Endorsed Members: Voting Requirement

[Deleted]

Are there currently any requirements to vote?    If not I'd like to propose that we consider requiring all members with an endorsed costume to vote for all new Endorsement Requests.    It would add legitimacy and some responsibility to the role of being a full fledged member of the group.

I found it odd that some costumes got 20 votes and other costumes got 14 votes total in the recent wave of endorsements.   Even if you choose "Vote Saxon" I feel like everyone should be voting for everyone one way or another.

A member could simply post in the voting thread confirming that they have voted as a way to confirm they have met their need.   

Thoughts?

[mrclever]

I can't figure out how to vote. But I only have access via mobile.

[Deleted]

It's also possibly that they haven't actually had the opportunity to turn your post into a poll yet. It has to be converted over by an officer I believe. It took about 24 hours for mine.

[mrclever]

I figured it out - can't do it on the mobile. Well, I can't anyway. but I voted for all the cool costumes via the computer. ( not my own of course…)

[mrclever]

Thank you for your quick reply though!
I am trying to vote for every costume I see.

[coleenriver]

requiring all endorsed members to vote is harder than you think. If you look at the list of endorsed members, there are some who have not been online for months.

[MadMadamMissy]

We can't require people to be on the boards daily. That turns a hobby into an obligation. Did your costume get more yet votes than no? Great. That's all you need to worry about.

[Deleted]

It has nothing at all to do with my costume, morrigoon. Also, it wouldn't require everyone to be on the boards daily, it would require people to check in once every 4 days, which honestly I don't feel is an unreasonable expectation for a high level member of a group.

My concern is two fold.

Firstly, if you are asking the community as a whole to take the time to come on to the forum to vote for your costume for endorsement then shouldn't you want to extend the same courtesy?

Secondly, please correct me if I am wrong, but aren't we combining being endorsed with a higher level of membership. Shouldn't higher levels of membership come both with higher perks, but also higher obligation?

If that isn't the case then it seems we should separate an endorsed costume from being anything other than just an endorsed costume.

Again, if my understandings of the membership levels are incorrect I apologize I just think it's strange to see people running for Sector Leaders not establishing any presence with all the new people and less than 20% of the member base voting on things. It makes endorsement (and if the trend continues the upcoming elections) have far less meaning.

[MadMadamMissy]

You don't need to apologize for sharing an idea, nothing wrong with running it up a flagpole and seeing who salutes I'm sorry if my tone came off wrong, sometimes my writing is brutally brief because I often type on a phone.

[smartpenguin78]

The "some members haven't been online for months" is potentially an issue itself.
I don't think there should be a requirement to vote on every single costume. (Especially no with the number and timeframe so as they are set right now) but I thin Geeklectic makes a good point with reward to responsibility.

If "full members" are not around for months and months at a time, are they really still a part of the group? If you never participate, never endorsement and never help others or advertise the group, how are you promoting the order and representing as a voting member thereof?

If the ultimate ideal is to function as a costuming club and also as a group to represent who fandom at events, etc. then I feel like these issues need to be looked at again with fresh eyes.

[mrclever]

I agree.

I like the idea of having added responsibility if you are an endorsed member. If you as a member want something "special" like endorsement or something like it, I think it's fair to give back to the group somehow.
But I'm new, so I may be totally out of line.

[The Valeyard]

I don't think you're out of line. If I may, however, in my experience, forcing people to vote generally means that those individuals will not vote. At any rate, come November of this year only Endorsed Members will be able to vote on Costume Endorsements. We delayed it to give ourselves more time, to get folks used to the system, and to have a large enough body of endorsed membership to constitute a fair quorum.

[Deleted]

I do agree that "required voting" is a bit much, but if we were to do something like extend the period of voting for Endorsements to even 7 days I don't think it's unreasonable in that case to expect all members to check the forums once a week. Voting doesn't really take long providing that the person follows instructions and put up good pictures, provides a reference etc.

Even if we just add something to the effect of "Members with endorsed costumes are encouraged to vote on all endorsement requests in order to justify the rank that comes with an Endorsed costume"?

[Blue Rainman]

Maybe not so much required voting, but an activity expectation (i.e. certain amount 'n' activity every month/quarter)?

[The Valeyard]

There are a small number of perks involved with being an Endorsed member, not least of which being the right to stand for most offices. In m opinion, a required vote would be self defeating, at least at this stage.

As for the activity requirement, logging an activity per a defined amount of time isn't unreasonable I think.