Polling Standards Commission (PSC)

Donovan Zoi · Sep 5, 2005

People of Fanatikos,

In the interest of fairness and clarity to all citizens, I hereby announce the foundation of the Polling Standards Commission. This citizen group has been established by your President to help ensure that our citizens can make informed decisions on all matters that shape our nation.

I am looking for a panel of no more than six citizens, including myself. If you would like to assist in the composition and enforcement of the guidelines for our future polls, please express your interest in this thread.

Respectfully,

Donovan Zoi
President of Fanatikos

------------

The members of the Polling Standards Commission are:

Donovan Zoi
ravensfire
DaveShack
greekguy
Black_Hole
Strider

------------

A Proposal

In order to make the transition to new standards easier to bear for all, I propose that a Poll Template be kept in our Polls Forum for easy access. This template will allow all officials to insert their information into a pre-made format, instead of needing to worry about too much pomp and circumstance.

Your feedback will be appreciated.

Donovan Zoi · Sep 5, 2005

The duty of the Polling Standards Commission is to help all citizens understand and implement proper polling procedure, based on current law.

Our Constitution states:

Article J. Will of the Assembly
Elected Officials must plan and act according to the Will of the Assembly. The Will of the Assembly is the aggregate wish of the citizens of our Fanatikos. It is determined by unanimity in a completed discussion, or by the majority vote in an official poll.

Our Code of Laws states:

Section J.1 Polling Standards
Polls posted by an elected official on an area they control are considered official and binding unless specifically stated otherwise. Polls posted by citizens, by officials outside their area or by officials in their area explicitly noted as such are considered unofficial, and do not bind officials in any way. Officials should, however, take such polls into account during planning.

The description and initial post for all official polls should be stated in a clear and neutral manner.

The initial post should contain a link to all relevant discussion threads. Each option should be explained if not immediately clear. The time frame for the poll, and how the results will be interpreted should also be in the initial post.

All official polls must be open for a minimum of 24 hours to be binding. They are strongly encouraged to be open for at least 3 days.

Official polls should be flagged as Public unless directly concerning another Citizen.

ravensfire · Sep 5, 2005

Please reference the Code of Laws section on polling. Yes, it's in there.

-- Ravensfire

Donovan Zoi · Sep 5, 2005

Thank you, Ravensfire. Well then, this shall be a group to help monitor those activites that fall within our laws. I will update the first post soon.

Are you interested in joining the cause?

ravensfire · Sep 5, 2005

I knew I shoulda just kept my mouth shut ...

Sure!

-- Ravensfire

DaveShack · Sep 5, 2005

I will volunteer for this August body.

Wait, it's September. Well, anyway I'll still volunteer. :lol:

greekguy · Sep 5, 2005

i'm sure i can help out every now and then. just somehting else to balance between my city, my paper, the info office, and my real life.

EDIT: just to be sure, this means i'm signing up...

Donovan Zoi · Sep 5, 2005

Welcome, DaveShack and ravensfire!

Knowing your past contributions to Fanatikos, I am honored to have you as part of the team.

Ravensfire, you will be happy to note that I have updated our introductory posts to recognize our current laws. Thank you for correcting me on my 2am blunder.

Black_Hole · Sep 5, 2005

If you guys need someone else I'm in

Strider · Sep 5, 2005

I'm willing to join. This is most likely based off of my comments anyway.

Donovan Zoi · Sep 5, 2005

Strider said:
I'm willing to join. This is most likely based off of my comments anyway.

Tell you what, Strider. I'll give you credit for the idea if you give me credit for the implementation.

Welcome aboard!

Also, welcome to greekguy and Black_Hole!

It seems that this citizen response already puts us over my proposed roster limit. So we shall start with a panel of six.

Strider · Sep 5, 2005

Donovan Zoi said:
Tell you what, Strider. I'll give you credit for the idea if you give me credit for the implementation. Welcome aboard!

I thought you'd jump at the oppertunity to give me the credit and the blame. :lol:

Anyway, that was just an observation.

Donovan Zoi · Sep 5, 2005

Strider said:
I thought you'd jump at the oppertunity to give me the credit and the blame.

Anyway, that was just an observation.

Didn't think of that angle. Guess we should wait to see how this shakes out, eh?

Strider · Sep 6, 2005

Might as well get discussion started...

So... stove-top Ramen noodle or Instant Microwave Ramen Noodle?

Seriously, before we start shooting bullets at eachother, while claiming they have ideas written on them in small font. Let's try to agree on a set of goals that the polling standards should contain. I'll start it off:

Flexibility
Clarity
Detail
Summarizations (first person to tell me it's not a word gets there toes removed and forced fed them)

greekguy · Sep 6, 2005

One thing I think we should definitely do is that everytime a poll comes out and there is something wrong with it, a PSC panelist should post what is wrong with it, why it is wrong, and how to fix it in the future.

Black_Hole · Sep 6, 2005

Strider said:
Might as well get discussion started...

So... stove-top Ramen noodle or Instant Microwave Ramen Noodle?

Seriously, before we start shooting bullets at eachother, while claiming they have ideas written on them in small font. Let's try to agree on a set of goals that the polling standards should contain. I'll start it off:

Flexibility
Clarity
Detail
Summarizations (first person to tell me it's not a word gets there toes removed and forced fed them)

well http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Summarizations
Summarization is the act of summarizing, and verbs aren't meant to be made plural

Shall I get a sharp knife?

DaveShack · Sep 6, 2005

The only real power this commission seems to have in its power is to educate the citizens on how to conduct good polling, and what to expect in a poll. We can try to influence repolling if a really bad poll comes along.

In defense of Strider's vocabulary, you need a slightly better dictionary.

One entry found for summarization.
Main Entry: sum·ma·ri·za·tion
Pronunciation: "s&-m&-r&-'zA-sh&n, "s&m-r&-
Function: noun
1 : the act of summarizing
2 : SUMMARY

Merriam-Webster Online

Civlord · Sep 6, 2005

Thanks for the link DaveShack. I also need a dictionary.

Donovan Zoi · Sep 7, 2005

greekguy said:
One thing I think we should definitely do is that everytime a poll comes out and there is something wrong with it, a PSC panelist should post what is wrong with it, why it is wrong, and how to fix it in the future.

I think that greekguy pretty much sums up our mission in a nutshell. Since there are six of us and we all vote, there should be no problem in carrying out this task.

The one thing I would like to add to this is the development of a poll template that any citizen can use. All they would have to do is paste their info over the generic prompts in the template.

For instance:

Sponsored by Department Name

can be easily changed to

Sponsored by Foreign Affairs Ministry

This should save the pollster a significant amount of time and will lead to more consistent polling for our nation. I will try to work out a rough draft sometime this week.

Strider said:
Might as well get discussion started...

So... stove-top Ramen noodle or Instant Microwave Ramen Noodle?

Seriously, before we start shooting bullets at eachother, while claiming they have ideas written on them in small font. Let's try to agree on a set of goals that the polling standards should contain. I'll start it off:

Flexibility
Clarity
Detail
Summarizations (first person to tell me it's not a word gets there toes removed and forced fed them)

As ravensfire has pointed out, our standards are pretty much our laws so we should have to use too much thought here.

If you are going for something else here, I may be missing it. Can you please explain further if you are proposing anything beyond what is stated in the Code of Laws?

Black_Hole · Sep 7, 2005

a poll template eh?

{Question}
Sponsored by {Department Name/Title}

Options
1. {Option - Explanation if Nessecary}
2. {Option - Explanation if Nessecary}
3. {Option - Explanation if Nessecary}
4. Other
5. Abstain

{Screenshot (If Nessecary)}

Discussion

Note: This poll will be open for {hours} hours and is {public/private}.

The above is pretty simple, but it will stop polls like:

Do you approve of building here?

Polling Standards Commission (PSC)

The Return

The Return

Member of the Opposition

The Return

Member of the Opposition

Inventor

Missed the Boat

The Return

Deity

In Retrospect

The Return

In Retrospect

The Return

In Retrospect

Missed the Boat

Deity

Inventor

King

The Return

Deity

Similar threads