[matt_st3 (Strongrule)]

I’ll write this throughout the day since I don’t feel like adding a wall of text in one go.
The community lacks strong leadership. Be it for whatever reasons and point fingers at whatever group you want to blame, you no longer have people in positions that are both willing and able to make the changes. Able being the most obvious issue, tied to the “in positions” problems, while willing is mostly a problem in that the community runs on people who make it that far. This isn’t admins, owner, or committees since those are just titles but rather actual leaders. Willing and able needs both the want and energy to pursue goals while able needs the critical thinking and ability to actually deliver on community goals. The servers have seen many of those people come through, and they did not all carry the title admin or committee member. Hell some that have held that title should never have even made it there because they did not meet those qualities but rather knew the right people and/or brownosed to get there. Everyone has their opinions and their favorite picks for who was the best this or that, but the successful ones made a lasting impact.
In an opinion that I previously expressed the committee system failed out the gate based on why it was implemented. In an attempt to fill this void committees were created to boost the raw number of people who could directly affect server and community decisions. While some members now had more access and could actually make the system *work* you still lump in a number that could not. Even with this, you still actually change nothing because no one gained any real access only a title slapped on. The same mods that joined committees were only able to express their opinions in other channels, a good admin/owner/person in charge would still be taking in the opinions right off the applications. But let’s get away from that and say that committees changed the framework and that slapping a title on helped mods feel like they have more of an objective say. Even then they have no more access to actually implement what they vote on. Ban, and boy do I have opinions on why bans shouldn’t be a voted on item except in 1% cases, and unban committees have more of a direct use as the mods have the command access. Unless I’m forgetting a committee the others all still rely on someone to pull the trigger.
Give up on co-owner, I and others have written full models on how to make that work and it won’t happen given past examples of this being abused. Slapping a title on regulars and saying they have more of a say than others based on a random or hand picked selection defeats its own purpose. Instead, have leadership that values a well written argument over a time played in a game. *But Matt, you just said that leadership doesnt exist - well maybe if people would stop acting like shit heads to people trying to prevent a guy from moaning in his mic or taking a break-up and stringing it all over the forums those people that do exist would stay and make it to the needed ranks.*
And I’m not going to sit and wear on dink Bc it’s a beaten horse, but man you know there’s a direct line between your activity to people staying and community happiness. It’s a necessity yet at the same time we already know that the server/community will putter on so long as important issues get *just* enough attention. But until the minimum bar is raised people will continue to be upset - and some of them even give solutions that are viable.
As to the admin number, yes an ideal number rests in 3 or 5. Any more and you bog down the position by too many votes needed and you can polarize the admin team who then need someone to manage them. Any even number will reach a point where they need a tie breaking votes, same polarized issue. One admin requires a 24/7 activity that you cannot maintain due to life and burnout. 3 or 5 provides a small revolving door of activity and a massive boost to the simple tasks of approving unbans and the like. With each sever having this number the community becomes a daily well oiled machine. The very few times were a massive issue comes up you now have a large group of experienced leadership to draw from shot then *draws from their own groups*. What a wild concept. ‘18 didn’t needs half of the hoops to jump through simply because you had more people around that were both willing and able to moderate and implement needed changes. Hell dink was faster and yes, the co-owner having access sped things up. Still it won’t be back.
I’ll add later