awesomeguy279 : yup, it's not going to be an exciting election at all. It's not supposed to be exciting. If I wanted it to be exciting I'd let it be a free for all and we can have everyone be all pissed off at each other.

I could think of a few ways to make this election interesting without libel or insults.

Perhaps candidates can buy ads (announcements or possibly front page banners) with Viz.

Vanelan : That would look like a real campaign. Instead of all users making their campaign threads at once, one user makes the thread, gets an announcement to draw attention, builds his/her campaign and on until all candidates have campaigned, and after all that would come the voting process.

It sounds magnificent in my head, does it sound differently for anybody?

EX Palen : I wouldn't be opposed to everyone making a thread and having a few days for their announcement to be up before another user made their thread and got an announcement and so on, but I wouldn't like the idea of buying ads as it would potentially make the race slant somewhat. Though honestly, what good would it do? "Vote for Eirinn: Honest, Loyal, Pudding lover". xD Idk

In the end though, I figure everyone making their thread at once is just as efficient as long as they all get stickied.

EX Palen : If people do it that way, who knows how long its going to take? It could go on from a week to a month or longer.

Just addressing some of the thoughts or concerns in this thread and really getting my personal thoughts out there.

1. People from time to time complain about who gets picked for mods. Like somehow we favor one person or another because "mods like them" rather than what we really do, (which his pick people on what we honestly feel are their merits and how they would handle the position.) So we all felt that trying something like this would help alleviate those concerns. If the site is more involved in the process, they really shouldn't complain that much.

2. This is a trial run, so it's not going to be 100% perfect right away. It's a feeling out process. So if it goes well, we can always add more things to it in the future.

3. I really doubt that too many people will abuse the voting system. We are constantly looking out for re-regs and this really wouldn't be any better/worse than what we have to do during TdV time. A lot of the times users that aren't that active on the boards don't even look at the announcements let alone anything else. The first time around I feel like the problem is going to be that not ENOUGH people vote, rather than the other way around.

4. This site is supposed to be fun and we really don't allow flaming any other time, why would we allow people to trash other candidates during this "election"?

gamerforlifeforever2 : That's pretty much like life. There's no way to 100% stop people from voting for people for "lame" reasons or just because they are friends. That's going to happen, but honestly, as a whole I believe the site and the staff will pick the person they feel is best for the job. How could any of us tell why a user voted voted for a candidate? Honestly, this is everyones community. They should treat it like they care about it. We can't force people to do that.

Oats : I'd disagree with that. If Someone was making an alt on here, they'd be caught red handed.

You see certain members have a thing Known as IP's, and additudes.


Good globals like Jordan can pick up on this.




I won't really be applying for local, but I will make sure to implement my vote.


Jordanv78 :

Exactly, it's personal preference. 

It's gonna be hard for me to judge anyways, because half of the good people I knew have gone inactive.


And I hardly know half of the people that are here now.

So hopefully this will turn out better than expected.

SuperCrash64 : I hear ya. This election is like any other. It's up to the user to spend time to familiarize themselves with the current candidates so they can make an informed decision on whom they think will be best suited to do the job.

It relates to real life in a lot of ways. How much you get out of it is in direct relation to how much you PUT INTO IT.

To echo a bit of what Jordan said.... this is a trial run.

People get to make 1 thread to advertise themselves. That's it. Maybe if this goes well we could look at doing it a bit different but for now this is the best way.




I'm considering a slight change to the system. We currently have more than a dozen applicants (that number may change in the next 24 hours) and I find it hard to believe that having that many people on the ballot together will result in the best choice the first time. Here is my idea:

We do a first ballot where people vote and the top 5 move on to a 2nd ballot where people vote again. However, with the smaller number of candidates in the 2nd ballot a more representative vote for those top 5 candidates would happen. Just a thought. I'm worried that lots of candidates will get only 2 or 3 votes with no clear winner the first time around.

geeogree : I'll just suggest this here and ask.

1. What if it turns out that there is a clear winner in the 1st round? Would you just pick that person or still go into the 2nd round?


2. What if, instead of having more elections, what if, if this works out, there could be some sort of a line of like the people with the 2nd and 3rd most votes, and they would be in line for the spot when more mods step down?

geeogree : I Think that might be a good idea if we have a ton of legitimate candidates left. Sort of like a "primary" election.

zanderlex : From my point of view, I don't think it would be fair to promote someone way down the line that may have gotten a certain number of votes. I guess it would all depend on when it was that someone stepped down.

Ultimately if this doesn't work out and the site is luke warm about the whole thing, we will probably just go back to the same process we've been doing. In which case it would be more off of what we think are their merits, not that they came in 2nd or 3rd place in this inaugural election.

geeogree : This is a cool new way to get mods, consider me signed up for trying ^^

If in the first round someone wins by a landslide somehow (I'm talking twice as many votes as the 2nd place candidate or more) then I would consider just giving it to the first person. That would be a clear indication of who the users want.

And no, the 2nd and 3rd place people don't get a spot in future replacements. People might be able to be mods today but 6 months from now that might not be true. I'd rather do it again at that time (or just pick someone).

And with that latest applicant I'm closing applications. We've got a good number of people who have applied to be on the ballot.

The applicants will be vetted shortly and hopefully by Sunday we will have a final list figured out (I honestly hope it is earlier than that). Once that list is out everyone will get a summon so they know they are on the ballot and are free to make a thread detailing why they would make a good mod and people can ask them questions in those threads.

Good luck!