Balancing attitude

[MrLinus]

If I may interject. AO is definately not a democracy but neither is it a dictatorship. You might call it more a meritocracy:

From Dictionary.com

mer·i·toc·ra·cy
n. pl. mer·i·toc·ra·cies
1. A system in which advancement is based on individual ability or achievement.
2. A group of leaders or officeholders selected on the basis of individual ability or achievement.
3. Leadership by such a group.

People receive points based on the things they bring into the community, whether it is general knowledge, specific knowledge or humourous input.

Louie said

THere are people on here who barely talk and have more positives/negative then people who give good solid input.

As one of those people who pops in and occassionally yaps, sometimes its worthwhile to read what goes on without replying. One need not reply to every single freakin' post to make a good point. Sometimes one post is enough and it has a profound enough effect.

[thesecretfire]

The reason why I dislike people who rant about democratic forums is that I've seen it so many times before on several different forums, and in the past it's usually been from newbs that got banned after flaming...the history just gives it a negative feeling in my mind.

Also, It's not necessarily a harsh dictatorship. If all of the senior members decided they hated something that JP did, it'd probably change. And you have to hope that community feelings make an impact on the leader. You mention contributions, and you have a point: Antionline depends on members for it's content. However, at the end of the day JP is fielding the dough for the site and he can decide what to do with it.

Given that debating "AO: A democracy?" should be left for the cosmos forum (maybe I'll start a thread), I'll respond to the topic at hand.

First off, everywhere you look is a balance. Your car is a compromise of safety and features. (Depending on where you live) The police keep you relatively safe while still giving you a reasonable amount of privacy. I could go on, but the gist of it is that balances are good.

However, can this be extended on to assigned AP's? Possibly not. If everyone is balanced, it assumes a situation where there are as many people deserving negs as there are deserving greenies. Only in very seldom cases where the kiddiot population explodes is this true. All the other times, most people make posts that deserve neither, with several that deserve greenies, and far fewer that deserve negs. If the balance system continues, the way greens are assigned will change, and you will have to do more to earn them. Maybe a good thing, maybe not.

[cF_nM]

There have been many VERY good points made on both sides...I can see why JP implemented this system-to control the stupid people more (just think how bad it was before the point system-can anyone say Hans?)...
I think I'm going to have to say that overall I don't like the new balance system, but I'm not going to leave AO due to it...
I believe that the balance system will constrict how the discussion forums will run (mostly I'm afraid of poeple getting negs that don't deserve them). Once we get rid of all the 'stupid people'-what then? Are we going to start neging people for decent posts? I believe that once all the 'stupid people' are gone, we're going to have to, because we won't have anyone else left to neg....
Just my 2 cents........

[avenger_jcc]

There will always be kiddiots and stupid people tho.... *sigh*

[Ouroboros]

Thanks for all of the input, everyone...it's a lot more than I expected. Most times, these forum-operation debates just snuff themselves out due to lack of responses.
In my opinion, the best (personal) solution is to follow Louie's advice, and stop clicking on that confounded "Assign Positive or Negative Points..." link, and ignore the 'Points' altogether. Not to say that I give up on my position on the topic, but it seems unlikely that it will change anytime soon. Bothers the hell out of me to GIVE UP on the arguement, but to continue arguing about it would only serve to disrupt a site which I truly enjoy by filling it with unreconcilable opinions and arguments.
I guess that's why the option to use it or not has always been there...just a mouse click between the two options.
Once again, thanks for all of the input...Imaginary 'greenies' for everyone

Ouroboros