Diatribe of a Plebe

Another article written during a politically-motivated ban, written by Professor420.

Diatribe of a Plebe

I probably shouldn't be posting this. I have an ungodly amount of work to do, and in part, that may have been why I had no qualms about getting myself suspended. But I cannot, in good conscious, let this debate about the future of the Curia, about the future of TWC, to go on like this. There is only one road we can go down if we want to save the Curia, there can be no question about this.

Mods, and the modders that make them, are the lifeblood of TWC. They are the bread and butter, they are responsible for drawing the members and sustaining the site and why we get support from CA. I don't think anyone would go so far as to deny this. While the Common Community is of importance, and perhaps what gives TWC its character and charm, it is the TW side in general and the modders specifically that 'pay the bills' literally and figuratively.

It is well known that modders are under-represented in the Curia. And it is equally well known that many dozens or hundreds of modders who have contributed in great amounts to the Mod community do not have more than 50 posts, perhaps are not well known on TWC, perhaps don't know about the Curia and citizenship. And it is just as well known, finally, that even if offered Patronisation, many modders would refuse it, because they have no interest in the Curia and no time for politics and forum games.

So, what are we left with? A Curia that is inherently and structurally and fundamentally slanted towards the CC, and no matter how many modders you bring in to the Curia, it will keep that slant, because modders mod, and CC'ers post. And where does this lead us? It leads us to a Curia, a so-called government, that is not representative of the life-blood of TWC. A government which inherently discriminates against the members who form the foundation for the site. And what power should they have to decide forum policy and rules and governing for members who refuse to, or cannot, participate in the Curia? What power do they have?

None. The Curia is irrelevant to Mod decisions. Constitutional or not, Staff will never, ever, submit a proposal to the Curia if the proposer does not want it to be. It will never, ever, allow the Curia to do something which could threaten modders. It will not allow the Curia to make any decisions which have effect outside of the Curia or the CC, unless they are superficial issues such as Reputation.

You can attempt to patronize all the modders you want. You can keep lowering the requirements. You can do whatever you'd like, but at the end of the day, if there are ANY inhibitions or obstacles for a modder representing themselves and voting, they will choose modding over it. This cannot be changed, nor should it. And what also will not change, then, is the Curia's inability to effect anything outside of the CC or Capitol.

The 'important' projects and achievements on this site are TW projects, without question. What is the last 'important' CC proposal? What is there on the level of the Registry, Unit Repository, even the Wiki was a TW idea. Their involvement with the Curia was only a formality; they would have happened with or without Curial approval. The same holds true for things such as the Tribunal; ultimately if what the Curia does is unpopular, or even felt unpopular by Hex, it WILL be overridden, it will be vetoed, it will be changed. Hex is in the business of keeping order; this means giving both Curial cookies and making sure the crumbs don't get into the actual site.

And I find myself in a conundrum. On the one hand, the Curia is a joke. It is ruled by vulture lawyers who either want to turn it into their private boy's club, or turn it into some sort of exclusive boy's parliament. These are the vocal ones, the ones who will never win, because it is the Staff who have control at the end of the day, and the silent members trust staff to do what they think is right, whether or not they believe TWC is a democracy or should be. They just, frankly, don't care.

On the other hand, the Curia is solely responsible for the amazing number of amazing admins and staff we have had, with few exceptions (which I could probably name on one hand, in how many years? Not bad). It has provided ALL staff since its inception, and we find TWC in a stronger state than its ever been. The Curia has proved a wildly successful tool for raising new members.

So why not let everyone into the Curia? We have far more than 'democracy' at stake, we have the future of the Curia and the closely-tied future of TWC. There WILL come a day, mark my words, when the Curia finds itself wondering how the it wound up back where it had been in August, in October, in December, in January. When it sits in its armchair singing the tune to "All in the Family," wondering where things went wrong. The Curia will be stagnant, and useless, and not respected, and not handed any responsibility because how long will it be until Staff's patience with dealing with the Curia for the handouts it gives wears thin? And then someone will come along and say, "The reason the Curia isn't respected is because Staff has no reason to respect it!" And then someone will come along, and say, "the reason the Curia isn't respected is because our badges aren't big enough!" And then staff will give the Curia bigger badges, and things will be right for another couple months.

You can end it all now, quite easily, in fact. You can ensure the Curia's relevancy, you can ENSURE a popular mandate for the Curia that not even the most anti-Curial admins can deny. You can ensure that the Curia will be allowed to get what it wants because it is, uninhibited, the will of the people, not the will of a filtered ruling and non-representative class.

Again, why not? Because they won't read the discussions about the votes? Only someone who has spent less than a week as a citizen would think that any sizeable fraction of citizens read the discussions. I once tried to propose that people must demonstrate they've read the discussion, and this was shot down. Public voting was shot down. Every semblence of 'responsible' voting has been dismissed. It is unequivocally impossible to use uniformed voting as a reason to disqualify from voting.

How about that its unlikely most modders will ever make use of their rights? To that I say, who cares! So, they don't vote, what difference does it make? They HAVE the right to vote, they can become involved and have a voice without jumping through hoops. This isn't about increasing activity in the Curia, this is about rewiring the Curia from the insides, from a Curia of careful preservation of values and democratic ideals, to a Curia that will no longer be marginalized, that has relevancy and importance to and from and in the lifeblood of TWC.

And what about cheaters? I had three double accounts. I could have voted with them all. Oh well. I guess that's part of the baggage that comes along; democracy is far from perfect and is very scary. But do you really think the number of cheats will outweight the number of newly enfranchised members?

Before you fall back on your usual responses, I ask you to turn this over in your head some, as Aristocrat has done, as Tac has done, as WBK has done, as anyone I've approached directly has done. Because not only does it make sense, there's no other logical conclusion or outcome or solution. Already we find the great optimism of February is wearing off, and we find a Curia, apart from a few Committees and proposals kindly and voluntarily submitted to the Curia for ratification (Symposium and Wiki council, Registry and Unit Repository decisions), that is just as, if not more so, involved with naval gazing than before the reforms, and before the reforms before that, and before the reforms before the reforms before those reforms.

So what is it? Is the Curia an RPG for those citizens who have graduated from the Thema Devia? Or is it a government? The split is clear, the results of each are clear, and the route to each is clear, singular, and not overlapping.