You're anything *but* chopped liver
Impenitent. I read up on this thread briefly this morning and made a resolution to come back to it as soon as time permits. It takes me ages to try and put something even half-eloquently worded together. I love the way you said: 'I have a dream' statement – for yes indeed, I do have 'ideal' dreams for I see a fantastic potential growing with this board with every passing day :mrgreen: I just wish I could sometimes just sit down and let my fingers ramble my thoughts away… but in a 'serious' discussion like this that would not shed a very good light on me
Like all of you here I've pondered issues like these, I've pondered them actually since the very creation of B77 for I always held the 'secret' hope that this board could, as
Ethel so eloquently said turn out to
be a spinoff from TORC that would retain the qualities I value, but permit a wider latitude of language and topics. In my perfect world, Board77 would become that.. I would
love to hear more input form you on that, as much as I love to hear input from
all of you here. Only by discussing it do we have a chance to attempt to formulate a 'vision' together and then strive towards achieving that.
Like
Mummpizz I'm almost also
insanely optimistic about b77. I see self-government as a valid option for this board.
- Lacking input to discuss:
I don't see this as a limiting factor except as a self-imposed one. There are always people that are more of the 'thread-start' kind and there are the 'others' more of the 'participating kind'. And that's ok. So long as everybody here feels comfortable to start or participate then we have no problem. It's the people that make the threads, the conversations and so long as you continue to participate we'll have plenty of on-going stuff. The more – obviously the better and the more vibrant this community becomes
- Lacking input of new members
I don't think so either. We have many invitation threads currently running although I admit the process is somewhat 'slow' – if 10 days can be considered that. I hope in the future to see people invited also that are not coming from TORC.. LotR is still an underlying binding factor but I would also love to see more non LotR based issues (and there are plenty already) and 'friends' of yours invited to participate in those. You know the 'feel' of this board and also know how it's changing. Invite people in that you see would be interested to participate. RL friends, acquaintances from other MB's. In order to make a wider spectrum threads on these spectra have to be created and depending on what interests crop up, separate fora could be created to make it all a bit more 'findeable' (gosh! English is really failing me here
)
The foundation is indeed trust – and I trust you (all of you!) to suggest people as invitees that don't turn out to be trolls. To trust 'new members' to make 'appropriate suggestions' depends of course on a build-up of trust as those 'new members' integrate. That takes time. But having a voting system in place also opens up dialogue and through dialogue trust is able to build.
Mummpizz's vision incorporates also
regular "Courts" where problems between the posters will be discussed, and if not settled, maybe even decided by popular vote / poll.
That option should be available IF the agonistic parties agree to such a course. Maybe they would prefer to solve whatever needs solving directly here (a much more transparent way of dealing with a problem) or maybe they'll opt to do so in private (IM, email). Each to their choice! But I know something like that also has it's difficulties and seeing something decided by popular vote is very tricky. Perhaps if such an avenue is sought by conflicting parties they would also agree on a mediator in this case – a person agreeing on trying to help the problem. But – I would not want to see a Moderator system installed for that – nor for any other reason actually. Rather that the involved parties can agree to someone acting as a mediator (if that person volunteers) – or have people volunteer as mediators then the involved parties have a chance to agree which mediator would take on the task.
But back to 'my dreams' :Wink:
- I would love to see a 'kind of' club, invite only mind you to avoid potential problems like
Impenitent mentioned, where everybody is free to open up new subjects to their liking, where people freely interact with each another based on mutual respect.
A place where even 'rant' threads/posts about whatever are tolerated but are taken as that – as a letting off steam (which sometimes is necessary).
A place where when problems occur people can freely talk about it and try to strive for a solution – or, agree to disagree – with respect.
A place without 'class-hierarchy' where each person is just a poster with equal rights.
That we keep an admin-rotation system, but agree to 'tie-it-down' more 'formally'.
Eg. we agree that an admin will take on the job for a set amount of time, with a hand-over period. Currently we're pretty much running on the 3 months (switch-over sometime in Feb/beginning March). That could be re-evaluated if necessary. We already have the beginnings of a volunteering thread. When the time comes I'd like to see people putting themselves forward as admins (knowing they're committing themselves) and then there will be a general vote on who will take over for whom.
Admin's have no more 'rights' than any other poster but because they care for the B77 community and want to give something 'back' they'll do the admin tasks necessary to keep the board running smoothly. And yes – it's a 'thankless' job
A place where we can invite friends to participate, that everyone exercises this right if they know of someone that might fit within the atmosphere of this board. That members here are given time to consider potential newcomers and discuss, put their vote in (as we have it now).
I would not want a 'throw all doors' open policy. The potential risks are too high in my opinion.
That's my dream :mrgreen:
oh - and one more thing
that people have patience - changes alwasy takes time especially where so many people have a right for input. That people don't feel slighted when not everybody replies to everybodies posts
but that we do strive to acknowledge each another. That this board will always keep an air of tolerance.
'nuff
... I'm rambling again and my fingers need a check
_____________
Resident witch