If you’ve been paying attention since the second CSM summit happened, you’ll probably have notice that there’s been some controversy kicked up by a change which is planned for the MER (Monthly Economic Report)

The short version is: Aryth asked for the figures to stop being on a regional basis, out in nullsec, because it exposed information which isn’t available anywhere else; the information being useful for keeping an eye on what people are doing, in a way that can’t be countered.

For a real world parallel, in war-time, people don’t publish their GDP figures.

Was this a self-interest request from Aryth? Yes, of course it was. But just because the person making it has their own interests in mind, doesn’t mean it’s inherently wrong.

When it came up, it was at the tail end of a session, and not extensively discussed. Aryth just asked that it be considered by CCP, and suggested that the data be presented in quadrants for nullsec, rather than regions. Lowering the granularity, rather than total removal.

I fully admit, when this came up, I didn’t put in any arguments against it. I can fully understand where Aryth was coming from, and I was working on the idea that it’d be reduced granularity, rather than total removal. Still allowing for trend analysis, but not letting specific groups be targeted. (Yes, I know there are sub-regional groups out there.)

I didn’t expect the level of backlash against it. (I did expect some. This is eve. Change the color of a couch and you get people saying the sky is falling.)

I have passed along to CCP that people have concerns about this. I’ve probably been a little more combative than I should have been, when asking people why they wanted the data. The why is important, because “Because I want it!” is a very bad argument. As is “Because we used to get it.” (Remember, it’s not me you have to convince. It’s CCP. Who have accepted that Aryth’s request has merit.)

I’m not ignoring you. I have passed on concerns to CCP. What I can’t do is tell you “Things won’t change.” Because the CSM cannot tell CCP what to do. Not one member, not the whole council. All we can do is collate and present the arguments.

You’ll have seen (probably) that the elections for CSM 12 are coming up in the near future (Voting starts on the 6th of March). I’m not going to go into details for what the CSM is (There are resources out there.), or who to vote for (Me, obviously 😉 )

What this post is about is the voting system itself. The elections use what’s known as the Wright Voting System. The key part of the system is that you don’t vote for a single candidate; instead you vote for a number of candidates, in the order you’d like to see them elected.

If your first candidate doesn’t get enough votes to get elected (we’ll get to this), then your entire vote gets transferred to the next on the list. If they get more votes than they need, then part of your vote transfers down. So if they get double the votes, then 50% of your vote transfers (and 50% of everyone else’s who voted for them. All going to the next person who voted)

There’s a quota to get elected. This is the total number of voters, divided by the number of seats plus one, plus one. So if you had 20,000 people voting, and 10 seats, that’s (20000/11)+1 or 1819 votes.

This does make things easier for large blocks, such as Goons, as they don’t need to make sure they split up their votes to make sure they get two people. You can just have people vote a set ballot, and let the system take care of it. If you have enough votes, they just transfer over.

It also makes things easier for more marginal candidates. If they arrange between themselves to have people who support them support someone else too, then the votes aren’t going to be totally wasted.

Here’s the key part: If there aren’t enough people hitting quota in the first round, you knock off the person with the fewest votes, transfer all the votes to the next person on the ballot, and start over. If there were people who only voted for the eliminated person, their vote is ignored, and the quota is recalculated, so you have to hit a slightly lower number.

Ideal world: you vote for the people you’d like to see on the CSM, in the order you’d like to see them elected. If lots of people agree with you, then your vote will help multiple people get elected. If a smaller number (but still enough) agree, then your vote gets one person on.

An example would be: There are five wormhole candidates. None of them would attract the votes to get elected. But if they all have everyone voting for them also vote for the others (in whatever their order they like) then whoever gets the fewest gets eliminated, and the votes redistributed. If there are enough votes to elect 2, and they all vote some combination of the list, then there are 2 wormhole CSM. It handles the organisation for you. 😀

This is a total pain in the ass to do manually. Thankfully, there’s no need to do so. There’s software to do it for you. CCP have made it available. This is how the election for CSM 11 would work out, with 10 places available. It’s the full audit log, so you can see how each round works out. (I’ve pre-eliminated Apothne, which makes a few differences.)

The only way to not be represented, with a STV system, is to not vote. (Or to be so marginal that there aren’t enough other people who think like you)