User blog comment:Marcus Junior/Marc's Reformist Manifesto/@comment-4072803-20161023163012

I'm.... a bit torn on this, and to explain my reasoning for what I'm about to vote is something that's a tad difficult to do, but hey, I'll make a fair shot at it anyway. (Also I'm kinda half-awake right now so my explanation might be largley incoherent in parts; I apologize).

In many ways, I can see both sides of this issue. As someone infamous for being on a ridiculous number of wikis, I've seen both fanons with rigid as heck rules (Toriko Fan Fiction, off the top of my head) and those that are notoriously lax (ah, hello PokeFanon!), and I've seen the pros and cons of even those. Those with too lose rules inevitably lead to a lack of quality control and some truly awful ideas are put out for the world to see. Ah, but, that itself causes another problem, for it is their right to display those ideas, no matter how horrible one might think them, so it makes a group of authority deleting things for being "stupid" seem more tyrannical than just.

But those with too many are not blameless or flawless either. It seems ideal at first: with a rigid set of rules, you can reduce the amount of terrible ideas that become broadcast for the world, and most that comes out of your wiki has been thoroughly edited and processed, lead to a presentable state that others can look upon and gain a good impression. But even then, there lies an ugly side. The rules become like a cage, people's ideas being shut out and kicked to the curb because someone thought of them first, because they need admin permission to even have the basic powers they want, because etc. Neither of this necessarilly apply to SOF, and indeed I would commend this wiki for landing as neatly in the middle as it has, but the point I'm attempting to make is that the two sides of the "rules debate" are both desireable and undesireable in many ways. Now, with a hopefully unbiased explanation having been hopefully made, I shall endeavor to explain my view of things, for whatever its worth.

I love this wiki, more than I think I can properly express and more than some would even believe. I came upon it in a decently difficult part of my life, issues with growing older and leaving behind the familiar in addition to being banned from another wiki I liked (it got better; my membership has since been fully restored). In this mindset, I rebounded to One Piece, and found this place. I loved it at first sight and I've loved it again. The effort people put into characters is truly admirable and the greatest works here (the Jolly Pirates and the Skylines, to come to mind) have come out of this struggle to maintain canon and keep things original. This wiki and its community have remained a golden part of my life ever since, helping me through the rigors of a move and the at-times suicidal tendencies that resulted and at times still persist, though some of you never knew explicitly how you managed to help me, and continue to help me, get through all this. I want this wiki to keep going at any cost, and I'm terrified to my core at the thought of it being abandoned and rendered defunct. Hence why I initially fully supported this manifesto, and indeed parts of it still appear quite viable, but other comments below have allowed me to reconsider my position, and with it come a few points.

First, canon is rapidly becoming a cage. Sad as it is to say, I think it goes without saying that Oda does not care about us. Not necessarily about his fans in general, but about the work they create in honor of his series. Oda isn't the likes of Mamare Touno, a writer so dedicated to his fans that he declares fan concepts canon on the spot and even pulled strings to get the most-beloved Log Horizon fanfiction actually published. Oda isn't a Araki, who rumor has it illustrated a fan-written light novel, taking time out of his busy schedule to do so. Not to say that Oda isn't a good man either; he just places the concerns of the story above those of his fans, and its not the worst position to take. The result is, however, that as OP progresses the scope of our ability to create new material lowers, to the point where we have whole users who master at creating loopholes. Unfortunatley, its a hole that keeps growing smaller, and it drives all but the most determined of new users away. It is a system where even the oldest concept can be torn down, and because of that there can be a feeling that nothing we make here is truly safe (which very well might be true). Recommending new users to Sea of Fools is an option, but o-so-very few actually make that jump, if any at all. I certainly have observed almost none. This is not necessarily a fault of its community, but rather the fault of the users and perhaps even ourselves: it amounts to us saying "Sorry, no room, if you don't like it get the hell out." At least, that is how I see many new users interpreting it.

At the same time, great stuff has been made here from this restraints, and I won't deny that. MJ's proposal essentially keeps similarly rigid rules, but opens up space a little, allowing for greater control over what writers want. Not much would change; a name-change here, a slight tweaking of event there, and the result is that we end up with a lot more freedom without trying to stuff everything we want into an increasingly shrinking box. And indeed, others have a point in that it would be difficult to do and not all would do it; though I would argue that 21 characters would not be an especially daunting task, at least for a baseline level and rewrites would largely be up to their creators. Greater feats have certainly been attempted, and yes, while many have failed, many have suceeded as well.

Now, to clarify some things. I am not "leaving the wiki" or "jumping ship" despite what some have said. I fully intend to remain here and remain an active part of the community. For personal reasons of my own and problems with how things have turned out on a character and more level (as well as rapid disillusionment with the shonen hero as a whole), I am abandoning Grand Voyage and starting a new project on Sea, largely because for the time being I would like to release the stress of fitting everything within canon and simply focus on telling a good story with character development all around. I am not deleting GV or the Marimos; they will still be open for collabs and all projects of that nature I have created are still ongoing. I will just most likely not be contributing any further chapters of Grand Voyage to the wiki for the foreseeable future. That is the extent of my "move"; writing a story on our sister site for now. I have done such a thing before, writing most of my material on Sea while spending most of my social time on Ship. I still care deeply about this site and am invested in its future.

Basically, to sum things up, I land somewhere on the middle of this. For the purposes of free speech, I offer that we reexamine the rules and allow a bit more flexibility to match the increasingly changing conditions of the current One Piece canon. Though, for the purpose of this vote, and as I believe that all sides of an issue have to receive representation to some extent, as well as my agreement with the philosophy of it all (even if I do see the issues), well...

I agree.