Admin Elections Idea By Draconid

By Draconid_Jo
POSTED: 04 Jan 2025 21:36
CATEGORY: This Community
FEATURED: Yes (UwUQueen)
(Go to comments)

Konnichiwa!

Back in March of last year, me and my BFF UwUQueen had come up with the idea of holding elections for new admin appointments, and I recently (on December 19th 2024) asked HullBreach what he thought about our idea over on Twitter, and the above image was his response.

There are obviously still a lot of details to be worked out, and there will obviously be at least some people who are opposed to this idea, but I figured I should put this blog out there to inform y'all about all of this, as well as so that y'all can express your own thoughts about it in the comments here.

It's hard to say for certain if/when this idea will even be implemented, but me, UwUQueen, Amjam, HullBreach, and countless non-admin members of the community who I've discussed this idea with in private have expressed their support for it, and now that we've entered 2025, I'm an Overlord now, and (most importantly) HullBreach himself has expressed his support for this idea, I figured I should bring these discussions out into the open.

Lastly, to my fellow admins, I understand that many of you may not be too thrilled with the idea of new admin appointments being made in such an unorthodox manner, and I respect those feelings. That said, there has been an appetite for something like this here among the active userbase for quite some time now, something I myself recognized back in 2022 that led me to run for blogmin/pollmin, which (much like Amjam's recent letter to Hull) ultimately resulted in my promotion to that position. I personally would rather this sorta process become the rule rather than the exception regarding how future admin appointments are made, but any and all concerns expressed here or elsewhere regarding the possible negative consequences of this idea will be taken into consideration, and I would much rather implement this idea with the full support of the rest of the admin team if at all possible.
(The idea is to address the concerns of the community, not to create more problems for the admins who have worked hard to help maintain this website over the years.)

+19 -0

MidnightSkylight
10 Jan 2025 00:02

I get the idea of a democratic sort of approach, however I would also like to add that popularity and votes doesn't necessarily indicate responsibility and the ability to properly assess and handle issues that may occur. For example, let's say you amassed a large following among like-minded individuals, however you may have some less-than-desirable views on topics. Who's to say you won't abuse your power and just start banning folks that disagree?

The idea in theory is great. However, as time has shown, hard work and dedication to making the site an enjoyable place to visit has proven to be the most affective way of promoting admins. While I agree that perhaps an overhaul on how promotions work may be in order, I don't feel that a voting system would do anything but allow nepotism and folks promoting their buddies, instead of dedicated people that actually want to serve the site in a productive and respectful manner.

Draconid_Jo
10 Jan 2025 10:06
In reply to MidnightSkylight

You raise some valid points, but there are unfortunately countless examples of all of these things that have already occurred under the current system during my 5+ years here on Paint.
(I'd give some examples, but I'd rather refrain from doing so here in order to prevent unnecessary drama from occurring.)

Aside from the other admins who support this idea, the admin team has unfortunately fallen victim to groupthink, and has also become increasingly detached from the community which it administrates. I understand that there are certain risks with regards to this idea, but the goal here is to give all community members a way to be involved in the administrative process, rather than just those handpicked by those who have been handpicked by their predecessors.
(Which is more or less the system we have now.)

Lastly, regarding the potential for abuse of admin powers, it is worth pointing out that myself and @Amjam (both of whom actually acquired our admin powers through a process similar to this) basically have a perfect track record with regards to that. I'll be the first to admit that I may be a bit lax about enforcing the featured blog guidelines at times, but I have never abused any of my admin powers against another community member, and the community (unlike the admin team at the time) recognized that I would be this way before I was ever even given my admin powers, which is why they all pushed for me to become one in the first place.
(Same goes for Amjam.)

MidnightSkylight
11 Jan 2025 01:58
In reply to Draconid_Jo

Administration shouldn't be something everyone is allowed. It should be something that is rewarded with demonstrating your ability to properly assess a situation, and come up with a solution to deescalate and handle the problem. I really don't think it should become a popularity contest. Regardless of a few bad eggs, I can see this ending in a huge rise in turnover admin wise. With your proposition, someone with, lets say, two months of site experience can waltz in, run, get all their friends to vote, and then a few days or so in decide he doesn't want it, and resign. Along with that, like stated, with your idea anyone can become admin. In a utopia, this would be great. However, we don't live in that kind of world. I feel this will just drive an even worse form of nepotism. Like i said, not a bad idea, just not a good one either.

Draconid_Jo
11 Jan 2025 10:36
In reply to MidnightSkylight

You misunderstand what it is that we are proposing completely. When I say that I want “to give all community members a way to be involved in the administrative process”, I mean via the electoral process itself, not that any random person who becomes popular in 2 months can become an admin, or that we'll be handing out admin powers willy-nilly.
(Please read @CoryDory 's comment below, as well as my reply to it.)

Essentially, we are just trying to resolve the inherent problems with the current oligarchic system that is already in place. New admin appointments are already determined via an electoral process, just a secret one conducted amongst the current members of the admin team rather than the entire community being involved, and believe me when I say that it is far more of a “popularity contest” than the unorthodox processes by which me and Amjam came to be admins.
(And unsurprisingly, the current system has already resulted in a high degree of that “nepotism” that you warned in your original comment, and our proposal is in large part meant to break that.)

Also, @UwUQueen 's original proposal involved an electoral process wherein which each community member voting would provide their reasoning for why exactly it is that they believe that the person that they are voting for would be good for the position that they are running for, and any votes cast omitting a logical foundation would most likely be considered invalid (not merely a “popularity contest” in other words), which they aren't under the current oligarchic system. She had explained to me a bit about how the electoral process works in the PRC (the People's Republic of China), and something along the lines of that is moreso what we're trying to achieve here, rather than the rigged circus of a “democracy” that we have here in the US.

The Communist Party of China leads the people in promoting socialist democracy. It integrates its leadership, the position of the people as masters of the country, and the rule of law, takes the path of political development under socialism with Chinese characteristics, expands socialist democracy, improves the socialist legal system, builds a socialist country under the rule of law, consolidates the people's democratic dictatorship, and builds socialist political civilization. It upholds and improves the system of people's congresses, the system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation under its leadership, the system of regional ethnic autonomy, and the system of self-governance at the primary level of society. It takes effective measures to protect the people's right to manage state and social affairs as well as economic and cultural programs. It respects and safeguards human rights. It encourages the free airing of views and works to establish sound systems and procedures of democratic election, decision-making, administration and oversight. It strengthens state legislation and law enforcement so as to bring all work of the state under the rule of law.

Constitution of the Communist Party of China (Source)

JinxCade
09 Jan 2025 18:05

Interesting!
I would be interested in who would become admins, and who will actually have good intentions and stuff, but only time will tell

Draconid_Jo
10 Jan 2025 10:08
In reply to JinxCade

Same here, although it's worth noting thqt those who have bad intentions can be demoted by an Overlord such as myself easily enough.
(It can literally be done in a few seconds.)

Jax_xd
06 Jan 2025 20:34

Hm. Very interesting topic

CoryDory
06 Jan 2025 16:47

Awesome!! Would there be a certain account age needed to get promoted? As appointing fairly new members may be good but mostly bad.

Draconid_Jo
07 Jan 2025 03:01
In reply to CoryDory

I personally believe that something like that would make sense, although @Amjam has done an exceptional job as an admin, and he was given admin within a couple months of joining Paint.

(I'd argue that he was a special case, though.)

Atquil
05 Jan 2025 13:47

Atquil runing for Overlord gonna be lit

Draconid_Jo
05 Jan 2025 16:34
In reply to Atquil

Any Overlord appointments would have to come after doing an excellent job as an admin first, similar to how I did a great job as a blogmin/pollmin and was later promoted to Overlord by @HullBreach

Atquil
07 Jan 2025 14:50
In reply to Draconid_Jo

then i will run for pollmin or blogmin then by the next elections i will be overlord

inky-squid
04 Jan 2025 22:08

I think it's a good idea

Draconid_Jo
04 Jan 2025 22:46
In reply to inky-squid

Thanks!

Admin Elections Idea

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