LJ advisory board elections

[helenic]

I've just cast my vote - if you haven't yet, please do so today. The voting ends at 9:00 p.m. PDT Thursday, May 29, 2008, although I'm not entirely certain when that is BST. 5am on Friday morning, I think.



deathboy got my first vote, because I know him and he's a good bloke with a sense of humour and liberal politics. Basically I think my LJ usage is pretty well represented by him and I trust him to not fuck it up. His campaign manifesto is here.

sollitaire got my second vote, even though I don't know her at all, because I liked her answers to the election questions and she seems to represent my interests. Plus she's the only candidate I've come across who self-defines as feminist, although I admit I haven't looked through all of them - my process here as been to read the manifestos that are recommended to me or which I otherwise happen across, on the basis that if I haven't heard of someone, they probably aren't interesting enough or close enough to my corner of LJ to merit my attention. With LJ stuff, you tend to hear about the stuff that's worth hearing about. I don't have time to research all the candidates from scratch, so instead I'm trusting in the power of meme theory.

legomymalfoy got my third vote, because she has the personal recommendation of a few people I trust. I don't think being involved in fandom is a crippling bias, and in any case it looks like she's more practical than partisan. Her campaign manifesto is here.

I don't actually know how much power the user representative will have, but since jameth started winning by virtue of being a troll and cambler started winning by spamming LJ with objectifying pictures of women, I've started caring about someone decent getting in for the right reasons. (Yes, he's a professional photographer and the models signed releases. I still find him slapping photos of half-clad women everywhere on LJ to garner votes for himself exploitative. "All electrions are popularity contests! At least I'm upfront about this being a beauty pageant!" he squeaks. Er, mate, sorry to break this to you, but it's not your beauty you're capitalising on. Or perhaps I'm just biased because his photography is such tedious lads-mag shite.)

I'm not sure I could say for certain which of the three candidates above would actually be best at the job, without knowing more than one of them well. But they all seem to have their heads in the right place, by contrast with certain of the other candidates. LJ has lots of decent people in it. It would be a bit rubbish if we elected a troll or a misogynist out of apathy.

Comments

[atreic.livejournal.com]

I found pw201's post (http://pw201.livejournal.com/91849.html) on the election interesting. Some days I wonder if we're all watching the same election...

[libellum.livejournal.com]

The death threat thing is certainly sobering. I'd seen posts from cambler to the effect that he'd given up, but since he was still in the poll I didn't realise he'd officially dropped out. I could edit my entry, but I'd wanted to register my displeasure at his campaign strategy anyway, so I think I'll leave it.

I don't know what to think about jameth, but even though he's demonstrated an admirable ability to not be a complete twonk when it matters, nothing I've seen of his manner inclines me to trust him.

[atreic.livejournal.com]

I found the idea that legomymalfoy is screening things, deleting comments etc when asked about things that don't show them in a great light very worrying, and in my opinion one of the worse sorts of LJ behaviour. But I haven't looked into this much, and it could just be smeering from the other side.

[ev1ldonut.livejournal.com]

She has been doing that. From what I've seen it's mainly questions about the fact that she's a member of the LJ abuse team. People tend to think that being on the abuse team is a conflict of interests and she's not answering questions as to why she has said she won't stand down from the team if she's elected. Not sure what my opinion is on that matter, though I'd still be interested to see an actual answer.

I've only been watching from the periphery though so I don't know the full details of any of it.

[artela.livejournal.com]

Isn't deathboy also on the abuse team?

[ev1ldonut.livejournal.com]

Possibly, I don't know.

[kotenok.livejournal.com]

nope - http://community.livejournal.com/lj_abuse/profile

[devalmont.livejournal.com]

He is abusive on LJ, I think you're getting mixed up with that. ;-)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I don't think being on the abuse team is a conflict of interests at all. The only potential issue I can see is having too many commitments, and how people manage their time is entirely their own responsibility :) I actually think being on the abuse team could be an advantage - certainly having been on it would be.

[ev1ldonut.livejournal.com]

Oh I didn't say *I* think it's a conflict of interests. I'm not sure what I think of it (it could be, but may not necessarily be). I definitely agree that having been on it would be an advantage!

I was just more interested in the fact that she's been actively avoiding answering and in fact hiding/deleting things. None of the others (for better or worse) has done that. At least not to my knowledge anyway...

[ev1ldonut.livejournal.com]

cambler has dropped out it seems, and there have been "credible threats" made against candidates and "law enforcement are involved" according to LJ. cambler and jameth's journals make for interesting reading...

[thene]

Electing jameth sounds like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse. Because I have a mischievous brain, I think that is so stupid it might work, but I won't be voting for him - too insincere. However, I'd be surprised if he didn't get in, on name recognition alone. And god, the YES WE CAN HAZ thing is funny.

It's interesting you see fandom as a potential 'bias' - coming from a fandom angle, I am used to seeing it as the vanguard of all other bullshit. If someone's getting itchy over things people are writing on LJ, fandom will get hit first and hardest. I'll only be voting for people who know fandom and know what it's worth.

[emarkienna.livejournal.com]

My 1st vote was for deathboy too.

Yeah, there was something that creeped me out about cambler's advertising strategy. I've nothing against what he does in his own LJ, but I'd rather see an image of the candidate, rather than hiding behind erotic images of women whom we don't even know if they are supporters of his campaign or not. (It's also an odd strategy, given that 2/3s of users are female, and even on LJ, I don't think they're all bi or lesbian.)

I was tempted to vote for jameth as his platform did seem reasonable to me but I then wasn't impressed at the accusations of sockpuppet voting made against legomymalfoy, with no evidence.

I was tempted to vote for legomymalfoy thinking that I should at least tactically use a 3rd vote on one of the two leading candidates, but I'm a bit wary of the LJ abuse team issue.

I wish normal elections were this fun...