I am somewhat distraught by the negative tone that the Times always
has. I would encourage everyone to write about your favourite thing at
Whyville rather than stories of hacking and bad things about Whyville!!!
Unfortunately, I am going to talk about a controversial issue, not a happy one: why I believe warning is a useless tool in Whyville, and how we could go about resolving minor disputes.
First is why warning is useless. Warning is a very ineffective tool for
Whyvillians. When you warn someone, there is no doubt that you yourself will
get warned back. This will make an innocent Whyvillian look bad.
Next, we need to look at the other tools and how and/or why they are useful. We
have warning, which as I said is a useless tool. Then we have silence, which
is a good tool, but people that you have silenced can still warn you. It is
useful to use against someone that is being a jerk or when they are talking about
stuff you don't wanna hear about.
The next tool we have is perm silence, which is about as useful as silencing
but is a much more permanent form of silencing, whereby they will never
be able to talk to you again. This tool is less useful than silencing, as
silencing is generally used in a one time situation, in my experience.
But with perm silencing, if the situation is that bad that you used perm
silence, they can still Y-mail you harassing messages. And, inevitably, you still have to hear their rhetoric.
The next tool we have is vaporizing. This tool is useless. It is just
a visual thing, only it is worse than silencing and perm silence because you
can't warn them once they have been vaporized cause you can't see them!!!
They can see you and warn you, but you can't fight back!!! This leaves
Whyvillians vulnerable and helpless. Perm vaporize is more useless because
they can warn you EVERY TIME they see you! And you are helpless!
The final tool we have is 911-report. This is for very serious
problems. This tool can often be misused. It is important to realize
that this tool is only for problems of the most serious nature. But I have
my beefs with the 911-report as well. One time I reported someone (I won't name names, but she knows who she is) for telling me they were gonna slice me open with a butterknife and my report was ruled as "Frivolous" (which, for those
of you who don't know, means useless and superfluous).
What Whyville needs is a complaints commission. They need a group of
individuals, whether elected or appointed by City Hall (like the Y-mail
Helpers), who will sit on a committee to settle more minor
disputes without the threat of penalties for "frivolous" reports. This way,
Whyvillians will be able to report people who are being mean to you, or to
newbies, or to anyone! This way City Hall can also keep in touch with
exactly who the trouble makers are! City Hall will be much more up to date
as to what is going on socially in Whyville!
By setting up a complaints commission and abolishing the "warn" tool,
Whyville will be a friendlier place, where "warning wars" won't exist. I
am certain that googles would agree with this, please see her article which
further explains why warning is frivolous. Whyville has an opportunity to
progress with such a thing as a complaints commission.
The committee would
be able to turn over serious cases to City Hall, and they
would be able to oversee the actions Whyvillians take. They will also reduce
the amount of stress put on City Hall through the 911-report tool. The
complaint commission could have minor penalties they could use, or they could
just send Y-mail to people explaining to them that if they continue they will
be fined or a more serious action such as silencing will have to take place.
If any other Whyvillians feel strongly about this, contact me and be sure to
sign my petition about this in the petition booth.
Desperately searching to improve a great city,
Lars
