Knowing You Personally: A Case for the Dreaded Forums....
Day 3,086, 15:39
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Published in Belgium 
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by
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by Konrad Neumann
"For the record, I will copy Vincent Pain's recent article in whole for your reference since VP has an habit of deleting his articles.
First of al[l].....
There is a difference between leadership and power!
The idea of leadership is indeed based on a hierarchical system, but that hierarchy is based on responsibility. The individual gives a part of his responsibility to be a leader, and that leader takes responsibility for the group of individuals. The idea is therefore assumed that the leader is able to bear that responsibility.
The leader can only bear responsibility if he knows what is expected of him. And he can only know if he has the necessary information. That means that the members of that group inform to the leader about what their needs are. Only then can a good leader act and speak on behalf of the group!
The leader can only lead if he knows the members of the group.
And by that I mean: personally......
1-How can he take responsibility for someone he has never met or spoken?
2-How can he know what his needs are?
3-How can he be responsible for someone he does not even know he exists?
And how can an individual give responsibility to a leader whom he never met or spoke with?"
I think he makes a few interesting points. Before we talk about leadership and power, we need to talk about human nature and the need for a civil society. If we imagine a time before government and society, humans roam independently in nature living on what they can scavenge and hunt. Other human interactions are seldom with the exception of mating. With time, mankind created society out of the need of public goods.
Mankind created society not because it was easy or fun but out of necessity. No one man is good with everything and thus, society will allow each one of us to perform task that will benefit the society as a whole. If I am not a physically strong person, I cannot defend myself against wild animals or bandits. I delegate the martial task to those who are better suited for the job. I am however, is talented with the healing arts of alchemy. Therefore, we see communities with a wise men/women and other healers.
In order for society to exist, mankind gives up certain rights and "freedoms" in order to create society. The individual gives up some of his or her liberties but enjoy the benefits and protection of the public/ social goods. One cannot do wherever they want but will have to adhere to the interest of the whole. Therefore for society to exist, it can never be in an archaic state nor can it be laissez faire. There is much responsibility in all forms of governance in the society itself.
I follow the Max Weber notion of "Politics as a Vocation." With the said, I believe a statesman/woman takes on increase responsibility as they represent the state. The state if in a democratic republic will represent the people. Statesmen/women's task is to preserve the state as well as the interest and wellbeing of the people. They do not use their own treasure but that of the taxpayers. They are tasked to maintain the wellbeing of the citizenry. These task are great burdens of responsibility of the statesmen/women and should not be overlooked.
As per Vincent Pain's article, I agree with him in the need to elect statesmen/women that is representative of the people. And this is why we need the forum and the IRC. Vincent's critique on the eBE community is the "lack of personal closeness" with the leadership. He questions the leadership ability of statesmen/women without knowing them personally. This begs the question on does the eRep game alone allows knowing people personally? What does Vincent means personally? To know someone personally requires communication which this game lacks.
Instead, tools like the forum and IRC is vital for the society to know each other. It is the forum and IRC that allows people to talk and socialize. The forum which allows debates to take place where individuals will gain and develop social capital which will led them to political leadership. The IRC does the same. The forum offers us an organized platform where we can discuss many different topics from immigration to alliance/ war tactics. It allows our leaders to discuss policies that secrecy is vital.
In the end, the game itself does not allow us to do proper polling. It also does not support community base communication where we can get to know each other "personally." In addition, this game is called eRepublik. It is based on the republican ideals of representation. It is not of democracy or the Pollis. Not everyone have say on governance. However, the forum and IRC is a liberating force as it allows a platform of communication. Therefore, I agree with your critiques above. I think we should elect leaders who knows the community and is representative of the society. Therefore, they should embrace all channels of communication like the forum and IRC so we all can get to know him/her personally...
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There are many ways and levels of getting to know one another personally. In a game like eRepublik, it is possible to form very close attachments with people you never have a chance to meet face-to-face, but indeed, some personal form of communication is needed for that. For most active older players, that does indeed mean out of game platforms such as a forum or IRC channel. However, not everyone has the time or interest to use those. You can still play the game without these personal forms of communication, but it becomes far less interesting, and far more difficult for people to know one another, even in a small community like eBelgium.
erep game provides limited tools of kommunication. irc and phorum is a better substitute. unfortunately erepbelgium with extensive bans and censorship is not. freedom of expression nonexistent. political korektness omnipresent.
Saying abusive things will get you censored everywhere.
Continuing a lie about bans will not serve your cause. For what do you hope. Lenin once said "A lie told often enough becomes the truth." Is that what you and your gang attempting to achieve here? eBE forums is quite tolerant of the abuses and harassment your members had spewed but yet you still claim to be victims even though no one was banned except for Shadow who was banned for multis...
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i need to korrekt the doublespeak here:
abusive read unpleasant;
everywhere read on erepbelgium.
wim was banned on erepbelgium, i was banned on #brussel and many other instances of power abuse.
shadow wasnot multiing, he was only bypassing ur absurd obstacles to his freedom of expression. that's a plain fakt!
He(shadow) was temporary banned for repeated violation of the rules(including some in-game rules) and to bypass that he created a secondary account. Which is, no matter how you will try to twist it, a violation of eRepublik law!!! The forum functions under eRepublik law just like any other part of the game.
Are you now claiming that the rules don't apply to you and CO. ?
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Using politics to avoid the tools created for the community only shows how little interest you have for the community itself and more for you own agenda.
Use the forum!!! Instead of destroying the very tools that could help you, you might consider using them.
As long as you play within the rules of the game and the extended forum rules, you might discover that you can do far more and with a lot more joy then you are doing now.
UNBAN SHADOW !
part of them rules is oppressive by default. their application is regularly bent further to oppress even moar! last time we tried to fix that, we got bans and posts removed. i'm afraid i kant explain clearlier.
It sounds that you didn't read my comment.....
If you play by the rules you wouldn't have had any problem.
That is one of the reasons why some posts where removed... insults and excessive flaming is not helping anyone.
Read the eRepublik rules and Terms of Service and you might discover that these bans and post removals where justified.
Interesting 😉