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Monday, January 19, 2015

CSM X Election: Bobmon And The Rules

Last night I was on a podcast panel discussing the CSM X election.  That's right, I've graduated to the coveted position of talking head discussing the important area of internet spaceship politics.  I'll discuss the experience more once the podcast is released, but I'd like to discuss a subject that came up: Bobmon and CSM's age requirement.

I don't think I said anything about the subject.  At least, I hope I didn't say anything, because after a good night's sleep, I finally came up with an intelligent answer.  That's the problem as a blogger on a podcast; blogging doesn't require the ability to think quickly.  So while the other panelists went back and forth about CCP changing the rules, I remained quiet.

For those who don't follow the subject closely, Bobmon, according to the current rules, is not old enough to run for election to the CSM.  However, CCP Leeloo stated that Bobmon would have no problem meeting the age requirement:
"We are indeed looking into changing the age requirements for the CSM. More information about this and other changes will be included in the candidacy opening blog, which will be published on January 30th as I mentioned here. Roll
"At this point I can assure you that Bobmon will not have any age related issues with his CSMX campaign."
Without giving anything away, one point was alluded to, but not brought up plainly.  CCP Leeloo has not posted the rules for the election yet.  That's right, the election campaign has basically run since the beginning of December and the rules everyone is running under are still unknown.  CCP Leeloo made a good decision in disclosing the one rules change so that Bobmon isn't penalized by making him start his campaign late.

Should CCP post the election rules earlier?  I don't think so, even though doing so would make my life as a talking head easier.  I don't think CCP should begin the official election season until the last major piece of CSM activity for the term, the winter summit, has concluded.  At that point CCP can begin the transition from supporting the current CSM to creating the next one.  Posting the rules one week after the end of the winter summit seems appropriate.

However, I'm glad that candidates do not wait until the election rules are posted to begin campaigning.  Working on the election page for CSM Wire, I know I wouldn't have a life if I had to try to do all the work beginning on 30 January.  Or, more likely, I just wouldn't try.  I don't know for sure, but I don't think the Cap Stable guys would try to interview all the candidates either.  I also don't know how Marc Scaurus would get his interviews done over on Just For Crits either.

Of course, I didn't think of any of this during the recording.  Like I mentioned at the beginning of the post, thinking quickly isn't a requirement for blogging.

2 comments:

  1. sounds like it is all ad-lib. perhaps if a podcast provided an item agenda in advance which would give you time to prepare?

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  2. One issue I see is that if they are changing the rules and adjusting the age, there may be people who would run for a CSM position. As they won't find out until last minute what the new rules are they'd now have considerably less time to campaign than all of the other candidates. This wouldn't just apply to age either, any other changes that affect eligibility may have the same effect. I think that they should always post at least the eligibility criteria before campaigning begins, to give everyone a fair start.

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