Lowering Registration Post Count Requirement Amendment

[Emsworth]

Lowering Registration Post Count Requirement Amendment

Article V, Section 2, Clause 1 of the Atlasian Constitution is amended to read as follows:

A person may become a registered voter if he has attained twenty-five posts at the forum. In registration, the person must state his name and State of fantasy residence; in addition, he may optionally state a political affiliation.

Sponsor: Sen. Ebowed

[MasterJedi]

I strongly support this because a lot of newbies have a hard time getting to 50 posts. Yes pellaken did it but a lot of people won't be doing it the way he did.

[Ebowed]

I agree with the honorable Senator MasterJedi (but that's why I proposed this in the first place ).  There are a lot of newbies who make constructive, insightful posts and only post a few times a day.  However they can't register to vote in the Fantasy Elections (or have their registration be valid, rather) until they've racked up 50 posts.

Such a high limit actually encourages spamming, in my view.  We have seen that with pellaken.

[WiseGuy]

I support this bill, and urge Senators Q and Ebowed to vote aye.

[Q]

I support this bill, and urge Senators Q and Ebowed to vote aye.

As of this time, I am planning to vote that way.

[Colin]

I will never support this. I lived through the time in which inactives, avatar voters, and pocket votes ruled Atlasia. I saw how it could determine elections throughout the country. When we had it at 18 posts their was an enormous amount of electoral fraud due to the fact that it was easy to register people. Their was a whole platoon of the "red avatar squad" which just came out to vote and barely had any posts. I believe that lowering this again could lead to a situation much like the latter half of last year. I believe that such a "lowering" of the standards could lead to a dangerous wave of trolls and inactives who could just turn into another red avatar squad, although they might not be leftists they could be the yellow avatar squad for all I know. It is because of these facts that I was one of the first members of the Raise the Standards coalition and why I am standing against this Amendment now.

[Defarge]

The "Red Avatar squad" was a child of the Presidential Election.  Come 2008, the same will occur once again.  The "Red Avatar Squad" stopped voting, not because of the increase in standards, but because of distance from the presidential election.  Lowering the standards right now would have little effect on avatar voting.

Today, with the number of new posters rapidly decreasing, I think it's fair to lower the post count requirement.  The voter rolls have been staying dissapointingly stagnant over the months since the Presidential election.  Why not lower the posting requirements?

[Ebowed]

I agree with the honorable Sen. from District 1.  Having such a high requirement at this low point in Atlasian activity is pointless.  Furthermore, as I have pointed out, this requirement actually encourages spamming.  Pellaken is a testament to that.

[Gabu]

Having seen the antics of pellaken, I personally agree that this requirement does not appear to do what it's supposed to do.  I think that the "25 posts eight weeks before the election" rule is much better at preventing tomatosouping than the initial post requirement.

[MasterJedi]

Since it has been 3 days since this bills introduction and over 24 hours with no debate can we get a vote on this bill?

[Emsworth]

The question is on final passage of this Amendment; all those in favor, say Aye; those opposed, say No.

[Ebowed]

Yea.

[MasterJedi]

Aye

[DanielX]

Aye

[Q]

Aye

[Gabu]

Aye.

[Defarge]

Aye

[MasterJedi]

This has passed, great!

[Emsworth]

This has passed, great!

One more vote needed for a two-thirds majority

[MasterJedi]

This has passed, great!

One more vote needed for a two-thirds majority

Bah, forgot about that.

[True Democrat]

Aye, though not enthusiastically.  I'm not too excited about this bill, but we should try it out.

[Emsworth]

There being a two-thirds majority in favor, Senators have 24 hours to vote or change their votes.

[Defarge]

Aye

[Emsworth]

There have voted:
Aye: 8
No: 0

The amendment has passed, and is proposed to the regions for ratification.

[A18]

I support this amendment. I was going to register, but I don't think I have enough posts.