The 'Shroom:Issue XLV/Pre-Election Analysis

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As many of you can tell, we have an election going on. This election is for selecting the next director of our beloved paper, The 'Shroom. The 'Shroom has seen its ups and downs... Our wonderful leaders, (Director) and  (Sub-director) have tried their best to pull The 'Shroom back up to glory (the paper was enduring extremely hard times in terms of reader and writer participation, among other problems). They have done a tremendous job, and the paper has vastly improved since a year ago from this point in time. However, the site's paper is not in the clear yet: there are still many promises and opportunities that could not be acted on due to the numerous amount of problems that the paper was facing that needed immediate attention.

Neither Stooben Rooben nor Tucayo have expressed interest in running for director this time around (in fact, they've expressed quite the opposite to the Core Staff members). This means that The 'Shroom is closing in on one era and is about to begin a new one. Whoever wins this election will have the power to "make it or break it." The candidate that pulls out victorious in this election will chart the course for the future.

This section was made before the release of the December 2010 issue&mdash; this means that it is a pre-election report. This special section (a collaboration between, , and ) is designed to increase voter awareness as well as to predict the list of potentially prominent candidates that could show up.

Before we move on to our commentary about this election, we would like to cover the results and circumstances surrounding past elections.

Director Election of December 2007
The Director Election of December 2007 (although it is commonly said to have happened in December 2007, it actually took place in January 2008). , the director from September 2007 to January 2008, was retiring from the Super Mario Wiki. Not liking how new directors were put in place (the Editor in Chief would be thrown into the position of director upon the retirement or resignation of the outgoing director), he held off until he could think of a suitable way to have new directors appointed. Plumber considered his options, and favored a more democratic approach to the situation&mdash; Thus, the first Director Election was held.

Director Election of December 2008
After a huge victory, Glowsquid became the next director of The 'Shroom. After a while, the paper's quality (and quantity of sections) decreased extremely; mostly due to the fact that a majority of writers either retired or went inactive and got fired. The only writers that were remaining often turned in their sections late (which even lead to one of the issues being released significantly late). Despite his best efforts, Glowsquid was unable to prevent what many consider the worst time in 'Shroom history (a proposal to cancel The 'Shroom was even created, which ended up failing). In the Director Election of 2008, Glowsquid decided not to run again, although Marcelagus (the first sub-director, who served under Glowsquid) threw her hat into the ring. The voters, however, decided to change things up a bit and (after the hugest voter turnout in any Director Election so far) elected another candidate (who was the Fake News director at the time).

Director Election of December 2009
The voters were heard. Stooben knew that The 'Shroom needed improvement, and vowed that he would. Upon his winning, he appointed Tucayo to sub-director. After a few issues, Stooben had to switch with Tucayo due to a busy schedule. The two constantly switched from being director to being sub-director after every few issues, and although some confusion was caused over the matter, the two still worked together well and got quite a bit done. The Fun Stuff section was turned into a team, and the new Music & Artwork and Pipe Plaza teams were added during their tenures. The amount of sign-ups and writers were solid in the beginning, but dramatically decreased towards November and December, and even more so for a certain period of time after the election. Plagiarism also became a slight issue, but was resolved almost immediately after it was discovered. Election time came, and not everybody knew what to expect. Stooben Rooben and Tucayo both ran their second election, and Super Mario Bros. decided to give it a shot (although at first a ridiculed joke campaign, he turned his campaign into one that would have great influence on the election and the way The 'Shroom would be handled for the next year).

Poll Chairperson Election 2010
Sunday, 23 May 2010 &mdash; a proposal concerning several changes to our current Main Page was accepted by the community and passed. This proposal can be viewed here. One point that the proposal addressed was the creation of a Poll committee, a selected group of users to create and select polls to feature on the Main Page. The members of this committee are meant to be selected by a person in charge of the committee, the Poll Committee Chairperson, who shall be elected by the community in an election hosted on The 'Shroom.

There were two candidates in the election that followed&mdash; Super Mario Bros. and. Both users set up their campaigns and announced their plans for the committee. This election is notable for being the only election hosted on The 'Shroom to have one of the candidates receive all of the votes.

Background
Stooben and Tucayo both continued to shape The 'Shroom well into 2010. Stooben, however, went into a state of semi-inactivity in mid-2010, which gave Tucayo more control (and more responsibility) over the paper. During this time, the other Core Staff members (most notably Super Mario Bros., Marioguy1, and Ralphfan) influence also grew. With time passing by, both Stooben and Tucayo have announced that they will most likely not run in the election at the end of the year.

Election Commentary
Tucayo, Super Mario Bros., and Marioguy1 decided to hold a discussion about major potential candidates, and came up with a list (organized alphabetically):

 Hello amazing readers! I want to welcome you to this, the Pre-Election Analysis of the 2010 'Shroom Director Election. I am your current sub-director, and former director, Tucayo, and I am very well accompanied by none other than long-time staff, Super Mario Bros. and Marioguy1! Welcome guys

 Long-time? Me? Oh...hi there!

 A!

 I take that as your greetings.

 Yes. :P

 :)

 Now, we have come together to discuss and analyze next election. First of all, we will talk a little bit about past elections. Let's start with 2007 Election, the election that brought me to The 'Shroom

 Alright.

 As we have seen in the first part of this analysis, this election was won by then-named Blitzwing

 Glowsquid now :3

 Indeed, and, many people have agreed that in that time, The 'Shroom went through its worst point, but that term also brought good things, right SMB?

 Yes, Tucky, that is correct. To explain, Glowsquid's term is notable for being one where many writers quit or didn't do their job (which ended up getting them fired). Most people that ended up doing their job turned in their sections late. However, one great thing that came from this era was the position of "sub-director," which Marcelagus (then known as Garlic Man) was appointed to after suggesting the idea of the position to Glowsquid.

 That is right, one of the best contributions to The 'Shroom, and a very useful in current days. Next, after that year, the 2008 election came, with Stooben, Garlic Man, and me as the contenders. This was easy as pie for Stooby, and this election ended with me being Sub-Director. In these years (2009-2010), many things were accomplished, right Marioguy?

 Yup :) Stooben and Tucky created many sub-teams that are currently existing today, added in many more core staff and increased the amount of users writing for the 'shroom drastically; as well as having several special issues written by guests and staff. In short, they did a good job :D

 Both of the Special Issues are one of the things I feel most proud of. Also, as you mentioned, the number of positions was improved greatly. It went from around 30 to around 60... The end of the year came, and with it, the 2009 election, where the outcome was the same, Stooben proclaiming himself winner. During the last year, there were switches between me and him, so I had already Director experience for this election. SMB also ran, SMB tell us something about your nomination, which was first a joke

<SMB> Aha, yes. I originally felt it would be fun to run a joke campaign just for kicks. But after seeing some comments, I realized that I could run an actual campaign with real suggestions. I then decided to turn my campaign around and shifted gears, and I'm pretty proud of what I did.

<Tucayo> Yes, and actually you ended getting more votes than me. heh... Halfway through the year, we also had a Poll Committee Election, where SMB and MG where the candidates, tell us a little bit about this election, which, by the way has been the only one where a single candidate gets all the votes

<MG1> OK...I guess I'll answer this one. This election was...not in my favor. As Tucky said, one candidate got all the votes and it wasn't me. However the election was still fun. Both candidates were good options and, seeing the current progress of the poll committee, the election was a success

<Tucayo> Still you ended up being in the Committee, which has done an excellent job

<MG1> And SMB hasn't teased me about it to this day :P

<Tucayo> Now, with that we ended about past elections, and now, to this year's election. We have 3 possible candidates, which are, Ralphfan, Marioguy1 and Super Mario Bros. Of course, this is not final, and there may be surprises. First, SMB, can you tell us a little bit about Marioguy's possible nomination? And of course, MG, can you tell us something about the possibilities of you running?

<MG1> Um...OK, well, my last election experience was pretty bad and that tightened my resolve not to run this year. But through comments from several of my friends and me realizing how immature that was being I decided that I would be open to running. So long as I could find some ideas to put forth

<SMB> Sure. I personally think MG1 can be a strong candidate. He has the qualities of a great leader, and he also has a great sense of humor. He can remai level-headed in even the worst of situations, which is why I think that if he plays his cards right in this election... He could definitely pull out victorious.

<Tucayo> And from my experience working with him, he is really active in the staff boards, and in making decisions, which is really important. Also, as a team director he has always done an amazing work, being on time, organized, and all the good qualities needed in a leader. He has been Pipe Plaza director for a long while, alongside Super Mario Bros, who is our next candidate. SMB, any comments on your possibilities? Will you give it another shot? And Marioguy, how do you see SMB's possible nomination?

<MG1> Well, SMB has been an excellent user on the wiki for a long time (~three years) and over that time, he has racked up many positions in the 'shroom, on the wiki, the forums and over at Userpedia. Every time it was up to me to make a decision on him, I said yes because of his amazing ability to think up new, revolutionary ideas which always turn out well in the end. He is very good at thinking ideas, proposing ideas, making them clear and then, once he has proposed an idea, he never backs down from it... Very dilligent, smart and kind person, he would be an awesome director

<Tucayo> I have worked with him some times when he works as Sub-Director, and he does an amazing job. He has even directed one issue, where Stooby and I weren't able too

<MG1> Yes, SMB is always there to fill in a tight spot

<Tucayo> Any comments, SMB?

<SMB> Yes. I'd first like to say that I'm touched by these comments from you both. Thank you both for thinking that way of me, it truly means a lot to me. Secondly, I don't really want to sound like I'm gloating or anything, but I agree with the comment that I'm there to fill in tight spots. But I'd like to point out that almost all of us have been there to help out. I've just had the most opportunities to do so.

<Tucayo> So, you are running for director, right?

<SMB> Most likely, yes.

<Tucayo> And now let's go with our next possible candidate, Ralphfan. Hero of the Fake News, completely reviving it, many users think Ralphfan has a shot at directorhood. How do you see his nomination? I first want to make clear... As far as I remember, he hasn't expressed any interest in running, but it is a possibility

<SMB> Actually, he has told me that he would consider running once or twice. But that is slightly besides the point. I think that Ralph has a great shot at directorhood. Being the "hero of the Fake News" (as you said), he was also Editr in Chief for one month and has directed The Disconnected over at Userpedia for a couple of months now. He is also the Director of the MarioWiki Awads celebration. He has great leadership qualities and tries his best at whatever he gets involved with.

<MG1> Something I noticed during the Disconnected election was that ralphfan had a lot of charisma

<Tucayo> The users certainly like him

<MG1> Yes

<Tucayo> It is something common amongst this year's possible candidates

<MG1> He obviously has excellent leadership qualities, which is why he's a major candidate in this election

<Tucayo> He indeed can win the election, being the great user and co-worker he is. He also accepts other persons opinions easily, he is very open-minded, which is a great quality in a leader. Now, we ended with the most possible candidates... Any thought about less possible candidates? I don't think Stoob will be running for a third time, since he has been really busy

<SMB> I agree. He has told me he probably won't be running this time around

<Tucayo> Now someone else will actually have chances to win haha

<SMB> You, Tucky, would probably get a good following in the election if you end up deciding to run (although you've said many times it is extremely unlikely that you will change your mind on the subject).

<MG1> But with Tucky and St00b probably out of this election, it could be anybody's game

<Tucayo> I was waiting for this part. Yes, as I have said, it is improbable I will run again, but there is a possibility. What could bring me back? Well, I love The 'Shroom, and naturally, I always want to see it succeed, so, if (no offense intended to anyone) I see that a candidate who I think won't do a good job is on the lead, I will run again. Of course, if I don't run, I will always be at the new director orders to do a guest section. But I can tell you from now that I won' be part of the Core Staff if I get invited, sorry

<SMB> Alright.

<Tucayo> And with that, we conclude this Pre-Election Analysis, we hope you liked it. We invite you to vote, or, if you feel like you would be able to, to run for director. From Super Mario Bros., Marioguy1, and myself, Tucayo, thanks, and good night! See you in the Post-Election Analysis. Thanks guys

 *  Tucayo orders his papers and shakes hands as lights fade out