BlogShares - BSEC Candidate Press Release

My fellow BlogShares Players:

It is really rather remarkable that I, a long-time player of the game and behind the scenes contributor to the game’s community, can speak to you today on the front page of BlogShares among my fellow players, some of whom behave as if the game began and ended at the Ideas Market. They claim to be the defenders and proponents of the community and of the game’s evolution, yet they stand on the side of automation for the few. They want people to believe that the fate of the game, of the BSEC, and of this game community should best be put in their hands, yet they form coalitions with those who do not serve the community as a whole, but only serve themselves. I don’t stand on their side, nor do I hold their points of view… thus, my break from the egocentric fantasy that was the so-called “Cartel.”

[Welcome to all you BlogShares Players that came here from the front page press release.]

What nobody talks about is the vast numbers of Ideas that some individuals are holding, no matter how long it took for them to accumulate all those Ideas… two million Ideas… is that excessive? four million… excessive yet? six million? eight million? how about twenty-two million? Where is that line drawn? Is there even a line? No, not yet, but that’s where the BSEC may become helpful.

My running platform for the BSEC election is not so much a stance against automation itself, but against automation for the few. The API is here to stay, that much I already know. Fighting against the existence of the API is a useless battle which I won’t waste my energy doing. But, the problem comes in when only a few “l33t” programmers can make use of the API, while the vast majority of the game community cannot make use of the API. If the API was meant to be used for trading ideas or stocks, then such functionality should also have been provided to the entire community in the form of an extensible desktop application. If the game does not come with such a console application or bot, then a situation of community division is created, and those who play the game without such applications are, in effect, playing it at a disadvantage which they did not create and might not even have been aware of.

It’s also been part of my platform that there be some means of knowing who is using the API, how much they are using it (both in terms of the amount of API calls as well as quantities traded), and for what purposes are they using it. Any usage of the API’s that does not involve buying, selling, or reindexing of any game element or commodity will not and has not affected the game or it’s Markets. The current statistics-gathering for the Ideas Market was a direct result of my speaking up about it.

I started out in this game at the same place that almost every other player started at… with $500 and 1000 shares in my own blog. I worked my way up the Best Player’s list (and I did that without extensive help in the form of gifts from other players) and I actually made it to #2 on that list in May. Since then, I have worked -constantly- behind the scenes of the game : finding and reporting bugs and loopholes, suggesting additional features and improvements, answering and asking questions in the forums, dreaming up artefacts for industries and writing their descriptions, finding good blogs and adding them to the system (and no, I haven’t been able to buy the stock of all the ones I’ve added), and voting them into industries. In fact, I was named the first Designated Industry Voter because I have done the most Industry voting (quantity- and accuracy-wise) of any other player in this game.

If all of my effort was self-serving and meant to create profit only for me, you would think that I would be holding the most stocks and ideas and also have the largest net worth… but you can look at my portfolio and see for yourself that I’m not. That should tell you that my motives in this game are not self-serving with little care for the rest of the players and the game as a whole. What I do in and around the game is of benefit to the entire game community, not just a few lucky folks who happen to be my friends.

I hope you will keep that in mind as you go to the poll in the BlogShares forums and VOTE for one of the candidates for the BSEC. Please feel free to contact me as I am available to answer any game- or candidate-related questions you may have. Show your support for my candidacy with your vote or in any other creative ways you can think of… I do appreciate your efforts.

And thank you for your time.

Aine MacDermot

PS : I guess the “old boys network” at the non-existent “Cartel” is busy drumming up an anti-Aine campaign. Not so good for Jorge, their candidate, but this could be interesting for voters, I suppose. Amusing, but childish…

PPS : The really good thing about extending your press release into your blog is being able to extend your remarks even further as things progress. Got your popcorn? Good.