Update Regarding President Airmax1227 (10/12/22)

The president's job is essentially an advisory role, which has no authority or leverage to dictate moderator actions. I still don't understand the reason to this day there are still those who are overestimating the function of this office.

It takes so long to type, I’m like nah

So, like, when you vote for political candidates do you bother to read anything past the letter in parentheses? Or is it, like, nah?

Fast forward to Airmax's actual first post on the site, and it looks like he has a renewed interest in the community. Knowing how good he was at being a mod on DDO, old users including myself supported his presidential campaign on this site and he got elected. His campaign even attracted other old DDO users to DART, some of which were users that quit DDO before I joined in 2016. Sadly, he never did anything after that (and those old members disappeared again), which leads us to the present where he has been justifiably removed from office.

There's a lesson in all of this: When someone loses interest in something, they are incredibly unlikely to regain it for longer than a moment. Some will say you can't blame us for being hopeful, but I disagree. We should've seen it coming. Everyone was so focused on a Michael Jordan-esque comeback story that they forgot about the possibility of a Brett Farve-esque comeback story. Or a Michael Jordan-esque comback story, Wizards edition. Not a perfect comparison, but I hope you get the point.

I think it has to do with a desire old members tend to have. They desire a culture that was closer to the old DDO, where there was more discussion and less flaming. There was drama, of course, but much more of the time seemed to be spent organizing tournaments, playing mafia games, or joking around in forums. Even the discussions were better. There was a time on DDO when the Religion forum was the only toxic forum. Political polarization in society then led to the Political forum being corrupted as well, eventually to the point where DART's Politics forum got to the sad state it is now. The Main forum on DART has a history of drama and flame wars, which is something I rarely saw on DDO.

I was somewhat more disillusioned with some of the reasons for the votes cast by some of the members and moderators. Member(s)/Moderators were citing Airmax's moderator experience for a role that did not include a moderator's capacity. I can understand wanting to bring Airmax into the fold in a reduced capacity, but for one who has expressed little interest in this site--DART that is--his late bid, at least in my opinion, was nothing short of a nepotistic attempt to shoehorn him in. There are many reasons to which one can allude for DDO's past popularity: (1) fewer online debate platforms, (2) higher attention spans, (3) a younger membership who had little to no work and/or family obligations, (4) members having little to no prior experience with other members before joining the site, so forth and so on. I honestly think it's a fool's errand to try and recreate DDO (though I understand the irony in that DART is essentially a recreation of DDO.) Perhaps the focus of the site's brass should be placed more on member satisfaction and not alienating members on abstract interpretations of the rules. As opposed to seeking out an old friend and stating, "make our community popular, again," the site can focus on expanding the scope of options members here can control how they interact with others. I think there is no one more fit to advise the moderators on these aforementioned prospects than 3RU7AL.

I think it has to do with a desire old members tend to have

My intention for my vote with Airmax was not to relive the days of DDO,

the presidency will remain vacant from 10/12/22 until the next presidential election. We hope this decision can be understood, and we hope for the best when it comes to the next presidency