eAustralia's Forums - Thinking outside the square!

Day 2,183, 19:21 Published in Australia Australia by Mr Crumpets

Heeeellllllllooooooo!

It's been awhile... and football commitments are finally finished (for now).

I've been trying to catch up on what's been going on during my time away (we're free... WTF!) and noticed a couple of quick things.

The first point was Louise talking about the lack of decent articles to create debate... luckily I have returned (for now... until work gets busy again).

The second point, though 100 days old, but brought up again in the comments of a recent article, was the old chestnut of Binda's authority in the forums.



I see a petition was started, but failed. IMHO, the reality is Binda is an associate director (or like minded position) of the (XG's) 'company' that owns and operates the forum.

The reality is, while Binda is onside with XG, her authority will not be revoked, despite whatever protests from the community.

In fact, Tim Holtz - who I've agreed with and also strong disagreed with in the past - hit the nail on the head, when quoting Larni " the one way to fix the forums relies on a single person doing what's right for the community. Selfishness has seen the death of the forums."




The problem is, we for too long have been viewing the forum the wrong way around. We've seen XG (and his company) as the power, even overriding our government (as per Callum's petition).

In fact, we should be looking at another way.

The reason (besides it's longevity) that XG's hosted eAustralia forum is as powerful/popular as it is, is because the eAustralian Government and it's branches (parliament, cabinet, military, etc...) are hosted there.

What the eAustralian Government should be doing is a regular 'tender process'.



The tender of the 'Official eAustralian Forums' would be open to everyone, as to whom would be the best to house the Government on their forums.

For example, XG, Icetek and Infin might put proposals together to host the Government and it's branches on their own dedicated forum.

Through the process (for example), Icetek might come up with a better hosting server and technical capacity to run them, but Infin might trump him with a fairer admin/mods system.

If Infin won the vote of Government, the PM, cabinet members and senators would set up shop on Infin's forums and they would become the 'official forums' until a new tender was called (through date expiry or dissatisfaction with performance).



In that hypothetical case, what would happen with XG's fourms?

XG's forums would run as is (including Binda in her role), however, they would lose the 'official forums' title and Government would no longer conduct their business there.

People might still go to XG's forums, but activity would probably decline over time, as people would more than likely hang out on the 'official forums'.


This tender process puts the power back in the hands of the people (through the government). If the Government of the day (supported by Parliament's vote) want Binda stripped of her admin powers, it would be up to XG to comply or risk losing the 'official forums' status.


There's more than one way to cook an egg.


Mr Crumpets.


(You happy now... you have an article worth debating!)
P.S... NO PICTURES FOR YOU!