The Governorship and YOU!

[Bailey Raptis]

4. This is an interesting idea! Something that has always boggled me is why the interim pole results for voting had been hidden. In real life situations, those results are made public, so, why not have the poll open to see how things are going?
...

A Voting Booth NPC/Bot does have the advantage of tracking one vote per player, unless that system changes, as most players only have one primary Discord account. How would that hold those that have more than one accountable outside of the honor system?

I'm spitballing and presuming some here, but I think the reason why they tried (emphasis on tried) to hide the voting results for the interim/primary votes and the final votes for governor was they were maybe worried people would see somebody jump out to a huge lead and just give up on participating? I think a true secret ballot, run by someone we trust to be fair and impartial, is the way to go here.

Although I thought they eventually posted the results of the primary elections, when they had enough candidates to justify running one? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on that. I would agree that posting preliminary and final election results only makes sense.

As far as preventing players from voting on multiple Discord accounts, I don't know that I have a good answer for that, technological or otherwise. I would like to think the honor system would be enough, but supposedly they did have to throw out votes from players voting multiple times on the RDI forums.

[Elessaria]

I'd love to see the Governor SLs continue and I'm trying to catch up on the posts here.

My initial thoughts include NOT making the Governor an official staff position.

And I'm almost certain I'm in the minority, but I would prefer a public poll as was done in the past for both May Queen and Governor elections. I'm not sure how difficult that would be based on the forum software. If it adds tremendously to our staff's current workload, then it's not worth it. However, I personally prefer the readily visible accountability and transparency (which was the goal of this community at its outset.)


Then again people are free to participate or not-- that's part of the beauty of FFRP.

ETA: Thank you for bringing this topic up for discussion as well as all your hard work, Pharlen. In fact, thank all of you who held the position and worked hard at making our play more rich, more vibrant and more enjoyable. It's an underappreciated position much like hosts, staff and volunteers!

[Ebon Ilnaren]

My initial thoughts include NOT making the Governor an official staff position.

I think forgot to comment on this.. heartily agree! The Governorship is a storyline, it's all IC and should definitely be separate from the staff posts.

[BardGallant]

I laughed a lot when Dris finally returned, party hat and all, looking like he'd been kidnapped for a months on end festival with the wee folk!

It was aliens. Dris was kidnapped by aliens.

And I do very much appreciate Erin for taking the lead and keeping a story going about it. SUPER GRATEFUL. I kind of knew it was going to happen (being fat and pregnant then popping out a baby) and that's why I created the Ministries. That, and I felt like the governing of Rhydin deserved to be more than a one man/woman show. That was just my opinion, though. Nobody else seemed to like the idea and the ministries died out after my big botched term.

Coming back in to say that I agree to a two year at max term since, as mentioned, that precedent has already been set. I only ran against Matt so long ago to keep him from winning a third time in a row, after all.

I also don't think it should be an official staff position either.

That's it.

[PrlUnicorn]

And I'm almost certain I'm in the minority, but I would prefer a public poll as was done in the past for both May Queen and Governor elections. I'm not sure how difficult that would be based on the forum software. If it adds tremendously to our staff's current workload, then it's not worth it. However, I personally prefer the readily visible accountability and transparency (which was the goal of this community at its outset.)

This right here! Transparency and accountability. Thanks for writing what I had been thinking about, but it didn't come out of my fingers.

It was aliens. Dris was kidnapped by aliens.

It was hilarious and so much Dris!

I think the possibility of Governor being a staff person has been tossed off the table at this point.

[Mallory]

It sounds like there’s a good amount of interest in keeping this going, and I wanted to put it out there that staff are willing to run the poll itself and provide other support as needed. In previous years this was run with a distinct username — representing an accounting firm, an election office, or other organization — and I think it would be a good idea to continue doing that.

Whoever’s interested in running this, please reach out to me, so we can talk about the election username and start the planning process.

[Mallory]

Bumping this. If anyone wants to run the election SL, please let me know via PM, Discord DM, or posting here.

[Ebon Ilnaren]

Bumping this. If anyone wants to run the election SL, please let me know via PM, Discord DM, or posting here.

I will help organize the election. Claire already said she'd be up for running the Cage Match, and Ebon has hosted debates for the last three elections so I'll happily do that again.

Unless he runs again. I'm not ruling that out yet.

[PrlUnicorn]

If there's an interest doing interviews with individual candidates, I'm game for doing that.

[Mallory]

Thanks for offering to do the interviews, Collie. =)

As a quick update for everyone, I have had two people reach out to me to run the election: Ebon, who may be running a character for office instead, and Michelle, who has offered to run it if no one else does.

I think both would do a great job with this SL. As RP coord, I’m here to help set up anything you guys will need for it. Looking forward to seeing it return!