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[CSM] The Independent Voter's Guide to the CSM 7 Elections

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Trebor Daehdoow
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#1 - 2012-02-29 23:34:26 UTC  |  Edited by: Trebor Daehdoow
Given the increased interest in the CSM elections this time around, I thought new and independent voters might find a quick guide to voting helpful. As a two-time member of the CSM who gets votes from players in all parts of the game, I believe I have a unique perspective on the whole process, as well as the people who are angling for your votes.

Disclaimer: I am a candidate again, and obviously I want you to vote for me. I'm going to tell you the truth as I perceive it (and I have a reputation for honesty -- at one point in the last election, I told people not to switch their votes to me!), but obviously you should take it with a lump of salt. Also, these are my personal opinions, and not those of any other candidate. That said, let's get started.

The key thing to understand about the elections is that while 14 people get elected to the CSM, only the 7 delegates who receive the most votes travel to Iceland for the summits (if one of them cannot attend, then the delegate who came in 8th attends in his place, and so on). While this is not nearly as crucial as it used to be, a big part of election strategy involves attempts by the large nullsec alliances to pack the top 7 with their candidates, so they can attempt to influence CCP to devote more resources to fixing issues that concern them.

tl/dr: if you are not a member of an alliance with an official candidate, you should vote for a "Proven Performer" (Trebor Daehdoow (me!), Seleene, Two step or Meissa Anunthiel) or the "Serious Contender" (Hans Jagerblitzen). Any other choice will be a waste of your vote.

CSM candidates can first be divided into two main categories; bloc-candidates and non-bloc candidates.

Bloc-candidates

tl/dr: If you are not a member of their in-game group, don't vote for them. They don't need your vote to get elected, and don't represent your interests.

Bloc-candidates are those who are running as the official candidate of a large alliance or coalition of alliances. The bloc-candidates in this election are Greene Lee (-A-), Dovinian (TEST), UAxDEATH (Legion of xXDEATHXx), Elise Randolph (PL/RaidenDOT/NCDOT), Kelduum Revaan (EVE University -- also a Special Case, see below), and of course, The Mittani (Goonswarm).

Because bloc-candidates can depend on large numbers of votes from their bloc(s) (and are thus guaranteed a seat on the CSM), they are not beholden to independent voters. You are not one of their "constituents".

The current chairman of the CSM, The Mittani, is the classic bloc candidate. To him, you are either a Goon or a "pubbie". The Mittani has an extremely low opinion of pubbies -- and yet now he wants your vote!

In order to achieve this, his entire election campaign is focused on how important it is for him to become chairman again. In fact, his claim that being re-elected chairman with a larger vote total will increase his influence (and that of the CSM) is complete and utter nonsense. The influence of any member of the CSM with CCP depends entirely on how hard they work, the strength of their arguments, and their ability to work as a team, not the number of votes they received -- as was so amply proved on CSM 6 by Two step.

The Mittani is a hard-working member of the CSM (and will be easily re-elected into the top 7), but he'll be just as effective in the #7 slot as the #1 slot.

Non-bloc Candidates

tl/dr: Vote for one of these, but be careful to vote for someone who has a chance of being elected, and in particular, a good shot at gaining a seat in the top 7. If you don't want to spend a lot of time making up your mind, vote for a Proven Performer. Otherwise, do your research, and vote for a Proven Performer or the Serious Contender.

Non-bloc candidates, because they are not the official candidates of a large, organized group, must draw their support from either the entire player population or a large segment of it, often organized around a particular playstyle (like Factional Warfare, or Wormhole Space). As such, they are much more responsive to the needs of their constituents, and focus a lot more on trying to get developer resources allocated to things that improve EVE for broad groups of players.

Non-bloc candidates can be divided up into 5 categories, Proven Performers, Serious Contenders, Special Cases, Newbies, and Long Shots. Only candidates in the first 3 groups have a reasonable expectation of being elected.

Private Citizen • CSM in recovery
Trebor Daehdoow
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#2 - 2012-02-29 23:34:36 UTC  |  Edited by: Trebor Daehdoow
Proven Performers

These are the candidates who are incumbent CSM members who have proven that they are willing to work hard at improving the game for all the players, not just some narrow constituency. They have a track record of both effort and success, and they are the only non-bloc candidates with a reasonable shot at getting into the top 7.

This year's Proven Performers are: Myself (Trebor Daehdoow), Seleene, Two step and Meissa Anunthiel.

A vote for any Proven Performer will be well spent. Check out the campaign threads to learn why!

The Serious Contender

Serious Contenders are candidates who do not have previous CSM experience, but have demonstrated a serious commitment to the game and the CSM process. While it's unlikely a Serious Contender will make the top 7, they should make it onto the CSM, and hopefully will graduate to Proven Performer status by end of their first term.

This year, interestingly enough, there is only one Serious Contender: Hans Jagerblitzen. While Hans is a passionate advocate for Factional Warfare, it's clear that he also understands the need to represent the interests of the entire EVE community. Furthermore, he has already demonstrated his ability to work hard, by engaging with CSM before the Winter Summit and providing briefing materials about Factional Warfare that were very helpful during our meetings.

If Hans is your preferred candidate and you have only one account, then vote for him. If you have multiple accounts, however, then the current CSM election process presents you with a cruel choice. You want Hans to get enough votes to get on the CSM, but any votes over the number needed to do that are wasted; they could have been used to ensure that more of the Proven Performers make the top 7. So if you have multiple votes, you should consider splitting them between Hans and a Proven Performer.

How you split your votes depends on your estimate of how much support Hans appears to have, and that's a notoriously difficult judgment to make. The best (and admittedly imperfect) proxy for voter sentiment I have found is how well the candidate performs answering questions (and in particular, dealing with trolls) in their campaign threads. If you're impressed, other people will be too. And if you're not, maybe they're not the person for the job.

Special Cases

These are notable non-bloc candidates that don't fit into the first two categories. Most of them have core constituencies that should get them elected without outside help.

Alekseyev Karrde - a member of CSM 4 and leader of Noir Mercenary Group, Alek has a core constituency that should get him elected, but it is unlikely that he can challenge for the top 7. His goal on CSM 7 should be to demonstrate he's a Proven Performer.

Kelduum Revaan - CEO of EVE University, so he'll get plenty of votes from current and former students.

Prometheus Exenthal - Very knowledgeable PvP'r, but he was AWOL for the first third of CSM 6 due to RL issues. After that, he was very productive. If you have wet dreams about EFT, you're already voting for him, but he's a bit too much focused on balancing issues to rate Proven Performer status -- yet. Should cruise to re-election.

Riverini - has a built-in constituency because he runs EVENews24.com. A very polarizing figure, but it's likely that enough people will swear by him (the rest will swear at him) to get him a place on the council.

Draco Llasa - a member of CSM 6 and a nice guy, but not as active as some other members.

Korvin - a member of CSM 5, his campaign this year (at least, in English) is unfocused. Loves to theorycraft, and may squeak into a seat.

Roc Wieler - a well-known EVE-blogger, he will benefit from the fact that Ripard Teg (Jester) is not running this year, and might just make it onto the council.

Private Citizen • CSM in recovery
Trebor Daehdoow
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#3 - 2012-02-29 23:34:42 UTC  |  Edited by: Trebor Daehdoow
Newbies

These are candidates running for the first time, often because they are concerned about a specific issue or set of issues and want to use the election to air their views. Because they don't have broad support, they are unlikely to make it onto the CSM.

Not that it hasn't happened -- I was an issue newbie during the CSM5 elections, although my issues (UI and Lag) were broad in nature, and I had the advantage of out-of-game name recognition. But given how much more competitive CSM elections have become, they face an almost impossible challenge.

If you're thinking about voting for a newbie, read their platform and responses carefully. Look for someone who understands that CSM is about the process, not about getting particular things worked on. It's perfectly fine to have areas of expertise and interest that they want to advocate for, but the real business of the CSM is helping make sure that CCP makes their resource allocation decisions using the best available information -- not single-mindedly pushing for resources to be used to fix particular game issues.

A few newbies are going to make it on the council in the lower slots, and if they work hard, just like Two step they may graduate to Proven Performer status next time around. But unless you have a strong personal reason for voting for a newbie and they are clearly doing better in the forum-wars than other similar candidates (especially in how they respond to trolling), your vote is best spent elsewhere.

This year's newbies include: Blackberry Bold, Blake Armitage, corebloodbrothers, leboe, Mike Azariah, Mu'ad Diib, Sollana, StarConquer212, Vincent Athena, and Voloses.

Of the above, I have heard good things from people whose judgment I trust about corebloodbrothers. In addition, leboe acquitted himself well in his Lost in EVE debate. So if you're dead set on voting for a first-timer and Hans is not your man, then consider one of them. But the realities of the current election system are such that I can't recommend voting for a newbie this year.

Long Shots

Many of these candidates are just in the election to troll the process, have fun, and provide amusement for people. Some are decent candidates who simply lack enough support to get elected. Either way, all they'll do is suck away votes from candidates with a chance of getting elected.

One of the classic techniques used by bloc-candidate supporters to get people to waste votes is to engage in a massive trolling attack to generate both a huge thread and sympathy votes. This is probably happening in the campaign thread of Issler Dainze.

The rest of the Long Shots: Akirei Scytale, Darius III, Fon Revedhort, John Zorg, Lyris Nairn, Michael BoltonIII, Mintrolio, PsychoBitch, Skippermonkey, Skye Aurorae (sorry Skye, I'll vote for you when you're old enough!), T'amber Anomandari Demaleon, Tiger Would, and Xenuria.

One Final Note

Whoever you decide to vote for, please take the time to let your friends and corpmates know that you are voting, and encourage them to vote as well. If you found this guide helpful, then take a moment and fire off a tweet or an EVE-Mail, make a post in your internal forums, mention it on comms, or even do something old-fashioned like link it on Facebook.

A big turnout, especially by non-bloc voters, will help offset the inherent advantages that bloc-candidates have, and make it more likely that the CSM -- and in particular, the top 7 -- will be representative of the entire community.

PS: this guide is being posted on Leap Day, so nothing in it can be held against me. Twisted

Private Citizen • CSM in recovery
Trebor Daehdoow
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#4 - 2012-02-29 23:34:49 UTC  |  Edited by: Trebor Daehdoow
Trebor Daehdoow
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#5 - 2012-02-29 23:35:54 UTC
reserved

Private Citizen • CSM in recovery
Revolution Rising
Last-Light Holdings
#6 - 2012-02-29 23:48:03 UTC  |  Edited by: Revolution Rising
Great Guide.

Trebor, Seleene and Two Step are definitely the 3 candidates who will receive my votes.

Past Work on the CSM as well as a good understanding of game mechanics and a passion to move more change through the CSM are some of the positive qualities that all 3 share in my opinion.

Of course after saying that, if they get led around by particular candidates and if they fail to represent some of the change that is really needed now - they are going to hurt next year.

.
Acthiliak
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#7 - 2012-02-29 23:48:53 UTC
Great read, lots of good info here.
Master Hu
Dirt Nap Squad
#8 - 2012-02-29 23:49:01 UTC
Hi
Honor Dread
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#9 - 2012-02-29 23:49:42 UTC
Good read so far...reserved for further comments.
celestatia
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#10 - 2012-02-29 23:49:43 UTC
Very well said, goons is bad mmmmmK
Delici Feelgood
Doomheim
#11 - 2012-02-29 23:50:39 UTC
Well said Trebor.
sicarii Masters
Royal Amarr Institute
Amarr Empire
#12 - 2012-02-29 23:50:53 UTC
+1 Thank you for being honest and you have my vote
Dr RoX0
Doomheim
#13 - 2012-02-29 23:52:11 UTC
Trebor has my vote!
Angry Slinky
Nicodemus Technologies
#14 - 2012-02-29 23:53:11 UTC
its awesome that you took the time to explain this all out, and hopefully gets enough attention so that powerbloc'ing won't produce the usual predictable results.
Annaeliza
State War Academy
Caldari State
#15 - 2012-02-29 23:54:18 UTC
Very informative. Interesting political insight.
Morgash Sen
Dirt Nap Squad
#16 - 2012-02-29 23:55:21 UTC
This gives me word wood
Issler Dainze
Tadakastu-Obata Corporation
The Honda Accord
#17 - 2012-02-29 23:56:35 UTC
Wow, and now we are down to personal attacks.

I am also a two time elected to the CSM candidate and have 8 years committed to Eve. I've run a mining corp for over six years and an alliance for 5 years. I've experienced all aspects of Eve and proved in the past I am committed to the Eve community. I have a background in software engineering (42 years) and direct games industry experience.

To claim voting for me is a wasted vote and support for me is "sympathy" is both wrong and insulting.

So miner's don't accept that your voices are unimportant and vour support is just sympathy.

And to everyone else reading this nonsense "guide" ask yourself how Trebor made your life in Eve better recently. I expect you'll be struggling to find an answer.

Issler Dainze
The Miner's Friend
CSM 7 Candidate
zulrock
Ministry of War
Amarr Empire
#18 - 2012-02-29 23:57:04 UTC
This thread Is i quote from the incredible Master Hu "Full of Win"

thank you
zulrock
Ministry of War
Amarr Empire
#19 - 2012-02-29 23:58:22 UTC
Issler Dainze wrote:
Wow, and now we are down to personal attacks.

I am also a two time elected to the CSM candidate and have 8 years committed to Eve. I've run a mining corp for over six years and an alliance for 5 years. I've experienced all aspects of Eve and proved in the past I am committed to the Eve community. I have a background in software engineering (42 years) and direct games industry experience.

To claim voting for me is a wasted vote and support for me is "sympathy" is both wrong and insulting.

So miner's don't accept that your voices are unimportant and vour support is just sympathy.

And to everyone else reading this nonsense "guide" ask yourself how Trebor made your life in Eve better recently. I expect you'll be struggling to find an answer.

Issler Dainze
The Miner's Friend
CSM 7 Candidate



He mad bro Confirm?
Issler Dainze
Tadakastu-Obata Corporation
The Honda Accord
#20 - 2012-03-01 00:00:52 UTC
zulrock wrote:
Issler Dainze wrote:
Wow, and now we are down to personal attacks.

I am also a two time elected to the CSM candidate and have 8 years committed to Eve. I've run a mining corp for over six years and an alliance for 5 years. I've experienced all aspects of Eve and proved in the past I am committed to the Eve community. I have a background in software engineering (42 years) and direct games industry experience.

To claim voting for me is a wasted vote and support for me is "sympathy" is both wrong and insulting.

So miner's don't accept that your voices are unimportant and vour support is just sympathy.

And to everyone else reading this nonsense "guide" ask yourself how Trebor made your life in Eve better recently. I expect you'll be struggling to find an answer.

Issler Dainze
The Miner's Friend
CSM 7 Candidate



He mad bro Confirm?


Nope
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