The SBR official stance on Metaknight.

[Hylian]

Ok, I want to ask a totally serious and not-flame-intending question here: why is the SBR so "shadowy-figure" all the time? I understand having the board private; it would overly complicate things if everyone could watch all of your discussions, and you probably couldn't be as frank with yourselves and each other with the entire community over your shoulder. And I understand why you'd, for instance, withhold the internal poll results until afterward (because it'd pollute the public poll results and such).

But we can't even know the makeup of the people that (supposedly) lay down our "recommended" policy? There are roughly 100 people in the SBR (last time I heard in the MK poll), so let's just say 100 to make things neat. Each character has one representative, at minimum. There are 35 characters in the game. Our worst case scenario has the SBR consisting of 66 MK mains! (I know that less people main lower tiers and more people main higher tiers, but you get the point) I think people should be able to know the exact ratio of character mains; how much does that really hurt you? How does our knowing who makes up our (operative) governmental body detract from your ability to make decisions?

I just want to know out of curiosity. Like I said, not trying to flame or anything, I just want to understand the logic.

Even if I told you everyone in the SBR (which you could find out yourself) you still wouldn't know which of them even voted on the poll. And then you would want to know which ones voted and then you would want to know which ones voted for which side...

Sorry not happening.

If you want to know what we were talking about I suggest reading the arguments we put together in the public poll. If you are worried that the SBR has 66 MK mains in it(we actually have 118 MK mains), well...then too bad .

Edit: Because people might actually think I'm serious, I was joking about the 118 MK mains.

 

[Jack Kieser]

The only specific thing I can give you is that while there are many people playing Meta Knight, those are NOT in the majority. The majority plays other characters.

That's what I figured (the only way that WOULDN'T be the case is like in the "worst case scenario", which I didn't honestly think was the case), but I wasn't asking for the number, just if you, by any chance, knew WHY you couldn't tell us the number.

EDIT @Hylian: So... basically, everyone is kept in the dark because you're afraid it'd lead to some informational slippery slope?

Even Congress lets people see a full list of its members, along with who they represent and how they vote on a consistent basis. And they have a MUCH bigger and more important "slippery slope" to deal with than a bunch of video game TO's.

 

[Kewkky]

EDIT @Hylian: So... basically, everyone is kept in the dark because you're afraid it'd lead to some informational slippery slope?

It's a good way of maintaining peace in SWF. Nonprecise information can be viewed by different people in different ways. What we might think of as "Oh, their mains are the ones they say they use", other, more ignorant players, would just answer with "They use MK and don't say that they do in SWF, they CLEARLY are an MK majority!" then try to back up claims with how everyone's played every single character or something.

Too much trouble for nothing, might as well keep things check by keeping us in the dark.

 

[swordgard]

Even if I told you everyone in the SBR (which you could find out yourself) you still wouldn't know which of them even voted on the poll. And then you would want to know which ones voted and then you would want to know which ones voted for which side...

Sorry not happening.

If you want to know what we were talking about I suggest reading the arguments we put together in the public poll. If you are worried that the SBR has 66 MK mains in it(we actually have 118 MK mains), well...then too bad .

Edit: Because people might actually think I'm serious, I was joking about the 118 MK mains.

Yeah, we all know that theres actually only 114% of the SBR which is composed of MKs, so no worries.



The remaining -14% consists of people who hate him.

 

[Fatmanonice]

Why do I get the feeling that this issue is going to come up again as early as October? >_>' I still say this whole issue is an elephant in the room that people are trying desperately to overlook.

 

[Hylian]

That's what I figured (the only way that WOULDN'T be the case is like in the "worst case scenario", which I didn't honestly think was the case), but I wasn't asking for the number, just if you, by any chance, knew WHY you couldn't tell us the number.

EDIT @Hylian: So... basically, everyone is kept in the dark because you're afraid it'd lead to some informational slippery slope?

Even Congress lets people see a full list of its members, along with who they represent and how they vote on a consistent basis. And they have a MUCH bigger and more important "slippery slope" to deal with than a bunch of video game TO's.

Just...nevermind.

 

[Nic64]

Why do I get the feeling that this issue is going to come up again as early as October? >_>' I still say this whole issue is an elephant in the room that people are trying desperately to overlook.

It's not going away period, just the SBR will not discuss it for the time being.

Oh and I main Meta Knight can I be in the back room? I heard that's the main criteria :]

In all seriousness there are a lot of prominent anti-ban people not in the SBR, I guess people are just predisposed to paranoia.

 

[DanGR]

Hylian, that's really low- dodging his questions when you are the person to ask.

I sure don't trust you guys anymore. I can't even find out who "you guys" are.

 

[Jack Kieser]

Hylian, that's really low- dodging his questions when you are the person to ask.

I sure don't trust you guys anymore. I can't even find out who "you guys" are.

Well, theoretically, we COULD (the board has a list of all the people with purple names)... we just can't find any relevant information ABOUT them. Either way, I agree; personally, I just want to understand how the organization works, and I'm getting dodged and talked down to. Why nevermind? What's so difficult? Was I right or not? And if I wasn't right, how was I wrong?

 

[JayBee]

If I want to find out who reps the SBR, i should be able to find it right? or someone hand me a link or something. Not knowing and not divulging does nothing but make people upset and less trusting of anything the SBR says. that's just fact. no one would accept anything form someone withoug a face unless they were just that lazy about it. i don't see whats the big deal. its not like we can flame you guys in the back room anyways...

this is lame.

edit: now that i think about it, a list of the sbr members should have been one of the FIRST things done when this group was created...

 

[Razmakazi]

Yea if 75 people get to decide everything whereas the whole community of 3000+ ppl vote and only gets 1 vote for pro ban then we should get our questions asked and get more information about the voting and about the people who decided this because you guys get so much more representation.

Answer the questions, it's not hard.

 

[Fatmanonice]

It's not going away period, just the SBR will not discuss it for the time being.

Oh and I main Meta Knight can I be in the back room? I heard that's the main criteria :]

In all seriousness there are a lot of prominent anti-ban people not in the SBR, I guess people are just predisposed to paranoia.

Obviously but the whole issue is just going to keep going around in circles from how I see it. Really, I sort of come to discover that this is not more of whether or not this ban will benefit the Smash community but how other fighting game communities will look at us if we do. "We'll be the laughing stock of competitive gaming if we ban Metaknight." I can't even begin to tell you how many times people said this during the debate. In all honesty, I think we're trying too hard to appease communities that didn't even believe Melee was competitive simply because it was made by Nintendo. I think that people need to come to terms that the Smash community will probably always be looked down on simply because of face palm with your fist ******** stereotypes that still exist about us outside this community and how (things I've actually heard said on other forums) "we put way too much effort into making competitive" and "how we detracted too much from how the game was originally meant to be played."

@ DanGR:

Don't open Pandora's box. The SBR has changed but this really isn't the place to make corruption accusations.

 

[Nic64]

I sure don't trust you guys anymore. I can't even find out who "you guys" are.

They have purple names...don't see why we need to trust them anyway, they aren't a government and shouldn't be treated as one, their "recommendations" hold no legitimacy and are not enforced in any way. I for instance live in the north east, guess what? If the SBR said "banning Meta Knight is now standard", Atlantic North still wouldn't do it. Likewise, no one is stopping you from hosting and attending MK banned tournaments, tournaments where stages like port town and green greens are legal, or whatever else you may want to do. I find it laughable that people are demanding accountability from an organization that isn't really responsible for anything, just no one has the fortitude to do their own thing(except a few like xyro, I don't agree with how you argue your point a lot but props for actually doing what you believe in while others argue that MK should be banned without really doing anything about it).

 

[Red Arremer]

Yea if 75 people get to decide everything whereas the whole community of 3000+ ppl vote and only gets 1 vote for pro ban then we should get our questions asked and get more information about the voting and about the people who decided this because you guys get so much more representation.

Uhm, so all participants in the public poll voted Pro-Ban, and the majority was higher than a mere 4% and 2 is suddenly only 1?
Wow, didn't see that one, guess I should check the results of the poll again and learn how to count.

 

[Hylian]

Thank you Nic.

Also, I have answered these questions several times before, and I don't see a point anymore because people keep asking them. I get bugged a lot about who is in the SBR and why it isn't visible and I've had long discussions with people about it, but it keeps coming up. I mean the information is available, go find it. I'm not stopping you.

 

[Fatmanonice]

Wait... I thought the community was worth three votes? Granted, the outcome would have still been the same but that severally bothers me that 3000+ people were only worth one vote regardless of which side they were on...

 

[JayBee]

They have purple names...don't see why we need to trust them anyway, they aren't a government and shouldn't be treated as one, their "recommendations" hold no legitimacy and are not enforced in any way. I for instance live in the north east, guess what? If the SBR said "banning Meta Knight is now standard", Atlantic North still wouldn't do it. Likewise, no one is stopping you from hosting and attending MK banned tournaments, tournaments where stages like port town and green greens are legal, or whatever else you may want to do. I find it laughable that people are demanding accountability from an organization that isn't really responsible for anything, just no one has the fortitude to do their own thing(except a few like xyro, I don't agree with how you argue your point a lot but props for actually doing what you believe in while others argue that MK should be banned without really doing anything about it).

while what you say SHOULD be true the opposite is more factual. unfortunately, unless some prominent and brave individuals start holding tourneys like that on a wider scale and completely ignore the SBR, the SBR has an indirect hold over the rules and regulations of current tourneys for years now, to the point that even meta banned tourneys still follow the same outlines minus only one minor thing. I am certain that they understand this fully, even if they spout nonsense about not taking their words to heart. that's impossible at this point, as Smash World Forums have been around for way too long. its easier to ignore Astral Heat and just go to Dustloop Forums. why? Mostly because they have been around for way too long, and people have a comfort zone there.

 

[Red Arremer]

Wait... I thought the community was worth three votes? Granted, the outcome would have still been the same but that severally bothers me that 3000+ people were only worth one vote regardless of which side they were on...

No, that guy's lying.

 

[Jack Kieser]

Thank you Nic.

Also, I have answered these questions several times before, and I don't see a point anymore because people keep asking them. I get bugged a lot about who is in the SBR and why it isn't visible and I've had long discussions with people about it, but it keeps coming up. I mean the information is available, go find it. I'm not stopping you.

Hey, if you get asked this a lot, make a sticky in Tactical explaining all of this to people and just point to that thread in the future. Not too hard. Also, I know I can get this list of purple names, but we still can't tell from that who mains whom and what the main ratio is, which is what I was asking about. Just because you can't force anything on us doesn't mean you aren't really influential, and in that case, again, I (and obviously a couple others) just want to understand the mechanics behind the "best players and brightest minds" of competitive Smash.

 

[swordgard]

Wait... I thought the community was worth three votes? Granted, the outcome would have still been the same but that severally bothers me that 3000+ people were only worth one vote regardless of which side they were on...

Are you ********(frankly i dont care if i get infraction at this point, some people here need to get it through their heads), the thing is there was no conclusive majority, if the 3000 had voted on one side, then we could have been something like 20 votes in the SBR. They coulda said that Pro ban gets 12 votes while anti ban gets 10, the results would be the same. If the result was exactly even, do we need to add votes to the sbr to represent these 3000 people? No, we dont. SBR explained it in the whole OP.

 

[AvaricePanda]

Wondering who mains who in the S.B.R. and all is kind of silly.

You could say they're biased because a lot of people there main MK, and I can say they're biased because a lot of people there don't main MK. Not everyone votes one way or another because of personal reasons like, "LAWL I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO FIGHT MK PLZ BAN," or, "ZOMG I MAIN MK PLZ DUN BAN,", especially when you consider that these are people in the SBR and not the general community (where a lot of people do have those opinions). Maining a certain character doesn't mean that they don't want them banned or not; look at Overswarm.

 

[Fatmanonice]

Hey, if you get asked this a lot, make a sticky in Tactical explaining all of this to people and just point to that thread in the future. Not too hard. Also, I know I can get this list of purple names, but we still can't tell from that who mains whom and what the main ratio is, which is what I was asking about. Just because you can't force anything on us doesn't mean you aren't really influential, and in that case, again, I (and obviously a couple others) just want to understand the mechanics behind the "best players and brightest minds" of competitive Smash.

It's funny you say this because I asked this in the user blogs about two months ago. I don't know, I don't really get the sense of authority that this "new" SBR has in comparison to the SBR in, say, 2006 when you were much less likely to question their rulings or even what their members said. I feel that the SBR is more public now but I think that, in becoming so, it has severally come back and bit them in the butt.

@ Avaricepanda:

Truth be told, Overswarm mains Metaknight to prove a point and rub it in other people's faces.

 

[Red Arremer]

I don't see how it is important who plays which character.
There's several members in the SBR who play more than one character (like me).
Every character is represented at least to the point where their "spokesperson" knows what they are talking about.

Furthermore, I don't see any significance in what they play.
Who - or rather how many Meta Knight mains - voted what on the Meta Knight poll inside of the SBR doesn't matter because we're leaving the whole issue up to the TOs themselves, and it won't cause any positive aspects, only negativity (hate against the SBR or those certain members).

 

[Chuee]

Yea if 75 people get to decide everything whereas the whole community of 3000+ ppl vote and only gets 1 vote for pro ban then we should get our questions asked and get more information about the voting and about the people who decided this because you guys get so much more representation.

Think if this like Congress.
You have to have political knowledge to get in to Congress. A lot of it.
Why would we let the poll decide the outcome when the poll was full people that don't go to tournies and don't know hardly anything about the game. I remember something Spadefox said in the poll thread. Why would we let "People who voted Pro-Ban just because their Cousin can **** their ganon with mk" decide the future of the competitive scene?
Its better to leave the important decisions up to the SBR who knows more about this game than most of us. Just like how Congress leaves the passing of bills to the Senate, House, and President.

 

[M-WUZ-H3R3]

MetaKnight is so good, anyone can be an expert within a matter of hours.

If you come across a good MetaKnight in a touney match, counterpick MetaKnight rather than your main, who obviously stands no chance. Little does your opponent know that you are an expert MetaKnight with three whole hours of experience to back you up.

Why worry about these encounters when you have a secret weapon like this up your pants?

 

[Kamikaze*]

Someone close this thread.

 

[Fatmanonice]

Are you ********(frankly i dont care if i get infraction at this point, some people here need to get it through their heads), the thing is there was no conclusive majority, if the 3000 had voted on one side, then we could have been something like 20 votes in the SBR. They coulda said that Pro ban gets 12 votes while anti ban gets 10, the results would be the same. If the result was exactly even, do we need to add votes to the sbr to represent these 3000 people? No, we dont. SBR explained it in the whole OP.

Didn't I pretty much say this in my post? Please don't troll me, I'm not in the mood. An electrical storm fried my laptop, Wii, and Air conditioning on Friday so, shockingly enough, this isn't the most important issue in my life at the moment so try to restrain yourself from suggesting that it is, please and thank you.

 

[solecalibur]

MetaKnight is so good, anyone can be an expert within a matter of hours.

If you come across a good MetaKnight in a touney match, counterpick MetaKnight rather than your main, who obviously stands no chance. Little does your opponent know that you are an expert MetaKnight with three whole hours of experience to back you up.

Why worry about these encounters when you have a secret weapon like this up your pants?

I attempted this then got bored playing metaknight its alot easier to work on your main and learn how to beat those kinds of metaknights and they say wtf I just lost to a .... etc.
It is frustrating never the less that you have to work harder but the game is more fun when you pick your own main. I wanted to main metaknight before brawl came out never enjoyed playing him.

 

[Jack Kieser]

I don't see how it is important who plays which character.
There's several members in the SBR who play more than one character (like me).
Every character is represented at least to the point where their "spokesperson" knows what they are talking about.

Furthermore, I don't see any significance in what they play.
Who - or rather how many Meta Knight mains - voted what on the Meta Knight poll inside of the SBR doesn't matter because we're leaving the whole issue up to the TOs themselves, and it won't cause any positive aspects, only negativity (hate against the SBR or those certain members).

Wait, so trust isn't a positive effect? Whether you like it or not, want it or not, you ~100+ people have the most valued opinions in all of competitive Smash. We don't know really ANYTHING about you guys; hell, the Debate Hall has a thread going on about this now, and RDK just posted how multiple SBR members have admitted that they don't even PLAY competitive Brawl (if that's not true, take it up with him, but RDK's a smart guy; I trust him... you know, because he gives the people he's talking to info ). If anything, people WANT to trust you guys, but it's a little hard when even the non-scrubs and TO's can't get legit info from you. Besides, it's an INTERNET FORUM: what's the worst people can do, flame a little? Ouch. No one's going to search SBR members out at major tourneys and go all Michael Myers on you. If you're REALLY not that worried about whether people listen to you or not, then a little flaming won't matter, will it?

 

[Chuee]

MetaKnight is so good, anyone can be an expert within a matter of hours.

If you come across a good MetaKnight in a touney match, counterpick MetaKnight rather than your main, who obviously stands no chance. Little does your opponent know that you are an expert MetaKnight with three whole hours of experience to back you up.

Why worry about these encounters when you have a secret weapon like this up your pants?

 

[Cheeseonastick]

Didn't I pretty much say this in my post? Please don't troll me, I'm not in the mood. An electrical storm fried my laptop, Wii, and Air conditioning on Friday so, shockingly enough, this isn't the most important issue in my life at the moment so try to restrain yourself from suggesting that it is, please and thank you.

I lol'd @ "shockingly".

 

[DanGR]

Well, theoretically, we COULD (the board has a list of all the people with purple names)... we just can't find any relevant information ABOUT them. Either way, I agree; personally, I just want to understand how the organization works, and I'm getting dodged and talked down to. Why nevermind? What's so difficult? Was I right or not? And if I wasn't right, how was I wrong?

Exactly.

@ DanGR:

Don't open Pandora's box. The SBR has changed but this really isn't the place to make corruption accusations.

I haven't accused anyone of anything. I just want to know more about the people representing this community.

They have purple names...don't see why we need to trust them anyway, they aren't a government and shouldn't be treated as one, their "recommendations" hold no legitimacy and are not enforced in any way. I for instance live in the north east, guess what? If the SBR said "banning Meta Knight is now standard", Atlantic North still wouldn't do it. Likewise, no one is stopping you from hosting and attending MK banned tournaments, tournaments where stages like port town and green greens are legal, or whatever else you may want to do. I find it laughable that people are demanding accountability from an organization that isn't really responsible for anything, just no one has the fortitude to do their own thing(except a few like xyro, I don't agree with how you argue your point a lot but props for actually doing what you believe in while others argue that MK should be banned without really doing anything about it).

You can always say they only "recommend" their decisions, but the fact of the matter is that many TOs across the world blindly follow it. If a group of the "best and brightest" make a decision, people will listen without thinking for themselves. Too many people don't know any better, and it's a problem.

For example, it affects me, living in a state where the TOs don't know why the ruleset is the way it is. They ban planking with arbitrary judge rulings because they don't have the brain to make objective rules themselves.

*sigh*

 

[JayBee]

I don't see how it is important who plays which character.
There's several members in the SBR who play more than one character (like me).
Every character is represented at least to the point where their "spokesperson" knows what they are talking about.

Furthermore, I don't see any significance in what they play.
Who - or rather how many Meta Knight mains - voted what on the Meta Knight poll inside of the SBR doesn't matter because we're leaving the whole issue up to the TOs themselves, and it won't cause any positive aspects, only negativity (hate against the SBR or those certain members).

what it does is dispel random nonsense and theories about the demographic of characters and how that affects voting on these issues. It is public evidence that characters ARE being represented, not just phrases like, "trust us" or "you don't need to know" which only does the opposite and alienates the SBR from the people like them that are not in that position. If being an MK main doesn't mean they are not for the ban, then this will prove it without a shadow of a doubt and answer questions that WILL ONLY KEEP GETTING ASKED because people refuse to answer them.

jeez. what the heck is the problem? why is this so hard to do?

I also want to point out that if the SBR did hold no influence, then this group is meaningless and needs to be dissolved. but its not, is it? surely the people in this group feel that joining somehow gave them a chance to influence the way the game is played competitively. that is logical.

 

[Jack Kieser]

You can always say they only "recommend" their decisions, but the fact of the matter is that many TOs across the world blindly follow it. If a group of the "best and brightest" make a decision, people will listen. Too many people don't know any better, and it's a problem.

For example, it affects me, living in a state where the TOs don't know why the ruleset is the way it is. They ban planking with arbitrary judge rulings because they don't have the brain to make objective rules themselves.

*sigh*

Well, a lot of TO's probably recognize that they AREN'T the "best and brightest" of Smash. If the "best and brightest" are telling you "ban/don't ban this", but don't REALLY help you to understand, of COURSE you're going to blindly follow (unless you're really smart enough to figure it out or have massive balls); how can you know better than the "best and brightest" of Smash? That would be a little egotistical, wouldn't it? So, TO's do what the ruleset says because they aren't really given the tools to understand enough to make their own informed judgments. Makes sense... and is also why more info would be helpful, plox.

 

[Dastrn]

Jack,
We're not any kind of official authority. Stop looking for a conspiracy, because we would have to have some sort of power for there to be any coverup or something stupid.

All the SBR is is a super secret video game friend club. It happens to have smart smashers and TOs in it. We happen to enjoy staging debates for the benefit of the community.

The problem is that you think that we are official and that we owe you something, as if you elected us or pay our bills. You didn't. You can start your own SBR if you want and write your own recommendations. We won't stop you.

We don't really need your trust. We're just doing our thing and trying to be as helpful as we feel like being. We don't owe anyone anything.

 

[AlphaZealot]

Granted, the outcome would have still been the same but that severally bothers me that 3000+ people were only worth one vote regardless of which side they were on...

I'd like to point out the obvious here: if 3000 votes had the weight of 3000 votes, then the statement would no longer be: "SBR official stance" but instead, "SWF General Discussion Official stance".

Wait, so trust isn't a positive effect? Whether you like it or not, want it or not, you ~100+ people have the most valued opinions in all of competitive Smash. We don't know really ANYTHING about you guys; hell, the Debate Hall has a thread going on about this now, and RDK just posted how he's been personally told by multiple SBR members that they don't even PLAY competitive Brawl (if that's not true, take it up with him, but RDK's a smart guy; I trust him... you know, because he gives the people he's talking to info ). If anything, people WANT to trust you guys, but it's a little hard when even the non-scrubs and TO's can't get legit info from you. Besides, it's an INTERNET FORUM: what's the worst people can do, flame a little? Ouch. No one's going to search SBR members out at major tourneys and go all Michael Myers on you. If you're REALLY not that worried about whether people listen to you or not, then a little flaming won't matter, will it?

Some of the things you speak of may change soon.

That said, this is a video game. If someone gets admitted into the SBR and then simply stops playing or quits and doesn't ask to be removed (or doesn't remove themselves, which they can do) then it may take some time to actually figure out what the deal is with them. Some people routinely go through periods of 1-2 months of non-existence, then they come back and show that they still play and still know what they are doing.

 

[Chuee]

Why do you care how the SBR works?
It's not like they hold secret parties.

 

[Fatmanonice]

I lol'd @ "shockingly".

I just caught that. I swear to you that wasn't intentional. Comedy gold just writes itself sometimes.

@ Jack:

As I said before, this isn't the place to make corruption accusations. I talked to Hylian about two months ago about this matter so I'm pretty sure they are fully aware that more people are suspicious of the SBR's activities more than ever before in SWF's history. I personally think this issue is more important than Metaknight because it is becoming obvious that this is becoming more of an atmosphere of distrust against the higher ups. I too, question their authority but I definately don't believe that they are rotten from the ground up. As I said earlier, I think it has a lot to do with how "social" the SBR has become since probably March.

@ Alphazealot:

I never said that the community should be worth 3000 votes or even 10 or 5 for that matter... What's with everyone thinking that I'm as dumb as a sack of dog turds today? It just bugs me that, despite Spadefox pointing out that the one person was not correctly informed, the community could have only been worth the same amount as one SBR member.

 

[Red Arremer]

We don't know really ANYTHING about you guys;

Ask?

hell, the Debate Hall has a thread going on about this now, and RDK just posted how multiple SBR members have admitted that they don't even PLAY competitive Brawl (if that's not true, take it up with him, but RDK's a smart guy; I trust him... you know, because he gives the people he's talking to info ).

Although that is true, these members are aiding our work with other things. They usually don't vote or debate with these matters regarding competitive Brawl directly (as in tierlists, MK poll, what have you). They are part of the SBR because they are helping our projects with their enormous amount of experience, since they are people who have made the Smash Bros. scene into what it is today, and without them, it wouldn't be as it is today.

If anything, people WANT to trust you guys, but it's a little hard when even the non-scrubs and TO's can't get legit info from you.

Ask?

Besides, it's an INTERNET FORUM: what's the worst people can do, flame a little? Ouch. No one's going to search SBR members out at major tourneys and go all Michael Myers on you. If you're REALLY not that worried about whether people listen to you or not, then a little flaming won't matter, will it?

No, it's more that it would cause a lot of hostility if the SBR would've been made public (e.g. "y is X in sbr im a betta playa than him lol"), the moderators would have more work on their hands, etc.
The SBR isn't a Pantheon of Gods like everyone seems to make us to. We're just good players, important TOs and people who know their stuff about the game talking about a video game. That's basically it. I don't see why you would need to trust us. If you don't trust the SBR's decisions and recommendations, then don't follow them.
Noone is forcing you to use the SBR ruleset or think the tierlist is correct.

 

[Chuee]

I personally think this issue is more important than Metaknight because it is becoming obvious that this is becoming more of an atmosphere of distrust against the higher ups. I too, question their authority but I definately don't believe that they are rotten from the ground up.

The SBR does not have authority over us. They don't command us. They don't even decide tournament rules for us. Everything is up to the TO. The SBR cannot command us to run tournies where mk is legal. All they do is make tier lists and other small projects which have nothing to do with tournament rules.