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  1. #1
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    Election Suggestion

    I wasn't planning on posting this so soon but with the state of the war it seems like it is time.

    Currently elections (and polls) follow the American Democracy system. The winner isn't always the best candidate, but the candidate who is able to mobilize the most voters. We don't always get the best candidate as the winner, and we don't always get the candidate with the most support from active members as the winner.



    Classes of People
    Note, some people fall into multiple categories.

    Recruits: People who haven't played their first battle night match. We honestly have no idea how active in the community they will become. A recruit could become the next Myth or they could disappear in a week.

    Regular Attendees: People who regularly show up to battle night (not necessarily active in the forums)

    Active Forum Members: People who regularly participate in the forums (not necessarily active in battle nights)

    Inactive Members: People who neither regularly participate in the forums nor participate in battle nights.

    Currently all four classes of members are allowed to participate in elections and have equally weighted votes.



    Who Do Field Marshals Represent?
    The people who are represented by the Field Marshals are the people who should be voting in the elections.

    Recruits: Clearly the recruits are represented by the Field Marshals. In fact, the recruits are probably the people who need the most representation. Field Marshal policies can either help get the recruit situated in the community for a long term say or ignore the recruit and cause them to leave.

    Regular Attendees: This people are fighting in the war for the Field Marshal. They need to be represented because the Field Marshal is responsible for many policies that effect the battle night experience.

    Active Forum Members: How are these people represented by the Field Marshal? The Field Marshal doesn't really do many things for these people. That said, these people are active in the forums. That means they are usually much more knowledgable about FC politics, the leadership abilities of the Field Marshal candidates, and usually have a significant resume of leadership in the community. While they may not be directly represented by the Field Marshal, their opinions are probably the most well informed of any of the voters.

    Inactive Members: These people no longer participate in the community, but if called upon by an old friend they can log on to FC and vote in the elections. These people really shouldn't be eligible to participate in elections.

    Only Recruits, Regular Attendees, and Active Forum Members should be eligible voters since they the people the Field Marshals represent or have valuable knowledge to contribute to the community.



    The Recruit Dilemma

    While recruits need to be represented by the Field Marshal, they usually do not know enough about the candidates to form their own opinions. Instead, they will usually vote for whom their squad leader tells them to vote. This creates a pool of uninformed voters who can easily swing an election. The recruits are usually placed in a squad with like-minded people, so what their squad leader wants is probably in the best interest of the recruit. In addition, the squad leader should be well informed about the candidates and able to make a good decision for the recruit.



    Alternatives to Army Elections

    Global Elections
    Currently, Field Marshal Elections are restricted to a specific army. A Global Election where the two candidates with the most votes are the Field Marshals (first place gets color choice), would open up the leadership pool and allow for more diversity in the elections. The Field Marshal represents more than just their army. The Field Marshal should be somebody who represents the community and thus should be elected by the entire community. This will also help with distributing leadership talent between the armies. If one army has two fantastic Field Marshal candidates, we can have both of them as Field Marshals if we had a Global Election.

    Squad Votes
    Most of the elections in FC are split along squad lines. The squad leadership determines which candidate they want to support, and then the squad members go out and vote as the squad leadership directs. Instead of forcing all of the squad members to go out and vote, we could have a system where each squad casts a single vote for the entire squad. Not all squads are created equally, so it might also be necessary to weight the squads votes differently. A squad vote system would have the added benefit of making the election process more efficient. Instead of waiting for a week (or however long the elections stay open), we would have results once each squad gets together and discusses which candidate they want to support. When all of the squads have cast their vote, we can end the election and move on with other important peacetime decisions.



    Houdini's Opinion
    Personally, I think a Squad Vote system would be ideal. It would fix the issue with recruits being uniformed and voting. It would prevent inactive community members from voting. It would make the election process more efficient. However, a squad vote probably be more work that it is worth for the current state of the community. Squads are not as stable as they once were and agreeing on a system to weight squads votes will be nearly impossible.

    A Global Election would be possible for the current community. This would make the elections much more interesting and could allow the active, neutral community members to cast votes. Recruits would probably still vote as their squad leader directs, but with a larger electorate would hopefully dilute the impact of recruit votes. Inactive voters could still be a problem, so we could make some sort of activity requirement for voting (e.g. posting in the forums during the last war or participating in a Battle Night during the last war, etc). Or we could just ignore the inactive voters like we always have and hope that a larger electorate dilutes the votes of the inactive people.

  2. #2
    Senior Member GAMExSOLID's Avatar
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    Re: Election Suggestion

    I like the idea of the Field Marshall Elections. That way two people have a level head and the community as whole put's their faith into those two to do the right things always for the good of the community. It would also shake things up a bit.
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  3. #3

    Re: Election Suggestion

    I agree with this as well

  4. #4
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    Re: Election Suggestion

    Quote Originally Posted by CAW0139 View Post
    I agree with this as well
    Are you agreeing with my opinion or one of the multiple ideas I brought up?

  5. #5

    Re: Election Suggestion

    Quote Originally Posted by GAMExSOLID View Post
    I like the idea of the Field Marshall Elections. That way two people have a level head and the community as whole put's their faith into those two to do the right things always for the good of the community. It would also shake things up a bit.
    It would also drop the drama between armies Which is a Big Plus

  6. #6

    Re: Election Suggestion

    I agree inactives should not be voting, but I might bring it further and say recruits shouldn't be allowed to vote, due to the forementioned problems, and people who do not show up to battlenights should not be voting. Reason being, the FM really has zero effect on them. IMO, you should only be able to vote on the next FM if you showed up to at least one battlenight the past war. So, nobody recruited during peace time that has zero idea about anything, nobody who's vanished and mysteriously shown up again just for the vote, nobody who has no stake in it and will just vote for their friends.
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  7. #7
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    Re: Election Suggestion

    Global Elections might seem fun, don't like how current elections are either. Would have some neutrals determine who(people that we know that can do the job and do it well) is able to run and set up the elections.

    Not too happy with the squad votes, unless we brought our squad leaders to a higher standard, but I think that's too much to ask.

    I would rather have a pool of FM candidates selected and see who wins from their popularity.
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  8. #8
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    Re: Election Suggestion

    Quote Originally Posted by silversleek View Post
    I agree inactives should not be voting, but I might bring it further and say recruits shouldn't be allowed to vote, due to the forementioned problems, and people who do not show up to battlenights should not be voting. Reason being, the FM really has zero effect on them. IMO, you should only be able to vote on the next FM if you showed up to at least one battlenight the past war. So, nobody recruited during peace time that has zero idea about anything, nobody who's vanished and mysteriously shown up again just for the vote, nobody who has no stake in it and will just vote for their friends.
    We don't have a reliable system for keeping track of attendance. That is the biggest hurdle in restricting voters based on activity.

  9. #9
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    Re: Election Suggestion

    Quote Originally Posted by Houdini View Post
    We don't have a reliable system for keeping track of attendance. That is the biggest hurdle in restricting voters based on activity.
    wouldn't squad reports solve this?
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  10. #10
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    Re: Election Suggestion

    Quote Originally Posted by Nicholas Sapien View Post
    wouldn't squad reports solve this?
    Well then you are trusting the squad leaders to report accurately, and we do technically have squad reports, but nobody in blue fills them out. I'm fine with this, but I feel like a system where we could actually prove that somebody played would be better.

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