The DDO presidency should be abolished

== Rebuttal == FrameworkThe absence of a net detriment is a benefit. If we prove the presidency either is: (a) net detrimental or (b) has little to no benefit (and therefore does not justify the time and effort of having an election), then we have fulfilled our BOP. Also, it’s just not true we have to prove abolition is good “in its own right.” Abolishing the Final Solution in Germany would have been good not “in its own right,” but because it stopped something detrimental (the Holocaust).R1) A site without a president1. Max & blade say that without an election, the community’s voice won’t be heard. However, DDO is small enough to have a *direct democracy,* rather than a representative democracy. DDO members can directly voice their concerns in the DDO Forum; they don’t need a president to do it for them. In fact, *turn* this argument against them. Max often consults the president about major site issues to get a flavor for what the community would want. This is an *inferior* solution to holding a public forum (direct democracy) because the president’s opinion on the matter does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the site. Since it’s not hard to just ask everyone, we shouldn’t be relying on representative democracy to suss out public opinion.2. Max & blade say without a president, no one would question moderation. However, wrich and garbanza disprove this, as do bladerunner and TUF. Wrich and garbanza question moderation all the time, but they are not president. And bladerunner and TUF never questioned moderation during their tenure, but they were both presidents. Having a presidency does not ensure moderation will be subject to a critical eye, nor does the absence of the presidency prevent members from questioning moderation in the DDO Forum.3. Max & blade say the trial system died because it didn’t have an advocate to push for it. This is a mischaracterization of what happened. Bluesteel (who was not the president at the time) submitted a *detailed* trial system proposal to airmax, who said he needed to think about it for awhile. The proposal languished, and airmax ultimately never approved it.Also, *turn.* This proves why direct democracy is better. A lot of users at the time of the last election wanted a trial system. If airmax felt accountable to them, instead of to a single president, he wouldn’t have ignored the proposal simply because Mikal had stepped down. He would have felt accountable to all the users who wanted a trial system, not just to Mikal.4. Max & blade say the president’s role is to influence Juggle. However, Juggle does not want any further contact with new people. They won’t talk to a new president, nor will they approve admin accounts for the new mods airmax has appointed (bladerunner, whiteflame, bluesteel, etc.). They have no interest anymore in talking to anyone except max.Our case C1) HistoryThe history is important because it shows that the presidency was a joke and a distraction before Juggle took over and max and innomen turned it into an advocacy position. They both used the presidency to get powers as moderators. Now that airmax is our moderator and Juggle point person, we don’t need a presidency. The presidency’s value has returned to being a joke and a distraction.C2) Moderators are all we need1. Max & blade cite that TUF was able to push site updates. There are three problems with this. One, TUF had pre-existing contacts at Juggle, but Juggle is no longer interested in talking to new people or doing site updates. Second, this version of the story ignores the role of direct democracy: bluesteel and many others were raising a huge stink about strategic voting and the seven point system, which is what *motivated* Juggle to do the last update that they ever did to the site. Direct democracy works. Third, because TUF did this without bluesteel’s or anyone else’s input, there are still flaws in the system (e.g. people think “choose winner” on the ballot means they can choose a winner based solely on conduct or S&G or any other criteria, whereas bluesteel advocated that the ballot should have said, “the better debating was done by (Pro or Con). If this update had happened with more community involvement, it would have been better. 2. Max & blade say it doesn’t matter that having so many moderators (bladerunner, whiteflame, bluesteel) and sub-moderators (raisor, F-16) might constrict the pool of presidential candidates so much that eventually, there is no one qualified to run. Granted, Ore_ele and YYW are both qualified candidates, but Ore_ele would be disqualified had he not stepped down as moderator due to time constraints. We need to abolish the presidency before we hit a point where 2001bhu is the only viable candidate, or until someone abuses the system and destroys the office in a way that is non repairable and causes damage to the community in a way that can't be fixed. 3. Max & blade say the president’s main role (because Juggle is no longer a factor) is *advocacy.* But that advocacy happens behind closed doors, in a private PM with airmax. *Turn,* it would be more transparent and fair to have direct democracy and perhaps adopt more formal ways to raise proposals on the DDO Forum. On a personal note (from bluesteel), when I was first on the site, I felt really marginalized by not being part of innomen’s inner circle when he was president. I would raise issues in a public forum, but then they would go to some secret committee - to see if innomen wanted to consider the issue in more detail. The presidency encourages behind-closed-doors decisionmaking.Turn 2, direct democracy decreases bureaucracy. You don’t have to convince a chief of staff or inner circle, who has to convince the president, who has to convince airmax, who has to convince Juggle. Abolishing the presidency cuts out two of those steps.C3) No real powerNothing max or blade say here is something you couldn’t do as a regular member. Regular members get influence by gaining respect. Gain respect by posting smart and good things in the DDO Forum, as part of direct democracy. Be a leader, without needing a silly popularity contest.On voting and side effortsBladerunner says that if he had been re-elected as president, he would have continued his efforts to vote every unvoted debate, despite his wife’s health issues, because he would have taken on a responsibility to do so as president. Frankly, while admirable in a misguided way, no fake position on a website is worth sacrificing time with your ailing wife. We seriously need to put things in perspective here. People take this position *way too seriously,* from people saying Mikal’s mere status as president was ruining the site for them to Eddie saying he’d sacrifice time with his ailing wife to be on here to fulfill his obligation to vote on debates. No one should care this much about this position. I don’t want a position that causes people to sacrifice for it, when it is meaningless. The elections come during finals week for most schools. I don’t think it’s worth it for people to sacrifice grades and other important parts of their lives for something so trivial.In addition, max & blade never respond to the fact that blade-of-truth has upheld his promise to vote every unvoted debate without being elected president. The position is not necessary to getting things done on the site, and if you want to contribute, you should. You shouldn’t hold your efforts hostage and say you won’t do them unless you win a popularity contest.C4) Multiple positionsWe’re dropping this. Our advocacy is that for big site issues, we should use direct democracy. For smaller things, we should have a system like the mafia mod list or tournament director list, where people wait their turn to do the position. Or they should simply take on a leadership role themselves (e.g. blade-of-truth and voting efforts).Lastly, this ties into our point that moderators have replaced the presidency. Bladerunner’s campaign proposal would have appointed people to oversee voting issues and a Forum Ambassador to oversee the Religion Forum. Instead, we got bluesteel appointed as Voting Mod and whiteflame/raisor appointed as Religion Forum moderator. This is preferable because at least the moderators have real powers.C5) Unnecessary dramaThe drama just isn’t worth it. Although he likely won’t admit it here and will say something more diplomatic, bladerunner still hates bluesteel for “going negative” in the last election. There’s no reason for a stupid fake position to create this type of animosity between users on the site. It’s unnecessary. Think of all the upcoming drama with YYW being a top candidate and wrich coming into every single thread to snipe at him. It’s going to be so unpleasant.Max & blade say the president is under more scrutiny because they have more responsibilities. But the scrutiny and attack threads usually just end up being personal, and have little relation to the power that the president actually wields. With more power legitimately comes more scrutiny. But the president has no real power. So the increased “scrutiny” is just a distraction and excuse to personally attack the president for his or her normal, non-presidential activities on the site.C6) UndemocraticPeople are inevitably going to lobby new members who don’t even know the candidates. This is the biggest flaw in max & blade’s case. They spend the entire rest of their case waxing poetic about how the president represents the site’s entire opinion and is the only vehicle for advocacy. And then they concede that the election can be easily determined by lobbying new members who would vote for whoever contacted them first and don’t have *any* idea who the candidates are. I personally don’t want airmax assuming that the president represents my opinion, when the election is so easily swayed by unknowledgeable voters. Mikal was able to do so; imagine the damage if 2001bhu did it.