[Info] How does the membership review feature work?

This post is the official manual for Karrot’s ‘review membership’ (x-conflict resolution) feature. It covers–

  • how to initiate the process and
  • what the process itself entails

You can discuss this feature here: Conflict resolution with possibility to remove user from group

We hereby present how the ‘Membership review’ feature (previously called ‘conflict resolution’ ) works and can be used by members of groups on Karrot.

We list the main features, we provide a series of screenshots that describe in a pictorial way how the feature works. We have also created a detailed video tutorial that can help members of Karrot groups understand how the feature works and how they could make use of it.

Main features

  • all members of a group that have editing rights (enough Karrots) can initiate a membership review process and inform the rest of the group’s members for the reasons behind it
  • all members of a group are notified that a membership review process has been initiated
  • all members can participate in a public group discussion on someone’s membership for a week
  • all members can vote and change their vote during the week the pubic discussion goes on for
  • votes are anonymous
  • the result is announced after a week. There are three possible scenarios after votes are casted. The person remains in the group; the person is automatically out of the group; the public discussion goes on for one more week and members vote again.

Video tutorial

Screenshots


starting a membership review process


providing a text explaining the reasons behind it

Uploading: Screenshot 2022-11-09 at 12.30.40.jpg…
participating in the public discussion


voting

How Score Voting works

So far there are three proposals the members can vote on:

  • The user stays in the group
  • The user gets removed from the group
  • Extend the time to keep discussing

If ‘The user stays in the group’ wins, well, the user stays in the group and nothing changes.

If ‘The user gets removed from the group’ wins, the user is removed. They are not banned and they don’t lose their account on Karrot, which means that they could theoretically apply to join the group again immediately.

If ‘Extend the time to keep discussing’ wins, a second voting round starts and the whole process is repeated. The chat stays open and people can continue the discussion, but the voting starts over and everybody needs to cast a new vote if they wish to further participate in the decision making.

Score voting

Please note that this is not a binary vote, which means that you can - and should! - express your resistance or support on every single possibility! With this voting system it is possible to express much more nuanced opinions than simply supporting one option and dismissing all others.

Examples

Maybe your opinion is that the person indeed is problematic but that kicking them out of the group is too drastic as well, still you want to have this issue decided sooner rather than later. This could be your vote:

  • The user stays in the group → support
  • The user gets removed from the group → resistance
  • The time to discuss gets extended → strong resistance
    On top of that you might want to share your opinion in the public conversation where all other members can participate.

Maybe your opinion is that the whole issue is based on a big misunderstanding and that removing anybody is just a shortcut and not actually solving anything. People should rather take the time to really try and work together productively. This could be your vote:

  • The user stays in the group → strong support
  • The user gets removed from the group → strong resistance
  • The time to discuss gets extended → neutral
    On top of that you might want to share your opinion in the public conversation.

Maybe your opinion is that the person really is the cause of a lot of fuss, that there have been enough tries to talk to them and that it’s time for consequences to protect the group. This could be your vote:

  • The user stays in the group → strong resistance
  • The user gets removed from the group → strong support
  • The time to discuss gets extended → strong resistance
    On top of that you might want to share your opinion in the conflict conversation.

Results

After 7 days the results get evaluated and put into effect automatically.

Calculation

Every option counts as a numeric value:

  • Strong support = +2
  • Support = +1
  • Neutral = 0
  • Resistance = -1
  • Strong resistance = -2

All votes are summed up per proposal and the total scores are compared. The proposal with the highest total score wins.

In case of a tie a second voting round is started, since the issue obviously couldn’t be resolved.

The number of members who cast a vote is displayed as well, which enables everyone to calculate mean scores if they wish to do so.

Edge cases

A vote can not be decided in two cases:

  • the affected user leaves the group while the conflict resolution process is still ongoing
  • not a single vote is cast on an issue

If one of the above happens the conflict resolution process ends without any decision and the user in question remains in the group.

Voting

The idea of the conflict resolution feature is that the whole group can decide what to do if there is a problem with a specific member. The voting should always be accompanied by an open discussion which helps the group’s members to make up their minds. To facilitate this decision making structure every member can change their vote as often as they wish while the voting is still ongoing. On top of that, a user can also undo their vote of they decide so in time.

Options

So far there are three proposals the members can vote on:

  • The user stays in the group
  • The user gets removed from the group
  • Extend the time to keep discussing

If ‘The user stays in the group’ wins, well, the user stays in the group and nothing changes.
If ‘The user gets removed from the group’ wins, the user gets kicked out of the group. They are not banned and they don’t lose their account on Karrot, which means that they could theoretically apply to join the group again immediately.
If ‘Extend the time to keep discussing’ wins, a second voting round starts and the whole process is repeated. The chat stays open and people can continue the discussion, but the voting starts over and everybody needs to cast a new vote if they wish to further participate in the decision making.

Score voting

Please note that this is not a binary vote, which means that you can - and should! - express your resistance or support on every single possibility! With this voting system it is possible to express much more nuanced opinions than simply supporting one option and dismissing all others.

Examples

Maybe your opinion is that the person indeed is problematic but that kicking them out of the group is too drastic as well, still you want to have this issue decided rather sooner than later. This could be your vote:

  • The user stays in the group → support
  • The user gets removed from the group → resistance
  • The time to discuss gets extended → strong resistance
    On top of that you might want to share your opinion in the conflict conversation.

Maybe your opinion is that the whole issue is based on a big misunderstanding and that removing anybody is just a shortcut and not actually solving anything. People should rather take the time to really try and work together productively. This could be your vote:

  • The user stays in the group → strong support
  • The user gets removed from the group → strong resistance
  • The time to discuss gets extended → neutral
    On top of that you might want to share your opinion in the conflict conversation.

Maybe your opinion is that the person really is the cause of a lot of fuss, that there have been enough tries to talk to them and that it’s time for consequences to protect the group. This could be your vote:

  • The user stays in the group → strong resistance
  • The user gets removed from the group → strong support
  • The time to discuss gets extended → strong resistance
    On top of that you might want to share your opinion in the conflict conversation.

Results

After 7 days the results get evaluated and put into effect automatically.

Calculation

Every option counts as a numeric value:

  • Strong support = +2
  • Support = +1
  • Neutral = 0
  • Resistance = -1
  • Strong resistance = -2

All votes are summed up per proposal and the total scores are compared. The proposal with the highest total score wins.

In case of a tie a second voting round is started, since the issue obviously couldn’t be resolved.

The number of members who cast a vote is displayed as well, which enables everyone to calculate mean scores if they wish to do so.

Edge cases

A vote can not be decided in two cases:

  • the affected user leaves the group while the conflict resolution process is still ongoing
  • not a single vote is cast on an issue

If one of the above happens the conflict resolution process ends without any decision and the user in question remains in the group.

3 Likes

You can discuss this feature here: Conflict resolution with possibility to remove user from group

@Vasilis_Ntouros I noticed you changed the info here according to the update on the feature but forgot (or maybe not?) to change the title. So I did that and in case it was intentional that it should not be changed, sorry about that, we change it back. :slight_smile: