Eve Blog a Day #021 - Vote Match

Question #021

Go over to Dierdra Vaal's Vote Match, fill out the questionnaire, then let the site tell you which candidates are most in line with your way of thinking about EVE Online. Which candidate is your highest vote match? Will that candidate be the candidate you're most likely to vote for?

My Response
I actually enjoyed this quite a bit. I took the survey last year as well, and I think its another example of how awesome the Eve community is.  The results for this one surprised me quite a bit, however. My number one match is Meissa Anunthiel at 66%. Meissa seems to be a very good candidate and is one of the longest standing CSM vets. I enjoyed listening to his points on the Lost in Eve debate #1, although I'm sure I would have enjoyed anyone pitted against Riverini in that one.

The pick that surprised me though, was Kelduum being #2, at 64%. I looked the issues, and it seemed that many of the points that we agreed upon were strongly held by one of us and not the other. Also, we agreed on many points in nullsec, despite the fact that neither one of us live there. Overall though, I suppose we still share a lot of similar points on issues. I'm not one to bash Kelduum just for the sake of bashing him, but hearing him on V&V really made me think that he was just the lucky benefactor of a large voting bloc as opposed to an intelligent candidate.

The only other "surprise" was where Alekseyev and Hans placed. I put surprise in quotes because they weren't that far from the top; I just figured they'd be higher. Alekseyev beat out Hans by 62% to 57%, respectively. I still find myself leaning towards one of these two, although Meissa is certainly not a bad choice either.

Lastly, who am I least like? Answer is Mu'ad Diib. This guy is either one hell of a troll or he's a bit deficient. He is clearly getting trolled by multiple Goons, and two current CSM members even drop by to give him questions/continue the trolling. I'm glad we're not too closely aligned as it makes me feel better about myself. This is an example of one of the candidates that proves this arbitrary "100 likes" threshold was setting the bar a little bit too low. If you feel like a good laugh, check out his election post in Jita Park here.

The Vote Match for CSM 7 app is great though. I think the best use out of it comes when candidates directly respond to questions (via the mouseover). Its a neat way to organize their thoughts on the issues in a very efficient way. Thanks to the creator Diedra Vaal and also to Poetic Stanziel for the topic once again.

Eve Blog a Day Pair: CSM 7 Banter and My Eve Persona

I try to keep up with Eve Blogs as best I can (and as much as I'm interested, of course), but sadly most of that is done over my iPhone. I tend to read via the Leaky Capsule app, which maintains an outdated Eve Blog Pack that updates in application. As an aside, the Leaky Capsule app is awesome for iPhone users. Its not as clunky as iClone, and still gives you characters, skills training and a blog outlet. Anyway, I tend not to keep up with too much else outside of this as I'm not in front of a computer screen too much recently. I did manage to check in at Poetic Stanziel's blog today though, and I really like the concept of the Eve Blog a Day. I probably wont keep up with all of them, but the most recent two have interested me.

Eve Blog a Day #019: Who Are You Voting For?
Well I suppose I could (and probably will) write a whole post about this one. At the end of the day, I haven't quite decided yet though. The CSM elections are interesting because it is a small enough scale that your vote could actually matter. I still vote in elections in the US, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that it seems a bit pointless sometimes. Regardless, this influences my CSM voting philosophy. For example, I think its pointless for me to vote for The Mittani. He's going to get elected regardless of my vote due to just how large GSF is. I personally think that Mittens has done a great job on the CSM, even if he can be a bit biased perhaps. He does seem to do quite a bit of posturing, but overall I think that he and the other CSM reps from CSM 6 have been great representatives of what the playerbase needed over the past year. Regardless though, I will not be voting for any representative of the major power blocks because I feel that that throws away a vote for one of the smaller scale candidates who stands a chance at getting in.

That said, I've still got plenty of research to do. I've got a few thoughts so far, but nothing is set in stone. Its easier for me to say who I don't like. Two quick ones are Kelduum Revaan and Riverini of Eve University and Eve News respectively. Both strike me as a bit disingenuous and self centered.

To me, Kelduum just seems a bit fake. In the recent RVB vs Eve Uni war, Kelduum couldn't undock with his troops. Now in all fairness, it seems like few of the current CSM 6 members have seen any pvp action on their main characters in a simliar time frame (The Mittani, Seleene, Two Step, Meissa, any of them really), but there's really no reason not fight RVB in this case at least. Both organizations are in favor of good, clean pvp even if it can be a bit blobby among other things.

Riverini is just terribad. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate EN24 to some extent, and at least by killboard stats, he seems to be a decent pilot. But anyone who has read EN24 for more than a week or so know its biased as hell, and that Riverini is the guy who at least considered bringing us the How To on Botting. Plus, the other thing is that I don't think you want the politicians running the news papers or vice versa. Overall, Riverini just doesn't seem to have much of a platform, and the bias and lack of direction makes me think that this is just an egotistical push at E-fame. I'll pass. Plus, there's now a thread of why not to like Riverini, although its mostly just for the lolz.

So anyway, I'm still searching, and I have a lot of research to do. A not-so-small part of me still wishes Ripard Teg would run for CSM 7. I think my only reservation would be that it would slow down his blogging/play time, and that would mean less enjoyment for all. Oh well, that's the way life is. Anyway, I'll keep everyone posted and update as I make a decision.

Eve Blog a Day #020: What's Your Eve Persona?
First of all, a quick kudos to the Eve team for the new website. As I said before, it makes Eve feel new again, and that is a great thing. I took the Personality test, and here's the result:

Pirate was followed by freedom fighter and bounty hunter respectively. So it sounds pretty clear that I should be in lowsec soon, right? Well, yes actually. I'm still very much enjoying RVB, and in fact this weekend was quite a busy one for me. At the end of the day though, RVB can still sometimes be too constructed, and too many are afraid to get off station or out of the 10-25 man standard fleet composition of frigates, cruisers and BCs. I'd really like to get more into lowsec pvp for a few reasons. For one, in generally seems less blob-oriented. There is a lot of solo and small gang pvp to be had from what I've seen. Also, the ease of mobility is a plus. I can run to or from high sec without much problem to reship/resupply and there are no bubbles or anything in the way. That's definitely appealing to me. So we'll see where it goes. My goals in Eve can change quite a bit, but I know its certainly aligned with some sort of pvp for the rest of my career. 

A big thanks to Poetic Stanziel for the Blog a Day initiative!