User blog:Vatonica/The Reformer's Manifesto

Why Did I Write This?
There have been lots of talks of reform, and I've been less interested in the reform, and more in reforming the reform. I disagree with some of the original reforms that Bfoxius posted, but I was more mad about discovering who gets to choose whether or not these things are accepted, and who the TSPTF members are. I was most mad that the highest classes of TSPTF are often not on chat and barely active on this wiki, which I think should disqualify them, though they seem like they will forever stay due to their status. Many of these users, though, I have never even met in my year or so on the wiki because they are inactive often, and I have heard from others that they are sometimes cronies of the most powerful users. My goal was to make the wiki better and more democratic.

Declaration of Rights
All users of the wiki deserve rights regardless of their standing among the users of the wiki, and deserve to have their rights protected and explicitly stated. There are certain rights, which I believe are unalienable to members of this wiki. Therefore, I propose the adoption of this Declaration of Rights:
 * All members are equal in thought and mind, regardless of their background.
 * All members should have the right to pursue their own goals.
 * The right to express feelings, identity, and ideas on the wiki without persecution shall not be infringed.
 * The right to a fair trial in a court of law shall not be infringed upon.
 * The right to enjoyment of the wiki shall not be infringed upon.
 * The right to peacefully edit the wiki shall not be infringed upon, unless an edit conflict shall arise, in which case it should be peacefully and fairly resolved.
 * The right to chat shall not be infringed upon, unless an issue shall arise on chat, in which case it should be peacefully and fairly resolved.
 * The right to assembly, and membership of a group, shall not be infringed upon.
 * The rights not enumerated in this declaration shall not be infringed upon.

Choices Ahead
Now, there are many issues which have been brought up regarding the future of the wiki, including a proposal to put map games on another wiki and Chat reform ideas. Though I have thoughts about these issues, I do not believe that these issues can be correctly debated until we fix the form of government for the wiki. Therefore, my main goal is to have an elected government which has full authority over the rules, regulations, policies, bans and punishments, etc. I also believe that every policy, rule, and change should be put up to vote by fairly chosen users, and should be explicitly written down and enforced if enacted. I would like to point out that in my system, all former TSPTF would still be able to vote and run for office, but they would have extra checks and balances. Here is an outline of my proposal for a more democratic wikia government, which I believe shall become more detailed and eventually formed into a constitution:
 * There would be a main body of elected officials, called the Legislature. Each legislature member will serve 6 month terms. I propose that there be 40 members of legislature.
 * Each legislature will nominate a House of Administrators, which I propose to be 20 people. Administrators will serve 2 year terms, with one quarter of the terms expiring every 6 months. They will be similar to lieutenants.
 * Constables may be nominated as legislation would be passed, so that they could help speed up the process of stopping wiki crimes (sockpuppeting, vandalism, etc.)
 * Administrators will serve as the enforcers of the laws created by the government of the wiki. This means that they will have powers to administrate chat and the wiki.
 * In order for any law, policy, or change to be passed, a majority of the lagislators AND a majority of the administrators must agree.
 * There will be an elected Supreme Court, with members who will rule on bans according to existing laws, and they will also rule on whether a law that has been passed or an action of a wiki user is constitutional.
 * All members with at least 500 edits, purely as a precaution against sockpuppeting and second accounts after being banned, will be given voting rights. However, There will be further restrictions for government positions.
 * There should be a system for amending the constitution which is not too easy or to hard to have happen.