The DDO presidency should be abolished

== Framework == Con concedes our analysis that removing a bad thing is a good thing. It doesn’t matter that Con doesn’t like our Nazi example. Here’s another one: removing a splinter from someone’s finger is good because splinters in fingers are painful. There’s no need to prove that a splinter-free existence is “good in itself.” Regardless, Con concedes that our direct democracy argument meets even their ridiculous framework. Con claims that direct democracy is a counterplan. (1) We’re allowed to run a counterplan, and ironically, Con’s framework demands that we run a counterplan to show why the alternative to a presidency is better. (2) The obvious alternative to electing a representative to make decisions for us is to have a direct democracy. Con objects that there are no clear guidelines about what a direct democracy would be. We’ve explained that major site decisions would be made by the site’s membership, not by the president alone. Even if Juggle got more involved in the site, members could draft a proposal for site changes, we could have a thread soliciting feedback, the proposal could be updated in light of feedback, and then it could be submitted to Juggle for approval. A site without a president (1) Juggle Con says that we can’t have everyone contacting Juggle. This is true. The site’s official proposal would be adopted by direct democracy, and airmax would submit the proposal to Juggle. Regardless, Juggle is a non-factor now.Con says that a lot of our arguments are premised on Juggle’s lack of interest in the site and that might change in the future. (1) Airmax said that Juggle has literally said: we don’t want to deal with anyone but you, Max. We trust you and aren’t interested in dealing with anyone else. [1, Hangout conversation] As a result, Juggle won’t even approve an admin account for bladerunner, who they know, so there’s no reason they’d be willing to talk to a brand new president, who they don’t. As far as Juggle is concerned, TUF is still president. [http://www.debate.org...] (2) Juggle’s interest in the site depends on its profitability, and they’ve realized that their improvements haven’t boosted the site’s profitability. At first, they were willing to invest in hopes that membership would explode, but it didn’t. So they added the Opinions and Polls sections to artificially boost membership, and then left. According to airmax, they barely even respond to his emails anymore. [1] Con claims that Juggle will be more involved in the future. Force them to provide evidentiary support for this claim. Generally, the present is the best evidence of the future. (2) Moderation Con suggests that airmax sometimes consults the president about moderation issues. However, this was only true before there were sub-mods. It’s not as true anymore because airmax consults his sub-mods about issues relevant to them. Airmax has said that he likes to solicit other’s opinions on issues, which is why he sometimes consults the president. [1] Airmax has also said that the extent to which he consults the president depends on who the president is: Airmax told bluesteel multiple times that Mikal would be consulted only infrequently about major site decisions because airmax didn’t personally trust Mikal’s opinion. [1] As president, Bladerunner got consulted more about site issues because he and airmax have a close personal friendship. Airmax has an inner circle of people he trusts. Sometimes the president will have a seat at the table; sometimes he won’t. It is completely at airmax’s discretion. Furthermore, on major site issues, if an opinion needs to be solicited, it should reflect the opinion of the entire site, not just the president. Airmax says that TUF and Blade did question moderation, just in private. That’s precisely the problem. Without the discussion being open, it’s just a conversation between friends or associates. Regardless, Con concedes this point by conceding that the moderation can and will be questioned regardless of whether there is a presidency. Lastly, Con says that some moderation issues cannot be made public. Our direct democracy point does not require that every single moderation issue be made public. Just ones where airmax would normally solicit an opinion (as opposed to moderation issues that are more objective). It’s not fair that a policy that depends on opinion is determined by input from only one or two people who happen to have been allowed into airmax’s inner circle. As explained above, the inner circle might not actually include the president, depending who the president is. (3) The trial system Con’s response is that direct democracy fails because airmax can ignore the wishes of the community since he answers only to Juggle. The same is true of the president: Max can ignore the president. The difference is that it’s harder to ignore what the entire website wants compared to just the president. Because we can vote with our feet (and leave), he is somewhat accountable to us. It's easier to ignore a single person's request in private compared to dismissing the wishes of the entire community. The trial system write-up was a very detailed and workable proposal. Airmax rejected it because Ore_ele didn’t care much about it. Assuming there is a proposal that you want airmax to adopt, do you really want to see the proposal rejected merely because the current president doesn’t care that much about it? That seems unfair and marginalizes people not in the inner circle. 1. The fact is that TUF used up the last update Juggle was willing to do, without soliciting community feedback. He decided what he wanted and implemented it. It’s great that he took the initiative and that Juggle was willing to implement the “choose winner” system. But there are major issues with judge voting and with the descriptions of the point categories for both the choose winner system and the 7-point system. We have limited political capital: there are a limited number of updates Juggle is/was willing to do. The presidency allows a single person to choose how to use up that political capital, without community input. Regardless, Juggle is a non-issue now. 2. It’s ironic that Con implies throughout Round 3 that Mikal was not a good candidate, but then asserts that a good candidate will always run and be elected. Cody_Franklin was elected and then went AWOL his whole term. The past suggests that there will not always be good candidates. 3. Con says the president can balance transparency with privacy which is false. It makes airmax feel more transparent to include the president in some inner circle conversations. Just because airmax feels like he’s being more transparent doesn’t mean he is. There is an implicit understanding between max and the president that the president cannot air his grievances publicly or he will not be welcome back into the inner circle. It’s essentially regulatory capture: the semblance of democratic decisionmaking, with no real risk of actual democracy seeping in. We’re not saying that all moderator decisions have to be made public, but let’s not pretend that a private decision is somehow public and transparent just because the president sat in on the conversation. 4. Con drops our point that the Voting mod and Religion Forum mod have replaced the two major initiatives that bladerunner wanted to adopt as president. Mods have rendered the presidency unnecessary and superfluous. (4) No real power Con concedes this point. This is a huge loss for them. Juggle is a non-factor. The president might have some input on some moderation decisions - if and only if the president happens to be someone that airmax trusts. There’s no reason to have a position with no real power. We’re a debate website, guys. Let's focus on debate. We would rather have fun with YYW on the site than see countless threads from Wrich trying to start drama with him over the presidency. (5) Private efforts Eddie concedes that he would have sacrificed time with his wife because of obligation. He says he wouldn’t have voted on every unvoted debate, but he would have tried to fulfill some part of his “responsibility.” Honestly, a fake presidency on a website isn’t worth that. Let’s put this in perspective. If you have the time to devote to DDO and the desire, then do it. Blade-of-truth did and has performed spectacularly with the Supreme Council of Determination in getting votes for unvoted debates. You don’t need to win a popularity contest before doing something like BoT did. But if you don’t have time, then you shouldn’t feel obligated to a fake position on some website. (6) UndemocraticCon says that we would hold the position of president responsible for our actions during the election. Yet, Ore_ele has explained that every single past president has lobbied new members, some more successfully than others. Airmax has admitted that he used the same tactics when he ran for president, just to a lesser extent than Mikal. [1] It wasn’t just Mikal’s team either. Bladerunner’s campaign team was so eager to get any vote they could, they brought jifpop back to the site for a horrifying two hours (before he finally left again). Underview The biggest impacts we’re winning are: (1) the presidency is undemocratic because it can be so easily decided by lobbying, (2) the presidency has and will cause massive drama (Con concedes that if YYW is elected, Wrich and others will wreak havoc), and (3) that if airmax is going to make a decision based on someone’s opinion, it is better that it is the site’s opinion, not one person’s opinion. All our other points prove the presidency is unnecessary. Not every moderation issue has to be made public, but some major issues are of public concern, and max shouldn’t get to dismiss those proposals just because the president doesn’t care about them. If you’re not in the inner circle, those types of decisions will seem inherently unfair. Abolish the presidency to avoid drama and undemocratic decisionmaking.