Hello everyone, my name is Aaronstone. It has been a while since I decided to lend my opinion to this hallowed hall, or echo chamber, if you prefer, that we call Club Penguin Armies Organization. As this community continues to drag itself through the never-ending trenches called life, I figured that with the exit of Club Penguin Army Judges and the arrival of the Army Judging Board, I should share an opinion that I have been sitting on for quite some time.
That opinion being, the need for “unaffiliated”
Administrators, Head Judges, and other similar positions of the sort must also head to the grave. For the community to survive, and for you all to get the “innovation” high you crave so much, these positions must be opened to people with current affiliations.
Designed by MasterDS
My Personal Opinion
Simply put, many people over the years have been shut out from such important positions due to affiliation. Luckily, at first we had many talented people leading the charge, such as Kingfunks and DMT, and then moving on to Wynn and Mchappy and such. Judging-wise, I dare say that Spotty was extremely good at her job, even if the way she conducted business day-to-day left a lot to be desired.
But now, respectfully, the talent pool is running dry. I look around organizations today, and I don’t see a DMT, a Kingfunks; I just see people who are there because they hit the minimum requirements to be in the position they’re in. A lot of these people exist in individual armies. I also see veterans who have been in this community for years coming back to establish new organizations. True innovation and true great statesmanship come from people with great charisma, great intelligence and having a drive that makes them truly great individuals, not by being active and hitting post quotas or judging quotas.
Our community administrators should always be the best of us. By locking out some of these army leaders, advisors, etc due to affiliation rules, we continuously shoot ourselves in the foot. These rules must be removed, for the survival of our organizations, to allow some of our great community figures to drive the ship, whilst also keeping the very things that drive our community alive.
Anxiety
Like many of you, I also, of course, have questions about someone’s potential affiliations to the armies they lead or advise in. But to be completely honest with you, I don’t care too much. I am not worried about biased decisions for the most part, and that comes from someone whose army was a victim of such decisions on two occasions. I know that in the recent open letter to Club Penguin Army Judges, there were multiple instances of alleged bias towards certain armies in certain wars and battles, but I would more or less chalk that up to a lack of oversight by the Head Judges; with proper oversight, such things wouldn’t happen.
Even with the proper oversight, this was a group of unaffiliated Head Judges, and still they WERE NOT enough to prevent this from happening. If there was ever such an instance of actual bias, whether it came to posts or judging battles, you would absolutely hear about it, because the system is more or less designed to prevent such instances, with the proper and continuous oversight. People in this community are not known to keep quiet about such issues. Darkness may conceal the truth, but it cannot bury it forever.
This anxiety must end. In a recent post, a fellow Club Penguin Armies Reporter, Ellie, wrote about the “Illusion of Independence”. In it, she stated:
The first sign of this facade of independence breaking lies in CPAWM’s current administration. Alongside Bull Hour, the administration stated in CPAWM’s reopening post is Ghostt, Midnight, and Yellow Typer. Not only are they active army leaders/advisors, a problem in its own right, but these four make up four out of seven administrators and advisors behind Small Medium Army League.
Where is the problem in this? There is not one. The problem has been created by us as a community, in assuming that these four individuals have an agenda and are out to prop up their armies. There is no evidence to back these feelings, and that’s all it is: anxiety without substance. In their official reply to this post, Bull Hour stated:
Regarding the suggestion that our administration makes decisions to benefit its members’ respective armies, we strongly disagree with that characterization. Midnight, Ghostt, and Yellow Typer will continue serving as administrators of CPAWM. Their involvement in other organizations and armies does not automatically mean that every decision made by our administration is intended to benefit those affiliations.
In my mind, this is a good response to such accusations. Of course, this could change, as I said earlier; what is done in the dark is brought to the light eventually. Now, you could say that having administrators and head judges with no affiliation makes things better. I am here to tell you that it really doesn’t. There is still nothing stopping these unaffiliated individuals from being biased or doing things to benefit other individual armies.
Army history does not fade at the end of the day; it remains until the end of their careers. What you do and what you have done in your respective army career defines you until the very end. Unaffiliation is just a facade; it just makes you feel better at the end of the day.
The Illusion of Non-Affiliation
In the fallout of the Club Penguin Army Headquarters–Club Penguin Army News merger, affiliation became less of an unwritten rule and more of a hardline rule, for good reasons; one bad apple spoils the bunch. But realistically speaking, we are so far removed from those days. Nowadays, the average army leader, advisor, higher command member, etc, has to wait a period of around 3-6 months to become unaffiliated, under the old rules of Club Penguin Army Judges organization. Does this really do anything at all? On paper, sure, they aren’t an official member, attending events of the sort.
But chatting, interacting with their former army on their server is fine? How does that make one unaffiliated? Sounds like they’re pretty affiliated to me; they still hang around the same people, chat in the same places. We are operating in a fantasy land. No amount of time can make someone TRULY unaffiliated.
In a more recent example, the formation of the Army Judging Board by Pjayo and SavageCobra, who were both backed by basically the entire community, was active members of the Water Vikings High Council of Vikings on the day of founding. They both resigned due to community concerns about affiliation.
By the community’s own definition, they are still affiliated with Water Vikings, but because Club Penguin Army Judges was so bad, we just ignore that? I would even argue that some of the greatest administrators that this community has ever had were affiliated DURING their respective reigns as administrators. Figures such as Bluesockwa1 and Bluesockwa2; I even had the Blue Brothers as owners in the Underground Mafias Army xat chat DURING their time as CEOs. Here is a picture:
Another recent example as well would be Edu’s involvement in Elite Guardians under the pseudonym Dalloway, whilst also serving as administrator. These are very simple ways to get around such rules, and Edu proves that they can be done.
You don’t have to be unaffiliated to be a great statesman. You should be able to be affiliated; many individuals have proven themselves to be trustworthy, which is the thing that matters most. We as a community must spend some of that. We shoot ourselves in the foot in demanding the best out of otherwise mediocre figures. Our best are currently locked up in armies, supporting the very organizations that lock them out from serving in positions to drive the community.
How many great army leaders, advisors, etc do we have in this community, currently rotting away in their respective armies, when their minds can be put to better use in some of these positions? I am not one to volunteer for others, but with how much someone like Daniel20448, who has been at the forefront on many issues. Wouldn’t we want someone like him in charge? Or how about someone like Link3000? There are many names. However, most are locked out, and the opportunities just fade away.
The reason the rule stays in place
The current rules stay in place for two reasons, in my opinion at least. One, because of the constant state of mistrust in this community towards its administrators since the Bluesockwa brothers, who were able to be affiliated but also could act accordingly in their respective positions. They were able to execute the powers of their positions without the community feeling like they were corrupt, except if you were a part of the Light Troops and/or if you were Waterkid, of course.
However, tying into the latter part of my previous sentence, the issue of CPOAL and the conduct of the administrators exacerbated this issue; thus, unaffiliation became more of an unwritten requirement, which then evolved into the hardline stance we have today. The community must learn to move on. The second reason is that many are afraid of this community’s knee-jerk reactions when accusations of bias are thrown around. Again, a more recent example is Ellie’s latest opinion piece, where she states:
Sure, certain pieces of this post ring true; there are many hypocrisies and such things should be called out. But is there any evidence of true bias? Has something happened in CPAWM or SMAL to give these accusations weight? No. Again, in the future something COULD happen to give these accusations weight; however, for now, without proof to back it up, all we have is anxiety over what could be.
As things stand right now
Because I was curious as to what is defined as unaffiliated in today’s atmosphere, I decided to reach out to various leaders of our valued community institutions to inquire as to what “unaffiliated” means. First and foremost, I reached out to Spotty, the former Head Judge and face of Club Penguin Army Judges, and asked her what the time period was to be considered unaffiliated for the former judging organization. Below is a picture of our conversation:
In the former main judging body, it took you approximately three months to be considered an unaffiliated judge if you had just left an army. According to Spotty, they were also going to increase the time period to six months for someone to become a Head Judge before the community revoked their support for her organization.
Next up on my inquiry, I messaged my good friend Pjayo, one of the Head Judges for the brand new Army Judge Board, which just recently replaced Club Penguin Army Judges as the main judging body for the community. Below is a picture of our conversation:
So, for the Army Judging Board, you do not need to wait three or six months to be unaffiliated for certain positions; you can technically resign from your current position in any army right now and be considered unaffiliated to the Army Judging Board. Also, I should note that AJB does acknowledge this on their website under the hierarchy page, where they consider SavageCobra and Pjayo as Water Vikings affiliated.
Lastly, in my inquiries, I messaged both JojoTeri and Kira, Chief Executive Producers of Club Penguin Armies Organization, and asked what their definitions were regarding affiliation. Here are pictures of our respective conversations:
Again, if I decided today, as I write this post, to drop my position as Head of the High Council of Vikings, I could theoretically take a position at Club Penguin Armies as an administrator AND the Army Judging Board as a Head Judge and be deemed unaffiliated according to both Pjayo and Jojo Teri.
However, according to Kira, there is a two-week period for me to drop my affiliations; it sounds like one administration does not know their own rules, but alas, not my problem. The real question is, would I actually be unaffiliated? The answer is no, I would not be. I am defined by the army that I have served in for so many years, as is everyone else in this community, unless you are literally a media-only person, which is extremely and increasingly rare.
Affiliation is a facade that we have created out of fear of repeating past mistakes. It’s an illusion. A normal reaction, but you cannot act on fear; you can learn from the failures of the past and not harm the future.
Conclusion
In order for this community to continue making great strides, we must adapt, as we always have. We must do away with this constant anxiety that our administrators and head judges alike are untrustworthy if they’re affiliated with an army and hold positions of power. We must take chances and risks. Great things happen because individuals take these chances and risks. It is also important to hold individuals accountable if such things, bias and corruption alike, come to light. By remaining stagnant, in this constant state of anxiety and mistrust, and allowing people who have great potential to create and do something amazing to fade away into history, we, the people, are the ones who suffer. The community must learn to give people the benefit of the doubt.
Aaronstone
2022 Army Legend/ Op-Ed Writer
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Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.
Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States of America