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For a second year in a row, the Moderation team has ignored the democratically endorsed and enforced procedures for electing a user to the position of President and instead just did whatever the fuck they wanted when they wanted without explanation or apology.
I'll reprint the rules that we democratically agreed to abide by in October 2021 below.
Let's be sure to note:
- WyIted was banned for 60 days on April 3rd of last year, disqualifying him from running for this office.
- The rules clearly state that there is a designated nomination period but Mods never bothered, in spite of repeated admissions that such neglect interferred with the orderly conduct of last year's election.
- The rules clearly state that a new president will be announced on January 1st of the new year but Mods have never acheived this deadline
- The rules clearly state that there will be three weeks of campaigning followed by a week of voting but Mods have consistently, anti-democractically truncated this voting allotment that we DARTers decided for ourselves without apology.
- The rules clearly state that there is a nomination period/general election period/run-off election over the course of at least one month but this year, mods just announced two candidates and gave us two days to vote.
- seems like there was plenty of violation of rules prohibiting campaigning outside of DART, DMs, etc.
Here are the election rules as voted on by the DART Community. Why don't we have any explanation about why Mods are consistently failing to ignore these rules?
In order for a user to qualify for the Presidential position:
- The user’s account must be greater than 6 months old.
- The user must have been awarded at least one golden medal achievement.
- The user can not have been banned more frequently than once within the past year.
- The user can not have been banned for more than 21 days within the past year.
- The user must have abided by all campaigning rules.
- The user must agree to their role powers and limitations.
- The user can not have served more than 1 previous term as President.
- The user can not be currently serving on the moderation team.
ElectionThe President shall be elected for a yearly term each December, to be formally instated January 1st of the following year. The first three weeks of December will be dedicated to optional campaigning, and the rest of the month will be dedicated to the election process, all of which will be overseen and managed by moderation.The election process shall, largely, mimic the Hall of Fame process. First, users who wish to be President will nominate themselves during a designated nomination period. Afterward, the DebateArt user base shall vote for their favoured candidate within a preliminary polling stage. Finally, the top three most popular candidates from the preliminary polling stage will go to a final voting stage. During this period, one of the candidates shall be elected to become President by simple majority vote. Moderation will have the power to delay or extend voting periods as well as conduct tiebreaker rounds as deemed necessary.Campaigning Rules & GuidelinesDuring the designated campaigning period, users may advocate election for themselves or others by doing any of the following:
- Within any three day window, creating at most ONE non-spam campaign-related forum thread or debate.
- Offering non-spam contributions to the campaign-related forum threads or debates of others.
- Changing their profile picture or user biography.
ANY forms of campaigning outside of these sanctioned activities are prohibited.For extra clarity, prohibited campaigning methods include (but are not limited to):
- Any method involving spam, including mass private messaging.
- Any campaigning within unrelated threads or debates.
- Any campaigning within mediums other than DebateArt.com.
Moderation shall monitor and enforce the campaigning rules as necessary.
- Furthermore, I told you so
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DebateArt.com
They have banned several users and removed voting privileges and all sorts and not written any of it in the moderation logs for months.
What is the log for then?
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DebateArt.com
I note that a new notice has been issued today regarding DART elections:
DART Presidential ElectionGreetings DART!The presidential process will begin starting Dec 27th.From December 27th to January 16th, any user may nominate themselves. From that time, users may campaign for themselves following the regulation set.On January 17th, the preliminary voting stage will begin, where the top three candidates move on to the general electionOn January 20th, the final voting stage will begin, where a simple majority vote decides the presidentOn January 21st, the president is inauguratedFor more info on campaign rules, please read here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PIsh9UDic938MMM3YX-H1nn15H7OriOvfOSFigXXsX0/editHope everyone has a safe and happy holidaysGodspeed, SupaDudz
While I voted against the need for a Presidential office on DART, I accepted the preference of the majority as expressed in the MEEP that ended on Sept 29th, "MEEP: Reformed ban policy & DebateArt President" and in early December endorsed RationalMadman's Candidacy for our first DebateArt President.
That election process, as proposed by MisterChris and approved by us DebartArters clearly stated:
"The President shall be elected for a yearly term each December, to be formally instated January 1st of the following year. The first three weeks of December will be dedicated to optional campaigning, and the rest of the month will be dedicated to the election process, all of which will be overseen and managed by moderation."
Clearly, a number of DebateArtists including RM and myself were under the impression that these were the rules in play and have been campaigning since Dec 1 accordingly. Now I see that the campaign dates and inauguration dates have been moved and a primary process inserted. I guess I'm left wondering:
- When did the election process change?
- How did I miss it?
- On what authority?
- Does that authority over-ride MEEP decided policies?
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DebateArt.com
Hello all! I'm thrilled to serve as the new chief moderator for DART!
Now, for a few announcements:
1. In an effort to make the system on DART more clearly reflect who is actually a mod and who isn't, I have spoken to all users that retain admin access in order to ascertain whether they would like to continue serving in an official capacity as mods or retire and relinquish their admin access. I have finished this process, and so I'd like to take this opportunity to announce the finalized mod team lineup under the new administration:
MisterChris, chief moderator
SupaDudz, deputy moderator
Speedrace, forum moderator
Whiteflame, vote moderator
Blamonkey, vote moderator
Ragnar, assistant moderator
David, assistant moderator
Deadfire27, discord moderator
Note the role "Assistant Moderator." This is a role I have created to take advantage of Ragnar and David's experience while accommodating their limited time. As the name suggests, the primary function of an Assistant Moderator is to help wherever it is most required. As such, this role will have the authority to handle forum posts, debate votes, and debate comments, but will likely not act unless the rest of the mod team is overwhelmed or inactive.
2. With this new transition is coming many exciting changes that I will hint at here, but will be proposed more fully in a MEEP down the line.
- In an effort to promote consistent, fair and even-handed moderating practices across the board, the Standardized Policy Enforcement System (SPES for short) I am working on will completely overhaul and systematize banning practices by laying out specific ban times for specific offenses. Moderators will be required to uphold these standards across the board, except in certain freak scenarios that I shall specify.
- Various updates to the information center
- A more formal system & framework surrounding the idea of a DART President. The role would most likely serve as an elected advisor to the mod team and may have limited powers. (This idea is in its infant stages)
3. In keeping with tradition, the new mod team will adopt a "near blank slate" approach in dealing with the offenses of long-time users.
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DebateArt.com
Sheriff Chris is hereby the officially unofficial street name of MisterChris.
King David has stepped down why? Because when you want to rule a kingdom, you have a king and when you want the roughians to truly respect you, you need a good Sheriff and his Deputy.
Yee haww
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DebateArt.com
This website is proof that dictatorship can be benevolent if it's done with respect to the populace.
If you observe what this website runs on, it is not democracy in theory and yet the populace is respected by those in power. DART is a benevolent dictatorship and is proof that it can actually be done and thus that democracy itself is not the highest importance in a political system but instead respect for all is the utmost priority.
This is not proof that Republicanism is superior to Democracy, as this site is also not actually a Republic since each MEEP and discussing in threads that led to the rules and continues to shape them isn't how a Constitution with 'irrevokable rights' is formed or regarded.
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Politics