The SFP - What the...

Day 3,237, 00:36 Published in USA Canada by Ilene Dover


So, a strange thing happened to me this morning. I went for my daily dose of Congress threads, and stumbled across a new sub-forum. In the political party section, it was called American Revolutionary Party.



Most of you interested in what passes for politics in the eUSA would be aware that the SFP has had it’s name changed by Party President Cerb. The process around the name change wasn’t terribly transparent, with Cerb’s own survey showing little support for the new name and lukewarm interest in a name change overall.


The timing of the name change was awful (amateurish, even), and gave the party formerly known as SFP one of it’s worst congress votes ever as we lost name recognition (amongst other things). The PR and communication of the name change was botched, to put it politely.



All this is just my opinion though, and the name change issue should really be set aside until the 15 October PP elections. Cerb has ignored every request to change the name back, so I don’t see anything happening until someone else’s butt sits the iron throne the party chair.



To return to my original point. The new ARP sub-forum. SFP (and by inheritance, the ARP) have always maintained a third party forum. Right here. Bookmark it if you’re an e-political junkie, because it’s kinda hard to find now.


There was no notification of a shift of forum. There was no discussion of why. We’re talking about a major political party’s primary method of organisation, history and debate. Cerb actually ran for PP on the issue in the August PP election, and lost. I find it unacceptable for a party president to shaft a majority of members by shifting the goalposts.



I wrote on the ARP’s new forum, in the public area. I told visitors that it wasn’t the place to find party members. I did this because I have not been informed about a change of venue. I’m a party member, congress representative, and apparently a “Councillor” (idk wtf that is). Surely we should be told about this?!


Some heavy handed moderation followed. This is a view from the trash can, where all deleted posts and threads go:




You can draw your own conclusions about how welcome my contributions were, no doubt. The post content still exists, where Cerb can’t moderate it away. Go have a read.


To someone who sees a party president (all party presidents of all parties) as a custodian and steward of the party’s values, it’s quite shocking to have everything bulldozed away. Moving forums is only the most recent fiasco. Our in-game congress list order for September didn’t reflect the order party members voted to put it in. That’s a whole different screwed up story…




What’s going on then? Why is all this happening???! Let’s strip away the overblow rhetoric and hyperbole you’ll see in a lot of articles and shouts and examine the issues.


The SFP has strayed from the goals and intentions of it’s founders and early influencers. I didn’t meet those guys ‘n’ girls because I’m a fairly recent arrival. The point is hard to argue against though, because the SFP is old and the game has changed a great deal in that time.


The SFP was in need of reform. Yes, we are. Since the uprising of Black December we’ve been drifting and soul searching. We haven’t done much of note since then. We do need to change the way we do things.

Nobody is seriously disputing these points.



What I believe, and what SFP has acted as being true, is that revolution comes from the bottom up. It is not possible to impose radical change without breeding resentment. For lasting and effective change, people need to want change.


Imposing change from the top down? Acting inconsistent with long established traditions and beliefs? These are the actions of a dictator and a demagogue.

Making a new “official” forum just before the CP primary elections, and not telling anyone but your mates about it? When all of those mates are recent additions to the party? It’s like a whole squadron of rogues have just shown up.