We do know what decentralization is, but obviously you don´t.
Highly simplified it´s about emergence; an extended, diverse & large “non-hierarchical” network of (identical or function based) nodes, where all the independent nodes collaborate following a consensus protocol and each of them is contributing to the utility (consented agreements) the network itself provides.
The larger the network, the stronger it is. The better the consensus protocol, the more efficient it is.
This is completely opposite to how our Community is organized at the moment. Just replace nodes with members of the Community.
You have all these passionate, motivated & talented people in the Community (in various social media channels) and we do not unleash the collective intelligence & power of this large network.
Instead of this we read: “Things are moving behind the screens, we are working on great things and they are speeding up.”
Instead of this we see the Community Management Team does not respond & ignore Community Feedback for more then 6 weeks now.
Instead of this we experience we should unquestionably accept whatever is being released, without brining up other opinion or issues, otherwise we are proclaimed as attackers of the System.
Instead of this we do recognize very clear patterns of group dynamics, politics & agenda.
There is a clear segmentation of the Community into regular Forum members, VIP (Lounge) members of the Community, Ambassador Slack Participants, and also a close inner circle.
We have these mission critical programs like the Cardano Ambassador Program, Cardano Hubs Program, which are being currently designed to define our Community future.
But instead of shaping these programs together as a Community we have a few elite decide our future for us.
If we look for representative democracy to have “special nodes” in the network, then the Cardano Social Council (https://forum.cardano.org/t/cardano-social-council-introduction ) is a much more fair approach and obviously the Ambassadors are not legitimate representatives of the Community opinion (Voice of the Community), but rather champions of Community performance. Let´s not mix these.
To have the opportunity to influence, engage, participate & contribute should not be a question of position but a natural right to all Community members.
The clear sign of this lack of inclusion & collaboration is that there is no Community wide collaboration platform where the important things are happening and you may have members of the Community freely join and share their opinion, experience, contribute and if needed facilitate fair and transparent debates & voting.
If you allow one speculation, this is only possible, because the embarrassingly weak Community Managemen Team is hijacked by a few elite of our Community. This is why I am pushing on every channel to have this Team be strengthened by hiring exceptional talent (nothing less Cardano deserves). Another unfortunate factor was lifting up Community members & paying for their service in a non-transparent way like this intervening into an organic development of the Community. This is not to be mistaken with the fully justified and important aspect of having incentvies to be provided to the Community.
So back to decentralization, IMO we don´t have those characteristics and nothing reminds me here of the noble principles & values of Cardano, it feels like rather the usual corporate environment with dirty politics.