An Appeal to RON

Is there any civic culture left in The North Pacific? Have we really returned to something like the dark days of the early 2010s? Has apathy come to spread around us and render our votes mere shrugs and smiling nods? The lack of engagement with the candidates might make some sense, considering there really aren’t any. But surely we can still demonstrate some standards with the ones we have.

TNP cannot claim to be a robust democracy when we don’t exercise curiosity or judgment over the officials who seek our support. This election is hardly alone in this regard but it’s clear this is a pattern and not an abberation. The body politic is unhealthy. It may be that I am yelling at clouds and nothing will be changed as a result of this limp shaking of a fist. But I will employ the only move available to me and advocate that we reopen nominations and give this another try. Perhaps some sit on the fence and choose not to proceed because they fear they will lose. Honestly, those people are probably right - but so what? There is value in a contest, even one with a likely conclusion. Plenty of careers have been started off of failed bids for office. The competition is healthy and lens itself to debate. It offers practice and experience to players who may not be ready yet, but may be ready in the future.

Sooner rather than later all the old people who have been here forever will be gone and the rest of you will remain. You can waste your entire time here waiting to be ready and never get there, or you can take some risks and put in some effort and get on your way to the next step.

Reopen nominations, and let’s see who is willing to step up and begin that journey. Who will grind and possibly be ground up to refresh the blood of our region’s civic culture? If the answer is no one, at least we will know and can say that we tried to demand more of this essential process, that we made an effort to take it as seriously as we could. No one will doubt that we chose this outcome. But I’d rather not be asking what if.

I like this post! While I have confidence in the candidates I selected, the absence of a competitive election demands that we vote "RON"

It's amusing that the person who has always told off new comers for "not being experienced enough" to run for office would now beg us to give new faces a shot.

Blue Wolf II:

It's amusing that the person who has always told off new comers for "not being experienced enough" to run for office would now beg us to give new faces a shot.

Click to expand...

I would think that it goes without saying that not all newcomers approach possible runs for office in the same way, and that makes a huge difference. We have seen newcomers run competent and robust campaigns. Some people take time to research and study the office and lay out a reasonable pitch. Their inexperience will always be a factor but as I said in this thread, losing well can be a great boon.

There is no inherent contradiction with my message today and any discouragement of inexperienced candidates I allegedly did in the past. Every situation has its own context that matters.

My goal is to prompt the region to engage more seriously with its elections and civic culture, I am not here to get into another mud fight with you over personal grudges.

We can’t be too surprised in the final dish, when the recipe was our own design.

Well it's very constructive and encouraging to cast aspersions and point fingers instead of saying anything useful, but hey, I guess the old TNPers have to bring back the classics.

You are an old TNPer.

I think we have a solid line up of candidates, and I’m not convinced by the uncontested election means RON argument.

I do agree that it sometimes feels like people aren’t treating our politics as seriously anymore, and I think that does need to change. Perhaps an RA topic is a more appropriate place for that rather than a RON campaign.

I think we need to take some time to really think about why people are not running for election. Yes, there is a bit of "you don't know what the job actually is" that gets sorted out during campaigning. That's fine. But for those who do know the job, we need to understand why those people aren't going for it. Is the job too difficult? Is the job too time consuming? Is the threat of being hit with sanctions and bans for mistakes too high? Did the election flip-flop actually make things worse?

These are all things we need to understand. Perhaps instead of a survey to see how individuals are performing in each job, we should do a survey for why people aren't going for those very same jobs.

Sil Dorsett:

I think we need to take some time to really think about why people are not running for election. Yes, there is a bit of "you don't know what the job actually is" that gets sorted out during campaigning. That's fine. But for those who do know the job, we need to understand why those people aren't going for it. Is the job too difficult? Is the job too time consuming? Is the threat of being hit with sanctions and bans for mistakes too high? Did the election flip-flop actually make things worse?

These are all things we need to understand. Perhaps instead of a survey to see how individuals are performing in each job, we should do a survey for why people aren't going for those very same jobs.

Click to expand...

I'm not running for election because TNP has, frankly, abused and degraded me enough. There is no incentive for me to run for anything given how this region treats its citizens and throws them under the bus in favour of so-called allies that never do the same in return and actively protect their own citizens who wrong us. An "ally" can attempt to force our delegate to do something and our delegate, no matter who is in the seat, invariably rolls the fuck over. Complete with how far in the wrong direction I think TNP has gone over the past three years, there's just no reason to put myself out there to continue to be a beat dog for this region, when I can go contribute elsewhere in a place that actually sticks up for its people.

Sil Dorsett:

I think we need to take some time to really think about why people are not running for election. Yes, there is a bit of "you don't know what the job actually is" that gets sorted out during campaigning. That's fine. But for those who do know the job, we need to understand why those people aren't going for it. Is the job too difficult? Is the job too time consuming? Is the threat of being hit with sanctions and bans for mistakes too high? Did the election flip-flop actually make things worse?

Click to expand...

For me, it's largely a timing issue. I believe someone who runs for del should be prepared to actually be del, and this March-July stretch would be borderline catastrophic for me due to ongoing NS projects and RL commitments. It's a bit ironic considering I believe the election scheduling flip was initially my idea.

I think people overestimate how often what MJ says happens. We don’t fire people because our allies told us to. I was close to getting fired because of the radio broadcast that I participated in while rather inebriated, which I still believe was in part due to external pressure, but we didn’t, so. I’ve always rejected external pressure both as Chief of Staff and Delegate regarding the people I appoint and fire, so I don’t think this issue is as widespread as some seem to think.

We do talk about how active our RMB is, but we never talk about how dead our regional forums is. A guy who is new to NS and just joined TNP won't run as a candidate. He/She should witness two or three elections, and with that engage in such conversations, ask suitable questions, etc. That's how they will gain knowledge, gain confidence and be ready to run as a candidate. Most of such governance discussions in TNP are done by old TNPers only. I'm here to blame myself as well, cause in these 5 years I've been here, I never had a courage to run in an election. Except Ruben, there's hardly anyone among new(or slightly old) people who indulge themselves in such discussions( I am happy and glad that Cloud went for Speaker in the end). Now we can ponder how to make newbies vocally participate in elections and campaigns. I don't want to blame any individual or any of my friends here. (Please forgive if I'm wrong here)

Also referring to MJ, I've seen such instances where the said things have taken place.

Sil Dorsett:

I think we need to take some time to really think about why people are not running for election. Yes, there is a bit of "you don't know what the job actually is" that gets sorted out during campaigning. That's fine. But for those who do know the job, we need to understand why those people aren't going for it. Is the job too difficult? Is the job too time consuming? Is the threat of being hit with sanctions and bans for mistakes too high? Did the election flip-flop actually make things worse?

These are all things we need to understand. Perhaps instead of a survey to see how individuals are performing in each job, we should do a survey for why people aren't going for those very same jobs.

Click to expand...

Personally I feel that government positions in TNP (not just the elective ones) are too demanding, difficult, and/or dramatic for what is essentially an unpaid volunteer position. I people who dedicate time for it. But for me, I am a very busy person IRL, and the demands of government positions make it feel like it's a disservice if I take one and not meet the high expectations for it. tl;dr - I think we are taking these positions too seriously when the main objective of this game should be to have fun.

Ayuzh:

Also referring to MJ, I've seen such instances where the said things have taken place.

Click to expand...

I’d like to know specifics on this apart from MJ’s resignation three years ago.

Halsoni:

I’d like to know specifics on this apart from MJ’s resignation three years ago.

Click to expand...

By "instances" I not only meant resignations. I also mean going against or not supporting our WA resolutions. But you might be correct about the "overhyped" thing as well.

Ignoring my own RL commitments for the moment (of which there's plenty), the main IC reason I wouldn't want to run this election is because of the NSWA reboot due 1 July, so I am particularly disengaged now.

I think there are actually several different conversations happening in this thread, and they are all somewhat valid.

On one hand, I understand the concern about uncontested elections. Competitive races tend to generate debate, and debate forces both candidates and voters to engage more deeply with the offices involved. From that perspective, I can sympathize with the argument that competition itself has value.

On the other hand, I’m not entirely convinced that RON by itself would solve the underlying issue. If people are not running in the first place, simply reopening nominations might not change that unless we also understand why participation is declining.

Several possibilities have already been mentioned in this thread:

• Government positions can be time-consuming.
• Expectations for officeholders are quite high.
• Some newer players may feel they lack the experience or visibility to run.
• Forum discussions are often dominated by long-time members.

If the goal is to strengthen our civic culture, it might be worth thinking not only about election mechanics but also about how we encourage broader participation between elections. The more comfortable newer members feel joining discussions, asking questions, and participating in debates, the more likely it is that they will eventually consider running.

Competition in elections is healthy, but a healthy civic culture probably starts earlier than nomination day.

@Meteturan Would you like to try again without AI assistance? Tell us how you really feel.

Sil Dorsett:

@Meteturan Would you like to try again without AI assistance? Tell us how you really feel.

Click to expand...

Just to clarify something English is not my native language. I’m Turkish and my English isn’t perfect. Because of that, I sometimes use translation or AI tools to help me phrase things correctly. But the ideas and opinions in my posts are still my own. The tools just help me express them more clearly in English. If anything sounds too formal, that’s probably the reason. I’m still learning and trying to participate in the discussion as best as I can.