New forum

[Johannes de Jong]

I'd like to propose a new forum for the regular visitors to the ranch. Access to this forum will be restricted i.e. similar to the Moderators forum.
Why this new forum: -

• There is a discussion going about making the book prize fairer. i.e. holding one book back and voting on the most deserving poster. The people that have access to this forum have a voting right. Heck not real democracy but who wants Hey Dude to have a vote and at least its more democratic than only letting the bartenders and sheriffs vote
  
• There are also a lot of aspiring bartenders around, but only that many bars, here they can feel more appreciated / rewarded.
  

[Angela Poynton]

Nice idea but I think a little unfair .... who qualifies as a regular visitor? you can't count the number of posts since using Meaningless Drivel somebody could make lots of posts in one day!
Plus I don't think it's fair to ostracise the newer people here .. they are as important as those who have been around a while, we don't want them to feel their opinion doesn't count!
how things work right now is this.
People such as yourself put forward an idea ... if it seems to be gaining momentum those of us who have access to the Moderators only forum will discuss it privately and a decision will be made. i think this works, of course an idea that gains much enthusiasm in the public forums such as this one will more than likely be approved since we want to please you guys, but if we think it goes against the ideals of Javaranch, or would be too difficult to implement/ maintain then we'll let you all know our reasons for ultimatly not implementing it.

[Johannes de Jong]

You are correct Angela, I should have used "serious visitors" my intention was not to exclude the newer people. I only want to exclude the Cobra rules type of guy from certain discussions.
If someone applies to join the exclusive forum one can have a set of rules ie. if a Sherrif or bartender approves the application he/she is immediatly approved, or if 5 existing members aprove etc.
See this new forum as a sort of parliament or senate with the bartenders and sherrifs as the goverment. It can also lighten the goverments workload.

[This message has been edited by Johannes de Jong (edited April 05, 2001).]

[Cindy Glass]

Oh I can see hurt feelings already. You KNOW that King CoBRA and all his friends would immediately apply, and then we would have to turn them down, and then listen to the ranting about unfair practices.
There would be no way for us to monitor that someone wasn't using multiple aliases and therefore getting multiple "votes".

[Johannes de Jong]

You could however monitor what they submit. "If you post rubbish sorry but here you are not welcome", its as simple as that.

[Andy Ceponis]

Sounds very complicated. And all this for a book.

[Jane Griscti]

Hey ... JavaRanch is a friendly place ... don't want to start putting up fences!
Johannes ... if you don't like what someone posts, don't read it ..life's to short to let 'noise' drown out the song
Just my 2 cents
------------------
Jane Griscti
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java� 2 Platform

[Jyotsna Clarkin]

Let�s consider this. JavaRanch establishs an exclusive forum for serious, regular visitors. Then, within that forum, a select group consider themselves ultra-exclusive and deadly-serious visitors. They believe they should have a Silver�club forum. Then obviously some would see the NEED for Gold club member forum because they believe they make qualitycontributions.
And so on...
And we could find ourselves going completely silly, just like real politicians
I think that if people believe that they need an exclusive group then they could explore other options like Yahoo!Groups or something similar.
JavaRanch doesn�t really NEED to be �governed� by a senate/parliament or whatever. That sort of social re-engineering could ruin this place.
Please don�t change the best thing about JavaRanch.
regards,
Jyotsna
[This message has been edited by Jyotsna Clarkin (edited April 05, 2001).]

[Johannes de Jong]

Well its pretty obvious I came up with a stupid idea.

[Mapraputa Is]

Not as stupid as dangerous. You did not expect us to give away our almost absolute power easily, did you?

[Johannes de Jong]

obviously not

[Angela Poynton]

Map just remember though that although we have a lot of influence .... it's Paul Wheaton who has the ABSOLUTE power! it is his site after all and his money that gets spent keeping it going.

[Thomas Paul]

Yes, but he gave us all the passords... ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha [evil laugh]

[Angela Poynton]

hmmm .. never thought of it like that!!