[Archive] Rules and Events for Part II: Campaign Season

[webmacster87]

UPDATE 11/8/08: The contest has now ended. This post remains here for archival purposes.

phpBB Weekly's "President Bertie" Election Contest
Part II: Campaign Season

Okay, the nomination period is over, and we have now started the main period of this contest--the Campaign Season! We have four qualified candidates for this contest: Lyndon Bertie Johnson (Campaign Co-Managers: Semi_Deus and House), Sir Bertie Jr. (Campaign Manager: T50Webmaster), Barack O'Bertie (Campaign Manager: harmlessgoat22), and Albertie Einstein (Campaign Manager: Hank the Cowdog). This portion of the contest will span two weeks up until the election (see below).

This post contains information on everything happening between now and the end of the contest. There is a lot in this post, so you don't have to read all of it unless you want to, but please at least read the Campaign Season Rules section below. We're hoping for this to be a fair and exciting campaign season with room for everyone who didn't get a chance to be nominated to get to have some fun and participate, so if you're interested in jumping in, then read on.
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Campaign Season Rules
There are a few guidelines that everyone needs to follow during this portion of the contest.

1. All official election activity takes place in this forum. Candidates and participants may, if they so choose, extend this activity to external websites, but we (the folks running this contest) are not responsible for what happens in this contest outside of this forum.
2. The Contest General Discussion topic is sacred ground, and is intended only for general discussion about this contest. No electioneering is allowed in this topic. (Electioneering = Any action intended to support or oppose a candidate. This includes debating candidates.)
3. Also, phpBB Weekly episodes are also sacred ground. While we're willing to allow the candidates to do electioneering in our chat room (subject to the rules below), the recorded episodes are going to be completely neutral, meaning that we will not endorse or advertise a particular candidate, nor will callers be allowed to advertise for a particular candidate.
4. Each candidate has their own campaign topic, which is intended to be a place specifically for their campaign and their supporters to organize and discuss. As such, the campaign managers of the candidates pretty much have control over what can be discussed in there. Supporters of opposing candidates should not infiltrate these topics for the purposes of disturbing them. Campaign managers may use the report function to notify us if there is a disturbance in their campaign topic.
5. The rest of this forum is open to general discussion/debatable questions/etc. about the campaigns and candidates, and is an open forum for participants in any campaign to comment in. This means that both individuals and unofficial scrutiny organizations are welcome to discuss the campaigns in an open forum by posting here, and we'll also likely post a few discussion topics in this forum as well to spice up the conversation.
6. On that note, however, please keep the campaigns clean. Candidates are encouraged to work on wooing people over to their side, but please avoid campaigning negatively. I'm fairly sure that neither of our candidates had a relationship with a terrorist decades ago, and if either of them did, I'd rather not know about it.
7. And of course, please treat everyone with respect--we're just trying to have fun. Campaigns are about electioneering, but please do it in the appropriate places. Candidates caught spamming or harassing users for their campaigns will be disqualified from the ballot and their campaign will be suspended, so please follow the rules of StarTrekGuide and any other boards that you are participating in. All of this should go without saying, but it needs to be said anyway.

Major Campaign Events
Please note that these plans are still tentative and subject to change.

• Saturday, October 25th: On phpBB Weekly #082, we will be hosting a live presidential debate between representatives of the two candidates. (We would have the candidates themselves, but Berties can't really talk, unless someone is able to hire a ventriloquist somehow.) The debate will be moderated by Douglas Bell and David Lewis, and will feature questions that are both fictitiously serious (as if you were running for a real presidency), and hypothetically not-serious (putting the "Bertie Mons" picture into perspective). In addition, the live phpBB Weekly audience will be able to ask questions, either by calling in and asking themselves, or by typing them in the chat room for us to repeat them. (Kinda seems like Londonvasion Live all over again!)
• Saturday, November 1st: On phpBB Weekly #083, we will invite a special panel of "campaign analysts" (actual guests TBA) to discuss and analyze the campaigns, and share their thoughts on how each candidate is doing in the days before the election. This will probably also be the one episode of phpBB Weekly where we may stroll into talking about real politics, since it is, after all, going to be three days before the REAL presidential election...
• Monday-Wednesday, November 3rd-5th: It's election time! The election will take place during a 36-hour time period in order to ensure that everyone has an ample chance to vote. The election will open at 9 PM EST on November 3rd (0200 UTC on November 4th), and close at 9 AM EST on November 5th (1400 UTC on November 5th). The results of this election will be released at 9 PM EST on November 5th (0200 UTC on November 6th). If a candidate wins a majority of the votes (more than 50%), they will be automatically be considered the winner of the election. If no candidate receives a majority, then the top two candidates will continue into a runoff election.
• Thursday-Saturday, November 6th-8th: If a runoff election becomes necessary, it will open at 9 PM EST on November 6th (0200 UTC on November 7th) and close at 9 AM EST on November 8th (1400 UTC on November 8th), which is again, a 36-hour window of opportunity to vote.
• Saturday, November 8th: On phpBB Weekly #084, if a runoff election is held, we will announce the winner live on the show. (If a runoff election was not necessary, then we'll already know who won.) The winning candidate will be formally inaugurated as the new President of Bertie Mons on our show, and, as his first and only presidential act, will get to make an inauguration address live on the show.

The Prize(s)...
We have gotten a couple of offers of some rather, erm, interesting prizes for this contest. We haven't finalized what this is going to be yet, but we'll likely announce this later on this week.

How Can You Participate?
Learn more about the candidates by reading their campaign topics! Post questions for the candidates or topics you'd like them to discuss here in this forum! Pick a campaign that you want to support and become active, or act as an independent observer! You could form fake information organizations or fake media outlets and conduct straw polls or things like that. The sky is the limit in terms of how you can participate! Oh, and vote on November 3rd-5th (and 6th-7th if necessary)! (If you've already registered on StarTrekGuide, then you're already registered to vote!)

Questions about any of this? Hie thee hence to the Contest General Discussion topic and ask away. Have fun!
--Douglas Bell, phpBB Weekly Co-Host and Bertie Mons Secretary of State

[webmacster87]

Now that we apparently have four candidates, the rules have been updated accordingly. The schedule of elections has also been changed, with the length of the election being reduced to 36 hours and a second, optional runoff election being added into the schedule.