Incumbent Victory in February AWTeen Elections

After an exciting month of campaigning, debating, and discussion, the results of the AWTeen Elections are in! Announced on the AWTeen Election Forums by Flagg, the winner of the February elections were revealed to be Mark Randall, known in AW as Strike Rapier. Mark is the incumbent governor of AWTeen, leading the world since November, 2007 after winning the first AWTeen Elections. Continuing much in the trend of his last term, he will now also lead AWTeen through a newly extended term of six months, with a new tool under his belt: Global Bots.

For those who are out of the loop, since November, 2007, AWTeen has chosen it's leaders based on a majority-rule election in AWVote world. Candidates are required to have a small number of supporters e-mail Flagg to be eligible to run for the campaign. This new method of picking AWTeen leaders had led to a rejuvenating and fast-paced month every time elections have come up thus far, and that trend is sure to continue in the future.

So what's next for AWTeen? We will check in with Mark later on in the article for more information on that, but first let's do a bit of review. The month of February was certainly an exciting time for AWTeen, with candidates of varying goals and backgrounds seeking the title of Governor. Let's review the candidates:

• Strike Rapier
  The Incumbent governor who served the first term of four months. Previous experience includes serving for the AWTeen Events team, Teen Patrol, AWI (Contractor), Cy Awards, and Piko Island, a defunct RPG planned by Omerta Games. He has earned a Cy Award and two Support AW Awards for his bot technology, which has been a major focus of his first term. The community generally speaks against the state of the AWTeen Community under his term, but otherwise is generally supportive of the changes he has made.
• Chorus Line
  A new runner in this second election, and held popular support during campaigning. Previous experience includes serving in AWNewbie, for the Activeworlds Technology Celebration, and awareness of the former community of AWTeen. Chorus Line focused her campaign on encouraging rebuilding a community, citing times long past when "The 'old' AWTeen, always had a gathering at GZ." People have cited her motif as 'Queen' as discouraging to the idea of rebuilding a community, but others stood behind it in fervent support of this new runner.
• Matthew
  An AWTeen regular who also ran in the first AWTeen elections. Previous experience includes serving very recently in AWTeen, and for the Activeworlds Technology Celebration. Matthew, although a supporter of Mark, has cited him as not having as much time to support the world as a reason for his running. Matthew ran on a platform of stimulating the community by restoring a global chat relay, and reviving major events.
• GC
  A longtime user (and self-admitted critic) of AWTeen and it's inner workings, GC has stepped up to offer his services as a potential governor. Previous experience includes serving in most AWTeen groups or teams at one point or another, working for various AWTV stations (including GCTV, his own station), serving in New Arklay City, and in AWNewbie as a WatchKeeper. GC dislikes the current system where the governor had so much power, and suggested that he would appoint a cabinet that represented the community. Also supporting a more active role in the community, he offered to restore events to a schedule.

If the platforms of the candidates are any indication, the community wants more offered to it. Each of the new candidates desired sweeping changes in the field of events, and offered a greater revival of community in their campaign statements.

As is typical of politics, campaigning played a major role for some of the candidates. Using the AWTeen Forums as their platform, candidates such as Chorus Line and Matthew posted their platforms and bids for support from the community. This campaign tactic was wildly successful for Chorus Line, who gained support from users who went so far as to make new topics in the forum supporting her, and advertising her campaign in their forum signatures.

Upon the news of the election results, AWNews obtained an interview with Mark Randall concerning his next term.

AWNews: So how are you doing now that you've been elected again? Were you expecting to win?

Mark Randall: Yes I was - although my dropping out and then re-entering lost me several votes from people that did not not know I was running I was pretty confident my past term would carry me through to a win.

Obviously I think the AWTeen users and AW at large have chosen the best person for the job, if I do say so myself.

AWNews: How much effort did you put into campaigning for this election, and why?

Mark Randall: None. I had better things to do for the most part, and I thought it better to just let my record stand as my campaign.

AWNews: That would appear a successful tactic. Through the campaign trail, several people referenced a staggering community in AWTeen as their reason for running. What do you have to say concerning the state of the AWTeen Community?

Mark Randall: It needs a huge injection of new users, it is the AW community in general that is staggering, user counts are going down. I think we need at least an extra 200 citizens to top it up.

AWNews: Do you think AWTeen can play a role in attracting new users?

Mark Randall: Maybe a limited role, but the problem is there are not enough users coming into Activeworlds in general. We must get them through the door before we can get them into the world, and right now that is a problem.

AWNews: We've noticed that the front page of your awportals.com website now advertises Active Worlds to visitors, so you would seem to have a vested interest in this problem. Do you have any suggestions to improve the flow of users into the universe?

Mark Randall: There needs to be a massive awareness campaign, thousands of emails sent out with links to download etc, a little advertising couldn't hurt.

AWNews: Sounds like a plan. Switching gears here, there were some additional polls taken in AWVote this election concerning AWTeen. First up, the extension of the term from four to six months. What are your thoughts on this?

Mark Randall: 4 months was never going to be enough to make reasonable change. It is something that needs time and of course we lost a lot of time this term to elections and getting set up etc.

I am not sure that I will complete my entire 6 month term, it depends on work life etc, however it is useful to have that term there if I am able to meet it.

AWNews: During the elections you initially dropped out because of time constraints. Now that you've re-entered and won, do you plan to gather some form of support staff to help oversee the world?

Mark Randall: I always wanted to, however the problem is - where are the people that have the aspirations to help in the world? Everyone is happy to have the titles but not the responsibilities. If I could find them I would appoint them immediately.

Mark Randall: We have had a skills drain in AWTeen in the past few years.

AWNews: The other poll in AWVote concerned Global Bots. Users have voted to allow the governor to use them, so how do you plan to incorporate this into your next term?

Mark Randall: Jump points have already been re-enabled, HUDs have been re-enabled, Hyperion will be activated later tonight, perhaps additional chat options - zone based relays etc.

Mark Randall: Also, it will be a *lot* easier to resolve disputes now.

AWNews: Critics of the use of global bots have cited the ability to spy on their chat as a reason against using them. What do you have to say to this?

Mark Randall: "I saw you say that.".

AWNews: Your critics have spoken out against the lack of a major event during your term. Do you plan to improve the state of events during your next term?

Mark Randall: Maybe... major events are great but the effort / reward ratio is not as high as it is for minor events. We will have a new events staff this term as I fired the last major events leader, so we shall see how it goes.

AWNews: That's about all I have. Any closing comments?

Mark Randall: Long live the Governor, long may he reign. Also: Eclipse rocks, AWTeen FTW, Digi has a nice bottom and get your combined world and hosting at http://www.awportals.com/products/world_servers.php ;) lol, spam.

AWNews: Thanks for taking the time to sit down with us ;)

As Mark's first term comes to an end, we've seen a check of his progress through the response of the community. Problems are being addressed and new goals are being planned for the next term, so only time will tell as the dawn of second term of the first AWTeen Governor begins.