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@Athias
The suggestion isn't intended to measure you, at least in your capacity as a moderator, against anyone else there. But your mentions about your capacity as moderator there would be like one's mentioning one's management of Enron right up until its bankruptcy, to continue the business analogy.
Fair enough, though to be fair, the initial analogy I used a couple exchanges ago (the internal versus external CEO one) doesn't really work when we take it beyond that. It we start comparing me to someone that had comparable authority, it starts falling apart. On DDO I wasn't some CEO equivalent, but ultimately just some guy in a mid-management cubicle somewhere reading customer complaints and sending out memos to the higher ups that were ultimately ignored. So while some of your arguments are entirely fair, I think you will recognize that a continuation of this analogy, to make this point, really isn't.
Credibility with whom?
I initially meant with the community and whomever I reach out to for assistance with my plan, but ya know, as I've been thinking about this the last few days and working on my action plan, I've started to consider that the most important thing is actually regarding whether anyone likes my ideas at all. Humor me for a moment as I pretty much just think out loud about this, but a part of me kind of wishes that I had just come onto the site as a complete no one, where your argument, as valid out of this hypothetical as it might be, actually was 100% accurate. The ideas I have already suggested, and the ones yet to come, could just be evaluated on their own merit, and at the risk of sounding extremely pretentious, wouldn't be skewed in any way behind the "Airmax brand", whether that's for better or worse.
In other words, I don't want to win a popularity contest, I want to win an endorsement of my vision and ideas. A general statement that they are genuinely supported by the community, that there is excitement for my plans, and I grow concerned that a sense of this may actually be impossible at this point. I truly don't want to play any political games which is why I'm trying to just ignore anything that I don't believe is asked/stated/presented in good faith, or simply isn't productive. I don't want to spend my time on that kind of stuff, I want to engage with the community in a genuine way about my intentions and plans for the future, and I'll just concede everything else. If I lose an election as a result of my desire for this approach, then that is probably for the best anyway.
Again, if you already have an in, then you could've suggested these community based events to them. Even suggesting them in the forums would've given you a platform which garnered the moderators' attention.
I only showed up a few days ago with a renewed desire to do this type of work. Is that gona make my presence appear as insincere by some? Sure, I've already conceded that much. Does it diminish the quality of my ideas, or the resolve I have to see them come to fruition to be as beneficial to the site as possible? I don't think it does, and that's all that really matters to me. I believe some will recognize that, and those that don't wont vote for me, and that is an understandable and respectable decision.
I'm only underestimating your awareness of the concerns of this community in comparison to someone who has been here the whole time.
That's fair, and I wont disparage 3RU7AL in the least. I'm sure he's a good guy, knows the community well, and would make a great president. I respect you a great deal, and I expect that you would only endorse someone worthy of that endorsement.
I don't want to rationalize, obfuscate, justify or circumvent any aspect or rebuttal to this argument you are making. In good faith, I am now saying that 3RU7AL has greater ties to the DART community than I do, and people should evaluate/adjust their evaluation accordingly with that understanding.
Furthermore, I'd rather everyone not even consider the arguments I've made recently about how I may be connected to the community, and the experience I may have. I have specific ideas, a broad vision I have alluded to, with some specific examples to provide the basics of my plan, and ideally I'd like those ideas to be considered as though I'm just some random guy off the street suggesting them. All I want to offer right now is a suggestion for the direction of the site with the plan I have suggested, and if that alone is not enough, I respect the communities decision not to endorse that plan by electing me.
I realize the above is impossible, and that my plans likely only have any credibility because of my experience, but I say it simply in the hopes that I can emphasize the importance of me wanting this to just be a platform of ideas. If that's not enough, then I will humbly concede defeat, and cede to the individual who will be better for this community - and that certainly may be 3RU7AL, for all the reasons you have stated.
I respect your being candid.
I appreciate that, and I've enjoyed having this discussion with you, and hope we can continue to do so. There is plenty to challenge me on regarding the legitimacy of my candidacy and ideas, and I very much appreciate your willingness to engage it in a good faith and professional manner.
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@Wylted
It's entirely inappropriate to ban somebody for their "mental safety", and it annoyed me that I've heard max say he was tempted to, to protect bornofgod.Maybe bornofgod should be banned for proselytizing, but for his own safety is an absurd motive
Bornofgod was a complicated situation. While he didn't contribute anything positive to the site, was essentially spamming and derailing threads, the final straw was when he started posting "prophecies" about how his life was gona be ended in some near future violent interaction with local authorities. He actually became a liability for the site. The mental safety aspect may have been something I brought up as a side personal issue, but it's not something I banned him or anyone else for.
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@Lunatic
Actually, by proxy of gaining traction in live mafia, we may accrue more interest in forum mafia. I am hopeful for this. Forum mafia isn't really as much your cup of tea but I see this being mutally beneficial to live and forum mafia.
Right, that's exactly the goal. I believing that trying to market forum mafia is difficult, but introducing it in the live mafia format, something far easier (in terms of reach/interest/digestibility, not necessarily the amount of work involved) should make those that find it interesting enough, consider the forum version as well. There should be some crossover interest and inherently lead to an increase in forum activity. In fact I would imagine that some percentage of those that learned about it from the live version, will even end up preferring the forum version.
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@Lunatic
You are currently the only candidate who is pro mafia and that makes you not only unique, but shows that your interests are multi faceted.
I certainly like mafia, but it's mostly important as another method for marketing the site. Unfortunately marketing mafia as the typical text based thing is a hard sell, if not impossible. Making mafia this watchable argumentation-persuasion kinda sporting event, in an easy to understand package, I believe is doable, and can make it very marketable. It's a difficult and ambitious project to be sure, but I'm extremely excited for it, it's gona be fun wherever it takes us and I hope it's something a lot of Dart members will want to take part in.
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So I want to suggest a few of the simpler things that I had in mind:
Debate Tournaments: This is an easy one, we all know what these are. It'd be nice ot make them regular and integrated into the site with something like platinum awards for winning, and a leaderboard. Lots of cool ideas can go along with tournaments, and we are all familiar with the basic idea, but it's naturally something I have in mind.
DART Champions League: This is something I worked hard on on DDO, but it came to fruition a bit too late in its lifespan. This is essentially a team-based debate league that does debates in a sports league format. Teams debate a schedule of other teams, and the teams with the most wins go to the playoffs and then the championship etc. New debaters and potentially teams are added each season, and it has a very long-term intention to it that makes it a really great addition over time. This does require a larger community and more activity though, so this is more of a long term goal.
Mafia: I realize that some don't care about this, but mafia really is a natural extension of a debate website, since the game provides an outlet to argumentation and persuasion in a gamified environment. The problem is that it's a really niche thing, and that bringing in people that aren't already aware of it is difficult. it's further a tough endeavor since the game can be rather complicated to the uninitiated, and understanding it, and then engaging in it, takes a fair amount of time commitment.
I'd like to see if that has to be true. Our live mafia games, which will be, and essentially already are, a Friday night custom for the Dart community, have the potential to bridge the gap of the mafia experts, and those who have never heard of it. I'd like us to arrange small games, record them, and with clever editing and production value, really show what is going on. I believe that featuring these dozen or so, easy to follow, and well-explained, live beginner games, on the Dart Youtube channel, will create some level of additional interest and enthusiasm. I believe that as well as being initially educational about the game, that these games have the potential to be very entertaining. In this format, I believe we can create a brand new niche of live mafia on youtube, and really bring in new people that have an interest for this. I have a very detailed plan about the way these vids would be made, but suffice it to say that there is a way they can be easily digestible, entertaining, and create enthusiasm.
After that, more advanced style games could create even greater interest, to the point where all those people who were streaming "Among Us" (the 2nd rate nerf version of mafia) and enjoyed that concept, might consider putting up their argumentation and persuasion skills, to the ultimate test against the DART mafia Pros.
....
Just a few of my thoughts tonight. Have a great evening :)
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@Athias
Two candidates who were grossly unqualified--one who thought that he could shake things up and boasted nonsense, and the other while having, I suppose the term for it would be "better" intentions was essentially the sugar to the other's salt.
That's fair, even if I don't know if I'd agree/disagree with the characterization, I realize that it's not relevant to your contention, so I'll stop referencing it.
I suppose DDO had a great foundation when it first started as well.
That's probably debatable. I mean it did enough to be a debate platform, but it was already on shaky ground quickly with the need for changes and updates. This site has the benefit of 20 years of hindsight to build itself a quality product, in terms of its functionality and preparation for the future, from the beginning.
And while it would be unfair to have you shoulder that alone, it is fair to state that you were one of the moderators who gave up.
I mean, yeah, at some point there really wasn't any choice. I'm willing to, and it's part of my style of discourse, to be as charitable as I can, and cede things in good faith, but to frame me as someone who just gave up, I don't believe is fair, even if it is literally true. I believe I stuck it out longer than is actually reasonable, or anyone else would have.
I mean some of it is about power, right? I mean you need some power to pick back up with your hobby, right? Hence, your "swooping in" as you put it? And if that's not the case, then it begs the question: why haven't you made any of your suggestions on this site some time in the past?
I suppose it might be a linguistic or semantic distinction that doesn't really matter in the end. I don't think of it internally as power, but as something like the communities blessing, or permission. But ultimately you are probably right and that might be a distinction without a difference. I don't want to get bogged down in that distinction though, but I will say that until a few days ago it wasn't something I considered, then the idea was suggested to me, I thought it over (and talked it over with the relevant people) and considered it would be something I'd enjoy doing again. I didn't make any of my suggestions up to this point because it wasn't something I was involved in anymore, but now I am, and so I am.
Let me be clear here. You are not wrong on this point, and I don't want to come off as disingenuous about this issue. There's no way I can defend the fact that I wasn't invested in the site, it was suggested to me that I become invested in the site, and so now I am. Some will see this as a problem, some wont. There's no reason to go 10 rounds on this issue. I'm not gona lawyer/politic/semantic my way around it. I'm aware of it, you have a good point, and me saying anything else would just be dishonest. I maintain that a concession to this point doesn't mean I can't be a good DART president, and it certainly shouldn't mean that the community can't trust me to have their interests in mind.
then how is the capacity of DART President any different from that which you could have done over your prolonged absence?
It provides a level of credibility at a time that I am again willing to pursue this type of project again. Both of these aspects are important here. I hadn't given it a lot of thought during my hiatus, and as a result of this presidential election the idea of me working on this type of project was something I hadn't considered in awhile, and was finally given a reason to.
At the risk of reiterating your point (not that its a risk, I'm going to intentionally do it haha), I wasn't interested, and then by the election being a thing it encouraged some to make me consider something I hadn't considered in awhile. So yeah, I wasn't here at all, and as a result of the election now I am. if the owner contacted me tomorrow, and asked if I'd like to volunteer as a consultant and have specific parameters to sway the development of the site in a similar way to which the community president does, then I'd probably take him up on that offer since I could just avoid the politics of it all. But the election does create a public legitimacy dynamic that I also think is important. I'm going to suggest things during the course of the election, and based on the reaction, and ultimately how well I do in the election, I can gauge how palatable some of my ideas are.
You know the people, but you don't know the community. Because, you haven't taken an interest in being part of it until this year, which spans only 10 days.
I think you underestimate my awareness of the concerns of the community and the challenges this community faces. I may not have been here directly posting on the site, but I've kept in touch with people, and heard about the various issues of the site. Again, I think your criticism is entirely fair, I haven't been an active member, but I'm also not a complete outsider.
It is not my intention to antagonize you, and if you believe my contentions are unfair, please let me know.
You have been a complete gentleman during this entire exchange and I appreciate that you have engaged in this in good faith and not just some political gotcha game. I believe your contention, that my sudden appearance raises an important question about my intentions for the site and my ability to achieve its goals, is a fair one. The voters will ultimately weigh the pros and cons of that truth, with the other aspects of what I bring to the table.
To summarize this I will just say that you are correct about this point about me, to some extent being outsider coming in and asking for "power" from a community that some will view me as foreign to. My only contention here is that I'm not completely foreign to this community, and that to whatever extent that is true, voters will weigh that to the benefits I bring. Furthermore, if there wasn't an election, and my supporters had found some other reason to hassle me into considering working on benefiting the website, the owner looking for someone of my experience, for example, to just work behind these scenes and do what I'd do if elected, then I probably could have been convinced of that instead. This election thing, the power pursuit thing I'm being associated with, isn't my motivation, it just happens to be the catalyst for what convinced some people to put the consideration in my mind. Ultimately I'm looking forward to the work, I'm not enthusiastic about the politics because it takes away from my time to do that work, and I just wana continue drawing up my road map and ideas and focus on relating that to the community.
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Who do you think will win in the Wild Card round?
Raiders - Bengals
Patriots - Bills
Steelers - Chiefs
Eagles - Buccaneers
49ers - Cowboys
Cardinals - Rams
...............
I've got Bengals, Bill and Chiefs in the AFC
And Bucs, Cowboys and Rams in the NFC
Packers V. Chiefs in the Super Bowl
What are your predictions?
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@Lunatic
I would accept your challenge, but I will never win on the high score. If we did it by note accuracy I might stand a chance, but even then I am hella out of practice.
I will gladly take up that challenge. We will entirely ignore score, and just focus on number of notes hit. Get the rust off, and get back to me, I'd love to do this.
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@Athias
With that said, your place in this race is entirely predicated on the friends you've had come out of the woodwork. Friends who support you, not necessarily anything that has to do with this site
While you weren't necessarily implying this, I didn't have anyone do anything. I got a text message one day asking me if would be willing to do this. My supporters did this on their own, and probably figured convincing me to do this was impossible. But you are correct that it isn't specifically about my experience on this website, though I don't believe that's entirely fair. I have experience with this community, and with the website with which this site is based on.
(you and many of them are grossly overestimating the capacity of this office.)
I don't believe I am. I am actually quite enthusiastic about the limitations of the office. I don't want to do what I did for DDO, I want my work to be mostly focused on site development, and that's something I can do within the capacity of the office.
Do I believe you can carry out the functions of the presidential office better than 3RU7AL can? For RationalMadman, I stated, "not by a mile." For you, I state, "not by a light year."
That's fair. I don't know 3RU7AL that well, but I'm sure he's a capable and well intended individual. All I can say is that I have experience with this type of thing, and that some of the members believe I can do a good job, and that includes two of my former opponents. I'm sure 3RU7AL is a good guy though, so my presence shouldn't be viewed at all that I think anything negatively about him.
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@Athias
It's as though your campaign is entirely based on reinvigorating some nostalgic remnant of the DDO site.
To some degree that is accurate. There are those here, which now includes two of my former opponents in this election, that believe I can make a positive improvement to this site, and that's based on what they know about me from DDO.
And that begs the question: why haven't you done everything you stated in your platform for DDO?
I did with regard to moderation policy, but for everything else, it was literally impossible. I did everything that I could to try, trying to sell the plan in my platform, but the ownership of that website no longer considered it an asset worth investing in. That is what is so appealing to me here, and why I came back. This site has a great foundation - even better than DDO - it just needs a kick in the direction, and the mere blessing of its owner, something I didn't have on DDO. It's why I used the intentionally melodramatic military analogy you mention following this. I knew probably up even up to a year before it was over, that I was fighting a losing battle on DDO. I had given 5 years of my time to that site, but there was an inevitable end looming for a site that no longer had the interest of its ownership. I mean, go over to DDO and look at it, you can see that it's just a graveyard, abandoned and untended to.
You boast this military-like relationship with Whiteflame (i.e your knowing how he thinks, and his knowing how you think) yet you haven't used much of this curried favor to influence these changes you seek as member of DEBATEART, especially since Whiteflame has been a moderator for some time.
I needed a break from the whole thing. Without, again, being too melodramatic, doing what I did for DDO was rather exhausting when considering its tragic ending. It was naturally going to take some time for me return, and some sort of incentive. A few days ago that incentive, the ability to invest my time in a productive and beneficial hobby resurfaced, and so here I am.
I'd just like to point out here that this should assuage those that think I'm just here for "power". Firstly, this position isn't about power, it's about site development, and secondly, if that's what I was seeking I could have come over to the site immediately and I believe become the site's mod from the get-go (not that I would even consider that "power"). There were those asking me to come over right away and continue the work I had been doing, but as I said, I needed a break. I kept in touch with some members, so I don't believe I have been entirely absent from this community, but it is fair to say that I am just swooping in here when the opportunity arose for me to pick back up a hobby I enjoy, and since I'm excited about the prospect of the endeavor, here I am.
In fact, you haven't done much at all as far as contributing or even participating as a member of DEBATEART.
That's true, aside from a handful of posts like 2 years ago, I have done literally nothing here. I think the best analogy here would be a business one. A struggling company decides that rather than promoting from within, they find a CEO with a proven record of success, outside of the company. There is an understandable level of concern in that company from its employees, especially at the higher levels, and perhaps even from its customers. Does this person understand our values and goals? Is this someone that's going to make positive changes? Is this someone that understands the culture? I believe those are all fair concerns, but even if I haven't been actively involved with the community, though again, I have kept in touch to some degree, the answer to all those questions, is yes. And the members of this community, including two of my former opponents, wouldn't have asked me to do this, or endorsed me, if they didn't think it was true as well. They clearly believe I have the ability to achieve these goals.
Your platform is entirely predicated on your touting your experience as a moderator to what's now a relic (i.e. Debate.org) which saw a mass exodus to DEBATEART, as well as this alleged friendship you have with the chief moderator. What of your experience, here? What have you contributed, here?
Again, I have no experience specifically on this website, but its a direct offshoot of a platform that I have more experience on than anyone. It's not about what I have contributed here, but what I have contributed to communities like these, and really it is essentially the same community. Furthermore, it's not simply about touting my experience, but about touting my ability to make a commitment and see it through, and I stuck to my commitment to DDO to the unfortunate absolute bitter end.
How has this alleged friendship with Whiteflame benefited this site? To your own admission, you haven't really given much attention to your membership, here, yet you think it's reasonable to assume that confidence should be placed in what you will do, when you haven't done anything?
The members who sought me out, and two of my initial opponents, know the type of person that I am. I have a certain set of skills, I am reliable, and when I make a commitment, I see it through to the end. So it's not about what I have done for this site, it's about what I can do for this site.
To be fair, I understand your concern. I can certainly be viewed as some sort of outsider that hasn't done anything here, and to some degree that's true. But I'm not really an outsider, I know this community, and to this point I haven't been motivated to do much here, but now that there's a chance to do good for the community, I have been motivated to make my return. If you and others want to therefore view me as some kind of outsider mercenary, then all I can say is that I plan to help the community, and I have a proven record of doing that.
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@Reece101
Do you have a challenge for me?
I'll do your challenge and then post a vid of my challenge for you. I think it has been awhile since I've played anything on the vanilla sound track, but I'll find and post something soon.
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@Reece101
I’ve seen some of your videos. More style than me lol.
haha thanks
My favourite song is overkill with a score of 658,411 on expert.
Overkill on expert, score 658,411 it is... I'll post a video in the next few days... though I'm gona say that I hate this song haha and even on expert I don't think there's a chance I'm gona beat that score... but its a fun first choice
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@RationalMadman
Actually the very opposite occurred and a user named Mesmer found 2-3 dedicated upvoting supporters.
I realize there's always going to be some level of support, but my point is that if members are passionately against something being advocated, for then challenging that view is the best way to diminish it. The best way to eliminate those views is more free speech, not less of it.
I recall a guy who came to DDO to advocate holocaust denial, he figured he'd get banned quickly (he even titled his first thread something like "the greatest taboo") but then members simply argued with him, including myself, and I even challenged him to debate. Even though there were likely those that agreed with him, the lack of push back in terms of his membership, and the fact that his views were challenged and wouldn't defend them formally, eventually made him lose interest.
Every instance is going to have its unique qualities but I believe if people who want to advocate controversy for it own sake, see that they aren't going to by martyrs, and are just going to be challenged like any topic, then it doesn't become as much of an issue. There are edge trolls and the like that are simply going to pop up from time to time, but the goal of the site is to advocate debate, and that's not facilitated if we start picking sacred cows (topics of specific offense) that aren't allowed.
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@RationalMadman
It's not a concern that you share because you barely posted anything on either debate website. Also, why would you need to be the site president in order to push for its popularity? You have had 3.5 years to do that same thing right?
Even with my lack of direct activity, I was still one of the best known "personas" on that site, and I did in fact get doxxed at one point - so it's certainly a concern I share, and those concerns will be kept in mind as part of the plan.
The title helps in terms of representing myself to the community and especially to those outside of it. I suppose if I was hired as a consultant to do this I could do the same thing, but then this is just a job, and I don't want to do this as a literal job, I want to do this as something I have a passion for as a hobby.
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@RationalMadman
Will you actually be active all year long?
Yes. I don't see why that should be hard to believe, I did this for much longer than that on DDO.
What would you have done when Ragnar banned me in Sept 2020?
I only have a vague recollection of this from what I heard in Discord hangouts, and I recall believing that the ban wasn't necessary and something that I didn't support.
What is your outlook on white supremacy being advocated for (or sexism and homophobia)
I don't believe in a restriction of any kind so long as it is in line with the purpose of the site. If someone wants to debate the merits of white supremacy, or something equally distasteful, they are welcome to do so. There does become an issue if it is mere preaching and spamming though, since this isn't the purpose of the site. I actually found on DDO that the best approach to this was to usually let it play itself out. Unlike on many other platforms, those that want to advocate controversial views are challenged, and after some time get discouraged by being forced to defend their views and finding a lack of supporters.
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@RationalMadman
Do you think it can be dangerous for some of us who have made posts here about certain religions and views, for use to get very famous for it on Twitch and YT?
I think there's an understandable concern, but I don't mean that anyone will be famous in real life, but their online persona. This is a concern that I share, since I like my privacy and also want to maintain my anonymity to some degree, and anyone who wants to engage with this idea should be able to do so. I think it's reasonable to see some level of popularity across several platforms for "rationalmadman" but not necessarily the person behind the username.
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@RationalMadman
As President, your role is to stop the mods abusing their power, how are you better than me for that job?
I believe that's one small aspect of it. I believe that given my relationship with the mods, and my general ability to influence and make the case for what I believe, that directing courses of action towards what I believe is best, shouldn't be that difficult.
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@Reece101
Yeah, I don't think this is gona work then... you can feel free to post your high score on a song, and when I have a chance I can post a vid of me beating it (assuming I do beat it)
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@RationalMadman
Okay, I can think of other examples like writerdave and that q-guy
I'm not sure what you are referring to regarding WriterDave. The WriterDave incident, an event which involved members bullying him to some degree in one of the more unfortunate threads DDO has probably ever seen, happened before the first time I was elected, and certainly before I was a moderator. In fact, the only involvement I ever had with that whole thing was messaging WriterDave to offer my support to him during a time that was clearly difficult for him. I basically encouraged him to ignore those that were being jerks and not take it seriously. I believe he left the site voluntarily shortly after that. In any case, he wasn't banned and this was before I had an authority to do anything.
The other member, Qopel is whom you are referring, was an incident that I believe happened in my first month of becoming moderator. This is like 10 years ago, so forgive me if my memory isn't exact on this, but I believe he felt like like he was losing debates unfairly, and he therefore began votebombing tons of debates. This was at a time where votebombing was essentially the cardinal sin of DDO, and something moderation couldn't do anything about. Seeing that he was going to continue to votebomb debates, I closed his account. Now, a good thing actually manifested from that unfortunate event however as I lobbied Juggle to allow me to add and remove voting privileges from accounts. This meant votebombers could simply be made unable to vote, and it also had the, perhaps even greater effect, of allowing me to give new members voting privileges (I just told them to do a certain number of debates and get back to me), when I believe that once required a phone number confirmation process. So while this was when I was very new, and I have learned a lot since then, this wasn't some ridiculous ban, and it ended up leading to something positive. I want to reiterate that while the ban was justified, I wanted to make sure that in the future such a ban would no longer be necessary, and that was accomplished.
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@Intelligence_06
OK, what is happening?
It's all in good fun. These quotes are intentionally entirely out of context, and intended to make it look like I'm some monster, but the people posing them are friends of mine. The humor is kind of hard to explain, but I like to think it points to the fact that I'm rather clean cut guy that rarely does or says anything controversial, so painting me as someone who would say these type of things at face value, has a fun ironic element to it.
First, why did Airmax say any of these things? When did he say so. Did you not perhaps took into account of irony?
Well, I suppose there is a story behind all of these quotes, and that might be fun to go into sometime. But I can assure you the context of them actually does make sense and remove value any "shock value" any might contain. Anyone posting these knows the entire thing is ironic, and it's actually just done for fun.
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@Reece101
Get your self warmed up a bit, then play whatever song you like and post it to youtube and link it here. I'll then post my "challenge reply" as soon as I can... no rush though, take your time.
If there's any other details you wana work out, let me know.
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There's a fair amount of complexity here, and the detailed version of this that I wrote for DDO was a very lengthy document, so I'm going to just briefly explain how all this works, and then do my best to explain it over the next couple weeks. I also want you to keep in mind that I'm skipping a lot of necessary steps behind the scenes that make this all possible. I'm simply giving some of the highlighted bullet points that follow to explain the intention and intended results. The idea that suddenly Dart goes from a relatively unknown platform to the next Facebook of course sounds ludicrous, especially with the limited explanation, but that's what we are shooting for (in term of reach, not platform dynamics). So keep that in mind as you read the following.
Growth needs to begin with a trickle of awareness, new members and activity, drive that planned development over time, and do that within reasonable metrics over specific periods. One step towards this goal requires that we dust off that ol' twitter account and get some hits going. We'll eventually also focus on SEO areas, but I want DART
to actually be something people get linked to because of their interest
in debate - that needs to be the focus, what brings in new quality
members, and what retains those members. It's not enough just to hashtag
the common abortion debate, we need to get specifically topical. If there is a
trending hashtag and a breaking event we need to incentivize and
encourage debates on it immediately to make DART at the forefront of that
interest. To that end, we are going to begin the DART STARS DEBATE TEAM
(or we can call it something else if you have a better name). This cadre
of the willing are going to be tasked by the Social Media Director to
start these topical debates and then we'll get the twitter account to
feed on those trends.
While this will only
begin with a trickle of traffic, it necessarily has to be a trickle. We
don't want to overwhelm the site, and this first phase will take place
over several months. But it's going to be an exciting time while other aspects are being developed and we literally
turn the members of the DART STARS DEBATE TEAM, into the site's
rockstars and beyond. I'll touch on this more in the future, but the point is
to make these genuine personalities across other media. There is a
"debate bros" culture that exists to some degree on twitch,
youtube and elsewhere, and to everyone on this site, you should think of those guys
as amateurs. If you aren't a DART STAR, you are just some mediocre
debate bro with poor competition - and WE fully intend to prove that
across the entirety of the internet.
DART
is a debate site, and we are a community because we have this shared
interest and this can't be emphasized enough. While some social networks
drive their social currency through parroting the established/majority ideology,
DARTers build their respect on intellectual honesty, pursuit and skill. DART believes in freedom of expression to that end, and the integral part
that debate plays in our society and in our personal lives. This is the
ethos that drives DART and its community and what makes it so important
that its community is thriving and can reach even greater heights.
To
that end, influencers and media personalities that share in the values
of freedom of speech, debate and the pursuit of intellectual exercise
for its own sake, will be asked to take part in quick interviews posted
on the site (via youtube). I have some significant but realistic names
in mind, though it's important that the trickle of interest in the site
not become a massive deluge from a sudden influencer/celebrity
appearance. This single aspect of the marketing is but one part of this phase, but simple enough.
Once
there is some level of site reputation from which to build-on, we can
move from DART STARS doing live and youtube debates among themselves to
challenging influencers and other personalities. This will be the point
where DART makes its biggest jump as the broad
social network dynamics become a regular aspect of the site, with a
growing population contributing to, and/or following each area. Then the sky is the limit.
I recognize there is a reasonable level of skepticism that can be leveled at this plan, and that's entirely fair. I just stated that the plan is for DART to go from minimal activity to a virtual focus point for everything debate related in under a year, and being skeptical of that is understandable. But I want to reiterate that the plan expressed above is displayed in its simplest form. I realize there's a lot of I haven't explained, and the tons of work involved hasn't even been mentioned. But the above is the goal, we are going to make DART the epicenter of debate and free expression, and drag the entire internet with us as we do so, and I hope that every DART member is as excited to do that as I am, and will join me on that journey. If you are the least bit interested in this endeavor, then I have a job for you.
I plan to expand more on this, and answer all of your questions in the coming days but the above reflects the goals and the basic plan to get there. I can not emphasize enough how excited I am to roll up my sleeves and begin this process, and even during the election I am already making the plans to move forward with each step. It has been awhile (since I took a break from DDO) that I've been able to focus on a hobby that I can pour all of my passions into, and I'm super excited to be back among the community and potentially be given the opportunity to do so.
Thank you for reading this, and I look forward to interacting with all of you, and answering any questions that you may have. Feel free to contact me anytime.
- Airmax1227
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Hey Dartians! Thank you for taking your time to read this post, and
hopefully what follows is an interesting and informative thread.
While
I appreciate the passion of DuhHamburgler, I wanted to post an official
campaign thread that reflected my thoughts and views that is a bit more
my style. The last couple of days I spent time getting caught up with old friends
and answering some questions, and today I want to officially kick off my
campaign with a better outline of who I am and what my intentions are.
Firstly
I want to address the issue that I'm just swooping in to win an
election, and that I don't have a particular commitment to this site or
its community.
I did touch on this a bit
in the other thread, so I'm going to repeat what I said there: My
reentry into the community is a fair criticism, though it's not
entirely unlike what occurred on DDO. I was a semi-active member there,
criticized for a lack of experience and activity, and then I was asked
by my peers to run for president. I agreed, and then spent the next 6
years doing everything I could for that site. That's what is happening
here, and if the community wants to give me the opportunity, I will keep
my promise as I did then and always do, and dedicate myself to seeing
Dart improved. This is also under much better circumstances than DDO,
where my workload was far greater and there were much greater
complexities involved in the management of that site. For Dart, I can
keep my efforts much more focused, and I am very enthusiastic about the
prospects of that endeavor.
To reiterate,
this is something I have a passion for. I took a break after DDO,
but I was asked to do this because I have a certain set of skills, and there
are some that believe I can utilize that set of skills to improve this
site. The idea that I'm some unknown person just suddenly appearing isn't entirely accurate either. I have maintained close relationships
with several members here during my hiatus, and while I haven't been active
directly on the site, I have a decent awareness of its issues and
community concerns. In that sense, I'm not just coming out of nowhere, I
know many of the people here, and while it took another member to seek
me out to ask me if I'd like to contribute something specific to the
site to bring me back, I don't necessarily believe that is a bad thing.
I'm here to help Dart, that's where my passion and interest is, and
when asked if I'd like to come back to achieve that, I answered the call
and so here I am. Certainly another benefit of that is that I can enjoy
the community and my interest in debate as well though, so while it
took the incentive of my interest in working on a substantial project to
motivate me, my motivations are multifaceted.
I
believe that the only thing that needs to be asked though, is do we
believe that Airmax can commit to something, is he able to do the job,
and does he have the experience to excel in that role. I believe the
answer to all of those questions is obvious given my history.
Furthermore, regardless of my absence, I still have good relationships
with members that are crucial to my agenda and the agenda of the
community.
I hate to be melodramatic and I
might embarrass Whiteflame with this anecdote, but I'm going to do it
anyway. Whiteflame and I go way back, we worked together on DDO for a long
time, and very few (if anyone) knows that Whiteflame was the last man
standing with me as we tried to save DDO. The entire focus in those last
few days was all about deleting spam and Whiteflame was the guy by my
side helping me with this. In the end though, as we fired our last few
remaining shots towards the advancing Ad spam zombie hoard, we both
finally knew it was over. We shrugged, and both said without saying to
each other 'It was a pleasure serving with you'. The lights flickered
out as we made our way out of the last vestige of civilization, unable
to look back at the sad graveyard of what once was the great DDO.
Whiteflame
and I served in the trenches together. He knows how I think, I know how
he thinks. I don't need to spend anytime building a relationship with
him, it's already there, and instead of spending any time building a
rapport and working out our differences, we both know how each of us
likes to operate. This doesn't mean there wont be disagreements, and he
knows that I can be eager to express those disagreements, but it simply means that I can spend 5
minutes on explaining my philosophy and we are done. I'm also well acquainted with a lot of
other members of the community, which naturally helps, and to those I
don't know, I just haven't had the chance to become your buddy yet, but
it will happen.
With that said, I'll reiterate my philosophy from the other thread:
I don't think my general philosophy will come as a surprise to anyone.
Should I happen to win the election, my goals will be similar to what
they were when I was on DDO. I would encourage a similar moderation
policy, which is decidedly laissez faire to encourage activity, but
draws a line. Doxxing and harassment aren't acceptable and I'm sure the
current moderation team feels similarly. We can discuss further details,
but I think most understand my position on this. Thankfully, I already
have an established relationship with the current moderators and I look forward to
potentially working with them, and sharing my perspective that I've
built from nearly a decade of considering the challenges of working with a
community like Dart.
I want to take a moment to say that it's important that we all keep things in perspective. To my supporters, I appreciate your support, but I want you to voice your support in positive ways. We can run an exclusively positive campaign that focuses entirely on the benefits that you and I can bring to Dart without the need to attack our opponents in any way. Of course there can be vibrant disagreement, but we don't need to frame anyone who feels differently in any way negatively.
RM is a good guy, and he's passionate about debate in general and Dart specifically, and that makes him a worthy candidate. Naturally there are areas we disagree, but those areas shouldn't create a perspective that regardless of who wins, we can't work together to the betterment of everyone. I want everyone to keep this in mind, especially my supporters, that our time on this platform should be fun, and we can have fun in a positive way when it relates to this process, without the need for that fun to be harmful to anyone else.
This election should be fun, and I'm here to have fun while running, and assuming I win, have fun while we work on improving Dart in all the ways that I can. But I find it discouraging if this process becomes overly hostile, and while some drama and contentious argumentation is great for the site, let's keep things within the perspective that this doesn't need to be taken that seriously. None of this should be personal, and all the candidates should be able to simply enjoy the process.
With all that said, I
want to talk about Site Development, since this is where my main
focus and passions are going to be directed.
Phase one: Topical, Integration and Preparation
Phase two: Specified Marketing
Phase Three: Regularity and Growth
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@badger
Hey Max, long time no see dude.
Hey! Great to see you! How's it goin?
Why do you think this place hasn't yet achieved what DDO did in terms of community?
I'm not entirely sure yet, though I plan to do a lot of research and analysis over the next couple days to get a good grasp on the totality of the site dynamics and challenges. Part of it is probably just time, and part of it is probably availability of comparative platforms. This site has the advantage of knowing past mistakes, being built on the foundations of the past, knowing what features to focus on, and having an immediate base of members, so there's certainly a lot of positives to build on. But I think the rest will come with some more time, some clever marketing, and a focus on the site being vibrant and engaging while creating a proper balance between something free and properly stimulating, while not being overly encamped into a wild west parody.
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@Vader
As a follow up to the question before, you have not been as active on the site compared to the other members? How can you convince people that you truly want to be active and be a president on DART?
My reentry into the community is a fair criticism, though it's not entirely unlike what occurred on DDO. I was a semi-active member there, criticized for a lack of experience and activity, and then I was asked by my peers to run for president. I agreed, and then spent the next 6 years doing everything I could for that site. That's what is happening here, and if the community wants to give me the opportunity, I will keep my promise as I did then and always do, and dedicate myself to seeing Dart improved. This is also under much better circumstances than DDO, where my workload was far greater and there were much greater complexities involved in the management of that site. For Dart, I can keep my efforts much more focused, and I am very enthusiastic about the prospects of that endeavor.
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@Vader
My question to you is how you will obtain voters who did not know you from DDO and are strictly DART based and have never heard of you? What would be your message to them?
My message to those that don't know me is the same: I have a plan, the experience, and the same goals that I believe most people here have, and I have the ability to see it through. The only thing I would add for those that don't know me, is to engage in this process. Talk to me, ask me questions and to get to know me, and soon we will all be able to share in the experience of making Dart an even greater place to debate, socialize and enjoy this community in whatever ways we like best.
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@Reece101
How would we challenge each other? Want to compare high scores?
We could compare high scores, though I meant something like taking turns picking a song, doing as well as we can on it and then posting a video of each of our attempts at it - though ultimately the "winner" of that is just based on the high score... But since you gave away your VR I suppose it's moot.
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@Mikal
What is the best and worst experience you have had with a member of ddo in the past.
I don't really know how to answer this very well. Any unavoidable disciplinary action taken against a member was a negative experience. I had a lot of positive experiences with members, so its hard to pick one. I made a lot of great friendships and it was great working with so many wonderful people over the years. It's been great talking to many of those same people today.
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@Mikal
What would be you first action as president?
Thanking the community. Then talking to the mods about my perspective and intentions. Then talking to the owner and laying out my road map for the future and making sure he is on board - which I have little doubt he will fully endorse. Then building a team of the willing to help implement my ideas. I realize this is more than one action, but it'll all be within the first day if I win.
And what are some community activities you will start?
I'll give more thought to many of the on-site activities (though there is a list I'll find soon), but as part of the roadmap from DDO, we need to start having a greater footprint on other platforms. Encouraging and incentivizing live and youtube debates is something I want to start quickly. So very soon, I want us to get the site channel going, and hosting quality debates and get some influencers to judge. I'd like to get mafia going more, and actually see if we can make it break out a bit. Make Dart a greater center of the mafia universe and then expand that in a similar way. There's a lot more to this, but I'll leave it there for now.
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@Mikal
How would you promote site activity and return us to the golden days of ddo
Need to facilitate activity, which requires a hands off approach in many cases, and let the community be the community and drive activity forward. I don't want to go into a lot of detail yet, but I also believe that the roadmap I had for DDO, which involved an aggressive social media strategy and activity promotion, is the way to go.
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@Vader
The current mod team is Whiteflame, Ragnar, And I
thanks. I discovered that just a little bit ago, and reached out to Whiteflame and Ragnar, and will likely message you in the near future as well. It has been great to catch up with everyone, and good to see you all still around :)
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@Mikal
Why should we vote for you over RM.
I realize that this is the dynamic of every election, choosing the best or most qualified between candidates, but I want to spend my time mostly talking about myself and how we can benefit Dart, and as long as it is avoidable, making any assertions to the detriment of any opponent. The question is: Is Airmax qualified? I believe the answer to this should be clear, and everyone can contrast this against my opponents on their own.
I'll just add that I appreciate the passion and dedication anyone who runs necessarily needs to display, and I hope to utilize that energy if I win, and perhaps even before the election. I plan to get in touch with my opponents at some point, and I hope that we can work together in some capacity and do what is best for the site. I'm sure RM has some great ideas, and perhaps even before the election, we can work together to analyze those ideas and consider what it would take to make them an asset to the Dart community.
He has this policy where he blocks people that he doesn't like and refuses to interact with them
I'm gona assume that RM would explain this in a different way, rather than taking this at face value.
Could be a real challenge for you to overcome. You can't really do anything wrong, if you refuse to talk to people.
Refusing to talk to people would be something wrong on its own, but I'll reserve judgement for this and any connection it has to RM.
How would you counteract this?
I can only relate this to myself and I'm not interested in making assumptions about anyone else... I'm happy to talk with everyone at any time. I think everyone knows that they can ask me anything they like, and refusing to answer difficult questions is a problem on its own, and people will make judgements about the response or lack of response. That's how a public forum goes...
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@Mikal
What would you say your best qualities are in the following categories.
.
1) personality
I believe I am easy to get along with. I become very focused and dedicated to the things I spend my time on, but maintain a very easy-going and personable approach. Those that I have worked closely with, even those that might disagree strongly with me, will likely still say that they appreciated the time we were able to work together.
2) moderation
I have a lot of experience with this since I spent a lot of years on it with DDO. Experience is important, but so is the desire to take a thoughtful approach towards it. I don't like to rush to judgement, and I think having a soft hand is typically the best way forward to encourage a vibrant community. My experience also allows me to be more intuitive in knowing where to draw the lines, what things to look out for, and where and when to pick my battles.
3) sexually
I believe this is already addressed in the OP.
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@Mikal
Can you explain why you are more qualified than rm
No.
What I will say is that Dart President is something that I am qualified for. I was a member of DDO for something like 8 years. I was elected President of DDO for three terms, and was the head moderator for 6 years. I know exactly what the challenges of a debate site are, and what does and doesn't work. DDO had many challenges, and I think it's fair to believe that I am better prepared than anyone to know what those challenges are on Dart and how to address them.
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@Mikal
What are your presidency goals ?
The most important one is: ACTIVITY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY.
I want to see this site active and booming. I wana see 10 threads at any time in the politics forum with a new post every few minutes, members actively engaged in fascinating and contentious discussion. I wana see vibrant discussion about the site in the main forum. I even wana see drama. Not harsh or harmful in any way but passionate and vibrant that makes this site look like there's fun and interesting stuff going on.
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@Wylted
Well you are missing out haha but I appreciate the support nonetheless :)
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@Wylted
HOW serious do you get with tetris?
Well I've been playing for about 30 years and I consider myself quite good. With the exception of the pros, I can beat about anyone at it. These days my Tetris passion is more about arguing about it and waxing philosophically about its influence in video games since I don't actually play it very much anymore.
I watched "pro" Terri's players in a documentary talking about how "rolling" is the future of tetris and tappera have no place in professional tetris.
There's an important distinction here that I refer to as "modern" versus "classic" Tetris. The references to rolling and hypertapping have to do with classic Tetris. Classic Tetris is the purest form of the game, and it's because of the game play elements, specifically how the pieces lock in place once they hit the field. I don't actually play much classic Tetris at all anymore, and pretty much exclusively play modern Tetris, specifically Tetris Effect. That actually might give some insight into how seriously I take Tetris actually. I bought a PS4 because tetris:Effect was exclusive to it for awhile. Then I bought a PSVR because it could be played that way - which is amazing I might add. As for the technique debates I don't really have a strong opinion, I'm a bit out of the loop on it these days since I've been playing modern tetris, but it might be a discussion worth having in more depth if I get back to playing classic sometime soon - and that would actually be nice.
Are you a tapper or a roller? Whatever the hell those things are.
haha if I have to pick one, I'd be a tapper because it's what I'm more familiar with, but its not relevant to modern Tetris. But I will say that having those skills in classic tetris, means that I can pretty much play modern Tetris at max speed infinitely. If you are interested, here's a vid of me playing endless marathon at Max speed, just to prove this point:
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@Mikal
I hope the move continues to go smoothly and that you are able to be there... gona get my live mafia on tomorrow, and I hope you are there... In fact I hope we can get lots of Darters there tomorrow... get a 20 playa game goin
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Any Beat Saber players on this site?
Probably my favorite game of all time. Have some vids of it on my youtube channel. If anyone is interested I'd be down to do some beatsaber challenges, or just to talk about perhaps the greatest game of all time.
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@Mikal
I'm not yet entirely sure of the site's accepted community etiquette regarding ignoring the @'s I've been getting, so I'll do my best to err to the side of being as responsive as I can and simply answer this question in as neutral a way as I can: Repent yo.
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@Mikal
Some art is good, some not, I'm certainly no expert, but I know what I like.
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@Mikal
I do question the artistic value of this display, but I suppose that very questioning could perhaps be what makes it art. Is not its mere contemplative value, what makes it art?
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@Mikal
There's not a whole of lot of topics we probably disagree on, so this could be tough (unless you wana debate, who will get a higher score on the beat saber song of your choice) ... probably just be easier for me to simply agree to play mafia in the near future... we should definitely play live mafia either way.... In fact lets do it tomorrow night... be there.
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@Mikal
The problem is that when I say Tetris, there's a general understanding of the basic core game, rather than a specific one. I could be specific about which Tetris game I'd be referring to, but for the sake of the debate it really wouldn't matter. When you say Mario though, that doesn't imply any particular game. Some would say one of the Mario Galaxies are the best, or Mario RPG, or Mario 3, which I could argue is the best game of the franchise. It really does matter what game you are referring to for the sake of your arguments, and my counter-arguments. But in the end it doesn't even really matter, for the same reason you are going to argue Mario 3 isn't the best Mario ever, I am going to say the same about whatever Mario game you are going to choose, 10 years from now. The same can't be said about Tetris. It's basic gameplay is fundamentally perfect for all generations regardless of its iteration in perpetuity throughout the universe. So.... I don't think it's really a fair debate... unless you wana take pong, and I don't really think you wana take that argument, but you'd still have a far easier chance than any flavor of the month kind of game one might be compelled to choose.
In fact, the only fair debate is Beat Saber versus tetris... some iterations of these 2 games will exist forever now, in pretty much the exact same form.
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@Mikal
Debate me on what game is better. If I win you have to do a mafia game with me
What games are we debating?
New World versus Tetris? Insta win for me :P
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@RationalMadman
RM: "Airmax is corrupt to the fucking core. I don't need to justify what side of him I've seen, he doesn't understand how to put justice above loyalty to a clique. He is not a good site president he's a good frat leader."
Hey RM! Good to see you, I hope you and I can put past things in the past and move forward amicably. Obviously you and I have some sort of history, but this was like 8 years ago. I'm sure each of us are 2 different people by now, with different views on things than we had then. I have no interest in any kind of mud flinging, so I'll let certain things just slide, but at a certain point I'll defend myself against baseless attacks. Regardless, I am happy to be back. Apparently some people on the site believe I can do some good here, and having talked a bit with them, I have decided that it would be great to come back to the community and people I've known for so long, and try to do the good they think I am capable of. Truly, it's very appealing to me to think that I can possibly accomplish some of the things that were always just out of my reach on DDO, and I'm very excited to work with the moderation team and the sites owner to provide my perspective on these things.
Naturally, my role on this site is different than it was on DDO, and that has its own appeal. I'm not here intending to be any kind of authority figure, but to be a representative of the community with the knowledge of the lessons I have learned over my many years. Ultimately, I'm sure you and I agree on more than you think, and I look forward to turning you around on this misguided view you have of me. In any case, it's great to see you, and it's great to be back :)
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So, how ya'll doin?
It has been awhile since I've talked to some of you, but it's really great to see many of the people around that I've gotten to know over the years and have a chance get back in touch. I hope to be able to stick around for awhile regardless of how things go with this election and engage in things like debates, discussions, mafia, and just chillin' in discord. Regardless of the context, I'm excited that by happenstance to be pulled back into the community and I look forward to catching up with everyone.
A lot of you already know me, so I don't think that's something worth spending much time on, but if you have questions about my candidacy or anything else just let me know.
I don't think my general philosophy will come as a surprise to anyone. Should I happen to win the election, my goals will be similar to what they were when I was on DDO. I would encourage a similar moderation policy, which is decidedly laissez faire to encourage activity, but draws a line. Doxxing and harassment aren't acceptable and I'm sure the current moderation team feels similarly. We can discuss further details, but I think most understand my position on this. Thankfully, I already have an established relationship with the current moderators, Ragnar, David, and Supa (to name the ones I'm aware of) and I look forward to potentially working with them, and sharing my perspective that I've built from nearly a decade of considering the challenges of moderating a community like this.
Beyond that, I naturally have strong opinions on what does and doesn't work on a debate site, and I look forward to dusting off the road map I built when I was working on DDO, with the hopes that we can truly build Dart into something even more amazing.
I look forward to engaging with the community and wish everyone and all the candidates the best.
Thank you for your consideration,
Airmax1227
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Hey Dart! Vote Airmax... I’ll add further comments and answer any questions when I have more time this evening.
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@coal
Have you finished reading the DP?
No, I'm a few pages away... I'll continue to reply to random stuff I think is worth replying to, but I'm starting to get hassled by the GF so I'll probably wait until tomorrow evening to post anything remotely useful
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