An Overview of the History of the Ombudsman
Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 1:45 pm
Please note, this is still a WiP!
I am the foremost authority when it comes to the Ombudsman and it's history. What makes me so knowledgable about the Ombudsman position and it's history? First hand experience. I was friends with Mystake, FreeSpirit, Agapooka and Tok'ra during the inception of the Ombudsman role. I was friends with Smooshable, Mystake and Tok'ra during the reign of the first Ombudsman(Mystake). I have had long conversations with the second Ombudsman(Eros). I was the third Ombudsman. Being appointed so quickly after Eros' removal, I was able to see the aftermath of his time as Ombudsman while the bodies were still warm. I went on to be the first Ombudsman to serve for more then 6 months. I was the one that paved the way for 6 month terms. Before my tenure, the Ombudsman term was a mere two months. Then when I left and Bill(Pianomutt) took over, we became good friends and I stayed close to the Ombudsman office. That is my qualifications for my claim as being the foremost authority on the position and history of the Oms. The second most knowledgeable person is FreeSpirit, second primarily only because he was never Ombudsman and I was. =P
Anyway... I am sure that there will be those out there that will criticize me, accuse me of lying yadda yadda. However I have something they don't. I have proof; posts and witnesses. FreeSpirit will be able to collaborate everything I say. Now without further ado...
The Creation
It all started back in like September or October of 07 I think, Tor'ka was stirring up ruckus and no one was happy. Everyone was convinced that there was rampant bias on the forums. So eventually Tok'ra and AdminJason got together and discussed how to "fix" or improve the forum, the result? The Ombudsman. Yes, that's right, Tok'ra is the sole reason for the existence of the Ombudsman. What was the Ombudsman's job? It was to work with the staff to help improve the forum by making suggestions to the admin for various things to change and being a voice of the people, the vox populi. The reason for this was because at the time there was only one Admin and most users felt neglected with their concerns. The admin needed someone to shift through all the tripe and find the slivers of good ideas, suggestions and legitimate complaints. The Ombudsman was in a way a secretary but not really. Again, he was there primarily to facilitate communication between the forum staff and users and secondarily to provide feedback for the staff from the viewpoint of a normal user.
The First Era
Mystake was appointed(not voted in) to the Ombudsman's office. This was done by Jason. But this appointment was only supposed to last a month, instead it lasted for two months. Mystake did his duty and did it well, making all kinds of suggestions and working with the staff. Quite a few of his suggestions were turned down. Then there were some that were accepted and implemented.
The Scandal
Come the end of December/beginning of January elections were held to find Mystake's replacement. Eros nominated himself and received something like over 75% of the vote all by himself, the other candidates included myself coming in at second place and Semper coming in at a close third. I can't remember the other candidates but that doesn't matter now. In his first day as Ombudsman he had a a pretty nasty fight with the mods, where he mistakingly accused one of insulting him. This was not the case, the mod in question was simply PC to a fault. Truth is, in his attempt to try and not insult offend anyone, someone got offended. XD Anyway moving on... This was not the only issue that cropped up. You see Eros was under the impression that he could boss mods around and do things like overturn warnings without Admin approval. He was also under the false impression that he did not answer to the admin. He was mistaken, and subsequently removed do to his insane ramblings and paranoia.
The Second Era
With the untimely removal of the previous Ombudsman, the forum needed a replacement. Since I was the second place candidate, I was approached and asked if I wanted the job, so I accepted it. While I was Ombudsman, I was granted a tenure, meaning my term did not have an expiration date. Instead of my term expiring, I was promoted to supermod over misc and archives. During my time as Ombudsman it was abundantly clear to me that I did not have the ability to make any changes to policies or warnings/bannings on my own, that if I felt something needed to be changed that I had to go through the mods and admin first.
The Second Election
With my promotion, the forum once again needed an Ombudsman so once again elections were held. The way the second election was set up the users nominated someone, or they could nominate themself, they gave a reason for their nomination. The admin then went over the nominations, got feedback from the mods, then narrowed the nominations down to a few candidates. These few candidates were then put up for vote, the voting style was the way they vote in Aus, weird like lol. Pianomutt won that election.
The Third Era
With Pianomutt first took office he was very balanced in his approach, working with the mods and users alike to make suggestions for improving the forum. But after a while he started to shift to only working with user complaints against mods. Besides that, he also made a crapload of suggestions regarding user complaints. Some suggestions were absolutely detested by the mods and admins for the insane amount of red tape that they would create. One specific suggestion he made was the pardon system, for users that had been permabanned, it was a way for them try and get a second chance. This idea was obviously accepted and implemented. Somewhere along the way, because of Pianomutt's approach, people started to forget the true purpose of the Ombudsman. Although, I think it can also be said that they never truly understood it, as was proven by Eros.
The Third Elections
Under the new admins, the election process had changed. This time users merely voted for whoever they wanted, there was no nomination process. Manetheren won the election and Zeek became his understudy.
The Fourth Era
- UNDER CONSTRUCTION -
I am the foremost authority when it comes to the Ombudsman and it's history. What makes me so knowledgable about the Ombudsman position and it's history? First hand experience. I was friends with Mystake, FreeSpirit, Agapooka and Tok'ra during the inception of the Ombudsman role. I was friends with Smooshable, Mystake and Tok'ra during the reign of the first Ombudsman(Mystake). I have had long conversations with the second Ombudsman(Eros). I was the third Ombudsman. Being appointed so quickly after Eros' removal, I was able to see the aftermath of his time as Ombudsman while the bodies were still warm. I went on to be the first Ombudsman to serve for more then 6 months. I was the one that paved the way for 6 month terms. Before my tenure, the Ombudsman term was a mere two months. Then when I left and Bill(Pianomutt) took over, we became good friends and I stayed close to the Ombudsman office. That is my qualifications for my claim as being the foremost authority on the position and history of the Oms. The second most knowledgeable person is FreeSpirit, second primarily only because he was never Ombudsman and I was. =P
Anyway... I am sure that there will be those out there that will criticize me, accuse me of lying yadda yadda. However I have something they don't. I have proof; posts and witnesses. FreeSpirit will be able to collaborate everything I say. Now without further ado...
The Creation
It all started back in like September or October of 07 I think, Tor'ka was stirring up ruckus and no one was happy. Everyone was convinced that there was rampant bias on the forums. So eventually Tok'ra and AdminJason got together and discussed how to "fix" or improve the forum, the result? The Ombudsman. Yes, that's right, Tok'ra is the sole reason for the existence of the Ombudsman. What was the Ombudsman's job? It was to work with the staff to help improve the forum by making suggestions to the admin for various things to change and being a voice of the people, the vox populi. The reason for this was because at the time there was only one Admin and most users felt neglected with their concerns. The admin needed someone to shift through all the tripe and find the slivers of good ideas, suggestions and legitimate complaints. The Ombudsman was in a way a secretary but not really. Again, he was there primarily to facilitate communication between the forum staff and users and secondarily to provide feedback for the staff from the viewpoint of a normal user.
The First Era
Mystake was appointed(not voted in) to the Ombudsman's office. This was done by Jason. But this appointment was only supposed to last a month, instead it lasted for two months. Mystake did his duty and did it well, making all kinds of suggestions and working with the staff. Quite a few of his suggestions were turned down. Then there were some that were accepted and implemented.
The Scandal
Come the end of December/beginning of January elections were held to find Mystake's replacement. Eros nominated himself and received something like over 75% of the vote all by himself, the other candidates included myself coming in at second place and Semper coming in at a close third. I can't remember the other candidates but that doesn't matter now. In his first day as Ombudsman he had a a pretty nasty fight with the mods, where he mistakingly accused one of insulting him. This was not the case, the mod in question was simply PC to a fault. Truth is, in his attempt to try and not insult offend anyone, someone got offended. XD Anyway moving on... This was not the only issue that cropped up. You see Eros was under the impression that he could boss mods around and do things like overturn warnings without Admin approval. He was also under the false impression that he did not answer to the admin. He was mistaken, and subsequently removed do to his insane ramblings and paranoia.
The Second Era
With the untimely removal of the previous Ombudsman, the forum needed a replacement. Since I was the second place candidate, I was approached and asked if I wanted the job, so I accepted it. While I was Ombudsman, I was granted a tenure, meaning my term did not have an expiration date. Instead of my term expiring, I was promoted to supermod over misc and archives. During my time as Ombudsman it was abundantly clear to me that I did not have the ability to make any changes to policies or warnings/bannings on my own, that if I felt something needed to be changed that I had to go through the mods and admin first.
The Second Election
With my promotion, the forum once again needed an Ombudsman so once again elections were held. The way the second election was set up the users nominated someone, or they could nominate themself, they gave a reason for their nomination. The admin then went over the nominations, got feedback from the mods, then narrowed the nominations down to a few candidates. These few candidates were then put up for vote, the voting style was the way they vote in Aus, weird like lol. Pianomutt won that election.
The Third Era
With Pianomutt first took office he was very balanced in his approach, working with the mods and users alike to make suggestions for improving the forum. But after a while he started to shift to only working with user complaints against mods. Besides that, he also made a crapload of suggestions regarding user complaints. Some suggestions were absolutely detested by the mods and admins for the insane amount of red tape that they would create. One specific suggestion he made was the pardon system, for users that had been permabanned, it was a way for them try and get a second chance. This idea was obviously accepted and implemented. Somewhere along the way, because of Pianomutt's approach, people started to forget the true purpose of the Ombudsman. Although, I think it can also be said that they never truly understood it, as was proven by Eros.
The Third Elections
Under the new admins, the election process had changed. This time users merely voted for whoever they wanted, there was no nomination process. Manetheren won the election and Zeek became his understudy.
The Fourth Era
- UNDER CONSTRUCTION -
. Was very useful to read and explained a lot but lack of objective view was amusing for a History student 
What I say next is both of admiration, appreciation, and awe: you're written English got much better Apophis.
perhaps I should have defended more sneakily? 
it's a body of authority and doesn't actually relate to the gender of the person carrying out the role.