=== Meta<br /><br />There&#039;s a lot of hyperbole in this thread, and maybe some of it would&#039;ve been better said in PM or other channels.&nbsp; 3-4 dumb maps in the WAD isn&#039;t a reason to be upset; idl2009.wad had WAAAAAY more than 3-4 dumb maps but we survived :).<br /><br />=== Board Seat<br /><br />I humbly recommend that HumanBones nominate either LordBritish, Hatred, or Jenova for mikehail&#039;s hallowed board seat.&nbsp; Part of me squirms at the idea of a milkbagging troll sitting in Mike&#039;s chair, but I can&#039;t help but like the guy ;).&nbsp; LB &amp; Hatred are standup gentlemen as well, and #idlb would be lucky to have them.<br /><br />=== Democracy<br /><br />====== Voting<br /><br />As Nostar pointed out, voting on things is extremely easy to game, even if everyone in IDL has to vote.&nbsp; And honestly, IDL has enough politics without polarizing the player base.<br /><br />====== Polls<br /><br />I agree with Gilgamesh that polls are extremely valuable.&nbsp; I&#039;m a huge fan of polls, and have probably created more of them on these forums than anyone.&nbsp; The problem with polls is that hardly anyone votes in them.&nbsp; Xen&#039;s poll has 15 votes out of 48 IDL players + free agents.&nbsp; That&#039;s just not representative.&nbsp; I think they&#039;re great for gauging community interest and opinion, but they shouldn&#039;t be the sole determinant of IDL policy.<br /><br />====== Forum Participation<br /><br />I actually feel like IRC is the best place to get community input.&nbsp; Waiting for 48 IDL players to write great forum posts on every topic is lunacy.&nbsp; If you want answers, you have to track people down and ask questions.&nbsp; Nostar in particular is great at this.<br /><br />====== Conclusion<br /><br />The best system is an administration that the players like, trust and respect.&nbsp; I think the current administration is capable of being that, but they have a long way to go.&nbsp; The way the system is supposed to work is:<br /><br />&nbsp; - Admins act in good faith<br />&nbsp; - If IDL disagrees with admins, they get pissed in forums &amp; IRC<br />&nbsp; - Admins say, &quot;hmm, we probably fucked that one up&quot;<br />&nbsp; - Admins [b]admit mistake[/b]<br />&nbsp; - Admins fix problem<br />&nbsp; - Admins [b]thank players for their input[/b]<br /><br />Here are some things admins shouldn&#039;t do:<br /><br />&nbsp; - Pick apart posts as pedantically as possible<br />&nbsp; - Publicly shame anyone who disagrees with them or points out an inconsistency in their actions<br />&nbsp; - Dump on people who help them out<br />&nbsp; - Criticize each other&#039;s good faith efforts<br />&nbsp; - Publicly accuse each other and other helpful IDL players (Fastidious, JKist3, Ladna, Nostar, mikehail) of conspiracy<br />&nbsp; - Refuse to discuss an issue<br /><br />The current administration does these things daily, and it&#039;s causing the playerbase to lose faith in them.<br /><br />=== Maps<br /><br />First, I applaud Bones&#039; great post.&nbsp; He described playtesting, was honest about board participation, admitted it could be improved, and defended the WAD in a positive way.&nbsp; Nice job :).<br /><br />However I also agree with Ralphis.&nbsp; Given the admitted lack of playtesting and consideration of new maps, it&#039;s very hard to swallow some of the changes.&nbsp; Why are ODA02/MAP07/MAP19/MAP27/MAP30/MAP32 gone, but fuckin [b]BP AND THE LIBRARIES[/b] are in the WAD?&nbsp; Why didn&#039;t the administration just up the number of maps?&nbsp; There is no excuse for this, and the administration should&#039;ve said so by now.<br /><br />=== Respect<br /><br />Which allows me to segue into &quot;Respect&quot;, by which I mean respect for IDL&#039;s legacy.&nbsp; When in doubt - and the map selection process is in serious doubt here - defer to what worked and what players liked in the past.&nbsp; IDL has a history of excellence and professionalism, and &quot;change for change&#039;s sake&quot; is only something you do when you&#039;re desperate.&nbsp; Doing so forsakes a huge piece of what makes IDL special:<br /><br />&nbsp; - MAP07 opened several IDL seasons<br />&nbsp; - MAP19, MAP27, ODA02, and MAP30 were Masterbowl maps<br /><br />Here&#039;s what really gets me though:<br /><br />&nbsp; - These things were never considered<br />&nbsp; - When mikehail brought up my idea of namespacing the Masterbowl maps differently (like &quot;map mb001&quot;), the board voted it down<br /><br />Those facts prove to me that the current administration just doesn&#039;t give a fuck about IDL&#039;s legacy, and it saddens me.<br /><br />=== Communication<br /><br />I feel like I say this in every goddamn post, but I really mean it.&nbsp; It&#039;s imperative that admins talk to players.&nbsp; Admins need to have the attitude that if they haven&#039;t PM&#039;d every player after every season (or before, whatever) then they&#039;re not doing their job - because they can&#039;t do their job if they don&#039;t know what the players are thinking.<br /><br />=== Conclusion<br /><br />If I had to sum up how I feel about IDL, I&#039;d say that I&#039;m worried the current admins think they always know best, or it&#039;s finally their turn to run things the way [b]THEY[/b] want to, and I&#039;d guess that Ralphis and many other players feel the same way.&nbsp; IDL is bigger than all of you.&nbsp; IDL is bigger than all of us.&nbsp; IDL is the product of work and funding from dozens of people, from mappers to players to admins to server admins to programmers.&nbsp; Acting like you always know what&#039;s best or that IDL belongs to you diminishes it.