Having an argument about which system is better is a complete waste of time. It's evident that both systems are flawed in different ways. People dislike the current system because it is far too easy to just stumble upon this community, buy supporter, behave for the 14 day period, apply and then be accepted without a second thought. A lot of us feel uneasy letting someone administrate our servers who have been here for less than a month. True, we get some good admins, but there are obviously going to be some bad ones to compliment them.
Whether the 1-month-admins turn out to be good or not should not be what we base our arguments on. We should not be allowing anyone to adminstrate our servers without them spending a time period longer than a couple of months. I mean, I waited about a year before I even considered applying for admin, and even then I was unsure about it. In the end I only applied because my friends kept pushing me to do it. Then all of a sudden we get these people coming in for 2 weeks and making the cut. It's not about us lowering our standards in terms of letting assholes become admins, but in terms of the time requirements necessary to make it.
Now take a look at the old system. There was no set structure to it in terms of numerical voting, the person made it or not solely on the comments people made. This was better because people actually had to elaborate a bit before supporting someone. It filtered out all of the crap that we are getting now, which includes things like:
"I think I've seen him around, I support!"
"Never seen him do anything wrong, FULL SUPPORT!"
"He's been helping give the community deep pockets for weeks now, let's just give him a chance!"
"God why the fuck is this guy still applying? Support just to shut him up!"
Now, we all know some of the more aggressive comments have happened before but in subtler tones. True, not everyone made valid comments in the old system, but it was a damn sight better than the ones we get now.
With the old system the laughable applications made by people who just signed up to make an application spewed out onto our screens every now and again, and were instantly rejected. However, when these kinds of applications come up now, they are actually considered. Most of the time they are slapped with the reapply label, but the fact that they are actually being considered is what worries me. If someone is so stupid that they think they are going to get admin when they barely know anyone, then they shouldn't even have the privilege of being able to reapply (sorry, that's the HG inside me coming through ).
What I disliked about the old system was the fact that anyone could make comments. Now, I'm not fond of the idea that the people with the moolah making the decisions, but letting regs comment was stupid. This isn't to say all regs are braindead walking lumps of meat, but most of them haven't been with the community for very long and don't know what's best. Despite the negative stereotype HGs have been forced to live with, most of them can make a valid contribution to the application process if they were given the chance. I've let some of the HGs know that I would be happy to post for them even if our opinions clashed, but they really need a say in terms of voting, otherwise whatever is said is kind of pushed aside. The big plus with them voting is that they have the chance to see what applicants are like when there is no admin around.
Lastly, one of the worst things about this current system is that the supporter tag has been completely diluted. People don't "support" this community anymore, they just do it for the chance (however little it may be) to get admin. Since supporters have nothing to lose, they are going to apply, and apply, and apply, and apply, and apply, and apply, and apply until eventually they will make it due to people giving them the sympathy vote (again, this isn't for everyone, as some of the supporters actually go out of their way to improve themselves).
I don't want to stick with the current system, and I don't want to go back to the old one. Of course, every system is going to have flaws, but that's not to say we should just sit back and let the flawed system run it's course. We should be trying to lessen the impact of these flaws and hopefully shift the system around so that the flaws themselves are of little significance.
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