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CSM: Labeling, Pre-Planning

Ahh... the sweetness of a weekend off. Now, to work.

I decided to label the CSM stuff by CSM so those that want to avoid it can just skip said posts. Until the election happens, while I am doing this thing, the posts will crop up. Such is my writing habit.

On Saturday I was all, "I'm thinking about this a lot and want to, but still unsure," when it came to the CSM thing. I try to write very honestly. Honesty is good. It is simple. But, it is often hard. Sure, Eve is a game but it is still an entire social interaction. In these pages, I lay out my good and my bad. I started doing it simply because I wanted to read that type of thing when I first started playing. Today, there are lots of blogs by newer players. I've noticed that around the year point is where they taper off but the beginning impressions captured are an invaluable glimpse into the game for other people starting. I was honest with my frustrations, my failures, and my successes. The only way I could have the blog that was what I wanted to see was to create it. There is a time where everyone just seems so incredibly knowledgeable and a new player wonders if anyone else ever has the problems that they have.

When it comes to something such as the CSM some may say that I should show more confidence or assuredness. Perhaps, but at the end of the day, I'm who and what I am and that is what people will be voting for. I can only offer what and who I am as a person and player. It just happens that I've captured that in the pages of the blog to make it easier for people to look at.

It never occurred to me that I'd be here.

The CSM is a big job. Some may think that it is not a big deal, unimportant, outmoded, ineffective, etc, etc etc. That does not stop it from being a big job and a big step. It is a step out of the focus of the player and into a more intermediate state between CCP and the player base. It is a lot of time, a lot of energy, and a lot of emotion. It is a responsibility. The CSM member is given the hope, trust, and desires of the players that they represent. It isn't a casual decision to make and like any serious decision I've spent a lot of time thinking about it. 

I like trying to make good decisions.

I'm going to run. The official announcement stuff from CCP is not yet up but players are starting their announcements. I am writing up the longer, formal post that will go here (soon) and then on the forums when it is time. That touches on the questions and where I stand. It is a very hard document to write, I'm discovering. It is easy to become scattered. I am working on it and having it proof read. I cover things like low sec, my other interests in game (my market, industry and logistics stuff), the things that I have done that round me as a player (mining, building, incursions, etc) and things I have opinions about (newbies, corp interface, Jaguars). Then, a bit about me (some of my IRL skills that let me play well with others when not in spaceships) because this all done by Sugar the Pirate.

Along the way I've set up a bunch of personal chores to get done before the CSM voting goes live. Most of these are areas that I need to touch again and make sure I am up to date. I'm going to run through the tutorials this weekend for instance.  I need to go through and label all of my blog posts for easier searching. Those interested will want to be able to page through the thousand plus posts I have here with a bit more ease than they currently do. I'm going to make a little CSM tab over with my Origins and Guides on the right hand side to collect posts. I've contacted an artist from our Molden Heath group to create some splashy, gaudy art and asked the boys to come up with slogans and posters. I took a minute to ask about removing my Media account in case it becomes a hurdle. Last year, it was fine, but in previous years it has been a problem. I'd prefer to burn time and energy getting it reinstated instead of getting it removed as the deadline looms.

I'm not a politician. I don't actually know what I am doing in this whole campaign thing. Therefore, I am going to go forth and do as I am comfortable with doing. I've received a lot of differing advice on what to do and how to do it. I'm processing it all. At the end of the day, I'm the one tossing myself into the fire. I have to be comfortable with it. I have a stack of notes for things I need to do. My gaming time is going to change a bit for the next few months with a task list that is outside of my normal PvP/market/write time.

I think I will be okay holding onto who and what I am. My ability to say, "No" is in full force at the moment when I dislike suggestions made. I temper it into a no thank you. After all, those who approach me want me to succeed.  I appreciate that and I promise to do my best in that area. But, I have to do it in a way I am comfortable with. 

Someone said, "You are supposed to do whatever you have to to win. Well not anything but anything within reason." My definition of reasonable and someone elses will probably not quite match. I won't do anything. I will do what I am comfortable and happy with doing. I have to look at myself every day (I brush my hair). I have to want to log in. I've never been very good at following the best and more correct path in Eve and chances are great that my CSM run will follow in style. If I succeed in this, a year from now, I want to bounce through my blog posts with the same enthusiasm that I do now. That means I take this entire adventure as me. People who are going to vote for me based on what they know of me want me as their representative, not some artifice created to gain votes.

I've always functioned under, "What you see is what you get." I have no intention on that changing.

Comments

  1. I will vote for you simple because your honest. Unlike some try-hards who think they know everything and all things.

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    1. There's that, but, on top of that, people running for CSM with this set of interests are hard to find:
      "I cover things like low sec, my other interests in game (my market, industry and logistics stuff), the things that I have done that round me as a player (mining, building, incursions, etc) and things I have opinions about (newbies, corp interface, Jaguars)."

      I have an interest in a representative cross-section of the player base on the CSM, so I'd put that on my ballot despite living in NPC null, myself.

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    2. I don't know everything in the game. I'd love to but it'd be a disservice to everyone, including myself. But not knowing something is not the same as being ignorant about it. I can learn. i will learn. I expect to learn all sorts of things during the length of this process from all the people that I will be in contact with.

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  2. Good luck. As always I will look forward to your posts on this and your normal subject matter.

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    1. I have so many random things to write about, no worries.

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    1. Thanks Mr Harper. Is that a bribe for more regular Origin entries? :D

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  4. I'd be interested in someday hearing what your views on FW are. =)

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    1. What a pretty deep hole you put under that question Susan :P I'll step in :D

      That is something I've been asking myself. "What are my views on FW?" After all it is the other half of low sec. And FW low sec and non-fw low sec are different flavors of low sec of space (although they share Dust stuff). Similar to how NPC Null and Sov Null are both null but very different environments with the same rules.

      The main thing that has always struck me about FW is why it doesn't have a larger ripple affect. I don't think HS should be turned into low sec suddenly or low sec high sec (although its fascinating to think about that happening) but it seems that something should happen that makes HS care about what is happening in FW. What is that something? I don't know but FW is in a box.

      I want to find out if my questions about how badly faction standing crashes during missions is something that the people in FW or the people who dip in and out is something people in FW find to be a good, bad, or indifferent thing. CCP markets it as a place for new players to go and get into PvP and Eve because that is what they want. Does it feel that way to people inside of it?

      My views are someone from the outside looking in. I read the forums and the blogs and listen to the complaints and the actions of people in FW. I get to look at it from the, "wouldn't it be interesting if?" hypothetical discussion. That isn't going to help when people discuss problems with the timers, cloaking plexers, control, lockouts and the burn out of why are they doing what they are doing? How does one try to stem the burnout of the vets who have made this their game of Eve?

      That gives me two courses.

      1: Go and do it. That's something I've already started. I will become a more comfortable with the mechanics, the usage, and learn about the people who spend their time there. But, I won't learn and breath FW as I do non-FW low sec over the course of a few weeks or months.

      2: That is what being open minded, approachable, and able to present things that are brought forward and wanted by the player base is about. I can't have an opinion on everything. I'd love to but it isn't about all knowing Sugar all the time solving all the problems with her amazingness. It's about Sugar trying to be a conduit about what players want or responding to how things are going to impact them. In that being a low sec denizen gives me an insight into how life in this space, and the choice one makes living in this space, feels. It's about being a reminder that low sec in all its aspects is there, full of people and things.

      Being an expert would be wonderful but I'm not. Nor will I try to BS the FW player base. I can only do the work side of this task. Go out, find the information, gather it, ask, listen, and educate myself. These are things that I've decided to fill my plate with to run for this office.

      FW is one of those areas that I am going to put time into. It too is low sec and it is an area I am weak in. The latter, I will correct. I don't doubt my ability to learn.

      It's what I can offer, Ms Black :)

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    2. wow, thanks for writing all of that. =) I will be honest, as you are honest.

      I really want to get behind a CSM candidate this year, preferably a low-sec candidate. I didn't vote at all last year, mainly because I felt a certain amount of 'meh' about it all, and am hoping this year will be different.

      My biggest point of wariness when it comes to any potential low-sec candidate, is that they will dismiss FW out of hand as simply a broken 'plex farming' mechanic, or that they will say 'FW, ewww' and move on...lol. I'm glad to see you are not in either of these categories.

      To be even further honest, I think that someone 'on the outside looking in' may be a very good thing. Some of us have been in our 'box' a little too long. =D

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    3. It has never occurred to me to dismiss FW. I am more embarrassed that I'd have to admit my lack of familiarity with it. On my non-FW side of it, FW defines many things that affect non-FW low sec such as income, terrain (non fw-low lost static complexes), and options for new players. It also spreads into HS in ways that piracy does not with the ongoing war dec making HS space a different game for a FW member.

      That means learning. Several of my boys have a lot of time in FW space and several of my friends (HI Mr. Manchester) do as well. I'll be leaning on people and draining their knowledge as I learn.

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  5. Look forward to seeing your run! I was sad we didn't have better low-sec representation on CSM8 so it will definitely be needed on 9!

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  6. You have mine as well Sugar.

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  7. +11

    Advice (so you can say "no thanks"): the Molden Heath price graphs could be good poster material. They show how the insane, racketeering prices dropped when you entered. It shows that you want win-win solutions with your partners and not just exploiting them.

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    1. Next month is TCS' 1 year birthday. I'm going to take some graphs of modules and such and I'll be doing a big write upish thing about it. Then I can just include that as an information link for people who want to see what my part of the market is.

      I'm careful not to call myself a trader because I am not.

      Maybe one of my boys can design it into a poster. I've poked my community and asked them to be creative for me. Otherwise everything would be blue and covered in Jaguars.

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    2. Apropos... I had to chuckle when you listed newbies, corp interface, Jaguars. :-)

      I think I have to try them out one day just because of your recurring scheme. ;)

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  8. I'll vote for you for much the same reason as Jester and Mynxee, not my play style but a thoughtful blog and independent. Tho' I'll run screaming from hisec candidates wanting to make hisec more boring ?! If I want safe, there are other games.

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  9. I enjoy your blog, your honesty, and find myself agreeing with most of what you write (and respecting what I don't agree with). As a carebear who came to your blog to learn about those nasty pirates who keep attacking me, I didn't expect to develop a respect for those denizens of low sec who would like nothing more than to see my ships explode. That's where I find myself now, and your blog is mostly to blame for it. I'd be glad to vote for you in CSM (and this will be my first CSM so I'm just a bit excited... it reminds me of voting in my first local election after I turned 18 many years ago). If you do some work towards industry (that UI!) and keep the honesty up in your blog, you are definitely my candidate. :)

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  10. Sugar for CSM

    - Aliaksandre

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