Ah, election time is upon us again. I'm so happy that the senior staff considered the Council to be a success and decided to extend it. My time serving as Hellmutt's assistant in the X Council was truly a rewarding experience, especially when I was able to help members. In the last elections, I ran for ATSNN Councilor and was (not so) narrowly defeated by Nerdling, but since he's moved on to be a moderator, I've decided to give it another go.

I'm running for the ATSNN Councilor seat because I really care greatly about that section of ATS. Already many members use it as their primary news source, but it has much more potential. By listening to ATSNN contributors and experts, and working with the senior staff and owners, I intend to make it an even more valuable resource for all ATS members. My experience as a Council Assistant has already taught me a lot about what is expected of councilors from both the membership and the staff, therefore I have the ability to hit the ground running and deliver the most I possibly can for our great members.

Here is my record as an ATSNN Reporter: djohnsto77's articles

Thanks for listening and considering me for ATSNN Councilor. Feel free to post any questions here regarding my candidacy. Supporters are encouraged to post an endorsement and/or use my banner ad in their signature.

Good luck to all the candidates, including my worthy opponents!

Together we can all deny bias.



[edit on 10/8/2005 by djohnsto77]

Best of Luck to you DJ.

I do really believe that whoever is chosen out of the three of us who nominated will do the best job for ATSNN.

Nice to see you already have experience as an assistant that is a plus for most elections.

Good Luck you have my vote

What do you intend to bring to ATSNN that not only isn't there, but that others won't? What do you feel needs to be changed and what do you feel needs to stay the same? In short, why should we vote for you?

I can't speak to what others running for the position would or wouldn't do; I can only speak for myself. I would start answering this question by clarifying what the position of ATS Councilor entails. The most important duty of an ATS Councilor is to act as a liaison between the membership and the senior staff/owners. That means listening to concerns and suggestions, sifting through them, and coalescing them into concrete proposals for their review and possible point-vote referendum in the ATS store. I personally bring the experience of being a former member of the Council as X assistant; therefore have a familiarity with this important process.



The brilliance of ATSNN is its collaborative nature. Every member of ATS can submit news that he or she thinks is important, then, most importantly, that submission gets reviewed and commented on by the members. The only real problem with this process is that the voting process delays some truly important, time-sensitive stories if the submitter is not already an ATSNN expert. There are already several proposals out there to alleviate this problem, and I promise to work with both the ATSNN users and the senior staff to find the best solution to this problem and find a way to implement it.



In short, I have the time, temperament, and desire to get the job done. I want to be your ATSNN representative so together we can make our collaborative news service the best it can possibly be.

You got my vote.

I´m very pleased with the work you did when you were working as X-Council assistant. This time there will be no Council assistants at all. I´m sure you will do a great job as ATSNN Councilor and I recommend anyone to vote djohnsto77 for this important job.

I wish you good luck in your candidacy for ATSNN Councilor dj! We both know how the council operates and both of us have an overt passion for ATSNN. May the best man win

Good luck, dj!

.

I know you to be a very logical and level-headed person, DJ. You're the type of decision-maker that we need on these forums, so you can definitely count on my vote.

Hi Djohn! Working with you on the last session was a pleasure and I wish you the best of luck in winning your seat!

Thank you all for your kind words of support! If elected, I promise to do the best I can possibly do to represent all members, but all the candidates for ATSNN are great, and no matter who wins I'm sure it'll be in great hands.

On this day and anyone trying to sway me away will not succeed this time.



You get my vote and i wish you all the luck in the world. We dont see eye to eye, but you WILL one day. Best of luck!

My vote is for DJ.

Good luck dj!

I know you will make a great Councilor if elected.

You have my vote!

Thanks for your support Duzey!

It was a pleasure helping you while I was a Council Assistant.

Hey dj - best of luck! You have made some great contributions to ATSNN, and I know you will do a great job if you get in as councillor.


Would you please comment on SkepticOverlord's statement:


"When ATSNN was first launched, it was intended as the current events news portal for a very large conspiracy theory community. As such, the intent was that we have a primary focus on analysis of major media news as it relates to ATS topics."

Post Number: 1736770 (post id: 1758663)


...Can you tell us if you think it's valid to have a news portal that analyzes major media news as it relates to conspiracy topics? Short of dictating such a policy by facist order, do you see that even being possible? Can it happen? Should it happen?


.
.

My dj testimonial:

So that everyone who votes for dj knows what to expect, he is super-duper helpful!

I had an 'issue' when he was an assistant and he was really wonderful through the whole thing. Instead of ripping my hair out wondering what was happening, I would u2u dj for moral support.

Even though we rarely agree he is a great guy and he really will take the time to help however he can.

Hey dj.

I am inviting you, and your competitors, to respond to my podcast on the ATS election. Called "Who Cares?" the post intro states "Experimental democracy founders at ATS, the InterNet's premiere conspiracy site."

Podcast: Who Cares?

Who Cares: The Thread.


Thanks, sofi

My response can be found here:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

good luck Dj. you are a very nice level headed person (as someone pointed out!)

i am sure many people think the same thing.
i will you all luck. and the lovely dj77!

oni x x

To tell you the truth, I think ATSNN has moved beyond that original mission. I think we should publish as many of alternative subject/conspiracy related news articles as we can, but I think the value-added ability of ATSNN to provide an open commentary forum to mainstream news articles is at least as important as providing a forum for conspiracy-related articles. In ATSNN, many mainstream articles lifted from FOX or CNN etc. get a conspiracy spin as well after analysis and commentary by our members, so I do dispute the notion that all ATSNN articles should be based on an inheritently conspiratorial topic, if that was what was meant by the post.




[edit on 10/12/2005 by djohnsto77]