While I'm sympathetic to the arguments that moderation shouldn't mix with politics, I don't think this is the right thing to do. It would be anti-democratic of us to abolish local governance, after having let it flourish and evolve over the years, because the Local Council doesn't engage in politics the way we believe "politics" should work. Barring some kind of massive security threat, abolishing the Local Council should only be done at the request of the RMB itself.

(This post was last modified: 09-23-2020, 10:33 AM by sandaoguo.)

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 I'm not in favor of removing the LC. Just their ban requesting powers, as I put in my first post in this thread.  

You prefer the LC not be able to ask that spammers be banned?  How does this improve the region?

 

I'm ambivalent about the rest of it, but the Local Council's moderation functions are probably one of the few things most can agree it's good for. Stripping out the ban request really renders the whole of gameside moderation toothless.

Albeit, I'm a new member I think having an appointed OOC admin to ban spammers is better. But, I'll admit that this discussion should probably involve the gameside members.

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As someone who is primarily gameside, I definitely agree with those who have expressed horror over the idea of abolishing the LC.  We on the gameside view our LC as our "leaders" - they're "one of us".

If it's decided that moderation on the gameside should be run by someone chosen (not elected), that's fine, but that person/persons needs to have an understanding of the RMB and the different culture on there. 

You're right in that the culture gameside is much more relaxed and don't really care for an elaborate political structure (that's why we're gameside and not on these forums!).  But the LC is ours, and to just abolish it would be foolish and really would be seen as an insult to gameside.  "Your LC aren't doing what we feel they should be, so we're getting rid of them").  Is the LC race often a popularity contest?  Of course.  But isn't that part of the point?  The RMB gets to select who represents/leads the RMB.

I don't see any positive outcome of abolishing the LC.  It takes away something the RMB enjoys, leaders chosen and voted on by the RMB.  If it is decided to take away their moderation powers (why?), then any replacements need to actually be active on the RMB and willing to put in the work to understand the RMB culture.

Land Without Shrimp

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I am completely against abolishing the LC. While I'm not much of a gamesider, this would never pass a gameside vote and the RMB has pretty much retained a right to have a separate self-governing entity that controls it. This certainly isn't the best way to solve the desired distinction between politics and moderation, but that's not all the LC has agency to do. And I generally think it's okay to have the LC be elected. There are other moderators and admins who can step in if it becomes too much of a problem. And the High Court exists to resolve issues that might arise as a result of this arrangement.

I suppose I'm just summarizing what's already been said. But you can count me as against this change.

 
Witchcraft and Sorcery

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Former Prime Minister and Minister of Defense. Formerly many things in other regions. Defender. Ideologue. he/they.

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I’m a gamesider and I fully support abolishing the LC for the simple reason that they are just ‘glorified moderators’ like Jay said. Just appoint new gameside mods or extend the current admin mods’ scope to include the gameside.

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All the arguments against the LC ignore a very important point that they serve as Al-powered programmable welcome bots for the RMB. The forumside government can come up with some programs or events then ask the LC to remind them on the RMB. I can assure you removing an elected engagement body in gameside will make any engagement or integration effort very difficult for a region that focuses on both sides like ours. This is because people like to listen and interact with the LC a lot more than any forumside government officials who post once per month. The forumside government also has a bad habit of rarely relying on gameside surveys and polls to come up with policies so the LC acts as an "interface" layer between the forumside government and the gameside community.

Chief Supervising Armchair

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