“Originally FYAD was a complete anarchy. Nobody moderated it, and it was good. When it started to become more popular, however, certain users did stuff that was just annoying (spamming huge images that broke the tables and made threads impossible to read, posting a billion threads, posting illegal porn, that sort of thing) so certain people called for some kind of moderation. Others said that a moderator would ruin FYAD. Fistgrrl, in her infinite wisdom, proposed the Idiot King contest.
Once a week, she (or another admin) posts a thread. The admin has already two numbers, one for the Idiot King and one for the Loser King. Everyone who wants to enter the contest posts under that thread, and chooses a number between 1 and 100. When the contest is over (Usually 20 minutes or so), the person who posted closest to the Idiot King number becomes the Idiot King for a week, with most of the powers of a moderator and a ceremonial title. The person who posted the number closest to the Loser King number is banned for a week. Anyone who posts a duplicate number, a number that is not between 1 and 100, or posts in the IK thread but has not posted in FYAD in the last 24 hours is also banned for a week.
UPDATE: April 30, 2003: Lowtax did the IK contest this week, and instead of numbers he asked people to post states. What a crazy guy!”
That still sounds like its selecting for people who desire power - perhaps even more so because of the risk of a ban. I guess it might be appropriate for that kind of forum.
“Originally FYAD was a complete anarchy. Nobody moderated it, and it was good. When it started to become more popular, however, certain users did stuff that was just annoying (spamming huge images that broke the tables and made threads impossible to read, posting a billion threads, posting illegal porn, that sort of thing) so certain people called for some kind of moderation. Others said that a moderator would ruin FYAD. Fistgrrl, in her infinite wisdom, proposed the Idiot King contest.
Once a week, she (or another admin) posts a thread. The admin has already two numbers, one for the Idiot King and one for the Loser King. Everyone who wants to enter the contest posts under that thread, and chooses a number between 1 and 100. When the contest is over (Usually 20 minutes or so), the person who posted closest to the Idiot King number becomes the Idiot King for a week, with most of the powers of a moderator and a ceremonial title. The person who posted the number closest to the Loser King number is banned for a week. Anyone who posts a duplicate number, a number that is not between 1 and 100, or posts in the IK thread but has not posted in FYAD in the last 24 hours is also banned for a week.
UPDATE: April 30, 2003: Lowtax did the IK contest this week, and instead of numbers he asked people to post states. What a crazy guy!”
I never read actual confirmation for this but I assume the position was named for the Soul Coughing song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qAxjmvvtOk