AAR-IRC Election Night Success

      While the elections did not go the way some would have liked, we do have good news. #AAR was able to run election bots that brought real time returns from each state directly into the channel. We believe that this may have been a historic event and that we may have been the only IRC channel on the internet to provide such a service. This allowed guests to type in their state of interest and get the results they wanted as they came in. We had 1 main bot with 2 back ups ready to go. Armed with multiple resources to draw from in case of an internet meltdown, we did not have a single problem all night. Even while the elections were going, we were able to refine our data and switch out bots without any interruption of service. This proved most valuable in the wee hours of Wednesday when we were most concerned about those states that were ‘Too close to call’.

      In addition to the technical mastery we were able to display, we also had a human factor. Armed with an army of admins, we were able to provide customer services and instructional data to make the experience easy and accessible for everyone attending. With notices, instructions, private one on one help, and general crowd control, we were able to maintain an enjoyable and informative experience for a steady in and out stream of over 70 people all night.

      In all, the night was a huge success for a night that was 7 months in the planning. I would like to take the time though to acknowledge our Operators and Voices who did an outstanding job. Without them volunteering their time and knowledge to the effort, we never would have pulled it off. I would also like to single out a few people who really went over the top to make sure the night was a success. Kio and GimmieLiberty were in charge of our bots and data retrieval. Leftnut helped to isolate and fix any code problems we had and put on the finishing touches. CalicoCat was our PR wiz and helped to instruct people on how to use our services as well as did some advertising. And I am sure I will get blasted for not including myself, but will do so reluctantly. I helped to coordinate the event, advertise, and update our blog with election results. While I would love to list every single one of everyone’s effort, the list would be mind boggling. Know though that we all appreciate your long night and support and we could not of done it without you. If you were in the channel on Tuesday night and go into the channel tonight, don’t feel awkward to give any of our admins a ‘thank you’ for making the night a success. You can even leave us a message in our thread comments if you like so as to make sure they see it.

      Personally I say thank you to our staff and all those who attended. Despite the results, the experience will stay with me for the rest of my life.