My LEGO Nexus Organization

Admins of MLNO,

It has come to my attention that several incidents since the creation of our Community have shaken it to its foundations. They were the jokes and tests that inflicted forum-wide damage. Each time, feelings were hurt and only damage was made. I am sure that I have the support of most of our Community when I say that enough damage has been made. The current joke, MLNA, is on a collision course with failure. Many people consider leaving each time, yet somehow they don't. But MLNO is at a downfall because it is becoming larger and larger, and its staff hierarchy is outdated, to say the least. So I offer you a set of requirements to improve MLNO:

1: Making a Member Council. The Council should be elected by the Community and should represent the Community. They would have the power to make an instant referendum on any part of our Community, except for removing the three core admins: NWJ, R8 and Omega.

2: Make every drill be on a special Blue alert scale, which shows how we should act but prevents panic.

3: Any joke that would have effect on the whole forum has to be approved by the Member Council, who have the right to make a referendum about it.

4: Any joke or drill can be stopped if three reasons are presented or if the Member Council stops it because of dissatisfaction


Notes:
It's II because the last one was sent to the Staff Board. Nothing has changed tho.

I got R8 premission to post it in News and Comments, BTW.

There are problems with that though, like the possibility that member elected stuff could be just based on Popularity contests instead of based on their qualities, plus, stuff like April Fools jokes aren't supposed to be known until after it's over, which this method would render impossible, since the community would know it all.

1: That can be fixed somehow...
2: Why do you need to make a joke like this one? Why not make something less obvious and more funny? Besides, it was the fourth of aprill...

1. Name a way.
2. VahkiPower anyone? And the admins were all on board. And I wasn't on on April 01.

1. And that somehow is...?

2. Was he here to pull it on the first? No. Could it have been fun/funny? If you acknowledged the fact that it was a joke and accepted it, yes. Besides, it was the only "complete" idea posted in the Staff Board. If you had a better idea, you didn't tell us.

the joke was a little freaky at first (I thought that the forum had been hacked), but now that we know that it's a joke, it's pretty fun.

I personally don't have problems with the Jokes. I just... Wish it didn't seem so real.

I think a Member Council is a good Idea though.

One thing I'd like to recommend, It could be good to have a mod from every timezone, so there can be a mod on all through the day.

And how would you prevent it from becoming chaos from elected people just becoming a popularity contest without any actual experience? I haven't yet heard an actual explanation to that part ;)

If you ARE going to have an election, I think you should give the prank team a chance to possibly redeem themselves before it is held.

That said, if there were an election, I think we would have to have a board for candidate statements and debate in order for it to have a hope of being anything but a popularity contest. One of the things I would like to see change is long staff chats in publically visable but locked topics. This insults the general membership, and has the potential to hurt the feelings of the original topic writer. It is a totally innappropriate use of moderator power.. ( look I can post here but the rest of you can't) which may be fun for the mods, but is not for anyone else.
Much like the's prank. I am gussing the staff and volunteers had a gas, but I am not really sure anyone ELSE but them had fun at all.

Have you ever POLLED the membership to see if we enjoy these pranks??  You might be surprised... or we might.
I just think that not everybody has the same sense of humor, and not everyone enjoys battles, weapons and threats.

As for the actual date... if you want to have an April fools joke, you'd better make it a point to be around on April 1. I daresay you were seen at other sites... so that excuse does not hold water.

 

OB:
1: How do I name it?
Presidential election? Nope, it's still a popularity contest... but it would have a few modifications in the voting process (Everyone would give a reason why they vote for that person)
2: I wasn't on BZP then to experience it, but anyway, BZP has fourty thoushand members, I'm sure some of them were not happy...

DB:
No, but is that an excuse? And we aren't talking about this incident only...

MsRR: I am talking about elections for the Council, not for the new administraton...

Whoa whoa whoa, what? Ok, I have not been on at all besides the weekend since last Saturday.

And you suggested the last one, which, might I add, all admins that were on, that didn't mind their inboxes being spammed up with 3-4 way PM conversations, agreed to, and Chase's was never even run by the admins. And Ogihci was barely complained about, and only because of the websites that weren't even real. If you remember like the geo incident, none of this happened ever.

Mea Culpa... I was told that you were on BZP.

Yes, I ran Arkano, But I thougt that since the disaster of Arkano we learned that these things weren't right.
I never mentioned Chase.
And Ogichi was pushing it, but it was still okay. It was kinda fun too. But now you run us trough a story that we can't do anything about. That causes the complains.

Though, look at the bright side, it did create one utterly awesome skin.

0_o I couldn't have been; I wasn't even on the computer at all the past week! The only day I was on the comp was Friday and yesterday...

The disaster... Oh yes, Ab-Z going and spoiling everything for everyone. I remember. And revealing an admin secret. How could I forget that.

How was Ogihci pushing it? All that was happening was riddles.

Um, I thought the complaints were that this happened too much?

Still, it's not like all the blame is on you...
I can't help but notice that the April Fools topic in the Staff Board was made incredibly late...

Well, yeah. I didn't post it until the night of the 31, cause I thought someone would think of it before that. ::)

Why not make a POLL to see if people like pranks, and a seperate one for riddles.
That way we can see if it is a good idea to have them, and if so, how often...

You mean like this?

http://mln.smfforfree4.com/index.php/topic,3122.0.html

the poll seems to be tied...
I think it needs an option somewhere between ok and great. I don't feel either, I feel in the middle. I eventually decided on ok.
EDIT: PLEASE NOTE THAT I AM NOT TRYING TO AFFECT ANYONE ELSES VOETE.

Member council elections are fine, but I think we should not allow elections for mods/admins.  Instead, they would be appointed by a two-thirds vote of the member council.

If that's not democratic enough, mods/admins could be nominated to office by at least five members (each member could only support one candidate) and the Member Council would vote on which ones would take office.

This way the process would still be democratic, but there would be enough insulation that it could not turn into a mere popularity contest.  In addition, with votes having to be backed up by reasons, I'm sure that only the people best qualified for office would be chosen.

Forums tend to be dictatorships of a sort - benign or otherwise. I'm fine with attempts to democratize the process but if there are going to be changes I think other things should be considered too - like Jas' point about the need to have mods/admins on 24 hours since there are more than just North Americans on this site.

As for the "jokes" that have brought things to a head... I tend to ignore them because I find them annoying (and they are usually fairly obvious). If a particular "joke" has caused forum-wide upset then I'll just stay off MLNO until things have calmed down.

Which isn't necessarly hard cause we usually only use one or two boards and don't usually spend anymore than a day on it. =P

In any case, I'm fine with democratizing the system, but only if it doesn't effect the overall ability for Mods/GMs/Admins to do their jobs. For example, if it takes a while to create a needed board, or ban a possible threat. In other words, we need to explain what the counsel can/can't do, other than elect/appoint mods/admins.

I was under the impression that other than mod/admin elections, the Member Council would only be consulted for forum-wide issues like drills, pranks, new skins, forum reorganizations, etc.  For example, if the Council had existed before the Ogihci riddles, it would have had to vote on MLN:Next Gen, since it's a major category of the forum.  Likewise, they would have had to vote on the new portal system.  However, they would NOT have a say in the technical implementation of the changes; that authority and responsibility belongs to the mods/admins themselves.

The members on the Council would have no special power; their power could only be excercised as a group (and even then a consensus would usually require at least a two-thirds vote).

Makes sense, although I was just wondering if it'd turn into a MLNO form of Congress. Which is ineffecteve half the time, but that's another story. ::)

But if the powers are for forum changes and promoting people, I suppose I'm fine with that. For now, at least.

One provision could be that voting members who missed 2 votes without having informed others of their absence in advance loose the right to vote for a period.

I hate to see this turn into something that takes a lot of time & energy for the staff to deal with.

Perhaps we should address the issue of time zone mods first??

thta's nto a good idea. when i'm no there's usually no one else. *bored*

Yes, but whenever possible, there should be a mod on.

Just to be clear about my own part in this: I was on vacation from Friday until Today and had no idea this was going to happen. I sincerely apologize to anyone who disliked or felt in anyway intimidated whatsoever. April 1st had already passed without any major jokes/pranks and it never entered my mind that the staff would pull a "late" one. I've never seen an April Fool's joke on a forum like this that didn't upset some people, so I've always thought it was a bad idea. Again, I apologize for this and will take measures to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Yes, or in a rule change.

Also, I am here some six hours a day, mostly depending on when do I have school...
So I don't think there's a time when there is mod absence too often...

There really isn't...If you count admins as mods.

expect for Nwj345 sometimes

I guess a April Fools joke never hurt anyone, well done Blade!

*Pushes buzzer* Incorect =P

*Pushes buzzer* Ha this is fun *Pushes buzzer* Oh sorry. Why are you mad at Blade, I personaly think he is a great guy, and one of the best Admins (I like R8 the most). Anyway he has done more good stuff then bad stuff. Look I made Finck Points
Blade: 92/100
R8: 100/100
Nwj(I forgot the rest of the name): 100/100
AB-Z: 100/100
When the points reach 0 I get mad!
P.S I did the Admins becasue those are the only people I can think of at the moment.

Yeah,  I'm usually alone too. But I do like the sound of time zone mods, although I don't know many people from the UK time zone here.
TBD

Well MT, Me and Voukor live in the U.K!

I have an idea: NO MORE JOKES. THEY ALL FAIL.

*I clap and my hand falls off* Oh no more jokes *I hand goes back on*

G O O D   I D E A ! ! !

When you say "The Staff" what exactly do you mean?  A lot of us were either not here at the time, or not participating.

I think that was just damage control to calm people down.  ;)

Not participating AND not preventing...

I was trying...

No you will most certainly not! Jokes are no longer allowed till further notice. Under ANY condition.