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Given the disputes which have been presented recently (by a broad spectrum of the community) it seems that a lot of people have said that a "council of peers" would be beneficial to the community for the purpose of "peer review" of staff decisions. With this in mind, I have come up with one (of many) possible way to implement this:
TAPS - Trench Wars Association of Players and Staff
Any registered player (both players and staff) in TWD (to make sure people don't try to enter with multiple aliases) can apply to join TAPS.
After a 1 week application period, all people who have applied will be able to choose 5 other people who have applied to TAPS (aside from themselves) who they would be willing to have represent them in TAPS.
-Top 50% of all players (based on votes) who have applied will become members of TAPS (player side).
-Top 50% of all staff (based on votes) who have applied will become members of TAPS (staff side)
Because there are far more players than staff, there will have to be an arbitrary limit established so that votes on each side will be weighed the same. For example, if there are 50 members in player council and only... 15 in the staff side, the weighting system would make the 15 staff votes equal in weight to the 50 player votes.
-The non-staff player who receives the most votes will be the Chair of TAPS (Player Side)
-The staff member who receives the most votes will be the Chair of TAPS (Staff Side). There should probably be a requirement that the chairman of staff side needs to be either a mod or smod (ie. no ZH or ER can be chairman).
Following this up this will be 5 players with the next highest votes (on each side) who will be members of a governing board of the council.
In an instance where there a decision is made by staff in which a large portion of the community disagrees, staff will allow the members of TAPS to initiate arbitration to come up with a reconciliatory decision which both sides can agree on. For the sake of expediency, this entire process would have to be completed within 1.5 weeks.
Once TAPS is called in, both sides will present their case, and all members of TAPS (both players and Staff) will vote on one of two options which have been presented.
Chairman votes will count as 5x the vote of regular members, and members of the board will have votes which count as 2x the vote of the regular members.
In an instance of conflict of interest (ie. if the decision is about specific squad(s) those members will not be allowed to vote - regardless if the conflict of interest involves a chairmen, member of the board, or regular member.
TAPS elections will take place a month before every TWL season (to make sure that TAPS is composed of active people).
The decision which garners the largest number of (weighted) votes will then be instituted. For the sake of expediency, no appeals process would be present, however it would probably be a good idea to give the Dean of Staff the ability to veto a TAPS decision if it is very controversial.
This is by no means the only way something like this could be implemented, but it should give people an idea and give them the chance to come up with an improved version of this one.
I find it highly unlikely that staff would ever willingly implement a system like this because it would displace the absoluteness of their powers, but looking at this logically - this is a game, shouldn't the decisions made in the game represent what the large segment of the community wants, rather than what a small segment (the staff) of the community wants?
This post is not necessarily as a response to the recent arguments regarding TWL invitations, this is meant more as a general idea which could resolve a wide variety of disputes both current and in the future.
TAPS - Trench Wars Association of Players and Staff
Any registered player (both players and staff) in TWD (to make sure people don't try to enter with multiple aliases) can apply to join TAPS.
After a 1 week application period, all people who have applied will be able to choose 5 other people who have applied to TAPS (aside from themselves) who they would be willing to have represent them in TAPS.
-Top 50% of all players (based on votes) who have applied will become members of TAPS (player side).
-Top 50% of all staff (based on votes) who have applied will become members of TAPS (staff side)
Because there are far more players than staff, there will have to be an arbitrary limit established so that votes on each side will be weighed the same. For example, if there are 50 members in player council and only... 15 in the staff side, the weighting system would make the 15 staff votes equal in weight to the 50 player votes.
-The non-staff player who receives the most votes will be the Chair of TAPS (Player Side)
-The staff member who receives the most votes will be the Chair of TAPS (Staff Side). There should probably be a requirement that the chairman of staff side needs to be either a mod or smod (ie. no ZH or ER can be chairman).
Following this up this will be 5 players with the next highest votes (on each side) who will be members of a governing board of the council.
In an instance where there a decision is made by staff in which a large portion of the community disagrees, staff will allow the members of TAPS to initiate arbitration to come up with a reconciliatory decision which both sides can agree on. For the sake of expediency, this entire process would have to be completed within 1.5 weeks.
Once TAPS is called in, both sides will present their case, and all members of TAPS (both players and Staff) will vote on one of two options which have been presented.
Chairman votes will count as 5x the vote of regular members, and members of the board will have votes which count as 2x the vote of the regular members.
In an instance of conflict of interest (ie. if the decision is about specific squad(s) those members will not be allowed to vote - regardless if the conflict of interest involves a chairmen, member of the board, or regular member.
TAPS elections will take place a month before every TWL season (to make sure that TAPS is composed of active people).
The decision which garners the largest number of (weighted) votes will then be instituted. For the sake of expediency, no appeals process would be present, however it would probably be a good idea to give the Dean of Staff the ability to veto a TAPS decision if it is very controversial.
This is by no means the only way something like this could be implemented, but it should give people an idea and give them the chance to come up with an improved version of this one.
I find it highly unlikely that staff would ever willingly implement a system like this because it would displace the absoluteness of their powers, but looking at this logically - this is a game, shouldn't the decisions made in the game represent what the large segment of the community wants, rather than what a small segment (the staff) of the community wants?
This post is not necessarily as a response to the recent arguments regarding TWL invitations, this is meant more as a general idea which could resolve a wide variety of disputes both current and in the future.
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