Those who use Znet as a source of information may have noticed that it is down (as of around 1:12 P.M., Monday March 24, board time (EST)). They announced a few days ago that they were under cyber-attack and if they were down any time in the near future that was the cause. I'm going to post a related question in technical support - in hopes of some geek help on this. Oh, and it is not a conspiracy.. Right wing nuts, not official government action of any type; one particular set of right wing nuts who do this a lot are some Israeli settlers in the occupied territories and are tolerated by government of Israel, due as much to legal loopholes as deliberate policy.

I just wanted to let people know that although a vote was supposed to start at midnight tonight it is being postponed. We have not been able to iron out a ballot to everyone's liking. Hopefully this can be ironed out tomorrow, but I just feel wrong in posting the link for the vote now.

Visit the Voting discussion thread on your sidebar for details.

As Sophia noted, we were unable to iron out the ballot, yesterday.

The proposed ballot is here: [link]

The problem seems to be that since we can't nail down only two options for the moratorium length, we need to nail down a method for arriving at a true majority among three choices. We have been unable to decide between either having a run-off, or trying preferential voting, if there isn't a true majority for one of the three options. A number of people (but not a majority) are strongly opposed to trying the preferential method.

In hopes of moving things along, I have made two alternate proposals. They are at:

Cindy "Voting Discussion: We're Screwing In Light Bulbs AIFG!" Mar 25, 2003 6:47:02 am EST

and

Cindy "Voting Discussion: We're Screwing In Light Bulbs AIFG!" Mar 25, 2003 8:33:37 am EST

I'm don't give a sweet Viggo Mortensen's arse what we do. I think among the people who do care what we do, we've hit gridlock. Need fresh blood or voice of reason, please.

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

It is time for one of the last procedural votes.

When we first started this discussion, we really wanted to be able to have a way to not talk about the same issue over and over and over... Here we have one.

*** Please note that this ballot consists of one VOTE and one question which is intended to act as a SURVEY to help craft a ballot with a different number if the vote does not pass.***

MORATORIUM ON REOPENING DISCUSSIONS

VOTE

After a proposal, discussion and vote, further discussion on a given matter should be closed for 6 months. If this initiative passes, we agree at 3 months from the day (date) the poll closes, to take a vote of confidence on this decision (only), to see if we think 6 months is too long, too short, or just right.

Yes

No

No Preference

Note that the result of this vote will apply to ALL decisions, affirmative and negative.

SURVEY

If, and only if, you voted "no" on question one , please choose a number between 1 month and twelve months to define what you think is the appropriate length of time to close discussions.

This results of Question Two will be moot if Question One receives 50%+1 "yes" votes. The results of Question Two will only be used for informational purposes, if Question One fails to get 50%+1 "yes" votes. It is not binding. It is just a survey to get a gut check on what people want.

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

12 months

Ballot Here

Voting starts Tuesday night (March 25, 2003) at 9 pm Board Time (EST) and closes Friday night (Mar. 28, 2003) at 9 pm Board Time (EST)

Due to Basketball, Minneapolis area broadcast of Buffy will be at 11 pm CST tonight.

Cindy clarifies the "vote of confidance" portion of the ballot.

Cindy "Bureaucracy 1: Like Kafka, Only Funnier" Mar 26, 2003 9:18:43 am EST

from the Charisma-Carpenter website:

It's a boy!

Please welcome to the world Donavan Charles Hardy. Charisma gave birth to a healthy baby boy at 9:50 PM on March 24th at Cedar Sinai hospital in Beverly Hills. He weighed in at 8 pounds 10 ounces and has a marvelous head of hair. Both mother and baby are doing well.

Another excellent interview by Allyson can be found here:

Petrie Dish: An Interview with Doug Petrie

Attention Buffistas!

In honor of Charisma Carpenter and her new son, we would like to make a gift to Heifer International, an organization that "combats hunger, alleviates poverty, and restores the environment by providing appropriate livestock, training, and related services to small-scale farmers worldwide."

Heifer allows donors to select from a gift catalog of various types of farm animal. I thought it would be nice if we get one or more of the milk animals:

A goat, for $120
A water buffalo, for $250
A heifer, for $500, or
A milk menagerie (two goats, a buffalo, and a heifer), for $1000

If you would like to contribute, please send your donation to me, stonewilbanks@attbi.com, via PayPal no later than midnight board time on Saturday, April 5. If you prefer not to use PayPal, email me and I will give you my address for snail-mailing a check. I will then make the donation and make sure CC gets an honor card with the love and best wishes of the Buffistas.

x-posted to the Angel thread