Heads up, my laptop has a worm, so I have to go to the lab to use the computers now. So I will be intermittent for the near future.
Knife wrote:I'm not sure how you can say that. All those posts, while deep with nasty, still argue the point at hand and are not ad hominems. If you think the dissolution of the Senate will some how make all emotional outbursts and/or all heated discussions go away, I think you're hoping for the unreachable.
No, let's be fair here - I cut loose on a straight ad hom affair. I did it with a purpose - to show Keevan how out of line personal attacks are here, but let's not paint it as some kind of rational and thought out argument when it was "How do YOU like it, huh?"
thejester wrote:C'mon, that comparison is obviously ridiculous. Those groups aren't public, don't have a say over board policy, and probably spend considerably less time navel gazing than the Senate.
Firstly I fail to see how publicity factors into it. Whether the behavior happens in public or behind closed doors, it still happens. Secondly, you keep waffling about how we are ineffective and can't get anything done, but that we have a say over board policy. Which is it? if you accuse us of not getting anything but ban polls done, how can you then say we dictate things to the rest of the board?
Eliminating the Senate won't change all of the boards problems, but as it stands it serves no useful function that couldn't (shouldn't?) be handled in other areas and generates a tremendous amount of bad blood amongst the board membership.
Tell you what, I can name the past problems that the Senate was intended to correct that it largely has - mod star chamber accusations, a safe place to argue with the staff, and allowing Mike to shift some of the burden off. So now I charge you to name 3 board problems that will go away if the Senate is eliminated. Three problems completely eliminated if Mike nukes the Senate tomorrow.
I'm not arguing that it should be gone because I think it's threatening my non-existant Testingstan way of life; I'm arguing against it because I think it's pointless and is doing more harm than good.
Tautology is not productive. Show these problems that didn't exist before the senate, that are a result of the senate, that will go away with the senate.
I actually thought the MESS prank was the first clear demonstration of what a total waste of time it was; the Testing debacle just confirmed it.
So if this is an outgrowth of being pissy about Marina's Testing snit fit, why say it isn't a few sentences up then?
And I take quite the opposite stance to Bounty - the Senate is a joke not because it has power but because it has none. It's a pseudo-mod staff that can throw accusations, mud and stupidity at will but can't actually do anything. I know the natural response then is 'So? Who can it hurt?', but if it can't actually do anything what's the point of having it?
That doesn't counter the Who can it hurt point at all. Mike hasn't raised any issue with Senate bandwidth and memory consumption, so why eliminate it even if it does nothing? We have a few dead forums here that we've never eliminated, what does it matter if this one exists or doesn't?
The creation of the House of Commons surely underlines the point - the plebes now have a place where they can voice their grievances, to the Senate, who will then bump them to the Admins. So why have the Senate?
Aside from the fact that they operate under different rules, as I have pointed out? We are trying to engage in a constructive conversation here, please quit engaging in tautology.
As recent events show, they're clearly no better at judgement on board policy than the plebes.
While there is zero love lost between me and a few of my fellows here, I still think that this is untrue.
The Duchess of Zeon wrote: I posted the thread to call him out, with the expectation that the other Senators would judge our debate on whether or not to hold a vote. I fully expected to have an extended debate with Lord Poe in that thread and I was deeply surprised when he just left instead.
I posted that thread there because I knew that Poe could reply to it--and I wanted him to.
He chose to leave instead.
Crown got to this first, but no. You didn't call him out, you called for his punishment and then removed yourself. You aren't as clever at manipulating people as you like to think Marina, and a 5 second investment of time goes to that
thread. We are having a somewhat productive discussion here, and it should continue. Recuse yourself from this if you must, but I would ask that you don't engage in your daily behavior and derail this into more drama.