CSM08

+++PLEASE NOTE THIS PAGE IS DATED 2008 AND THE CAMPAIGN BELOW REFERS TO THE FIRST CSM TERM+++

A huge bellowing "gratz" to the lucky 9 and the 5 stand bys. Alas, I did not make it in on this occasion. Thank you all who voted for me. I hope the next CSM election has a bigger voting turnout than the inaugural one.

This has serious ramifications given that some power blocs had candidates representing them and were able to motivate members to use their vote for them far more easily than the independent candidates.

Many candidates rode on the inertia of previous forum whoring and frankly it seems to have worked.

The argument could be given that if candidates were any worth, then votes would still be drawn from the populace however it is my opinion that the turnout was incredibly low, leading to "unknowns" having a considerably harder time gaining votes as they also have to make voters interested in the elections in the first place.

Many power bloc candidates arrived late or campaigned fairly poorly, some displaying a darker side by bigging themselves up on the forums (and being caught), cliques forming and bumping each others posts giving supporting arguments and so on. All to be expected and it seems to be a winning formula after all. A cold, harsh universe indeed.

In my mind, the second CSM term is not worth even bothering with given the current state of voter apathy. Existing members will probably get re-elected through inertia.

The third CSM term seems more interesting to me given that candidates cannot stand more than two sessions.

Yes, this entire blog could be construed as sour grapes however it is also evidenced by the forum posts.  read the rest of this post»

+++PLEASE NOTE THIS PAGE IS DATED 2008 AND THE CAMPAIGN BELOW REFERS TO THE FIRST CSM TERM+++

Hello everyone.

As the voting period is coming to an end, I'd like to take this opportunity to say a few words.

Firstly, I would like to thank everyone who has voted for me for doing so and I will remain true to my ethos as outlined in my posts and blog. I hope that I have the opportunity to serve you. If I do, I will serve you well.

Secondly, I would like to thank CCP for giving the entire player base the opportunity to stand and vote for candidates in the Council of Stellar Management. With Eve being a single persistent universe and characters having reputations to fulfill, this is a brave move and one that I hope succeeds and matures beyond the inevitable initial growing pains.

Thirdly, I would like to thank the majority of the other candidates for making this an interesting first campaign.

Thank you all.

Vote for me here
Candidate thread here

+++PLEASE NOTE THIS PAGE IS DATED 2008 AND THE CAMPAIGN BELOW REFERS TO THE FIRST CSM TERM+++

Not really. But FFS. It just annoys me that votes are gained for candidates that offer this sort of enticement.

Is it me or do NONE of the candidates actually KNOW how the CSM will work?
(other than me )

"ooh I'll give you +5 uber pants on your ship if you vote for me!"

No, you won't!

You still have to run it by the players, for 7 days! The ENTIRE playerbase! Not just the ones that voted you in.

So even if these MAGNIFICENT, GRAND schemes without clear indication of consequence get you in, you are STILL at the mercy of the playerbase who will, after 7 days I can assure you, find out every detail of consequence and vote it out if crap.

This is how it goes.

The Roles within the CSM are awarded thus:

In answer to this post:
http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=761081

As you all know, a huge number of criteria affect low sec and 0.0. Let's list just some of them.

1: Security rating.
2: Aggro permissions and gang aggro permissions - piracy and anti-piracy.
3: Ore value and distribution.
4: Sovereignty and POS warfare.  read the rest of this post»

+++PLEASE NOTE THIS PAGE IS DATED 2008 AND THE CAMPAIGN BELOW REFERS TO THE FIRST CSM TERM+++

It seems that lately the noisy forum celebrities are courting the forums even more so than usual.

We're even getting to the point where candidates are making TV appearances!

I include myself in the list of the guilty but IMHO have retained enough common sense to practice at least some restraint I think...

Frighteningly, agendas are being masked as "discussion", opinions and chest beating are reaching almost epic proportions and it seems that the forum readers are lapping it up with promises of votes being made for whoever screams the loudest and offering the closest "solution" to whatever someone wants.

I've personally noted cliques forming where some candidates are favouring long standing friends as candidates too. This is to be expected but saddens me a little.

The politics trail is all about offering promises but as an eventual CSM member, there is actually very little that member will be able to personally follow through on.

I only thank the foresight that CCP have displayed where a candidate can only ever be a CSM member twice.

Give it a year and I think we may be seeing a different style of campaign and annoyingly, perhaps many who have had their terms arguing for another term.

It is still my opinion that the CSM is for the entire playerbase and not just the loudest. If you share that opinion, vote for me.

Recently on Eve-O, a thread was started in order to discuss ideas for local shown in the related links section below.

There was no real response or reaction to my post on that thread so to maintain a record of my postings this blog entry was made.

This is the post:

---------------------  read the rest of this post»

As previously mentioned Bacon has hit the headlines recently and literally divided the Eve community.

A knee-jerk reaction to prevent Bacon from working was to change the way local works. But if you look into this evil little application further a whole host of nastiness is lurking there.

1: It reads output from the logserver.exe that comes with every Eve client.  read the rest of this post»

Bacon is an open source application that plays an audible alert when other players enter local according to standings.

If not every player has this then it's an unfair realtime advantage to those that have. If this is a poker match, you can say that this application can be considered as a card that can help you increase your earnings. The root of the issue as far as I see is local anyway. CCP don't like it being used as an intelligence tool.

However the cat is out of the bag now. The program is in circulation and you can bet there'll be a few who have it running and consequently some who don't. So how do we make it ineffective and level the board again?

CCP have stated they want to get rid of local. I would tend to agree, this would mean probably constellation chat would be used. I would want players to have other tools though to be aware of their surroundings. Such as better scanners/UI to match and non-ship based tools such as spy satellites or perimeter beacons as I mentioned in this blog:
http://www.starfleetcomms.com/content/new_new_eden

After one hell of a hectic day at work today it was with a certain amount of relief that I saw an email from CCP Xhagen arrive.

There's always a degree of trepidation when you apply for things like this. Is it really fair? Will they mysteriously lose my application? Will I complete the form correctly?

Luckily, yes, no and yes are the answers here!  read the rest of this post»

An alternate reality maybe?

This is a little tongue in cheek response to an allegation that certain CSM candidates (including me) lack any vision.

If you want more please let me know, it was fun. BUT, my stance is not that important. I would rather know YOUR stance.  read the rest of this post»