Sorry, but I'm completely opposed to the idea of default votes. A vote
of PRESENT indicates an opinion just as much as YES or NO does. It
indicates that I do not have strong feelings either way for this
proposal, that whether it passes or fails, I will be content. If I
haven't voted on a proposal, then you can assume that I haven't read
it closely yet, and that's about all. You can NOT assume that I don't
care about it.

There is some sense to equating ABSTAIN with DON'T CARE when your only
voting options are YES and NO. That is not the case here.

Furthermore, I am very much against the idea of making changes to the
rules for which less than half of the affected population has
expressed any opinion. In other words, I support quorum.

If people find quorum failures to be such a pain, then we shouldn't
consider getting rid of quorum, just the hyperreactionary fallout of
immediate two-day vacations for everybody who didn't vote. (Which is,
necessarily, over half the players.)

I think we already have enough safeguards in the game (Pending status,
Dead players, et al), to avoid another Quorum Crisis - not to mention
all the new ways to cast extra votes that have come up since. It's
been over a year since the Quorum Crisis, and what saved us then has
become a major headache in the meantime. It's caused the very term
"Quorum Crisis" to mean instead the results of the rule changes that
ended the real Quorum Crisis! But instead of blaming those changes,
people blame quorum itself. I can't believe that people have seriously
discussed dropping quorum entirely rather than just returning it to
the way it was originally. Or all these machinations introduced just
to avoid Quorum from ever failing. Cart! Horse!

Quorum was NOT MEANT TO BE AN EMERGENCY! It's supposed to mean that
your proposal can't be enacted because too few people have submitted
their opinions on it! Nothing more!

Unless someone convinces me that I'm off base here (and I admit the
possibility, because after all I AM ranting), I'm going to submit a
proposal that when a failure of quorum occurs, the Proposal fails and
THAT'S ALL.

Or, if that's too lenient, then we can dock everyone who didn't vote 5
points. Or more. Or less. Hell, dock them 25 points and A$100 and have
their name legally changed to "Just Another Asshole #<N>". I'll STILL
vote for it. I don't want anyone to think that I'm biased because I've
been forgetting to vote. I think voting is the single most important
activity in this game. (I fell behind because I'm forgetful, and the
Court's kept me busy.) But all I want is to get rid of this forced
vacation insanity. It has served its purpose once. It no longer serves
us, it annoys and hinders us. And if by chance we ever need it again,
we know where to find it.

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