ENWorld Liberation Movement - The Elitism must end

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

The people have spoken, and the people love ENWorld.

Many people, like myself, were already community supporters before the fund raiser, but still donated, because it was (and is) a worthy cause. People that love ENWorld will continue to support the site when needed for the same reasons. Future fundraisers will keep ENWorld going as necessary.

The old paradigm of exclusively supporting ENWorld by selling individual CS accounts has failed.

The time has come for eliminating the class structure here as well. This has truly become everyones site, not just for those with a custom tagline under their name, which loudly proclaims, "I donated - You didn't". The means are there, and a future server upgrade could provide the necessary "oomph" to allow every member the ability to search these forums, and thus fully utilize this wonderful resource.

If ENWorld is to grow, and avoid a stagnation dominated by veteran posters, this place needs to be as user friendly as possible.

Let's not just stand on the convention of "this is how it has always been" - Let's galvanize ourselves for the new, elitism free ENWorld of the future.

Your partner in solidarity,

BFG

from dictionary.com:

e·lit·ism or é·lit·ism
n.

The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources.

The sense of entitlement enjoyed by such a group or class.
Control, rule, or domination by such a group or class.

 

[blackshirt5]

Please tell me you're joking.

 

[Crothian]

Who is getting favored treatement? Does anyone truely think that search and a tagline is really that a big a deal? Sigs and avatars seem much more important and everyone can have them.

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

Please tell me you're joking.

This is not a joke.

Nor is this a recrimination.

This is a plea for equitible changes in the upcoming iterations and future of the ENWorld messageboards.

This site was operated by certain guidelines in the past, and they may have been appropriate for the time they were implemented, but those times are in past.

ENWorld now has the means to provide the means for anyone to use the search
function in future iterations of the boards.

 

[Hand of Evil]

While I understand and feel you are right I just want to say that a few people here are gods and I feel honored to walk in their shadow.

 

[blackshirt5]

I dunno, I like the setup the way it is now.

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

Who is getting favored treatement?

Anyone that donated money to ENWorld or has otherwise purchased a CS account.

Does anyone truely think that search and a tagline is really that a big a deal? Sigs and avatars seem much more important and everyone can have them.

New users like this guy certainly do:

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=71496

ENWorld can be very overwhelming for a new user with its thousands upon thousands of threads, and years of history.

In order for ENWorld to prosper in the long term, new users must join the fold and utilize the resources here. Otherwise they just won't stick around. For every lurker who has posted regarding the search function, I bet there have been many more who just left in frustration.

What use is a shiny avatar, when all you want to do is quickly get some DM tips or rules based help? Avatars and signatures are only important to the most frequent messageboard posters. Infrequent users don't care about these much. They ceratinly don't want to hear a "sales pitch" on their first attempt to locate something in the archives. After bookmarking ENWorld, they will come back if they found the site useful.

And then they will become an addict like us!

And possibly give any money they might be able to afford for a CS account or in a future fund raiser.

Many people made sacrifices in order to donate during the drive. I respect many of the people here who wanted to give $, but just could not make that happen. They are just as much a part of our community as those who did. This place would not be as great without them and their posts. They should also be able to fully utilize the resources here.

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

I dunno, I like the setup the way it is now.

Why?

 

[blackshirt5]

Why?

It's Quid Pro Quo.

We paid out to help support the site, ergo, we get to use schnazziness. Not saying other people are jerks for not, but it's an incentive; if you want custom titles, PMs, and Search functions, then donate to help keep the site running.

 

[Darrin Drader]

I think I liked it better when I was an untitled bum. Now I have responsibilities and street cred, which creates a lot of pressure to live up to the expectations.