[Theforum] Re: A vote, (was: purpose of theforum)

[Warden, Matt]

moving this to theforum, since that's where it should be...

isaac wrote:
>Final decisions being held by the BoD on recommendations by theforum will
>protect us little more than theforum=final if BoD members are elected by
>theforum.

I see an uncertainty wrt whether theforum's decisions will be final. One
day, there seems to be a "yes" and the next there seems to be "no".

To summarize, and correct me if I'm wrong, reasons to NOT allow theforum
to directly "run" the community are:
1. What if they don't understand evolt's purpose?
2. What if theforum is flooded with people who want to see evolt die?

#1 would be like theforum wanting to sell banner ad space on the
www.evolt.org site.

#2 would be like a bunch of webmonkey (or lycos or whatever) employees
signing up for theforum and running it into the ground.

The idea now seems to be that we'd have all decisions approved by some
board of directors that has been elected by theforum voters. So, for #1 or
#2 to occur, people with like ideas would have to first be elected to the
BoD.

Firstly, I still think the BoD should stay out of community affairs
*except* when it comes to legal (you are violating your charter) or
financial (we need $foo to do bar) issues.

Secondly, if #2 was going to happen, the people behind it are surely
pissed off enough to work their way in (only takes numbers) and elect
their people to the BoD.

Thirdly, if #1 happens, then that *IS* evolt's purpose. If our community
shifts their ideas, evolt has shifted its ideas. "evolt's purpose" does
not equal "admin's purpose" or even "the original purpose evolt's founding
members". That's my opinion, anyways.

The addition of a BoD that "approves" theforum decision helps nothing,
IMO. Further, it adds no extra barrier as that barrier would already
exist. One can't vote unless they are given the priv level to do so. Just
having your name on the subscription list of theforum doesn't make you
eligible to vote. You have to show that you understand #1 and aren't going
to do #2. It's the trust system. Same way we don't let just anyone ssh
into lists.evolt.org and start h4x0ring stuffz.

Again, remember that we'll also have tools in place so that people can't
fuck up article submissions, etc. *EVEN IF* we trust them and give them
the needed userpriv level.

Martin wrote:
>(Actually, that wasn't the question I was asking - I was asking
>"would people on theforum *get* Admin privs?" I'm trying to understand
>what the difference is between theforum & Admin as it's historically
>been)

Ok. Try, for a minute, disassociating priv with list membership... because
really they'd be two different things. theforum is a discussion list. the
priv allows voting. the structures haven't changed. there's still an
"admin list", but it's completely open. what makes one an "admin" (or
whatever we want to call it) is a userpriv level of 3 or higher. Not being
on theforum. Not being on the admin list. Yes, some people from theforum
would also be admins. Yes, the admin group would be bigger than it is
now. No, it won't be everyone.

Trust system. How that is implemented is one of the things we're here to
talk about, I think.

Who decides?
How do they decide?
Do we need to use the member priv level (2) for people who can vote only
and not answer emails or something?
...You get the idea.



--
mattwarden
mattwarden.com