The Resurrection Of A Mindset

Since yesterdays Part 1 I received a couple of messages asking me further about how this new start should work.

I will gladly explain what's on my mind.

When I received the emails of the ex-members and they told me they want to resurrect Lotus, I wasn't in favor of doing so. Many things have happened internally that 95% of the members never realized. This memories still sit deep in my heart since I was one of the original 5 that started it.

History is here to learn from it, and that's what I did. With the proposal of the new start, I made my stance clear in writing a list of things that need to be in place for the whole thing to work (I will use <xxx> as a placeholder for the new name, since I don't want to call it Lotus Society again):

• <xxx> shall have a leadership without constructing an unfair hierarchy

• "Leaders" are only obliged to administer things that were decided by a democratic vote

• A ranked voting system shall be used

• Every member shall be able to propose a voting topic

• The same topic can only be voted on if a sensible amount of time pasted (TBD)

• The time to cast a vote must be sufficient (at least 7 days)

• We as <xxx> should only communicate in secure channels

• Only FOSS software should be allowed in group conversations (Text and Voice)

• The chosen FOSS software must be multi-platform and easy to handle for non-IT savvy people

• <xxx> communication channels shall have a clear purpose regarding a topic

• Examples: <xxx>.sports - A channel about sports, <xxx>.gaming> - A channel about gaming, <xxx>.anime - A channel about anime

• A channel needs at least 1 (one) moderator

• Sub-channels are allowed to have additional rules as long as they don't interfere with the main rules

• No public platform shall be made in the name of <xxx> without permission ([Un-]Official Websites, Blogs, Forums, etc.)

• Every topic shall be discussed humanly

• We shall agree to disagree

• Any form of racism, sexism, homophobia, trans-phobia or other discriminatory or hateful language is prohibited

• This also includes promoting any kind of violence, race supremacy and anti-Semitism or other hateful ideologies

• The goal of <xxx> shall be: Bring people together

• Breaking the rules shall have consequences and will result in a per-determined "punishment" (TBD)

As you may see, I intentionally left out "Freedom Of Speech" since this would include the freedom to act racist and other things.

This rules are not set in stone, this is just my proposal on how to handle things. I don't want to see the same mistakes that Lotus did.

To answer another question I got: Why create a society when there are communities about topics you are interested in?

The easy answer: "Because it's about a common mindset, not a topic you are interested in." One of the biggest positive sides of Lotus was having people with a big variety of interests. People learned from each other, helped each other and sparked interests in topics/fields they never thought they would.

If I sparked your interest in such a community, shoot me a message:

• Fediverse: @shellowl@social.nixnet.services
• XMPP (Please use OMEMO): shellowl@nixnet.xyz
• Matrix: @shellowl:matrix.org