quote Chad

quote Ryancola

Hey guys, please respond to these questions in whatever way you feel like, just make sure that each answer is clearly marked.

1) What do you believe is something on Neoseeker that, if you could change, would needed to be changed immediately?

Awareness of RFS. I don't know how it could be changed immediately, but it would help to have a link somewhere on the forum pages at least (similar to the Supermoderators on Duty). Reason being there are plenty of potentially great suggestions and improvements floating around in members' minds around the site, but they don't know where a proper output for these ideas is located.


2) Do you feel that admin or supermoderators need to be more involved with the community from a posting standpoint? Why or why not? What are your feelings towards member-moderator relationships in general?

I remember when they used to be, and it seemed like a pretty cool deal. However, neostaff are often busy with back-end development, and supermoderators are also preoccupied with real life and taking care of many other things here on the site. When supermoderators do post though, usually people will try to be on their best behaviour, which is always nice. =P

Member-moderator relationships? In all honesty, moderators should be looked at on equal terms as a member outside their forum, and often inside their forum. The only real difference is that they should be expected to be a little nicer and courteous, and within their own forum at least keep everything in order. Not sure if I understood what was being asked completely though.


3) What is the best part about Neoseeker for you personally?

Haha, it's really hard to choose. I mean, contributing to the profiles is always fun, as you feel as though you are helping Neo out, even just a little. Same goes with NeoWikis. Other than parts of Neo that serve you with that warm fuzzy feeling, Neoseeker's News section is pretty interesting. I always find interesting news stories there. Overall though, I like the forums the best. The discussions are just fun to be a part of really, as well as meeting new people and forming a community.

4) What are your thoughts on the global economic condition, and what do you think needs to be done to recover from the situation we're in?

I really don't like the fact that it had to come to this, but I am hoping that it will serve as a huge wake-up call for most countries around the world, namely the US. First off, for everyone who says "It's Bush's fault!", just because he was in office at this time, callate. I don't want to get off the question too much, so I will stop right there on that. I think we should give a modified version of Reaganomics another try. Recently we've seen a good amount of people get laid off in recent months, and I think using part of the plan would help with that. What I'm talking about is lowering income taxes. With lower taxes, the people will have more money. When the people have more money, they will be willing to spend more money. Spending more money means businesses do better, and need more workers, which helps solve rising unemployment. Just as well, with businesses doing better the economy will grow more and more stable.

5) What is the most important controversial issue in today's society? Why? (Abortion, Climate Change, Religion, Terrorism, etc.)

To me, the most important controversial issue out there is religion, as that touches on a lot of other controverial issues (abortion, gay-marriage, etc.). Religion has been debated about for centuries, and I don't think it will ever not be such a hot-topic.


6) If elected president, what would be your primary focus?

Probably making more members aware of RFS. I know that there are plenty of members out there with more than enough creativity that could be used to improve the site. Unfortunately, if they don't know where to let their ideas be heard, then it will be extremely hard for them to be suggested, given feedback on, and potentially implemented.

7) What are your personal interests/things that you enjoy partaking in away from Neoseeker?

Hanging out with friends, playing sports, etc. I enjoy doing many activities and hobbies really. Other than things outside of the house, I enjoy playing video games, taking nice naps, and reading a good book on occasion.

8) What does your vice president bring to the table for you above any of the others?

Haha, well as a neo admin, she actually can implement things (though she mainly deals with the contribution system). Just as well, she has a good idea of what neo should be and how to make it happen, while still looking for feedback and suggestions on new things. Plus, she's a girl.

9) If you could vote for any of the other four candidates who would it be and why?

I'm guessing Keiichi for Independent isn't included? Nor Mickey Mouse, as he gets the most write-in votes for the United States' Presidential elections? I'd say Avalith probably. He has his hands in many areas of the site, including the forums (moderating), Neowikis (wiki admin), Gamegrep (approver/moderator, one of the two), and NeoCRS. Knowing the four main parts of the site (I'm including GG, even though it is more of a sub-site, or even a separate entity), he should have a pretty good grasp on what would be good for the site.

10) Please provide us with a final statement on why the people should vote for you.

People should vote for me because, well, why not? Though yeah, I can help neo out just the same whether or not I'm President, though it would be nice. The only difference really would be that I'd wear a cape around my house with "Neo-Pres" written on it. And when I have to wash the cape, I'd wear a hat or something with "Neo Pres" on it. Just as well, I'd have those special things I'm supposed to do as Neo president to do. =)

quote Praetorian_Lord

Sorry if it's a bit long, had no idea how much detail I should go in to.

1) What do you believe is something on Neoseeker that, if you could change, would need to be changed immediately?

On the whole I don’t think there’s a huge number of problems with Neoseeker, really. In order to answer the question I need to nitpick a bit, so try to keep that in mind when I play Devil’s Advocate and say the following.

Despite the site’s best efforts I still feel there’s too profound a divide between ‘regular’ members and moderators (and supermoderators to an extent). I see a mod tag as a sign of recognition, and I feel that too many people see it as an expectation. While it’s certainly true that people should be able to look to moderators to set an example, this isn’t an expectation that should be placed on a moderator’s shoulders simply because of the tag.

We simultaneously try to say that moderators are exactly the same as regular members except with a tag, but at the same time we expect so much more of them. Things that we’d normally turn a blind eye to, we blow way out of proportion because the person involved was or wasn’t a moderator. Mods shouldn’t be exempt from, or subject to, rules that don’t impact regular members in exactly the same way. We’ve got double standards and THAT’s what’s causing the divide.

That said, there’s no simple solution to the problem. In my view we shouldn’t promote someone and then expect them to magically reform anything negative about themselves simply because we expect them to lead by example. We’d be far better off taking the time and effort to ensure that the people we’re promoting already embody the qualities that we feel a moderator should have.

In saying this, again, please keep in mind that I’m not trying to attack anyone here or pretending to know anything about what goes on behind the scenes. Everyone involved to date has done a fantastic job, I just figured I should say something that’s been on my mind in order to answer the question.


2) Do you feel that admin or supermoderators need to be more involved with the community from a posting standpoint? Why or why not? What are your feelings towards member-moderator relationships in general?

Lol, well I imagine I’ve answered a great deal of this question with my answer to the last question.

No, I don’t think that admin or supers need to be more involved than they are. The system works for the most part, so why change it? Posting has nothing to do with how well they do their jobs, and they do their jobs well already. It’s not as if it’s hard to find out who they are if we need them, and aside from that, they shouldn’t force themselves to post more. Posting really should be where every member is considered equal, and no-one else posts unless they want to or feel as though they should. The same applies for supers and admin. ‘Nuff said.

And on the whole, I do feel that member-moderator relationships are fine in general – depending, as always, on the individuals concerned.


3) What is the best part about Neoseeker for you personally?

I actually wrote an essay on this for the Neolympics to a certain extent. I won’t bore you with it all here, but to summarise it’s the fact that, unlike irl, on Neo you have total control over how you appear to other members. Your avatar, signature, custom title, font, and content of your posts are all under your complete control, and no-one else has anything to go by. So people judge you for who you are and what you say, rather than what should be superfluous things like what you look like, how strong an orator you are, etc.

(Yes, I realise that things like the Photo Album kinda screw this up a bit, but nm. )

4) What are your thoughts on the global economic condition, and what do you think needs to be done to recover from the situation we're in?

Wow, that’s an interesting question for a Neoelection, haha. Umm… I don’t think that anything special needs to be done that we’re not already doing. In today’s newspaper, actually, the headlines are all reading that Australia’s one of the only Western societies that has managed to avoid a recession. What we need to do as a global community is to analyse why some countries have managed to avoid recession while others have not, what caused this recession, and how we can learn from it to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

Some things are unavoidable or unforeseeable. Few people profit from these sorts of events, and each nation is doing everything feasibly possible to resolve the situation. I don’t pretend to know enough about economics to know what more could or couldn’t be done; I imagine that the best minds are already on it and that should be enough for any layperson, including myself.

5) What is the most important controversial issue in today's society? Why? (Abortion, Climate Change, Religion, Terrorism, etc.)

They’re obviously all pretty important since they wouldn’t be so controversial and well-publicised otherwise. Things like abortion and religion I seriously don’t think are all that important, since they come under the broader umbrella of freedom of choice. It’s difficult to see how people can be opposed to something like abortion and yet be in favour of freedom of choice; people should just learn to be tolerant of others views even if they don’t agree with them.

I suppose the likes of climate change and terrorism are much more important because they are universal; they’re something that we can band together as a race and try to overcome (yes, I’m ignoring the naysayers of climate change) and I think globalisation of society is something that’s going to be very important in the near future. It’d be nice if we could erase this country and borders bullshit and just realise that we’re all human.
Almost anything else can be solved by this. Social equality on a global scale will go an enormous way towards solving problems such as racism and terrorism.


6) If elected president, what would be your primary focus?

Doing my job, clean and simple. I’m not going to try to promise you anything special, a lot of people expect a lot of different things from the president. Some people think this is just a popularity contest. That’s fine, to them I promise to try to not let it go to my head. To anyone else who expects a bit more, I’ll just do whatever anyone comes to me for to the best of my ability.

I won’t be using the position to motivate myself to become a more active member in the community. You should make your decision based on who you think is already the best person for the job, not who has the potential to be.


7) What are your personal interests/things that you enjoy partaking in away from Neoseeker?

Oh God, all sorts of things. Video games is an obvious one and something that most people on the site can probably relate to best. No real definite categories, though I prefer well done RPGs above almost all else (think Fallout 3, Oblivion, Final Fantasy XII). Music – metal and rock, movies – anything interesting. There’s a bit more on that in my profile.

I’m very much in to psychology and philosophy since they’re what I’m studying, and I seriously enjoying arguing/debating along those lines. I work as a checkout chick -__- and between that and uni I don’t have an enormous amount of time for extracurricular activities. I love my sport. Feel free to hit me up at anytime to talk.


8) What does your vice president bring to the table for you above any of the others?

Anyone who knows Chelskiman knows that he is first and foremost an absolutely fantastic person who values loyalty and conscientiousness above anything else. He’s genuine and unafraid to speak his mind despite doing so in a manner that is anything but intentionally incendiary. These qualities are what drew me to him in the first place, and are what I feel makes him such an upstanding member of the Neoseeker community and a brilliant moderator.

A vice president doesn’t necessarily ‘bring anything to the table’ in an election such as this, and I’m not about to compare Chelskiman with any other running mate. I chose him because I feel that, whatever qualities a vice president should have, Chelsk has them in spades.

9) If you could vote for any of the other four candidates who would it be and why?

Another tough call. Frankly I’m really impressed with all chosen candidates and I think the community on the whole can’t lose irrespective of who’s chosen from the final five. All of them are outstanding members of and contributors to the site and community. The only separating factor from my perspective is how well I know them, and on that basis I can act as a character witness for both Daedric Prince and Byzantine. I know that their ideals are very similar to mine.

10) Please provide us with a final statement on why the people should vote for you.

My ‘platform’ all along has been for people to choose who they think is the best person for the job. I have virtually zero idea whether that’s made any sort of an impact on anyone at all, but I do feel that the five chosen candidates were among the best possible from the given lists. As far as I’m concerned the election’s been a success irrelevant of who from the final five has been chosen.

You should vote for me if and only if you think I’m the best person for the job, irrespective of what you think that entails. If you’re certain that the election’s nothing more than a popularity contest then by all means, make your decision on that basis. But if you think it is something more, or at least should be something more, than I implore you to vote with your head rather than your heart. If these elections ever aspire to be anything more than they currently are then a decent President choice is imperative.

Bottom line is: vote for me if you think I’m the best choice. If you don’t, then don’t.

Thanks for reading if you did, and best of luck to all candidates. May the best man win.

quote Toby

1) I don't feel anything needs immediate change, if I'm honest. Immediate change is probably a bad thing anyway and a gradual progression to better things is probably a better way forward. Members on the site are sensitive to change and time to ease themselves into things would be preferred. Immediate change suggests there are some serious issues that need to be addressed but I don't think any part of the site is in that bad condition. A lot of people are stuck in this mindset of 'change, change, change' when really, we should be looking more to 'improve, improve, improve'.


2) Not really, I don't think it's that big of a problem if a problem at all. It's far more important for local moderators and even section moderators to be more in touch with their community than the supers/admin. The majority of members appreciate the work that the super and admin team do and although seeing them post around is nice, I don't think they need to get any closer but I don't feel that they're all that far away anyway.


3) The best part of Neoseeker for me has to be the Social forums. It was great to see the GTA one created at first and the whole concept was great. With time, a Football Manager one was created and we've began to see more and more of these pop up around the site. I've participated in 3 of these quite a bit and it's great fun, having strong discussions and just participating in thread where you get to know other members a bit better. I think seeing more of these pop up around Neoseeker would only be beneficial.


4) Ha, I'm no economist so I've no idea what needs to be done to get us out of the economic crisis we're currently in. I do think though, we need someone with balls, to step forward and lead from the front and take a risk; a calculated risk to take us out of this mess. Fapping around is just delaying us going into another depression. If I recall correctly, Gordon Brown did something like this a couple of months back but I don't know where that's going...


5) Not many people take notice of it but in the UK, the Education system needs a massive revamp of some sort. That or something major needs to be done. Less and less students are going to University and from those who are, more and more are dropping out in their first year. Further down, people are dropping out at 16 and not going onto College/Sixth form. A controversial movement has been made which states that all students must stay in full-time education until 17 instead of 16. This means that all pupils have to undertake one year of AS Levels. The aim, is to encourage people to stay on for A2 and thus encourage them to use these qualifications to go to University. Others think this is outrageous and argue that by the age of 16 they should be allowed to decide what they want to do.


6) Heh, I'm not going to go into much detail on this question because this is one of those questions that really only has one answer. There's limited I can do as President except act as a role model and serve as a 'voice of the members' in the RFS forum which I'm no doubt every one of my other candidates will be saying.


7) Ah, I'm an avid writer outside Neoseeker. I love to write poems, short stories, essays and even a bit of song writing here and there. I have full intentions of starting a novel over the summer and planning for this will begin shortly after my exams are over! I'm a pretty sporty person, with a huge passion for playing football (soccer). I play semi-pro for Erith Town at the moment, hopefully find my way into the first team and start getting paid soon! I'm pretty into all sports as each sport has it's entertainment somewhere. Athletics is next and I'm a crazy 800m runner so watch out! I love my music too and I've started playing guitar since about January (properly anyway) and I'm not that good yet but I'm getting there. It's fun because I'm not that great but because I love it, I'll just keep playing anyway. Fashion too, a huge interest of mine. Get criticised sometime for being a bit too metrosexual but what's wrong with wanting to look bloody dapper when you go out, eh?


8) My VP, Maski brings me experience, a cool-head and a sharp mouth and has more of these than any of the other VP's I feel. Unknown to the majority of Neoseeker but that's not such a bad thing. He's been around for a long time yet has less posts than you might expect. Only recently has he started posting more (not necessarily to his advantage ) but he knows his way around and has a second opinion that I value above a lot of other members.


9) There are other candidates? I thought this was a once horse race..


10) Seriously now, if I can come out on top of all the great people in my primary, it only makes sense to vote for me. No other member could have done it like I did.

quote Avalith

Thanks to everyone who supported me, and congratulations to the other candidates as well.

quote Chad

Is it just me, or did someone else notice that the "best party in the election" received the lowest total votes?