[General Discussion] "President Bertie" Election Contest

[T50Webmaster T50]

let him enter, under a few conditions, he must use a real personally taken photo of his candidate(no photos that others took), he MUST be at the debate this saturaday, and one just for us who did enter on time, he must not be able to win the laptop(or other high value prize)

[harmlessgoat22]

How about Douglas answers, T50.

@House: No, he hasn't replied, but I asked HoL about it, and he said it was OK.

[House]

David, Webmacster asked for our input. I tried to nab T50 and he wasn't around.. Is it not alright that he gets a chance to respond?



Anyway, my only concern was what I mentioned. I just want this thing to be fair for everyone. If you are entering, than anyone else who wants to do so, and who qualifies (either has a Bertie or is basically sponsored by someone with one) and what all, then by all means, come and play.

[webmacster87]

Yikes, my contest is being taken away from me! Couldn't you guys have waited until I got back from my meeting for me to make a decision before you took matters into your own hands?

I'm quite surprised that HoL gave his approval of these two surprise campaigns, considering that the MOD team (and the rest of the phpBB teams) are such sticklers for rules. I mean, if you even do so much as have an image in your phpBB.com signature that is just a little too big, despite how minor that infraction is, you get a warning because you didn't read the rules. Now, despite the fact that this contest launched two weeks ago and we had ten days in which people could apply for this contest, and that I bended the rules by eliminating the "ten signatures" requirement, David goes and disregards the rules? That's odd for a phpBB team member.
You know, I could perhaps blackmail David for that, since I do (after all) still know some secrets about the phpBB teams that they don't want me to reveal...

My personal inclination was to say that additional nominations are not allowed at this time because the rules clearly stated when the deadline was, but based on the opinions of everyone here, apparently you want these guys to be in the running, so I'll go along with it. However, here are some additional rules that MUST be made clear:

• As of right now, NO MORE candidates will be accepted. ABSOLUTELY NO EXCEPTIONS.
• If David (Highway of Life) wants to help moderate the debate on Saturday, or if he wants do anything else as someone "in charge" of the contest (like "approving" these two late-coming candidates the way he did), then he has to be neutral. That means he CANNOT endorse candidates. Either that endorsement has to disappear, or else he should renounce any position of being "in charge" of this contest and simply participate.
• Hank the Cowdog: SCOFF is intended to be an independent media outlet to do whatever you do, and I've loved the work you've done so far. However, you may not run a candidate for office and be affiliated with SCOFF at the same time. You either need to turn control of SCOFF over to someone else (and not be someone writing/working for it), get rid of SCOFF altogether, or withdraw your candidate, otherwise I'm going to be forced to consider SCOFF as an unfair advantage in your campaign.
• Both latecoming candidates: We have already confirmed that the presidential debate will be this Saturday on phpBB Weekly at the usual time (12 PM EDT/1600 UTC). If you're going to run, then you (or someone you delegate) must be on phpBB Weekly this Saturday to participate in the debate on behalf of your candidate. If you can't make it, you need to withdraw your candidate. (Sorry, but that's the price tag of coming in late.)
• T50Webmaster: The two new candidates will qualify for any and all prizes that we offer. Again, we haven't yet gotten to figuring that part out yet, but will hopefully announce that this weekend.
• Everybody: The addition of two new candidates will cause the format of the debate to change and will also cause the timing of the actual election to change. If the new candidates stick around for this campaign, then I will be updating the rules accordingly in the next day or two.

And finally, please note that if I don't respond to something right away with a decisive decision, it is because I actually have a real life away from the computer! (Which is probably why i'm not on the MOD team anymore.)

Thanks for causing me a lot of headaches right before bedtime!
--Douglas Bell, Bertie Mons Secretary of State

P.S. I've updated the contest rules to reflect the fact that we now have four candidates. As a result, the schedule of the election has changed and we now have scheduled an optional runoff election in case no candidate receives a majority (more than 50%) of the votes.

[Hank the Cowdog]

Okay, Douglas! Apologies and gratitude, and yes sir!

[Semi_Deus]

I am fully AGAINST the entering of the new candidates.
This is just outrageous. First of all as you say Douglas. The deadline has come, and past.
So guess what, bad luck for them. Secondly, because Barrack o'Bertie has used the same method as we did,
and used the Bertie picture from londonvasion to start his campaign with.

Thirdly, all SCOFF text about the first 2(Lyndon Bertie Johnson, and ?) should be considered not-written, as in; cannot be taken into consideration
when the president is chosen, as the former manager of the SCOFF has now entered the contest, and this could work in his advantage.

Fourthly, just because Highway is admin of this board, doesn't mean he may decide over webmacster87's contest.
Fifthly, because the new candidates had a longer time to think about what to post, and could evaluate our campaigns,
and therefore could choose what to do to win from us (not saying they will of course.)

sixthly: I think these new contestants should be removed from the contest right away, and cannot vote, or speak during election time.



Edit: Its just weird how mad I am about this. Really, this is just a flaw in our system.
Bertie Mons is already experiencing problems, not even having chosen a president.

[webmacster87]

After having had a good night's sleep and looking back at this issue with a fresh eye (since I can think through things a lot better after having had a good night's sleep), it is now immediately clear to me that allowing in the two late candidates last night was the absolute wrong decision to make. Every point that Semi_Deus made is completely valid. I only wish he (or someone) had posted it last night, but what I read on here last night was T50 and House essentially saying it was okay with them, and Highway actually going and "approving" them, which no, he cannot do unilaterally. (Last I checked, everything that we do with phpBB Weekly is something that we discuss TOGETHER and come to a decision that way.) However, when I got back from my meeting and logged on, here I am presented with two new campaign topics approved, supposedly with Highway's approval, and everyone "thinking" that they've been given the go ahead for some reason, which forces me to make some sort of decision to clear everything up on here before I go to sleep, and so all this happens.

In hindsight, the right thing to do should have been to say "too late to enter, you had ten days of opportunity to submit a candidate." However, in order to not generate any more bad publicity, I will not retract the decision that I made last night. Let's just leave this as a reminder that the world of politics is very, very cruel.

A couple of additional notes:

• Handyman: I don't care if resistance is futile or not, this is pathetic. I've been loving watching the SCOFF reporting up until now, and was really disappointed. With SCOFF being the largest media outlet in Bertie Mons, it is crucial to our security and the preservation of this election that they may not be controlled by a biased third party, or else I will have no choice but to forcibly shut them down. Quite frankly, I had been personally wishing that Hank would drop Albertie and stay with SCOFF, but he's made his decision. Nevertheless, it's with special provisions that SCOFF is permitted to operate here. (Oh, and don't think that the Borg can assimilate me, part of my ancestry goes back to a member of Species 8472.)
• Highway: "Neutral" means that you don't endorse any candidate, it doesn't mean that you can endorse all candidates.

Here's hoping we can move beyond this and have fun for the rest of the contest.

--Douglas Bell, Bertie Mons Secretary of State

[harmlessgoat22]

I'm excited about all the ruckus that the entry of Barack O'Bertie of the communist part has added. Who ever thought that communism could be so contraversial?

At Semi_Deus - Well, I had an insider that was going to change the post time of my submission, but I figured entering late was better than a political scandal Keep in mind, there would have been no way to prove that I hadn't actually gotten it in on time, except by the word of the biased candidates who claimed he wasn't there a week ago

[harmlessgoat22]

Oh, and as a suggestion, I think that this contest shouldn't be in a subforum of a rarely visited forum. Make it the top forum on the STG forumlist, so people will easily find it. The reason I didn't enter the contest earlier was I didn't see it, seeing as it was discreetly hidden from me

[Hank the Cowdog]

Sigh. Personally, I think it will be much more fun with four. You'll see.

I don't understand why you guys are making such a noise over me running SCOFF. You said it would give me unfair advantages, so I quit, thinking I don't know what kind of 'unfair advantage' it would give me, but I didn't want to be a problem, and you're still complaining about it.
Just let Handyman run it, and let harmlessgoat22 and I run for the presidency.

The nomination period was extremely short. It didn't leave me any time to come up with an idea, and I didn't come up with an idea until Albertie Einstein entered my brain, and then I couldn't resist entering when harmlessgoat22 did.

Back to SCOFF, the Borg Queen simply made a humorous post to announce her arrival. It'll get better once they have something to report, trust me. Practically everything I know about writing I learned from Seven of Nine. With her help, SCOFF will still be great.

Thirdly, all SCOFF text about the first 2(Lyndon Bertie Johnson, and ?) should be considered not-written, as in; cannot be taken into consideration
when the president is chosen, as the former manager of the SCOFF has now entered the contest, and this could work in his advantage.

That's ridiculous. I spent a lot of time on those posts, the content is good, it adds a little news-people talk as a nice touch. Handyman will continue my work and everything will be valid, complete, and unbiased.
As I said above, there is no way SCOFF could work to my advantage. I had no thoughts of running when I made those reports. They are simply meant to amuse and inform anybody who doesn't care to look around for all the news.
If you're thinking that I could make everybody else look bad so I can win, guess what, I'm not that devious. I know if I were to do something photoshopped like what YOU did, or like what harmlessgoat22 did, Handyman would be all over it.

Fifthly, because the new candidates had a longer time to think about what to post, and could evaluate our campaigns,
and therefore could choose what to do to win from us (not saying they will of course.)

That would be impossible at this stage, because neither campaign has gotten off the ground at all.
And no, we did not have a longer time to think about what to post. Albertie Einstein was a sudden decision, and to my knowledge so was Barack O'Bertie.

sixthly: I think these new contestants should be removed from the contest right away, and cannot vote, or speak during election time.

What? THAT'S outrageous. If Douglas had withdrawn me from the running, that would be fine, but you can't go stripping voting privileges like that. Talk about giving yourself an unfair advantage.