danielbk

I think that as this is a traveling forum many of us who travel "professional" (spending most of our life on the road and getting screamed at by our wife/husband for doing so.. ) have to juggle our time sometimes -- I don't believe this reduces from our ability to be great members of talk board, but it does mean that many times it is impossible to provide an immediate response to posts.

For example, over the past 8 days i have to do
(1) TLV-FRA-LHR-FRA-TLV (24 hours)
(2) TLV-FRA-LHR-FRA-EZE(!)-FRA{where i am now waiting for my flight
to}-TLV (4 days)

I personally find that it is our responsibility as candidates to answer any question the we are asked at the debate as we were the ones who chose to "run" for this position and i promise to respond to the four questions i have yet to answer in the coming 24 hours as i reach home.

Danny.

squeakr

I'm not too interested in speculating why some folks haven't answered questions, nor do I feel it's my role to challenge how a candidate answers questions. Many of the candidates have lengthy post histories and I believe it would be in voters' interests to check out the candidates they are considering voting for.

That said, for me I have enjoyed seeing the questions and answering them as best I can, even the hypothetical ones. I believe my responses give, in capsule form, the flavor of how I post and what I think about, for good or for ill. I also felt it was important, as a moderator, to speak to that issue directly.

And to be perfectly honest, it's hard for this NOT to be a popularity contest to some extent and I don't think that's all bad. If you are well liked and post often and have garnered a history on FT that speaks well of you, that's not a bad thing.

bhatnasx

As noted previously, I've answered every question that's been asked. I've also participated in every major discussion on the TB Topics page & haven't missed a vote while a TB member. I'll even go further to say that my dedication to FlyerTalk is sincere enough to have spent my own dime (not reimbursed with any sort of stipend) to fly to PHX (from DC) and take off two days of work to be at the first ever TalkBoard in-person meeting (which was attended by all members this year, except Jenbel - who was unable to make the transatlantic trip for the 1-day meeting).

LessO2

I have wondered that myself. Given there are more than 20 people running for TalkBoard, I would expect at least that many unique responses.


Self-serving answer:I have now answered every question.

As it pertains to the campaign: While I would consider whether all the questions were answered, I would put more weight into what the candidates say.

That said, I've noticed a few candidates go the route of piling on words in their answer(s)....not quite to the point of "baffle them with BS," but to the point where some answers get off-topic.

B747-437B

I disagree. I find two of the questions inappropriately intrusive (the ones regarding gender and beverage preference) and have chosen not to answer them. If the electorate choses to reject me on that basis, I'd be happier not having to represent an electorate who had such shallow values and expectations.

PTravel

Radioman, I'm sure you appreciate that, at least to some of us, this election is important. In fact, that was the whole point of your post, right? Some people don't care enough about the elections to bother responding to all the questions.

If you're going to take it upon yourself to "grade" other candidates based on their participation, then you should also take it upon yourself to be accurate. I'm sorry, but we just finished a rather long and contentious campaign here in the states, and the idea of an opposing candidate publishing inaccurate statistics has a certain resonance here.

Nothing personal (hence the Rove joke and smiley), but I waited a while after PMing you and did not want the error perpetuated without rebuttal.

Radioman

B747-437B
Well if you find the posts inapropriately intrusive then thats all you had to answer. Anyway you have basically answered them now.....

Radioman

Please do NOT insult me by saying that I am "Grading" candidates. I did NOT grade anyone. I counted up the posts and for the love of god I missed out one of yours and now your so hung up about I think that I will just pull out of this campaign and let you get on with it. God help anyone that messes with you.

PTravel

Good grief. I am truly sorry that you are insulted as that was certainly not my intent. Might I suggest a bit of a thicker skin?

I'm not "hung up" about anything. I don't know you (I rarely have occasion to visit either the IC or BA forums) and only assumed you had made a mistake -- I certainly attributed no malice. You made the point, correctly I think, that a disinterest in answering questions in the debate is a relevant predictor of TalkBoard performance. However, you inadvertently misrepresented my record which was particularly embarrassing to me because, in the second post to this thread I had written that I was shocked that candidates would forgo responding.

If you like, I am perfectly willing to delete all of my posts on this subject subsequent to your chart if you will do the same. Just say the word.

B747-437B

If you had actually read the threads, rather than gone through them simply looking for post counts, you would have seen that that was exactly what I did answer.

I agree with PTravel here that perhaps it is best that the candidates refrain from trying to interpret each other's actions and simply put forward their own points of view.

PTravel

Might I add that yours is a valid reason for not answering specific questions. My criticism (and, I would hope, RadioMan's) was directed to those few candidates whose participation in this debate has been, to put it charitably, sketchy.

B747-437B

Gee, you must be a lawyer.

You agree with my statement that one shouldn't speak for others' point of view by attempting to do just that.

skywalkerLAX

deleted. I'm a bit beside myself today...

And then this MR tomorrow

Spiff

Since the forum is still open and many of us travel quite often, I think this question is a little obsessive at the moment. Not everyone shoots from the hip when answering these questions and some actually like to think about a response before typing one in, especially if there's a 6000+ mile plane ride involved.

Relax, take a deep breath, and evaluate candidates as you see fit. @:-)

PTravel

I wrote what I did to clarify that my criticism of posters who skipped questions wasn't directed at you. Sorry if that offends you. That's two touchy people in one thread. Must be something in the water.