Over the last seven years, Allegiance has had no shortage of players who strive to keep this place running. Whether it was hacking the original executables, writing new programs to overlay on top of Allegiance itself, helping players get past tech support issues, educating newbies, organizing events, or many other things, there are many types of direct contribution made by many members that have allowed us to exist so strongly today. Without the dedicated work of all of these people, we would never be anywhere near where we are today.
In the beginning when cores were starting to be modified by Allegiance's players, a problem was recognized. What if things were changed by one user that weren't wanted by the community? It was clear that these few active players who do the bulk of the contribution could change things that were not welcome changes to the community. As a result, the Senate was born.
The idea behind the Senate was to provide checks and balances to ensure that the changes made were supported by the Allegiance community. Since there was no way to reliably get a feel of what the community as a whole wanted, the Senate was created to provide a voice that would represent the community's most active players instead. The idea was - if all of the squads wanted a change, chances are the whole community did.
Through the years not much has changed (with the exception of creating a Senator to represent the mercinaries). The "Doers" in the community act as advisors to the Senate above them, and the Senate debates what they should be doing. One thing that has changed, however, is the implementation of a reliable and secure polling method that cannot easily be manipulated - ASGS polls. Our community now has the facility to voice our opinions without a Senator acting as a proxy. This makes the Senate appear almost redundant.
When analyzing the past actions of the Senate, one quickly comes to the realization that the Senate hinders progress more than it helps. A few months ago when trying to organize a major squad tournament, the Senate hindered Ozzy's efforts by being a layer of beaurocracy which stifled Ozzy's organization. When trying to work on the code and decide which features should be worked on next, Dogbones encountered beaurocracy as well which has slowed down development since R3.
We now find ourselves in a position where we're legislating our progress to a standstill. The primary contributors in our community cannot easily work to improve Allegiance. In a community where everything is contributed in our free time, this presents a major roadblock which usually ends in people deciding not to contribute. Although the Senate was created to help Allegiance's changes, in the end it's clear that the Senate's existance hurts us more than it helps.
For these reason, I have made the decision to restructure FreeAllegiance's community to solve these problems by turning the whole thing upside down. Instead of the primary contributors advising the Senate to make decisions, the primary contributors will be in charge and will be advised by what the Senate represents - the Community. Each Zone of influence (Development/Artwork, Technical Support, Events, Newbie Education, etc) will be lead by the community member who contributes most in that zone as chosen by the system administrators. These players will not answer to a pseudo-governmental body, but will answer to the community itself with the aid of the ASGS polling system. This will help remove the problems that stifled progress while ensuring that changes are still welcomed by the community at large.
Here is the list of Zones and their initial Zone Leaders (ZLs):
Development / Artwork
Dogbones, with artwork lead by a community member of his choosing
Helpline / Technical Support
ImmortalZ, who will appoint Helpline moderators to ensure adequate coverage
FreeAllegiance Documentation
Tigereye, who will work with the Academy Administrator to keep FA.org's documentation fresh
Events Coordination / Scheduling
Ozzy, who will work with any member of the community who is organizing an event to ensure quality and prevent scheduling conflicts
ToS / RoC Enforcement
BlackViper, who will head the @Alleg team
Training and Education
Clay_Pigeon
These players are the ones who have been primary contributors in their zones of influence, so it is only fair that they are recognized for the hours of work they put in to keep Allegiance moving forward.
Each ZL will be in charge of their own zone of influence, and can delegate their jobs however they feel will work best. They will each appoint a secondary ZL who will act on their behalf should they be absent for a week or two to ensure that things run smoothly. With the Senate abolished, community members can forward their suggestions and contributions to the appropriate ZL.
The forums have been rearranged to reflect these structural changes and to ensure each ZL has a place to organize and coordinate their zones of influence.
This decision was not made lightly, however I hope the community at large agrees that these changes will help Allegiance become more agile and improve the progress of our flourishing community.
Thalgor