Editing The 'Shroom talk:Issue 213/Director Election

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<h1>Director Election</h1>
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This page is where members of the community may post their campaigns and vote for candidates to direct The 'Shroom for the next year. The rules for the election process may be viewed on the [[The 'Shroom:Issue 213/Director Election|election rules article]].

'''Voting opens on Saturday, December 28th, 2024 at 00:01 GMT. Please do not cast a vote before then.'''

==Candidates and Voting==
=== {{User|Waluigi Time}} / {{User|Sparks}} ===
Hello there, 'Shroom readers! Waluigi Time here, current Fake News man and previously varying halves of the 'Shroom directing staff in 2022 and 2023. After stepping back from leadership this year to recover a bit from working on Issue 200, I'm feeling recharged and eager to run for Director for the 2025 term! I'm joined by my running mate Sparks, an all-around good fellow with plenty of enthusiasm for this wonderful community.

The 'Shroom is a project I've had a lot of passion for since I got roped into it by a certain bird and squid four years ago, and I can safely say that hasn't waned! It's given me a lot of joy as a contributor and reader, and I'm running because, well, I want to see it not only keep existing, but to keep thriving too. This paper has a lot of great years in its history, most recently thanks to Shoey and Meta Knight, so the goal here is to keep that momentum going and provide more fun and engaging content for you all!

Before we get into the details of the campaign, allow me to turn things over to my running mate so he can properly introduce himself!

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Hi everyone! I am Sparks (SparksMarioWiki on the Mario Boards), an active user throughout the Mario Wiki community! You probably have seen at least one random pony image somewhere right? Those were from me, I added them.

I joined the Wiki itself in November 2022 because I discovered articles relating to ''Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope'' were scarce even after a month since the release of the game. Also I'm a fan of Mario, so of course I had to be here! I was just an ordinary user learning how to work around the wiki, focusing more on the games and their content rather than the discussions behind the scenes. Who knew I would eventually discover the amazing Mario Wiki community?

I had discovered The 'Shroom not long after I arrived, although I mostly viewed the Spotlights sections. It wouldn't be until late 2023 when I started voting on proposals and such, although I only stayed on the wiki at the time.

In January 2024, I made the decision to join the Mario Boards! I was initially perplexed about how to navigate it since it was my first forum but still! My experiences on the Mario Boards was when I truly met some of the amazing community members here.

My first ever 'Shroom contribution was when I wrote a movies review of ''My Little Pony: The Movie'' (2017) for 'Issue 203. I envisioned it as a one-off section, but then I had the crazy idea to provide walkthroughs of all the classic ''Mega Man'' games since Issue 204 (going to make the third game's walkthrough soon)! As such, I'd safely say I'm part of the Strategy Wing team, being one of its writers. I do make guest sections at other groups too!

On May 17, 2024 I was offered the unexpected invitation to become a wiki patroller! Of course I said "'''YES!'''" 8 days later on the 25th, I decided to create a ''Discord'' account just for the Mario Wiki Server, where I met even more folks and discussed all sorts of topics with them.

Before the Mario Wiki Awards began, I was encouraged to create a presentation for it, and ended up doing two of them! I had also participated in the Picture Pilgrimage out of curiosity, despite not being such a good artist myself. Needless to say, I had fun and loved it! Finally, just recently on December 16, 2024 I officially became an administrator on the Wiki!

Overall, I've certainly made a splash with the community! I will admit that I wasn't intending on running in the 'Shroom Campaign, but Waluigi Time saw potential in me and I thought "Why not," and so I'm here! I'll use my enthusiasm and positive energy in addition to my (somewhat) leadership skills I have learned from my Wiki Staff status to help however I can and make sure everything goes smoothly and well. I'm excited to be a part of this!

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<h4>Qualifications</h4>
<h5>Waluigi Time</h5>
*'Shroom Sub-Director (January 2022 – August 2022; January 2023 – January 2024), Director (August 2022 – January 2023), and Fake News Director (June 2022 – present)
**I will happily note that The 'Shroom did not explode during any of these time periods!
*Writer of numerous 'Shroom sections since Issue 166
*Awards Committee member (2022 – present) and directing staff (2024 – present)
*Served on the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth Poll Committees (2021 – present)
*Retired Super Mario Wiki staff (November 2020 – August 2023)

<h5>Sparks</h5>
*Writer of various 'Shroom sections since Issue 203 (mostly for Strategy Wing)
*Creator of two Awards presentations for 2024
*Current administrator on the Mario Wiki (since December 16, 2024. Formerly a patroller from May 17, 2024 to December 16, 2024)
*Local moderator on the Mario Boards (for the Wiki Collaborations thread)
*Inventor of the "Remaining articles" threads on the Mario Boards (encouraging motivation!)

<h4>Schedule and Plans</h4>
This is our proposed schedule for the 2025 term:

{| class="shroomtable roundrows" style="margin: auto; max-width: 1000px"
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.6)" colspan=4| '''2025 Term Calendar'''
|-
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 20%" |January 18, 2025
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |214
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |
| style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.2)" |
*Transition Issue
|-
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 20%" |February 15, 2025
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |215
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |
| style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.2)" |
*Poll Chairperson Election
|-
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 20%" |March 15, 2025
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |216
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |
| style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.2)" |
|-
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 20%" |April 19, 2025
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |217
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |
| style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.2)" |
|-
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 20%" |May 17, 2025
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |218
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |
| style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.2)" |
|-
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 20%" |June 21, 2025
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |219
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |Summer Special
| style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.2)" |
*Villains Theme
*Community Awards Dossier
|-
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 20%" |July 19, 2025
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |220
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |
| style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.2)" |
|-
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 20%" |August 30, 2025
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |221
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |
| style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.2)" |
|-
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 20%" |September 20, 2025
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |222
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |
| style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.2)" |
|-
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 20%" |October 18, 2025
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |223
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |
| style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.2)" |
*Halloween Event
|-
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 20%" |November 15, 2025
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |224
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |
| style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.2)" |
*Awards Director Election
|-
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |December 20, 2025
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |225
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |Holiday Special
| style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.2)" |
*Theme TBD
*End-of-the-Year Awards
*The 'Shroom Director Election
|-
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 20%" |January 17, 2026
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |226
! style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.4); width: 15%" |
| style="background-color: rgba(226,0,0,0.2)" |
*Transition Issue
|}

Since there are no major milestones for the paper this year, we'll be returning to the standard summer and holiday specials. We want to make sure that there's plenty of time to brainstorm and implement ideas, so we'll be holding a staff meeting for each special in March and September, respectively. Our primary goal for special issues this year is emphasizing fun and simplicity. We want the main focus to be fairly broad themes that our writers can easily participate in, along with strong visuals. Our newly reworked graphics team allowed us to go much farther with creating unique assets in 2024 than we were able to previously when most of the responsibility was given to one person, so we want to keep that going - not that we want to push anyone too hard, though! What we want to de-emphasize, however, is larger-scale projects for these issues. We're still very open to special events and other activities - you may have already noticed one on the proposed schedule - but we would rather spread them throughout the year instead of tying them directly to the production of special issues. That way, we're not putting excessive pressure on staff while developing these projects, and as a bonus, there's fun stuff to do more often!

So let's get into the specifics. The summer special issue for the year will be a villain-themed issue! I'll be honest, the inspiration from this mainly came because it was pointed out to me that 2025 will be the 25th anniversary of Waluigi's debut in ''Mario Tennis'' and 20 years since his only real outing as a proper villain in ''Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix''. It's also been 40 years since the debut of Bowser, probably the most iconic villain in gaming, and tying things back into 'Shroom history, 5 years since the first 'Shroomfest was hosted and Team Villains came out on top against Team Heroes! It's the perfect time to celebrate our favorite characters who are so good at being bad. Or maybe years that end in 0 or 5 are just really good for villainy? Whatever the case may be, we're doing it because villains are cool. As for the holiday special, we haven't decided on a theme for that one yet, so that's something we'll be working on. Let us know if you have any ideas you're itching to see!

As mentioned, we do want to pursue some other fun projects this year outside of special issues. The only one we have listed currently is a Halloween-themed event for the October issue, but we're going to keep most of the details under wraps until closer to the time. For now, we'll just say that our active writers will have the opportunity to directly shape this event! We're also remaining open to revisiting the concept of 'Shroomfest, most likely at some point in the first half of the year. The last iteration of this event was held in June 2022, so we think it's been long enough to give it another shot. At the moment, this isn't a concrete plan because a topic hasn't been determined yet. While we're interested in another 'Shroomfest, we don't want to force it if the inspiration just isn't there.

Finally, we're going to try one adjustment to the usual schedule of releasing every third Saturday of the month, and push the August issue out an extra week. This way, we'll have a two-week gap between the Awards Ceremony and the release of the August issue, instead of only one week. There's a significant overlap between our writers and the community members who create Awards presentations, so we want to try to add some additional breathing room and reduce crunch for our creators on both ends. On the flipside, this means that there will only be a three-week gap between the August and September issues, so we'll be closely monitoring how our writers react to this change for future reference.

Aside from that, we have a few other plans for this term:
*'''Continue working with the Poll Committee and Awards Committee''' - As per usual, we want to continue collaborating with these other key facets of our community through avenues such as ''Poll Committee Discussion'', ''Awards Analysis'', and the annual ''Community Awards Dossier''. This will also include making sure to schedule 'Shroom issue releases and meetings so that they do not conflict with the business of the Awards Committee.
*'''Tackle some small-scale projects as time allows''' - These are mostly focused on ensuring that various parts of public-facing 'Shroom content are as up to date and accurate as possible, and will most likely not have a direct impact on the paper itself.
*'''Engage with feedback''' - We want to hear from you! If you have any suggestions for the year, or thoughts on how The 'Shroom can be improved, please don't hesitate to let us know. We'll be very happy to consider any and all constructive feedback.

The 'Shroom has been a major pillar of this community for most of its existence, and we want to see this paper keep thriving and acting as a beacon of creativity for everyone here as it has been for so many years. Our ultimate goal is to continue improving The 'Shroom to be the best that it can be and to provide engaging experiences for our writers and readers alike. Thank you very much for your consideration!

====Votes====
#{{User|Ninja Squid}} - Waah... ahem... Waluigi Time joined the 'Shroom staff as my Sub-Director, and ever since then he has demonstrated on multiple occasions how much he puts great care into any projects he undertakes for the newspaper. Showcased great leadership skills, and reliability as well. Alongside Sparks, which has great enthusiasm for The 'Shroom, I know it will see growth under their leadership in 2025. They have my full confidence, and I am more than happy to support them!
#{{User|Hooded Pitohui}} - Having worked hand-in-hand with Waluigi Time as one half of the 2023 Directing Staff, and having worked with Sparks this year as he submitted multiple walkthroughs to Strategy Wing, I have full faith in these two. I know Waluigi Time is an experienced and steady hand who is always thinking up new ideas for the paper and community, and I know Sparks is a dedicated learner who'll both ask questions so he can better learn the position and encourage anyone showing earnest interest in contributing to the paper.
#{{User|Boo1268}} - um YEAH no duh of COURSE im gonna vote for these two are you KIDDING these guys are great the detication these two have to not only the mario wiki but to EVERY part of the comunitty fills my Ghostly Heart with Joy! and hey if waluigi time was a director once why can he do it again? i honestly have a feeling that with them around things are gonna be great plus i cant wait for sparks to add some pastel pony playfulness to each shroom section so they get my Vote!

==Debates==
''None yet!''

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==Election Comments==
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 #{{User|Ninja Squid}} - Waah... ahem... Waluigi Time joined the 'Shroom staff as my Sub-Director, and ever since then he has demonstrated on multiple occasions how much he puts great care into any projects he undertakes for the newspaper. Showcased great leadership skills, and reliability as well. Alongside Sparks, which has great enthusiasm for The 'Shroom, I know it will see growth under their leadership in 2025. They have my full confidence, and I am more than happy to support them!
 #{{User|Hooded Pitohui}} - Having worked hand-in-hand with Waluigi Time as one half of the 2023 Directing Staff, and having worked with Sparks this year as he submitted multiple walkthroughs to Strategy Wing, I have full faith in these two. I know Waluigi Time is an experienced and steady hand who is always thinking up new ideas for the paper and community, and I know Sparks is a dedicated learner who'll both ask questions so he can better learn the position and encourage anyone showing earnest interest in contributing to the paper.
-#{{User|Boo1268}} -  um YEAH no duh of COURSE im gonna vote for these two are you KIDDING these guys are great the detication these two have to not only the Mario wiki but to EVERY part of the comunitty fills my Ghostly Heart with Joy! and hey if waluigi time was director once why can he do it again? i honestly have a feeling that with them around things are gonna be great plus i cant wait for sparks to add some pastel pony playfulness to each shroom section so they get my Vote!
+#{{User|Boo1268}} - um YEAH no duh of COURSE im gonna vote for these two are you KIDDING these guys are great the detication these two have to not only the mario wiki but to EVERY part of the comunitty fills my Ghostly Heart with Joy! and hey if waluigi time was a director once why can he do it again? i honestly have a feeling that with them around things are gonna be great plus i cant wait for sparks to add some pastel pony playfulness to each shroom section so they get my Vote!
-#{{User|ClawgripFan9001}} - Seeing as I've been working under Waluigi Time on the Fake News team since mid-2022, I know very well what he's capable of in a leadership position, and as Pitohui mentioned, he's an experienced and precise innovator for both the newspaper and the community alike. As for Sparks, given that he's been part of the community long enough and put enough effort into his contribution to the community to have earned his stripes as both a Wiki Patroller and Wiki Administrator within only a year time, I am fully convinced that Sparks has what it takes to co-lead The 'Shroom for its 2025 run alongside Waluigi Time.
-#{{User|Roserade}}
-#{{User|Meta Knight}}
-#{{User|DryBonesBandit}}
 ==Debates==