Hi all, I am writing this post to share my thoughts on the current lack of transparency of the tier leaders/council on this site (in this case specifically OU, but I assume these issues are also present in other tiers) and how we can go about fixing this issue. For as long as I have been active on this website we have had these problems, but now in gen 8 there is a golden opportunity for a new way of thinking.
The Problem
People in power, specifically OU tier leaders/council members in this post, are chosen without any input from the community - literally 0. These self appointed 'leaders' now have the power to completely shift the game we play with meta-defining changes such as the recent sleep clause unban, and we as the community have no voice to oppose this. The best we can do is make a couple threads complaining and hope they listen to us (though they have no obligation to do so). I am sure if generally respectable and influential users such as Ojama hadn't posted, nothing would have been done at all. Conversely, the council may not be active enough in making changes - for example many users felt we should have had more testing done in SM OU, but there was simply no way that we could make our voices heard. You could argue that making discussion threads should be enough; council members are chosen to represent the best players in the community and they should have the power to over-rule us, right? This argument could maybe have some merit if the council members were chosen fairly... but let us look at the most recent additions, Charmflash and Kratosmana.
Specifically honing in on KratosMana (I have nothing against you personally bro, just making a point), this man has posted a grand total of 0 times in policy review in all of 2018/2019. He has 34 games on the sheet, 5 of them being in 2019 and none at all in 2018. Not to mention he has been tourbanned before. Now I'm sure he's really good at pokemon, but there are plenty of people who are good at pokemon. Why was he chosen over anyone else? Perhaps he has some merit that I'm missing, but unfortunately we can never know the answer because no reasoning was given. Like all council decisions these days, a simple 'Charmflash and Kratosmana are council now!!!' is expected to be enough for the masses. Maybe even this would be enough if the people appointing him were legitimate. But who voted Finchinator to be OUTL? The other members of the council, who are all illegitimate themselves? The council has become an echo chamber, recycling the same old opinions to each other and only appointing those friends who they know have a similar opinion to their own.
Members chosen without real qualifications/drive to post in PR threads leads to a lazy council. This can be seen in numerous council decisions where 2 members post their thoughts on a ban while the others don't even read the thread.
A quick aside on toxicity on this website, which I know has been recognised as an issue recently. Current issues with council decision making result in 3 types of behaviour - 1. vitriol, 2. excessive 'yes-manning', 3. disengagement.
1. When regular people's views are deemed to be second-rate to those of the almighty council, people resort to vitriol because they feel there is no other way to be heard.
2. When only people in with the council clique of ABR and co. have a chance of being heard, it breeds a certain 'yes-man' type of behaviour. People try be friends with those who have power, because what other chance does the common man have of getting power themselves? There is literally 0 way of breaking into the council or other positions without being on friendly terms with those on it already.
3. This may also result in less community engagement, because what's the point of writing my thoughts when they will be ignored anyway?
The Solution
There are many ways to go about fixing this and I welcome you, the reader, to post your own suggestions/general thoughts on this thread below.
I propose to create some sort of independent body which has the power to scrutinise council decisions. Regular smogonites can post their gripes to this body, and if there is enough data to suggest a real problem, the body will mount an independent investigation on the matter. The members of this body would ideally be senior staff who don't have much dealings with the actual tiers themselves. This body will only interfere when things have gone badly wrong within the council so I do not envisage much of an extra workload for those participating, provided other measures are also put in place.
The aforementioned measures include:
1. Give greater reasoning behind decisions. Why is this person chosen to be in the council? What does this person have that someone else doesn't? Why do you think this pokemon deserves to be banned?
2. Activity from everyone in the council. During a suspect thread or other such format for community input, I expect to hear from every single council member, not just one or two. If members become inactive and nothing is done by the council themselves then the independent body can step in, but again, this should really be solved by the council members of their own accord.
3. Anything else you can think of. Why can't we get to a point where council hopefuls have to submit a couple paragraphs stating why they are qualified, and then they are voted on by the wider community? This website is created by the people for the people - we can do anything if there's enough drive behind us.
The Problem
People in power, specifically OU tier leaders/council members in this post, are chosen without any input from the community - literally 0. These self appointed 'leaders' now have the power to completely shift the game we play with meta-defining changes such as the recent sleep clause unban, and we as the community have no voice to oppose this. The best we can do is make a couple threads complaining and hope they listen to us (though they have no obligation to do so). I am sure if generally respectable and influential users such as Ojama hadn't posted, nothing would have been done at all. Conversely, the council may not be active enough in making changes - for example many users felt we should have had more testing done in SM OU, but there was simply no way that we could make our voices heard. You could argue that making discussion threads should be enough; council members are chosen to represent the best players in the community and they should have the power to over-rule us, right? This argument could maybe have some merit if the council members were chosen fairly... but let us look at the most recent additions, Charmflash and Kratosmana.
Specifically honing in on KratosMana (I have nothing against you personally bro, just making a point), this man has posted a grand total of 0 times in policy review in all of 2018/2019. He has 34 games on the sheet, 5 of them being in 2019 and none at all in 2018. Not to mention he has been tourbanned before. Now I'm sure he's really good at pokemon, but there are plenty of people who are good at pokemon. Why was he chosen over anyone else? Perhaps he has some merit that I'm missing, but unfortunately we can never know the answer because no reasoning was given. Like all council decisions these days, a simple 'Charmflash and Kratosmana are council now!!!' is expected to be enough for the masses. Maybe even this would be enough if the people appointing him were legitimate. But who voted Finchinator to be OUTL? The other members of the council, who are all illegitimate themselves? The council has become an echo chamber, recycling the same old opinions to each other and only appointing those friends who they know have a similar opinion to their own.
Members chosen without real qualifications/drive to post in PR threads leads to a lazy council. This can be seen in numerous council decisions where 2 members post their thoughts on a ban while the others don't even read the thread.
A quick aside on toxicity on this website, which I know has been recognised as an issue recently. Current issues with council decision making result in 3 types of behaviour - 1. vitriol, 2. excessive 'yes-manning', 3. disengagement.
1. When regular people's views are deemed to be second-rate to those of the almighty council, people resort to vitriol because they feel there is no other way to be heard.
2. When only people in with the council clique of ABR and co. have a chance of being heard, it breeds a certain 'yes-man' type of behaviour. People try be friends with those who have power, because what other chance does the common man have of getting power themselves? There is literally 0 way of breaking into the council or other positions without being on friendly terms with those on it already.
3. This may also result in less community engagement, because what's the point of writing my thoughts when they will be ignored anyway?
The Solution
There are many ways to go about fixing this and I welcome you, the reader, to post your own suggestions/general thoughts on this thread below.
I propose to create some sort of independent body which has the power to scrutinise council decisions. Regular smogonites can post their gripes to this body, and if there is enough data to suggest a real problem, the body will mount an independent investigation on the matter. The members of this body would ideally be senior staff who don't have much dealings with the actual tiers themselves. This body will only interfere when things have gone badly wrong within the council so I do not envisage much of an extra workload for those participating, provided other measures are also put in place.
The aforementioned measures include:
1. Give greater reasoning behind decisions. Why is this person chosen to be in the council? What does this person have that someone else doesn't? Why do you think this pokemon deserves to be banned?
2. Activity from everyone in the council. During a suspect thread or other such format for community input, I expect to hear from every single council member, not just one or two. If members become inactive and nothing is done by the council themselves then the independent body can step in, but again, this should really be solved by the council members of their own accord.
3. Anything else you can think of. Why can't we get to a point where council hopefuls have to submit a couple paragraphs stating why they are qualified, and then they are voted on by the wider community? This website is created by the people for the people - we can do anything if there's enough drive behind us.
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