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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AntiStateQuixote" data-source="post: 2289202" data-attributes="member: 30770">From here: <a href="http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=133518&page=3#post2289029" target="_blank">http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=133518&page=3#post2289029</a>  I agree.  I am, in fact, universalizing elitism . . . but I don't think it's meaningless, and I don't think elitism is necessarilly a bad thing.  I consider myself superior to many people in many ways . . . not in all things, but I am certainly elitist with respsect to certain aspects of my life.  That's not bad; it's simple recognition of the fact that I excel at certain things.  That's mostly what I am arguing.  I'm not arguing that distinguishing on any basis is elitist.  I'm arguing that distinguishing among people on some measurable quality is elitist.  I think you are hung up on the use of word elitist and it's negative connotation among Americans in particular and people living in liberal democracies in general.  Hierarchy implies superiority of some over others in some way. Those at the top are the elites. [Totally-Off-Topic]I would not agree that order implies hierarchy.  I would agree that order generally leads to hierarchy and that hierarchy means elitism.  That's another topic for a different discussion, probably, that I would likely enjoy.[/Totally-Off-Topic]  I agree mostly with your idea of how ENWorld should work.  I like the idea of merit-based systems in all things.  Those who achieve at a high level are the elites of the system.  If they are aware of this level of achievement and they act on it, they are elitists.  Again, this is not a bad thing in and of itself.  My only objection is the time thing . . . if my very first post is interesting it should generate replies based on the fact that it is interesting.  If it's not then it shouldn't.  You have said that post count is a secondary factor in determining if you will reply to someone.  I just think post count should not figure at all into one's decision to reply, but that's just me. I have about two dozen posts on this board.  The vast majority of my posts have been quoted or directly replied to by at least one person.  If people chose, generally, to ignore members with low post counts this would not be the case.  So, the merit-basis of ENWorld (did you post something interesting?) seems to hold . . . I think; I must be posting something interesting.  Are there some people out there that have read one of my posts, thought it was interesting and didn't reply simply because I was a n00b?  I don't know, but it certainly wouldn't suprise me if that is true.  Agreed.  Although it is difficult to enforce this meritocracy without resorting to ostracism of those who post boring, inflamatory or otherwise inappropriate material.  Once that happens the members have established a hierarchy in which the elites police the n00bs and/or losers on the board by not replying to them.  Because the goal of most people who post to a message board is to generate a response they will stop posting if no one ever responds.  Your meritocracy works!  While I can understand this view, I cannot agree with it entirely.  Again, if someone posts something interesting with their very first post that post should generate a response.  It is a fact that it will not generate as much response as the exact same post by someone with hundreds or thousands of posts.  Part of this greater response is because the people who reply know the person with the high post count.  Part of this response is simply an assumption that someone with only one post is a n00b (which is true) and that the n00b likely doesn't know what s/he's talking about or will not stick around (which is certainly not always true).  My concern throughout this conversation is the fact that n00bs will not be treated equally.  Again, an interesting post by a n00b vs. the exact same post by an established member of the community will evoke less responses because the elites (long-timers, whatever) do not know the n00b and some will ignore the post (or are less likely to respond) because s/he is a n00b.  Equality of opportunity . . . what a lovely phrase.  I absolutely agree that everyone should be given the opportunity to prove himself/herself and thereby become a member of the elites of ENWorld. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />   Hmm . . . deterioration was a bad turn of phrase on my part.  But I see you got what I was saying.  Excellent!  It's working!</blockquote>

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