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To many, Citizens and regular member alike, the Curia is a somewhat an obscure place, of which they stay away, scared by the supposed complexity of its structure, and, even more, disgusted by the constant stream of drama and toxicity that seems to be poisoning it: while the latter is a consequence of it being a democratic institution (just like that happens for any other similar institution, and believe me here, since I'm an elected Public Admin in RL), it's not an excuse to stay away from it forever: a bit of drama will do good for your morale and it will help you grow some more hair on your belly.
In other words, while no one can deny that the Curia is a very unpleasant and annoying place to frequent at times, it is also true that that depends on whom you interact with and how you behave, so the solution is quite straight: just be the kind of Citizen (or member) you like to see.
That being said, what is the Curia? A full response would take tens of hours and would only found a few to agree with it, so let's just stick with what the Curia actually is in terms of fora, to begin with. As per Hader's original post, the Curia is actually composed as it follows:
Originally Posted by Hader
Any member can go to the Prothalamos and start a Discussion or and Amendment. Discussion are decisions which are aimed at giving a suggestion or making a request for the site at large or for Curial matters not inherently stated in the Constitution. For the purpose of procedures, Awards are considered Decisions, which means, again, that any member can go to the Prothalamos and propose another member (being it a citizen or not, it doesn't matter) for any Curial Award.
In order to make it easier to distinguish between the two: proposing a member for a Curial Award is a Decision, asking for a new Curial Award to be created (or for an existing one to be amended) it's an Amendment, since Curial Awards are in the Constitution.
This is, of course, just but a rough example of the kind of Decisions and Amendments anyone can propose in the Prothalamos, so if you have questions, doubts, whatever, just ask and talk about them in the Curial Commentary thread or the Townhall (Citizens only).
Remember though, any Decision or Amendment that passes in the Prothalamos is technically subject to potential veto by the Hexagon Council (the actual Administrative body of TWC), though this is very unlikely to happen unless said resolutions are not going to impact areas which are under the exclusive management of the Hex (ie. Staff, Therms of Service, important site-wide policies, etc).
In addition to that, any Citizen can propose a regular member to be rewarded with Citizenship (thus effectively expanding the ranks), via the Questiones Perpetuae forum (linked above) and following with some standard procedures as stated in the Constitution (again, linked above).
Citizens can also file a VonC (Vote of none Confidence) for any elected Curial Officer and if it gets enough supports, the whole Citizenship is called to express their opinion with their vote. It is possible for the Curia to request the Hex to consider the removal of any Staffer, with a similar procedure which falls into the Discussion category (and hence it is possible to request it also for regular members, and not just Citizens).
Citizens can also initiate an Ostrakon against another Citizen in the Questiones Perpetuae, with the scope of having said Citizens stripped of it and of the privileges connected to it. Ostrakon is a very serious and hard measure, and thus should only be used in cases of Citizens acting openly against the whole community or constantly causing troubles to it; be warned though, just like it happens with new Citizens applications, where the bar has to be set is subjective, and in general the Curia seems to be conservative and does not like to strip members of their Citizenship.
Besides, only Citizens can vote (either in the Questiones Perpetuae or in the Curia Vote), which means that regular memeber can propose and discuss in Discussions and Amendments, but are not allowed to vote on them (or in new citizenship applications, VonCs or Ostrakones).
The Citizenship also has the Curia main forum and the Symposium that can be used for general discussion, but as of today, due to overall decreased activity, they are seldom used, and most of the discussion occurs in the Decisions/Amendments thread or in the Townhall/Curial Commentary thread.
So, as you can see, the Curia offers any member the opportunity to do quite a lot, and to be involved in the life of this community. It is not, of course, an easy task, and requires some tick skin at times, and certainly a lot of patience, none the less for those interested in the community at large, or that are just intrigued by the "political" side of it, the Curia can provide a lot of fun and something to think about during gaps in the regular routine of real life.
Let me also add one point: as a Citizen you are expected, though not obliged, to behave exemplary and foster a welcoming and proactive behavior, and while at large the Curia seems to have failed in this fundamental task, there have been many great Citizens which we all loved and that are still an important part of this community or anyways remembered as glorious members..
So, think of this, and think of what kind of Citizen or member you want to be, and act accordingly... the Curia offers you the possibility to distinguish from the mass, for the good or for the bad, and it's only up to you to pick up the challange.
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