Ok, first of all, I still disagree about the whole majority thing discussed last page, but since a lot as been talked about since then, I will just move on.
Personally, I think DetroitLolcat brought up one of the most important points, the size. Having any max or min size is stupid. If one is qualified, one should get a vote. And if one is not, one should not. Denying people votes because of arbitrary limits will not help make anything better, and neither will giving unqualified people votes, just to reach a limit. While I also don't love the whole appointment or lack of term things, getting rid of a size limit should be the first, and most important change made.
However, putting everything else aside, getting rid of the current system is a terrible idea for one main reason that Thatsjustpeachy brought up. When laddering gets the average battler nothing, why should they try hard? Sure people might still battle, but when winning means nothing, people stop trying to go all out and win. Not only does this decrease the competitiveness of the ladder, but it also screws up our tiers. The tiering system is based on the fact that the best Pokemon get used most. But if winning doesn't mean nearly as much, people will care less, and the usage stats could get thrown off. As such, I think whatever we do, we need to keep the ladder important. Whether this is part of the suspect system itself, or some new reward for good battlers, it probably won't matter. But there needs to be something.
That being said, the fact that the system is changing at all is just stupid. I don't know what this is about the highers up saying what has to happen, but I do know that whatever it is is bullshit. Normally I respect what the decisions of the people in charge of this site, and am very appreciative of what they do. But throwing out a perfectly good system for absolutely no good reason (and if there is a good reason, not telling anyone) is ridiculous. I don't care if you run the site, a decision like this should be made through the community. Stupid moves like this that will just lose people's confidence in Somgon.
let's go to pokemon-online
I can't tell if this is serious or not, but basically, this is what I mean. While I personally don't feel this way, the average player might. When it comes down to the fact that you have no say in what happens and laddering means nothing, why should people choose to battle here?