A Primer on Campaigning in eCanada
•
by Zanalan
-- CANADA PRIZE ENTRY --
The events of in the recent party elections have served to underscore a serious problem within our political system. We have hears cries of outrage at Cleomynestra’s election to the head of the Canadian Social Democrats. How could a citizen who is not outwardly active on the forums, IRC or newspapers possibly win the election? The answer is far simpler than some would like to admit.
Before and during the Presidential elections that I was a candidate in there were regular complaints that I was not active enough. Like Cleomynestra, I am not an ardent forum poster. I rarely appear on the IRC. My newspaper articles are few and far between. To some in the citizenry, I am equally as inactive. In my case, I chose to answer some of those complaints. Answering with “me too” or “I agree” to a forum discussion does nothing to advance a discussion. Being on the IRC and taking part in the name-changing games does nothing to address my qualifications. Posting inane newspaper articles is a waste of my time and the time of the reader. While these answers seemed to briefly stifle the complaints the question of activity re-occurred regularly.
Following my election loss to Bruck, I decided to take a different tact. Other than the odd newspaper article, I decided to work through personal contact rather than the broader tools of our game. In that time, I contacted nearly 200 citizens who were reaching level 7 (able to join a party). Each of these people received an email that congratulated their achievement and asking them to join the CSD. The effects of this “quiet work” were clear. In the group who were contacted who chose a party, the CEP gained 16% of the new members; the PPC gained 13%, while the other parties received 25%. The CSD gained 46% of the new members. That is a significant difference! But what does this mean to the Cleomynestra election?
The largest percentage of our population is never on the IRC. The majority of our citizens are not forum contributors. They may read some of the articles, but the newspapers are not an important part of their daily game play. However, those same citizens are likely to read any message that comes to their inbox. A personal contact has value to them. That is the tool that Cleomynestra took advantage of. The results of that work are clear: the CSD has a “surprise” winner.
There is a lesson for all would-be political leaders. It will be a hard lesson for some politicians to learn. Your popularity on the IRC is irrelevant. Being vocal on the forums is largely unimportant. The most effective way to sway voters—and therefore win elections—is to have personal contact. Until we have a few more surprise winners like Cleomynestra, I doubt that the lesson will be heard.
Facebook
Twitter
Discord
Comments
Agreed. Writing long speeches about how you'd be a good leader are pretty much pointless. Just send a quick hello PM to members of your party. 🙂
I'm not kidding. This is a very sad part about the game. A lot of people put hard work into presentations and speeches. While most who run for congress or party president's etc. Don't put in the time or effort to actually show why they'd make a good leader. They just send a few dozen PM's and word gets around.
Which is one of the reasons most of my recent congress presentations were more jokes and nothing important than actual speeches. It's a waste of time to write long speeches saying what you'll do in congress etc. Because most people will not see it or read it anyways.
It's basically the total opposite of real life. In RL politicians must give great speeches for people to think about voting for them. Here, all you have to do is get your name on the ballot and post some articles every couple days to get your name out. All these articles have to say is.. "Hey, I'm Santa and I'm running for congress in the north pole. So vote for me!"
That's it. Pretty simple to get into congress and presidency's nowadays.
Actually, I'd say that RL politics is just like what Zanalan is saying. You get people to vote for you by talking to them. However, many people IRL will vote for any candidate based solely on their party affiliation. Same goes here. But parties mean less in erepublik than IRL. Or maybe not!
I agree too.
For example, I usually write really long congress presentations, and in both English and French, but I realize that during the elections, some candidates who didn't even write a presentation, are receiving more votes than I do.
I think this is a wonderful article, no longer a secret outside of those that are in the know, But as far as party politics goes, I think a lot of people like to see who is popular, and choose one of them... "Bet on the winning horse" so to speak.
Mr. Banach did not join the CLP today because of a whim, I contacted him and asked if he felt we could potentially have common ground to associate politically. I was of course as surprised when he greed as the rest of you, but it pays to be proactive here, just as everywhere else.
@ Leo - That is true, but it also takes those politicians (IRL) to give their ideas and tell you about what they plan to do etc. Here, you don't really need to do that. I've seen Cleomynestra's PM that he sent out, and it said nothing about future plans other than to say.. "I plan on making the party great!" Then a bunch of nothing afterwards. It had no ideas or plans.
In RL if a politician where to shake your hand and say hi. That does not mean your going to vote for them (Unless your crazy and don't care about what their opinions are.) But most times your still going to want to know what their plans and ideas are.
Which is why I said RL politics are the opposite of eRep.
I would say they are similair
most people, for local elections, are really uninformed, so whose ever name they see the most they vote for.
Wise words in this article...
That is all quite true, in order to win the best way is to do what cleomynestra did. But on the other hand after the election you need to be considered with the rest of the politicians of eCanada and be respected in regards to your opinion and everything else. That is why I think while you can just send pms to everybody and expect to win, a presentation will take you the farthest if you get in.
You need to be able to show everybody what you want to do, I think that is where a lot of critizism of cleomynestra is coming from. Nobody knows what she is going to do, if anything
Judge #1
Zanalan's article was more concise and to the point than other entries. There were minor grammar and spelling issues. While the article was not in any way comprehensive, it did provide an easy-to-read point illustration with historical evidence used (though more detailed and varying examples would have been nice). Overall, it is a well written article, albeit a tad too personal for my taste.
.
41/50 deductions for typos, slightly ordinary word choice and inadequate depth for an article as late in the contest as this one.
~~~~~~~~~
Judge #2
42/50
~~~~~~~~~
Judge #3
This article really reopened my eyes to how important personal contact is with people. This article may change the tactics people use in elections forever. 😉 Great job!
43/50
~~~~~~~~
Judge #4
The political aspect of eRepublik is under constant scrutiny and discussion and yet very little of that discussion is as succinct or honest as what Zanalan gives us here. The recent party elections have become a sort of proverbial elephant in the room and finally we have someone acknowledging his own shortcomings rather than laying blame at the feet of others. This was a breath of fresh air and should be a lesson to us all.
42/50
~~~~~~~~~
Grand Total: 168/200