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Underground > Policy & Help >

Change on Barbelith, how?

rising and revolving

15:34 / 19.10.05

A lot of the discussion in this thread concerns possible changes to the policys or structure of Barbelith. For example, codifying the approach to dealing with anti-X behaviour. Personally I think that's a good thing - rules don't have to be in the form of exhaustive bylaws, as common sense should expect to be applied. It does help when we have a core value/rule/process to point to however, and speeding the addressing of bad behaviour would allow us to take in more users more quickly - a major plus in my eyes.

However, that leads into another discussion which to me would be the absolute first point that requires codification. How does change take place on Barbelith? At the moment, it seems that things come to Tom and he makes his calls if it comes to his attention. It's not really ideal, nor is it really a good long term solution, nor does it place the potential for change in the hands of the community (which is one of the aims here, I believe?)

I thought some discussion of the "How" of change - both now and in the future, would be helpful to allowing the "What" to flow more easily. I'm interested in what people think, both old timers and recent additions - keeping in mind, of course, that changes revolving around technology are unlikely to manifest.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

16:50 / 19.10.05

Well, I guess the first thing we need is some word from Tom about how interested he is on this, what he is willing to do (if anything), what is flat out of bounds, what he can change (if anything), what he can't. The last point need not be a deal-breaker if one of the things he'd be willing to do is let someone trusted who knows how to program in whatever code this place is built in tinker under the hood.

09:11 / 20.10.05

I'm listening, but only sporadically - I'm about to change jobs and there are a lot of things in my life that are up in the air at the moment, so I'm afraid Barbelith isn't at the top of my agenda at the moment.

Within reason, I'll go along with whatever you guys want assuming that I think it is a realistic and practical approach. For example, I won't just open up the board to new users, as I know the outrage that I'll get from people will be enormous when they actually see the effects, and the long-term strife it would cause in old trolls resurfacing is something I can't cope with.

Any processes you guys want to build around Barbelith, or supplementary systems that you want to develop around the site will have my support if the community gets use from them. Any processes you guys really want to implement will have my support if they're sustainable and if you have thought about what would happen if a core person left or something.

09:15 / 20.10.05

I think it's possibly early days in terms of talking about the 'how' of change. To my mind, we've got a lot of looser throwing around of ideas and opinions to do, in the other thread.

rising and revolving

15:14 / 20.10.05

Not really, because how really helps ratify what is possible. Tom says that "Within reason, I'll go along with whatever you guys want assuming that I think it is a realistic and practical approach." but the real question is how would something like that be decided?

Given the incredibly diverse range of opinions, how do you decide "Yes, these people have come to a decision," - do we take a poll? Is it considered sufficient that the last few posts in a policy thread are in general agreement?

I think these are critical questions in terms of informing the decisions of what to decide. A quick example is the racism discussion - assuming someone put forth the "three strikes and you're out" position as a policy decision, how would that actually become policy? At the moment I see no mechanism for it doing so (correct me if I'm wrong) so even having the discussion seems premature.

I wouldn't mind a method of putting forth threads in policy once an idea is mature with a set time for people to aye or nay. Majority passes the motion.

Certainly, this would make Barbelith more dynamic where policy issues apply. Lots of stuff could be achieved without requiring any input from Tom, for that matter. Making parts of the Wiki actual policy rather than guidelines ... I'm lapsing into thinking aloud, so I'll stop there.

15:18 / 20.10.05

Okay, fine. I'm just mindful of letting the other thread percolate a little, not least because as it goes on, we're hearing more from some of the less vocal Barbeloids.