There are actually two AutoEditor Election threads.
On both you can only response and vote for as AutoEditor.
Is it by design that only existing AutoEditors can vote and response on AutoEditor Elections?
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There is a whole category: Autoeditors
It’s open for everybody to read, but not post in.
But the actual elections are going on here:
Interesting.
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It is a good question because as a long time editor, I would have liked to be able to comment/object some autoeditor elections in the normal process.
But maybe it would not be manageable and trustworthy to allow anyone in the vote.
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I think at least the discussion could be open to anybody.
What’s the harm in hearing what “normal” editors think?
Currently not even the nominee can easily comment on their nomination.
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I am not sure the discussion should be that open. There are “styles”, “agendas”, and work ethics that may need to be discussed. While a AutoEditor is not at the level of a system administrator they are at an elevated level of trust. IMO aspects of behavior should be open for discussion among the other AutoEditors, not the general user population.
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I’d like everyone who has concerns about a proposed autoeditor to be facilitated in bringing their concerns to the discusion.
An example where this would be beneficial: If a nominee has riled a small mob of their fellow editors it would be good to know that and check how it had happened before making them an autoeditor.
(I think having voting rights restricted to autoeditors is a good idea.
And think that pk will make a good autoeditor.)
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I regret my reply it was not well thought out. Discussing people brings up ethical and legal issues. I feel confident that if guidelines for selection are not in place Rod will do so.
I’ve got no problems with your post. If I was confident that all voting autoeditors had a good overview of the edits of nominees then I think that just having their more experienced views in the discusion might well be better.
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I do agree that it would be a good idea to allow normal editors some input (e.g. in case someone with a track record of abusive behavior is nominated), but at the same time leaving the voting open to normal users might encourage ballot stuffing.
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One of the goals of these Discourse forums is to replace and consolidate both the old forums and also the old mailing lists. One of the old mailing lists was an “autoeditors” mailing lists that everyone could subscribe to but only autoeditors could write to; this mailing list is what #musicbrainz:autoeditors has taken over for. If you feel like you, as a non-autoeditor, has input you feel should be put forth for an ongoing vote/election, you can either start a topic in here (#musicbrainz) or contact one of the autoeditors and ask them to include your comment in the election thread.
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EDIT: The following post is misleading. And based on a misunderstanding of Freso’s post about the current set-up. Skip it unless you want to see what sort of mistakes I can make.
Unless a separate post is made to the general forum, the current set-up has non-autoeditors blind as to what autoeditors are discussing amongst themselves .
The chance of a non-autoeditor knowing they have something useful to contribute to such a hidden discussion is much reduced.
For non-autoeditors there are all the problems that come with putting suggestions/input into a “black box” that hides what is done with the suggestions/input.
Whilst I am all in favour of secrecy around some things I haven’t seen any good argument for why the discussion of autoeditor nominees should be secret.
If anyone has good arguments in favour of secrecy please share them.
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I’m not sure what you mean by being “blind” and “secrecy”. The discussion is 100% public, even if non-autoeditors have a few more hurdles to jump through to add their ¢s to it. Anyone can view/read discussions in #musicbrainz:autoeditors (even without being logged in!) and you can watch that (sub)category just as easily as you can #musicbrainz or any other. (And in fact, unless you specifically request it, browsing https://community.metabrainz.org/c/musicbrainz will also show you autoeditor discussions.)
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Ahhh - My mistake.
I misunderstood the above.
I’m satisfied with the set-up you describe.
(Will put a Warning header on my misinterpreting post now.)
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Not sure where else to post a friendly reminder that I now should have the ability to post in the #musicbrainz:autoeditors category, but don’t yet. 
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