Arbiter Candidates 2009 - Why Me?

[Anubis]

Yes, this is becoming a part of the process - at least until I am gone

With five candidates up for the Arbiter election this year, before we get to the actual voting they have a chance to present their case to you regarding why they should (and should not) get the role. This is a chance for those of you who may not know them all that well to get to know a little about them, and get a glance at their personal stance towards being on the ballot.

The actual vote will follow in a few days time, when all the candidates have had a chance to post here.

[Anubis]

So, why should I and should I not be your Arbiter for 2009/10. I've written an answer to this question twice before now, and when I look back on my old posts I can see that little has changed in terms of why you should vote for me, but much has changed (from my perspective) in terms of the why not.

To begin then with that has not changed.

Activity is and likely always will be my big selling point for this role. I am online and in IRC for the vast majority of every day, and my contact information is freely provided across the site as both Member and Administrator. In short, if you need me I'm likely to be here - and even if I'm not an e-mail or PM will likely attract my notice within a few hours when I get up and turn on the PC. Activity in the various mediums through which we communicate and gather as a community is something that I consider very important to the role of Arbiter, and I would like to think that I am here enough to do the role justice in that respect.

My second main asset as a potential Arbiter is that I have now been in the role for two years - been there, done it, got the T-shirt as it were. It's arguable that this experience would set me in good stead to continue. I am somewhat settled in the role, and have established my way of doing things. Re-electing me would mean little upheaval (though being fair, it's not likely we'll see much if any regardless), and the knowledge that I'd continue to do the job as I have the past two years.


However, the question of what has changed, and as such why you should not elect me, is altogether more substantive this year.

Firstly, and I want to stress the importance of this, I am your Website Administrator. It is my belief that the roles of Arbiter and Administrator should be kept seperate. I have already written about this once, and fully expressed my feelings on the matter in that post. Thus, I think quoting that post will serve my purpose completely in explaining this issue:

However, this brings me to another point that I was planning to make later but will raise now instead. Namely that I do not think that I would be a good choice for re-election this year due to my role as Site Administrator. A few people already know my feelings on this matter, but many do not. It has been glaringly obvious to me for some time that the role of Arbiter and Administrator should not be combined, simply because of my track record after two years in both roles simultaneously.

Much of what I have done and do with the role of Arbiter is use it to push an Administrative agenda - phpBB3, website redesigning, etc. Having realised this for some time now (since the switch of BB3 in fact) I have, whenever possible, tried to seperate the two roles internally - but it has proved difficult for me. Whilst I strongly believe the Arbiter should not be attempting to push Administrative changes, I am equally strong in my belief that it is a core part of the role of the Administrator - and that leaves me in a quandry sometimes when I move to do or say things.

I honestly don't think it's a good situation for us to be in, and that's why I'm raising the point to those who were unaware of my feelings on the matter. I thought about withdrawing from nominations, or making a rule that bars the roles from being combined, but equally I did not feel that would be fair to anyone. It is neither the role of the Arbiter or the Administrator to restrict the nomination process because he believes a particular thing, especially when others do not agree (and I know some do not).

As such, I will be content with stating my feelings and letting you all decide as to whether I am right or wrong. Nominate me if you will, and I will not complain - I just wanted everyone to be aware of my concern on the matter.

Secondly, and arguably equally importantly, I am not the individual to drive us forward. Currently my only active group with the SSX is Xbox Live (though I am and always will be an active member of the wider community), and if I am honest I don't see that changing in the near future - not until either TOR or STO hit in fact. I believe that the next Arbiter needs to not only be reactive as I have been, but also be proactive in terms of promoting the SSX as a whole - do some cheerleading as Ed put it in the other thread. Being honest with myself, I know I am not that individual at this moment in time when I am not really actively playing anything I could really promote us in. We need an Arbiter who can push us forwards, rather than one that just makes sure we don't fall off the path as we trudge along. I urge everyone to think about that when voting this year.


At the end of the day, do I think I am right for the role this year? No, I think my reasons listed above show that quite clearly. We have four other excellent candidates on the ballot again, and I know any one of them would do a good job in their own way. If you elect me I will give the role my all and try to do the best I can as I have done these past two years, and I am beyond honoured that people have put me on the ballot once again, but I think it's now time for a change. Read the other responses in this thread when they come, read up on each of your candidates if you don't already know them, then make an informed decision. If you do that, then we cannot go wrong - no matter who it is that we choose to be our Arbiter for this next year.

[Inquisitor]

I prefer the "Why not me" since this should not be about politicking

I should be disqualified from future elections, a vote for me would be a vote for the past. Many folks have noted that this place has stagnated a bit, and a fresh take on things is what we need, not some return to former, often turbulent, times.

My son and my career have consumed all but a few hours a week of single player gaming, and I am simply not interested in MMO's today. I have to decline very kind offers from all my friends when I do manage to log in to the old Xbox, since I only have a short amount of time and need to be able to pause regularly. Call of Duty doesn't lend itself to that

I wouldn't vote for me. I think either Strac or MS would make excellent choices this time around. Anny has done a fine job keeping things operational here, but it might indeed be time for someone else to give it a shot.

[M.Steiner]

Well, i was rather surprised to see my name had been added to the ballot again this year. Whilst it's always nice to be nominated, my post last week covering my thoughts was my way of withdrawing myself from this in advance, so i wasn't expecting to see my name there this time. I will still make this post though, it's a long one but hopefully it'll explan my thoughts a bit better on why i was declining.

For quite a while now our activity levels have continued to drop unfortunately. I've said it a few times now but i look in our archives and we have so many dead/inactive groups compared to our active ones that it's really quite sad for us. To be honest, whilst we may have had a few new groups over the last couple of years, things haven't really been the same since the WoW:EU days in my eyes. In some ways i wish we could go back in time and try put things right there with the lessons we learnt, i long for that group feeling again that we had in the good days of the guild and besides Neocron, those days were my happiest playing along side some of those guys.

I believe the success of our WoW group in the beginning was due to a few factors. The group was originally founded by a group of us who were all longtime members, most of us were very very active ingame so when new folk joined us, there were almost always more of us online for them to come out questing & what not with us and we pulled together. At least a few of us had already had experience with recruiting or helping to lead a group from other groups we'd been a part of and we pushed the importance of the forums (our other forum sections like general as well as the one we had for our group), arbiter polls & things like that as best we could. Forgetting how things may have unfortunately turned out, overall it was a very solid start to a group and a very successful one at that. The next time we start a new MMO group i think we need to learn from that. Take our failed Tabula Rasa group for instance, there was no point in me trying to get that group off the ground ingame because we didn't have that solid, active group of existing members playing once retail arrived, it's not a one person job, it requires teamwork. Not all of our other groups have had this either, maybe that's part of the problem? I don't know, it's just an observation. But any people recruited in TR for instance will have just ended up playing on their own most of the time unless they specifically wanted to help build a guild, which wouldn't necessarily be the type of guild the SSX should be.

We need new blood to stay strong. A new group with that solid foundation of active people ingame that i talk of above, working together, pushing the forums & intergrading that group into our community. Something new & exciting. And that end is just as important, there's no good a group being active ingame but not on the forums. An inactive forum certainly doesn't turn people on if you ask them to drop by. It's easier said than done of course and it doesn't help that there hasn't been many new, decent MMO's for a while to get something like that off the ground. But, our activity is only going to continue to slowly decline on the forums otherwise i think. There's not really much for people to talk about atm because we're not really doing much as a group. There's less & less threads & posts on the forums recently, which will probably lead to some people logging on to check them less than they used to, which all go hand in hand for them becoming less active as time goes by. The "core" of us may always be here but unless we try do something about it others may continue to drift off like they have done..

Whilst i believe all the above, i strongly believe that if we elect a new Arbiter this time around they should feel similar, but, and it's a big but, i think they should also be in a position to be actively involved with that ingame as much as they can during their term as Arbiter. I really do think for something like that, being in the position that we're in, the Arbiter needs to be involved with pushing this ingame and not just backing the idea for others on the forums. To be seen to be doing something ingame as well as out and helping to drive us forward. I've always tried to help out as much as i can in games in the past but i'm not in a position to do that this time around. There are a couple of MMO's i'm interested in trying when they come along (STO/TOR, maybe BP), but only providing there are others who are still interested in them when the time comes and with the sole intention of us building a group together and bringing some new life to this place whilst we're there. That won't be for another year or so though most likely as i won't have a pc capable of any gaming until then, plus they won't be released for a long time anyway. For that reason i posted to withdraw myself from being on the ballot this year as i know i wouldn't be happy feeling that something like this should be done soon but not being able to do anything about it myself and being all talk & ideas like this but no action. I would rather someone else took the reins. Maybe next time around when hopefully i have that computer, there are some cool MMO's out that myself & others are interested in i will be happier about the idea of taking the position. As that's another thing, i do think it should be someone who is happy with the idea of becoming Arbiter and i know i wouldn't be cos of the way i feel atm, which isn't really good for me, or anyone else.

[enlightened]

Oh dear MS that was a very saddening post! I too have made the observation that there really isn't much going on in terms of gaming.
I agree that the 'group' aspect in gaming is definitely dwindling to some degree but like you stated that's basically because of old games becoming less appealing and the lack of any interesting MMOs coming out in the near future really.

I myself haven't really been playing anything for a while (grr University) and I was planning to play LOTRO in the summer holidays but sadly fractured my ankle so couldn't do much except lay around haha. The SSX WoW-EU days sure were a lot of fun but things have slowed down.

However, the beauty here is that we have this wonderful community, a sanctuary even, where we can always drop by and talk about things (even if the forums might seem empty) or find a fellow member who would be interested in teaming up in a game. After all, Stars always shine!

-On a side note, I'll try and get into IRC (something I was supposed to do back in '06 haha). Still a bit of a ghost around here so I need to make an appearance of sorts

[Stracius]

Well, rather than making a post about why *I* think I'd be good or bad for this responsibility, I'll just let you know how I operate and view the role of the arbiter and let you decide if it's something you agree with.

I have a very laissez faire approach at group leadership, a hands off approach - laid back, if you will. I prefer to have groups with members that I can trust enough to do their own thing, and do it well (which we've pretty much always had here). I believe the arbiter is on hand to be available for disputes when needed, but I also believe he or she has little use otherwise. I don't personally view the role as a leadership position, though I don't object to someone with more charisma and desire to try and be the cheerleader as has been mentioned. My personality doesn't reflect a cheerleader type - I'm slow, methodical, and try to be encouraging. Yes, things have appeared slow of late, but I think we all are capable of dealing with it - we always have had our ups and downs in activity.

As for presence, I should be able to manage idling (joke ) on our IRC channel - haven't launched mIRC in a while, I have to admit. I do keep up with the boards on a fairly frequent basis, however. I haven't wanted to admit it, but I canceled my subscription to LotRO a few months back (can afford only 1 MMO at the moment and I'm finding more enjoyment out of EVE Online atm). It's currently without official leader and I suspect with only two or three active members - none of whom frequent the boards. I'm not active with any other games at the moment, other than single players. I'm kind of surprised that we haven't had any groups spring up around any console games, and am curious as to whether it means there's no interest in it, or if the games have been really lack-luster lately (disclaimer, I have neither an xBox or PS3).

I'll wrap it up with that as an attempt to keep it short. Probably start a riot if I followed MS's post with another huge one

[SSX-Killjoy]

I fall into the same category as the old guard. I have been around for so long and I am old enough to be set in my ways. I also rarely play any of the new games. I tend to stick with just Eve and some occasional console games.

I am so unaware of the forums that I didn't even know that WoW had a flap.

So basically I would be a bad arbiter. Sorry. Thanks for the nomination though.

[Anubis]

As for presence, I should be able to manage idling (joke ) on our IRC channel - haven't launched mIRC in a while, I have to admit.

For the record on this, it isn't a requirement for the role to be active on IRC - that's up to the individual Arbiter at the time. I mentioned it in my post because it's something that I personally feel is important for the Arbiter to be, not to make a point that others fail in that regard and thus are undeserving of the role heh.

That is not to say you would not be welcome should you start idling if elected, you would most certainly be so (as would any member, hint hint). Just thought I'd make it clear the decision would be your own on the matter - and on that same note it'd be great to see you pop your head in at some point too enlightened

Anyway, thanks to all the nominees for responding to this - though I am somewhat sad that the responses are mostly erring on the negative side of the "Why Me" question than the positive (including myself in that regard).

I will put up the actual vote shortly, so I am closing this now.

[BlackDove]

I don't know about any of you, but I am so psyched up and pumped up by the enthusiasm of my potential leaders and role models.