Poor Steve. I feel for you buddy. Stuck on the CSM as the lonely non-aligned and beholden member of the newly elected representative body. To be fair, I'm being a little unfair. No one believes Nashh is actually a PL aligned player, his heart is in Low Sec and probably always will be. But Nashh has moved on to other things these days and I get why he slid over under that banner. It seems to have worked for him and I wish him well, as always. I hope he doesn't forget us. As for the rest, The Judge, Mr Hyde, and Gorski can be relied upon to remember their roots I believe. It still would have been good to have a new non-aligned representative on the CSM this year. We are gonna miss Mike.
Every year I spin my web of puppet strings to make that happen behind-the-scenes and this year I fell short in my machinations. A combination of real life distractions and extremely low voter turn out combined to defeat my ebil plans. For the first time I actually had a public candidate to get on the student council and he didn't make it. This is the first time a candidate I really wanted to get on, hasn't gotten on. Sorry Joffy, but we shall try again next year my friend.
So all of this brings up some points I'd like to make in regards to the CSM. And some reforms I'd like to advocate for next year.
A) Every candidate for CSM needs to declare their PRIMARY area of play within the game. High-Sec, Low-Sec, WH, or Null.
B) Only three players from each of those areas can be elected to the CSM. Except for the 2 highest vote getters, who (no matter their PRIMARY) get permanent seats. That makes 14 CSM members.
This ensures that each area of space gets represented on the Council and that those that are supported more than others get permanent seats. Whoever brings the votes will get a slight advantage. As is only fair. Granted, the way things work in Eve, most players bring expertise in more than one area of space. Take myself for example, I've played in every area of space. While I certainly lean towards Low-Sec these days, my personal experience encompasses all of Eve. I certainly admit to a very strong LS bias, but that bias is a positive one and not negative towards any other area. Which is why I'd make such a great CSM member.
In addition CCP needs to help bring the election to the game itself. An active and participatory player base is good for everyone. So I'd like to see more log-in screen support, in-game notifications, billboard and hangar ads, etc., next year.
We all know why Null Sec dominates the CSM every year even though they constitute such a small percentage of the player base. It's like Donald Trump. There is only one Donald Trump, but he gets all the news. It is time to make some CSM reforms to ensure the Council better reflects the player-base. And if voters are not going to do it, then we should do it for them.
My fingers are crossed for CSM11. Please don't make things worse.