SECOND PRESDIENTIAL ELECTION: JUST as SLOPPY and ILLEGITIMATE as the FIRST ONE

Author: oromagi

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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. 

Election

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.

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 & Guidelines

During 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

PREZ-HILTON
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@Vader
I will be having this thread removed later
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@oromagi
Omg, this is hilarious. 

Ik this is frustrating, but with this new context, it makes everything that occurred last night THAT much funnier.
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I will also be fixing everything listed.
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@Wylted
Can we make oromagi a moderator? 
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@Sir.Lancelot
I don't have that authority nor do I trust his judgement. One time he said I cheated in mafia by sending him a PM that was in no way shape or form game related. I honestly think he thought mafia players were banned from PMing each other on non mafia topics
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Aw man :(
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@oromagi
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?
I agree, we should hold them accountable
oromagi
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@Sir.Lancelot
-->@Wylted
Can we make oromagi a moderator? 
  • I was offered the position when Ramshutu stepped down but I declined

oromagi
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@ILikePie5
-->@oromagi
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?
I agree, we should hold them accountable
actually, "consistently failing to ignore" would suggest mods were paying attention to the rules when I meant the opposite.  Terrible writing on my part.
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1) I announced the permanent change in November that the election will look different. This was known MONTHS before the election date and there was adequate time for any candidate. This is not an issue as we changed it to the date sorted

2) I do realize there was an error in my calculation of the ending date. I fully apologize for my mathematical error as a whole, but I was in too deep and could not do anything else besides double down

There will be a bigger response to the 3rd point
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@Vader
Wylted violated the non-spam campaign rule day 1 anyway, lol
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@Vader
1) I announced the permanent change in November that the election will look different. This was known MONTHS before the election date and there was adequate time for any candidate. This is not an issue as we changed it to the date sorted
  • link please

Sidewalker
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Wylted was actually born in Kenya.

Show us your birth certificate!  

Show us your tax returns!


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@Sidewalker
I don't file taxes I am opposed to all government coercion that doesn't benefit me
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@PREZ-HILTON
I will be having this thread removed later
Off to a good start as the president, aren't we?

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@Wylted
@Vader
@whiteflame
What if the President had moderation abilities? That way the people have an equal voice with the mods and it prevents this sort of thing from occurring again.

Like, he doesn't have to be the head mod, but simply another mod that is popularly elected.
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@Public-Choice
The President is supposed to be an opposing force balancing the mod team against our will to be free from them.
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@Public-Choice
Electing mods is a terrible ideal as we can see from how this election was almost a disaster 
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@PREZ-HILTON
Oh I agree, since it actually was a disaster.
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@RationalMadman
@Wylted
Well, here's how I see it:

I didn't vote in the last election, despite being prodded by Wylted and him giving me a free debate as a bribery.

Here's why:

The office of president has no power. He needs the mods to do things for him. He can't undo a ban himself. He can't initiate a ban himself. He can't make changes to the website. It's a totally useless office.

So why would I waste my time voting for someone who can't even do anything without asking someone else to do it? What does that accomplish?

And moreover, there is absolutely NOTHING in the rules that states mods have to obey the President. They "say" his opinion holds sway, but that doesn't mean anything. 

So, for me, the real position of power is being a mod. They are better than the President. So why isn't at least one of them voted on? Wouldn't that provide the check the President is supposed to provide?
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@Public-Choice
please do not or edit delete that post. please PM me proof immediately of the bribery. I will highly appreciate it.
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@RationalMadman
He didn't call it bribery lmao. Like... He'd have to be a moron to call it that. But it was totally obvious that was what it was.

Like, I didn't vote anyways because I don't accept bribes. But it wasn't like Wylted said "here's a free debate win if you vote for me."
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@RationalMadman
Even further, the President can be banned by the moderation team and they can also undo his ban vetos by a simple majority.

Look, I don't see whiteflame or SupaDudz or any of the current moderators banning the President. But what if you become head mod and Wylted is still President? What would be stopping you from banning Wylted? You both obviously have a feud going on right now.

And what if Wylted makes the moderation chats public in a forum post? The mods would simply just ban his account. There's no accountability against rogue mods. The President means nothing.

We could at least make him the deputy mod and change the laws so that only the Head Mod can add other moderators. That would keep it fair, lmho.

This way the President actually means something but the moderation team still retains most of the power.
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@Public-Choice
I get what he said, please can you screenshot it and PM me?

I will answer the stuff you ask too.

I am busy the next 24 hours due to other stuff, I cannot PM much, please do screenshot it and upload it to an image hosting site or app. Feel free to skip me and send it to whiteflame and barney.

I would like to see it though.
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@Public-Choice
Dude I said you are welcome for the free win because the debate we had that I forfeited just ended. It obviously wasn't a bribe.
Reece101
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Can we have another election?
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@Reece101
No we can't Donald trump
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@PREZ-HILTON
I apologize for misinterpreting your intentions
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@Public-Choice
I do appreciate that. Thank you