- NewRadical12
- |
- Fabled Legendary Member
Artes, Scientia, Veritas
Sapere Aude
"But I do not think we're invincible"
For protecting the common users of Bungie.net from unjust bans, and making the moderating staff beneficial to the general public
It is a melancholy object to those who click through this great website, when they see the forums, crowded with users whose posts are obscured in red blacklisting notices and next to whose threads stand a monolithic padlock, deterring enthusiasm and hampering discussion. These posters, instead of honestly enjoying the forums like the more gifted amongst us, are stuck in a self-perpetuating cycle of bans and rage. Unable to work for the higher titles afforded to those who can spend their time observing the forum rules, they are forever stuck, by their own doing, at the bottom of the Bungie.net hierarchy.
I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of banned users is in the present deplorable state of the Column a very great additional grievance and, therefore, whoever could find a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these users useful members of our community would deserve so well of the public to have a custom avatar and title bar in his honor.
The first step should be reprieves for anybody currently banned under what we have already established is an unfair moderating system. Only through the gradual reconciliation of us commoners and the plutocratic moderating staff can we live up to the full potential that the full spectrum of the Seventh Column possesses.
But broad and general reprieves is not enough - the very system by which our moderating staff has been chosen is inherently flawed and inevitably leads to the oligarchical and elitist zeitgeist the site currently exudes. By allowing the web team to choose their own moderating staff, they thus drown out the overwhelmingly larger voice of the humble, loyal dedicated fans of theirs who have sacrificed their time, money, and effort making Bungie the corporate superpower that it is. Instead of behind-closed-doors meetings and conspiratorial selection processes, the moderation team needs to be selected by those whom they will be governing, with equal opportunity allowed to all thereof.
A simple election, however, will not suffice. Not only is the average forumgoer not of adequate savvy to judge the merits of the thousands of potential candidates, but this matter is of such pressing urgance that there is simply not enough time for the formalities an election requires. Something more quick and drastic needs to take place.
First, we much establish the criteria a moderator must possess - dedication, vigilance, keenness, fairness, organization, communication, and intelligence. My proposed system will allow for a swift changing of the guard from the present aristocracy to a system governed by those truly fit to rule.
On an undisclosed day at midnight, Bungie Time, the process will begin. Bungie will flip the switch, stripping all present mods of their authority, making all users of equal power. The keen will notice this change, and prepare for the next day, which I will describe momentarily, by amassing armies of their peers vying for control of the site.
The Day of Judgment begins exactly twenty-four hours thereafter. The second switch is flipped, granting all users of Bungie.net moderating authority, with the ability to ban each other from moderating. A bloodbath ensues - users recklessly and indiscriminately banning other users. Dozens fall within seconds; thousands within minutes. But as the numbers of those remaining dwindle, order arises out of chaos. You see, the users with the most popular moderating philosophy will have a large, vigilant group of supporters who will report moderating injustice to their choice of moderator candidates, who will proceed to ban the poorer moderators. Through days of endless banning, a select few, whose popularity amongst users will have given them the upper edge over the less apt, will form a community a tight-knit community of popular-yet-effective moderators deemed fit by this process to rule over us all. Any misstep within their ranks will lead to their immediate dismissal. Once the community of moderators is content with those within their ranks, they will report to the Bungie that they are ready, and a new era of Bungie.net will ensue - one recognizable by its fairly chosen moderating team.
Your move, Bungie.
-J.S.
[Edited on 08.15.2011 2:38 PM PDT]