Allright guys, I've thought about the feedback that you've given.
I thought that we had heard a large enough sample of the population to predict which way the population wanted to go with reorganization. We talked about it in the staff room and everyone seemed to be generally in favor of, or agreed with the logic behind, reunification. I posted this thread in order to gauge how the larger population would react to what it seemed to us was already the direction the population wanted to go. Given the number of likes the original post in this thread has, I think that we were right to assume that the majority is in favor, BUT! I totally understand that many of you feel like you were underrepresented in this, and even that I was forcing some decision upon you. I assure you, I was not. Several among you are not going to accept that reassurance because you have a beef with me, and that's fine, I respect that. If there's anything I can do to change that perception, I would. But you're mistaking my eagerness for heavy-handedness.
In that vein, I do feel that I didn't handle this as well as I could have. I have that hindsight perspective now. I did not want to hijack [MENTION=23518]Turtle[/MENTION]'s thread but I could see it did not clearly contain the poll option that many of you had already expressed. What I did was to start a new thread that explored that option, and closed the old thread (Turtle's) in order to keep the conversation in one thread. That was a mistake on my part. What I should have done was to help Turtle modify his poll to include more robust options, reset the poll for him, and let the conversation continue there. I thought doing it this way was a more expedient solution, but I took away Turtle's agency and his efforts in the process, and that was an unintended mistake. Turtle, I'm sorry.
I would be more than willing to help create a better thread with poll options, if you guys don't feel that this thread is the best place to discuss this matter. I want people to feel like they have a voice, even knowing that eventually we will have to choose some option, which won't be to everyone's preference.
I also want to apologize for the position that the forums should be organized by information rather than by community. Several of you have raised very good points about why that is a flawed way of thinking, and I have come to agree, so I thank you for your patience and your willingness to give feedback even when you're concerned that we're not listening. But I want you to be thinking now about the very real fact that people in this bracket have lots of freedom to change account types now, and how is that going to affect the way those same people are forced to change communities and the stigma against them, if we are not all considered one community.
If you want to continue a conversation here, then please do so. If you would prefer that I close my thread and reopen Turtle's thread and help him with more poll options, I will do that instead. This isn't my will and it isn't my idea, this was just me trying to facilitate the direction you all appeared to already be heading. If you all as a community want to gather more information about what direction you all want to be heading, if you would rather see it spelled out in a poll, I totally understand that. I apologize sincerely for any toes that I stepped on in my eagerness to find a solution before this issue becomes a crisis.
