And that includes backstage, for the record: The Plottin Kittehs win, from people who were actually engaged in the judging few people in the judging had actually engaged the material in finalists beyond "I like Plotinus they're good let's give the win to them". As an armchair judge I was floored at the win because I personally thought it was just about the worst nom: the game involved a modkill on town's only +equity PR that made the game ridiculously scumsided from the end of day 2. With no offense whatsoever meant to Plotinus or Mala both of whom I like and have a great deal of respect for I think that win only happened because the people who have the competence and who care enough to do a good job judging are too disillusioned with the system as a whole to bother being a part of it. I've heard bitching about the scummies from the judges since the year that I got here.
First and foremost, and I think that regardless of opinions on the further changes which I admit are subjective based on my own vision of the scummies:
Democracy or otherwise: who is the Scummies Steering Committee right now and what specifically qualifies them to this position besides them always having been there?Understand that while we certainly value input, ultimately the Scummies Steering Committee has to make the call that it believes is in the best interest of the Scummies and MS. It is not a democracy.
The fact that the SSC aren't engaged with the mafia playing community anymore hurts the scummies in several ways. First off, given that the judges and recipients are heavily skewed towards newer players, it means that the people making the decisions aren't actually the people who the scummies are for. This manifests itself in both the clear reduced interest that they have shown and the lack of representation causes the people being represented to lose interest as well and these both feedback into each other. Furthermore, it means that the SSC has less influence among the modern players of the site: if the SSC were well connected well respected people who play right now they would be a lot more able to both get more judges and get higher quality judging to happen. Finally, it hurts the credibility of the entire system when there's decisions from on high being thrust upon the system: as an example in the current year's judging there was a game that no one picked to be a finalist that Zoraster independently decided should be a finalist despite literally no one on the judging committee thinking that they should make finalists over at least one nom that did have support. That kind of partiality from the moderation undermines faith in the system and if Zoraster feels that the judging isn't being done well enough then he should change the judging or act as a judge rather than use his administrator status to force things through against the will of the actual judges.
I think that with newer blood that has more connections among the mafia community of 2018 on the scummies steering committee would be more engaged, be able to run it in a manner more suited to what the community currently wants, and be more able to rally more invested people to put enough of an effort into taking the scummies seriously. I think that the current image that it has as a popularity contest squarely stems from quality standards and investment slipping due to the people in charge no longer being immersed enough in the community to encourage judges and put the time in, and given that Zoraster and the SSC have now held everything up with the judging complete to finalist stage for two months now, I think something really needs to be changed. Possibly like individuals in the SSC can stay but the setup as a whole is clearly not working and I think that it ought to be handed off to a new set of people.
To follow are some of the ideas that I personally have for improving the scummies.