Defining the forums legally

[Ari Rahikkala]

Don't you think it's a little bit strange that the definition of our forums is so ad-hoc? The only part of the LawBook that's actually about forums is the one listing our historic forums (which the vile Children of Vanchau have destroyed, btw). I guess there are reasons for it - flexibility maybe - but I think we should at least *try* to write a bill that defines our forumset legally... it would make my job more fun .

Here's my attempt at a first draft:

LawBook section XI. D. "Historic forums" shall be removed.

A new section shall be added to the LawBook as section XI. D., named "Forums":

1. There official Message Board of Shireroth shall be hosted at http://shireroth.kuroshiro.net/forum/index.php. The Imperial Government, all of the Subdivisions, and other Shirithian functions, shall be hosted on this board.

1.1. If the Message Board of Shireroth is moved to a different URL, Shirerithian citizens with knowledge about the move must make a reasonable effort that all Shirithian citizens and denizens will know about the new URL.


2. The Board Administrators shall be the Kaiser, the Minister of the Interior, Erik Metzler, and Scott Alexander.

2.1. The Board Administrators shall be given membership in the Administrators usergroup as their primary group.

2.2. The Message Board of Shireroth may be moved to a different URL by command of a Board Administrator.

2.3. The Steward of Shireroth shall be a global moderator, but not a Board Administrator merely by having the position of Steward.


3. The Message Board of Shireroth is divided into categories, forums, and subforums.
3.1. Each forum shall have a Forum Leader, who shall be given moderatorship over the forum, and authority to create subforums and choose other forum leaders within the forum as they will. Forums and forum leaders may also be changed freely by Landsraad legislation or Imperial Decrees.
3.1.1. As changes requested by forum leaders are implemented by the Board Administrators, the Board Administrators may reject such changes. If the Minister of the Interior is given a request in his ministry and he rejects the request, he must notify the requester about the decision.
3.2. Forum leaders may choose the names of their forums.
3.3. Unless otherwise noted, forums shall be visible from the board front page. Forum leaders have authority to decide on the visibility of their forums.
3.4. Forum leaders may request for subforums with restricted permissions from the Ministry of the Interior. The Ministry shall set a price for the creation of such forums to be paid to the Crown account.


4.The forums and categories shall be as follows:

4.1. A General category, containing General Discussion, and Shrine of Controversy.
4.1.1. The Kaiser of Shireroth shall be the leader of General Discussion. Ari Rahikkala shall be the leader of the Shrine of Controversy.

4.2. A Government category, containing Kaiser's Court, Landsraad Front Gate, The Landsraad, and Imperial Judex. The Landsraad shall have subforums Landsraad Passed Bills, and Landsraad Archives.
4.2.1. The Kaiser of Shireroth shall be the leader of Kaiser's Court. The Praetor shall be the leader of Landsraad Front Gate, the Landsraad, and subforums of the Landsraad. The Arbiter shall be the leader of Imperial Judex.

4.3. A Ministry Row category. Each Ministry of Shireroth shall have a forum. Ministers shall be leaders in their respective ministry forums.

4.4. A Shirekeep City Center category. Forums and forum leaders shall be decided on by the Board Administrators.

4.5. A Military category. Forums and forum leaders shall be decided on by the Board Administrators.

4.6. A Subdivisions category. Each Duchy shall have a forum. Dukes shall be leaders in their respective Duchies.

4.6.1. Dukes may choose their subforums, moderators, and forum visibility policy as they see fit. However, in case they have no local policy, the default policy shall be as follows:
a. Each Barony gets a subforum under its Duchy's forum, with the Baron and the Duke as leaders of the forum.
b. Each County gets a subforum under its Barony's forum, with the Count, Baron and Duke as leaders of the forum.
c. County forums shall not be visible from the board front page if they have neither a count nor any interesting activity, as decided on by the Board Administrators.

4.7. An Archives category, containing all archived forums.

5. Board Administrators may create, change and archive forums and categories as will, as permitted by the board software given their administrative privileges. They are considered leaders of each forum. Forums whose existence is legislated may not be archived by Board Administrators.

Basically:
- define the categories and the important forums (and the realllly important subforums) right there in the law. And some not that important ones such as Shrine of Controversy...
- is declaring the categories too inflexible? Do we want to just list the forums and leave the categories on their own?
- leave the less important bits as ad-hoc as before, and leave the bits that have a good reason to stay ad-hoc, ad-hoc
- implement local prerogative for Duchies correctly (I might be posting about this as a principle eventually, but I've got a few things to get around in Straylight and the MiniInt and the Landsraad first, so don't look forward to hearing about it too soon)
- define the Steward's position in terms of user privileges, as global moderator. This might become a bit of a point of contention... do we want the Steward to be a board admin instead?
- a bunch of other points, messiness due to this being a first draft, random issues that might or might not be important that I didn't even notice myself, etc?

[Ari Rahikkala]

(don't worry about getting this into the Landsraad, btw - by the time the discussion is over Corey's current emissaryship will have ended anyway so I can do it myself)

[Andreas the Wise]

Um, I think your name should be added as guaranteed admin.

And should Malarbor be mentioned?

[Ari Rahikkala]

No need, and besides, it would cause problems with Byzantipol and, if I get around to implementing Jonas's plans, Kildare...

[Erik Mortis]

The old historical forums are all gone? *is sad* a dark day...

But I like this. Though I note that, as usual, unless I'm Kaiser or such, I won't be using my admin powers.

[Oroigawa Koreyasu]

Acting Kaiser approves

[hypatias mom]

Ari--

Will there be any accommodation made for those of us who are basically computer-illiterate to train us in using the forums we control? I really have little idea how to alter mine. I had a few suggestions from people who knew computers well, and it helped, but I think ministers and those who have admin. powers need instruction if they are not comfortable in this aspect of their job.

I think your delineation is clear and concise, but this might be added to the job of whoever it is who is charged with the forum's overall shape and coherence, Ari, or some other in the future.

[Erik Mortis]

MiniInfo could deal with that, through the University.

[hypatias mom]

Great idea. Something like: Forum management 101?

[Ari Rahikkala]

Ari--

Will there be any accommodation made for those of us who are basically computer-illiterate to train us in using the forums we control? I really have little idea how to alter mine. I had a few suggestions from people who knew computers well, and it helped, but I think ministers and those who have admin. powers need instruction if they are not comfortable in this aspect of their job.

I think your delineation is clear and concise, but this might be added to the job of whoever it is who is charged with the forum's overall shape and coherence, Ari, or some other in the future.

Well, the point would be that you request changes to be implemented by the admins / MiniInt... I guess that should be clarified in the law... but! There's still the matter of using the moderator control panel, which I guess could be trained at the university or somewhere...

[hypatias mom]

Thanks, Ari. That clarifies what I needed to know.