Opaque authority and why it is a cancer to any community

I write this article because I want to make clear an issue I have a burning contempt for, and I believe I do so with good reason.

Any community that tries to be as opaque about how authority is exercised, meted out, and put into practice. I believe accountability for one's actions is a fundamental good for everyone, and it ensure the parties who are supposed to enforce the rules are not above them, nor can they use the rules as an excuse to vent their own personal beliefs, hatreds, and grudges under the guise of doing their jobs.

That is not to say I believe there are not times when such opaque activity is bad. In the case of legal matters, private information, or other matters requiring sensitivity and discretion, then there is a reasonable, ethical basis for not being flagrantly transparent, such does more harm than good.

My primary basis for this contempt stems from many web communities I have either been members of or have administrated myself, but I believe, the above exceptions noted, any attempt to make murky the actions of those who enforce policy in any endeavor with rules and regulations is naught but a springboard for corruption on the part of the rule enforcer, and their personal animus, bias, or hatreds have a greater chance of being allowed to taint their supposedly neutral task of enforcing rules and order, to the detriment of the communities they administrate.

I have been a member of some communities that are maddeningly obtuse, and despite my personal contempt of the murkiness of authority being restricted from ultimate accountability, I am willing to accept the price of being a member of these communities is accepting things I personally despise, but as for myself, on any community where I have power, I want my actions to be subject to public scrutiny because I personally live in mortal fear of becoming corrupted and arrogant with power, and I would rather die than become what I fear most: becoming a power mad tyrant.

I have been personally abused by communities that were subject to whims of such people, and I even founded my own fork of a website because such evil was so beyond the pale for me I refused to meekly submit to same nor subject others to it.

In conclusion, my main argument is that public transparency insofar as it does not do more harm to keeping order than such is supposed to prevent is one of the best shields against corruption and vice in the hands of those in power, and I would urge all communities to adopt these beliefs as their own.