I'm sorry I kept it a wee bit vague. I wanted it to be convenient, and not be all, "IT WILL OPEN AT 2:23AM ON AUGUST 4th, OR ALL HELL WILL BREAK LOOSE!" It's pretty much whomever is around when thread title is decided.

But how do we decide "sexiest stompie"? By voting?

ducks and runs from the room

But how do we decide "sexiest stompie"? By voting?

Nah, it's ita. That's canon.

Self-government, where all citizens can vote, and citizenship is determined only by the ability to register, gives me a squick. (...)

I do think this is where discussion comes in. For instance, say newbie A (whom everyone likes well enough) proposes something. The few people who are around think it's okay. But then you (Allyson), scrappy, ita, and Plei chime in that you think it's a bad idea and why. Yeah, everyone gets a vote, but I'm going to be swayed by your input more than by newbie A or his idea.

But there's no way you can tell me that an opinion voiced by someone I interact with daily in multiple threads isn't going to carry more weight than an opinion voiced by someone whose name I don't recognize.

Or yeah. What Jess said.

It's like if I'm sitting at Mel's having dinner with two friends, and four strangers slide up at my table and by way of majority, can determine whether we're going to a movie, or dancing at a club. Maybe my friends and I hate dancing, but the majority has spoken and is now in charge of my social group.

Still (and I'm sorry lurkers) exactly for the reason Allyson states above - I don't like that lurkers can vote. I don't know away around it, and it's probably not a big deal, because it's not like the entire membership list shows up to vote. It just feels wrong. Because they don't contribute to social aspects of the community, I have issues with them getting a say in whether or not we have a Tim thread. Tops, there are 200 Buffistas who post with regularity. There are 1000 Buffistas. That scares me.

Tops, there are 200 Buffistas who post with regularity. There are 1000 Buffistas. That scares me.

In practice, though, there are also less than 200 voting Buffistas. I've never been a vote counter, but from the numbers, it really looks to me like the voters are the contributing members of the community.

I don't like that lurkers can vote.

What about someone who reads the threads religiously, but is too shy to post?

IIRC, when someone had to post the list of people who'd already voted on one of our ballots to solve some technical glitch or other, there was only one name I didn't recognize. So I don't think we have a huge problem of non-participants skewing our votes.

I acknowledged they don't seem to vote. I still don't like the potential there.

I'd like to think that we don't have a huge problem with anything right now and that this whole discussion is purely theoretical, inspired by some interesting ideas in that article.

Would posting once count, Cindy? How recently would they have to have posted?