Mumblefratz Mumblefratz

Metaverse Council Elections

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Metaverse Council Elections

from GalCiv2 Forums
The Metaverse Council (MVC) has recently lost a representative to the Lord of the Rings Online Beta. We'd like to get a new representative to replace this loss. Previously, MVC representatives have either been appointed by an active empire or selected from the GC2 community by the MVC itself.

However, one of the issues that was discussed when we initially formed the MVC was how to make it a truly representative body of the GalCiv2 community. At that time in the interests of expediency we chose to start the Council with representatives appointed by the major metaverse empires that were active at the time. It was certainly hoped that at some point we would move to a more democratic MVC councilor selection process. I think that this point is now.

I want to quickly refresh everyone’s memory about the purpose and scope of the MVC. Although the MVC did none of the actual work it’s clear that the introduction of AltMeta Classes would not have occurred without the effort put forth by the MVC. The MVC has recently been sitting on it’s collective laurels, taking a break from all the effort expended in helping to define the AltMeta Class system and partly due to the major forum changes that have recently occurred at the Galactic Core. In any case it’s time to get back to work.

Speaking of work there’s clearly a lot more to be done. Cari has provided an endgame.xml that is saved by the game and is something that we have great hopes for providing a whole range of new functionality to the AltMeta. We’re looking to be able to support Metaverse Mods, Metaverse Scenarios and Tournaments. The exact nature of these functions and precisely how all this will work are currently very far from being defined let alone having any specific detail worked out. There are certainly many challenges and a whole new set of infrastructure that will be associated with providing these functions. Anyway the point of this is to give folks some idea of the work that’s ahead of us.

So back to the topic of an election, the MVC would like to select a single MVC representative determined by popular election here on the GalCiv2 forums. To give folks an idea of what we're looking for we have the following criteria. We're not really interested in a popularity contest, however the potential MVC representative must; want the job, want the metaverse to succeed and flourish, and, be willing to put forth the effort it takes to achieve this goal. An established forum presence is a plus but not absolutely essential, however the ability and willingness to stand up and promote themselves, the AltMeta and the Metaverse is essential. The ability to cogently express their own opinions and the willingness to actually listen to the opinions of others is also important.

Experience in the game is absolutely *not* required. We'd rather have an exuberant newbie, than a jaded expert (however by no means would we turn down an exuberant expert).

We're not really looking for the second coming of JFK but we are looking for folks that can stand up and say that they want the job, be able to explain why they want the job, and be able to convince others that they would be good at the job. People should feel free to nominate any that they feel are particularly worthy, but it is expected that anyone interested should be able to mount at least a minimal 'campaign' on their own behalf.

They only absolute requirement on any that wish to be a MVC representative is that you *must* have submitted at least one metaverse game. It doesn't have to be a high scoring game, it doesn't even have to be a win, but you must have submitted at least a single metaverse game.

Actually, none of the above is really set in stone, they're really just guidelines that we can use to start the discussion. Besides actually considering who should be the next MVC councilor, a large part of this discussion should be about the actual process of how we go about this. This is our first attempt at "free elections" on the GalCiv2 site. How do you think this should be held? Who should be allowed to vote? These and many more questions are ones that I’d like to address in this thread.



metaverse
50,212 views 124 replies
Reply #76 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Dear, council persons.

I'd like to make a vote, despite me being relatively new to the forum, if i may.

I do vote for Wyndstar (he is already nominated iirc).

He, more so the last tournament he hosted, was the reason why i even bothered with registering my game and started to play Metaverse games.
He seems to be the logical choice to me, as for he is not only a very experienced player, with fancy medals and stuff, but also seems to be highly respected by the community for his insight into the Metaverse and game mechanics and loved for the joy he spreads with his tournaments.

Its actually a watergate-like scandal he isnt already a member of the council imho.

Thanks for acknowledging this vote ...errm, i mean if you choose to do so.
Reply #77 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Dear, council persons.

I'd like to make a vote, despite me being relatively new to the forum, if i may.

I do vote for Wyndstar (he is already nominated iirc).

He, more so the last tournament he hosted, was the reason why i even bothered with registering my game and started to play Metaverse games.
He seems to be the logical choice to me, as for he is not only a very experienced player, with fancy medals and stuff, but also seems to be highly respected by the community for his insight into the Metaverse and game mechanics and loved for the joy he spreads with his tournaments.

Its actually a watergate-like scandal he isnt already a member of the council imho.

Thanks for acknowledging this vote ...errm, i mean if you choose to do so.


I also think wyndstar would be very good for the position, however the time needed to do a good job he self admited he could not give do to his position as posted earlier  
SoundPackager - Customize the Windows sound scheme
Reply #78 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Thanks for the show of support from some.

Kind of a quiet day here at the office as I'm waiting for some important documents to be FedEx'd in, so I've gotten to hang out on the forums for the first time in a while.

Look, I'd be happy to be on the council - and would accept a nomination. I would be happy to post a little "about me and my mission" statement like Neilo et all. However, as I stated once, my running seems like it has to come with a big asterisk - by the way, I'm gone for the next few months. It seems unfair to ask the council, or the galciv community I would be representing, to make such a large concession right off the bat.

However, Mumblefratz did mention that absences for "real life" problems were acceptable. And who is going to argue with Luther? Erasmus?

But all kidding aside, having read through the posts, if, IF the council is seeking to add more than one person, I feel that changes the situation slightly. In this case, they do still benefit from an immediate injection of new blood with at least one immediate representative. Again, IF it is decided they want to add more than one, in that case I would happily run - again - as long as everyone understands I'm making full disclosure that I will start out in absencia.

Really, the MVCs goals and my own personal motivation for ever being on these boards dovetail quite nicely. And whether I remain an outsider to the council or at some point am elected to join - I will always work for the betterment of the community as a whole.

I guess, after reading Mumble's response to my response, what I'm trying to say is I would be happy to accept a nomination if a) the council decides to add more than one member through this election and b) as long as it is OK that I am going to be mostly unavailable at first.

What does the council think? Should my name be added?

Good luck with this btw.
- Wyndstar
Reply #79 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Maybe if you gave away free slippers or towels more people might respond, just a thought


The hitchhikers could always lend some.

But all kidding aside, having read through the posts, if, IF the council is seeking to add more than one person, I feel that changes the situation slightly.


That might be in all possibility, at the very least I think you deserve an advisory possition.

Ahem, well I guess I will throw out some support to people in terms of nominations. First off I would like to nominate PlayJeff for his continuous interest in the Council and his obviously light and cheery nature that we could definetly have on the Council.

Also I think that ElWhopo should also consider running seeing as he does have a forum presence and is interested in the election itself.

I have a few other people in mind, but most of them will hopefully be picked by others.
Reply #80 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It might not be a popular idea, but there should be a way to track votes by user ID among registered Metaverse users. That way, in theory, everyone who votes would have a valid serial number.


Actually, after thinking about it, if there were some way to tie into the actual purchase of the game (serial number or email address related to serial number), I think that would be about as secure as might be reasonably expected. Who would go out and buy an additional copy for each additional vote they wanted to stuff? Anywayz, it's probably more personal paranoia on my part than any sort of real issue. I doubt there are that many "eve-online 10-account-holders" planning an evil takeover of the AltMeta to somehow corner the market so they can sell somethings on eBay. Whatever you guys decide on will be fine, I'm sure.

Reply #81 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Also I think that ElWhopo should also consider running seeing as he does have a forum presence and is interested in the election itself.


I'll consider it, of course! I will take time to re-read about duties and responsibilities etc. and see if I think I fit the bill, and think about it. Thanks.
Reply #82 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yes Playjeff would be a great asset as would ElWhopo, i'd love to see both of you guys run. As for Wyndstar, i could not think of a better person for the council and i will echo Swiffo's thought's that he deserves a place there, advisory or not. His insight into the game is extensive and his initiative's speak for themselve's. Being that Wyndstar/you ( i hate 3rd person talk) will be unavailable for some time may be the problem though, if being absent atm wasn't an issue would these elections be even on?

That being said should the MVC accept Wyndstar's nomination he would have my full support and i would even entertain pulling out as not to split any votes. Though i do feel i can offer something to the MVC and MV as a whole i would not presume that i could do more than Wyndstar.

Hey! Forget the election if Wyndstar want's in and the MVC wants him just appoint him, and elect one more person, as was suggested, if interest is enough.

My two cents.....
Reply #83 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
if there were some way to tie into the actual purchase of the game (serial number or email address related to serial number),

I support a fair election for all. However, asking people for their serial number to vote I do not support. You should never give your serial number to someone else, no matter how legitimate it seems.

Email is another matter. With those you can set up a disclaimer about how it won't be sold to spam companies or otherwise misused. How to check that the email is linked to a serial without the information from stardock is a problem though.

No matter how well intentioned anyone here may be, including myself, you should not ask people for their serial #s. Never give out your serial #s either.

Just my take on that.
- Wyndstar
Reply #84 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well thank you for the vote of confidence TGE. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside   However as stated I am terrible on the computer, my 6 yr old had to show me how to turn it on. But I am slowly getting a little better from sheer trying. I know how to send emails now   And wyndstar, an individual of your talent and interest would be a huge waste if you didnt run, even if you are a lawyer  no offense intended.
Reply #85 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Oh Yea i forgot, to make this interesting I would love to throw my hat in. and a vote for me I may send you a free spoon, you pay shipping and handling  
Reply #86 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
See! Now it's getting exciting.   

Welcome aboard PlayJeff45 and if we can convince Wyndstar to join the nominee's things will be looking up.

A thought on voting: If we just had a post like the one we are in now entitled Metaverse Council Votes, or something like it. Could'nt everyone wishing to vote just post their vote on that thread. If someone tried to post twice it would be easy to tell as our names etc are there for all to see.
Reply #87 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
No matter how well intentioned anyone here may be, including myself, you should not ask people for their serial #s. Never give out your serial #s either.


Right! I assumed of course, and maybe I should have expressed this ... that the serial numbers and email addresses of the actual game owners, not just any possible multi-email-account/multi-GCII-website-forum-readers-account ... but actual game owners, is probably in a secure, encrypted database somewhere on the Moon, or wherever Stardock actually keeps it. At least that's how a lot of the opensource website applications do it. The thought running around in the back of my head was " I wonder if Stardock would lend a hand" ... there, now you know.
Reply #88 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
if we can convince Wyndstar to join the nominee's things

Oh, I'm convinced. At this point I think it is up to the council to approve my nomination though, because I come with a lot of special rules

That being said should the MVC accept Wyndstar's nomination he would have my full support and i would even entertain pulling out as not to split any votes. Though i do feel i can offer something to the MVC and MV as a whole i would not presume that i could do more than Wyndstar.

Ah, you are way too kind. But, if they are going to take on more than one member, there is no need for you to pull out. We could, in theory, both get elected. If they are not going to take on more than one member, I don't think I should run anyway. Goes back to it being up to them whether I run.

Forget the election if Wyndstar want's in and the MVC wants him just appoint him, and elect one more person,

Yes! Why have a democratic process when fiat works so much better. I expect my appointment papers to be in the mail...
Seriously though, appointments as well as elections are up to the council. I hope to join their ranks someday, but if it never happens I won't stop doing what I do.

even if you are a lawyer

What? You must not know many lawyers. We are delightfully interesting to know, what with our narcassitic self adoration, pompous convictions of our own importance, and educated disdain for all "lay persons". What's not to love? Plus, we wield the mysterious powers of "the law", which in modern society seems to some a quasi religious mystical power like "the force". We can make and ruin lives I tells ya!

I wonder if Stardock would lend a hand

Ah. Well, my objection stands if you or anyone else proposed collecting the information. As to whether Stardock themselves will get involved, it is I suppose always a possibility. But I wouldn't hold your breath. They are generally busy working on new projects and/or working on improving this game, not in getting involved with council business. From my understanding, to this point anyway, the MVC is a strictly player run affair.

Well, time for me to leave the office and return to my loved ones. It was great fun hanging out on these boards some today. Take care all. *poofs*

- Wyndstar
Reply #89 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well thank you for the vote of confidence TGE. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside However as stated I am terrible on the computer, my 6 yr old had to show me how to turn it on. But I am slowly getting a little better from sheer trying. I know how to send emails now And wyndstar, an individual of your talent and interest would be a huge waste if you didnt run, even if you are a lawyer no offense intended.


Computer knowledge isnt a necesity, if you can read and type your well qualified.

you pay shipping and handling


Why would I do that, Imperial Post is free while I am still around.

Oh, I'm convinced. At this point I think it is up to the council to approve my nomination though, because I come with a lot of special rules


We agreed not to really approve or disprove any nomination, nor can we flat out say that you have our full support. We feel that if we did we would sway the votes. Sure if we think someone is underqualified we would try to discourage them or encourage them to improve, but thats about it.

However let me say this, that you were the main reason I asked if Councilors could nominate members.

As to whether Stardock themselves will get involved, it is I suppose always a possibility. But I wouldn't hold your breath


Yea... we reserve asking Stardock for later, first lets see if we can solve it ourselves, we are trying to prove ourselves after all, turning at the first obsticale isnt the best way to do that.

Though some advice would be nice.

Reply #90 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
However, Mumblefratz did mention that absences for "real life" problems were acceptable. And who is going to argue with Luther? Erasmus?

I haven't heard this in quite awhile. Fairly rare these days for someone to understand the reference.

Absence is understandable, absence without any explaination or notification is the issue. I think that we've made it easy for folks. We're not even asking them to ask for permission, just tell us what's going on. We've been (I think) very understanding and forgiving about people's circumstances. But weeks turn into months with no contact and there's really not much else we can do.

I do have a concern about another councilor who shall remain nameless at this point. This is what needs discussion behind closed doors, but if this turns out as expected and we have an obviously healthy crop of nominees then I'd like to see us elect two councilors, but that's not my decision it's the MVC's so we'll see how it goes. The mechanics of electing multiple councillors probably adds another wrinkle to the voting process but it would be good experience. We have yet to discuss where this is leading toward but the re-election of all current councilors in some manner or other is probably pretty much inevitable, after all this isn't a for life appointment.

BTW I'm speaking of my own opinion here without knowledge of how the other councilors feel, but as far as Wyndstar's nomination or lack thereof, I would say starting out from day 1 on sabbatical is probably not the best way to start but as long as we know the probable length of time and are kept informed of changes I see no tremendous issue with it. I mean the newly elected officials in real life don't take office immediately. I think this should be discussed by the council along with precisely how many councilors we'd like to elect.

I think it would be appropriate to "pencil in" Wyndstars name on the ballot at this point subject to the approval of the MVC. In any case it may be some time before we get this finalized anyway.

Oh Yea i forgot, to make this interesting I would love to throw my hat in. and a vote for me I may send you a free spoon, you pay shipping and handling

OK that's good. The simple act of following this thread shows a certain amount of interest and I wouldn't be ashamed of having anyone that's replied to this thread on the ballot. However a descriptive paragraph as the others have already or will provide should come at some point or other.

i would even entertain pulling out as not to split any votes.

No pulling out.

No matter how well intentioned anyone here may be, including myself, you should not ask people for their serial #s. Never give out your serial #s either.

Absolutely, this is sacrosanct information that should never be reveled or requested.

A thought on voting: If we just had a post like the one we are in now entitled Metaverse Council Votes, or something like it. Could'nt everyone wishing to vote just post their vote on that thread. If someone tried to post twice it would be easy to tell as our names etc are there for all to see.

This would certainly be the default way we woud go about it. There are some downsides with it. Some folks may feel intimidated to vote publically. Others may be swayed to "jump on the bandwagon" of who seems to have the early lead. This method would most likely have the lowest turnout of pretty much any other method we could consider. However, I think this is the default fall back position if we can't come up with something better.
Reply #91 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ah. Well, my objection stands if you or anyone else proposed collecting the information.


Yes, again. Also, if you're trying to bait me, it's starting to work. I would appreciate it if you would simply not even mention my namu (name) in connection with your original specious assumption I would ever do such a thing? OK? Nuff said (I hope)  ( mumble-mumble-lawyers-mumble)
Reply #92 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
HHMMMM? a descriptive paragraph? how about "ditto" what Neilo said?  
Reply #93 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Forget the election if Wyndstar want's in and the MVC wants him just appoint him, and elect one more person,

Yes! Why have a democratic process when fiat works so much better. I expect my appointment papers to be in the mail...


Glad to see this comment was taken with the utmost respect Seriously though, If the MVC wanted to simply select you for the council, as they have done previously, and with your blessing of course, i for one would see that as quite fitting.

You deserve a position on the council and i sure hope something can be done to accommodate you.

Why would I do that, Imperial Post is free while I am still around.


Hmmm???
Imperial postage service? Not sure if i would like to open mail delivered by a stormtrooper on his mail delivery speeder.....


i would even entertain pulling out as not to split any votes.

No pulling out.


Fair enough and not that i would want too nor is there a need, what with all the nominee's we have now. Finally this thread has come alive, which is great for the election and the Metaverse. What i would like to know is who the MVC would like to see run. Both Mr.Palpatine and Mumble have expressed that they have a few people in mind, and i see no reason why they (MVC members) couldn't nominate someone they feel would be worthy. A nomination is nothing without the votes to support it and since no one person could vote more than once your nominee is at no advantage because a councilor put their name forward. It would be a shame if someone the council feels would be great failed to get a look in simply because of red tape stopping a councilor nominating them.

As for the voting structure, which is now of much debate, not to blow wind up my own skirt, but a praposal i made earlier ion the thread seems to fit the situation.
Have a thread in the name of each nominee, with a post at the top from a councilor quickly outlining the situation and with a link to this and any relevant threads. Then the community can simply leave a blank post or a short note in their preferred nominee's thread. The council can easily see if there are multiple votes, we can't hide our name of course, and if they are MV players (not sure if this was resolved) if that criteria is needed.

I see two drawbacks.

1) You will get some clutter in those threads from the immature fringe of the community, though i feel that is unavoidable no matter how the process is done.

2) The voting won't be exactly secret. One would be able to track ones progress throughout the alloted voting time, and one would also be able to see who voted for you or against you.

Just thinking outloud....
Reply #94 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I haven't heard this in quite awhile. Fairly rare these days for someone to understand the reference.

Well, I like to pretend I'm educated. I'm glad you got the reference. Given your profile picture, I thought you might.

Also, if you're trying to bait me, it's starting to work. I would appreciate it if you would simply not even mention my namu (name) in connection with your original specious assumption I would ever do such a thing?

Not trying to bait you, and I never once used your namu. I DO take serial #s seriously, as they are the method through which Stardock defends their intellectual property - an issue which I am very familiar with. Not with Stardock particularly, but in the law in general.

Though some advice would be nice.

Seems to me the obvious way to restrict voting to forum users and yet still maintain anonymity is to use the private message feature. Now, private messages only hold 50 at a time, but you were talking about maybe only getting a few hundred votes total. What you would want to do, it seems to me, is have a page with a list of the candidates, as well as a list of the current councilers, then tell people to "vote" for one of the candidats by messaging any of the councilers. Each council member would be responsible for checking their private messages and deleting enough of them that they had room to accept more. It is *possible* that mumblefratz would get 200 private messages in the first hour, but doesn't strike me as likely, and if you got an error that the person in question couldn't accept more messages, as a potential voter you still would have several other council members you could private message your vote to.

This would lead to a fair amount of behind the scenes work for the MVC members, for in addition to tallying the votes they are privately messaged, they would want to keep track of names, and ideally add it to a MVC spreadsheet so that someone couldn't vote twice just by messaging two different council members. From my experience with the various members they have the tech savy to accomplish this, so it is more a matter of wanting to spend so much of their personal time during whatever sort of election period you adopt.

Obviously, a less MVC time management approach would be to have people publicly post votes. This method has many drawbacks, some of which have already been detailed above. It probably isn't worth my time to try and lay them all out, especially if this is the format that is adopted.


As for voting for multiple people, there are many ways to handle it. Give everyone a single vote and take the top two vote getters. Let everyone pick a first and second choice, then weight all first place votes as 5 pts, second place votes as 3 pts, and the top two point getters are voted in. Or, run two rounds of voting, where the winner of the first round is not included in the second round. Or let people rank all the candidates on a scale of 1 to 5, and then take the two candidates that score the lowest (or highest, depending on how you use the number scale). Pick one you like. Or use another. There are some intelligent and creative people on the council, I don't imagine it should be too hard to come up with a way around this problem.

... And now I have an angry woman who doesn't understand why I'm spending time on a computer. Time for me to go again. Take care.
- Wyndstar
Reply #95 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Not trying to bait you, and I never once used your namu. I DO take serial #s seriously, as they are the method through which Stardock defends their intellectual property - an issue which I am very familiar with. Not with Stardock particularly, but in the law in general.
Guys, I don't think anyone is baiting anyone. Everyone here is discussing this because they have an interest in the topic and outcome. No one is denigrating anyone's intelligence or motivation. Particularly when the caliber of the participation so far has been so obviously high.

I do have to agree that I would think SD takes the licensing of their product very seriously and I think we all should have no desire to intrude on that in any way.

We agreed not to really approve or disprove any nomination
I agree that we shouldn't be in the business of approving or disapproving of nominations, however, the question Wyndstar brought up was that at this point in time if elected he would be unable to immediately fulfill his duties and need to start out on sabbatical. I believe that it is appropriate for the MVC to render a decision on the suitability of such an arraignment.

Seems to me the obvious way to restrict voting to forum users and yet still maintain anonymity is to use the private message feature.
THis is a reasonable suggestion however there is a bit of lack of transparency here that makes me a little uncomfortable. Certainly when and if the entire MVC of perhaps just a good portion of it is up for re-election it certainly would not be appropriate for the group most affected by the outcome to be responsible for saying how many votes were received for this or that candidate.

However, I guess this is intrinsic to any secret ballot type of election. The counter(s) of the votes needs to be both trusted and have no vested interest in the outcome. The best person that could fit this bill would be Kryo, but I think this is a lot to ask of him and I don't think we should. I suppose if the MVC councilors kept a record of the vote that could be later published that could help, but if needed the only benefit would for the names and who they voted for to be published so that everyone could verify that their vote was recorded properly. This would pretty much defeat the secrecy of the ballot but at least would have the benefit that intermediate results wouldn't sway the outcome.
Reply #96 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Seems to me the obvious way to restrict voting to forum users and yet still maintain anonymity is to use the private message feature.
THis is a reasonable suggestion however there is a bit of lack of transparency here that makes me a little uncomfortable. Certainly when and if the entire MVC of perhaps just a good portion of it is up for re-election it certainly would not be appropriate for the group most affected by the outcome to be responsible for saying how many votes were received for this or that candidate.

However, I guess this is intrinsic to any secret ballot type of election. The counter(s) of the votes needs to be both trusted and have no vested interest in the outcome. The best person that could fit this bill would be Kryo, but I think this is a lot to ask of him and I don't think we should. I suppose if the MVC councilors kept a record of the vote that could be later published that could help, but if needed the only benefit would for the names and who they voted for to be published so that everyone could verify that their vote was recorded properly. This would pretty much defeat the secrecy of the ballot but at least would have the benefit that intermediate results wouldn't sway the outcome.


It sounds to me like Wyndstar's suggestion would be the easiest to implement and would have the best balance of security and availability. I doubt that privacy would be a big issue. For instance, I will be voting for neilo. I seriously doubt that Wyndstar would hold that against me and even if he or someone else did, their options to retaliate would be essentially nil.

On the other hand, if privacy is important, the list need never be published.

I also question the idea that only those with no vested interest should count the votes. I seriously doubt that any hint of corruption could or would be leveled at any of the current council members. A quorum of three universally trusted council members from different empires could render a final decision or decide that a runoff is needed. No muss, no fuss.

Mumblefratz, TheGreatEmperor and Quixen immediately come to mind, but any three would do IMO.

Reply #97 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Mumblefratz, TheGreatEmperor and Quixen immediately come to mind, but any three would do IMO.

I think that's fine for now but what happens when Mumblefratz, TheGreatEmperor and Quixen are up for re-election? I suppose it would be fine to never have more than half of the council up for re-election at any one time, but even then having one half of the current MVC in charge of the re-election of the other half of the current MVC smacks of conflict of interests.

I think the best combination of ideas that I've seen so far is to have voters PM their votes to any one of a designated set of MVC councilors and these votes will be compliled and published for all to see once the election is final. This would mean that people's vote wouldn't be secret but this would at least be sufficient to ensure that everyone's vote is independent of the early returns. It would also be totally transparent in that everyone would be able to verify that their vote was credited properly.

I might even designate the above as the current proposal. Certainly I'd like to hear people's opinions about this.

On another note there's the question of what to do about the election of multiple councilors. I personally like the idea of people voting for as many candidates as there are open positions. But I don't care much for a weighted ranking of these multiple votes. I would say that if there are three positions then everyone votes for three people and each vote is weighted the same. The top three vote getters win.

Again assuming the above as the current proposal, how do people feel about it?

Another idea would be to use the voting method describe above for folks to give their opinions on these proposals. Sort of a dry run before an election? What do you think of these ideas?
Reply #98 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I think the best combination of ideas that I've seen so far is to have voters PM their votes to any one of a designated set of MVC councilors and these votes will be compliled and published for all to see once the election is final. This would mean that people's vote wouldn't be secret but this would at least be sufficient to ensure that everyone's vote is independent of the early returns. It would also be totally transparent in that everyone would be able to verify that their vote was credited properly.


That sounds reasonable.

On another note there's the question of what to do about the election of multiple councilors. I personally like the idea of people voting for as many candidates as there are open positions. But I don't care much for a weighted ranking of these multiple votes. I would say that if there are three positions then everyone votes for three people and each vote is weighted the same. The top three vote getters win.

Again assuming the above as the current proposal, how do people feel about it?


I'd rather see individual elections for each place and a runoff for each one that's closely contested. That might work out to be the same though. I'm programming some controls at work now and that has the math part of my brain occupied, so I can't lend any gray matter to work this out mathematically just yet.

Reply #99 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'd rather see individual elections for each place and a runoff for each one that's closely contested. That might work out to be the same though. I'm programming some controls at work now and that has the math part of my brain occupied, so I can't lend any gray matter to work this out mathematically just yet.

This is certainly a statistical issue even though statistics worries me a bit (you know there are Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics). But if anyone has a mathematical basis for this I'd be willing to listen. The thing about individual elections for each position is that these positions are identical. That would require a single election for the first opening. Then the nominees that didn't win would be voted on for the second opening and so on and so on. We would end up having as many seperate votes as there were councilors to elect. Plus they would really have to be sequential.

One election with people voting for the number of people as there are positions to fill without requiring the voter to rank order his choices certainly seems the most simple solution to the problem of electing multiple folks with a single election. But again, if anyone has a mathematical basis for quantifing the fairness of this method versus any other then as Ross Perot would say "I'm all ears".
Reply #100 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well I guess I should give a little information on my self(NOT GOOD WITH WORDS SO PLEASE BEER WITH ME, CHEERS) I am 36, been married 14 years and have a 6 year old son. I have worked with metal roofing products( tinbasher) since 1990. An avid catch and release fisherman except in the winter. This is my first computer, however as a somewhat avid gamer I have lots of systems for the television including dreamcast which rocks and the 360. I must admit that this is the only game I have on the pc and the only site I have ever gone onto, not including the core. The people and support will keep me in these sites for I hope years to come. Wow this is the longest thing I've written, cause I normally like to keep things short and occasionaly overly blunt with no intentions of hurting feelings, but unfortunately that does happen. Now I'm not going to say I am the perfect person for this position, I definately lack the skill and knowhow of the others. Oh and Lynx xxx I too have a character with the Orcas, Originally from B.C. I thought it was the perfect place for me. Now I have a character with the Hitchikers and will probably set one up the Neilos evil empire as well. Sometimes it takes a new individual with a lot of gusto(which every candidate definately has) to shake a few things up,not that it is needed. And definately willing to learn so I can help give answers to the average player. I am sure as hell learning some dos and donts at the core over the last little while. And as for people being able to see who votes for who, I doubt that would bother me too much. I mean as long as I can vote, I will at least receive one  If you have any other questions or you figure I have left anything out, just let me know. God that was long CHAT LATER.