RFC: Change in Discord Campaigning Rules

[Kade]

Hi All,

The Electoral Commission is interested in revising the election rules, specifically discord rule #1 which states:

1. All Discord campaigning must be limited to the #campaign-channel on the main UDS Discord server.

It was raised during the last election cycle that candidates felt they could not respond to direct messages sent from other citizens to them about their campaigns. I provided the following interpretation confirming this:

A: Campaigning via DM is not allowed per election rules, discord rule #1. The commission believes that replying to questions sent from citizens via DM is OK and does not violate the spirit of discord rule #1 —kwv

The founder raised - and I agree - that limiting discord that heavily may impact future turnout and dialogue between citizens and candidates.

A proposed change is as follows, additions are marked in bold text and removals are marked in strikethrough

1. All Discord election campaigning must be limited to the #campaign-channel on the main UDS Discord server. Campaigning is defined as messages initiated by a candidate attempting to persuade people to vote for them or support their platform.
2. Candidates may respond to direct messages sent FROM citizens TO candidates.

There is no "close time" but I would welcome feedback in a timely (72 hr) period.

 

[We The People]

Seems reasonable provided that campaigning in obviously inappropiate channels(such as the the Senate chambers) is prohibited

 

[Druing]

i don't see the change.

 

[Zukchiva]

Seems fine

 

[Glaciosia]

IMO, dm campaigning is fine, if we'll controlled and subtle.

 

[Phoenix]

Sure, why not.

 

[moe]

What are some examples where we think that it would be appropriate/more beneficial to DM candidates questions rather than ask in the campaign channel, or the platform thread, where the response would be available for all to see?

I'm also a little wary of possible loopholes -- e.g. if someone DMs something like "Good luck on the election", would that be an invitation to campaign/convince them to vote for me?

 

[Josephto]

So, if I understand correctly, we can’t canvass, but we can respond?

 

[Kade]

So, if I understand correctly, we can’t canvass, but we can respond?

Well, the broader intent of this was to ask "is this something as a community we want to allow" or keep it not allowed?

 

[Glaciosia]

There was a decent amount of precedent for DM campaigning, and I think it never really caused an issue

 

[Josephto]

Yeah, we canvass for votes on bills all the time, why couldn’t we for elections? It’s just like politicians going door to door in the run up to Election Day.

 

[Kade]

I appreciate the feedback offered from the citizenry. To summarize, I believe there is sufficient support to request DM campaigning. I would propose the following rules change instead:

1. Candidates may directly message citizens while campaigning in an election.
2. All other Discord campaigning (e.g. not conducted over 1:1 direct message) must be limited to the #campaign-channel on the main UDS Discord server.

Would appreciate feedback to confirm this is the intent of the community.

..k

 

[Druing]

I appreciate the feedback offered from the citizenry. To summarize, I believe there is sufficient support to request DM campaigning. I would propose the following rules change instead:


Would appreciate feedback to confirm this is the intent of the community.

..k

i feel like this might encourage mass canvassing. i would try to limit it, even if a little, so that it doesn't potentially drive people away every time an election rears

 

[Josephto]

I disagree. Part of politics is talking to voters one on one so that their elected representatives understand what issues concerns the voter.

 

[moe]

Ok, so...I'm a little biased because I'm in Europeia and we've had like a huge huge huge huge debate on this "get out the vote" thing. I generally tend to support it, but I also think there's a simplicity to what we have here, and some benefits as well.

The fact is, I think in most situations, the members who have been around for a while and actively read platforms probably won't be swayed too much by a DM message. And while I think it originally starts out with that intention of connecting with people in the community, once it starts, it's more about maximizing all votes possible, and it's kind of a rat race to reach out to as many people as you can -- even if it's people who are otherwise inactive or haven't followed the campaign. And usually these conversations go along the line of a DM message saying "Hey, I'm running for this, please vote for me!", which isn't super substantial and can kind of be annoying to get if you already know who you're voting for.

These are mostly generalizations, but that's what I feel like this would lead to. If people want to try it, I'm all for it, but I just wanted to offer up my experiences in this issue.