The Elitist Chat Thread

[Flinn]

yes afaik he is absent at the moment, but was something planned anyway

yes, we miss him

[mishkin]

So, do you think the curia is dying? Or this is just a phase? I do not think there has never been such a low stage, but I'm not a veteran here.

[FrostySOTF]

Hopefully it's just a phase, I have a boyish dream of House Politics/politics rising and a politicial game happening among the ambitious/active citizens.

Caesar-Style.

[Bethencourt]

Hopefully it's just a phase, I have a boyish dream of House Politics/politics rising and a politicial game happening among the ambitious/active citizens.

Caesar-Style.

Really? Are you GED's alt? Well, you won't tell me if so.

[FrostySOTF]

Really? Are you GED's alt? Well, you won't tell me if so.

He has similar hopes? Finally! A kindred spirit!

[Bethencourt]

I think there is a lot of activity lately in the Prothalamos. Another thing is the lack of candidates for the offices and so the debates about it.

[mishkin]

Days ago I was wondering what would happen without a single candidate for the censor or the curator (indispensable for the curia) role.

[Bethencourt]

I think that the bitterness of some debates refrains, in general, the activity. When you are curator you are even more exposed to the criticism. The will to participate in that election process and the role of the office depends on the perception we have of the benefits of it in comparition to other activities. In CDC times the curator was the leader of a "select" group, so it had a higher glamour level. Now maybe it is seen as the guy for all. Maybe the doge of Venice before and now the chairman of the congress.

[Sir Adrian]

The Curator is merely a janitor, there isn't much to criticize. The problem is lack of time and interest. The whole site is in state a complete apathy and while certain areas have people who's job is to motivate and convince other people to participate the Curia has no such role.

[Iskar]

The Doge? Maybe we can restore some glamour by an adequately pompous voting procedure as used in Venice:

Go out and pick a random Peregrinus to draw thirty lots from a pool of all Citizens.
These thirty are then reduced by lot to nine,
the nine elect forty and the forty are reduced by lot to twelve,
the twelve elect twenty-five, reduced by lot to nine,
the nine elect forty-five, reduced by lot to eleven and
the eleven elect forty-one that elect the Curator.

[Bethencourt]

The Doge? Maybe we can restore some glamour by an adequately pompous voting procedure as used in Venice:

Go out and pick a random Peregrinus to draw thirty lots from a pool of all Citizens.
These thirty are then reduced by lot to nine,
the nine elect forty and the forty are reduced by lot to twelve,
the twelve elect twenty-five, reduced by lot to nine,
the nine elect forty-five, reduced by lot to eleven and
the eleven elect forty-one that elect the Curator.

That is a proof that having too much fresh water arround you is not good in long term.

I think we better provide the curator with an iron exoskeleton with ability to fly and shoot at pleasure some kind of energy pulses.

Maybe the CVRIA needs a long term project.

[PikeStance]

The Curator is merely a janitor, there isn't much to criticize. The problem is lack of time and interest. The whole site is in state a complete apathy and while certain areas have people who's job is to motivate and convince other people to participate the Curia has no such role.

First the Curator is not a janitor. A janitor cleans. A Curator is an administrative position. That being said, the Curator doesn't have a mandate. They do not bring change. They certainly can propose ideas and people for awards, but so can any citizen.

Over the years the administrative tasks of the Curator has increased. While the Curator can hire assistance, you still need to find them. If I am not mistaken, Shanks had few assistants who disappeared on him. The Censors performs an unenviable task. Most people do not like judging their peers. There is also little fanfare in the position since the proceedings are all behind close doors. There are certainly more worth while roles to do on the forum than the Censor. Moreover, members do not like to be "moderated" and citizens hate to be called out even more.

I said this a 1000 times it seems, but the Curia draw isn't what it once were. It survived under the misguided notion that it is something more than it is now. You throw in the pettiness, over exhaustive debates, and a change in the type of users on the forum and it is not surprising the Curia is a virtual ghost town.

I personally think the modern user is less concern with award given than in years past. They are ore concern about the areas of the forum they are most interested. In these areas, they may be interested in recognizing contribution, but not site wide. Any attempt to convince these users of the utility of a Curia is an exercise in futility. The internet evolves. The site must be flexible enough to meet the demands or it will be cast aside as irrelevant.

[Bethencourt]

Maybe we could start projects that add something new to the site and valuable in terms of real life. For example, in relation to the "actual" refugees crisis we could start a permanent project to link TWC members to the hundreds of aid possibilities that are out there.

Gathering information, colaborating with different organizations....

Total Aid Center, or something like.

Another thing I see there is no symbol of the CVRIA, or a seal that can be stamped to initiatives or projects supported by the CVRIA. You have different citizens badges, but they talk about the user not about the group.

[Riverknight]

I think if you're a citizen it should be mandated you are active in the CVRIA. I don't know what the point of being a Citizen is if you're not at least a BIT active. Also, if we really need people for roles within the CVRIA, hand out rep. If the rep flows the users will come; I guarantee it. I also think giving out service awards like the CdeC use to do would attract a few more people to come to the CVRIA.

I'm going to hunting for users that look like they'd be active in the CVRIA and sponsor them, at this stage if I see someone in their app. say I want to be apart of the CVRIA I am basically going to vote yes without any question; unless they've moderation history.

[Iskar]

In fact we recently considered adding a rep-function to the posts announcing an election (and thus also an expiring term). The "On behalf of the Curia we thank him/her for his/her service" bit would be a link to the rep page. Not sure whether one should make this more public, though.

(Unfortunately for you we only got this idea after the recent Censor election was already done, so I'm just repping your above post for it now )

[mishkin]

I think if you're a citizen it should be mandated you are active in the CVRIA.

I think this would be against the "the badge is a reward for the services" perspective.

In my opinion I wouldnt like to see the curia full of rep lovers or badges or medals lovers (that kind of people ).

Personally I think the curia is going to hell, and maybe we just have to accept it. (Of course TWC will survive)

[Riverknight]

In fact we recently considered adding a rep-function to the posts announcing an election (and thus also an expiring term). The "On behalf of the Curia we thank him/her for his/her service" bit would be a link to the rep page. Not sure whether one should make this more public, though.

(Unfortunately for you we only got this idea after the recent Censor election was already done, so I'm just repping your above post for it now )

That's might draw a few people.

Don't worry about my rep, it is meaningless to me; but it's everything to some.

[Halie Satanus]

So, do you think the curia is dying? Or this is just a phase? I do not think there has never been such a low stage, but I'm not a veteran here.

The summer months are always slow in the curia, people are on holiday (especially those at school or college), some even go away where they have little internet access. Christmas is often the same. Honestly I've seen many curia dead/rejuvenation/reform threads. The problem, people want to cry doom and change for change sake while ignoring what we already have to celebrate.

I don't recall there being any announcement or promotion when the CdeC was replaced and citizens given autonomy over citizen awards, all awards. Rather than worrying about whether the curia can feign looking busy in affecting change around the rest of the site, maybe a bit of focus on what we have.

And yes I have said that already, give a few months and maybe some of the doom spreaders will start to take notice.

[Flinn]

Days ago I was wondering what would happen without a single candidate for the censor or the curator (indispensable for the curia) role.

Something I noticed recently, people is more concerned about checking others' behaviour more than actively participating. I guess that if one sees that the things aren't going as he liked, the best thing to do would probably be to increase his own participation, within the "costitutional" limits of course... which brings me to: there is very little interest in the Curia actually, from all the sides...
We should also recognize the fact that if one wants to contribute to TWC, there's plenty to do with Content, Gaming, Moderation, etc etc., which have nothing to do with the Curia.

The Curator is merely a janitor, there isn't much to criticize. The problem is lack of time and interest. The whole site is in state a complete apathy and while certain areas have people who's job is to motivate and convince other people to participate the Curia has no such role.

Words of wisdom; if there is no purpose, there is no motivation. Curia has no purpose apart for voting on applications/awards, and for this it looks like it works pretty fine.

I think if you're a citizen it should be mandated you are active in the CVRIA. I don't know what the point of being a Citizen is if you're not at least a BIT active. Also, if we really need people for roles within the CVRIA, hand out rep. If the rep flows the users will come; I guarantee it. I also think giving out service awards like the CdeC use to do would attract a few more people to come to the CVRIA.

I can't but agree. If the interest is low, let's rise the possible reward to increase it; it has always worked and it's the base of any human activity, I don't know why it looks like that to someone speaking about rewarding people with rep for their activity looks obscene.

The summer months are always slow in the curia, people are on holiday (especially those at school or college), some even go away where they have little internet access. Christmas is often the same. Honestly I've seen many curia dead/rejuvenation/reform threads. The problem, people want to cry doom and change for change sake while ignoring what we already have to celebrate.

again, words of wisdom

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

Any of you Citizens own Attila? If so, and if you have some time on your hands, how about dropping some feedback to the Rise of Mordor team on their public battle release. I'm sure they'd appreciate your thoughts, especially those LotR-minded of you who will have a good idea of theoretical unit balance etc.