I'm running for DP in the current election (July 08) and I feel it's important that people know about the people they are being asked to choose between at the voting booth. Who gets picked as the next DP is important to everyone - the DP has the power to ban you, so better use your vote and pick someone trustworthy! In previous elections, it became customary for DP candidates to answer a few basic questions about themselves and their views about DP on the forums. Lately, that hasn't happened so much. I will answer those basic questions here. If you'd like to ask me about anything further, please /chat Spicy in game :)
I'm 38, live in England and play European time days and evenings. My background is in research pharmacology, but I'm currently a stay at home mum to 2 sons. I've worked on a charity telephone and email counselling helpline for 8 years, which I think has helped me develop valueable listening skills.
I started playing atitd in Dec 06 and I currently lead Horus Tears in UE, a large home and mentoring guild with a mix of English and French speaking players. I love this game and I like to try just about everything - I enjoy making wine, working on chemistry and mutating orchids, trying many of the Tests, running events like Build a Guild and the Easter Gown contest, and helping community projects like the pyramids and making plague cures available. I especially love mentoring: sharing knowledge of the game and helping new players settle in to the great community we have in Egypt.
Serving the community as a DP would be one more way to give something back in the game. I think I have the listening, mediating skills, level-headedness and understanding of how things in Egypt work to make me a good & reliable DP. I'm not interested in DP for the test pass, but I feel passionately that someone who is going to hold the bans should take that responsibilty seriously and be able to mediate calmly and fairly to resolve problems when the need arises, and not make a situation worse.
The only thing a DP can do that an ordinary player can't do is ban someone. DP is a leadership test because you have to convince Egypt that you will make a reliable holder of the ban stick, and not misuse the DP banning power or the immunity from being banned that a DP has. People vote for the candidates they know and trust, but they tend to know and trust and follow the people who are already leading in their guilds, community projects and events.
That they continue to play as they have always done (we must think they will serve well as a DP to have voted them in), and don't take the responsibilty of the bans lightly.
Someone with a history of a hot temper, impetuousness or disputes with others, someone tactless, someone who doesn't know the game well.
Sometimes it's true that "least said is soonest mended". Tact is needed when people are upset and angry and in dispute. I hate lying and would not tell a lie or try to mislead someone, but I don't feel its always kind or helpful to tell every little detail of the bare truth of something either. For instance, if asked if I like someone's art project but its not really to my taste, I would find something I do like about it to comment positively on.
Banning to me is very much a last resort. I think it is ocasionally needed, for instance it may be useful if someone is griefing another player or group and they are not willing to take part in mediation to resolve the conflict. This can often be because they don't care about their reputation in Egypt - either they already plan to leave or take a long break, or they have little emotional connection with the other players - and so have less incentive to solve the problem peacefully. Now we have the temporary bans there are more useful options for the DPs - a temp ban could help a situation calm down a little and stop more damage happening in the heat of anger. However I think if someone gets to the point of doing something where a ban is considered, it's a failure of all of us to help head off the problem before it reached such a bad stage. I'd rather see people work on getting along together.
If I felt a ban may be needed, I would think it through carefully and would consult with other DPs as much as possible, because usually situations are complex and its useful to get several points of view. But I would also act alone if I felt it was necessary to act quickly (for instance a temp ban to prevent further explosives damage). DPs are elected to individually hold the bans, not as a kind of parliament of Egypt.