Forum Government?

[Cierra]

Have you ever tried out a "forum government" system with your forum? How did it work? Or, how do you think it would work on your forum?

Basically, your forum would be run at a total democracy, and have minimal staff. Users would form into a parliament/government (like groups), or you would place them there yourself. If we were to go by the US govt., there would be the Legislative Branch, Executive Branch and Judicial Branch (on most forums these are renamed for fun). Legislative branch would almost be like being staff. Pretty much all of the forums decision would go through this government. Members would also pick other members to be their representatives. For example, if the idea of a new theme was proposed, it would go through all of those branches and members. If it goes through successfully, the forum would get a new theme. If it ends up getting vetoed, there would be no new theme and everyone would have to wait a while before bringing it up again.

 

[Agent_Zero]

Oh yikes. I can see that going really bad for my forum. There would be way too much popularity contest going on and people would be melting down left and right over really dumb things.

 

[Azareal]

Some people already come to mind who would summon forth 50 of their "friends" from other places and who would severely impact the balance of the site.

At the end of the day, there's no quick and easy way to verify that someone isn't a duplicate user.

 

[lludawg]

Honestly I feel you should always be the one hiring the mods and higher users because things can go wrong if power gets into the wrong hands! It would definitely be cool to see this working though.

 

[master412160]

The first forum I got involved with as a member has a sort of government system in place. Its really well done. Its unique one of a kind.

The forum is called Total War Center.

 

[Cierra]

The first forum I got involved with as a member has a sort of government system in place. Its really well done. Its unique one of a kind.

The forum is called Total War Center.

This forum correct?: http://www.twcenter.net/

 

[Cosmic]

I think these types of things tend to bring out the worst in people. There are few things less pleasent in a forum or other online community than having some schmuck open a vote to close down your thread, or StackExchange question 😛

Anyway, that's one aspect of forum governments. I guess another you're referring to is a representative kind of one. Never really used a forum like that. Wouldn't it be prone to encourage a good deal of backseat moderation? 😛

 

[MrDawn]

That seems really complicated.

Most forums just have an administrator and the mods give their opinions on which member they think would best contribute to staff.

 

[Thomasss]

Gosh no..

Not only is it confusing, but a government like this was designed for America because no one "owns" America. On a forum, you have an owner.

That and it's just confusing to have. That and why on earth would you want politics on your forum? I'd be like seeing threads just like the annoying commercials we see.

 

[Ash]

Seems like a good idea but there are quite a few ways that it could wrong drastically to be honest. There could be users just trying to ruin the whole system etc.

 

[MasterA]

Have you ever tried out a "forum government" system with your forum? How did it work? Or, how do you think it would work on your forum?

Basically, your forum would be run at a total democracy, and have minimal staff. Users would form into a parliament/government (like groups), or you would place them there yourself. If we were to go by the US govt., there would be the Legislative Branch, Executive Branch and Judicial Branch (on most forums these are renamed for fun). Legislative branch would almost be like being staff. Pretty much all of the forums decision would go through this government. Members would also pick other members to be their representatives. For example, if the idea of a new theme was proposed, it would go through all of those branches and members. If it goes through successfully, the forum would get a new theme. If it ends up getting vetoed, there would be no new theme and everyone would have to wait a while before bringing it up again.

This is a very interesting idea. I think this would require a very large member base who is interested to make this work. I personally never tried it but I know forums that have similar ideas such as The Student Room. They have groups of forum Political Parties based on real ones made up of members on the forum. However, I don't think they make decision on the forum.

 

[htb24]

This sounds like a good idea for a political related forum but I am not sure if it would work on others. Interesting concept though!