#Vote

Trolling seems to be tolerated by the ever so competent moderation on this site. This is the likely conclusion many will derive after watching users like ebuc and Shila essentially run wild within the forum. This to me, is less impending than preventing idiots from casting subsequent votes when their voting has already been detected as a problem. 

For instance: users like FLRW continue to cast troll votes on debates despite having his votes removed multiple times for the same reasons. Because the moderators on this platform are very intelligent, they made the obviously brilliant decision not to do anything, allowing him to cast a troll vote on a debate which could not be removed in time, drastically altering the outcome. 

Are you not supposed to act in accordance with basic logic, you may be asking in your head. This is generally true, but some people are actually too good to think about issues this way, and instead, use superior methods like feelings or emotions. So here is proposition x: 

And here is the formalized argument for proposition x: 

P1) If any user violates a regulation which they are expected to be aware of and act in accordance with, there ought to be penalties to address such violations. 

P2) If a voter has voting permissions, before casting a vote, it is expected that they are familiar with the voting regulations of this platform. 

P3) Casting a troll vote, demonstrates under this assumption, a deliberate violation of regulations this user is familiar and acquainted with. 

C1) Therefore, there ought to be penalties to address such violations. 

P4) Such penalties should reasonably attempt to deter the specific problem which the users actions create for the given platform. 

You are free to acknowledge a previous thread or such by me but this is my official thread during the campaign period.

Currently, I see a 'witch' (not an insult) posting about a rivalry that the mods are ignoring. Do you know what my main opponent, ilikepie5, would do? He'd say 'freedom of speech' and leave it at that. Though, in another reply to Oromagi, he's shown to understand the importance of stopping harassment so perhaps he'd do the same as me and push the mods to respect the boundary.

As somebody who both personally and, by observing others, has both felt and seen the impacts of harassment, I would use any sway I had as president to push the mods to respect and notice interactions that drive people off of the website or alternatively drive them to act more hostile.

There is this idea that 'special snowflakes' should just suck it up and toughen up but this is a website we use to pass the time with many intellectuals on it who have unique sensitivities and often were bullied IRL and teased for their odd ways. It's not an ordinary person who comes to a debate website, that just isn't the niche market this goes for.

What you want in a president is a guy who has been pushed by trolls in the past to act hostile, first hand, that will completely defend and understand you every step of the way.

If you block me, I can't do that and as I won't be an official mod I doubt anything physically on my account will stop the block function from working (I wouldn't want that anyway, there's some I'd rather keep blocked but when/if they need my defense or counsel as president I'd unblock).

Consider this thread itself as an official thread where if you need my counsel and are blocked, you can post to it and I will unblock you.

The president isn't just for moderating issues, they're also here for fun. I will work with the active debaters, who sporadically show up because they're scared of losing rating, and set up unranked judge debate tournaments like has been done once before. I'd be happy for any suggestions on this, it will be official and put you down in the site's history books if you win and also will be a great thing to mention if you run for President next term, even as a judge.

I am not certain of the term length of a president on this website, is it 6 months or a year? Either way, I'm a user who no matter how busy IRL shows up every week at least, or definitely every 2. I won't flake, I will stick it out because that's how I roll. I will defend this website, make it entertaining and a pleasure for a variety of eccentric users who love debating to coexist peacefully.

This is my motto.

Yours sincerely,

~Vote RM~

I am aware I voted no to the Presidency thing. I understand how this looks but ultimately if it exists I am all for trying. I never once made a secret of my ambitions to be a moderator here, yet I accept that both due to aggression I had to a couple of users here early on and due to me being a social outcast amongst the 'clique' who are moderators, I'll never be one for the foreseeable future.

So, I want you to know what I can and will do for you if you put me in the president position and explain why I am better than almost anyone else who will run for it.

I absolutely promise you that no matter what Chris, Supa, Ragnar, David or whoever does to gaslight or silence you if/when a ban heads your way and you speak harshly against it, I will both personally represent your case to them even if I disagree with you and think you earned your ban as well as to create a thread myself that they won't dare to close, about your ban for the community to discuss in.

To prove to you that I represented you, I will post captions from our conversations regarding your moderation to a thread I create after the verdict is finally given or they ignore me completely.

I identify as left-wing and religiously you could call me agnostic but really I have my own theory that is close to Taoist philosophy in its conclusions and the way I go about life.

I can't promise you that I am going to be completely immune of bias in terms of caring as much if someone who agrees with me is censored vs someone espousing views I disagree with and I think any other candidate who promises you that is not self-aware. 

What I can promise you is unless you have been particularly nasty to me personally, I'll unblock you and hear out why your particular censored content is wrongly treated that way. 

In cases of harassment and two-way bullying, I have never and will never just instantly say the left-wing person or less religious person is in the right. To me, BrotherDThomas is a much bigger issue to the website community than Ethang5 despite the former blatantly being an atheist troll guised as a Christian and the latter being an unabashed Conservative Christian.

I know what bias is and am aware I have it but I will do everything in my conscious power to correct it. If and when it does happen, I am open to criticism, it will be something I'll need to prove doubters wrong on. I'm not immune to it, I accept it.

My primary agenda is to make DART more of a website I'm not ashamed to show off to my family and IRL friends or whatever. As it is now, it's bit of a cringey trollfest in many departments and it's not as much an issue that the trolls are active as it is that I feel not enough special events like debate tournaments and actual worthwhile threads are created and contributed to.

I am going to heavily ensure if someone is baited by trolls to overreact and then gets banned that such user doesn't need to operate here totally afraid and instead ensure that the mods see who the provoking member was and to put into context each post.

I also want to give tips and advise to users in situations that I, as an ordinary user, perhaps never get to hear about or see in a combination of private and public clashes. As you know, I support using the block function much more readily and without the shame that most do. I'd always advise that as a default but I am quite good at seeing situations from both sides and would give tailored advice to any user who is feeling targeted and doesnt know how to handle it without lashing out and who feels the mods don't care.

I want this website to be a pleasure, a website you open every other day excited to see what's being posted rather than worry which nuisance has posted and made you not bother to use the site anymore due to. Those who don't know what I am referring to or how it can be achieved without censorship are welcome to vote against me. Those who want to see if I live by my word, should vote for me and see.

I am not going to cower to Chris, Supa, Ragnar or any of them. I am my own person and my agenda is entirely independent of whatever their clique may approve or or laugh into silence. Whatever you want for the website or to get heard in your defebse, let me know. If you're banned and feel nobody heard your case out, I'm not entirely sure what to do yet as I am not keen to give an email nor would I regularly check one but eventually off-site communication can be arranged. At the moment the presently banned seem to all be severe cases. The only one I think actually could be overturned would be Type1 but that's without knowing when he'd next go wild. When he tries, he's an extremely active and entertaining member. When he doesn't try, he becomes toxic and stupid and I do think personally that he knows that but anyway, the rest I'm not sure about. They all seem legitimate permabans.

Yesterday I voted on this debate:

I intended to edit it afterwards but I didn't know you couldn't do that.  And after reading some other votes I want to rewrite it even more because it feels lame and low-effort compared to what is apparently the standard here.

Would you vote for her as president?