be many challenges to engaging in a rational, solutions-based approach. The intensity of this work is increasing with time, so it is important to establish clarity on how to manage Forums and other public discussion. This is especially true as hundreds, thousands, and eventually millions of contributors are absorbed into the project. I can only say that we are undergoing explosive growth, that this trend is not likely to stop any time soon, and we need to be prepared and aligned in order to manage our growth successfully.

Absolute no-no:

• Any personal attacks will result in banning of a person. A person, upon making proper amends, may be readmitted to a forum.
• Clear nay-saying without indicating any possible solutions

Here are finer points to consider:

• To deal with nay-saying that provides potential solutions - the Moderator should be sufficiently informed about the subject matter that s/he can assess the value of the proposition, and therefore, respond appropriately. A moderator should have at least some direct experience with, if not subject matter expertise, on the topic that they are moderating. This has the power to short-circuit discussion that leads to dead ends - while maximizing the creative potential of discussions.
• Bringing people up to speed is most important when working with new people. I have seen a number of comments on the blog that come simply from ignorance - justifiably so, because our web presence is disorganized. As we move to the next level, We should be clear to point people to background reading when hints of ignorance are visible. We should politely refer the contributor who has not read Project Status, GVCS Status, Funding Status, OSE Proposal 2012, FAQs, GVCS Development Template, Documentation Template, OSE Specifications, Main OSE Website.
• It is easy to criticize, and there ar