The Tools of Democracy
Day 2,758, 07:15
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Published in Canada 
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by
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by J.Canuck
I notice crisfire has been appointed as Deputy Speaker and is making a valiant attempt to herd Congress members over to the decrepit old eCan forums.
I also notice his tone is rather chiding, he seems to be anticipating failure and he is standing by to start laying blame.
Before we go too far down this road lets ask ourselves a few questions about this ill-fated return to the awkward, unpopular and obsolete tools of the former incarnations of eCanadian democracy.
The game is much diminished from what it once was. Does it really make sense to try and return to this old, tedious and elaborate off-site setup? The game barely functions any more, never mind the meta-game.
All we really need is some basic communication to debate and gather support for policy.
Why not just use mass PM?
Why not just have each party represented with their more active members in PM dialogue with the CP and his cabinet? Let them take issues back to the broader party via their Party PM threads.
The game isn't what is used to be.
Politics isn't what it used to be.
Who knows how long our fagile democracy will even last with the ever present threat of dictatorship looming over us?
Why not make this easy?
Why not use tools that have a decent chance of working?
Just my $0.02. What do you think?
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No to the forum
Tim Allen know all about tools...
I would mention (one more time) that a PM offers no permanent record of what was said or done and I personally find it very awkward to find things like who said what when. From my perspective, not using the forum for debate and votes causes the whole process to be more trouble than it's worth. Likely I would not participate. Even those that exalt that game mechanics rule have to admit that admin placed a button on the proposal "debate area" where you can link to the discussion, supposedly on a forum or blog.
On the other hand...
When people tend to use the forum threads (that are for business) for chatter that is better left to IRC, I get tired of sorting out the bs. This tends to make me not want to use the forum. (I don't encourage this but) several time I have just voted because I already had a good idea how it was going to go anyhow. 😛
I hear ya - the in-game PM isn't great but at least people see it and use it. The partipation rate in the eCan forums has always been terrible even when the game was thriving. Given the current state of things it just seems obvious we need to do it different rather than stubbornly set ourselves up for failure.
I'm more or less a political noob, so I'm happy to just get the conversation going even if I end being wrong about this.
What people see it.....oh yeah, only congress members
My final thought is why even bother? Everyone just vote whatever they think is right. That is if they even bother to vote.
Because other countries don't appreciate us NE'ing them every second day. Makes us look like idiots.
if we are unorganized and no one gives a shit then obviously we are collectively idiots. If we had a Whip PM, a congress thread (that people looked at before they poked buttons) and made sure that new congress people friended their leadership so the could get shouts, things like that wouldn't happen or rarely so.
I'm saying either do it right, whatever that is, forum or no, or don't worry about it. Piss off our friends. Show everyone we're idiots. Run it into the ground.
I've recently ran across a proverb that suits my concern in this crap to a tee:
"Not my circus, not my monkeys."
If what I saying is unimportant and wrong thinking feel free to reject it. You're on your own.
"Why not just use mass PM?"
You can only fit in 30ish people into a mass PM and the government should not operate behind closed doors when the government collects tax's from said people. The forum, while maybe tedious but not really, is an inclusive way to not only debate issues when there are some but it lets people see who things came about and also gives them material to write about if they wish.
As to being chiding im usually always a sarcastic f@ck, thats my jam and im not going to blame people but hold them accountable for inactivity, if congress people dont like it dont put your name on the congress list and collect your dough.
Usually PM's encourage banter, banter that cannot be removed or deleted or moderated. once it's there its there. You have to scroll through a LARGE message to read everything.
Ia gree
Better closed doors than in an empy house.
Theoretically the eCan forum could be all those things people want it to be.
In practice I'm convinced it won't be - it never was and will be less and less as activity levels continue to fall.
The question is how many politicians and regular citizens will actually use those forums.
I say you'd be lucky if 10 or 15 people would go there on a regular basis.
Ive been at this for i think 6 years and the forums has been very successful in the past to debate and get things done. I htink your being a wee bit short sighted on your success meter
I actually think a combination of the above could work nicely-- threads for all party members, forums for final debate and voting. Larger parties could have two or more members' threads, with a proportional number of congresspersons assigned to each thread. Parties and their representatives would then be responsible for polling members and taking their responses to forum debates and votes.
Ultimately it could make congress more accountable to constituents, allow debate in smaller groups, and ensure that relevant topics and opinions are all expressed concisely in the forum, without excessive chatter. Maybe?
What is the definition of winning at this game ,... what will it take to get eCanada prepared for an attempt at "Winning" ?
https://youtu.be/HjMQbzBhTb4
"The game isn't what it used to be"
Welcome to the reality that has been the past year.
"All we really need is some basic communication to debate and gather support for policy."
Bitch please, have you heard of our community forums?