Vote for Pedro

The CSM election is upon us, and the polls have opened today. My phone was chiming quite a bit today with twitter tags going off from supporters, several letters of support, as well as those asking questions found their way to my eve-mail box, and the show of support from several members of the community has been heartening to say the least.

I've pounded the ground here on the blog, on various podcasts and shows on Eve Radio, and on my CSM Campaign thread to get the word out. I sent a series of letters to Corp and Alliance leaders in Factional Warfare asking for their help in getting our people out to vote, and to keep our voice strong.

At this point, some might expect some words of closing, on why you should vote for me. I'll simply say that if you care about PVP, if you care about lowsec, if you care about Factional Warfare, regardless of where on your ballot I am (if even at all) should my bid for the CSM be successful, know that you'll have my full backing and support this next year whenever I'm voicing our concerns to CCP. I say our, because being on the CSM isn't about having a chance to help make the game better for me. It's about helping to make the game better for us... all of us. That's a huge responsibility to offer to take on, and an obligation that those of us who make it will owe to the ones who helped put us in a position to be their voice. CCP hasn't always been right, but they've been a lot more right when the CSM has been included in the big decisions, and a lot more wrong when they haven't.

I'm also going to go a step further than some of the other candidates, and prop up a few of my fellow hopefuls. You get to rank 14 candidates afterall, and while you don't have to go that far, I certainly wouldn't fill a ballot with less than 5 or 6 if you don't want your vote to go to waste.

Sugar Kyle: If I'm your number one, I hope you've got her at 2 or 3 at least. If I don't make it on the council, she HAS to. In an ideal world, I'd like to see us both on, but having neither would likely mean another year of lowsec having no voice, and little in the way of resources dedicated to improvements.

Steve Ronuken: Fuzzy Steve is a great representative for the guys making all the cool things with Eve's API, and in the future CREST. I'm not a programmer. I can't do the shit he and the other guys in that crowd do, but they do a lot of cool shit that improves our quality of life in the game. If you like being able to download Eve related tools on your smart phone, market tools for your browser, and spreadsheets on the web to help make sense of the spreadsheets in the game, he's their voice, and they need a voice on the council. If you use EFT, Eve Mon, a killboard, any of Steve's tools, Aura on android, one of Chribba's sites, or anything of the like, you owe a spot on your ballot to a guy like Steve.

Psychotic Monk: With the most recent backlash against Eve's most notorious villains, having a voice on the council to support highsec conflict creators is going to be key to preserving their way of life moving forward. A highsec completely free of scams, wars, and suicide ganks is not a good thing for Eve. Conflict breeds excitement. Having to deal with bad guys gives more appreciation for days filled with sunshine and puppies. Psychotic Monk is an excellent voice for those guys that really make you appreciate the good days in Eve.

Gorski Car: He's in PL, and I doubt will need a ton of support. I don't agree with him on adding more FW plex types (the 3 main ones we have now cause an obscene amount of reshipping when assaulting systems as it is), and his favor towards dual timers on plexes shows that while he understands plex PVP, he has little understanding of Plex warfare in a focused system assault. I find the rest of his platform to be solid however, and many of his ideas would benefit life for those of us living in lowsec. He should be on your ballot somewhere.

Mangala Solaris: RvB pilot and an incumbent. He knows a thing or 2 about PvP, and isn't afraid to get his hands dirty learning about issues he doesn't fully understand. History shows he did his part on CSM 8, and he even had some supportive things to say for lowsec. That's worth something in my book.

Mike Azariah: The 2nd incumbent on my short list, and would be a good balancing Yin to Psychotic Monk's Yang. If those two could get together and make a baby, that might be the perfect highsec CSM candidate. Since that is going to be impossible without some serious advances in Welsh cloning technology, I think we'll need to settle for having them both on the council.

That will do it for my recommendations. There isn't really anyone on the ballot I would tell anyone NOT to vote for (even Xenuria and riverini have value if you feel CCP Dolan needs to be punished for some reason). The nullsec guys will be determined by the sway of their blocs, and as someone who has only spent a bare 2 weeks living in a wormhole, I can't pretend to tell you which of their 5 candidates has the best ideas... I think their fellows will make that decision, and the best ones will undoubtedly see themselves elected.

Regardless of how you vote however, please, vote. And get in your corp and alliance mates' ears, and get them to vote as well. History has shown that the more players participate in this process, the louder the voice of the council. The CSM is meant to be the voice of the players, but it is the players that give them that voice. It's best we all remember that.