Nerds United
Nerds United is an inclusive forum that is made to unite nerds from all over AoPS.
Current Administrators and Moderators
Administrators: kathrynmathstar (first term), quanta01 (second term)
Moderators: Dossy8425 (fourth term), jetpakturtle (second term), Hermia (first term)
Reserve Moderator: moab33
History
January 30, 2017: Nerds United was founded. Idea by quanta01, spread around by kathrynmathstar.
February 1, 2017: The Nerds United forum, the hub of Nerds United today, was created by kathrynmathstar. quanta01 and kathrynmathstar were the beginning admins to set up forum, with piphi and soccer28 as mods.
February 2, 2017: The Nerds United Website is founded by bho10. An admin page is created one day later. (Correct this if it happens to be wrong on the dates, I do not remember the exact date that it happened)
February 11, 2017: In the first election, quanta01 and kathrynmathstar were chosen as admins, both to serve their first term. piphi, Hermia, and bho10 were chosen as mods, all for their first term.
March 26, 2017: The first election solely for moderators ends. 2019wildcat replaces piphi, for their first term, while Hermia and bho10 remain mods in their second terms.
April 4, 2017: Algebra A 1353, the class where Nerds United began, ends.
May 11, 2017: The second admin and mod election ends. kathrynmathstar and quanta01 both begin their second terms as admins. Hermia begins their third term as mod, 2019wildcat begins their 2nd term as mod, and tapspell is elected mod for their first term.
July 13, 2017: An election solely for moderators end, with no change in moderation. Hermia begins her fourth term as mod, 2019wildcat begins her third term, and tapspell begins his second term.
September 13, 2017: The third admin mod election is posted. After a tiebreaker for the second admin spot, 2019wildcat starts her first term as admin, and quanta01 begins his third and final admin term. bho10, SpaceHead1AU, and chenxiaomin all start their first moderator terms.
November 11, 2017: Moderator election results are announced, where Hermia and tapspell take the first two spots, both starting their first mod terms in a row. After a tiebreaker poll, chenxiaomin wins the final mod spot, starting her second term.
December 28, 2017: The first NU subforum, the NU RPG forum, is created/announced after being proposed by Felix13.
January 9, 2018: The fourth admin and mod election results are announced. 2019wildcat begins her second admin term. After a tiebreaker poll for the second admin, Hermia starts her first term as admin over yali who starts her first term as mod. Tapspell and Chenxiaomin take the final two mod spots, starting their second and third terms respectively.
January 19, 2018: kathrynmathstar is announced mod, winning a tiebreaker election against MegaMint, after tapspell resigns.
February 1, 2018: Nerds United celebrates its first anniversary and the new website is released.
February 26, 2018: The results of the fourth election solely for moderators are announced. Kathryn begins her second term as mod, and tapspell and quanta01 take the last two mod spots.
April 13, 2018: The results of the admin/mod election are announced. Hermia, tapspell, and quanta01 are the new mods! SpaceHead1AU and Swimmer2222 are the new admins.
April 30, 2018: The Penguin Invasion begins when dacammel posts the faceplanting penguin gif.
May 21, 2018: A new impeachment proposal is added to the rules.
June 13, 2018: As the fifth election solely for moderators, led begins her first term while quanta01 and Hermia begin their second terms.
June 21, 2018: The second official NU subforum is announced, the Nerds United Interview Forum. Interviews that were previously located in the main NU forum are moved to the subforum.
July 27, 2018: An election for mods and admins ends, where quanta01 and led both begin their first terms as admins, and tapspell (first term), Hermia, (third term), and rubixsolver (first term) begin as mods. Dossy8425 is reserve moderator.
October 2, 2018: An election solely for mods begins, kathrynmathstar, yali306, and swimmer2222 all begin their first term. Reserve moderator tie between mgrimalo and LalathionLossen.
October 3, 2018: A petition to make a debate subforum is started, and soon the official NU Debate Hall forum is created.
October 8, 2018: Led resigns at admin, promoting kathrynmathstar to admin for her first term. A reserve moderator tie is held between mgrimalo and LalathionLossen, and LalathionLossen begins their first term as mod.
December 9, 2018: In the admin and mod election, quanta01 and Kathrynmathstar are elected for their second terms as admins. swimmer2222 and yali306 serve their second terms, and tapspell begins his first term. rubixsolver is reserve moderator.
December 28, 2018: The first mention of "num num cookie" is brought to the forum by Dossy8425, which eventually sparks the Num Num Cookie Invasion and the battle between Num Num Cookie and Num Num Brownie.
January 27, 2019: The first term of the new year is solely for moderators, where Felix13, Dossy8425, and 2019wildcat all begin their first terms. tapspell is reserve moderator.
February 1, 2018: Nerds United celebrates its second annual anniversary.
February 23, 2018: Having extra Debate Hall moderators is added to the rules under Section III no. 5, based on a new system originating from cardesigner06's idea.
March 18, 2019: The first election using the new STV system takes place, electing 2019wildcat (first term) and quanta01 (third term) as admins, while Dossy8425 (second term), moab33 (first term), and Felix13 (second term) are elected as moderators.
April 2, 2019: The new STV system using nuvoting.ml is officially added to the NU rules thread.
May 5, 2019: The first (mod) election using the STV system and nuvoting.ml comes to an end, electing kathrynmathstar (first term), Dossy8425 (third term), and bho10 (first term), with del-math as reserve mod.
May 20, 2019: Grammar complaints are added to the rules as a compromise between those who wish to enforce grammar rules and those who do not.
June 28, 2019: The next admin/mod election finishes, electing 2019wildcat (second term) and del-math (first term) as admins, and kathrynmathstar (second term), Dossy8425 (fourth term), and SrSheep101 (first term) as mods. bho10 is reserve mod.
July 12, 2019: kathrynmathstar begins as admin after del-math resigns. bho10 (previous reserve mod) fills the empty mod spot, with one week (until 7/19) to confirm his position.
July 15, 2019: After SrSheep101's resignation from their mod position, Quaoar confirms his position as mod.
July 19, 2019: bho10 fails to confirm his position as moderator, and the administration continues with only two admins and two mods.
July 23, 2019: A series of referendums end, passing new campaign rules. An Election Subforum is created to host all of the election and campaigning except for nominations and results, which will remain in the main forum. Candidates are now allowed each a campaign thread, where users may ask questions about their ideas. A number of debates on controversial forum topics will also be held in the subforum.
August 23, 2019: A mod election comes to an end, electing quanta01, Hermia, and DoubleThought, all three serving their first terms. The reserve moderator is legolover2015. Voting took place via google forms, however using the same way to count votes as on the nuvoting site.
October 11, 2019: The October admin/mod election comes to an end, where 2019wildcat (third term) and quanta01 (first term) are elected admins. Hermia (second term), kathrynmathstar (first term), and Dossy8425 (first term) are elected mods. The reserve mod is moab33.
November 29, 2019: The next moderator election closes with kathrynmathstar (second term) and Dossy8425 (second term) being re-elected and del-math (first term) taking the last spot. Quaoar is reserve mod.
December 13, 2019: del-math resigns from her moderator position, and Quaoar confirms his new mod spot.
January 25, 2019: The January admin/mod election ends, with 2019wildcat reaching admin term limits. kathrynmathstar (first term) and quanta01 (second term) begin as admins with mods being Dossy8425 (third term) and jetpakturtle (first term). happycupcake and legolover2015 tie for the last spot, which is decided in a tiebreaker poll where happycupcake becomes mod (first term) and legolover2015 is reserve mod.
March 19th, 2020: The March mod election ends. This term's mods are Dossy8425 (fourth term), Hermia (first term), and jetpakturtle (second term). Moab33 is the reserve mod.
Rules
1. The rights of users: Every user shall have the right to post a comment or topic, as well as to vote in polls and respond to comments. Every user shall have the right to ask another user to cease any actions that violate the rules of Nerds United or of AoPS, and can report them and/or PM the admins and mods if the offending user does not listen or if they do not feel comfortable publicly asking. Every user shall have the right to request for another user to be added to the forum in this thread, following the formatting rules listed there. Every user shall have the right to suggest rule changes in this thread following the formatting rules listed there.
2. The rights of moderators: Moderators, in addition to the rights of users, will also be permitted to guide discussions and announce the results of official polls. Moderators will be given access to a private PM between the admins and mods in which rule changes, rule enforcement, et cetera will be deliberated upon and decided by majority vote. Moderators have the right to review member requests made following Section I, Rule 1C, and post a comment about whether they believe the requested user would be a good addition to the forum. Two admins/mods must review the user before adding them, and the second admin/mod to do so may add said user to the forum assuming comments by the administration were positive. After adding, the admin/mod must send the new user this PM, addressed to both admins and the new user.
3. The rights of the administrators: Administrators, outside of the rights of moderators, may also take unilateral action in punishing users and moderators under Section II, Rule 5A, or instating rules if such a thing is urgently required.
4. The only rules that cannot be diminished or eliminated are the rights laid out above. They can only be expanded for lower levels. The admin's rules cannot be changed at all, to prevent them from becoming too powerful.
Section II. Conduct
1. While making posts, users must be considerate and respectful of the forum and its users. Messages intended to ostracize another from the forum, disrespectfully attack or insult another’s beliefs, vilify another, or generally hurt another user are absolutely prohibited, and may be reported to the admins and mods for the purposes of progressive discipline as mentioned in Section 1.
2. Spamming is not permitted. Posts in all caps will be considered spam, as well as posts with only emojis and no text. Election campaign posts beyond a single one made in a designated thread will be considered spam and deleted. Repeated reposts of your original post will also be considered spam, as well as incessant bumping or any other posts that unduly clutter the forum.
3. Users are required to convey their own beliefs in a respectful manner that remains open to criticism from those with opposing views.
4. Proper grammar is strongly encouraged. Capitalization should be used for all proper nouns, starts of sentences, and any time "I" is used to refer to oneself. Texting language, such as "smh", "lmao", and other related things are not acceptable, though "lol" is allowable on a case-by-case basis. Proper spelling is required unless the posting user does not know how to spell the word in question. Proper punctuation rules should be followed, such as periods after sentences, apostrophes in contractions, semicolons and commas where needed, etc. Any user has the right to send a PM "complaint" to the forum admins regarding a specific user who has consistently and clearly not attempted to follow the suggestions in Section II, Rule 4a for at least two weeks on the forum. After a grammar complaint is filed, the user mentioned in the complaint will receive a normal warning, for violating the grammar suggestions and bothering another user enough to have them submit a complaint. If after 5 days of the warning, they make no attempt to comply, consequences will continue via Section II, Rule 5A, like any other offense.
5. Disciplinary code. In the event that a user blatantly or continually violates the rules of this section, said user will be sent a warning containing the section of the rules they violated. If the user continues, they will be banned for a period of one day; if their behavior recurs after that, they will be banned for a week; if it recurs again, one month; and if it still continues following that, a permanent ban will result. Threads will be temporarily locked in the event that they begin to blatantly violate the rules of this section, with special attention being given to discussions of religion and modern politics. Disciplinary action under Section II, Rule 5a will be instituted upon the worst offenders during the lock period.
Section III. Elections
1. Elections will be held every 6 weeks for moderators and every 12 weeks for admins. Moderators can have a maximum of 4 terms in a row, while admins can have a maximum of 3 terms in a row. After those terms are up, an admin may not run for one election cycle, while a mod must obtain an admin spot to avoid losing office for said election cycle.
2. The election will commence with the posting by an admin or mod of a nominations topic in the main forum, in which any user may nominate a single other user to run in the election. Nominees must have a post in the last 14 days of the nomination topic.
3. In the Election Subforum, nominees may make a single thread describing themselves, their qualifications, and the policies they will push as a mod or admin. Users are encouraged to ask questions on the nominee’s policies in these threads. Answers by other users or nominees and unrelated posts will be considered spam and deleted. Consequences for outside campaigning fall under three categories. After three election offenses of any combination of the below, said user will no longer be permitted to run in future elections until given a pardon by the administration (if behavior is observed to change) after at least two admin cycles (24 weeks). Rules are zero-tolerance. Please report any outside campaigning to the admins. Nominee Influence. Asking other users to vote for you, asking others to ask to vote for you, or anything else not specifically listed as allowed in the rules. Consequences include the nominee being removed from the election and all votes for said nominee being reset. Accomplice Influence. Campaigning for a nominee by their request. Consequences include all listed consequences for the nominee involved (Section III, Rule 3A), a spam warning for the accomplice (Section II, Rule 5A), and the accomplice’s voting code revoked for that election. Outside Influence. Campaigning for a nominee without a request. Consequences include a spam warning (Section II, Rule 5A), and the user’s voting code revoked for that election. For all of the above, ”campaigning” is defined as anything outside of the allowed campaign thread and debates and normal activity that could serve to promote a user for the election.
4. Three separate debates will be held on controversial topics within the forum. Only nominees may participate in these debates, as they serve as a place for nominees to develop their ideas for change in the forum and debate them with the other candidates. Each debate will take place in a thread in the Election Subforum. Unrelated posts or campaigning will be deleted.
5. In order to vote, forum members (including admins and mods) must register in this thread, which signs them up to receive a voting code via PM from one of the admins. One may be nominated for the election if they are not registered, and one may nominate for the election if they are not registered. Registration for an election closes 30 minutes before the end of that election's voting. By registering, you agree to all rules of the election system. Once one has registered for voting for one election, they need not register again for following elections, and will continue to receive voting codes via PM until they request to not receive them anymore. An admin will then edit their registration post saying "Canceled", after which the user must re-register if they wish to receive codes for following elections.
6. Voting codes sent to registered users are unique and each user only gets one. Codes are generated and sent by the admins using the "generate code" option in their admin account on nuvoting.ml. Sharing your unique voting code with any user or asking others for their voting code is strictly forbidden, and if evidence is produced to suggest that you have broken the rules in this manner, punishments will be as follows. All voting codes involved in the transition will be canceled and votes by them will be deleted. If the user found breaking the rules is running in the election, they will be removed from the candidate list and all votes for them will be deleted. The corresponding election codes to those votes will be reset, allowing users who voted for them to resubmit their vote for another user.
7. Once users receive voting codes, they will vote with their code on nuvoting.ml/homepage.php via a thread posted in the Election Subforum. The voting system on this website created by anishanne and rubixsolver supports the STV election system, which allows users to rank their first three favorite candidates. Votes are counted through the admin login using this code with a modified quota of votes/(spots+1). Voting for yourself is allowed. Voting for the same user in multiple choice spots is not allowed. The election last three days, after which votes will be counted and the results will be announced in the main forum. Requesting to revote is not allowed. However, if a mistake was made while voting, one must announce the mistake and their voting code in the voting errors thread per the correct format, their code will be reset, and their old vote will be deleted.
8. Records of runner-ups for both admin and mod will be kept. If an admin resigns or is removed from office, they will be replaced by the mod with the most votes in the past election; while if a mod resigns or is removed from office, they will be replaced by a user via the same process. Users must confirm their new position within a week of their promotion by responding to this PM. An admin or mod may be removed from office and replaced with their runner-up as described above should two-thirds or more of NU users vote for their removal, on the condition that they have blatantly violated NU’s or AoPS's rules or neglected their duties without explanation. An admin or mod must create a poll on the matter for such an action to be considered.
9. Debate Hall forum moderator elections happen directly following main forum moderator (and admin/mod) elections, every 6 weeks, in the Debate Hall forum. Users that were not appointed in the election directly before may announce their political "party", left-leaning or right-leaning. The administrators and moderators elected in the election directly before will appoint three of these candidates from each side. Two polls will be put up, one for each left-leaning and right-leaning candidates appointed. Campaigning is allowed in the designated campaign thread for appointed candidates as well was those wishing to be appointed. (Original source: cardesigner06's idea and referendum polls.)
