In response, a group of concerned citizens formed a council of co-directors and called it the Department of Redundancy Department. Unlike Sheriff Dani, the department was not sanctioned by Zach the Magnificent, but an independent group attempting to preserve the culture of SMB City. While a list of the co-directors of the DRD has never been found, their crest was discovered and gives some idea of the historical context.
With no real vestige of power, their enforcement of efficiency was usually covert and often included the support of minor political candidates. Their involvement in the <<Outlandia Modoral Elections>> is known, but there is little information available as to whether the DRD was supporting Green Crayon or TwoBuy. The power this allowed the DRD was miniscule, and any proper actions that needed to be taken usually required extensive bribery.
In 2018, immediately after the first election of the SMB City Committee Members, the Department was made an official part of the SMB City government, often officially regarded as the Department of Forum Regulation. This also marked the end of <<the Epoch Epoch>>, which was known historically for post inefficiency among some of the citizenry.
The DRD was perhaps one of the more active of the governing bodies in SMBC history. Many initiatives were attempted by the Department, to varying degrees of success. For example, in the early years some of the citizenry found themselves receiving delivered Official Notices of Redundancy. These were warnings that the posting habits of the recipient were not up to the efficiency standards of the council of co-directors as stipulated in a subsection of the <<Implicit Superiority Act>>.
In 2020 an expensive study was undertaken by the Department to determine the efficacy of the efficiency initiatives. It was determined that the subsection of the ISA was too broad in its language and thus the officers of the DRD were privy to making judgement calls in their enforcement. In order to better standardize the process, the Department unearthed an item that had be produced much earlier in the its history, though never perfected. Documentation of some of the early tests have been found:
Exactoman wrote:I hardly posted at all this morning for the risk of redundant posts. I hope this doesn't count as redundant.
As you can see these tests for the Redundant-o-meter were still very preliminary as sandwich spread was not yet considered part of proper standardization protocol.GreenCrayon wrote:Very considerate of you. Let's check with the Redundant-o-meter.
"All signs point to peanut butter."
Hmmm, not very useful. It doesn't even specify crunchy or smooth.
In 2023 another study was commissioned by the DRD. Mathematicians from around the world were brought in to determine the mathematical formula for a perfect post. <<The Postcount++ Formula>> was an abysmal failure. Test subjects were poorly chosen and did not follow the mathematicians formulas, but would get caught up simply posting more than the subject in the next cage, posting single word responses or even responding with just a yellow face-like drawing (see source material above). The study was eventually shut down and funding relocated.
The Department of Redundancy Department eventually disbanded in 2028 when, during a council meeting, one of the co-directors realized that the Department, which had grown to a nearly unmanageable size in the previous decade, was together doing the job once performed by only Sheriff Dani. Each co-director realized their own redundancy and tendered their resignation, and the department crumbled leaving the forum with something of a power void once again.
Author's Commentary:
1. Some first-hand historical documents indicated that those under the employ of the DRD were "a bunch of stoopid old men who r jerks" (sic). These documents must be understood contextually, though, as it seems they have been written by the social outcasts of the era, or Noobs.
2. I have heard some poorly informed "scholars" refer to the Outlandia Modoral Elections as "Admin Idol". Any learned scholars know that this was a television show which documented the election. Any who say otherwise can be safely assumed to be college professors.
3. It seems clear that had the mathematicians our knowledge, they would've chosen trained monkeys as the subjects of their experiments instead of single males from the ages of 16 to 30. It is now known fact that monkeys converse on the internet far better than those from said demographic. The Postcount++ Formula might have actually prevented much of the discord in the history of SMBC. But alas.