historycircus

Apparently, my attempts at humor have been ill recieved, and for that I apologize. I have a tendancy to let my irreverence interfere with the effective communication of my ideas; let me dispense with the humor and make a serious attempt to re-explain what I'm doing here.

After reading Kerry Cassidy's post on the mods, I did a lot of thinking about recent conflicts between regular posters and moderators, and tried to figure out what, if anything, could ever be done to curb what will ALWAYS be a source of tension on forums like these. I myself have never had any posts edited or bad run ins with the mods - except for Karen yesterday, and that was peanuts compared to some of the mod/poster arguments I have seen. It dawned on me that if one or two of the moderators were picked by the forum members, that could possibly cut down on the mod/poster tension - I don't think anything could ever end it permanently, but moderator elections might reduce it.

Then I thought about getting that idea out there to people, and the first thing I wanted to do was start a thread titled "Should We Have Mod Elections?" Then I realized that that would be yet another thread where we sit around and debate, and argue, etc. I figured rather than start a fight over "should we" or "shouldn't we," I'd nominated myself and plant the seed. Why not? I like Avalon, I think moderator elections are a good idea, and a vote would be fun. I really didn't think there was anything to argue about there - people would come, vote, and maybe post why they gave their yay or nay. Believe you me, I was - and am - prepared for the negative stuff; I know the serious ideas (not the jokes) I have about the issues here on Avalon and Camelot put me in the minority. I just figured there would be nothing to fight about, or get offended over - it would be an up and down vote on the group's confidence in my moderating abilities.

That I will ultimately lose, well, is a given (although winning would be cool too). I guess what is most dissappointing, and surprising given that most here bemoan their lack of a real influence or voice in the power structures of the real world, is the voter turnout. How many thousands of people have accounts here? And only 50 people have voted - a third commiting to the useless options? This experience, at least slightly, harkens back to the comments I made on another thread earlier this week (or possibly late last week); much of the lack of power we have over the real world's socioeconomic systems is our own fault - the PTB have enjoyed increasing, unbridled power because of our own apathy and real world inaction. Many would blame the NWO for the world's problems; I think we should blame ourselves.

The course this thread has taken is not exactly what I envisioned when I started it, but it is the poll that is worth it all. If you don't want to post here, at least vote. If you don't want to vote for me, get together via the PM system or the private boards and figure out who to nominate, and put them to a public vote. I second the nomination of both eXchanger and the Flyingpyramid.

Again, I think that having one or two mods out of the whole group come from the main body of posters is fair, potentially calming, and just a good idea. They should also be term limited seats.

I am truly sorry if I have offended anyone in any way, and I hope this sets it right.