Senate The EU Senate - Closed by Sith Coup d'etat

I dunno. I think the Senate's been doing a pretty good job for a while, myself. isn't our purpose the betterment of the EUC?

 

I don't know if a straight up poll would be as useful as Senators discussing this with their threads. Perhaps PMing some users to get their take? Maybe the mods wouldn't mind asking around and reporting back. I just don't think opinions will be that easily categorized, and they need to say why they feel one way or another.

For the record, I'm not campaigning for disbanding the Senate. I've put a lot into this thing, but I feel we have to ask the tough questions. I don't think I've gotten any real answers so far.

 

Well I thought I had been putting my thoughts out there already. (I sure as hell have never been accused of not sharing my opinion. )

The thing is that I agree with you, there are no right or wrong answers. I don't have a distinct opinion. I'm listening to my thread, I'm sharing what I know, and I'm saying there's a problem here and just being defensive about it isn't going to help anyone. More than anything, my posts so far have been intended to provoke thought and discussion. Points keep getting made over and over, though, without getting to the core issues of who this body represents and what it's doing and will do in the future for those people.

Also, I'd really like to hear from people who don't usually post here. Maybe we can change the title to something along the lines of asking "outsiders" to chime in? That's had some success in the past. However it's done, I don't think we can come to any real conclusions without hearing from more people.

 

For the record, I'm not campaigning for disbanding the Senate. I've put a lot into this thing, but I feel we have to ask the tough questions. I don't think I've gotten any real answers so far.

And I have to echo the sentiment that I'm not quite sure what the questions are. As was already said- there are many answers, but I'd say none are exactly right or wrong in relation to each other.

I understand what you are saying, that the EUS isn't being very EUS-like, in relation to why it was created. But that's because the threads are getting along. As a result, there is somewhat of an entrenchment mentality that has developed. Every forum goes in cycles, this one is no different. The EUC, in general, is operating smoothly, so there are no hot button items that are being discussed right now. That doesn't mean that there won't be some in the future, or a complete top down examination of the entire EUS has to be initiated. I realize that some people are only interested in the forum when something dramatic is happening, but in those times when drama is absent, that's when they might want to try a game, or create a EUC based short story, or whatever.

Whatever people's feelings are, just post them in the thread, as there is no magical formula that can be taken, or a switch that can be flipped to make the forum (any forum mind you) perfect for everyone.

 

I think my above post addressed a lot of that.

Believe me, I understand, as I think we all do, that the Senate and the forum go through cycles. I've witnessed many of them. But, when we don't address concerns like this, they lead to larger problems. This forum was in a sad state for a long time because things like this were ignored. My concern comes from experience here.

Edit: Sinre, I was thinking something more specific, but I'm not feeling too creative either.

 

I put years into the senate. Ya read that? Years. And about 7 different iterations of the senate and even I'm saying disband it if no purpose can be found for it. If it's just existing to exist then there's no need for it anymore. So, disbanding would be the easiest thing to do.

 

I think that may be a little irrational, there. It's not like the Senate is hurting the EUC at all. We just wish we could do more to help it.

 

It's not irrational. If the original intent of the thread has been fulfilled and the current iteration has no purpose then it's time to close things up here. Granted, there's no harm being done with leaving this place open; it just ceases to be a senate when there's nothing to accomplish.

 

I don't think we've established it's entirely without use or that it can't be improved. Unless a majority decides that, disbandment has no reason to be mentioned.

 

Completely doing away with the Senate seems extreme to me. I believe that we're useful in conflicts and such, and I hope that we've helped threads in ways that simple Mod intervention couldn't. But, the majority of the time it seems we do things only because we need activity here--not because what we're doing is necessarily that great for the community. Am I wrong in believing that many of our 'Sponsered' games, RPs, etc. would have gone off just fine without us?

 

FID, what you guys have to realize is that you aren't bringing up anything new. I think we have a pretty good understanding of each other's personalities, at least here on the boards. But you have to realize that the "oldbie coup" happens about once a year or so like clockwork. The last time this came up, I practically created the "special advisor" position for you, in recognition of your past involvement. The thing is though, that nothing was really done with it.

In a nutshell, the forum is an organic being that is constantly changing. In order to be part of that change, it falls on each individual to stay involved. It's not enough to sit back and say "hey! 4 years ago, I was really involved, but I stopped posting and now I don't know anyone, so I think the EUS is crap." Get to know the others around here. Maybe try out a game. Participate in the proceedings.

Let me offer a related example. When I joined TFN back in 02, I started off posting in the Lit Forum. I was quite involved before moving on to the Senate, and now I post maybe 2 or 3 times every 6 months in Lit. Does the fact that I started off in Lit 5 years ago give me the right to return to the forum and start pointing out how the forum has moved on without me? The forum is going to change no matter what I do as an individual, and such change isn't automatically bad. In a couple of years, the current group will become the established core, and will have to interact with the new people that come on board.

The EUS still has a purpose, even though it's different than the original one. People are still involved, even though they might not have been here 4 years ago.

All of this doesn't mean that the organization can't be examined. It's been repeated that anyone can raise any issue here. But the issue that is being made can't simply be a variation of "I think somethings wrong, so things have to change to what I recognize."

 

Umm... the oldbie coup? Did I miss something...

 

Jello and I have been discussings ways to help the problem of lack of communication between the Senate and the EUC'rs. Our suggested solution is for the Minister of Public Affairs to note which Senators aren't bringing feedback to the Senate and instead of the Senate internalizing that issue, we can be proactive. The MPA is tasked to take the announcements of the Senate to those threads who aren't hearing them from their Senators.

The MPA can also be tasked with posting informal hello's in all the threads asking if there's anything that the Senate can do for them and make sure they know that the PM box is always open for ideas that people may come up with at later times. The MPA is supposed to be in touch with the community anyways, so this is something that can be worked on.

Do you guys think this would help?

 

Of course you don't need to worry about my opinion. However, were I still in charge I would have shut this place down well before now once everything was accomplished. There's only so much one can do without being able to moderate the forum. A faux governing body only has as much power and influence as is given to it.

 

Okay, here: A name change and a restructuring. Since this place has become more like a social club and less like a senate then why not reflect that? It would help reflect the change in the mission statement and it'd actually put a lot less pressure on the users that don't frequent here and make things more inclusive. You may think it would be stripping the senate of its identity, but it won't. Things will be fairly the same only there would be no titles (the horror!) and only one leader that was elected by the whole forum and not just the members here.

 

There's no such "oldbie coup" or anything like that, because I don't think any of the people bringing up these concerns are interested in running the Senate. They're more interested in just getting their views across.

Except there is. I don't mean in the sense of running the EUS, but this exact same debate comes up about once a year or so. For about a week, it involves someone who hasn't posted in a while returning and making an observation about how things aren't the same, or about how much the group has changed since the (insert time here) they've posted. It's almost become a tradition around here.

Previously, the oldbie liaison position was created specifically because of similar concerns that were raised. Except after the debate died down, no one ever actually used it. Anyone even remember the position now? After that, the adoption thread was created. Way before that, the welcome thread was added.

It doesn't have to be so complicated. To this day, the best way to stay included in the group is to simply contribute to the group. If someone just wants to come in and interact within one or two threads, that's fine. If they want to engage in something more, that's fine as well. The group dynamic always takes care of itself.

 

FIDo: Interesting. Would it be possible for you to elaborate more on this 'restructuring', please? I like the general concept.