If you were to classify the structure of the SDMB under a political system, what would you classify it as? Communist, facist, democratic, socialist, dictatorship, egalitarian, etc. Also, please provide a reason why you think so.
I hope this is clear enough.
Well, you can do anything you want so long as you don’t break a few clearly posted rules, which the members had no say in writing and which are enforced by Mods we did not elect and from whom there is no appeal. So I would call it a liberal or libertarian dictatorship, or oligarchy.
Benevolent dictatorship. The Chicago Reader makes and enforces the rules, but the rules are acceptable to a wide variety of users of the SDMB.
My mom is going to be so pleased when she hears I’m an oligarch.
An unpaid one, though?
At first I wanted to call it a dictatorship. The mods make the rules and that is that. But on the other hand, the borders are open, anyone who cares to leave is free to do so. I would say that that there is no valid comparison to a political system, because the SDMB is not a political system. Round peg, square hole. Nuf’ said.
This site seems to be left leaning to me, but i suspect it’s because i’ve only started reading these (mostly brilliant) posts after dubwa was put in charge and i think the leftist opinions are just objections to our current president’s policies and possibly corruption. As far as im concerned, we invaded the wrong i-r-a…
It’s a colonial government appointed by a benevolent dictatorship.
I thought we were an autonomous collective.
You’re fooling yourself. We’re living in a dictatorship: a self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes–
Oh, there you go, bringing class into it again!
That’s what it’s all about. If only people would hear of–
Self evidently it is an anti-revolutionary and imperialist form of government. Chairmen Mao himself said “imperialism and all reactionaries are paper tigers”. What is the Chicago Reader? That’s right, a paper. If reactionaries are papers, then papers are reactionary. Ipso facto, quod erat demondstratum.
Loosely organized anarchist state in which the few rules are pretty well enforced when enforcement is required (and those decisions are always hotly debated). Roughly comparable to herding cats.
We’re an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week, but all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting, by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs, but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more major–
We are Borg.
Be quiet! Will you be quiet?!
Meritocracy? Sometimes when the Pit is really busy and I’m feeling cranky I think it’s more of a kakocracy but then I eat something, my blood sugar regulates and I’m fine again…
Ah! Now we see the violence inherent in the system!
Help! Help! I’m being repressed!
[sub]ok, I’ll stop now[/sub]
Bloody peasant!