One reasonable conclusion is that the metaverse players are playing and submitting games, but they're just not posting and reading the forums.

I think you hit it right on there. Take the Qourth for example. Some of their members and even their emperor is posting games like clockwork, some as recently as a week or two ago. Yet, they don't have a single post when on the forums. I would think if you checked your meta rank, your already right here. Why not check on the forums even if you don't post, but after threads directed specifically for them, still nothing.

Thats why i want it on the Core though, easier to contact people(Privat Messages)and you can have private areas. But, we will always keep a link to these forums to provide news about our decisions and to allow us to analyze input.

The Core does make a nice home. It's good to get Arrakis there. There's no doubt the council will have a presence at the Core, precisely how much will be determined.

Alex,

Take all the time you need. Actually I was thinking of something but I think we'd need to discuss it at the Core. I'd hold off on calling your elections before I checked something out. Keep an eye out for a PM at the Core. I know you have registered there.

As soon as voting is wraped up Alex tell us and well will try to start the first session of the Council.

I am going ahead and calling the election now for the HCH Council seats!

With 21 total votes

Quixen- 7 votes
MarshallONeil- 7 votes

runner-ups
AlexAtticus- 6 votes
ShuShu- 1 vote
Hobbitween- 1 vote

Thanks for the patience,
AlexAtticus

Thanks for the update Alex and welcome to the council Marshall and Quixen.  

btw Quixen. Don't forget to register at the Core for access to the council area.

I'm so proud! *sniff* Thank you, thank you all!   

I just registered at the Core, as well - it's been through quite an overhaul from the last time I lurked through it. Looking forward to being involved in the struggle to make the Metaverse a better place.

I just registered at the Core, as well

Be sure to drop by the council's private area, that's where we serve the champagne and caviar.   

Dont forget the nice marble floors and the Plasma Screen TV's that will be installed soon. We tried to get holoscreen ones, but to make the Meta a better place we had to make sacrifices   

that's where we serve the champagne and caviar.

Silly me, just barging in and grabbing a beer out of the fridge.  

I sure you will learn the formalities soon enough

Phew Hokay, have finally managed to plow through all of this verbose insanity in a 2 hour sitting (yes, yes, I am aware there is probably 5 times that effort in Mumble's posts alone).

To keep things short:

Yep I agree with the current version of the 'Proposition statement' or whatever you are calling it, for the purpose of formation of the council.
I will admit, I have read no other thread, other than this one regading this topic (am yet to start trawling through the Core), however, I would agree with the point re: there being not enough flesh to the statement outlining the purpose of the council. Specifically, the general gist from all of these posts is that the main push of the council is to proposition Stardock to enact community desired changes to the Metaverse, in an effort to align the metaverse closer to it's players desires. To me, this isn't really reflected, or clearly outlined in the statement.

This could well be my subjective interpretation of what is written, I just feel that 'status quo' is almost too abstract for the general populous (including me) and should perhaps be a bit more specific in it's outline of purpose.

By all means, retain the statement about increasing interest and participation, but perhaps firm up the second statement regarding how this will be achieved. I understand you have established that semantics will be detailed and discussed by the council, however I feel this to be a fundamental issue, certainly something lying at the core of why this council is being put together and should be included in your initial statement about the groups purpose and basis for formation.

I hope this doesn't pick a scab, again I admit I haven't checked in with the Core and will do so tommorrow (I have no mental stamina remaining for all this forum madness).

Excellent work thus far, and apologies from the Orca's for being lax in our involvement, I guess in defense, it has been the Chrissy period, where people often drop out for a month or so.

Ciao

Specifically, the general gist from all of these posts is that the main push of the council is to proposition Stardock to enact community desired changes to the Metaverse, in an effort to align the metaverse closer to it's players desires.

Actually this isn't the case. Eventually, the long term, pie in the sky goal may be to get Stardock to consider some player supported changes to the way the current metaverse is run. But expecting Stardock to make any changes in the short term is unrealistic for a number of reasons. The first being that we really don't quite know what we're doing here.

In any case the main push of the council is to effect changes in the AltMeta as a sort of proving ground. This is not just for practice. It's expected that the changes that we put in will have the effect of making the AltMeta (and hence the "real" meta) more popular. The idea is to try and make changes that are realistically achievable instead of pissing and moaning about things that we cannot realistically change.

I am glad that you've read through this. It's eye-opening in how much effort it can take to actually do so little. When the concept of a constitution was introduced, I wasn't particularly enamored of the idea. To me it's just a bunch of verbiage that accomplishes nothing constructive and basically gives people a vehicle over which to meaninglessly argue. I can't object to peoples desire to have something actually written down, but it's my point that you cannot at this level, legislate all possibilities of what it is you're trying to do and how exactly you intend to do it. Over time discussing this I think this attitude is the one that won out. So while we do have a "constitution" that people can look at as our purpose, I would hope the most beneficial concept that has emerged from these discussions is KISS (keep it simple stupid).

Anyway we’re currently discussing a number of procedural items about the mechanics of voting and quorums and such, but we’re also beginning to discuss actual improvements that we want to introduce to the AltMeta such as brackets. I think the consensus of opinion among council members is that these things certainly need an in-depth discussion here in these forums, but that trying to come up with a complete unified solution to a problem in the context of these forums is virtually impossible. The intent is to accept ideas and input from all, flesh out these ideas into a complete package, and then discuss these as a complete solution to a problem here in these forums. Hopefully with an eye for presenting a couple of alternatives at the same time.

BTW your time estimate is *way* off, I easily spent close to 40 hours writing posts in this thread alone. Then, of course, there were the two other related threads.

Not to mention yours are probably the longest here     

Hope to see you on the Council forums soon Thagee, we really need your imput on some of the 'decisions in pending'.

Yeah sorry guys, just attempted to send you an email Mumble, don't know if it worked, but can someone provide me a link to the AltMeta - I really need to brush up on this. Thanks TGE, I will get onto it ASAP - had my account in The Core suspended due to password hassles - have emailed the webmaster, if push comes to shove i will register a new name just so I can get in there and use it...

Not to mention yours are probably the longest here

Not much doubt about that one.   

Yeah sorry guys, just attempted to send you an email Mumble, don't know if it worked,

I didn't see an email through Stardock or a PM at the Core. I did see you logged in at the Core for a moment, but I haven't seen you post anything yet. Are you still having difficulty?

had my account in The Core suspended due to password hassles

Sometimes you'll get the "password entered three times" message and it will say your account has been suspended, but you can try again and it will go through usually.

Thagee, sorry about your difficulties. Next time you have an issue go directly to The Galactic Core. There's an open area that guests can post to. Just look under the forums link. In there you can post your name and the difficulty that you're having. There's almost always an admin around that could help you on the spot, but failing that could leave you directions on what to do.