Military Power

The Last Days of Military Power may be upon us. We are approaching the 3 year mark for Military Power (originally started on April 17, 2006) and I am growing increasingly tired of the way things are going. It was a good effort, but it seems that an international community of military supporters can not exist. I'm getting increasingly frustrated that after almost 3 years I still only have a handful of "active" members. But the thing that seems to be the "last straw" as it seems is that a fundamental founding principal of my site is not materializing (nor do I now believe it ever will). That principal is one of international support. That was the whole point of Military Power. There are all kinds of forums out there for military support and discussion for individual countries, the fact that Military Power was for all was what made it different. I expected eventual tensions, but mainly if Russians, or Israelis and Iraqis joined, or others that were historically enemies. What I did not expect, and was highly unprepared for, was supposed "allies" going out of their way to upset each other. I found that the British members had nothing nice to say about America and that the American members, once provoked, can say some rather nasty things about the British. It is on that note that I have seriously considered disabling the forum until I either decide to delete it, or figure something else out. No decisions have been made as of yet, but I figured it was only fair to warn you.

I never had you down as a quitter KT. A good leader doesn’t throw in the towel just because things are not turning out the way they were planned. You have a good and loyal team here (the evidence is in the quantity of material being posted both in the forum and in the Wiki). Your team of regular contributors may be few in numbers (and maybe not always singing from the same song sheet) but it would be a far inferior place if correspondents didn’t feel free to express their own opinions. Loyalty works both ways-The time to pull the plug is when people stop posting, not because you no longer want to listen to anyone who might happen to have a different view on a particular subject.

I'm sorry to hear that. I really liked the forum, and am getting used to the wiki.

Let me attempt to explain a little better. First, I haven't made any decisions yet, so it may be a little premature to call me a quitter. I have some other options I am considering, but I felt that since one of the options was to close the forum I should give advance warning that it may happen, rather that you try to log on one day to find it gone with no explanation. Second, IF I decide to close the forum, the wiki will still be there. Third, differing opinions are all good, and even encouraged, but personal attacks and going out of the way to purposely offend other members and stir up anger, resentment, and other troubles crosses that line.

There are a lot of things facing me here, but mainly, to sum it all up, no one wants to help by being staff, it's almost been 3 years and we only have a handful of active members (which I think may be, at least partly because of the next two items), The British hate the Americans and the Americans can say some rather strong words to/about the British when provoked. As one of my options, I've considered just making more rules, but I liked the whole not being a totalitarian dictator thing, plus I guess the main problem is enforcement. As much as I'd like to, I can't spend my entire life on the forum, wiki, and working on the site (the blog is currently a lost cause because I have to spend most of my time being one of only 2 staff persons), and with virtually no staff it makes it that much harder. Maybe if I were independently wealthy or Military Power was "bailed out" like so many other companies that wouldn't be an issue as I wouldn't have to have a real job or better myself through higher education and could devote more time to what I really want to, Military Power.

The Staff Positions I would really like are as follows:
Forum Admin
Wiki Admin
Promotional Admin
Head Moderator
Moderator

Before I get too many complaints about too many chiefs and not enough Indians, I know we aren't really big enough to have that many, but it would definitely free up more time for me (and if we had a Promotional Admin we might grow more). Here is the rationale:
Forum Admin and Wiki Admin: The two largest parts of Military Power and different enough from each other that I figure they should have their own Admins. Those Admins would report to General Forestry who would, in turn report to me.
Promotional Admin: There are all kinds of opportunities for promoting Military Power, but, as I have all these other things to worry about I don't get to spend much time doing do. A Promotional Admin would focus on Promotion opportunities (rather than the daily operations of Military Power as the others do) and report to myself or General Forestry. They would also be the voice of Military Power if we were unavailable (much like the Press Secretary for the President).
Head Moderator: A stop along the chain of command for the Moderators if they have problems they can't handle. Also a buffer for the admins so they can focus on their administrative duties.
Moderator: AKA Forum Police, they are who the members would come to before disputes got out of hand. Also, they would "patrol" their areas for TOS and Rules violations.

How that would help is that it wouldn't put a lot of pressure on any one person. Moderators would be responsible for specific areas (and we can even have moderators in the wiki if needed). If a situation arises that the Moderator can't solve they would, in turn, ask the Head Moderator for assistance. The Head Moderator would "police" the Moderators to make sure they aren't breaking rules, ect. They would be the one that members would go to if there is a problem with a Moderator. If they run into a problem "above their paygrade" they would then consult the proper Admin (either Forum Admin or Wiki Admin). The Admins (Wiki or Forum) would be tasked with making sure the Head Moderator under them does their job as well as general maintenance of the forum/wiki and reports to General Forestry, who in turn reports to me. In theory, this greatly reduces the number of minor issues (and even some major ones) that General Forestry and I have to deal with and allow us to focus our efforts on improving the site rather than fixing minor problems or settling petty differences. The Promotional Admin wouldn't really have Moderator or Admin privileges (other than to the proper areas, such as the Admin Discussion section), mainly so that they wouldn't be bombarded by requests from members and they can focus on promoting Military Power). Much like the military, I feel a clear and well defined command structure would be helpful, but, it is getting that command structure in place that will be the major problem.

That would be my ideal solution, but that doesn't seem to be possible here, so, I have to consider other options, as unpleasant as they may be.

First off, I have to completely agree with KT on the staff positions. We have, for a very long time, needed staff positions filled. I also want to acknowledge that we do have a fairly frequent amount of country-bashing, as I put it. Yes, I am an American. But I am a kind-heart, patriotic American. I love my country, and I would do anything I could to make it survive. But I just don't see it necessary to run down and bash another country the way ALL members on here do. There's just no reason for it.

It is obvious that we have some very committed (but few) members on here, and I salute you . But we need new members, and we need members who can get along easily and without confrontation all the time. What KT is saying is exactly what we need. We kind of need a retooling session, because it may very well be the only way we can keep the forum going. Please, whoever else reads this thread...they need to read it and provide their thoughts.

Well, I only have a few comments to the above post's. As far as "Country Bashing " goes, I really dont think that you can have an International fourm without this occuring, Canadian's , British ,American's etc. have been doing this on and off the battlefield since we took up arm's together ,British dragging their Commonwealth partners along usually willingly.

Staff, well if you want to give everybody thats active on this fourm a job, then you might be able to get that end covered.

I think that this fourm tries very hard to be something that it just can not do. I do "feel" that this fourm is very "Republican Idealed" with a few others trying to get along and having some very "colourfull" exchanges of Ideals, which I find nothing wrong with. Hell I support that, but we just can not attract members to come onboard because this fourm focus's on just the Military which is a highly specialized field, very tough participants. You really think you can have a "Military" fourm without conflict the very job of the Military is to solve problems with force. The talking we leave to the Diplomats, You can not have it BOTH WAYS.

george babony wrote:Well, I only have a few comments to the above post's. As far as "Country Bashing " goes, I really dont think that you can have an International fourm without this occuring, Canadian's , British ,American's etc. have been doing this on and off the battlefield since we took up arm's together ,British dragging their Commonwealth partners along usually willingly.

I fully expect this, I do not expect everyone to agree about everything all the time, what I do expect, is at least a valid attempt at civility. I expect the occasional jab now and then as well as the occasional "fight", but when members go out of their way to hurt or offend other members, that is something that is completely uncalled for.

george babony wrote:Staff, well if you want to give everybody thats active on this fourm a job, then you might be able to get that end covered.

Quite true, but only in so far as I would have the positions technically. The real problem is that no one will accept the positions, and so just giving them the title doesn't help me any. To be honest, I'm not looking to staff ALL of the above mentioned positions right now, but having people that actually cared enough about Military Power to take on some responsibility would be encouraging.

george babony wrote:I do "feel" that this fourm is very "Republican Idealed"

And quite rightly, democrats (at least any that hold public office) tend to cut spending on the military, decrease its size, decrease its funding, and quite honestly, tend to be the ones protesting at military funerals. I say tend to because there are some, like General Forestry, that do actually care about the military (and there are some republicans who don't). They tend to favor diplomacy over military action, and while admirable, not all situations can be solved diplomatically.

george babony wrote:You really think you can have a "Military" fourm without conflict the very job of the Military is to solve problems with force. The talking we leave to the Diplomats, You can not have it BOTH WAYS.

First, I'm not trying to make this the military, I'm making it a place to discuss the military. Second, in the military, a job where you solve problems by force, if you have personal problems that you attempt to solve by force, there is disciplinary action, so even they have to be diplomatic. So, it seems you can have it both ways. And no, I don't think you can have a military forum without conflict, that isn't what I am wanting. The underlying theme of this whole thing is members going out of their way to hurt or offend other members. That is what I am trying to avoid.

Well, I think the time has come to say Good Bye and Good Luck, It was fun, and I always enjoyed the exchange of opinions.

Youre Friend
George Babony

Ok, I've come to the conclusion that I will not be closing the forum, but I have come up with new rules. As we have people on here that can't remain civil with the relative lack of rules we have had, and since I can't get any other staff to help me, we will have to start adding more rules, starting with This One. I wish I could get staff, and members that didn't act like children but since I can't, this is the way it has to be.

Good decision!
Glad you are keeping this forum going!