Ok this has all the potential the take a turn into board infighting. Let&#039;s stop it here and clear up a few things. <br /><br />[b][u]1.) Bones quotes mass and draws a false conclusion[/u][/b]<br /><br />[list]<br />[li]Mass says &quot;I have little reason to post my opinions because I get a vote and my opinions are accounted for.&quot;[/li]<br />[li]Bones takes this to mean that Mass doesn&#039;t want to make his opinions public.[/li]<br />[/list]<br /><br />Here is the problem. That isn&#039;t at all what Mass means. He&#039;s saying that if players want their voices heard they have to speak up. The reason he doesn&#039;t have to speak up (and I assure he does nonetheless) is because he&#039;s a legislator his opinion is accounted for. When we get to a point where the Commissioner is indicting the head of the board for his attitude while failing to realize what he even said...we need to reevaluate.<br /><br />[u][b]2.) Play testing maps did/didn&#039;t happen,[/b][/u]<br /><br />I will be very very clear. I played every map that went into the wad. I&#039;ve actually played most of them in 3v3 4v4 and 5v5 settings. I&#039;ve been a part of wad testing for years now, I hosted 13 different servers and the board spent hours in those servers both talking about wads and playing them. I will say this. I DID NOT PLAYTEST EVERY MAP IN ALL 13 WADS. The reason that no one has done that is simply an issue of time constraints. What&#039;s more other board members play tested wads too. There were many instances where the entire board (sans mike) and bones were play testing wads together. The claim that there was no play testing is false.<br /><br />[u][b]3.) The board is representative of the player base.[/b][/u]<br /><br />It&#039;s not. It&#039;s representative of who the commissioner thinks will best serve IDL. If the goal was to have different segments of the player base accounted for then that goal has been missed. <br /><br />If anything the metric is &quot;who does stuff for IDL?&quot; Some of us host servers, some of us captain perennially. Some of us run statistics and some of us are just vocal and active players. If I had to guess at the metric that would be my guess.<br /><br />[u][b]4.) IDL board works in secret and issues edicts.[/b][/u]<br /><br />Not really. We have a carousel of people in and out of our little board channel. There have been some less than productive discussions as to whether that is a good thing. The reason we don&#039;t discuss IDL in #idl is not because of the various topics that come up in #idl. In all openness a lot of the discussion in #idlb isn&#039;t even about IDL. Xen rages about his math homework more than anything else in that channel.<br /><br />The reason we don&#039;t hold administrative discussions in #idl is because there is no way to moderate the discussions there without creating a bad environment for the players. If in discussions about the draft I have to +m the whole channel because Jenova won&#039;t stop talking about my adolescent voice...that is a bad environment for our league channel. The level of discussion in #idlb, while unorganized, is a couple of rungs above your average #idl discussions. It also gives some level of cover for when we talk about less than popular topics and when we have to voice sometimes offensive opinions about things to make a point. These are just some of the reasons that we have a separate channel to discuss things in. <br /><br />And further to that point, this board is more transparent than any before it. I&#039;m not arguing that as a positive or negative step but I&#039;m saying that it is the case. You guys can indict the credibility of myself or Mass or Ladna but what you cannot indict is the time and effort we put in making IDL what is it. Similarly we&#039;re not indicting any of you for NOT putting that effort in. <br /><br />The thing is that when you do stuff often times you get your way, if only by being the only game in town. Ladna wants a better site, Ladna writes a site. Nostar wants a centralized server. Nostar buys a centralized server. This is actually the premise of IDL. Ralphis wants a place where he is free to play doom. Ralphis creates IDL. God Bless America.<br /><br />So while there is no conspiracy there are certainly channels through which things get done. If you want to be a part of that get it done. If you want to pout on the sidelines and cry &quot;woe is me&quot; then hang your hat with Jenova and Co..