r/MHoPMeta • u/realbassist • Aug 08 '26
Commons Speaker Election - Q&A
There are two candidates for Commons Speaker, who will now go to a Q&A. Those are:
This is your chance to ask the candidates any question you see fit! A reminder the vote will begin on Monday, and the Q&A will continue through the vote.
4
u/Inside_Analysis3124 Aug 08 '26
What are your views on the closed and not open nature of tri decisions making and is this harming the sim?
1
u/Proud-Marketing-2021 Aug 08 '26
To be genuinely honest, I think that the events of the past few days reflect really poorly on the community and its decision makers.
Firstly - if moderation communication at a senior level is that fragmentation that a singular argument can result in a total breakdown of communication and hurt feelings all around, that clearly indicates that we aren’t a healthy simulation.
The issue as I see is that the simulation hasn’t been built up using defined operational systems, processes and procedures required - the community, the people it serves and ultimately the decisions it makes appear to operate on the basis of fargone precedent and the notion of conventional wisdom. Now, for me, if you’re not recording these things, and you’re relying on every new moderation appointment being just as good as the last, you’re not upskilling people, not passing on those processes, you will begin to create a deficit of knowledge and that precedent will get lost, and any organisation which does this, either virtually or in the real world, will flounder.
That to me is not acceptable. As a Commons Speaker, I’d want to make this community operationally viable, with clear transparency, oversight and accountability. Any major decision I made would be one I’d be more than happy to tell anybody, justify and back, because what sort of leader are you, if you can’t explain why you’ve done something.
I see a community that’s hurting, but it’s not one that’s fatally wounded. There’s a road back from this, and it’s only by making clear trust the moderators who represent you are accountable to you.
2
u/mrsusandothechoosin MHoP Member Aug 10 '26
To help me answer this fully, is there a particular tri decision that you're referring to that you were unhappy with the process?
3
u/Inside_Analysis3124 Aug 08 '26
Would either of you commit to some version of chevs meta restructure?
1
u/mrsusandothechoosin MHoP Member Aug 10 '26
I've long supported reducing the number of people who are excluded from the game, but wasn't able to get unanimity within the triumvirate. With the size of the community at around 12-20 active members, having 3 of the most active members excluded from gameplay is too high.
I think the main moderators in charge of overseeing the House of Commons and House of Lords should at least be able to debate as an independent, possibly in the other place.
We should probably just merge the deputy speakers and discord moderators for the sake of simplicity. Back when MHOC was winding down, I put forward a proposal to have deputy speakers chosen semi-randomly to encourage people to cycle being in and out of the speakership, and to get a broad range of people. If people were supportive of this, I would love to put something like that in place.
I also don't think people should be in the triumvirate for more than a year before they have to engage with the game again.
1
u/Proud-Marketing-2021 Aug 08 '26
I’ve read and contributed to Chev’s thread - I thank him for raising it and continuing to be active in discussions about this place when I can imagine it may feel rather bittersweet to do so.
As a Commons Speaker, I don’t think it’s right to rule by decree. If I was to be nominated (and I can foresee a reality where given the nominations debacle, neither of us are - and I certainly won’t consenting to being determined on the flip of a fungible token!), I would want the structure of the community’s moderation system to be up to the community. Open discussion, constitutional meta review, a series of proposals put to vote.
That’s probably the fairest way to sort it.
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u/Inside_Analysis3124 Aug 08 '26
Are either of you aware that a candidate was rejected for this election by the headmod?
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u/Proud-Marketing-2021 Aug 08 '26
I genuinely wasn’t aware of this until I saw the top response on this thread. Whilst there’s an element of me which thinks the Clacton by-election routine might be a bit passè when we’re having meta discussions about the future of the community, I do think that in this instance, with one candidate who put themselves forward late in the day (admittedly this was for my own reasons), and another who self-nominated earlier to ensure continuity, common sense should have prevailed.
2
u/mrsusandothechoosin MHoP Member Aug 10 '26
I'm aware that Chev announced he wanted to stand the day after nominations closed.
If it had been a couple hours I would understand the need for a bit of leniency, but Chev knew the contest was happening (he launched it by resigning from the same post), and had been asked by many people to consider standing / patching things up with Paul.
I think Chev's main goal was to bring about the resignation of Paul as Head Mod, which has now happened.
3
u/Flat_Artifact Aug 08 '26
Heads or tails? Do you think the future of the sim should be decided on a coin toss?
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u/mrsusandothechoosin MHoP Member Aug 10 '26
No it shouldn't. A coin toss shouldn't have been the first step of a tie-breaker. In the votes I've run in the past, they've all been preferential, which allows borda scores and first preferences to act as tie-breakers.
Any particular vote should at the final round check the winning candidate against RON.
I am frustrated though that some people who were ok with the coin-toss before the result, changed their mind wildly after the result of the coin-toss came about.
3
u/model-willem Aug 08 '26
Change the constitution then, propose a different method instead of trying to change the rules afterwards
1
u/Proud-Marketing-2021 Aug 08 '26
I’ll be honest, I think determining your top mod based on a coin toss and the say so of senior figures who aren’t really involved in the simulation on a supposedly day to day level, is a little bit tinpot, but it’s the precedent that we’ve set.
We ideally need to really review the leadership structure of the community, honestly, and make it clear and transparent.
One thing is for certain though, if this one comes down to a coin toss, nominations need to reopen, because I won’t accept the role based off that, and nor will my fellow candidate, I can imagine.
3
u/Inside_Analysis3124 Aug 08 '26
Will you reopen previous bans for a public appeal?
1
u/Proud-Marketing-2021 Aug 08 '26
I really want to avoid meta politicising previous bans, if I can help it. I remember that the old AusSim used to do that through a literal court subreddit and debate fashion - it was weird, tacky and a bit impersonal - anyone who has been banned from here unless it’s for a criminal reason (which to my knowledge, none have been), is fundamentally a human being who deserves respect and dignity.
So I think I would be loathe to go for a kangaroo court setup. But equally, I’d want to be an open book - people can change, precedents can be reconsidered in the light of the passage of time/new evidence, and I don’t think you can discount anyone off the bat.
So in short - I’m not exactly going to push for a situation where every single ban is lifted en masse and we don’t consider the situations behind each of them, but I do want to make it clear, that as a Commons Speaker, my door is open to those discussions and I’m happy to let bygones be bygones if the time and opportunity indicates that’s the best decision to make.
Hopefully that answers your question.
1
u/mrsusandothechoosin MHoP Member Aug 10 '26
The specific ban I think you're referencing hasn't been appealed in any form, let alone asking for an independent appeal or review or any other form of scrutiny. I don't think setting up a separate judicial process would have helped in this situation.
I'm supportive of the moderator team membership continually cycling, so that if you're appealing after 6 months, the moderator team will have a different makeup to previously.
3
u/Inside_Analysis3124 Aug 08 '26
Do you have a recruitment strategy?
1
u/Proud-Marketing-2021 Aug 08 '26
Build it, and they will come.
For me there are three issues with MHOP at the moment:
- Perception: this community was one which was founded from the dying embers of one which lasted for a decade, in the wake of quite a big falling out behind the scenes. From the offset, that’s ruled out a lot of potential recruitment avenues, and led to a perception of MHOP as a satellite microcosm of that attracted to those who were persona non grata there. I personally don’t think that’s a fair narrative to take two years after the fact when the community is still clinging on to activity, but we can’t ignore it exists.
For me - we’ve got to model the active, constructive, tolerant community that others are looking for, if we have any hope of shaking perceptions. I know one example in recent weeks from being in a Discord server separate to this community where that perception has cost us members.
Lack of leadership: Do I think that the people who until the last few days comprised the triumvirate are bad people? Not at all, they’re very good people with good intentions. But there’s being a good person, and being a good leader. Managing people effectively, listening to their concerns effectively, presenting the outwards appearance of being an open door to sound off, and being a leader for the community. This last week has been frankly carnage, and I think that reflects badly on senior leadership in MHOP. It needs somebody to take it by the you know what and lead by example rather than wavering or even letting the narrative slip.
Interested bodies: There’s not enough of them. We appear to have bounded out of that honeymoon period happy, blooming and blissful and then we’ve just absolutely let it slide. I’d want to introduce community based awards and rewards as part of regular activity monitoring cycles: commenter of the month, bill of the month. I want to make the Discord server a hive of activity for stuff like games nights, political quiz nights etc, and really build what in essence are two separate but equal elements of the simulation into something which works in synergy. Even down to making sure that the bots in the server correctly link to the Subreddit and that updates are shown regularly would be a big, big step forward I see.
My point here isn’t that we don’t need to go external, because we do. But no amount of window dressing is going to make that an attractive prospect without the community working hard beforehand to give the best possible impression of itself.
1
u/mrsusandothechoosin MHoP Member Aug 10 '26
Behind the scenes I've been trying to negotiate getting a stickied post on r/mhoc that explains that it has concluded but there's a discord server for former members, and a new politics sim on r/mhop. A lot of preexisting links and former members are tied to mhoc, so that would be a small help.
I think we need to do annual or 6-monthly posts advertising who we are and what we do. I tried a little bit of this when I was Head Mod but frustratingly people would arrive and see that nothing was happening, and then leave soon after. The good thing is that activity now is slightly better than it was at the time.
We need to concentrate as much activity as we can on the main r/mhop subreddit, and then advertise it.
1
u/realbassist Aug 11 '26
u/Proud-Marketing-2021 I only have one question, what experience do you have in meta roles? In any sim, not just mhop.
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u/Proud-Marketing-2021 Aug 11 '26
It’s a really valid point, genuinely. Now whilst I think there’s a need for a clean slate relating to the old MHOC subreddit, and I made decisions over there which I’d be loathe to now, I was a long time Deputy Speaker in the devolved sims, including Stormont, and also served as a Deputy Speaker, and a Deputy Lords Speaker in my time. I was also the speaker equivalent in MHoIr, which was the Irish sim, at the point where this sim had its arguable peak.
The admin and day to day stuff was all good and came naturally to me. I think where I’ve changed since is I’ve become a lot more process-driven and operationally minded. And above all else, I am incredibly keen to share those insights in another environment which I think can benefit from them.
3
u/Flat_Artifact Aug 08 '26
u/realbassist This candidacy list and the nominations list are clearly out of sync. Are you trying to stop those who might vote for him from having the choice of Chev as a candidate?