A Land Far Away

Please exercise your voting privileges in our latest election here:

http://www.alandfaraway.info/phpBB3/vie ... 68&t=51542

Updated the OP with link to the runoff election. Three days left to vote.

Only a day left and a close election. Please vote now if you haven't yet.

Can I change my vote?

Rumple C wrote:Can I change my vote?

Not easily. If you want to, PM me who you want to vote for now. I'll check the database and adjust your vote.

Users can change their vote now, until the election is finished.

Changing the rules mid-voting feels wrong.
It was never done before and changing it by the IA mid election while his friend is running just doesn't look right, especially when the result is turning the outcome from loss to win.

To clarify, I did vote for SF, I think he'll make a much better LA than the other candidates, and I don't want to throw poop at Foam, who does a lot of good work too.

You can't pull things like this without looking dirty as hell. And in time, if you look dirty, people will think you are (no matter how clean you might be) and if people will think you're dirty, eventually they'll leave.

I suggest running the elections again.

The ability to change votes with a PM to admin is a long-standing one, having been a thing for at least five years. It's easy to find evidence of this-- Veilan never actually changed the database side of things; he just posted the final count after verifying that the changed vote was originally cast as the person requesting claimed.

I didn't expect a different answer.
I've been here five years or so, and this is the first time i've seen this, and it looks bad, especially considering the pre-existing relationships.

Do with it as you will... Just telling you how it looks to a neutral (or even baised in SF's favor) bystander.
The fact that you tell me this has always been like this will not change how it looks.

I think both candidates are well qualified. I don't doubt at all that the ability to change your own vote via pm has always been there, mis-clicks being an actual thing and all. I do agree with kid, however as to how it may be perceived, and I suggest future elections have a nice clear statement under the voting buttons, and the top of the thread "If you wish to change your vote before the election is over, please PM xxx" It might be clearer and avoid any such future confusion.

The Lead Administrator is responsible for auditing this election, and conveying the audited results to the community.

I am not really concerned about people changing their votes as long as its managed properly by the current LA.

Over the great span of Alfa there have been unsavory moments where people have not held to standard ethical and procedural practices for the sake of their own visions. People are only human after all and the idea of a higher standard of ethics and morals is something that is becoming less important in modern society, especially with the sense of entitlement the first world provides.

From my perspective I don't see much difference in what I or any other candidate can do for Alfa. I had the same platform when I ran for LA the first time and I did my job. Any other person with a relatively keen mind and negotiating abilities could easily do the same.

So in the end it does not matter that I win or lose, it is matter of I stepped up to contribute to the project because I am in a position to volunteer my spare time to promote the project.

I can assume that is the case of everyone else who ran. So either way it is a win win situation.

I believe Alfa can survive as long as we have checks and balances to support its vision.

I don't really see the issue. If someone wants to change their mind, that's their right. If I vote for A, talk with B, an decide I want to throw my support behind them instead, I should be able to change my vote to B. The HEEGZ seemed to have no issue with this.

Anyway, I'd be happy to provide voting information from the database if it makes people feel better. I'd just need to make the data anonymous (which also makes it not super helpful). Or, someone with the ability to can certainly audit the election. Zelknolf has the ability.

With that bit of drama addressing over, congratulations shad0wfax. You poor, poor bastard.

No Drama, you do as you see fit, obviously I have no means to force the issue.

I'll just say that if this was any other voting process in any other self respecting governance, there's no way this would fly.

I should have been pleased with the results, I think the most capable candidate won,
but as it stands now I'm mostly meh'd, apprehensive and worried in regards to our admins judgement.
Changing the rules hours before the voting is over (And we're not talking about a mis-click, we're talking... I see the one is winning so I want to change my vote scenario) was never allowed (to the best of my knowledge) when one admin facilitates this so his buddy would win it looks awful.

Now maybe you would have done the exact same thing for anyone else, maybe you would have done that and made your buddy lose? I don't know, I guess I'll never know.

All I know is that the first time I see this happening, it happens to make your friend win and it looks very bad.

But I guess that's just me, as everyone else in ALFA seems fine with it?
And maybe I'm wrong and this has always been common practice in ALFA.

To the best of my knowledge though, it never was, which is what makes this look bad.
The fact that you can't understand that just makes me even more worried, kinda like booms blind spot regarding why DMing on the same server might cause problems, I can't believe you can't see why this might be problematic.

Your accusations stem from the assumption that you think I know who Rumple voted for. I did not. He could just have easily been shifting his vote from shad0wfax to CD. If he had, I would have absolutely shifted his vote from SF to CD, because he has a right to change his mind.

So, yes, I would have done that for anyone. HEEGZ had no issue with it. Rumple is entitled to his vote. It'd be worse if I forbade him from voting -- particularly if he had voted for shad0wfax in the first place.

There was no changing of the rules. There was no favoritism. Hell, if I was interested in fucking with elections, Boom would never have become DMA. It's no secret how corrupt I think the guy was, I certainly never wanted him in position to abuse his power again.