To my surprise, I've been asked a few times about my opinions on the various CSM candidates and who I am voting for. Most of the questions have come from other low sec residents. Many are not enthralled with the CSM. The negativity about the entire process is almost startling. With no clear low sec candidate people don't know who to vote for. Many don't want to vote. I don't blame them.
Yet, I still hold onto my strands of belief that even if my ideal situation is not realized, I still should put energy into making an effort. At least, later, I can bitch and froth at the mouth without guilt.
My general recommendations from people were to pick people who were at least good communicators. People who would listen when problems were brought to them. It was one of the harder things. Many candidates are quite comfortable in their pocket and that is what they plan to work with. That is not bad but the hard walls of "my platform" are quite steep and slick when it comes to reaching to them as a peon/pubbie/no-body/scrub/select favorite disparaging term here.
Picking people I can live and hopefully work with proved harder than expected. But it broadened my search from, 'low sec'. I washed the bitter taste of disappointment from my mouth and spent some time reading and thinking beyond my own ego and desires. I looked at the sanity of the candidates the way that they have responded to people, if they have responded to people, and how they respond and communicate with people. I am biased to those that are willing to share information in a textual form.
For those who do not like to read their information, Xander did interviews with almost everyone at Crossing Zebras. He has received (almost) nothing but praise for the efforts and everyone that listens to things says that it is worth listening to if you listen to things.
Chirality put a massive amount of time into a vote program to help people pick candidates who have like minded opinions. It is fast and easy and can help with the elimination process.
There is another program out there called Vote Match that someone has written. Matched with Chairality's program one can at least get two separate sources to see what matches if one is prone to believing in conspiracy in every corner.
The candidates own threads can be found on the forums under Jita Park Speakers.
Once I found it the voting process was a bit of a pain in the ass. I've been told that its been cleaned up. The most irritating part was the fact that the names scrolled beyond the boxes you had to drag them into. It is a pretty interface but it was not very useful. I'd have been foaming at the mouth on a smaller screen and as it was, I was still irritated.
I'm also disappointed in the lack of noise about this. CCP puts time and money into having Representatives for their game. Why they don't have more front page stuff I don't know. I had to guess where to go vote at. The bulk of the game does not metagame. They don't roam the blogs, the forums, the news sites, even the games own website. People do not know that hours for plex is an option. I still have people ask me what the CSM is because they have never heard of it.
Mostly though, there is a shroud of negativity from people about the process. I try to be positive. However, it will be nice when this 'election' season is over. I do not find politics amusing and as I have watched the CSM elections unfold it is just an in game version of the normal political behaviors that always seem to crop up with elections. I cannot say that it has been a pleasant addition to my normal Eve reading. It has diverted my attention back to some of my neglected back reading and writing. Perhaps there is unexpected good in my frustration.
Results are due at Fanfest. I'm not going to make guesses as to who wins and where they rank or anything else. I have no guesses and no ideas. I just hope that whoever is elected will remember that the game is composed of everyone else and not just them and their platform and people.
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