The Flat Earth Society
Flat Earth Discussion Boards => Flat Earth Community => Topic started by: Tau on December 30, 2013, 01:39:55 AM
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The First Zetetic Council of the Flat Earth Society has been created. It consists of Tom Bishop, Roundy, Thork, Secret User, and myself. This, of course, begs the question: what is the Zetetic Council? I know some people seem to have well-defined ideas about this, but it ought to be made official.
So, the goals of this thread are to determine:
- The purpose of the Zetetic Council
- The responsibilities, expectations, and rights of individual members
- The length of the council member's terms of office
- Protocol for future elections
- Protocol for impeachment and resigning
- Anything else I haven't thought of
Thoughts?
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I think that the first thing the council needs to do is to determine what their job entitles, since I could not get their job descriptions to be decided before everyone rushed to elect people. But, what do I know?
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I think that the first thing the council needs to do is to determine what their job entitles, since I could not get their job descriptions to be decided before everyone rushed to elect people. But, what do I know?
Well, that's what this thread is for. I feel like deciding that should be the job of the society as a whole and not just those we elected
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I've been wondering this as well. If you all ever figure out what it is that you elected me to do, please let me know.
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To begin with, I suggest that you all give yourselves pompous titles in your personal texts. Something like "Noble Member of the Zetetic Council," "Most Exalted Member of the Zetetic Council," or in Thork's case, "Terrible Member of the Zetetic Council." It should get you into the right mindset to run this society.
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To begin with, I suggest that you all give yourselves pompous titles in your personal texts. Something like "Noble Member of the Zetetic Council," "Most Exalted Member of the Zetetic Council," or in Thork's case, "Terrible Member of the Zetetic Council." It should get you into the right mindset to run this society.
Okay, done. Now what?
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http://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=850.0
Most of the point was written here. It was largely missed by most people. Not sure if the point or the thread was missed so to double check heres the link.
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Thanks for the link. I think we're pretty much all in agreement that the admins run the forum and the council runs the society itself. That takes care of the purpose.
Now for rights, responsibilities, etc. I propose that we be required to check into the forum at least once a week barring unforeseen circumstances (or vacations, or finals, or whatever). We should have to be active members of the community.
There should be two boards. One secret for general discussions, and one public for voting. We should be able to speak freely, but when we vote everyone should know who is voting for what.
I like the idea of a tier system based on popularity. Secret User and I would be the bottom tier, because we got the fewest votes. Our term of office should be ~4 months. The next tier would be Roundy and Thork, who get ~8 months, and the final tier should be Tom, who gets a year. Maybe we can call Tom the president or something.
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To begin with, I suggest that you all give yourselves pompous titles in your personal texts. Something like "Noble Member of the Zetetic Council," "Most Exalted Member of the Zetetic Council," or in Thork's case, "Terrible Member of the Zetetic Council." It should get you into the right mindset to run this society.
I have to say, and admittedly I'm a moody bitch today so take this with a grain of salt, but doesn't this make the zetetic council look like a joke? Is it a joke? I had been under the impression that it isn't.
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Tintagel, I believe Saddam was poking fun at the old forum's "council" members.
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Tintagel, I believe Saddam was poking fun at the old forum's "council" members.
I see, and that makes sense, but now the council members have farcical titles in their Personal Text and I'm concerned it makes us look less serious. Some of us are perhaps less serious, but I'm not, and I don't think the public image of the council should be either. Just my (admittedly moody and bitchy) opinion.
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Don't worry, we'll change it to something more official soon. Nobody is feeling too serious at the moment, I think.
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So should we have a private board? Or should we let the public see what's being discussed? I guess we should decide that and then either keep discussing here or move it to the appropriate board.
I think we should have both. Elections should be public, people ought to know who votes for what. But discussions should be behind closed doors.
And this should be discussed here. Everyone has a right to have input.
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Is there a need for secrecy?
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Is there a need for secrecy?
There's no need, I suppose. But the admins and mods have always had their secret fora. Even the editors had a secret board. I assume you have a secret board of your own. There's really no need for that, either. But I do think that things get done more efficiently when nobody is looking over your shoulders.
Of course, I also don't feel particularly strongly about this. If people disagree, that's fine with me.
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There's no need, I suppose. But the admins and mods have always had their secret fora.
I'd argue that there's a difference. Forum staff executes (and, less often, forms) the rules of the forum. We're supposed to rely on the rules first, and on personal judgement second. Often, this necessitates communicating with others to figure out whether or not Poster X really deserves a ban. If the forum staff had to discuss other members' behaviours publicly, people would be very quick to take exceptions to it. That's my justification for secrecy there.
Even the editors had a secret board.
Yeah, that was a mistake of mine. It resulted in changes being discussed only within the editor clique and brought forth things that did not meet with popular approval. That's why this forum doesn't have an editor forum, or even an "official" position of an editor - anyone can ask for a wiki account and they'll get one. As long as they edit in good faith, there should be no issue. Parsifal even had an idea of integrating logins between TFES sites so that people's forum logins work for the Wiki etc, but that probably won't happen soon, if at all. But yes, the editors weren't transparent. Mea culpa, this is now fixed.
I assume you have a secret board of your own. There's really no need for that, either. But I do think that things get done more efficiently when nobody is looking over your shoulders.
See above. It's because we deal with people's personal cases that this is actually necessary. Anything that doesn't need to be hidden, we tend to bring up in S&C.
Don't take me wrong, I'm not trying to block the idea of a private Council forum. However, I personally feel like things like this should be justified.
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Even the editors had a secret board.
Yeah, that was a mistake of mine. It resulted in changes being discussed only within the editor clique and brought forth things that did not meet with popular approval. That's why this forum doesn't have an editor forum, or even an "official" position of an editor - anyone can ask for a wiki account and they'll get one. As long as they edit in good faith, there should be no issue. Parsifal even had an idea of integrating logins between TFES sites so that people's forum logins work for the Wiki etc, but that probably won't happen soon, if at all. But yes, the editors weren't transparent. Mea culpa, this is now fixed.
Don't take me wrong, I'm not trying to block the idea of a private Council forum. However, I personally feel like things like this should be justified.
No, you have a valid point. The forum should probably be public unless someone has reasoning I haven't thought of.
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I tried to say earlier that it should all be public but my net went down. The secrecy is kinda what split the old forum. It would give the impression that the council was an elite group of forum members. I was under the impression that the council are to source outside of the forums and to guide people on the forums in the upper forum.
Contacting people and running media assoiated with the FES.
Maybe a YouTube channel (that's why I wanted rooster on it if she was willing). And spreading the word. Their primary goal should be attracting new users and having sensible debate (a reason why I back thork).
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So are we going to have a separate, public board or continue posting in this thread?
We can just chuck all Council-related threads into the new board whenever we make it anyway, so you can continue posting in this thread. I was thinking we should let people talk things through before finalising this, but if the Council is happy I can set it up at any time.
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Also, I set up a membergroup for you guys. Enjoy your pretty colours in Who's Online (http://forum.tfes.org/index.php?action=who)!
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Yeah, I agree. I don't see a reason for secrecy.
Coming from Secret User, somehow I doubt the verisimilitude of this statement. ;)
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Does one of the new Council members want to write up a blog post about the newly formed Council? I will then publish it on the homepage, with your name (real name or username; your choice) as credit.
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If a council member does not step up, I can write it.
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I'll do it. I'm not expecting to have any classes tomorrow anyway, because snow. I'll post it here for peer edit.
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I approve of setting up the forum.
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Me too.
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So, what are we doing? I'd like to write that blog post and maybe write a constitution to put in the Council board, but first we need to decide. What are the jobs, rights, and responsibilities of the Council?
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I guess one of our responsibilities should be gathering and systematically organizing the various threads of Flat Earth Belief. I feel like the notions that there must be one singular model that represents the entirety of Flat Earth Belief has become outdated, and one of the really interesting things about the modern movement is the diversity of opinion regarding what had previously been considered the cornerstones of the theory. Many of the great modern FEers have added their own spin to the theory, or even completely revamped it. One of our jobs as the first ever Zetetic Council should be organizing the various opinions into a cohesive whole, a blueprint for future Councils to build on.
Perhaps we should also be held somewhat responsible for the contents of the Wiki? This is of course if the Council is intended to be what I think it is. On the old board the Zetetic Council's sole purpose was deciding who should be allowed to be a FE believer, a practice I always found a bit weird. But in a somewhat similar vein, perhaps we can take it upon ourselves to define and decide what is taken seriously as legitimate FE belief.
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I guess one of our responsibilities should be gathering and systematically organizing the various threads of Flat Earth Belief. I feel like the notions that there must be one singular model that represents the entirety of Flat Earth Belief has become outdated, and one of the really interesting things about the modern movement is the diversity of opinion regarding what had previously been considered the cornerstones of the theory. Many of the great modern FEers have added their own spin to the theory, or even completely revamped it. One of our jobs as the first ever Zetetic Council should be organizing the various opinions into a cohesive whole, a blueprint for future Councils to build on.
Perhaps we should also be held somewhat responsible for the contents of the Wiki? This is of course if the Council is intended to be what I think it is. On the old board the Zetetic Council's sole purpose was deciding who should be allowed to be a FE believer, a practice I always found a bit weird. But in a somewhat similar vein, perhaps we can take it upon ourselves to define and decide what is taken seriously as legitimate FE belief.
I like that idea. I can't decide whether it would be easier to organize FET in the Wiki or in threads on the forum. Probably both, actually.
We should be in charge of the FAQ, I think. I suggest that we have some sort of compulsion to make contributions to the Wiki, but I'm not so sure about having roles as governors of it. I can't think of anything we could actually do that the society as a whole wouldn't be better at.
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I think an evidence page should be posted on this website. Post a link to ENaG. There have been many videos posted over time concerning moon landing fakery, I think a guy named Boylan or something, has a video pointing out NASA bs. Out of all the interesting videos, they never seemed to get saved, and just fade away. If there were an evidence page the info could be compiled together and saved over time.
The Zetetic Council should oversee what gets put in the compendium. They can take a vote on such additions to the evidence page. That way a piece that is crazy won't get put in by one idiot. It would take more than one idiot to have it included.
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I think an evidence page should be posted on this website. Post a link to ENaG. There have been many videos posted over time concerning moon landing fakery, I think a guy named Boylan or something, has a video pointing out NASA bs. Out of all the interesting videos, they never seemed to get saved, and just fade away. If there were an evidence page the info could be compiled together and saved over time.
The Zetetic Council should oversee what gets put in the compendium. They can take a vote on such additions to the evidence page. That way a piece that is crazy won't get put in by one idiot. It would take more than one idiot to have it included.
A good idea maybe meriting its own subforum.
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I think an evidence page should be posted on this website. Post a link to ENaG. There have been many videos posted over time concerning moon landing fakery, I think a guy named Boylan or something, has a video pointing out NASA bs. Out of all the interesting videos, they never seemed to get saved, and just fade away. If there were an evidence page the info could be compiled together and saved over time.
The Zetetic Council should oversee what gets put in the compendium. They can take a vote on such additions to the evidence page. That way a piece that is crazy won't get put in by one idiot. It would take more than one idiot to have it included.
A good idea maybe meriting its own subforum.
Why? We already have Flat Earth Information Repository.
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I think an evidence page should be posted on this website. Post a link to ENaG. There have been many videos posted over time concerning moon landing fakery, I think a guy named Boylan or something, has a video pointing out NASA bs. Out of all the interesting videos, they never seemed to get saved, and just fade away. If there were an evidence page the info could be compiled together and saved over time.
The Zetetic Council should oversee what gets put in the compendium. They can take a vote on such additions to the evidence page. That way a piece that is crazy won't get put in by one idiot. It would take more than one idiot to have it included.
A good idea maybe meriting its own subforum.
Why? We already have Flat Earth Information Repository.
We need a page with all the Zetetically approved info gathered in one place, that won't drop down to oblivion. The info needs to stay in one place. People come here all the time looking for evidence. Why not put it all in one place and leave it there. It's crazy to have it all in different threads that get forgotten in a week or two.
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We need a page with all the Zetetically approved info gathered in one place, that won't drop down to oblivion. The info needs to stay in one place. People come here all the time looking for evidence. Why not put it all in one place and leave it there.
Do you mean something like the FE Wiki?
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We need a page with all the Zetetically approved info gathered in one place, that won't drop down to oblivion. The info needs to stay in one place. People come here all the time looking for evidence. Why not put it all in one place and leave it there.
Do you mean something like the FE Wiki?
Maybe something somewhat like it. But that wiki sucks. I am thinking of an evidence page, with links to available information. Links to relevant youtubes. Over the years there has been plenty of good info presented, nasa malfeasence and lies. Pictures across water, people giving testimony, or whatever. If all the evidence was kept in one place it would be awesome. Before it can make the evidence page, the council would review it, talk about it. Then the council would vote on if it meets the criteria of Zetetic evidence.
Material could be added or removed as is seen fit. There could be different areas of evidence grouped together. The current wiki is a piece of crap. I know personally there is evidence I would review or show people, but there is no easy way to find things buried in 2 year old threads.
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Right, so you're complaining about the Wiki and talking about stuff that you'd like to show people, which should logically belong to the Wiki. Have you considered contributing to the Wiki?
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I'll do it. I'm not expecting to have any classes tomorrow anyway, because snow. I'll post it here for peer edit.
Any progress on that? The news is becoming somewhat stale by now.
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I'll do it. I'm not expecting to have any classes tomorrow anyway, because snow. I'll post it here for peer edit.
Any progress on that? The news is becoming somewhat stale by now.
As I said, I was expecting more people to actually give some input on the council. I'd like to have a more concrete idea of our role, responsibilities, rights, etc. before saying something official. If you'd rather I just make something up I'd be happy to.
I already wrote an outline for it. I just need to add in the details
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As I said, I was expecting more people to actually give some input on the council. I'd like to have a more concrete idea of our role, responsibilities, rights, etc. before saying something official.
To my understanding, writing a constitution was supposed to be the first task of the Council, but this is being ignored for some reason.
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Oh alright. We'll do it. Its not as fun as waging war on NASA or kidnapping Chris Hadfield though. >:(
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As I said, I was expecting more people to actually give some input on the council. I'd like to have a more concrete idea of our role, responsibilities, rights, etc. before saying something official.
To my understanding, writing a constitution was supposed to be the first task of the Council, but this is being ignored for some reason.
That reason is that I'm waiting on input from you and others. I feel that the Council shouldn't make its own constitution in a forum where non-council members can't even post. If you'd rather we just do it and trust us not to screw up, I'd be happy to.
EDIT: apparently we're doing it. Alrighty then.
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You can't just wait for input forever. Make a draft and show it to others for discussion.
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You can't just wait for input forever. Make a draft and show it to others for discussion.
Way ahead of you
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Re-post from this thread, seemed more relevant here: http://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=866.0 (http://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=866.0)
The text of Earth Not a Globe is public domain. Several small independent publishers have re-released it in paperback and Kindle editions are numerous.
What if we, as a society, put together a definitive, annotated edition of Earth Not a Globe and self-published? It's pretty easy to do, and we have the minds here to produce a pretty complete work. FES branded, with our 21st century take on the 19th century text, sold here on the site, with proceeds going to... a charity of some sort?
Thoughts?
This is probably Zetetic Council territory, so I leave the idea to them. I've done book layouts and cover designs before, so as far as the electronic side of things I could handle that, and as far as printing, self-publishing is super easy now with tools like https://www.createspace.com/ (ftp://www.createspace.com/). Printing is done on demand as the books are ordered, so there's no need to stockpile inventory or print a large run at the outset.
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My input on the Constitution and council:
Am I allowed to post on this forum so long as I don't act like a dick?
If yes then I don't care about anything else.
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My input on the Constitution and council:
Am I allowed to post on this forum so long as I don't act like a dick?
If yes then I don't care about anything else.
That's our remit, not theirs. The answer, however, is yes.
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My input on the Constitution and council:
Am I allowed to post on this forum so long as I don't act like a dick?
If yes then I don't care about anything else.
That's our remit, not theirs. The answer, however, is yes.
If the council isn't going to(or able to) restrict the forum's access then I suspect that most people on this forum aren't interested in what the council does.
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The council is about the society itself. We're happy to leave the running of the forum to the admins and the mods. It seems to work better that way. We're more in charge of things like the FAQ and the Wiki
Re-post from this thread, seemed more relevant here: http://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=866.0 (http://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=866.0)
The text of Earth Not a Globe is public domain. Several small independent publishers have re-released it in paperback and Kindle editions are numerous.
What if we, as a society, put together a definitive, annotated edition of Earth Not a Globe and self-published? It's pretty easy to do, and we have the minds here to produce a pretty complete work. FES branded, with our 21st century take on the 19th century text, sold here on the site, with proceeds going to... a charity of some sort?
Thoughts?
This is probably Zetetic Council territory, so I leave the idea to them. I've done book layouts and cover designs before, so as far as the electronic side of things I could handle that, and as far as printing, self-publishing is super easy now with tools like https://www.createspace.com/ (ftp://www.createspace.com/). Printing is done on demand as the books are ordered, so there's no need to stockpile inventory or print a large run at the outset.
I quite like this idea.
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Haha the FAQ and the wiki eh? Then what was the council even for? Any muppet can do that.
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Haha the FAQ and the wiki eh? Then what was the council even for? Any muppet can do that.
Well, what did you expect? It has been clear since the beginning of the idea of the Council that forum staff would be in charge of the technical stuff. You seem extremely bitter about very simple facts, and yet you offer no alternative, or anything of use, really.
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The council is about the society itself. We're happy to leave the running of the forum to the admins and the mods. It seems to work better that way. We're more in charge of things like the FAQ and the Wiki
The forum is the single most representative presence this society has. Yes there are some minor groups in various places but this is where everyone goes. This is where they talk to leaders and learn about the society. This is where they meet their first flat earther.
If the council doesn't control the forum, does it have any real power?
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The council is about the society itself. We're happy to leave the running of the forum to the admins and the mods. It seems to work better that way. We're more in charge of things like the FAQ and the Wiki
The forum is the single most representative presence this society has. Yes there are some minor groups in various places but this is where everyone goes. This is where they talk to leaders and learn about the society. This is where they meet their first flat earther.
If the council doesn't control the forum, does it have any real power?
The council doesn't need to control the forum's members - moderators are more than capable of doing that. The council has the more important task of overseeing the forum's content. Essentially, they're the public face of not only the society, but of Flat Earth Theory as a concept. If I were visiting a time-traveling web forum on scientists of the early 20th century, I would rather Albert Einstein, Max Planck, and Madam Curie focus on ongoing discussion, debate, and fact sharing, not policing alts and trolls. To make a rather obtuse analogy.
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Haha the FAQ and the wiki eh? Then what was the council even for? Any muppet can do that.
If nothing else, the council can (theoretically) provide an authoritative voice to the FAQ and wiki. Just keep Tom away from the BoP article.
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The council is about the society itself. We're happy to leave the running of the forum to the admins and the mods. It seems to work better that way. We're more in charge of things like the FAQ and the Wiki
The forum is the single most representative presence this society has. Yes there are some minor groups in various places but this is where everyone goes. This is where they talk to leaders and learn about the society. This is where they meet their first flat earther.
If the council doesn't control the forum, does it have any real power?
What, exactly, do you expect us to do with the forum?
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What, exactly, do you expect us to do with the forum?
Use it as a medium to further research FET, perhaps?
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What, exactly, do you expect us to do with the forum?
Use it as a medium to further research FET, perhaps?
That wouldn't be controlling the forum in any way, shape, or form. Thank you for your input.
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The council is about the society itself. We're happy to leave the running of the forum to the admins and the mods. It seems to work better that way. We're more in charge of things like the FAQ and the Wiki
The forum is the single most representative presence this society has. Yes there are some minor groups in various places but this is where everyone goes. This is where they talk to leaders and learn about the society. This is where they meet their first flat earther.
If the council doesn't control the forum, does it have any real power?
What, exactly, do you expect us to do with the forum?
Ensure it is policed properly.
Organize the forum's discussions.
Promote events.
Debate FET.
Pick visual themes.
Request add-ons to enhance the forum's ability to discuss FET.
Elevate members to positions of authority or just rewarded titles.
Plenty of things.
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The council is about the society itself. We're happy to leave the running of the forum to the admins and the mods. It seems to work better that way. We're more in charge of things like the FAQ and the Wiki
The forum is the single most representative presence this society has. Yes there are some minor groups in various places but this is where everyone goes. This is where they talk to leaders and learn about the society. This is where they meet their first flat earther.
If the council doesn't control the forum, does it have any real power?
What, exactly, do you expect us to do with the forum?
Ensure it is policed properly.
Organize the forum's discussions.
Promote events.
Debate FET.
Pick visual themes.
Request add-ons to enhance the forum's ability to discuss FET.
Elevate members to positions of authority or just rewarded titles.
Plenty of things.
Some of those things are really the job of the admins or the mods. There's no reason for us to get all up in their grill, yo. It would just be needless bureaucracy. Debating FET is by default. If we aren't active members of the society we would never get voted in. We are discussing eventually creating an official members position, but we've decided to hold off on that until the forum is larger. You can see all of this, and more, just by looking in the board.
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The council is about the society itself. We're happy to leave the running of the forum to the admins and the mods. It seems to work better that way. We're more in charge of things like the FAQ and the Wiki
The forum is the single most representative presence this society has. Yes there are some minor groups in various places but this is where everyone goes. This is where they talk to leaders and learn about the society. This is where they meet their first flat earther.
If the council doesn't control the forum, does it have any real power?
What, exactly, do you expect us to do with the forum?
Ensure it is policed properly.
Organize the forum's discussions.
Promote events.
Debate FET.
Pick visual themes.
Request add-ons to enhance the forum's ability to discuss FET.
Elevate members to positions of authority or just rewarded titles.
Plenty of things.
Some of those things are really the job of the admins or the mods. There's no reason for us to get all up in their grill, yo. It would just be needless bureaucracy. Debating FET is by default. If we aren't active members of the society we would never get voted in. We are discussing eventually creating an official members position, but we've decided to hold off on that until the forum is larger. You can see all of this, and more, just by looking in the board.
You misunderstand.
Its your job to make sure the mods are doing their jobs. So you get up in their grill when they aren't cooking the burgers. Ya dig?
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Its your job to make sure the mods are doing their jobs.
No, it's ours.
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Maybe that ZC could bless official FE believers. Someone who has demonstrated a true belief in, and defended FE postitions. A badge of honor for around here.
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Haha the FAQ and the wiki eh? Then what was the council even for? Any muppet can do that.
Well, what did you expect? It has been clear since the beginning of the idea of the Council that forum staff would be in charge of the technical stuff. You seem extremely bitter about very simple facts, and yet you offer no alternative, or anything of use, really.
You got me wrong. They should be doing things outside the forum. I wouldnt expect them to do any technical stuff or moderate the forum at all as their role shouldnt have anything to do with the forum directly.
Im not on the council so why should I tell them what their role should be?
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Its your job to make sure the mods are doing their jobs.
No, it's ours.
Really?
The police is separate from the government here? Huh...
Ok then.
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Hmm read the rest after posting. My vision was clearly different from the rest of some of you. I thought it would be for use outside the forum and to attract more people via other networks.
The last few comments outline the need to know what the council is even for.
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The police is separate from the government here? Huh...
At least that's the intention, although I wouldn't necessarily make it a distinction between the police and government.
The Council and forum staff are meant to be entirely separate, and there should ideally be no overlap in our remits, as to avoid conflict. Ultimately, the responsibility of both the Council and forum staff should be to the society/forum members.
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What, exactly, do you expect us to do with the forum?
Use it as a medium to further research FET, perhaps?
That wouldn't be controlling the forum in any way, shape, or form. Thank you for your input.
Perhaps it would be better for the council to guide the forum rather than control it.
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What, exactly, do you expect us to do with the forum?
Use it as a medium to further research FET, perhaps?
That wouldn't be controlling the forum in any way, shape, or form. Thank you for your input.
Perhaps it would be better for the council to guide the forum rather than control it.
We're kind of doing that. We're talking about making a collection of FET theories, for example. We've already learned that with so many conflicting ideas a unified theory is impossible, but we can have an official collection.
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Since there's a question of organization, it's maybe useful that I've served on non-profit boards for many years so I have some insight as to organization that may be useful. (And speaking of non-profits, the FES isn't registered as a non-profit in the US as far as I can tell [no idea about other countries], perhaps we should be.)
I put together this list as a starting point for discussion. It's admittedly vague in spots and I'm sure I've left some things out, but it's a start anyway. Feel free to copy/edit/rewrite/mangle.
Zetetic Council
- 5 members, elected by membership once per year.
- The council chooses a president from its members by simple majority.
- The president appoints a VP, Secretary, and Treasurer. (from the council, or from the membership?)
- The president may also appoint other committees or representatives to chair various projects, as needed.
- Responsible for the ongoing development, cataloging, maintenance, and promotion of Flat Earth Theory on the website, wiki, and in other public facing materials such as newsletters and pr events.
- Has veto power over website administration by way of majority vote?
- Has the ability to either make decisions for the FES as a whole, or the ability to bring matters to the membership for a vote.
- Typically, the board of directors (which is really what the ZC is) holds regular meetings to keep things moving. The forum can likely facilitate, but meetings with minutes (recorded by secretary) will probably move things along a little more efficiently. Are these meetings public? Do members get a vote? Does administration? Not sure here, but it's a place to start.
- The ZC also writes and maintains the organizational by-laws (this would probably be one of the projects done by a chair or committee appointed by the president), which enumerates all these things in greater detail, and other ideas not covered here
Website Administration
- Self-contained body of website and forum administrators responsible for keeping the fora civil, and discussion productive.
- Has the ability to warn and ban users who do not follow the rules.
- Ultimately the body that creates and enforces all forum (and wiki editing?) rules (with the caveat that the ZC has veto power?)
- Responsible for choosing its own staff (with the caveat that the ZC has veto power?)
Members
- FES members who demonstrate a belief that the earth is flat, and (or and/or?) who support the FES cause.
- Membership petitioned with an application to the ZC, which must be read and approved?
- If accepted, membership dues (amount/year?) are payable to the ZC treasurer who maintains a FES financial account (probably a paypal, or other kind of internet banking thing in the interest of staying global)
- No-alt policy for Members (to keep elections clean)
- Members get a distinct forum title, membership card, certificate, and are allowed to vote on matters where the membership gets a voice (such as deciding ZC members, but probably some other things as determined by the ZC)
Guests (I'm sure there is a better word for this)
- Everyone else on the forum.
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No, we don't need elitist clubs or overcomplicated council. Also I'm completely opposed to the council deciding who can vote.
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No, we don't need elitist clubs or uncomplicated council. Also I'm completely opposed to the council deciding who can vote.
Fair enough, my goal was to start discussion, and now we have. Would you nix FES society membership entirely, then?
Do some of the council want to weigh in on this?
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No, we don't need elitist clubs or overcomplicated council. Also I'm completely opposed to the council deciding who can vote.
Problem: eventually noobs will probably outnumber regulars. At that point they'd be able to vote each other into office through shear force of democracy. We need some type of restrictions.
The council majority voted that we decide who is allowed to run for election in order to prevent this. We'd rather not, but we feel it is necessary.
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Perhaps you should create some checks and balances to the system so it does not turn out like modern Russia?
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What if the Administration had the power to veto a turndown by the Council? And by Administration I mean, top three, not moderators. People who have a legitimate stake in the quality of the site.
I don't know, I do think this is a dicy situation, but it seems like a necessary evil. We're not preventing anybody from voting, we're just preventing certain people from running. We already need a majority from within the Council to forbid someone from running. I have no problem with Parsifal or pizza or Junker being able to overturn our decisions. Of course I wouldn't generally expect them to get involved, but if a legitimate claim of poor judgment (or outright foul play) on the matter were to somehow arise, maybe they wouldn't mind giving it their thought.
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I don't suppose you guys want to vote for a "Cesspool" where we can dump EJ at some stage, do you?
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I don't suppose you guys want to vote for a "Cesspool" where we can dump EJ at some stage, do you?
We can put lemon in there to, it's a good idea.
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I don't suppose you guys want to vote for a "Cesspool" where we can dump EJ at some stage, do you?
We can put lemon in there to, it's a good idea.
I, Lime, agree with that suggestion.