Jita Park Speakers Corner

And democracy is based on assumption that its not feudalism in disguise. Doesnt matter. Works the same, just ignorance is overwhelming and action against it is missing.

I always vote for the candidate with the biggest highsec agenda. Shrug what else can a single player do? Most folks won't vote if they don't think they know what they are voting for...thats probably the biggest problem. You have to actually read the forums to have a clue.

So what are you saying that hisec people are worse from those other in lower security regions.

Right, the CSM does NOT reppresent anyone. Only the 0.0 Allys (like RED!) are in the CSM, and due that control they get what they need, not what anyone want. Thats NOT democratic. The CSM currently exsist just because CCP don't want to loose more player. To force anyone to vote could not be the best solution, due the fact that many players have multiple account or bots. But a solution is needed.

Big business control the Republican party and the Democratic party. They use these big parties to get what they want, not what any one else wants. That's NOT democratic...

We are the 83.333333333333333333333333333333%!

The most straightforward solution to getting more CSM representation of hisec-dwellers (from this discussion) seems to be to simply get them to put forward their own candidates to vote, then vote for those candidates.

If so, has anyone considered that a forum thread is the absolutely wrong medium to do this in? If these people didn't care enough to vote the last time around, and events since then have not convinced them to vote this time, what is a massive thread going to accomplish? The population of forum readers does not represent the population of Eve!

As such, I suggest the following steps:

1. Leave this thread, close your browser
2. Log onto Eve
3. Find your favorite (or least favorite) hisec carebear
4. Grab them by their shirt cuff or other fabric present in the area of their chest
5. Smack them silly
6. Yell, at the top of your voice: "You better vote in the next election or I'm going to take your strip miner and ram it up your carebear exhaust pipe until all you see are rainbow-colored asteroids!"
7. ...?
8. Profit!

But no seriously, better advertisement would probably do more than any mere forum thread can. Tell your friends to vote, tell your enemies to vote... hell, after suicide ganking someone, tell them that if they want something done about the mechanics of suicide ganking, they should vote!

I think it will be interesting to see how the CSM evolves or even survives going forward.

For example, I think next election results will be very similar to the last elections. The large alliance powerblocks have a much better mechanism for motivating voting blocks than anyone trying to gain the support of the indepentent high sec or care bear voter. Even if the "silent majority" of high sec care bears get motivated to vote it isn't clear how one candidate is going to reach them to gain their support. Ther forums definitely don't work.

The other factor is that I believe CCP is taking the CSM less seriously after finally realizing the huge bias the current CSM has exhibited. I think they realize that a power block nul sec focused CSM will not produce a game that could ever climb out of nitch status. Down that road madness lies.

So I'm not sure there even is a next CSM. I posted asking CCP to clarify the role of the CSM or even its future existance in Jita Park and never got a response.

If you want the CSM to evolve it will require finding a way to engage the current high sec crowd and to get them to support a slate of candidates to balance the CSM. The votes are there if someone can find a way to reach them. If CCP sees that the CSM is more representative of the true cross section of Eve they may continue to value thier feedback. However if the CSM stays a null sec tool for power block alliance influence I doubt CCP will continue the Icelandic periodic shark eating parties for a power elite to smooze. They will slowly back away and finally pull the plug on the CSM experiement.

It is kind of funny because it looks like in the end CCP got exactly the kind of CSM that their game, which encourages such bad behavior would create! A sort of Eve meta-scam! CCP must have seen this in Jta local, "Game companies! Send me free trips to Iceland and listen to me about your game design and I'll contract you a million new subscribers!!"

Can't wait to see how it turns out.

Issler

The solution to the issue as you see it, as several have pointed out, is for a candidate to step forward and run on a platform that takes high sec and low sec into consideration. No doubt we will have a CSM7 that is populated by some Alliance members, but that is not to say that it HAS to be this way. We certainly can and should elect a representative that is not beholden to Alliance influence in the coming election season.

The bottom line is, for the 5,000 votes that the Mittani obtained in the last election, there were a vast amount of players in high sec that could have outnumbered this figure. The problem is, they lacked the organization and willpower to put forth a viable candidate and elect them to the council. That can't be blamed on the Mittani, as much as everyone may disagree with his politics or tactics.

This is a drawback of the current electoral process, which many could argue favors voting blocs and voting blocs alone. I wholeheartedly disagree that this is the case though.

I truly believe that even if the Mittani obtained a flawless Goon vote, he could be superceded as chairman should enough High sec dwellers unite behind a candidate that isn't beholden to Alliance power. It will take a grassroots movement, spreading virally amongst those that never even log onto the official forums here, but it can be achieved, the numbers are there.

The CSM may be seen as many to be a sham or a PR stunt, but the real PR stunt was the huge amounts of bad press the current CSM6 hoisted upon CCP during the Incarna rollout. They rolled up their sleeves, and pulled no punches exposing the monocle debacle and having every gaming news site reporting on CCP's blunder in record time. Faced with mounting bad PR and a rapid unsubscription rate, CCP had no choice but to acquiesce and listen to players opinions.

Traditionally, the CSM members are seen to represent certain demographics and niche interests, but that is really a misplaced view from everything I've gathered in my time speaking with the CSM about various issues. The CSM can't just wave a magic wand and implement new features for their constituency, they primarily act these days as a sounding board for CCP to approach with their own ideas and seek feedback about new features. They were strongly outspoken about the need to return to Flying in Space, and Crucible is a testiment to that success.

I've personally spoken with many CSM members about issues that could be considered niche by many (Faction Warfare, for one) and found them to be both approachable and responsive, when the proposals made are organized, clear, and represent a deliberated view from the community at large.

Many won't believe this, but in that case the best solution is simply to elect a candidate that is truly free from null sec interests, which would hopefully quell many of the fears that the CSM seats are merely avenues for increased power and influence for one's own Alliance friends.

The "silent majority" doesn't exist but it is a good excuse for loser politicians (spaceship politicians too). If you can't motivate people to vote for you, you don't deserve anything.
Hi-sec player numbers' importance is overrated, a large part of them are alts of 0.0 and low-sec players (thanks to the "balanced" risk/reward ratio between hi-sec, low-sec and 0.0).

I think CCP takes the CSM seriously, "pulling the plug off" is wishful thinking. This CSM did a good job to stop the madness of the last 2 years.

p.s. Sorry if this sounds like a personal attack, but honesty first.