Whats happened to this forum?

[gollum]

Originally posted by pevergreen
1. Avatar policy has been voted on a number of times, and though my head says recently, it may have been end of 07 when the last poll happened. The avatars are stuck in TW Themed. Community has voted each time to keep them that way.

Yes, i know. But this is precisely the point. The conservatism of the community evidently won't be overcome by the community. It needs a bold move, by the administration/staff, assuming of course they judge that such a move is desirable. However "judge" is the keyword. If the org community thinks that this should be treated as a matter of preference, then the current avatar policy may as well stay. However the point is that its far more than that. It is a matter that affects accessibility as well as other things. As such it has to be rethought on that basis, rather than aesthetics only.

2. It can be, but look at how much its been relaxed. When I joined, I could post in the entrance hall only. I had to wait 300 seconds (5 minutes) between every post. Between thread creation, I think it was like 2 and a half days.

To be honest, the ability to edit for junior members is at the centre of this one. Almost all of them seem bewildered at the fact to various degrees (it adds to the embarassment and stress of the newby, especially for first timer and young people), as well as to the fact that they are under "supervision" by mods in order to be awarded membership status. I think this one being taken out would go quite some way towards bringing down accessibility barriers.

3. I don't understand, are you saying that it makes it hard to come into an environment where everyone already knows each other and there is common opinions on stuff? I would agree, but I would also hope that we try to welcome the newer members, as the old Welcoming Committe did, and as many still do.

The environment is precisely the great attraction and strength of the org. The good things about it are that its close knit, mature, having evolved through true fit and over some time, and that it has certain characteristics, admitedly pluralistic but characteristics nevertheless. The bad thing is that the reception and integration processes are quite detailed and slow - hence the close knit. The org lacks dynamic communities within the community as of late (with the notable exception of the EB community), and as time will go by it may well lack more if the demographic trend continues.

Maturity is also a large part of it. Warman was a good example. He had been accepted, given chances and treated nicely and fairly and yet because of that (and not despite) he was unable to integrate because he didn't had the potential to reach the level that would have been acceptable (at this time of his life). Warman behaves far more reasonably in certain instances in the twc, especially when among more immature members than he. This would have been an impossibility here, and so Warman is still to this day - believe it or not - lurking around the org and digging out for supporters, in order to stage his comeback. In short, what has been asked of him, was impossible to him at least for many more years to come, creating in essence a love/hate relationship from his side to this place, because he was implicitly asked to become an "orgah", while the best he could realistically do (and everyone knew it) was a caricature of an orgah. The expectation was unreasonable, and the result predictable. Admitedly Warman;s case is extreme, but it contains a truth; that the org does not have a place for various types of member. It has a place for a certain type of member - that which is akin to what we are here or to the type of member that is willing to become something very much like what we are here. The sieve holes are a little too small, especially given the fact that new tws are adressed to younger players.

Another example is the aforementioned issue about the moderation of teh redoubt - again a community within the community was judged with criteria that would have been valid in the "core" parts of the org, the frontroom, the gameroom or the parliament (or any other sp subforum). That was a mistake and the consequences showed. Whats happening in the reception and integration course of new members as a whole is a similar type of thing. The idiosyncracies of communities within the community are in fact discouraged, hence the homogeneity. Homogeneity however brings eventually lack of tension (harmful and creative) and eventually (lack) of pluralism. The environment finally stagnates.