I really feel the whole organization thing has been blown out of proportion. As ireenquench pointed out, a person's affiliation is becoming more important than their ideas.
The way I see it, we are approaching the Guild backwards.
Instead of focusing on the needs the Guild should fulfill and figuring out the best way to accomplish that, we are starting with the solution (the structure) and trying to go backwards.
It seems like if everyone could take a deep breath, step back from their desired outcome, and focus on the puzzle itself - that we would have a better chance of working together as Dr. Watson suggests.
The first question, in my mind, is not "what should the GoM look like" - but "what needs should the GoM serve." Whether the GoM serves these needs through an umbrella guild and existing organizations, or whether, as Whilyam suggested, we follow the GoW and band together to start from scratch ... Decisions such as these have to be made from a desire to make the best GoM possible. It has become pretty clear (to me, at least) that personal investment (on both sides) is beginning to impede constructive conversation.
There are a lot of people who are interested in making the GoM succeed - passionate, intelligent people who have either put in years on the news circuit or have recently discovered this wonderful opportunity. And yet, the conversation has been rife with bickering, grudges, etc. And none of it has anything to do with the reason Cyan chose GoM as one of five "to be official" guilds.
I want to challenge the GoM community to start thinking globally. If, as Sam and others have pointed out, the GoM is going to be (whether we like it or not) most explorers' first stop for news, don't we have a responsibility to make it as accurate, fast, flexible, high-quality, versatile, and welcoming as possible? THAT should be our goal, and any structural decisions should come from a community wish to serve that goal.
I do believe that most of us have this wish in our hearts, but I would challenge you to ask yourself if that is your utmost goal. If personal investment in an organization, in dissolving organizations, in verbally besting an opponent - whatever it may be - is more important to you than the Guild being the best it can be, then we will not ever reach the pinnacle of cooperation and quality that Watson has asked of us.
In the future, I will do my best to speak and reason objectively, because I want the GoM to succeed. And I hope others will, as well.
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Shimmerillion | KI: 01204798 | GoMe Website