The Town of Odyssey

After consulting with Catspaw, we have decided that this will be the town flag:



It is a more up to date look than the old colors that we started out with 11 years ago. Wear it proudly.

We Varleqans will change the layout- this design will be incorporated!

Time to Face the New Horizon! Donate now so we can unite!

It's cool your first act in office is to make a unilateral decision on something we were in the process of working on as a community. That bodes well for the term.

bookworm wrote:It's cool your first act in office is to make a unilateral decision on something we were in the process of working on as a community. That bodes well for the term.

It actually was a coin flip. And we know that it is a fair coin flip, because Bren and Moonitde who are involved in the coin flip favoured #3 flag. But #4 won. Had the coin flip been corrupt, #3 would have won.

The reason a coin flip was used was that we already have had so many referendums on the flag, and using coin flips to resolve tied votes has real world president.

I didn't say it was corrupt. How you made the decision isn't the issue; it's that you made one. We were still in the middle of discussion.

The last substantive post in the flag thread was made on June 10, the other two more recent post were raising and then discarding the idea of two flags. If there was more you wanted to add in you had ample time.

Should I have made a filler post saying 'Yes I'm still on this'? My last message clearly announced I was preparing a compromise color proposal and would post it when it was finished; nothing to the contrary should have been thought from subsequent silence. I have been working on it as timely as I am able. I don't appreciate you assuming what time I have or don't have when you have no idea what is going on in my life right now.

I understand you needed some finality to this for your upcoming event so let's go ahead with this for now so you have something to use and resume shade discussion at a later date with no timetable.

For once, I agree with bookworm on this. Though that flag is my favorite out of the "in-between" flags I've seen/made, it was very clear we were still discussing it as a Town and bookworm stated he would be presenting an alternative color variation.

bookworm wrote:I'm close to finding a look I'm happy with that I'll present for viewing, but it won't be for a few days because I'm going to be out of town.

I also planned on doing a few versions myself, but was waiting for bookworm to post. And was also taking a break because I had already made so many flag variations (more than what I posted) and was a bit tired of remaking it over and over.

This was the original Council's project, so I don't like that you just took it over and decided on something without any input. It's like taking over someone else's event, without telling them, because they couldn't complete it before their term ended. Not cool.

snubs wrote: This was the original Council's project, so I don't like that you just took it over and decided on something without any input. It's like taking over someone else's event, without telling them, because they couldn't complete it before their term ended. Not cool.

I don't think the Original town council has any reason to be in charge of this the whole way through. In the real world if one political group goes out of power while they were working on a project (Say, building a bridge or a highway) the next group in power would take over. This wasn't merely an event, but a town project.
I do see the problem with making a decision without telling the people, but this flag this had been going on for a very long time, and hadn't had much input recently. We can't wait forever because not everyone is satisfied with the exact shade of purple and orange to use.

Of course, even if a town-wide vote had been taken and a decision made, it wouldn't matter, seeing as the previous Council had no problem overturning such decisions (For example, the Bank of Otters name change)

Tikvah wrote:I don't think the Original town council has any reason to be in charge of this the whole way through. In the real world if one political group goes out of power while they were working on a project (Say, building a bridge or a highway) the next group in power would take over. This wasn't merely an event, but a town project.
I do see the problem with making a decision without telling the people, but this flag this had been going on for a very long time, and hadn't had much input recently. We can't wait forever because not everyone is satisfied with the exact shade of purple and orange to use.

I don't agree.

It was an event, it was a contest and Town project. And this isn't real life politics. I would never take over someone else's event unless they requested I did so.

Tikvah wrote:Of course, even if a town-wide vote had been taken and a decision made, it wouldn't matter, seeing as the previous Council had no problem overturning such decisions (For example, the Bank of Otters name change)

The bank name was always meant to be changed back before the end of our term. It just slipped my mind. Also, it is customary/not unusual for an elected team to change the name (then change it back at the end of their term).

EDIT: And the bank name has been restored already.

The flag process has been a very long one with multiple votes and ever-expanding options already. Events usually only last during a term, and I was under the impression that the idea was that the flag was intended to be the ToO's flag for the foreseeable future. I have to honestly say that I did not have the impression that there was ongoing work or a plan in place to continue this from the previous council, in the sense that a final decision was not made, things were still up in the air, and the term was over. That could have been a misconception, but I think Bren's idea was that a decision should be made so we could move on, and I agree. I don't think the future trajectory of this lengthy process had been made clear in a way that made current council members or myself expect that others were intending to resolve it. There is no option that will make every single person happy. Snubs, what kind of future had you envisioned for this project, since you consider it to still be under your jurisdiction?

Well, I assumed we were going to wait for bookworm to post his option(s) and then make a decision. Whether it be with his or the one at the top of this post.

I understand the course of action taken, I just don't like that it wasn't discussed/mentioned at all. Like I said, I like that flag and a few others liked it as well as a compromise, but it wasn't the final choice because we wanted to make sure everyone had their say first (namely, bookworm, because he was the only one interested in providing anther variation).

Either way, I'm fine with it finally being settled, because I do agree that the process has gone on quite a bit longer than I/we hoped. Plus, it's just an image, one that I don't think will be a huge staple on the site, so I think this slight variation in color (between the two flags that tied), is more than suitable. I just would have liked to have been aware of this decision before it was public.

Sorry if I sounded like a made too much of a big deal out of this.

I think there were misunderstandings all around that contributed to the issue at hand. To me, it felt like past time to move on, but I didn't realize the interest/effort still happening behind the scenes from others.

bookworm wrote: I understand you needed some finality to this for your upcoming event so let's go ahead with this for now so you have something to use and resume shade discussion at a later date with no timetable.

This sounds reasonable.

I want to make sure it's clear that I'm not accusing this Council of intentionally usurping the project and imposing a premature decision because they just wanted to get in and make the final say. I know that's not what happened. The reason for the push for closure was because they needed to reach something that could be called final in order to hold an upcoming event. If that time constraint wasn't looming I'm sure they would have let discussion continue.

So yes, my problem with the announcement was just the lack of communication. It just caught me off guard, I wasn't aware we were abruptly closing up a process that we had been collaboratively working on for quite some time and I personally was still working on when able. It could have been better presented with a message less 'Here's the final thing now, we're done' and more 'We need to officially go with something for the time being, but talk of minor adjustments can continue in the future' which is what they meant, it just wasn't conveyed that way.

As I said, it's fine to go with this for now and get back to the discussion later on because it's going to be a little while before there's something visual to review. I am just experimenting with the colors, when I find a look I think works I will need snubs' help in creating a presentable suggestion for consideration because she has the graphic files, so it's going to be down the road a bit.