This Month's Elections are:
Alaska (April 4th) - Vote By Mail Only
All ballots due by the 10th, with results expected by April 11th.
Hawaii (April 4th) - Vote By Mail Only
Results expected by... seriously, May 22nd? What is this, California?
Wyoming Caucus (April 4th) - Vote By Mail Only
It's... not really a caucus anymore, huh? Well, c'est la vie. You need to have made a ballot request by the 31st of March, so I hope everyone in WY did. For everyone else, results are expected by the 17th.
Wisconsin (April 7th) - Legally Mandated On This Date
This is a Big Deal Election, with the fate of the State Supreme Court in the balance, but it's worth repeating: practice social distancing. If you can vote by mail, do so.
Puerto Rico (April 26th) - Probably Getting Moved Back or Canceled
Already got pushed back once, and it'll probably get moved again, assuming it hasn't already and I just missed it.
Ohio Primary (April 28th) - Mail In Only
Soooooo in a move that was technically illegal, but still probably a good idea, DeWine basically pressued the courts into letting him cancel in-person voting and move the date. We should have results... at some point. That said, there's reports of ballots not getting mailed out to all registered voters, so check your registration and see if you can get your hands on one.
And... that's it. Unsurprisingly, quite a bit got canceled this month, on account of quarantine (WASH YOUR HANDS).
Official Staff Communication
Discussion guidelines are the same as the last thread, with one addendum bolded below.
First and foremost: no hostility. No sniping, no trolling, no antagonizing. No assuming other people are being disingenuous. If you believe that these behaviors are on display, use the report button. Do not respond to them with your own hostility or try to clap back. Let the moderation team handle it, and please understand that not everything that bothers you is going to be actionable.
Second, no metacommentary. No unquoted "wow there's a lot of centrists/leftists/dirtbags in here" type posts. Certainly no quoted variant on that. The same applies for directly or indirectly calling out other communities. Again, if you have reason to believe that something untoward is happening, report it or PM a mod captain or I suppose myself. This can be difficult to discern without extensive experience in the topic, which not all mods have. Your reports on this are extremely valuable.
Third, try to avoid posting tweets without context or commentary. We would like to encourage people to actually engage with what they're posting, and zero-context tweets tend to be either due to posters rushing to be the first with news, or else trying to let Twitter users make their arguments for them. In either case, it clogs up the thread. This rule is less strictly enforced than the others with one notable excpetion: we're keeping a close eye out for anybody attempting to use people from underpriveleged groups as a bludgeon or shield. If a black user tells you that they took issue with something that you said, "but this black person on Twitter says it's okay" is not a valid response. That's dismissing racism (extrapolate out the terminology for people doing the same with LGBT issues, women's issues, etc.) and will be moderated as such.
Fourth, conspiracy theorizing is forbidden. To make it clear what this means, you can speak and speculate about bias, conflicts of interest, nepotism, all kinds of mundane ways that human nature can effect the process, but if you're alleging an actual organized conspiracy to rig or alter results, that's another matter.
You can make jokes, you can be enthusiastic about your candidate. Try to avoid putting down other peoples', as that kind of behavior tends to start fights, but we will not be moderating people simply for not liking something your favorite said or did. If you don't think they're being fair, you can of course try to address them without violating the above rules. If you do not believe you can address a post without breaking the rules, it's most likely time to use the report button or reach out to the team directly. I would also encourage everyone to make use of their ignore lists if it's become clear that a poster you dislike isn't crossing any lines. If other peoples' (non-hateful) political opinions bother you that much, it might be better to just stop seeing them.
In recent weeks we have seen a sharp rise in the use of 'dementia' as a denigrating term to attack politicians and public figures. It is fine to comment on a politician's presence of mind, it is not okay to arbitrarily assign a diagnosis. Using the word dementia as a pejorative, or even just casual misuse of the term, can have a profound impact on those living with dementia, and how they are viewed and treated in society. It can also influence how others think about dementia and increase the likelihood of a person with dementia experiencing stigma or discrimination.
As our site aims to be inclusive, we will be moderating this and other forms of ableist language much more harshly going forward.
We've introduced warnings into the ban escalation for this thread. The floor for a contextless tweet is a warning, to make sure nobody gets slapped with a week off for something normally never actioned. After that, and for more serious first offenses, you get a week off. Anybody who merits a second week off due to repeat offenses will instead be given a ban of 3 months or until July 22nd, 2020; whichever is longer. This will kick in on April 22! Or 21st, depending on the timezone of the staff member who banned you.
First and foremost: no hostility. No sniping, no trolling, no antagonizing. No assuming other people are being disingenuous. If you believe that these behaviors are on display, use the report button. Do not respond to them with your own hostility or try to clap back. Let the moderation team handle it, and please understand that not everything that bothers you is going to be actionable.
Second, no metacommentary. No unquoted "wow there's a lot of centrists/leftists/dirtbags in here" type posts. Certainly no quoted variant on that. The same applies for directly or indirectly calling out other communities. Again, if you have reason to believe that something untoward is happening, report it or PM a mod captain or I suppose myself. This can be difficult to discern without extensive experience in the topic, which not all mods have. Your reports on this are extremely valuable.
Third, try to avoid posting tweets without context or commentary. We would like to encourage people to actually engage with what they're posting, and zero-context tweets tend to be either due to posters rushing to be the first with news, or else trying to let Twitter users make their arguments for them. In either case, it clogs up the thread. This rule is less strictly enforced than the others with one notable excpetion: we're keeping a close eye out for anybody attempting to use people from underpriveleged groups as a bludgeon or shield. If a black user tells you that they took issue with something that you said, "but this black person on Twitter says it's okay" is not a valid response. That's dismissing racism (extrapolate out the terminology for people doing the same with LGBT issues, women's issues, etc.) and will be moderated as such.
Fourth, conspiracy theorizing is forbidden. To make it clear what this means, you can speak and speculate about bias, conflicts of interest, nepotism, all kinds of mundane ways that human nature can effect the process, but if you're alleging an actual organized conspiracy to rig or alter results, that's another matter.
You can make jokes, you can be enthusiastic about your candidate. Try to avoid putting down other peoples', as that kind of behavior tends to start fights, but we will not be moderating people simply for not liking something your favorite said or did. If you don't think they're being fair, you can of course try to address them without violating the above rules. If you do not believe you can address a post without breaking the rules, it's most likely time to use the report button or reach out to the team directly. I would also encourage everyone to make use of their ignore lists if it's become clear that a poster you dislike isn't crossing any lines. If other peoples' (non-hateful) political opinions bother you that much, it might be better to just stop seeing them.
In recent weeks we have seen a sharp rise in the use of 'dementia' as a denigrating term to attack politicians and public figures. It is fine to comment on a politician's presence of mind, it is not okay to arbitrarily assign a diagnosis. Using the word dementia as a pejorative, or even just casual misuse of the term, can have a profound impact on those living with dementia, and how they are viewed and treated in society. It can also influence how others think about dementia and increase the likelihood of a person with dementia experiencing stigma or discrimination.
As our site aims to be inclusive, we will be moderating this and other forms of ableist language much more harshly going forward.
We've introduced warnings into the ban escalation for this thread. The floor for a contextless tweet is a warning, to make sure nobody gets slapped with a week off for something normally never actioned. After that, and for more serious first offenses, you get a week off. Anybody who merits a second week off due to repeat offenses will instead be given a ban of 3 months or until July 22nd, 2020; whichever is longer. This will kick in on April 22! Or 21st, depending on the timezone of the staff member who banned you.
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