Stump and Debate

Your candidates:
----- Corpse
----- Torrino


The rules of this thread are as followed:


1) ONLY CANDIDATES MAY POST IN THIS THREAD! Any posts made by someone other than a candidate will be deleted. If a poster continues to disobey the rules and post in the thread, they will be banned for a week.

2) This thread will likely remain open throughout the process. As more candidates are eliminated, the first few informational posts will be updated to reflect who remains.

3) By nominating yourself, you have accepted all the rules declared in this thread, as well as any additional rules created during the process.

4) The right is reserved to change the rules at any time by the owners. This is the first time this has been done, it will be a learning process for all of us.



Some notes on the process in this thread:

-- Each candidate should first make a post about the principles of their candidacy and a broad overview of what members can expect when they take office. This post can be updated or amended as the process moves forward, we are all learning here and there is nothing wrong with change for the better. In the event you do change your post, please alert me via PM so I can update the informational posts.

-- Users are encouraged to submit questions for the candidates to ME via PM. I will select questions and each candidate should try an answer them in a timely manner.

-- The first few posts in this thread will contain all meaningful info each candidate submits so that a user attempting to make their decision can easily gather the facts.

-- Debate among candidates is allowed, but when submitting a formal answer to a question, please be sure to declare at the top of your post:

First question to the candidates:

Freedom of expression has never been a problem at WoKJ. It has always been pretty liberal with allowing folks to express their feelings without censorship, but my concern is that this freedom has been abused many times. I see too many personal insults thrown around, too many posters being rude to new folks joining the forum and have yet to hear any solutions from candidates.

If elected, what would your stance be on freedom of expression and where/how do you draw the line?


Corpse:
I have voiced my opinion about this issue many times in the past. Everyone is always quick to attack a new member . Not sure why because I LOVE when new member join. Totally helps keep the forum fresh. I'd rather read post 1 of a new poster than post 20,000 of someone four years ago.

What could help with this is perhaps if we could gain new members more often than we do. My solution to expand the scope of the forum, while maintaining focus to the sites origin. Member growth is most important in dealing with this issue.

torrino
Posters are expected to gauge situations and use judgment before posting. We want posters to be able to joke around, but we have no tolerance for blatant harassment.

Posters who repeatedly attack others will be confronted privately. Should harassment continue after PM exchanges, moderators will debate issuing formal warnings. Posters may also raise claims of harassment in "The Site,” which will be dealt with similarly.

Finally, in regard to new users: we will create an "Introduce Yourself" thread (to be stickied) and send out automatic "Welcome to WoKJ" PMs.


Second question to the candidates:

Many of you are in school, others working. When life gets more demanding, and at times when you would typically just post less, you will now be required to continue checking the forum. What plans do you have to deal with this issue?

Corpse:
This won't really become an issue for me. I visit daily, and even if something came up where I wouldn't be able to visit frequently, it wouldn't be necessary if a solid team was selected and admin duties were being delt with as they came in, which I'd plan to do from day one. The forum shouldn't have to rely on an admin all the time, if an admin has to step in too often, something is clearly wrong with the setup. The power of the forum certainly doesn't belong to the admin.

torrino
I don't anticipate moments where I will not be able to check WoKJ. In any case, I will make sure to alert the moderating staff of my schedule and will also provide my cell-phone number to moderators.

As mentioned before, I will be producing a bi-weekly report summarizing current problems and longer-term initiatives. I will consider rotating this responsibility among various mods to accommodate our different schedules. I hope that this summary will provide those who are unable to check WoKJ daily with enough context to help make decisions.

Finally, I will trust Zingaling to communicate to Nebs any administrative-specific functions that need be assumed when I am gone. However, as said before, administrative action will not be taken without collective agreement.


Third question to the candidates:

As admin, you will not like every poster on the board. In fact, you may carry in previous likes and dislikes regarding various posters, except now you will have the responsibility to moderate these users. How do you plan to fairly handle any issue arising from users you dislike?

Corpse:
I gave up caring about relationships on a forum many, many months ago. And it should never be involved in admin/mod decison making, ever. I wouldn't be in the middle of this election process right now if I wasn't sure of myself. And it's a bad impression of the forum when new members see this as an issue. I promise I will moderate every poster the exact same way, and all moderators will have to abide by this common sense rule. Any biasness taking place will not be tolerated, and moderators will be given one chance to change their attitude towards the situation. It is EXTREMELY important this issue is avoided. It will happen though, it's not preventable, but I promise the correct steps and action will take place when it does. And members should always feel free to question any actions taken when action is needed for this issue.

torrino
As I've mentioned in my posts, I am going to promote democractic problem-solving mechanisms, which, I hope, will diminish the effect of any bias I have. Although I will have access to administrative powers, I will not use those powers until reaching a clear consensus with my moderators, two or three I will choose myself, and another two or three will be chosen by KJ itself.

Nonetheless, I do not think people should be concerned about my bias. As Argos wrote, there is a difference between reason and will. I will not try to make life difficult for a single poster unless he or she is making things difficult for my entire community. In which case, should I and the mods agree to initiate action against a poster, a full explanation of the reasoning will be posted in "The Site." Finally, I have clearly stated that I am willing to sacrifice my position should I be an unfair administrator. "The Site" will not be tampered with and posters will always be able to raise claims there alleging unfairness. These claims, as I wrote in my initial platform post, will be addressed within 72 hours.

Team T&Z wants to promote democracy, efficiency, and transparency. They do not intend to obstruct the natural flow of conversation on KJ, but will bring to the table problem-solving procedures that are fast, flexible, and fair.

In true MikeQ. fashion:

1) Democracy
- torrino and Zingaling will elect two moderators and also allow WoKJ users to elect two moderators in an election.
- Should administrative action be required, moderators will discuss issues within a timeframe and vote on outcomes (granted that a solution has not been reached from discussion alone). torrino's vote will not be afforded any extra weight.
- KJ users who are dissatisfied with a moderator's performance may raise claims in "The Site." These claims will be evaluated by moderators publicly, and a warning may be issued. There will be no warning immunity for moderators. These same conditions apply to the administrator. Torrino, should he receive three warnings, will relinquish his administrator title.
- Moderators will give users the benefit of the doubt in terms of thread creation and posting. To a degree, random, trivial chatter fuels the forum.

2) Efficiency
- Moderators will be responsible for maintaining all forum sections. However, moderators may choose to designate themselves as the "go-to-guy" of a particular forum, in which case they would handle the majority of user requests in the specified forum.
- Moderators are assumed to be capable of handling day-to-day moving/merging/locking/editing/stickying/etc. In cases where a post is edited, a moderator will have to sign his or her user name in the text of the edited post, along with an explanation of why the post was edited.
- Both the warning procedure system and the post-report function will be revised so that they are functional and clear to users. Any warnings that are issued will be accompanied by an explanation. A post reported through the function will be addressed within 24 hours.
- When an issue is raised in "The Site," moderators will discuss the issue either in "The Site" or in their own forum, vote on a solution, and post an official response within 24 hours (when the issue is unrelated to a forum user's behavior) or 72 hours (when the issue involves a forum user's behavior).

3) Transparency
- When issues are raised in "The Site," threads will not be closed -- under any circumstance -- unless the thread in question is created for the sole purpose of bad-mouthing a user.
- All administrative actions will be explained in "The Site" with both a majority argument and dissent argument.
- torrino and Zingaling will manage a thread where members can evaluate moderator performance.
- Moderators will publish a bi-weekly report discussing current problems and longer-term initiatives.

4) Fun
- torrino and Zingaling will host an IRC chat room.
- torrino and Zingaling will host occasional radio station programming, including extensive, chronological "History of Rock" and "History of Rap" series.
- torrino and Zingaling will offer to facilitate and oversee the award ceremonies (if no one wants to do it).
- torrino and Zingaling will resurrect the "KJ Gold" forum, where a single user can have sole thread-creation rights, exclusively, for a few days. The forum will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
- torrino and Zingaling will create a modern edition of the legendary International Film Festival.
- User groups will certainly be allowed. Private forums, additionally, will be negotiable.

First question to the candidates:

Freedom of expression has never been a problem at WoKJ. It has always been pretty liberal with allowing folks to express their feelings without censorship, but my concern is that this freedom has been abused many times. I see too many personal insults thrown around, too many posters being rude to new folks joining the forum and have yet to hear any solutions from candidates.

If elected, what would your stance be on freedom of expression and where/how do you draw the line?

My platform:


---Moderators

First, I am not going to name members I have in mind to form a new moderating team. That will influence members who vote whether it was meant to or not. But I can say what I would expect or want from a moderating team.

1. A moderator cannot be hidden. I know this may be unpopular for some, but I feel it's necessary for a moderator to be seen by the members. It looks good to lurkers to see there is always a moderator on, looks good to anyone who has stumbled upon KJ, and is a big help for any member who needs a moderator's assistance with something. It simply looks professional if you will.

2. A moderator must be a regular user. A moderator who only visits a few times a week, or once a day is pointless. They will only add more work for the other moderators in the long term and make the forum look sloppy.

3. A moderator must visit several forums daily. A moderator who only visits one or two forums does not work for a board the size of WOKJ. If one becomes unavailable for any reason, it causes problems that could have been avoided. I'll use the BO Games Forum as an example. Last year that part of the forum was not being updated but maybe once a week because members had to PM one of the moderators about it. The moderators at the time simply didn't visit the forum often enough, and you had threads stickied that were weeks old, while new ones began to drop down the page. Assigning one moderator per forum also doesn't work, even on larger forums, they require several moderators per forum.

4. New names. There really needs to be some new blood on this forum. I'll use MikeQ.'s list of users he has in mind to be moderators as an example. I haven't checked when all of them joined WOKJ, but I'm almost positive all of them joined when the forum was created or shortly after. The same names we've seen for almost 5 years. There wasn't a single fresh name on the list. Not to take anything away from anyone listed, each member listed are great users. But it's really time to balance the old with the new, and there are some new members who I believe would do perfectly in the position along with the original members.


These are four simple requirements anyone interested in being a moderator would need if I were to be elected. I may not even hand pick anyone and leave it up to the board. Thinking of having a "Posters Choice" for at least one or to have the board involved somehow in the process, not just me.



---Decision Making

Any decisions made by the moderators or me will be required to document the case. I believe MikeQ. stated something similar, and it's the right thing to do.

I will post a thread in The Site where the moderators will document for the public to see. They must also state their reason for taking the action they did, and must post an open discussion thread in The Site regarding that individual case to be discussed by the members here.



---New features:

All the details here still need to be worked on, but I can bring to the forum what none of the other candidates can. I know how to work a phpBB board. I understand Nebs will still be on board for all the technical issues, but I will be able to assist him if needed. And possibly add new features to the site if they are able to be done. An example of this would be Rank Images or Fonts, or Holiday Themes. I know how to modify a phpBB forum inside and out. And the users will be the ones deciding what they would like.



These are the basic ideas I had in mind when taking part in this election, and I wouldn't be doing so if I didn't believe I could bring some much needed "NEW" to WOKJ that none of the other candidates have offered or are capable of doing, and the public board will be more imporant than me or the moderating team in all of this.

torrino's response to Question 1:

Posters are expected to gauge situations and use judgment before posting. We want posters to be able to joke around, but we have no tolerance for blatant harassment.

Posters who repeatedly attack others will be confronted privately. Should harassment continue after PM exchanges, moderators will debate issuing formal warnings. Posters may also raise claims of harassment in "The Site,” which will be dealt with similarly.

Finally, in regard to new users: we will create an "Introduce Yourself" thread (to be stickied) and send out automatic "Welcome to WoKJ" PMs.

Corpse's Response to Question 1:

I have voiced my opinion about this issue many times in the past. Everyone is always quick to attack a new member . Not sure why because I LOVE when new member join. Totally helps keep the forum fresh. I'd rather read post 1 of a new poster than post 20,000 of someone four years ago.

What could help with this is perhaps if we could gain new members more often than we do. My solution to expand the scope of the forum, while maintaining focus to the sites origin. Member growth is most important in dealing with this issue.

Second question to the candidates:

Many of you are in school, others working. When life gets more demanding, and at times when you would typically just post less, you will now be required to continue checking the forum. What plans do you have to deal with this issue?

You may use 250 words to answer this question.

Corpse Response to Question 2:

This won't really become an issue for me. I visit daily, and even if something came up where I wouldn't be able to visit frequently, it wouldn't be necessary if a solid team was selected and admin duties were being delt with as they came in, which I'd plan to do from day one. The forum shouldn't have to rely on an admin all the time, if an admin has to step in too often, something is clearly wrong with the setup. The power and function of the forum certainly doesn't belong to the admin, but rather it's regular members.

torrino's Response to Question 2:

I don't anticipate moments where I will not be able to check WoKJ. In any case, I will make sure to alert the moderating staff of my schedule and will also provide my cell-phone number to moderators.

As mentioned before, I will be producing a bi-weekly report summarizing current problems and longer-term initiatives. I will consider rotating this responsibility among various mods to accommodate our different schedules. I hope that this summary will provide those who are unable to check WoKJ daily with enough context to help make decisions.

Finally, I will trust Zingaling to communicate to Nebs any administrative-specific functions that need be assumed when I am gone. However, as said before, administrative action will not be taken without collective agreement.

Third question to candidates:

As admin, you will not like every poster on the board. In fact, you may carry in previous likes and dislikes regarding various posters, except now you will have the responsibility to moderate these users. How do you plan to fairly handle any issue arising from users you dislike?

As I've mentioned in my posts, I am going to promote democractic problem-solving mechanisms, which, I hope, will diminish the effect of any bias I have. Although I will have access to administrative powers, I will not use those powers until reaching a clear consensus with my moderators, two or three I will choose myself, and another two or three will be chosen by KJ itself.

Nonetheless, I do not think people should be concerned about my bias. As Argos wrote, there is a difference between reason and will. I will not try to make life difficult for a single poster unless he or she is making things difficult for my entire community. In which case, should I and the mods agree to initiate action against a poster, a full explanation of the reasoning will be posted in "The Site." Finally, I have clearly stated that I am willing to sacrifice my position should I be an unfair administrator. "The Site" will not be tampered with and posters will always be able to raise claims there alleging unfairness. These claims, as I wrote in my initial platform post, will be addressed within 72 hours.

Corpse' Response to Question 3:

I gave up caring about relationships on a forum many, many months ago. And it should never be involved in admin/mod decison making, ever. I wouldn't be in the middle of this election process right now if I wasn't sure of myself. And it's a bad impression of the forum when new members see this as an issue. I promise I will moderate every poster the exact same way, and all moderators will have to abide by this common sense rule. Any biasness taking place will not be tolerated, and moderators will be given one chance to change their attitude towards the situation. It is EXTREMELY important this issue is avoided. It will happen though, it's not preventable, but I promise the correct steps and action will take place when it does. And members should always feel free to question any actions taken when action is needed for this issue.

See my signature below for the moderator announcement.

Thanks to all who supported my run!

Introducing the Design Department:

The purpose of the Design Department is to create the forum appearance.
Some examples of the job of this Department are: Creating a color scheme for
future layouts. Creating new WOKJ logo's to be used in the future, as well as
IMAGE RANKS. And helping assist all members, especially new users, with
avatars, signatures, and BB codes. All the details are still being worked on,
but these are a few of the basic duties of the Design Department. A few other
possibilities however would be creating themed or monthly changes.

The Team:
arctic (Leader)
-be.redy
-daftme
-Korrgan
-matatonio

The Design Department is just one of a few more departments and teams that I
will announce as the election process progresses.

Introducing LIVE CHAT:

What is Live Chat? Live Chat is simply the ability to communicate with fellow members in real time. Example: http://startrekguide.com/community/chat.php

An instant messenger within the forum itself. Perfect for events such as the NBA Final, American Idol Nights, Oscar Night, and more. No more need to connect to an outside client.


Also Introducting the Staff and Positions:

(3) Assistant Moderators: Haku888, harry713, John Savage - The duties of an assistant moderator involves basic forum needs. Such as locking a thread or sticking a thread. Assistant Moderators however do not have the power to warn members or edit posts/signatures unless the post/signature is in clear violation of the rules.

(2) Moderators: MG Casey, MadGez - The duties of a Moderator involves those of an assistants, with the additioon of being able to edit posts/signatures and warning members.

(1) Super Moderator: xiayun - The new abilities of the Super Moderator includes the power to change ranking and name requests, as well as being capable of banning members, such as spam bots.

Introducing the Marketing Department:

The purpose of the Marketing Department is simple enough. Get out there and market WOKJ.
I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to run this until tonight. And the first job the Marketing Department will be doing is testing Digg.com. Digg is a site for bloggers to post articles on various subjects to gain traffic, more or less. It''s a very popular site many of you have heard of before I'm sure. The most popular articles receiving 500+ diggs, usually sites such as Yahoo, Variety, etc. But with Kj's base, 50+ is a sure thing, which is a great start since that wouldn't include random people on Digg.

A few ideas Flava'd and I came up with earlier was doing articles as soon as the early box office numbers were released. DHD isn't that popular on Digg, but Box Office articles gain pretty good attention based on some quick searches. Having an article up minutes after numbers are released will likely gain a nice amount of hits. Another idea was testing the water with the Transformers 2 early numbers.

Box Office articles would NOT be the only subject the team covers either, and non-members will even be able to submit their own articles for them to post on Digg.

This will be the first job of the Marketing Department, who's members are still being decided.


The Team:
-Flava'd
-???
-???


Two spots remain open, for now. Anyone interested in helping and wanting to be a member of the Marketing Department needs to PM me asap Anyone who enjoys writing will be of great help.

lol, except the front page isn't yours. So there's no point having a marketing team with the sole purpose of spamming Digg.com.
If Eagle is interested in revitalizing the front-page, I'd work with him, but I've talked with him about this in the past and it seems like nothing will happen until loyal gets back, if that.

Plus, you don't have writers.

Torrino is right. I'd be open to working with either of you when the time comes, but this election should focus mostly on what changes you would make to the forum and how you would run the forum.

I didn't mention the front page at all, and have no plans for it yet, but still plan to move forward with the Department with their first test taking place on June 25/26.. I don't know exactly what will be allowed as far as the front page goes yet, so no plans for it have been worked on. But it's a good idea to think ahead when that time comes and to let everyone know some details behind it early on.

There are many unexplored ideas to try to make the site grow, and the marketing department will help with this.

You're being vague. If you can't edit the front page, what do you plan to do to build the member base? Spam other forums for new members? That's wrong.

Regardless, I think your first priority should be serving your community here, then worrying about new members. This all sounds over-the-top and in practice won't mean much.

No, who mentioned using other forums? No one, except you. That isn't how you market a forum.

The community here as a whole is just fine, and has been for many years. Very little needs to be done to the forum in it's current state. Lay down the rules, assign the staff their duties, and let the forum run itself. It isn't the job of the admin to do anything else unless a special circumstance comes up.

What the forum does lack though is continued interest for the non-regular/new users. And I will keep introducing them, and getting them involved more and more. The forum hasn't expanded any from when it first began, instead it has become smaller. There isn't anything here that cannot be found elsewhere for the non-regulars here. New ideas is the most critical issue for the forum at the moment. And that is not going to happen by introducing a tweaked format of the original. Gotta do some trial and error, see what works, what fails, and reach out beyond the forum.

Yeah, I'll message a member who voted for you if I think they could work well with one of my ideas. Why would I exclude them? PMin endlessly is silly though. You could count how many people I've Pmed about this on one hand if you don't include the mod position pms sent to my team.

You still went along with adding Argos to your team. Had it not gone through you, nobody would have known, but you liked the idea. Why exactly, and what can Argos do for the forum?

I've said before I'll be doing new methods, untested methods, it's impossible to know how they will work out. Some will, some won't. And we'll use the research and testing to create and modify new methods.

I did not fully explain how I would want my team to make decisions together at the time because I was still creating the teams. You can't decide how a group will function when it's not even created yet. I did however explain how an individual moderator would handle their own duties.

Also, if my ideas are bad and everything, why would you even ask me more than once to drop my campaign, and early on offer me a mod position?

Actually, if you look at the first thread Eagle created, I had told Argos I would be interested in having him on my cabinet. This was when he was still running.

Argos is a committed, respected member of the forum. Also, we both believe that moderators should be here for the community, as guardians, rather than be here to "control" the community, as Nazis. Also, if you look at Q3 in this very thread, you'll see an "As Argos wrote"...which should imply, I think, respect for Argos' ideas. So, there is a precedent to the Argos choice, kthx.

Corpse, how about this: tell me concretely what your "brilliant ideas" are, allocating no more than 20 words and a sentence to each idea. Because I still don't see an answer to Q1, even after the question was repeated!

Basically, Corpse, you can't apply this "my ideas are better than torrino's ideas" argument if you admit to not having ideas, but rather methods, ones that you yourself admit are vague and untested and hazy.