Alright, I'll be repeating a few people here, but I want to kill this thought to the point even it's children are writhing from it all.
First off Yehsus is right in saying that the amount of people that we tend to recruit are younger than 18. We deny the majority of the people we generally recruit to come in, and then we are going to be hurting for it. Even if we could do it, with most of our members that age going into college and more advanced classes, the people that age who generally can recruit their peers are busy with other things, so the people we can recruit is not only strained due to our restrictions on it, but by the restrictions of our resources and time to devote in getting those people.
Now going back on to the argument of age vs. maturity. We look at Ascension, and 3 out of the 5 officers we have leading our squads are below 18, and some a good couple years under that. None of them have ever given me any drama troubles at all, each of them are some of my better officers, and they tend to have the most energy and zeal in what they do. All of them were obtained in less than a year, I don't think we should be closing the door to the possibility of getting more of these kinds of people. Further on this point, just like Verboten said, it's a question of maturity, not age as the people being referred to are older than 18.
If you want to fix whatever problems we have now, or in the future of drama, or disrespect, then I say it's time we start throwing a bit more weight and severity behind our punishments. I apply pressure to my officers, and they know what I expect of them. If someone does wrong then don't slap their wrist and call it good, let the first time show them the fear of god and then if they screw up again like that don't be afraid to strip them of everything they hold dear, or even boot them. We can be lenient as much as we like, but if we let members walk around getting away with crap they have been able to for the last couple months, I don't see how I can't expect drama to be a weekly thing for us. If we do take that route, be sure to tell me, I might be able to make a drama machinima out of this stuff.
Now in regards to drama, let's talk about it for a moment. Too many people are being indirect, talking about other members behind their backs or being too cowardly to be direct about what they think. If you have a problem with someone then have the guts to be direct with them, and hope you can resolve it, otherwise get in the deathcage and duke it out until only one person remains, then the drama won't occur. I had wanted to call Rei out on something the other day, and instead of talking about what she said that I didn't like and blew it out of proportion to other people, I PMed her and called her out on it, and it ended very well. If you want to start shit, then have the guts to not backstab people.
Now to all the victims of drama. I know you aren't the causes of the fire, but some of you have been like a canister full of gasoline to the fire. If someone is giving you shit, and unfairly, then call them out on in, but DON'T start a fight, talk about it CIVILLY over PM's, and then if you can't resolve it yourselves and it needs to be resolved then bring it to us. I would much rather have Purple come to me and tell me that he and Messi can't work together, they tried to sort things out but just can't, over me having to see those two fighting in the forums and have to separate them like they were 5 years old. If someone starts something with you, handle it calmly, and don't add gas to the fire, because I can guarantee you will end up getting burnt too.
In sort I say we go by this policy "Knock off the middleschool and highschool drama, if you don't, then we WILL hurt you, and sleep well that night".
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