My experience with asking people to vote

[Sasha]

There’s a thin line between informing someone about an ongoing vote and hounding them for a vote. I think the latter is rude/should be punishable and I was scared that my reachout may come off this way.

Asking for a vote
My wording was: “Hey, you follow me, if you have $APE, would you consider voting for my proposal? Or if you vote no, would you give me feedback so I can learn/improve? Thank you either way! ”. I customized depending on person/relationship, but the spirit of “hey, no vote is wrong here” stayed.

To my surprise, not only did I get zero negative responses, I encountered a few apes who didn’t know they can vote with staked $ape. And a few who didn’t know AIPs were up for a vote. Not sure if they’ll stick around, but it felt great bringing a few people into the voting process, even if all/most won’t stay for the next vote.

Asking for feedback
Asking people to change their vote is off the table / rude (and probably a forum rule? If not, it should be). However, asking for feedback (nicely) should be fine. “Hi, thanks for voting on AIP XXX, if you by chance have any feedback for me, I’d love to hear it. If not, no worries! Have a great week/day.”

I reached out to a few Abstain and Against votes with public wallets / twitter in their bio. One (a tiny wallet) started asking questions and ended up changing from a no to a yes (immaterial to end result, probably, but was cool). Two bigger wallets didn’t ask questions and ofc I did not push it (stuff like “hey maybe you have questions I could answer” is thinly-veiled manipulation), but they did give me brief feedback that will significantly impact my updated AIP if this one fails and I resubmit later.

This piece is tricky. It’s easy to go off the rails here with stuff like “Well, actually…” so imho it’s best to avoid. But, as long as you’re open to just receiving without manipulating / correcting / educating, many will be happy to give feedback. Of course - I thanked them no matter what the feedback was and only asked one follow up question (if I had any/needed clarification) to be conscious of their time and it not feel like an interrogation.

Feel free to drop yours or any thoughts. In my experience, it’s a delicate process, but as long as the approach is “every vote is 100% valid and I shouldn’t try to change existing vote,” this can build bridges instead of burning them.

[furiousanger]

Hi Sasha,

(you are certainly doing things in the most respectful way possible).

“Don’t hinder your chances by allowing morals and integrity to get in the way.”

Sometimes, unfortunately, I feel the above sentence explains the current state of affairs within the DAO. (But please do not surrender.)

[Lost]

@Sasha

To my surprise, not only did I get zero negative responses, I encountered a few apes who didn’t know they can vote with staked $ape. And a few who didn’t know AIPs were up for a vote. Not sure if they’ll stick around, but it felt great bringing a few people into the voting process, even if all/most won’t stay for the next vote.

So glad you took the time to share this experience with others. I personally struggled with this throughout 2 separate ApeComms proposals and a long stretch of developing them.

Voter fatigue is real though. Just something to stay aware of as we continue to build out the organization on a week to week basis, that’s probably less relevant for authors pushing forward non-process ideas.

However, during the second ApeComms proposal (which was still not approved) I decided to go a step further with my approach and ask how people felt about my reaching out regarding proposals. I was of course willing to stop reaching out, it was weird mixing friends with Organization in the first place.

The majority response was: by reaching out we show those people we reach out to that we care about what we’re doing and that we care about their input.

Again thanks for sharing and opening up the convo,

Lost

[justzb]

Hey @Sasha appreciate and thanks for sharing. I always think its okay as long its in a respectful manner. Trying to get the voters to change their mind thru explaining in detail is fine if they misunderstood on the details of the proposal . But forcing on a change or keep pushing them to change even if they standby their vote is a Big NO NO. We should always respect each others opinion or views and take it in respectfully. Brainstorming together may bring improvements on the proposals or help us see things that we have missed out . I always believe mutual respect and it takes two hands to clap. This is from my perspective

[MisterHype]

Hi Sasha,

I appreciate your thoughtful approach to asking for votes and feedback. It’s a delicate process, and it’s easy to come across as pushy or rude. Your wording was great, and it’s nice to hear that you got positive responses and even brought a few people into the voting process who didn’t know they could vote.

Asking for feedback can also be tricky, but you handled it well by being open and not trying to manipulate or educate. It’s great that you got some useful feedback that will help with your updated AIP in the future.

It’s important to remember that every vote is 100% valid, and it’s not our place to try to change someone’s existing vote. Building bridges instead of burning them is key to success in any organization, and it sounds like you’re doing a great job of that.

Thanks for sharing your experience and starting this conversation.

-Mr. Hype