The rejection of public opinion.

Hi guys,
This post isn't meant to be deliberately castigating in terms of its aims, but please bear in mind that any criticism is purely for the desires of positive outcome.
Recently I cast my eyes onto the 'Suggestions' thread; and found this post;
Quote...
"Polls in suggestions are meaningless as the final decision is always made by the staff and we frankly do not care about how many people support your idea.

If it's good, it gets done. If not, it won't get done even if you have a million votes.

TL;DR: Post a poll in a suggestion thread if you wish, however, we do not care about the number of votes you get."

This post, of course, was created by one of our administrators. I understand that it is perhaps projecting a view shared commonly by the Sythe staff, so I will refrain from targeting him in my criticism.

In my perspective, a 'community' is based on its collective ideals, activities, and restrictions. Yes, this does mean that moderators and admin have influence and power over the doings of its members; but without taking in the view of the collective whole, how do you suggest that we still form the basis of 'communal' belonging?

What I perceive that SMR has stated in this thread is that a suggestion is merely a 1 vs staff idea. Essentially any suggestion becomes a single property proposed by a single member rather than possibly a unified or shared desire. By neglecting the greater consensus, you also neglect our presence, importance, and role as the foundation of this vast forum.

It is startling that this line can even be phrased to the public; I quote -
"we frankly do not care about how many people support your idea."
Surely the righteous approach would be to take further consideration
into a widely supported suggestion rather than to denounce the fact that so many of our friends have regards for it.

If I have analyzed the quote incorrectly, or if there is something i've missed, please tell me.

Thank you for your time and patience.

 

"but without taking in the view of the collective whole, how do you suggest that we still form the basis of 'communal' belonging?"

Because sometimes the collective whole is not privy to certain information, nor does the collective whole have its own wellbeing as its primary aim.

If the collective whole decided everything, at least in my country, there would probably be no taxes, and higher wages for everyone. Naturally, this would not benefit the collective whole.

As such it is on the communitys leadership (admins in this case) to review suggestions from the community, analyze them, and deem them acceptable or not.

Notice how his post did not say "we do not care what you have to say", it simply said that polls are useless, because the suggestion will be reviewed the same way regardless of whether or not the masses agree with it.

 

On this forum and others I have been part of, votes in a poll have always been deemed completely worthless.

There is no point in putting a poll in to begin with. Polls can be exploited very very easily.

Good ideas don't need worthless polls, they need worthwhile discussion and we take discussion into play when deciding things.

 

Couldn't have said it better myself, sir.

 

Regarding FireZ's response: I cannot comment further, as I cannot dispute anything you've just said. Thanks for the explanation though.

However; my only wish is for you guys to take further consideration into these vastly supported ideas - not to implement them immediately. Some support means more than no support, right?

Maybe it might be just the tonality of SMR's quote which caught my attention. It just 'seemed' uncaring and rejecting; but then again, who am I to argue that?

 

No support...obvious reasons, well said FireZ and good example by Nate.

 

I think that As stated before If you discuss something Its far better than a poll as they are open to abuse. So In response to your opening post its a no.

 

All the ideas get taken in to consideration regardless of poll results.

 

What admins think is best for the site(in suggestions) then it usually is.
What they think is not going to be good for the site, they it usually won't be good.
It's their site. No one is making anyone return to this site.

 

There is nothing wrong with the idea behind the thread. However, it could have been worded in a much better way.

 

Like how?

 

Simple

"Polls will not sway the utility of any suggestion. The use of them is completely unnecessary and will not affect the outcome of any decision making. While it is nice to have public support easily visible; suggestions are approved based on their overall improvement to the website, and not just on majority support."

 

Why dont we just disable to ability to even make polls in that forum, if its possible

 

It is possible, but I recommend against it. While it may not sway the opinion, it's good to know if people support your idea or not... even if it's not approved.

And if it's disabled, I can see a long list of threads asking how to make a poll in there.

 

Good argument, you're one of the few members who can string together a good paragraph with acceptable punctuation.

However that pretty much sums up it up.

 

Polls are rad they show an overall consensus and in intelligent communities they are awesome. Unfortunately your community is generally 12 year olds.