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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fusangite" data-source="post: 2289052" data-attributes="member: 7240">Brent,I think you are universalizing the idea of elitism to the point where it becomes meaningless. You are in danger of arguing that any system that distinguishes amongst people on any basis is essentially elitist. Now, I will agree that all systems are, by their nature, hierarchical. As Kenneth Burke opined, "if order, then hierarchy." All communities are ordered. All communities are hierarchical. But I wouldn't characterize all communities as elitist.My idea of how ENWorld should work is merit-based. If you show yourself to be a reliable or interesting poster, you will get responses. The fact that it takes time and effort to demonstrate those things about oneself is characteristic of all merit-based systems. And I really object to the idea that all merit-based systems are elitist in character. If one wants a message board of quality, where most of the posts are worth reading and people are around to answer questions about things they post, the culture of the board should be meritocratic. And that's what we have, to a greater or lesser extent, here on ENWorld. In my view, it's not necessarily a good idea for new people to the board to feel that merely by showing up they will be treated the same as established posters. But it is a good idea for them to have the sense that if they contribute reliably and constructively, they will be. I think you're right that there is a problem if they feel that such treatment is beyond their reach; so perhaps we need to find ways to let people know that there is, if not equality, equality of opportunity.That's not always deterioration. Often people do their best and most creative thinking when forced to defend their ideas in an adversarial context. That's actually one of the things I like about ENWorld; people like Umbran and shilsen often force me to think things through very carefully that I would never reason-out were it not for the adversarial nature of clip and quote conversations.You see, I see this as evidence the system/culture of ENWorld works.</blockquote>

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