Dear Shroomery,
I sincerely regret to announce that the efforts of the past two weeks have been in vain. As the administration could come to absolutely no consensus as to what course of action (if any) to take with the OTD forum, we decided to conduct an all-encompassing poll from the entire membership to come to a cut & dry solution: Do whatever the membership at large wants us to do. The poll was setup and within the first three hours of polling the following results were available:
Public Polls summary, 3 Hour update:
Total Votes: 140
Hidden: 15
Hidden w/ Exp: 55
Public w/ Increased Enforcement: 7
Puclic w/ " " & Exp: 7
Closure: 13
No Change: 43
Summed up that equates to an even 50% of people approving of a hidden forum; 70% of people approving of some change to the forum; and 30% against any change.
Staff Poll Summary:
Total Votes: 30
Closure: 5
No change: 3
Hidden: 5
Hidden Option no. 2: 17
That equates to roughly 72% of the staff in support of hiding the forum; 90% of the staff in support of some change; 10% in support of no change.
Hidden OTD Poll Summary:
There was a temporary hidden forum created to test out the effectiveness of restricting the forum to users who request access. 3DSHROOM posted a poll in this forum (now gone) but the numbers of the OTD population itself not even taking into account the rest of us that participate in the community were roughly dead even in support of either change or no change. Thus, even a significant portion of the OTD population itself had no problem with the forum being hidden.
I am saddened to realize that papaver, myself, and much of the staff have spent countless hours working to promote a positive change that could very well have served to protect our community?s future integrity, to no avail. It came to our attention early this morning that there was an attempt to undermine the public poll in favor of No Change. Out of some 300 votes, there were no trends or patterns in the voting choices except for two very conspicuous blocks of votes for No Change, in which all the users who chose that option voted within minutes of each other. In the first anomaly set, there were two blocks of user ID numbers; one in the 1000 group which is a group of very old accounts from over three years ago, and one in the 8000 group which originate from the later half of 2001. It should be noted that most of these users do not have a single registered post in the database. The second set of anomalies was from newer accounts where many of the user ID numbers are actually invalid.
I closed off the poll as soon as I found the second set in order to allow time for papaver and myself to dig deeper into the records and try to figure out which accounts were in fact illegitimate and remove their votes. As I stated in multiple threads, there would have been full disclosure as to any action taken to return the poll to valid standing. This disclosure would have accompanied the reopening of the poll this evening. Unfortunately, I was at school for the better part of the afternoon and upon returning, have found that all of our efforts attempting to gain valuable feedback from the membership and do something positive and proactive for this community have been made null and void. I cannot express how disappointed I am and the regret I feel for involving the entire membership in a fruitless endeavor that wasted the time of those who took the initiative to make their voice heard. I am sorry and ashamed that this project ? while controversial ? had the potential to bring the community together for a truly democratic say, but was ultimately a complete and utter failure. In closing I would like to present to you some anonymous comments and opinions sent to me throughout all of this. I will also include the two anomaly sets from the poll data such that those who take it upon themselves can see for themselves that there really was some fucked up doings happening 
First Anomaly Set (exhibiting nearly consecutive registration IDs from long past and no registered activity on the BB):
| Poll ID | Poll Choice | User ID |
1069744707geokills 6 1018
1069744707geokills 6 1020
1069744707geokills 6 1034
1069744707geokills 6 1040
1069744707geokills 6 1081
1069744707geokills 6 8886
1069744707geokills 6 8881
1069744707geokills 6 8895
1069744707geokills 6 8907
1069744707geokills 6 8923
1069744707geokills 6 8933
1069744707geokills 6 8932
1069744707geokills 6 115017
Second Anomaly Set (exhibiting invalid user IDs):
| Poll ID | Poll Choice | User ID |
1069744707geokills 6 4036
1069744707geokills 6 12069
1069744707geokills 6 110573
1069744707geokills 6 110078
1069744707geokills 6 116055
1069744707geokills 6 118331
1069744707geokills 6 109669
1069744707geokills 6 113017
1069744707geokills 5
1069744707geokills 6 115510
1069744707geokills 6 112682
1069744707geokills 6 10020
1069744707geokills 6 108647
1069744707geokills 6 111562
1069744707geokills 6 116908
1069744707geokills 6 110854
1069744707geokills 4
1069744707geokills 6 111230
1069744707geokills 2
1069744707geokills 2
1069744707geokills 6 112268
1069744707geokills 6 110781
1069744707geokills 6 109850
1069744707geokills 2
1069744707geokills 6 116548
1069744707geokills 6 108247
1069744707geokills 6 101578
1069744707geokills 6 101628
1069744707geokills 6 112763
1069744707geokills 2
1069744707geokills 6 102640
1069744707geokills 6 104363
1069744707geokills 6 11967
1069744707geokills 6 102208
1069744707geokills 6 111215
1069744707geokills 6 108680
1069744707geokills 6 108680
1069744707geokills 6 117018
1069744707geokills 6 100428
1069744707geokills 2
1069744707geokills 6 115762
1069744707geokills 6 12405
1069744707geokills 2
1069744707geokills 6 118778
1069744707geokills 6 107028
1069744707geokills 6 117466
1069744707geokills 6 116711
*Poll Option 6 was for No Change
?i think your doing the right thing with the otd?
?on a side note, i would like to say good job to you and the rest of the admins/mods for the way you [were handling] this matter....bravo! a well deserved pat on the back. this is no easy task, and im sure its far from over, but i really do think that you guys are handling this situation with the upmost respect and class....thanx and good luck?
?i would like to see it be a hidden forum with the inactive posts being deleted on a regular basis. alot of the threads are of no real value to anyone after its over, and only takes up your space. i also like the idea that if someone would like to see their thread stick around, they can request to the mods it be kept. having the forum hidden will give everyone what they want. (i hope) the regular OTDers can do their thing, with out worrying about what the rest of the world thinks...or rather keeps the rest of the world from worrying about what they do. i dont really think they care what the rest thinks sometimes?
?Remember when I asked to make me a mod for the cult forum. Please don't ever do that. I know you guys are gonna keep the OTD which does nothing but brien high school kids to the site. I just want to be a member not any kind of mod or anything that has to do with that when this place goes down.
I hope you guys do something about that cause it's starting to be a joke around here.?
?There is a reason why the big weed sites don't have a OTD. We're looking at the reason right in the face now. Plus the fact that a huge amount of the asswipes here are only here for the OTD. Shut down OTD and you'll loose a lot of those people. Believe me it will help all forums. Some of those people wander off of OTD and fuck up the other forums with stupid posts or flames.
Look at it this way. Wouldn't it be nice if you could just be a admin here without having to be a babysitter.?
?I find the levels of casual racism, homophobia and general bad attitude of a number of the members of OTD to be bang out of order.
I've made complaints on matters pretaining to those points before.
I only step in occassionaly to see if the one or two, "sensible", people have posted anything worth repling to.
The rest? If you made it a locked forum so that only members with passwords could read and post?
I'd not apply for the access. Would'nt be worth it.
The board, as you rightly say, should be used for spreading and sharing open minded views on mushroom usage not a place for mindless, worthless offensive posts.
If the, "trouble makers", cant mix with the other members in their choosen hang out spot then they should be banned. Simple.?
?I recomend that the forum either be hidden and made available after a relevant post threshold is reached (helps problems of users/mods), or the forum be deleted altogether (makes site better for intended purpose). Moderating, rules, etc are ineffective. Since I've been here in 99, there have always been periods of strict enforcement, and they have all cycled into periods of lack enforcement. It just won't work.?
"It takes a lot to get me involved, but this was a worthy project, so I tossed in my two cents whenever I felt I could be persuasive. I feel the eventual solution arrived at was nothing short of brilliant, and I am devastated to see it tossed away in such an astoundingly stupid manner at literally the last minute."
With that I bid you good night.
--------------------
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┼ ··∙ long live the shroomery ∙·· ┼
...╬π╥  ╥π╬...
Edited by geokills (11/27/03 03:08 AM)
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