Each year in EVE Online the developers run an election event for the council of stellar management, better known as CSM. Members of CSM are selected amongst the EVE Online players with a democratic voting system. These players will then support CCP in the development of the game and work close with them to provide feedback about the changes CCP is proposing.
Voting on CSM matters from the solo players to the block members as the CSM members are there to represent the player base that has voted on them. For this reason most players feel that it is important the CSM to consist of different types of players so that each different gameplay style and area would have a voice on the council. The majority of the seats on the CSM goes historically to the candidates of null sec blocks as they have the pure voting power needed to push their own candidates to the CSM. However each year some candidates that are not part of the null sec blocks ballot will make their way into the council.
Due to null sec candidates dominating the majority of the CSM the council is often accused to be just a forum for null sec players to push their own agendas and protect their own interests but it is far from that. Each player elected to the position has earned their votes amongst the players who have voted on them on a ballot or from their own will and are working hard to make EVE a better place. It is mostly the lack diversity of having too many players from the same area that may make people feel like there is no point in voting. But as stated before, each year different types of players make it to the CSM.
Last year I tried my luck as an CSM candidate and came 12th out of the 10 selected seats. Majority of my votes came directly from our own members who had voted on me as their first choice on their voting ballot. Voting on CSM candidates is limited to omega accounts and as the majority of LinkNet is focusing on new players and alpha pilots our voting power simply wasn’t enough to push me to the CSM15.
Working on CSM is exactly what it sounds like: work. It takes a lot of time and effort from you and it is not simply a seat to sit on and brag about. At least that is what each CSM member past and present tell you and I have no reason to believe otherwise. While I have all the traits I had last year while running for CSM15 and a great passion to help new players connect to there is one thing I do not have this year and that is time. Due to a positive impact on real life work from COVID and the fact that I am fully renovating my new newly bought house this year I feel that I would not have the time to put into the CSM16 work as it deserves and for this reason I am personally not running for CSM16. The fact that it has taken me several weeks to find the time to write this post speaks of itself.
I absolutely loved the experience and the whole CSM15 application process and still think that I would bring something fresh and different to the table as a counterbalance to the null block candidates. If the real life situation would be any more forgiving I would surely be running for CSM16 as well. Instead I shall continue my work as a normal eve player and build up our community in order to improve NPE on our end and help new players become members of the whole EVE community.
Even when I am not running on CSM it does not mean that you should not vote on the upcoming elections. We will still need players on the CSM that holds the same values as we do! Last year the second and third positions on our official ballot after myself in the first place went to Jurius Doctor and Mike Azariah. As I was eliminated on the CSM15 election we passed down over 700 votes to Mike Azariah which pushed him to the CSM15 table. Thanks to this we made sure that there is someone on the CSM15 table that represents the same values as I did: new players and high sec space.
While LinkNet is a neutral entity we will not take a completely neutral position on CSM elections similar to EVE Uni who are not giving out official voting ballots for you to vote on. While we encourage you to check out each CSM candidate as the official candidates are announced we do also acknowledge that checking on each candidate takes a great amount of time and reading and is something that might not be interesting for every player.
As we feel that it is important for players to interact and vote with the whole CSM process we will be giving our a voting ballot that you may use for voting on CSM16 elections. This ballot will be similar to least year and contain candidates who represent the same values, ideas and gameplay areas as I did and still do. If you have enjoyed your time in LinkNet and think we are doing something right then voting on our ballot will be the second best thing to do right after checking out each candidate yourself and voting on based on the information you gather from each player.
To check out more information about the CSM16 timetable visit https://www.eveonline.com/news/view/csm-16-elections-are-approaching and to start on reading up on candidates you may head up to https://forums.eveonline.com/c/council-of-stellar-management/csm-campaigns/71
