Well, CSM9 has come and (almost) gone and CSMX is up for election. Starting tomorrow, Wednesday February 25th, you will have the opportunity to vote for who you want to be on the CSM. This is a council of players that have direct access to CCP, allowing them to represent those who voted them in and advocate on your behalf to CCP. If you have an account that is 30 days of age or older, you should be voting.
As a wormholer, I recommend only two people for the #1 and #2 slots on your ballot. Do not vote for anyone else claiming to be a wormhole candidate - simply put, they aren't. Rhavas puts it nicely:
You thought there were others? Well, a real wormholer is not someone who appears to be pretending to live in a wormhole in the hope of getting bloc votes (Bane Cortex), and it’s not someone who is running on an “I Love ISBoxer” platform and augments that platform with wormhole mining as a key focus (Angrod).With that being said, my recommendations (in order) are:
Number 1: Corbexx
Corbexx has been working tirelessly on CSM9. Although his ability to communicate leaves much to be desired, his workhorse attitude and ability to impact change have been proven throughout his term. He is responsible for things such as keeping wormhole signatures the same over downtime, splitting the probe and directional scanner into different windows, and revisiting the income you can get from C1-C4 wormholes through blue loot changes. His proven track record easily scores him the number one place on my ballot, and he should be number one on yours if you live in a wormhole.
Number 2: Ariete
There is only one thing better than having a single wormhole representative on the CSM: having a second one. Ariete is a member of Future Corps (Sleeper Social Club) and is a member of my corporation (that I just recently joined). Although I admit that I haven't had many opportunities to fly with him as we're in different time zones, his platform is solid. With CCP more likely to take a look at upper-class wormholes this year (after looking at lower-class wormholes this past year), having someone with experience in a C5 corporation would be beneficial to have on the CSM.
This is it for the serious wormhole candidates. I do have some other recommendations though, based on my own experiences.
Number 3: Sugar Kyle
Sugar is considered to be the hardest working member of CSM9. Considered to be the person who singlehandedly led meetings with CCP based on her binder of notes and wrote 3 times as many summaries of the meetings with CCP as the next highest CSM member did, Sugar Kyle has proven herself to be an advocate for the game - not just players in low-sec. As a regular reader of her blog, Low Sec Lifestyle, I've become very used to having a CSM member with very open lines of communication to regular players. She's earned a permanent seat on CSM - if you're not a wormholer, you should place her even higher on your ballot.
Number 4: Steve Ronuken
If you play EVE, chances are you've used a third-party tool. From EVE Central to Evemon to Evernus to pyfa to Fuzzworks (Steve's site), there are a small number of developers that create tools that are used by a large majority of EVE players. Known as being "allergic" to CSM drama, Steve focuses on what he knows best - third party tools - and there is simply no one better to advocate on their behalf than Steve.
Number 5: Mike Azariah
Mike almost didn't make my list until I read through all of his responses on his campaign thread. This is a guy who thinks through his responses and has the benefit of being a long-time CSM member.
Number 6: Bam Stroker
I wasn't going to put Bam on my list until I did some looking into him. As someone who is very community-driven, I see that Bam would be an asset to the CSM. He also has experience in sov-null, which will be a benefit considering the changes to sov coming soon.
And... that's it. There really is no point in voting for someone you don't know/ don't have experience with/ don't want to get in with the STV system, so don't put any candidates on your list that you wouldn't want to see on the CSM. It just isn't worth it. That being said, you might want to read the full endorsements of Rhavas, a fellow SSC member. There are some interesting null sec candidates (Endie and Manfred) that deserve a look at.
Good luck to everyone! Remember, voting starts tomorrow and closes on March 10th 2015.
Nice endorsements! While I agree that two wormhole representatives are better than one, I did place Ariete third and Sugar second. My reasoning is simple. Corbexx and Sugar were the powerhouse pair this year, and honestly I would rather see them paired, knowing what they are capable of, as opposed to an unknown outcome of Corbexx and Ariete.
ReplyDeleteMy largest concerns with Ariete is that his participation with the community has been relatively nonexistent until he announced candidacy for CSMX. I am of the opinion that a representative should first start as an individual contributor for a community, allowing them experience and knowledge of the community they intend to represent. Ariete didn't do that, so I had intended to leave him from my list entirely.
That being said, I'm still a wormholer first, so Ariete did make my list even though I wasn't over the moon impressed with his campaign or candidacy. Mostly because friends had nice and reassuring things to say about him and I felt he had a redeemable Cap Stable interview.
Anyhow, good stuff, and if you'd like a read the following leads to my thoughts on the elections aswell. Cheers!
https://twitter.com/Autoritare/status/570574286512979971
I actually read your blog post when it came out and I was pleased to see that it was similar to mine (although longer).
ReplyDeleteI, too, share concerns about Ariete but wanted to make sure my vote went to him if Corbexx got in. I do agree that Corbexx and Sugar make a good pair though. If I were going on CSM performance alone I would have put Sugar as #1 and Corbexx as #2.