I agree that the writers are doing what they need to do to insure their futures in this. I never meant it to be taken as a "who is suffering more" thing. I also firmly believe that the studios are the ones holding the blame on this one. I really do think it's mostly a matter of semantics and that's why I should have kept my mouth shut.

Ok so having read all the complex and interesting bits to everyone's pov's I'd like to add a bit.

Not everyone will speak up. Not everybody is comfortable with it. Voting gives them a voice.

The idea of a truncated voting process for times when a full blown process may not be totally necessary sounds ideal, but this may not be the ideal situation here and now.

...and my dog just vomited on the carpet We could easily put that we support both our writers and all the other people behind the scenes affected by the strike without whom our shows wouldn't be possible. (That could be worded differently and better I'd imagine.)

I like the idea of suspending the quotes till this is resolved. (And I too love the quotes!)

Because we are a collective nothing ever decided upon (by whatever means) will always reflect all of the people all of the time. What counts is that we try.

My dog just vomited all over the carpet...

Allyson, I hope you'll reconsider. There seems to be wide-ranging support for the proposal, and I truly don't think ND or anyone else who has spoken up was trying to spark a "who has it worse" debate. As far as I'm concerned, supporting the strike is in no way in opposition to worrying about its effects on crew members. The WGA is doing what they have to do; I don't think anyone thinks they should go back to work without a decent contract. I'm seeing a lot of worry here about how much the situation sucks in general, but I don't think anyone doubts that the blame for rests largely on the production companies.

Allyson, honestly, I think most of the heat is in the meta.

Propose or not as you see fit, but if you don't I will probably just make a very similar proposal and put it to vote four days later.

All the outpouring of support for the writers makes me a little verklempt. I know it's not exactly Norma Rae, but still. I plan on doing what little I can on my own, but I would love it if, as a community, we could stand up for the people who created these characters and stories we love. Of course that support extends to the crews and others who will be negatively affected because the studios are playing dumb about internet profits.

Propose or not as you see fit, but if you don't I will probably just make a very similar proposal and put it to vote four days later.

I am sorry you are feeling stressed from this, Allyson. Honestly, this thread has made me crazy when it's been a proposal that I've been a big part of, so I totally understand if you want to withdraw it, but I hope you will propose it. This issue is going to come up for a vote, one way or another and it feels fitting that it come from you because I know you care deeply about this strike and the people it affects.

Seriously, I'm betting it will pass by 95% or better.

Okay.

The proposal:

Add an icon to our header, replacing the random quote generator, supporting the WGA Strike. The icon looks like this: [link]

The icon would feature our logo, and would add us to a growing list of websites supporting fans4writers. fans4writers is a fan-run organization that pledges to support the writers as a booster club; they deliver goodies to the strikers and march with them on the strike lines.

Buffistas.org would remain autonomous and participate in any strike activities as individuals, without direction from fans4writers. There are no requirements to donate or participate in any way as individuals.

The only community-wide participation this proposal would cover is adding the logo to our site.

ita - Can you point votes@... to DebetEsse? She volunteered upthread.

A question that may have been answered upthread, but I was too confused to be sure: Will fans4writers also put up a link to us, or is the linking one-way only?