Forum:SH:Disbanding the Council of Seers? Interest check

Forums > Senate Hall > SH:Disbanding the Council of Seers? Interest check

We currently have 3 featured article nominations. Geist Weiss has been nominated for nearly a year. There's one Seer vote, and no Seer has even touched the nomination for nearly 7 months. Calid Baatch has been nominated for nearly 5 months now. It's my article, I've voted on it, but no other Seer has done anything with it. Imperial State Security Committee has 1 Seer vote and only 1 Seer review. No one else has touched it.

Let's head over to the good article nominations. There are three nominations: Holonet Transceiver, Unit 1337, and Sword of Edo Tesu. Each one has only 1 Seer vote. None of them have any Seer reviews. Hell, the only one to have a review is Holonet Transceiver, and that review was from Ataru. Ataru. Think about that. If you're a Seer, Ataru—whose skin curls at the idea of reviewing a GAN or FAN—reviewed an article before you did.

It is clear to me that while the Seers once served a purpose, back when we had a lot of FA and GA nominations, they are now not only ineffective but an actual hindrance to the process. Yes, GAs and FAs need non-Seer votes too, but if Seers aren’t going to do their jobs then why are we bothering with it in the first place? Why create a system that can hold up passage of a nomination when no one does their job? We don’t need knee-jerk reactions to FAs and GAs anymore to the point where we need an oversight board, and plus we don't need to be holding ourselves to a Wookieepedia/encyclopedia idea of "quality" and "professionalism" either. I put those in air quotes because this is a fanon wiki, not Encyclopedia Britannica.

In my opinion, if a person is concerned about the quality of FA and GA nominations, then they should review it in spite of what their title is. We don’t need a bureaucratic, elite body that is above the rest of the so-called community here. Besides, most of the people who vote on these things end up being Seers anyway, so do we really need to pat ourselves on the back with a fancy title when it’s basically just us anyway? I don’t think so.

This is an interest check. Please post here with your thoughts. - Brandon Rhea^(talk) 18:44, July 11, 2013 (UTC)

• Now Brandon, what could possibly have given you the idea that I would review something solely to stick it to the Council of Seers' inactivity? I'm shocked at such an implication.

In all seriousness, I question the necessity of any institution on this wiki except admins, who are a necessary evil force for good. In order for any of the other institutions to make sense (CoS, Archivists), then there has to be enough community involvement and collaboration (how I shudder at that word) to sustain it. Star Wars Fanon has none of that. The community is deader than it ever has been, and aside from the IRC Cabal group of Brandon, myself, Solus, JM, MPK, Goodwood, Trak, and occasionally Savage or TK, there's very little reason for anyone on this wiki to interact with anyone else. And let's face it, the IRC Cabal is primarily for the lulz. It's one the best ways to kill your productivity.

As for the Seers themselves, it's pretty abundantly clear that two of them aren't active (Bluethunder and Wylind). And, having done very similar work in the past, the job is thankless and miserable. It requires you to wade through someone else's disastrous, muddy swamp of an article. Even in the instances where the article is more like a pleasant beach, you're not there to enjoy it. You're there to pick up the trash that was left on the beach. You can make similar comments about the Archivists, save that hopefully they have more fun because reading stories (if they're good) tends to be more enjoyable.

Fact of the matter is, 99% of the users on Star Wars Fanon have no interest in doing community participation stuff. I see plenty of prolific authors when I watch the Recent Changes, and most of them don't care. They either never cared, or quickly learned that they weren't going to have any place among the "elite" unless they were already there. That goes for contests, GA, FA, FW, and UotM. Star Wars Fanon exists solely as an exercise in pretentious mental masturbation (read: fanboy dumping ground) and pretending otherwise is what got us here in the first place. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to writing my own stuff and ignoring everything else that everyone else is doing on this wiki. Atarumaster88 ^{(Talk page)} 19:30, July 11, 2013 (UTC)

• While not as...colorful...as Ataru, I agree. There is very little point to the CoS right now, and removing them wouldn't hurt the FA or GA process. At the best, it might get more new users to participate, review, and vote. At worst...nothing changes. Now I'm no Seer, and have never been, so my vote has never carried that much weight. Because of that, I can only give so much of an opinion, but those are my thoughts. Savage¹¹³⁸ 19:40, July 11, 2013 (UTC)
  • Your vote certainly carries weight. The Council of Seers was set up by the community, and the community can get rid of it. - Brandon Rhea^(talk) 19:42, July 11, 2013 (UTC)

• Suspend the council until the inevitable surge of Fanonites appear when Episode VII is released.--Josh Bender^{щ(ﾟДﾟщ)} 20:03, July 11, 2013 (UTC)