Hobbes, thank you for taking the time to write out and elaborate on those points you've raised, which are indeed valid concerns.

Do allow me to address some issues you've raised.

First of all, elitism.

Elitism certainly exists here in this forum. It exists in the cadres and bands of Kopitiam people regularly making incursions here and posting nonsense just for laughs, because they are separate from the concerns of the members here and their own wants and needs for "lulz" over-rides any importance of having proper discourse in this forum. They are part of a privileged, "in" group of trolls and dupes who come in here to feel SUPERIOR to the people here.

Not all Kopitiam members are like this, of course. Only the ones who think that Cupids Corner should always remain a subordinate section of Kopitiam with no function or purpose of its own, because in that way CC shall remain always as their personal playgrounds.

Is this elitism? I think that it is.

Elitism also exists among the members of SC who confine themselves entirely to chat threads and who seldom venture out into the broader forum, because, in their own words, it is, and has always been "lame", and thus it is below them to even step foot in there. They are above such petty concerns, and they have already carved out a comfortable niche in these chat threads where everything is alright, and thus, by extension, everything else must also be just as it should be. They have extrapolated a picture of absolute serenity based on the condition of their comfortable little fiefdoms.

Is this not another form of elitism? I think it certainly qualifies.

Next, the imposition of conformity of thought and behavior on an entire forum population.

This is a knee-jerk reaction motivated only by fear and insecurity. There is so much diversity and differences in opinion here that such a thing would NEVER be possible. Any attempt to do so is bound to fail.

Creating structure and form and defining the purpose and direction of the forum does not necessarily automatically mean benefiting the few at the expense of the many. It does not mean one group coming into power at the expense of another. These are vulgar thought processes because they fail to look at things beyond their importance to the self. In short, this knee-jerk reaction is a selfish one motivated by insecurity and the fear of the loss of power.

Please ask yourself what sort of power or prestige you could truly lose in a forum.
Then ask yourself if that's as important as providing this section with more focus, filtering out the noise and chaff so that it fulfils the purpose it is meant to fulfil, which is NOT to be some person's personal playground or fiefdom.

Thirdly, we are not talking about "change", and that makes the necessity of a poll entirely superfluous. Please look back at my earlier posts. They are about

1. Providing form and structure
2. to cater to a diversity of opinions, perspectives and personal characters
3. to provide Cupid's Corner with more focus and direction rather than just "existing"
4. and we have not yet even discussed how this may yet be achieved
5. nevermind that it requires participation and collective effort from a BROAD number of people to make it happen

So please, less assumptions based entirely on knee-jerk reactions.