Admin Election: The Nominees!

[Narv]

UPDATE: VOTING IS OPEN! SEE HERE: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=284

Dear all,

Thanks for your patience! Please find below the list of admin nominees. We’ve included their timezone, and also left an area for a short public bio/experience, to be written by the nominee, but we ask that this is kept short - a couple of lines should suffice.

If you are a nominee, please post a brief summary of your experience and maybe what you’d bring to an admin role. If you sent in your own nomination you can absolutely just copy/paste whatever you sent us in your email. If your timezone info is blank below, we can fill that in for you too if you include it.

If you are not a nominee, please don’t post in this thread. To keep things really clear and easy to reference, we’ll be updating this top post, and we’ll delete any posts that aren’t made by nominees for the purpose of updating the nominee info.

You may be disappointed to see your nominee not in the list below - this means the nominee has informed us they aren’t able to take on admin duties this round, but please don’t let that deter you from nominating next time.

If you nominated yourself but don't see your name, then either your email didn't reach us or we made a catastrophic clerical error - either way please get in touch with us to correct it.

We’ll leave this up for a few days to allow nominees to post their public bios and then we’ll open voting. Please don't email us any votes yet.

Thanks again, everybody, for being part of this with us.
Narv, Sil and Uruva

sil edits to say: if you make clear in your bio post below, or otherwise contact us to say what your headline two cents elevator pitch is, I will update this post with it

The Nominees:

@Aigronding Mordagnir
Timezone: EST, USA
Bio/XP: "Me: A committed writer and stubborn dreamer. Plaza experience: Imladris co-Ruler (Elrond), Eriador co-Mayor (Elrond, Aragorn), Administrator (Ulmo), GM, Imladris Army captain. Active on the Old Plaza since 2005.

@Allacan Beorhtlig aka Fyrefly
Timezone: GMT
Bio/XP: I was an active between 2003 and 2008 and I served as ruler of Rohan for a year. In life I am a lawyer, volunteer with Scout Association and a Quaker. I am passionate about maintaining the new plaza's philosophy of inclusion and hope. I want to ensure the new plaza is somewhere people can escape from the troubles of the world and play together.

@Dimcairien Luiniel
Timezone: PST
Bio/XP: Active plaza member for 5+ years until uni life took away all my time. I'm trying to be involved in areas across the Plaza. I try to be friendly and respectful to everyone and their views. This community helped me through some rough times as a teen, so I would love to have a way to give back. No RAM experience on the Plaza, in RL, I work as a minsitry leader at my church.

@Fairy Nuff
Timezone: GMT
Bio/XP: active member of OldPlaza since the start, so 18 years with a bit of time off between. Friendly, approachable and active in RP, OOME, and CoLP, and a dabber in lore, so familiar with all areas of the Plaza - jack of all trades, master of none. Have experience moderating other forums for over 20 years, plus admin for several FB pages and we all know those things can get nasty! IRL I am a supply chain manager for an international medical devices company so no stranger to dealing with all sorts of people and problems.

@Flame Fried Ent
Timezone: Central
Bio/XP: "I was a Ruler, DGM and Drill Captain on the Old Plaza; I've got lots of experience in leading RL volunteer organizations with people from different areas, ages, etc. I know about privacy, some tech, and other generic library skills."

@Frosty the Snowman
Timezone: Mountain
Bio/XP: I joined back in 2003 but most of my activity was 2006-2009. I loved all the games, all the RPs, all the poetry, and all the nonsense. I never knew how much I missed the Plaza and all of you until I was struck by a random urge to see whatever happened to it. I found a reddit post that appeared just a few short days before, right after Narv had worked his magic. Now that it's back and all of us are together again, I'd do anything I could to keep it so.


@Mojo
Timezone: EST
Bio/XP: Old Plaza: Ruler of Fangorn, IK Debate Game Master, planned and ran Fangorn Olympics and Fangorn Lithedays Festival.
Real life: local government management for 10+ years - chair committees to balance their different interests in order to implement programs for the betterment of the community as a whole.
Spreadsheet guru. Master of puns, GIFs, and memes.

@Mor Toast currently named @Lucifer
Timezone: Central
Bio/XP: (he/him & they/them) Farm kid turned performing artist, studying coding with availability and a flexible schedule. Prior experience as a Maia in the CoLP.


@Moriel
Timezone: GMT-8 to Nov, GMT-9 to spring
Bio/XP: For the top post:
Plaza member since April 2004, active to a greater or lesser degree pretty much the entire time. Seen and done a lot! Never an RAM but a leader & contributor in many other ways. RPer/GM, bit of coding, lots of behind the scenes clicking, make icons and banners. Extensive mod and admin experience on other sites. Hope to be invisible as possible as an admin, keeping things running smoothly for the self governing masses.

@Nia
Timezone: GMT/UCT+1
Bio/XP: Lurker' but love spending time all over the site. Team player, approachable, past experience as a ruler (Fangorn). General love for all things Plaza.

@Oak
Timezone: Central
Bio/XP: Joined the Plaza in 2003. 20 years experience as a Admin on an assortment of sites - including Facebook groups and Deviantart groups as well and stand alone forums/websites not much different in structure than this one, that are divided into subforums/kingdoms. I have even created nodes/subforums for the sites. I have updated stickied threads to make sure links are current and the titles are current. I can move, split and merge threads if the need arises. I also have graphics experience. My main role, though on these sites has been the elimination of spammers and trolls - people that have nothing better to do than flood the forums with advertisements about handbags and other such nonsense. I want to be your spam eating rock moving Huorn. :mrgreen:

@Pele Alarion
Timezone: GMT+3
Bio/XP: I'd happily facilitate development of the plaza, provide support to the team efforts, interact with members.

@Queen Nerwen
Timezone: GMT
Bio/XP: Previous Ruler of KD, during the overlap between Kingdoms & Region. Active member of Original Plaza for 10+ years.

@Red Daghul
Timezone: EST
Bio/XP: I have been around plaza since 2005 I believe, grew up on LOTR, and middle earth. I have spent years as a DM and story teller in RL. I have also served as a admin for another site of role players called mizahar in which my job was to make sure players were having a good time, have good interactions and come up with ideas on how to better the site. In real life my job is to help and supervise kids, teens, and adults.

@Rivvy Elf currently Named @Dwarrow Elf
Timezone: Central, USA
Bio/XP: The Aetius of the Late Late Plaza. Extremely accessible through messenger, Discord, etc. Is a historian. Past experience on Plaza and in real life college government. Believes the new plaza right now needs hands-off style of leadership, administrating without being an administrator. Also believes that leadership is ever evolving, and that any tradition can change if given good reason. If you can find someone who can take an insult better than Rivvy, then that person deserves to rule a country.

@Saranna
Timezone: GMT
Bio/XP: in Lore a follower of halfir, in RP I learned from Janowyn; both now dwell in the far west but remain my inspirations.

@Sil
Timezone: GMT
Bio/XP: Ruled Mordor 1 year, admin 2 years, on OriginalPlaza, haven’t broken Narvlaza yet but just you wait. RL, tax legislation/negotiation, 1yo Goblin-child, 2 cats.

@Tarawen
Timezone: Central
Bio/XP: Software engineer working from home full-time by day, former Cottage Maia (~1 year) and admin (~2 years)

@Thalionwen
Timezone: EST
Bio/XP: : I am fresh meat, having never served in any Plaza-related admin position. Should I become an admin, I expect I'll just do fiddly bits on the back end and putter around on here as usual

@Thorin Firehelm
Timezone: GMT
Bio/XP: A wide variety of experience on the OP, including editing the Raedboda, Plaza Newsletter and was also ruler of Dale for a brief time when they went to regions. Very creative and have management skills from my RL post as well as developing initiatives from the ground up. Some graphic design skills and general design abilities. My main aim as an admin would be to continue the work started by Narv and help develop this place in whatever ways I can.

@Túrin
Timezone: Mountain
Bio/XP: Willing to help out. Was a ruler and and admin for a time on Plaza 1.0. Was a professor for 4.5 years.

@Turin Ringhûn
Timezone: EST
Bio/XP: For the top post: Plaza member since June 2005. Though I was not active all those years, as I spent time away for military service. IRL, I have experience in management roles. I was never a ruler or admin of the old plaza, but I was nominated 4 consecutive years for an ESPY.

@Uruva
Timezone: PST
Bio/XP: Ruled Mordor 1 year, moderator of a forum that shall not be named and I also haven’t broken Narvlaza yet, despite my best efforts. Previously very involved in Drill and Debate, not much of an RP person. I'm not codesy, but I'm fairly tech savvy and can figure out issues pretty easily if they don't involve backend coding. No kids, but two cats and I foster kittens. Work in transit project development.

@Winddancer
Timezone: GMT
Bio/XP: Plaza member since Oct 2002. Though granted I have not been active all those years. Very brief stint with being WK of Mordor though that was all the back in Oct 2003. 3 years experience with being a mod on a 18+ site. Passionate advocate of less is more when it comes to admins for NuPlaza, see what I mean below.

[Nia]

Okay, I'll go first! - bit for top post:

'Lurker' but love spending time all over the site. Team player, approachable, past experience as a ruler (Fangorn). General love for all things Plaza.

[Edit: @Sil Ahh gotcha, thanks! In that case, so as not to cramp up this thread with multiple posts by yours truly, I'll copy my fuller reasons for accepting below, and shorten the top bit!]

I fully consider myself a Plaza ‘lurker’. I operate almost exclusively outside of the roleplaying/lore/debate areas, and even in the areas I do post, I can be sporadic at best. But even though I’m not a big poster, I absolutely love to spend time on the site – all over the site - and I genuinely do spend hours reading through all the conversations and posts of other people, even in all the places I don’t ever venture into myself with a physical post, whether that's in the kingdoms, lore, or elsewhere.

In terms of what I can offer/ bring to the role: I’ve always enjoyed working and providing support to people in whatever ways I can, and I really do work best as part of a collaborative team, especially working on projects close to my heart (of which this is most definitely one!). Being part of a team of people working together to help Plazaites out in an administrative/ operational/ general-supporting role is honestly exactly the sort of thing I would really enjoy spending my time on the Plaza doing, and be something I am happy to dedicate my time here over the next 6 months to doing. I'd like to think I'm pretty approachable, even for those who don't know me, or don't know me well, and although I don't have much past forum admin experience, I'm a quick learner and willing to put the time and effort in to ensure I do as good a job as everyone here deserves.

In summary, it would be an honour to be able to contribute the time that I do spend on the Plaza to help out in a way which best supports those who are much more visibly present on the site and who are actively bringing together the fantastic thread ideas, building up the kingdoms, challenging each other in lore, inspiring others with their creativity, and generally making it the wonderful, vivacious place that it is for all of us.

[Silky Gooseness]

@Nia and other nominees, I think it’s ok to have a slightly longer piece as a comment in this thread, but if your sum up for the top post could be shorter, that will prevent people from having to scroll through an incredibly long top post

[Nerwen Nuke-queen]

Headline, previous XP: Previous Ruler of KD, during the overlap between Kingdoms & Region. Active member of Original Plaza for 10+ years.

I would like to continue the steady interest and growth in our community which we have seen over the past few weeks. I feel I understand what the Plaza priorities are and have a clear direction to achieving those. I have both a fun and academic interest in LotR/Middle Earth and what was created by the Prof (having gone on to study Linguistics, especially in Old English and Old Norse). I also think there is an untapped contribution in all of our knowledge. Though much nostalgia remains, I am encouraged by the newness which is apparent on the forum and the space we can continue to create.

I consider myself a team player, unafraid to try things and learn from success and mistakes. I work collaboratively and enjoy spending time across the forums, RP, games and wider activity. Part of the wonderful resource on Plaza is our members and I look forward to helping create a space where our members (old and new) can mingle, learn from each other, explore and be encouraged to create a new home for us. The refreshed energy and feeling here is something I think can be established for the future, and I can look ahead and plan some of our direction while embracing the new flexibility and joy we have found in this forum. I am a fairly visible member of Plaza, I'm sure there are many people who have also met me IRL; I make no secret of the fact that Plaza has shaped a large portion of my life, therefore I am delighted and proud to be able to offer my time and energy to joining a team to guide the direction of the Plaza.

[Saranna]

Time Zone GMT
Headline - in Lore a follower of halfir, in RP I learned from Janowyn; both now dwell in the far west but remain my inspirations.

I lived in Imladris and gave tea parties in my little hut in the pinewoods each Wednesday. I was a Librarian, then a bard and later as a Lore admin I was graced with the name of Luthien Tinuviel. My skills lie in writing, Lore and learning rather than in technological matters but I would hope to be able to support whatever Lore pages and threads we develop. I'm gladdened by the revival of the Plaza and by seeing again so many remembered names. We'll restore and perhaps change it as we work to rebuild.

[Burnt Toast]

Brief OP snippet: (he/him & they/them) Farm kid turned performing artist, studying coding, with availability and a flexible schedule. Prior experience as a Maia in the CoLP.

----

Hello! I grew up on an organic dairy farm and went to school for theatre and music, work(ed- past tense as of pandemic) as a performer and teaching artist, and have been studying coding, and as I go along, am excited for the point where that skill can be useful to the Plaza.

I spent time as a Maia of the Cottage, and later a Mayor in SL. I have worked as a moderator in various online sites, and consider some of my strengths to be straight forwardness and creative problem solving-- much of which I've picked up from improv work and theatre training. My work in theatre has always focused on the importance of a good team- and makes me excited to bring together new skillsets and ideas and see what we can do with the Nu Plaza.

Also I have a dapper cat named Hephaestus that has thumbs and thinks he's a dog.

[Zôrzimril]

Headline: Software engineer working from home full-time by day, former Cottage Maia (~1 year) and admin (~2 years)

I love the Plaza and have loved it since I was an angsty teenager. I was thrilled to see it return and have so enjoyed gathering in all the fora with you all since - it's been amazing to reconnect with old friends and make new ones as well.

I was a Cottage Maia for about a year and an admin for about 2 before the site went down. I work hard to build bridges and make connections with everyone I work with; I believe strong team culture is key to the success of any endeavor.

Finally, I'm a software engineer by trade, and I'm happy fixing bugs and building features alike. I would like to lend my tech skills to our new Narvlaza and those who brought it back.

[Túrin]

tl;dr: Willing to help out. Was a ruler and and admin for a time on Plaza 1.0. Was a professor for 4.5 years.

My idea of what admins should do here is be very hands-off and let the place largely run itself. Not interested in creating some digital dictatorship. I wouldn't be trying to create and enforce silly rules, but I'm also not likely to be one to invent activities and such. I'd use what buttons are available to do what I can to ensure things go smoothly and help out. Other than that, I'd just be playing around in lore-related and other lighthearted activities as usual.

If you watched Game of Thrones, Consider me like Jon Snow: It's not that I want to be an admin, it's that I'm willing. Please vote for me only if you think nobody else is suitable. Given the names on the list, I expect 0 votes.

[Flame Fried Ent]

Here's mine:

I was a Ruler for a while on Original Plaza, coming in just before the Fangy Olympics.

I'm also a manager in RL, so I know how to deal with people. I've also volunteered a lot with a couple of organizations, and taken on some leadership positions that have had me work with people from all over, and of various ages and tech-savviness (if that's even a word???)

I'm mainly focused on Lore, though I've lost a lot of it, plus hanging out in Fangy.

I have a bit of tech knowledge, but also am knowledgeable about privacy, classification, etc.

[Eriol]

Thank you for nominating me, folks! A little about the RL me. I have worked as an associate manager at a local Regal theatre for a few years and worked there for over fifteen until I was furloughed because of the virus; now I serve the community doing essential work, throwing Wal-Mart trucks and stockimg shelves for the store, got the job three days after being let go from the other until the doors reopen or I find work at the shipyard in my state. I am writing a Narnia-like high fantasy series about a young woman from Virginia who gets marooned on another world to save it and has to inevitably find her way back to Earth again.

About the Plaza me. I have been an active member of our beloved site for sixteen years. I have many years of Rulership / Mayorship / and (briefly) Administrator experience. I've been awarded several SCRs like Maglor and Frodo. I have been a co-custodian of the Imladris Kingdom and a few areas of the Eriador region (Bree, Lindon, and the Lone Lands), and was entrusted as the Ulmo administrator for a small while before the Old Plaza shut down. I have learned how to lead well and how to work with our members to provide a pleasurable experience on the Plaza for roleplayers in the creative corners. I know how to plan with the administrative team to orchestrate the functions of the Plaza and how to cooperate with our Normal Ranks both positively & effectively. I have over a decade of GM history. I'm capable of staying focused on my tasks as both a threadrunner and committed moderator and listening to the concerns of the community so they can have an enriching stay on our forums. It would be an honor to help guide Narv's New Plaza as an admin during this critical stage of development. I'm happy to have established friendships with some members which I know will last a lifetime. I'm available to assist the Plaza for many hours a day, including staying up late (which many people know about by now...legendary nighthawk, here)

[Silky Gooseness]

@Flame Fried Ent and @Aigronding Mordagnir let me know if you have short snappy bios to go in the top post. It’s not compulsory though.

[Flame Fried Ent]

Let's see..."I was a Ruler, DGM and Drill Captain on the Old Plaza; I've got lots of experience in leading RL volunteer organizations with people from different areas, ages, etc. I know about privacy, some tech, and other generic library skills."

[Pele Alarion]

Headline: I'd happily facilitate development of the plaza, provide support to the team efforts, interact with members.

Previous experience: I have been both a ruler (2011-2016) and an admin (as of 2016), meaning organising activities, cooperating with members (well, you know... rulery stuff); while being admin, I did various small daily things (password resets, etc.), as well as attempted to build bridges between members and admins and promote cooperation and mutual understanding.

Possible contribution: As my main area of interest on the plaza is roleplay, I tend to focus on interaction and cooperation with people, so more likely could give my attention to similar relational aspects, connecting with people, etc. Also, I would prefer a role of a facilitator, assisting in bringing out the best from the members' ideas instead of taking strictly guiding leadership roles.

[Thalionwen Hunigfolm]

Timezone: EST

Bio/XP: I am fresh meat, having never served in any Plaza-related admin position. Should I become an admin, I expect I'll just do fiddly bits on the back end and putter around on here as usual

For real though, I like this weird little anarchist commune we have going and would like to keep the current vibe, albeit with more knowledge halls so we can collect on those sweet, sweet points more quickly As far as availability goes, I'm around intermittently more or less all day and evening

[Mojo]

Headline: Old Plaza: Ruler of Fangorn, IK Debate Game Master, planned and ran Fangorn Olympics and Fangorn Lithedays Festival. In real life: local government management roles for 10+ years and chair committees to balance their different interests in order to move programs and projects forward for the betterment of the community as a whole. Spreadsheet guru. Master of puns, GIFs, and memes.

About me: I first joined the plaza as a bright-eyed teenager in 2003 (right around the time TTT came out) and latched on to the lore side of things fairly quickly, making my home in Fangorn. I took part in Debates and some other activities and became Debate Game Master and later served as Ruler of Fangorn for 1.5 years. I went "treeish" when college work got busy around 2006 and came back for a few short spells after college (around 2008) and after grad school (2011-12). I'll fully admit when I joined the new Plaza I was not expecting to take a very active role, but once Fangorn got a Kingdom page I became very active in taking a leading role to coordinate conversations and get activities started. I was also fortunate enough to be able to help out with the Halls of Knowledge in writing questions and programming quizzes.

With discussions on IK competitions ramping up, I'd like to be able to take an active role there in helping to coordinate games and scoring systems. As an admin, I would not limit myself to only focusing on IK competitions, but I certainly have interest and experience in this area. I love spreadsheets and creating scoring systems/schedules and would like to be able to use these talents to serve the Plaza community as a whole so that everyone can have fun together.

I am very hopeful for the future of the new Plaza and would love to do what I can to help it succeed. I am honored to be considered for an admin role, and would certainly love the opportunity to contribute as part of the team, but I won't be offended if you don't vote for me - everyone on this list is a deserving candidate. I'm here to have some good nostalgic fun and reconnect with friENTs I may not have talked to in over a decade, and I'd be grateful for the opportunity to help the community continue to flourish and grow. My hope for the new Plaza is that it can be a fun place to hang out online and get reacquainted with old friends and maybe make some new ones.

[Fairy Nuff]

TL:DR - active member of OldPlaza since the start, so 18 years with a bit of time off between. Friendly, approachable and active in RP, OOME, and CoLP, and a dabber in lore, so familiar with all areas of the Plaza - jack of all trades, master of none. Have experience moderating other forums for over 20 years, plus admin for several FB pages and we all know those things can get nasty! IRL I am a supply chain manager for an international medical devices company so no stranger to dealing with all sorts of people and problems.

In full: I joined when the plaza was just 9 days old and have been either active or lurking for the whole time the OldPlaza has been with us, right up until it died two years ago. I've seen so many ideas, innovations, relationships, successes and failures, over the years that I feel I can bring a lot of perspective to the role, which is not to say that I've seen everything, or remember everything I've seen, but I've supported the Plaza and its RAM team through many changes and transitions as an ordinary member, that I feel able to now support NuPlaza in a greater capacity.

One of the wonderful things about the NuPlaza is that it has brought together people from different Plaza eras, so despite having 18 years of Plaza friendships normally spread out over time, I can now see friends from all different times here together, and though I may not have been BFFs with everyone, having that connection with so many people is truly humbling, and I hope gives me a perspective on the interactions that will occur here.

I was never an admin on OldPlaza, but I have experience as an admin on a few FB groups and on other forums over the years, so the role isn't alien to me, but I don't see the admin role here being the same as those, which is what gave me the courage to volunteer to admin now. Being an admin on NuPlaza will be nothing like being an admin on OldPlaza - we've all grown up now, and in a lot of cases we've all grown up together, so its not the same as way back when we had lots of strangers (as well as the strange people) butting heads and clashing. We're all here because we have fond memories of the OldPlaza, so for me the admin role now is more about keeping that feeling alive - by helping to maintain the relationships between people, by contributing to the ongoing vision of the NuPlaza, and by helping to manage any changes that may come about.

That's where my real life experience comes in - in RL until a year ago I was a customer services team leader responsible for implementing a new ERP system into our global medical devices company, when they decided to make me supply chain manager with no prior experience, and then coronavirus hit and suddenly this inexperienced supply chain manager is single handedly managing the global supply chain for a medical devices company...in a pandemic. Suffice to say, I am now a master at managing change, both personal change and how other people adapt to change, no matter how small. Plus, I can seriously multitask!

[Dimcairien Luiniel]

Hey everyone,

Active plaza member for 5+ years until uni life took away all my time. I'm trying to be involved in areas across the Plaza. I try to be friendly and respectful to everyone and their views. This community helped me through some rough times as a teen, so I would love to have a way to give back. No RAM experience on the Plaza, in RL, I work as a minsitry leader at my church.

[Rivvy Elf]

Timezone: Central Time Zone U.S
Headline: The Aetius of the Late Late Plaza. Extremely accessible through messenger, Discord, etc. Is a historian. Past experience on Plaza and in real life college government. Believes the new plaza right now needs hands-off style of leadership, administrating without being an administrator. Also believes that leadership is ever evolving, and that any tradition can change if given good reason. If you can find someone who can take an insult better than Rivvy, then that person deserves to rule a country.



In full (this is a long one): I joined the plaza somewhere in the mid 2000s but was extremely active during the late days of the old plaza. I make no promise of any changes done by me, because that's not what the new plaza needs from an administrator. The plaza needs someone who can administrate without appearing to be an administrator, a person who can go to all threads on the plaza and fit in as a regular member, and someone who can take criticism. At the same time, the plaza also needs someone who would be willing to step up in times of crisis, and would be easily available for all members, new or old. I have all of those aspects based upon my historical knowledge and real life experience.

During the late late days of the plaza, I lacked an official title but I took on much responsibility to maintain the scholarly and creative integrity of the site. I oversaw the training of new RPers and newbies. I posted in the lore threads, creating new topics and debating things like the correct type of food middle-earth should have, and nightsoil. I gave comments to poetry in the COLP thread. Orc raids were launched to free RP areas in order to try and stimulate activity. Plots were had with various members on future rps. I called myself the Aetius of the late late plaza, not the official ruler, but the official dependable person the plaza needed.

Now does this new plaza need this type of micromanaging right now? NO, ABSOLUTELY NOT. The nu plaza needs flexibility and a hands-off approach. Its power is in its members, not its leadership. What my actions showed back then was I was willing to do whatever it took, go and become a loremaster, make orc characters, participate in OOME, RP as weird things in order to generate activity. It's not needed now.

I will not make any guarantees on what I plan to do in the plaza site (thinks like IK things, etc.), because that could be done by another capable person. I don't want to use my admin powers as some sort of card that would allow me the power to do that over someone else (don't tempt me Frodo!). I don't want expectations for me to be GM of anything because of being an admin, that can be done by other people because those people are around right now in the plaza. What I will guarantee though is being there for you, either through facebook, messenger, or discord. I will also publicly defend this site and advertise this site to others, like Reddit and other entities. However, I want that advertisement, the expression of us to other websites to be a collaborative thing. Only when there is no one in the plaza would you see Rivvy becoming the Ubermensch of the plaza.

Outside of this site, I run another LOTR site. I have a hands-off approach there as well, and much of the work is done by other people. The first thing I did there was to give away my powers, and to only use my administrative powers as an emergency.

If you're not convinced by my philosophy regarding the plaza, I'll tell you of my real life experience as well. In my undergrad days, I was part of the college's government as a student government Vice President. I oversaw the internal operations of it, keeping track of every committee, changing rules to allow for more flexibility, representing the government to the public, etc. In that year, there were multiple factions: a graduate group that desired to create its own government, an anarchist group that desired to dismantle the current government, a student trustee faction that wanted to establish hegenomy from other upcoming organization, the up-and-coming freshmen interns who were trying to find their footing, and everyone else. There were only a couple people all of these factions trusted, and I was one of the few. Probably because I listened to what they had to say, and made them feel important to the government. The same could not be said for the Student President, which made things a lot harder as I was considered more of their president than the official one. How did I did it? Can't really elaborate more than that because my actions felt natural to me. Understanding motivations, people, and plots are second-nature. More second-nature than even RPing on this site.

If that still doesn't convince you, then let me tell you that I want you to criticize me. Criticize my actions, question my decisions, suggest improvements. I want that, and I need that. Some people don't want criticism, or can't handle it well. Sure I like flattery, but people who know me well know that for serious things I ask, "how could I have done this better?"

The first RP post on this site was me RPing as a treeish huorn in Imladris. Though if there's any dispute to that, feel free to link me the time stamp to an earlier RP post. That was done because I want to be your tree. Hidden amongst the forest during great times. Steadfast against the wind during times of crisis.

If you're still not convinced, then feel free to vote for someone else :D

[Oak]

Timezone: Central
Bio/XP: - Joined the Plaza in 2003. 20 years experience as a Admin on an assortment of sites - including Facebook groups and Deviantart groups as well and stand alone forums/websites not much different in structure than this one, that are divided into subforums/kingdoms. I have even created nodes/subforums for the sites. I have updated stickied threads to make sure links are current and the titles are current. I can move, split and merge threads if the need arises. I also have graphics experience. My main role, though on these sites has been the elimination of spammers and trolls - people that have nothing better to do than flood the forums with advertisements about handbags and other such nonsense. I want to be your spam eating rock moving Huorn. :mrgreen:

Noticing that folks at making novels of their posts maybe I should post a bit about my philosophy. The Plaza is made up of folks from all walks of life, united by a single passion, Tolkien and his world of Middle Earth. This site is off to a good start with its membership united around this. I want it to stay that way. I want the Plaza to stay free of any topics that can be incendiary such at politics, religions or absence thereof or any topic that prompts the response - well but.. Keep it respectful, light and fun. This isn't Facebook. This is a reprieve from places like that. In short the Plaza is meant to be an escapism from the ugliness out there in the world.

[Winddancer]

Keep in mind during the summer, us GMT's are actually BST (1 hour more atm) :P

For the top post: Plaza member since Oct 2002. Though granted I have not been active all those years. Very brief stint with being WK of Mordor though that was all the way back in Oct 2003. 3 years experience with being a mod on a 18+ site. Passionate advocate of less is more when it comes to admins for NuPlaza, see what I mean below.

I guess most know me, or know of me or have at least seen my name around. I am one of those you either hate or love, or hate to love, or love to hate.. If you know me, well then you also know I post all over the place, though have yet to visit a few forums, though my perferred activity is and always has been serious rp. But that doesnt mean I am against games! Though I would be an advocate of 1 of each type of thread, so we dont have 6 riddle threads or thief hunts or whatnot. But again, I would encourage, not forbid.

I was surprised like everyone else when Narv announced the Plaza was back, well NuPlaza and I was definitely among the ones who quickly joined. Since it opened, I have absolutely loved the way Narv chose to run this place, where there are "no rules" and where you barely even see admin duty as none is really needed. I am loving that members are creating what they want and not having to ask a ruler first. And I love that it isn't in Uruva, Sil and Narvs hands that they keep this place flourishing thread-wise and that it is all in members hands. I am genuinely hoping that people will be voting based on who would do best being an admin, rather than just picking people they like/friends. Of course they can be qualified too, but you know what I am saying :)

I really hope that whomever becomes admin continues to run the same way the trio have, they do stuff in the background like bugs/tribbing/name changes and otherwise just play around like members. My biggest concern will always be that someone sees this as a way to get "power" and that once they become admin that they will want to run things their way or their activity elsewhere declines and you dont see them around anymore.

As for personal info, well I have no kids or pets, though I do have a fulltime job, but I am an online freak and am online most of my free time (including my lunch hour! :P). I am danish, but moved to the UK 6½ years ago and met my s/o on Old Plaza and we have now been together for 6 years. Hoping to buy a house soon, likely up north :)

Anyways it is an honour to be nominated and however it goes I am really looking forward to enjoying this wonderful new site with you all <3

[Turin Ringhûn]

Wow, looking at some of these other folks, I feel woefully inadequate. Oh well.

For the top post: Plaza member since June 2005. Though I was not active all those years, as I spent time away for military service. IRL, I have experience in management roles. I was never a ruler or admin of the old plaza, but I was nominated 4 consecutive years for an ESPY.

In terms of what I can offer/ bring to the role: I love researching, and doing behind the scenes work. Though I don't have much past forum admin experience, I am a quick learner and willing to put the time and effort in to ensure I do as good a job that everyone here deserves. It would be an honour to be able to contribute the time that I do spend on the Plaza to help out in anyway I can.

[Moriel]

For the top post:
Plaza member since April 2004, active to a greater or lesser degree pretty much the entire time. Seen and done a lot! Never an RAM but a leader & contributor in many other ways. RPer/GM, bit of coding, lots of behind the scenes clicking, make icons and banners. Extensive mod and admin experience on other sites. Hope to be invisible as possible as an admin, keeping things running smoothly for the self governing masses.


More:
I love the plaza and want to take an active role in helping it succeed. If there comes a time when our growth is such that we feel we need rulers, that's probably what I'd prefer to do- but right now we're a self governing little place that has operated very well on the companionship, open communication, and teamwork of its members, and we don't seem to need them. Maybe we never will! I believe that in terms of noticeable day-to-day impact on the members, the admin team should be as invisible as possible. Paying attention to bug reports and feature requests and responding in a timely fashion of course, but they should never be a looming presence or Big Brother type squad that you feel you need to tiptoe around. Taking care of technical needs/issues, spammers, monitoring the forum for grossly inappropriate conduct, and helping to resolve any disputes that may arise/stepping in with a gentle hand should any discussions get too heated, should be the primary duties of the admin team. We're doing really well on the last point as a community so far, and hopefully the new admin team won't have to exercise that duty. That said, it is something I'm experienced with, and mediation is an area in which I have some training. As far as technical expertise goes, I'm neither a software engineer not a graphic designer, but I have some coding and FTP experience, a lot of experience doing click based work on various types of cPanel, and can make icons and banners from source images. On the plaza in the past I've been a leader and GM in multiple kingdoms/areas, though never an RAM. In real life, I work in theatre as a performer, choreographer, union leader, and a technician/designer, where everything is basically run by committee, and teamwork and compromise to carry out a unified vision are essential. I'll bring all these skills and more to the table as an admin should the people choose to elect me.

And should the people choose not to elect me ...kidding. There's a long list of very qualified people up there, and I'll bear no hard feelings whatsoever if I'm not elected into this cohort of admins.

[Allacan ob Burzum]

Bio/XP for the elevator pitch: I was an active between 2003 and 2008 and I served as ruler of Rohan for a year. In life I am a lawyer, volunteer with Scout Association and a Quaker. I am passionate about maintaining the new plaza's philosophy of inclusion and hope. I want to ensure the new plaza is somewhere people can escape from the troubles of the world and play together.

More: I am passionate about this new plaza and protecting its user-focused, hands-off collaborative approach. If elected, I would focus myself as best as possible on ensuring that we maintain the philosophy of liberty, involvement and freedom of expression for everyone to contribute to the developments of the plaza and avoiding any level of hierarchy that creates secrecy and cliquishness. As a Quaker, I am passionate about allowing each person to have their voice heard and I want to ensure everyone can embrace their safe space on the plaza and a fresh start. I believe it is important for admins to protect and enable that as best as possible by being invisible guardians in the background, dealing with any conflict or disagreements with compassion and empathy, and working to facilitate the wishes of the members.

I'll be brave and honest here and admit that I previously served as Rohan's rulers during one of the plaza's most turbulent and controversial periods; the switch from Kingdoms to Regions. Back then I did my very best to protect the plaza we loved from losing its heart and flavour with what limited options were available following the decision of others, and experienced collaborating with others across the plaza with that in mind. I will diplomatically avoid commenting whether or not we succeeded as that is somewhat irrelevant now, but I will comment that I have personally experienced first hand the anxiety, uncertainty and division of a passionate player-base and have always done my best to allow every player to feel heard and respected; something the new plaza massively succeeds at and one of its greatest assets. Whether elected or not, I will do my very best to protect this attitude in myself and others.

Experience: I have been working as a lawyer for 8+ years. I also have 10+ years' experience volunteering with the Scout Association and a few years' experience volunteering with 'young' Quakers in the UK ('young' is anywhere between 11 and 30). With that and the plaza, these experiences have provided me with a lot of experience mediating between emotional people over passionate subjects. I'm not the most code-savvy of people but I learn quickly, and have been involved in a number of IT projects at work and served as their in-team first-line IT support for some time. Time-wise, I am at present off-work due to being furloughed until potentially November; I have time to spare and am looking for things to challenge me and keep me busy, and a way to give back to the people and communities I love.

A follow up comment I want to say thank you to everyone who has engaged in this process, whether nominating themselves or others, and to everyone who has put their name forward. Reading through the list of candidates I see some of the plaza's very best here, and I am overjoyed at the these of team-work and co-operation in a lot of posts that exhibits all the love and comradeship of a new fellowship building on the experiences of the old. Against such wonderfully skilled and passionate people I highly doubt I will be elected, but I feel safe in the knowledge that any one of these people would make this place great. Thank you everyone, and especially @Sil , @Uruva and @Narv for facilitating this.

[The Good Hunter]

For the top post:
I joined back in 2003 but most of my activity was 2006-2009. I loved all the games, all the RPs, all the poetry, and all the nonsense. I never knew how much I missed the Plaza and all of you until I was struck by a random urge to see whatever happened to it. I found a reddit post that appeared just a few short days before, right after Narv had worked his magic. Now that it's back and all of us are together again, I'd do anything I could to keep it so.

More:
As I said, I joined close to the very beginning, I remember seeing Phil post here and there. I remember when it was all lore forums and there were no kingdoms. I was barely in middle school at the time and I was a wild rambunctious fool. My Tolkien loving heart burst at all the possibilities and froze not knowing exactly what to do with it all. I came back after high school in 2006 and found the site at a wonderful peak of RPing and gaming, poetry and lore. I loved it. I reveled in the insanity for several years but eventually I, like nearly everyone, drifted away from it. It's back now though, in a different form yest, but it's back nonetheless. We have a duty, all of us, to make sure that the problems that faced the early versions of the Plaza don't happen here. It's not just on the admin team, whoever they may end up being. It's on everyone that passes through here, everyone that goes to Mordor for a pub brawl, Imladris for some silly games, the lore forums to discuss who and what Tom Bombadil really is. We have to make sure this place remains what we all wanted it to be what we all hope it can be. As an admin, I don't want to be a boss. As cool as an Olaf (@Sil promised) icon would be, I don't want it to make it appear that I'm different from everyone else. I'm a custodian in real life, along with being a horror fiction writer, so I know how to clean up messes and coordinate with people. That's all I want to do here as an admin. I want to jump into Aig's Ages of Arda epic, I want to play Thief Hunt and constantly lose to Moriel, I want scream in mock sadness over Olaf getting eliminated in a game. If I can help facilitate all these things and help everyone else who wants to do anything, then I feel like I've done my part.

[Red Daghul]

For the top post: EST, I have been around plaza since 2005 I believe, grew up on LOTR, and middle earth. I have spent years as a DM and story teller in RL. I have also served as a admin for another site of role players called mizahar in which my job was to make sure players were having a good time, have good interactions and come up with ideas on how to better the site. In real life my job is to help and supervise kids, teens, and adults.

In terms of what I can offer/ bring to the role: Hmmm well I am a people person and make it a point to understand all sides of a story, aiming to make sure that the group is heard and have what they need to be the best they can be.
I am also all about coming up with new ideas to create a fun and exciting place to play and grow. This place was a huge help in growing up and I believe that we have the chance to do the same for others.
Other than that my goal really is to just help out and serve where I am needed.

[Uruva]

Timezone: PST
Bio/XP: Ruled Mordor 1 year, moderator of a forum that shall not be named and I also haven’t broken Narvlaza yet, despite my best efforts. Previously very involved in Drill and Debate, not much of an RP person. I'm not codesy, but I'm fairly tech savvy and can figure out issues pretty easily if they don't involve backend coding. No kids, but two cats and I foster kittens. Work in transit project development.

Edit - oh right, I can just edit the top post.

[Thorin Firehelm]

Timezone: GMT (UK)
Bio/XP - A wide variety of experience on the OP, including editing the Raedboda, Plaza Newsletter and was also ruler of Dale for a brief time when they went to regions. Very creative and have management skills from my RL post as well as developing initiatives from the ground up. Some graphic design skills and general design abilities. My main aim as an admin would be to continue the work started by Narv and help develop this place in whatever ways I can.

[Narv]

Thank you everyone! We've opened up the voting stage now: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=284