I think our Constitution is in need of some proof reading. Not only is some of the stuff not clear, there's a few errors in it as well. No one bothered to double check it, apparently. It needs to re-written for a clear interpretation. Here: (I think think this means...) Tribunes will attend the Mod's Corner as a member of the Senate would. If a legislation is proposed from the Senate and both agree, then the legislation is passed by the People's Assembly. However, if one or both disagree, they must take it to the People's Assembly Forum. There, a poll will be held to find out whether or not the people are in favor. If the people are in favor, the bill passes. If the people are not in favor, the bill is vetoed and does not pass. This situation is somewhat modeled in a vice-versa sense. Tribunes are allowed to introduce new legislation to the Senate, both too pass and repeal. Senators must, at some point in time, hold a vote and decide their response. If the vote is in favor, the bill passes. If the vote is against, the bill is vetoed by the Senate and does not pass. At election time, a thread will be made by a member of the Senate. It will be entitled as a Nomination Thread. Those seeking to run for Tribune must post in that thread and announce their candidacy. Possible Candidates for Tribune must have no active warnings, must not be a member of the Senate or Administration, and must receive a certain number of nominations (the number will be presented in the thread) from other people. Each person can nominate only one candidate. The method in which a citizen nominates will be explained in the thread. The nomination period will happen immediately after the tribunes’ term ends, and will last between 24-48 hours unless the Senate has decided upon a situational change. Any situational changes must be announced in some form in the People's Assembly. Once the nomination period has ended, everyone with the certain number of nominations and meeting the requirements will be considered a Tribunal Candidate. There will be a 24 Hour buffer between the nomination period and the actual election. This is designed for candidate campaigning, which will likely have started during the nomination phase. Candidates and their supporters are allowed to advertise in any public form they wish. However they can only make threads regarding the election in the People's Assembly. Thread made elsewhere will be deleted and a notice (although no infraction) sent to the thread author. Default spam rules apply to campaigning. Campaigning can only be done in a public environment. It is forbidden for candidates or their associates to go into private conversation, demanding votes and the allegiance of voters in the election. Bribery, private or public, is forbidden in the Tribunal Election. Any violators of the guidelines in this paragraph will be subject to a week ban, and disqualification from the election if they are a candidate. Elections will begin as soon as the Buffer has finished. The election will last a given time, set by the Senate. During the Election Period candidates can still campaign. A tribunal term lasts from the moment the elections end and winners are declared to the moment the nomination period begins. If the Senate post-pones nominations, then the Tribunes will remain in power. However, the Tribunes will be unable to vote yay or nay on any legislation from the Senate. The legislation will remain untouched until the Tribunal Election is finished. A tribune will have the same power as mods for the duration of their term. Tribunes, unless situation states otherwise, should be considered members of the mod ship. Tribunes are allowed to speak of any current legislation outside of the Mod's Corner. However, they may not speak of appeal or judgments, pending or finished, that take place as part of the Mod's Corner's justice system. Appeals and judgments are considered to be between the Mod's Corner and the Person in question. Tribunes cannot speak of this outside the Mod's Corner. If they do, they shall be banned from the forums for a week, and be striped of any title. That tribune slot shall be considered a possession of the other tribune. If both Tribunes are striped of their titles an election will be held as though their terms had finished. If the Tribune is the Person in question, they are allowed to inform people that they are in the Mod's Corner's justice system, however they can not detail on the nature of the "trial".
Any knowledge that they have outside of what can be garnered as a standard user is confidential. If they were under investigation, for instance, that would private unless they received a PM from a mod saying that they were. Tribunes cannot divulge information they have from the Reports utility, Moderation Queue, Mod's Corner, or ACP. So even if they know from a topic in the Mod's Corner or the Reports section that they're under investigation for violating the rules, they cannot release any of that information until they've been informed by standard means (generally speaking, a PM) of the situation.
Here's what I proposed after the last tribunal election... 2) Reform of General election a) There will be one, moderator created nomination thread in the PA in which users may nominate whoever they see fit. Conversational posts would be deleted, and moderators will at least once a day update the original post with a comprehensive list of nominations to ensure clarity. b) During nomination period candidates may open their own thread in the PA in order to announce their candidacy and deliver their platform c) During the general election, a moderator will create an open election poll thread, in which users can vote for their candiadites. Users will be granted one vote which cannot be changed unless there is a technical issue, and may use the election thread to comunicate technical issues with the staff. d) In the event of a tie for a Tribune position, the staff will initiate a run-off election between any tied candidates to determine the remaining slots. i. Run-off elections will be conducted in the same manner as the general election, and will take place the day after the general election, and will remain open for at least 2 days This bit was passed, we just never updated the text of the constitution... I would only add "Bribery, by any party, towards any end..." in order to further clarify that this section not only applies to candidates but an otherwise interested third party I think we can pre-specify something like 5 days, as not all of our users visit the site in every 2 day period I think we should just leave the current tribunes in power. Handcuffing the Senate's ability to enact legislation in a timely manner could prove dangerous. Transparency is being discussed currently, and while I'm for it, I'd be more comfortable sticking to the electoral issues for now. If I didn't mention it I agree with it.... The reason I favor my proposed system over how this nomination period went is more due to technical issues and the staff's familiarity with the site. The like system works okay if the staff is staying on top of everything and hitting all of our deadlines, and if everyone follows our protocol. However, there isn't a timestamp on like's, so it opens up the possibility for users to like candidates after the allotted nomination period. This period, as a consequence of this, when I went to open this years ballot (2 days after nominations had closed) I had to rely on an older list of candidates to compile the ballot. As a result of this, I may have left as many as 3 people of the ballot who could have potentially garnered the required like's in the allotted time. Further, with people's ability to like multiple candidates we developed a hasty policy of disenfranchising users who liked more then one candidate. The culmination of this was a ton of confusion, and an incorrect ballot. Reverting back to the old system of having users state their nomination would, in my mind, alleviate almost all of the issues brought up during this election.
I completely agree with Pedro. We need to go back to people stating their nominations instead of just liking their post. I think though that users should be allowed to nominate two people instead of one, considering two people are elected tribune.
