LiveJournal advisory board election

[nameandnature]

As readers of news will know, LiveJournal is in the process of electing representatives from among its users, to sit on the LiveJournal advisory board, alongside various e-luminaries.

Originally, I was going to vote for jameth purely because it'd annoy a certain sort of person I find irksome on LiveJournal ("jameth, as hated by ginmar": what higher endorsement could there be?). jameth is an LJ personality who's known for, shall we say, a certain unique sense of humour. I didn't regard him as a serious candidate, so he wasn't my first choice.

As time has gone on, however, I've become impressed with the open discussion of his candidacy which jameth has allowed on his journal: his policy is that he will allow any comment which does not violate LJ's Terms of Service (he's screening anonymous comments to help with this). This contrasts favourably with some of the other front-running candidates, notably legomymalfoy, who has been less forthcoming, and who has been deleting/locking posts.

legomymalfoy is on the LJ Abuse Team and does not intend to resign this position if she is elected, which seems a bit like having the fox guarding the hen-house. The post of hers where she confirmed this is now locked (this thread contains two screen captures of the relevant posting). I don't believe she is a serious candidate. This is a shame, as she's currently in the lead.

I've seen allegations that large numbers of role-playing journals (where one person keeps lots of journals for each character they play) have been used as sock puppets to block vote. LJ can't use the obvious defence against this as it does not want to prevent people sharing the same HTTP proxy from voting. I don't know whether these allegations are true, but this is hilarious.

More seriously, some candidates have recently reported that LJ's staff has received what they seem to regard as credible death threats against some front-running candidates. It's possible this is a huge hoax, but it's currently looking like it's real. cambler (note: style contains photos of semi-naked ladies: NSFW) has withdrawn from the election as he doesn't see it as worth risking his personal safety for. He made this post (link will force the style to one without semi-naked ladies, so should be SFW) giving details of what's occurred. This thread is particularly relevant. randomposting has likewise withdrawn and endorsed jameth.

As these were my other two choices, I'm endorsing jameth, for his platform commitment to free speech, for the way he's conducted himself as this business has unfolded, and because he's the only person who can now beat legomymalfoy. Any suggestions for worthwhile second and third choices gratefully received :-)

Regardless of whether you agree with me, if you've moaned about what 6Apart and SUP have done over the last few years, please read the candidates' manifestos and vote, and encourage others to do the same. If you have already voted, note that it is possible to change your vote until the election closes, on 29th May.

Comments

[andrewducker]

Members of LJ Abuse are basically people who volunteer to help out on the site and make it work better, dealing with some of the idiots who make life worse for the rest of us. They're likely to be the most committed people around.

Saying that they therefore can't be on the board seems strange to me.

[andrewducker]

Oh - in case you're interested, a quick count:

Jameth = 21.6 + 14.6 + 13.3 = 49.5%
legomymalfoy = 34.6 + 10 + 7.5 = 52.2%
rm = 10.4 + 30.1 + 8.7 = 49.2%
Vichan = 4.4 + 8.1 + 24.2 = 36.7%

Which, as many people will have chosen one of those people and then another one, and then a third, will mean that none of them will win through vote transference, and the person with the most 1st choice votes wins.

[emarkienna.livejournal.com]

I was curious about this too - it's unclear whether "50% of the vote" means all votes cast, or only out of those remaining. imc claims it's the latter (http://imc.livejournal.com/181618.html), so this shouldn't be a problem.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Feh. Bring back the backbone cabal.