When honorary power goes to far.

Well, today on my Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy game clan forums (www.dls-clan.com) there was another big argument dominating all boards. In this clan we have a special rank called "Ancient One" (AO) which is reserved for retired leaders of the clan. So anyway this rank was first made as a special position that leaders that had done something special for the clan could be placed in after they had left. They were supposed to be kind of advisor's to help the leaders out in tough decisions but somewhere along the line their role got confused and somehow they got the power to vote in Council Meetings. The council is made up of "Emperors" (E), the leaders of the clan, and "Council Members" (CM), semi-leaders of the clan, of which I am one.

Anyway, with so many people being given AO rank they were starting to, in my opinion, hold the clan back, refusing to move with the times and evolve. Practically trying to keep the clan exactly the same as it was 3 or 4 years ago, while the CM's and E's tried to evolve with how the culture of the game was moving, and move the clan forward.

So, today there erupted a big argument over it. Fuelled by some careless and heated comments. After I realised that the arguments in the Council Section of the forums were going nowhere i created a poll about it in a public members section. Very soon after a big argument started between one of the E's, Gunner, and an AO, Viper. It started when, from what I can tell, Viper accused Gunner of being a dictator and corrupt. In retaliation Gunner removed Vipers Council privileges on the forum. Enraged, Viper made a post about it in the public clan section. What ensued was a non-stop flaming war between Gunner and Viper, with occasional comments thrown in by myself, and a few other members.

Eventually an old member by the name #include made a post stating that he was the one that originally came up with the idea for the AO rank. And that how the rank worked was (quoted from his own post):

"1. You did not ask for AO. You were offered AO and could only get it with 100% minus one leader vote (ie 7 leaders would mean you'd need 6 votes)

2. If the vote was successfull, you could only get AO if you accepted it.

3. ACTIVE AOs still had full admin access and full access to forums so they can properly advise. AOs also had forum moderator, but it was later removed. AOs WERE leaders and proved to be trustworthy, so suddenly punishing them and removing access didn't make sense.

4. AOs lost the ability to vote in meetings to enforce retirement

5. AOs acted as advisors to the current and upcoming leaders

6. AOs retire from leadership and can never return into leadership except under extreme circumstances. Accepting AO meant you were TRULY retiring from leadership. Accepting AO was a BIG DEAL because of this sacrifice. Not everyone that was offered it accepted the rank."

So, after that things became more clear, everyone settled down slowly and eventually an agreement was made.

Quoted from Announcements section:

"-Henceforth, AOs are no longer allowed to vote in Council Meetings but Can Still be there to give Advice
-Chosen AOs shall be allowed Sith Admin unless special circumstances come along and they have higher
-AOs Can still vote for recruits to be accepted in the clan
-AOs Can still vote for promotions up until the rank of S, After that they can only vote for them if that AO is the members Master
-On Important decisions in Council, a Poll in the Voting booth will be placed and it will be counted 1 total vote"

Everytime something like this happens it makes me think more and more that this clan (DLS) has got to be one of the most dramatic ever. We've had things happen like this that were ten times more dramatic, many times, lol.