Land, Economy, and Government

In a poll posted to the General forum, I asked whether or not folks would like to see a dedicated Government forum. In the course of the ensuing discussion someone suggested combining governmental discussions with this forum.

It makes sense. The next iteration of our project will have land ownership as an important part of citizenship.

What do you think?

~Ulrika~

I think a "Zoning" forum would be less controversial than a government forum.

I agree but zoning and government are two very different things. I'm looking for a place where we can discuss methods of self organization and how it relates to land and citizens, not just land covenants.

~Ulrika~

Don't Tread on Me.

JUST SAY NO TO PLAYER RUN GOVERNMENT.

Support the current enlightened despot!

This is actually one of the reasons for wanting a dedicated Government forum. We're looking to reduce the number of forum turds like the one above that we have step over while discussing what interests us.

~Ulrika~

Ulrika - your quote above is why I feel a discusson regarding player-run government belongs in the General forums. I didn't take Jamie's comments as being a 'turd' - I just read them as an opposing view. And I'm somewhat neutral on the whole concept.

If the goal is to be able to discuss government with like-minded individuals, without dissent - I think a 3rd party forum is a better fit. IMHO - anything in the official SL forums must allow all sides of any debate equal access.

I do think much of the heckling you receive in the general forums is unfair. There's a lot of folks out there that are incapable of expressing their opinion in a tactful and respectful way. So I don't blame you for posing the question. But I believe the general forum is where your ideas will get exposed to the greatest cross-section of the forum community.

If you move your discussion to a seperate forum, you may end up with a more biased discussion - likely involving only those who have strong opinions one way or another, and leaving out the more "moderate" voices (who I'd guess are in greater number).

I didn't vote in your original poll, because I felt that the choices for the poll were unbalanced, and no choice would properly reflect how I feel on the subject. This poll here that you have posted - seems fair enough & balanced - so I voted

See, here is where your true colors show and another reason why this is a bad idea. We have places for this stuff already. Every government discussion disolves into the same drivel. You want government covered here but you want it covered your way. Use the general forum for these topics. Or go get your own BBS and setup your own forum.

I thought there were Group forums you could open for these purposes...

By the way,, how do you open them anyways?

I assure you that it's a "turd" and not an integral part of a discussion.

I call them "turds" because they are typically a negative single post dropped by a user at the end of a thread. There is no attempt to discuss the topic, to read the thread, to contribute to the conversation. Instead they see the first post, hit reply, and say "I don't like it." For some reason, discussions on the topic of political science collect them by the dozens, sometimes by the hundreds.

Here's an analogy. Imagine if you were talking about scripting and every page there was someone who posted "I don't like scripts and we shouldn't have them in SL." Imagine that there were dozens of these in every single thread on scripting. What would your response be? It would be, if you don't like scripting then don't read the scripting forum! That's exactly why we need a spot specifically set aside for the discussion of issues revolving around political science.

Right now in a zone dedicated to discussions on all things SL, it is difficult to carry on a polisci thread without being attacked personally or having to step over thread turds. I'm interested in formalization in order to facilitate open and free discussions. Nothing more, nothing less.

~Ulrika~