Plaza Election !2025! (Discussion) **Voting Closes March 9!**

[Narv]

Hi everybody, I hope you're all having a nice year. My name is Narv and I run admin elections around here occasionally. And if you can believe it, this very thread is shaping up to be one such occasion!

We are in fact well overdue for an election (entirely my fault -- I offered to get this rolling back in December and then got waylaid by the usual irl waylaying suspects until now), so I'm going to give this a shot. Thanks to all and especially to Arnyn & Pele & Rivvy for your patience with my slowness.

To be honest this feels like a bit of an experiment again - I haven't run one of these myself in a couple years so I'm re-figuring-out the process, and also the site is a cozier, dozier place than it was back when we were running these elections like clockwork, and I'm not 100% sure whether we've still got critical mass for these elections to keep working super well. But then, I thought the same things in prior elections too, and was consistently surprised by the turnout we'd get and how well things tended to work etc, so let's give it a whirl.

So maybe let's do 2 things for starters: I'll drop the nomination / ballot request form as usual, and ask that folks fill it in with your email where you'd like to use for voting, whether you'd accept a nomination or not, and then usernames of anyone who you think would make a great admin for the upcoming term. Here's the form:

NOMINATION & BALLOT REQUEST FORM

And then also, this might be a good chance for folks to give their thoughts about the admin election process, thoughts on whether you think it's been working, what you might envision going forward.. etc. This might help the incoming admin team decide if any changes to the process should be made or if we're good to keep chugging along as we have been (ideally with a less tardy Narv in future).

As always, if you'd prefer to stay anonymous you can send thoughts / opinions / questions directly to me at lotrplazaelection [at] gmail [dot] com. Though I would add the caveat that I'm pretty not involved in admin stuff anymore so your concerns are probably more likely to yield change if voiced here.

Thanks everyone! Feels nice to be posting at you all again for a little bit

[Narv]

Oh, a quick note on timelines/deadlines -- I haven't come up with any yet, and I'll probably vibe it out a bit based on how quick/slow responses come in on the form. But nominations will be open for at least a week, with a firmer deadline to come in a bit.

[Arnyn]

Filled in the form!
@Narv It does say that this is for the term until July 2023. But I figure people can figure it it is actually 2025.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Filled in the form!
@Narv It does say that this is for the term until July 2023. But I figure people can figure it it is actually 2025.

I'm glad you pointed that out. I have been fighting the urge to point it out myself since last night. As you say, people can figure it out.

Arnyn, I did not nominate you because you have said that you do not wish to continue as an admin. But had you not said that I would have nominated you. Thank you very much for everything. And once these elections are over I will campaign, if such is needed, for you to resume wearing your absolutely wonderful mother of dragons icon.

[Narv]

Updated the (almost-seamlessly-copied-over-from-the-last-time-i-ran-one-of-these) form, thanks for the catch -- if anyone notices anything else looks off, please let the urge to let me about it win and I'll patch it up

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Updated the (almost-seamlessly-copied-over-from-the-last-time-i-ran-one-of-these) form, thanks for the catch -- if anyone notices anything else looks off, please let the urge to let me about it win and I'll patch it up

You missed out 'know': 'please let the urge to let me know about it win'

[Narv]

That's the spirit!

Thanks everyone who has sent in noms/ballot requests so far - response rate has dropped off now, so I'll give it one more day and then start getting in touch with nominees and move on to the next stage this week. So for precision's sake I'll say nominations will close on EOD-ish of Feb 9th.

[Narv]

Update: I've just reached out to all those who were nominated and didn't already state on the form whether or not they'd accept / not accept a nomination. So I'll wait til I hear back / discuss etc. with those folks, and then I'll get the nomination list together and move on to the next stage. Thanks all!

I'll leave the form open for anyone else who still wants to request a ballot, or in case there are any last-minute nominations anyone wants to put in.

[Arnyn]

Thanks, Narv!!

[Moriel]

I've been popping in looking for this and somehow managed to miss it completely On board now

Edit: ...I think I sent the form but then my browser did something weird and now I'm not sure. @Narv can you confirm pls?

[Narv]

@Moriel confirmed, thanks!

[Moriel]

Thanks!!

[Narv]

Update: apologies for the delay here - I've been a lil swamped outside of weekends. But I have now heard back from all nominees that I was able to get hold of, and I'm happy to report that we technically have enough to proceed :) Many many thanks to our nominees so far!

That said, I'll put out one last appeal for any additional volunteers - if you think you might enjoy (or just not despise) being an admin for a stint, and like the idea of keeping admin elections viable going forward, please let me know via the form or at lotrplazaelection [at] gmail [dot] com, by the end of this weekend, and I'll add you to the nominees. After that, I plan to start the next phase after the weekend. Thanks all!

[Drífa]

Hi! Is there a general description or plan somewhere giving the essential features of the duties and time involved in becoming a volunteer? If not, could some of the acting admins create one here?

[Arnyn]

Compulsory duties involve eating the spammers (and their posts), and intervening in case of violation of the General Rules, DEI statement or Roleplaying Code. When something is going awry or it's dubious, usually one or more members reach out - you don't always need to 'see it first'.

The admin team also agrees to check in with each other first before intervening toward actual members (not for spammers, you just eat those and belch after), so it's a supported decision when someone gets a warning or what not. That can make it seem like a slow process, but it's better because that way the team speaks with one voice, and it's like an automatic checks and balances thing.

Voluntary duties are anything from doing something for April fools, to Halloween, to games to celebrating it is Spring, or Summer, or whatever you want really.

This last term has been VERY low maintenance, for example. As in: I have hardly noticed I'm an admin. All I spent time on was Halloween (some hours to set it up, and then like 15 minutes to take it down), and that is fun (mostly). And then a few spammers. I've just noticed I'm not as excited anymore about stuff like April fools and Halloween, so figure it's time to let someone else take a crack. (Not that this necessarily means that the other candidates have to get excited about it!)

[Drífa]

Thanks, Arnyn! I am mainly concerned about time. I spend 20 minutes (sometimes less) daily on the Plaza, and there are occasions when I do not log on at all. I sometimes have a super laid-back weekend and spend lots of time online.

Is that enough time to volunteer?

[Aikári Salmarinian]

I check in offline modus the "Active Topics", under the quick links in the left corner. I am not everyday online, but a quick check could be five minutes of surveying what's interesting.

[Arnyn]

@Drifa I'd say it's important to be 'available' once a day if people need you?

Like yesterday I only spent the minutes necessary to read some new posts (10 mins maybe?) but if something crazy and urgent had happened (a rare thing) and I hadn't noticed, then the other admins could have still reached me through the discord admin group, which I would have noticed somewhere through the day - and then I could have spent more time, as necessary.

--> Which does not necessarily mean you NEED discord. But from personal experience I can say that having a direct line of communication (whichever platform that might be) is very useful and handy, precisely because if something is going on it facilitates the process on sharing info and coming to a mutual agreement, or giving each other a heads up about something, to coordinate sth like Member of the Month, or the election, etc.

If things stay harmonious then you hardly need to devote much time. But no one can guarantee that, you know?

[Drífa]

Thanks for the responses, Arnyn!

[Arnyn]

You're welcome!

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Hello plaza members. I did not want to post this on the election thread and interrupt the presentation by the candidates. But I did feel we should maybe talk a bit about the number of admins question.

For what it is worth, I voted to keep 3 admins. This is because I think that three voices makes for a consensus decision-making in a way that two does not. But I do recognize that three is a lot of admins for such a small site. However, what prompts me to post is specifically SPAM.

Whatever else the admins may be up to, there is a real need for someone who is available a lot of the time who can be contacted at any time to remove spam. Maybe it is just me, but I dislike seeing the site spammed more than I dislike a lot of things (and I dislike a lot of things). I work at home on my laptop and check in to the site many times a day, and for a long while now I've been able to discord @Rivvy Elf whenever I see spam, and usually within a few minutes the spam is gone (I am not sure when or if he ever sleeps). And then yesterday I read @Rillewen on the election thread saying how she is always on the plaza and I was struck by how important it is to have at least one admin who is online a lot and can deal with spam quickly.

I see atm that the 2 admin option has the majority on the poll, so I'd like to suggest that if the 2 admin option is decided upon then we consider a separate GROND position, someone who declares themselves willing to deal with spam. Possibly that could also solve the tie-breaker issue as the GROND admin could have a deciding vote?

All that said, I have to ask anyone who votes for a two admin team to do some hard thinking about life, the universe, and everything in it. Three is just that kind of number - it works. Two does not. It is a no brainer.

[Narv]

Thanks for starting the discussion Chrys -- doesn't matter much to me if people want to discuss in this thread or the poll thread (I copied all the nominee blurbs to the top post to keep them visible in case folks have more comments there). In any case I'll also re-sticky/rename this one to make it more apparent that this one's got some active discussion too.

[Aikári Salmarinian]

Hmm. I have been hoovering over the issue a bit. But I don't think three admins is large number. One of them can become unavailable, for sickness, vacation or other reasons, and there are still two left to check and everything. If you have to do that all on your own, it can be quickly way too much over your head to look after. Most of us do have busy lives, with kids or teenagers or fulltime job, and are not the whole day around or each day online. Three is a good tie-breaker and should not be lesser. Three is bare minimum already.

And also think about this... what if one of the admins is someone, you are not with on good footing as member? And if the two others are, but one cannot be reached for longer time, there is always another left. We are with quite more around than normally really feels.

These are my two cents.

[Narv]

Update:

Thanks everyone for participating so far! I'll keep the poll (both polls actually) open through the end of the weekend, so until end of day tomorrow, March 9th (realistically, some time on Monday, but Sunday will be the last guaranteed day). So if anyone is still pondering, please get your vote in before then!

[Silky Gooseness]

I guess for full disclosure I should say that, as the writer of the Knowledge Halls and thus owner of the Google forms, I have retained responsibility for these but as a current non-admin I simply contact the admin team with an update every time someone completes a quiz, and the admin team then take care of the appropriate tributing.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

My dear @Silky Gooseness, your full disclosure comes the day after voting officially closed. So I am not sure what to do with this new information, riveting though it may be. But, may I take this opportunity to disclose on behalf of everyone quite how happy we all are to have you back again?

[Silky Gooseness]

I don’t think it should affect voting, but it’s my way of notifying any new prospective admins that they may have to deal with the odd email from me thank you