Rumours of my resignation are greatly exaggerated.

Day 3,033, 17:17 • Published in Australia Cuba • by Dread Pirate Hobbits


*Picture provided merely to placate HT8.

Do I have sand in my pants?

You may have heard from a certain propoganda article that I have resigned from the senate and can no longer contribute to policy making.

This is certainly not the case. I will explain in my own words, although I can do little to stop someone from paraphrasing me again. I know how Mark Twain must have felt when I wrote the headline for this article.

Senate threads for the past 2 terms have been split in two due to the number of senators being above the 31 maximum for a group message. This has resulted in several problems:

-Proposals have been made in one thread but not carried over to the other thread.

-Discussions from one thread were not easily viewable by those in the other one, certainly not in real time, and sometimes not at all.

-As several issues were often under discussion at one time, orderly discussion became difficult.

-The debate often descended into unregulated abuse.

Do we still need the half-senate message threads?

The Auserep forums and newspaper articles are in the opinion of many, much better options. Some, however are refusing to utilise the forums due to issues with past moderators. Nobody is suggesting that they have resigned from the senate for refusing to use these options, it should similarly be the same for anyone refusing to be part of the half-senate threads, especially if they have been the target of personal abuse in the past.

Under the "democratic dictatorship" system, also known as oxymoronarchy, as the only mechanical vote was held by the dictator, a forum of some sort was required for senators to voice their opinion on laws.

Under democracy senators can now vote on most laws via the mechanics.

On matters of tax reform, declaring enemies, or impeaching prime ministers, any senator is able to release a public discussion paper of the issues and propose the law for a vote themselves. These things do not require a closed discussion. The privacy/security argument is moot as the senate thread has been shown in the past to have more leaks than a pub wall.

On the matter of mutual protection pacts, any senator can propose these in an article, and should the prime minister call for a vote, this too is done via the mechanics.

Should there be votes on institutions, such as the Border Farce which was discussed but not proposed for a vote last term, the voting could easily be done via comments from senators on an official article.

What does this mean for the ADP?

If I become Party President of the ADP, my policy will be as follows:

In the past, group messages soleley composed of ADP members have been civil, and as there are presently less than 31 members, they would fit in one thread.

If the number rises above 31, I would advocate a move to a thread in the Auserep forum, but for the time being I will utilise the group message as most people seem at least tolerable of them.

The main purpose of this will be for party room discussion on policy. Whatever the general membership decides I will release in the official ADP newspaper.