Vote Takers Wanted

[Ron Asbestos Dippold]

Here's the situation... I'm going to be taking on an increasing number
of votes, especially in view of recent problems. With UseVote and
some multiple vote extensions I wrote for it, no problem. It's mostly
a scheduling matter. However, there are a couple obvious points:

a) Don't put all your eggs in one basket. I'm sure that if I were
paralyzed from the neck down I'd manage to log in and compute with my
tongue, but how about vacations and possible problems? It's good to
distribute things.

b) This creates a dependency, if only in the amount of work being
offloaded. I'm not going to be able to do this forever. My election
as president for instance, or my selection by the conference of
Cardinals. It's good to have others who can take the load in such a
case.

c) As with b, it's good to always have plenty of people who can run
a vote if need be, so you need a constant supply.

That said, I'm looking for people who are interested in possibly
running one or more votes in the future for a Volunteer Votetaker Pool
(we'll come up with a snappier name later) of those who are willing to
run votes. I'd coordinate the actual vote with the vote proposer and
pump them for all the information, then hand it off to some vote taker
who wants it, or handle the vote myself, depending on loads. New
volunteers would run a single vote first, then single or multiple
votes depending on what they wanted to do.

Qualifications:

a) Need a stable, regular, and fast mail connection.

b) Need to run UseVote or be willing to do the equivalent (generate
fast mail Acks which indicate how vote was counted, comprehensive
duplicate detection, and other fun stuff). If you're running a fairly
standard Unix, my shell scripts will make things a lot easier for you.

c) If running UseVote, you need a C compiler.

d) Be fairly punctual about the schedule (3 CFVs, 2 ack lists, 1
result) for a vote once you've committed to it.

e) Be able to refrain from influencing a vote or giving away vote in
progress information!

f) Have enough disk space to save _all_ raw votes (compressed is fine).

g) It would be nice if you had a separate voting address or can get
one.

h) Preferably have run at least one successful vote (the group might
not have passed, but the vote itself went okay). I'm willing to help
prospective newbie votetakers, but at the moment would prefer to hold
off organizing that.

Your Warranty:

a) It's completely voluntary. Bail out at any time (though it would
be nice if you finished any votes you were involved in, first!).
Refuse any new vote. Run one vote at a time or multiple, whatever is
your speed. Go on indefinite hiatus and rejoin later.

b) Coordination is my problem. Your "paperwork" should be minimal.

c) It isn't a dictatorship. This is new to me, too. You've got
significant input on suggested procedures, and there are only a few
"musts," such as the mail acknowledgements.

What You Get Out of It:

a) What you get out of any volunteer work. You are directly
contributing to the direction of Usenet's growth. Ease your guilt
about your postings going to sites all around the world and costing
hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.

b) You get to help the people interested in a worthy newgroup.

c) Save the net from the aftermath of such recent fiascos as SRIA or
the initial startrek reorganization. Don't worry - the RFD process
will keep the entertainment value in news.groups high, along with
those who still do their own votes and fudge them. In a recent
proposal, the proposers got a votetaker to run the vote. The vote
went on for the prescribed time, then the votetaker disappeared. No
results, nothing, and the proposal just died. This is just waste all
around.

d) Help voters avoid the inconvenience of votes cancelled or corrected
due to (perfectly honest) mistakes by newbie votetakers.

e) Both of the above reduce the work of the news.announce.newgroup
moderator, allowing him more time to deal with real problems.

f) If you think you might want to coordinate another vote or reorg
later, this is an excellent way to prep for it.

g) You could do all the above by yourself, but getting connected with
a proposer can be a logistical problem (and they with you). This way
it's all coordinated - those who want votetakers can find those
willing to be votetakers.

h) Anthony Lest is our Mascot.

i) Purely selfish - you'll be able to look at your news file and see
the groups that _you_ created (no need to disabuse the guy who came up
with the idea and wrote the charter of his delusions).

j) Purely selfish - run enough clean votes and you may be recognized
by other net denizens and netsurfers as a reliable person who
obviously knows the net. And your name will live on in the list of
past group votes. In other words, it can't but help your image unless
you decide to run a crooked vote or flake out.

k) T-shirts?

Again, everything is currently in planning stages (I'm handling all
votes that come our way myself right now), but I'd like to hear from
those who are interested. Indicate whether you're interested in being
part of a mailing list and whether you'd be interested in possibly
running a vote some time in the future. Also how you meet the
qualifications and semi-qualifications. And if you've got a cool idea
for a name, I'm interested.
--
This program posts news to billions of machines throughout the galaxy. Your
message will cost the net enough to bankrupt your entire planet. As a result
your species will be sold into slavery. Be sure you know what you are doing.
Are you absolutely sure you want to do this? [ny]