https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_herring

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

My sincere and genuine apologies for having failed to mention the Senator from Maritiimi-Maxhestic!

That, however, makes 5/8 Senators and hence a majority. We now have a Mencei for the term!

Many congratulations to the Senator from Fiôvâ!

A corollary: some jurisdictions do require a number of preferences, either a minimum or a maximum. I am unaware that such a requirement exist in Talsosa.

For example, when voting for the Senate of Australia, a voter must indicate (i.e., rank) either 6 parties or 12 candidates.

However, that is not an inherent necessity to the method.

I should preface the below with this: Because the possible changes do not affect the outcome, there should be no reason to take further action; rather, it should be information to prevent a repeat in the future.

Unless there is some part of Talsosan law of which I am unaware (entirely possible), the default mode of counting in ranked-choice methods does not invalidate a vote merely because it indicated only one preference. Instead, the vote becomes 'exhausted' if its first choice is eliminated.

Therefore, Taiwos's vote should be / have been counted as a first-preference vote for Schiva.

I am going to echo the concerns: no matter how humoring the intentions may have been, it's an intensely reasonable question to ask.

I, for one, don't feel comfortable handing over trust to someone or a group of someones who may be interested to hijack all of Talossa under the guise of principled anarchism. I quite like it here, and I'd be pretty angry if someone pirated the webspace.

It doesn't matter whether it's probable-- only that it's possible.

May I just say: It's a really tragic state of affairs when the unfortunate passing of a single justice causes this much fuss. No one seat in any branch of government should wield so much power. The Congress sorely needs to reclaim its place as the dominant branch and stop ceding so much ground to the Executive and Judicial branches.

It was never intended when the Constitution was written that the Supreme Court would become such a blunt tool of political process, and it was thought instead that the elected representatives (well, the Senate was appointed, but by directly elected state legislators) would, y'know, get stuff done and represent the interests of the majority.

The fate of our republic should not depend on who sits on the Supreme Court. May we find a way to de-politicize our judiciary after the dust settles.

Paging the incumbent and past Scribes: would it be unduly burdensome, in your own opinion, if on top of updating the Wiki you also became a sort of "editor" or "revisor" of hoppered bills?

If so, would it be unduly burdensome to vest these tasks instead in the Chancery, i.e. the Secretary of State?

My two cents: It's not censorship unless we're deleting, editing, or hiding ("shadowbanning") people and their posts. Merely moving a thread, or parts of a thread, to a new location does not constitute censorship.

I think that a reintroduction of the Thunderdome is well advised and, rather than move an entire thread, a moderator should move only the grossly inflammatory posts.

AD, if you're worried, you should exercise those legislative muscles of yours (you did write El Lexhatx, after all) and write up a draft of a bill regulating the standards for which some posts get moved. Otherwise we'll just have to trust the moderator's judgement :)

Fewer subforums would be IMMENSELY helpful.

Here's an example: rather than give every province its own subforum, what if we just had a catch-all "PROVINCES" subforum and then the moderators could introduce a pinned thread for each province per term? Something like:

"Florencia, Aug 2020 - Apr 2021"
"Maricopa, Sep 2020 - Mar 2021"
etc.

The Council of Governors could have its own thread, too. This would cut down A TON on redundant threads.

"A New Dawn Rises for a Planet of the Crows"

Dr. Róibeard dal Nordselvă, thank you immensely for this effort. Know that your work is recognized, respected, and greatly appreciated.

You know what else has a very low barrier of entry, is very accessible, is cross-platform, and can be fun? Diplomacy.

https://www.playdiplomacy.com/

The catch: it's cutthroat, and participants have to be able to NOT take things personally.

Paging the Senators from Atatürk, Maricopa, and Cézembre. The public at large requires your attention in these matters; the selection of the Mencei is an Organic action.

The law is pretty clear: even with unanimous support, we'll have to wait till the deadline has passed.