TalkBoard Elections/06 - The Open Forum for Candidates

This forum is designed to allow candidates to address other issues beyond those in the direct questions from the members of FlyerTalk. All candidates have been advised to not make things personal - its about the issues and it's about only those things that happen on FlyerTalk.

You can find more info the candidates and their platforms at:

http://www.flyertalk.com/talkthevote/

If you have a question-at-large for the candidates, please send email to randy@flyertalk.com or PM Randy Petersen.

Thank you.

As everything winds down and I assume this forum will be locked come tomorrow when the polls open, I just wanted to post my appreciation for the opportunity to compete for a TalkBoard seat.

Thanks to the House of Miles for giving the membership a say in the direction of Flyertalk. Thank you to the community for submitting fantastic questions and for your vote. (I expect to get first place by a landslide... ;)) Thanks to my fellow candidates for their willingness to give back to the community and for a very interesting discussion.

I will wrap this post up with... a joke:

A man walks into a bar with a giraffe and they proceed to get blitzed. The giraffe drinks so much it passes out on the floor. The man gets up and heads for the door to leave when the bartender yells, "Hey! You can't leave that lyin' there!" The drunk replies, "That's not a lion! It's a giraffe."

This is the fourth TalkBoard race since I have been on FlyerTalk. I didn't follow the first one but I remember that it was a very hotly contested race, with partisans of all the candidates posting all over F/T.

The second one, in which I was elected, was also highly contested -- albeit with some unfortunate posts being put up by both some contestants and their supporters. Signature blocks endorsing various candidates abounded.

The third, last year, saw a change. Members who were not running were no longer permitted to enter the debates. Still, interest was high. Those signature blocks were everywhere and the top candidates received vote totals which dwarfed those of the year before.

This year, the interest seems minimal. Last year, one thread alone had 9297 views (the record for this year, so far, is 783). Signatures supporting any of the candidates are few and far between. Obviously, voter turnout can not yet be determined.

I can't help but wonder why this is. I can see several possibilities, some good and some bad, but most of them in the "bad" category.

** None of the candidates have launched personal attacks against the others. (Good).

** Members believe that TalkBoard is so restricted in its duties that it is irrelevant. (Bad).

** We (the candidates) are either so incompetent or so boring that no one is interested in any of us. (Bad).

** FlyerTalkers care less now about how the community is run than they did in the past. (This would be the worst of all possibilities.)

** None of the candidates have launched personal attacks against the others. (Good).


Oh yeah? Well your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries! :p ;)

(I guess I just lost all of the Monty Python haters... ;) )

I wonder if the US members aren't just sick of elections in general.

I wonder if the US members aren't just sick of elections in general.

It is a possibility, of course, but two years ago the TB election was held on the same day as the American presidential election and it still had a lot of interest.

Well youa re right, two years ago at least two candidates resorted to such name calling, lies and dirty tricks that at least one was SUSPENDED for much of the campaign time. I am sure that brought some spotlight to the race at the time.

So the 'debate' is OVER!?

I agree with the rest of Flyertalk: ho-hum.

Am I mis-recalling? It seems that in years past this forum got locked when voting started...

Well youa re right, two years ago at least two candidates resorted to such name calling, lies and dirty tricks that at least one was SUSPENDED for much of the campaign time. I am sure that brought some spotlight to the race at the time.

You mean you missed my 30-second attack ads?
Pity. I need to fire my media buyer.

Oh yeah? Well your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries! :p ;)

(I guess I just lost all of the Monty Python haters... ;) )

I wonder if the US members aren't just sick of elections in general.

Thats funny because thats exactly what someone told me about you :p

I have reported your posting to the British Hamster Association (http://www.britishhamsterassociation.org.uk/). I am sure that they will be along shortly to tell you off :D


On another matter, its been fun debating this year and a lot of the answers where really good.

Now all we need is for the community to vote!

Good luck to one and all, even the folk who did not bother to post a thing.

Regards

Good luck to all! :)

Oh yeah? Well your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries! :p ;)

You have that completely wrong!

Dad was a hamster.

Mom reeks from the elderberry wine she imbibes regularly.

You have that completely wrong!

Dad was a hamster.

Mom reeks from the elderberry wine she imbibes regularly.

My apologies, then. ;)

I'll try to get my personal attacks correct from now on. :D

So, after all the questions, the big controversy, unasked, was about the "I voted" avatars.

Too bad, I would have liked the opportunity to pander to both sides.

Good luck everyone!

May the best women win ;) :D :D :D :p

Ok so I have been unresponsive to the many PM inquiries about my signature line as well as my platform motto, OUM: Power to the Posters, particularly the OUM part.

So here is the story for all it is worth and what it has got to do with anything. Judge for yourself:

Back around the time of the last US presidential campaign Randy (and the TB?) took the decision to close down OMNI.

Many of us were devastated. Without OMNI our reason for coming to FT every day was gone. Trust me when I tell you that wails were wailed and teeth were gnashed.

But the community rallied. Some folks realized that if you entered the actual URL for OMNI it was still there, just hidden from view through the normal approach vectors. So for about 2 or 3 weeks a vibrant and active community was established in the ruins of the former OMNI garden and playground. As far as I knew everyone there had stumbled upon the back door themselves. It was a beautiful thing for these eyes to behold: we all came together and bonded, rallied and had fun in a spontaneous and organic community.

It proved to me that whatever the forum, what counted penultimately, NEARLY as much as points and miles, was the community that would develop around these forums and the fun to be had.

I came to call the experience the OMNI Underground Movement for all the obvious reasons: OMNI is in the basement of FT to start with and we created a community 'on the sly' after OMNI was buried for dead.

Well, like all good things, it came to an end when the HOM was informed about the OUM, and it was shut down. Randy in an unprecedented gesture of magnanimosity pardoned the active members of the OUM for our circumvention of the intent of the closing of OMNI.

But in the end, that experience truly did shift my paradigm about this place: the points and miles that matter, but its really about the posters.

And so there you have it: OUM Power to the Posters.

Clearly, if you are all about law and order I have just hopelessly alienated you (if I havent already). But it's been a while since I alienated a goodly sized group of voters, so...

Finding OUM was like finding and old friend... we were seriously Omni deprived at that time ;)