Unspeakable suggestions Curial Purge and CdeC reversal.
Unspeakable suggestions Curial Purge and CdeC reversal.
Citizens, Plebians, Staff members! Lend me your ears! Let me tell my fellow man a tale, a tale of a system gone wrong. Be warned that this may not be in the excruciatingly boring legal style you may be accustomed to, but I feel this will grab your attention more, given that it is like that most marmitious of philosophers. Let any followers question my words, as they did those of Zarathustra, and sort out the details later.
Back in the glorious past of these forums there was quite a simple system. It consisted of three main parts a feudal system of sorts. On the bottom rung there were the plebians, the common users, the people who came to discuss Rome Total War and its modifications.
The second class were the Civitates the citizens of the forum. They had a sub-forum of their own, the Curia, in which they got up to intrigues and backstabbing and make laws. They had no power however, but they were content in their illusion of power amongst their own kind.
The third class, the Staff, consisted of the moderators and the administrators and at the top of it all there was the sovereign, the person with absolute power, the Emperor. They were content to have the Civitates have their fun, with their silly little ranks such as patrician and such like, while they got on with the serious business of running the forum.
There were two changes with this idyllic system however, the first of these harmless. In order to become a Civitate one have had to be patronised by, surprisingly enough, a patron, and be accepted by the staff. This became such a huge amount of work that the staff said to the citizens beneath them Form a council of your own, and with that council you shall have choice over who may or may not enter into your ranks. And the citizens rejoiced, for this was a meagre scrap of power, and could play much fun in their tangled web of intrigues.
But then a second problem came. It arrived into the heads of some people that the quality of the forums, and more specifically the curia, had gone down since it had been a small elitist institution in years gone by. Indubitably this was true it was no longer allowed, for instance, to ban someone simply for being an idiot. However in their mood of zealous fury they voted through a law allowing the council of citizens, the CdeC as it has been known, the power to judge their own kind. It is fair they said It will be quicker they said It will be good! they said.
However it was not as they had cried. In the first major case of this most illustrious of inventions, involving many staff matters, the CdeC decided how it would run itself that it would be private in its judging (which many of those who had voted had assumed it would not be) and would be able to read staff matters. When the case came to a close the defendant, not unjustly, accused the council of doing all kinds of wrongs. And others were upset with it because it had more power than it had originally meant to have, and had upset the balance of the forums. It divided the Civitates, making a class with the best of both worlds all of the power and secrets of the staff, with none of the responsibilities, while at the same time being able to influence the class of the civitates, but without having to worry about being changed legally.
And then a young counter-revolutionary, a reactionary if you will, came before the people of the Curia, being foolish enough to open his mouth fully, and said If we were worried about the quality of our people then this council has done nothing to change that look at what piteously little they have done! And look at how long they take, it is no quicker! And look again at how unfair it is to us this council has made its own rules with no reference to us, we people in whose name it was made! And the people looked towards him, and they cried out What would you have us do about it, young imbecile? And he stared at his feet, and meekly said Why do we not, if we are so worried still about the quality of our people, have a proper purge by the staff, and decide who is and isnt worthy once and for all. If we have a purge, then we can assume the citizens will act rightly, and if we do not then the citizens must already be good people, and must act rightly already. Either way we have no need of a council of superiors amongst equals to make our choices for us. We must either be purged by those that admitted us - or those that admitted those that admitted us, or accept that we will suffice.
And the people were left thinking. Was it better to allow this travesty to continue, or to revert things to how they were, how they were meant to be?
And one of them said But how would that case have been dealt with, if the council was not there to assume the position of both staff and civitates? and the lad eagerly replied The curia would have tried him as they have always done, on his worthy as a member of the curia, and the staff would have tried him as they have always done, on his worth as a member of the staff, and all would have been happy except perhaps he who had been tried.
And the people thought again, how although they did not like this secret justice from equals above, they did not also like the idea of actual action, as used to whining and backstabbing as they were.
That is my tale, judge it as you will.
Originally Posted by Squeaky
- It's my smilie and I'll use it if I want to...... 
