WILD LIFE - March 2023

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This month it will be four years since the Protecting Our Players Accord was signed. This article about it was written a whole year ago (apologies to the interviewees for the delay!), but unfortunately I suspect the subject of this article might still be relevant for a few years to come. More light-hearted are this kick ASS story, and this communist silliness. Well, more light-hearted if it's not your region getting raided.

But if you're just thinking, "I don't care about any of this. Why did I get a notification?", then this section is for you.

This article was written to mark the three year anniversary of the Accord, but never published. The quotes are a year old, but I reckon the sentiment is still fresh.

On 22 March 2019, Halo (The Holy Principality of Saint Mark) published the Protecting Our Players Accord on the Gameplay forum. It read:

"NationStates is a community populated by many people who are under the age of consent.
The signatories to this accord agree that sexting, sexual role-play, and otherwise trading communications of a sexual nature are not welcome in their respective regions. In no way is this meant to condemn consensual adult relationships outside of NS, even among those who met through NS.
While it is not possible for regional governments to police every interaction, nor is it possible to guarantee the safety of any of its members, it is the hope of the signatories that by taking this stand against certain behaviours in our regions, we will promote a climate where keeping others safe is a goal for everyone.
The undersigned represent our regions in this accord and hope that all NS regions will join us in promoting the safety of our members."

On a site that has a PG13 tolerance, and explicitly bans cybersexing etc, was this statement really necessary? Weirdly for a nation simulation game, yes it was. Over the years there have been several scandals to do with inappropriate content and relationships, some involving (at the time) prominent players, and some involving minors. Whilst NationStates' moderators can clamp down on unsuitable content on-site, many communities use off-site forums and Discord. Not all forums and servers aim for the PG13 standard. And of course direct messages are unseen and unmoderated.

Halo explained the motivation behind the project:
"I came up with this idea at a time when there had been recent scandals that were, at least in part, of a sexual / manipulative / abusive nature. I was disgusted with how some players seemed unconcerned that this sort of thing was going on in a game where many of its players were underaged. Even among adults, some of this behavior was wrong. No one should be manipulated or abused. I knew though that most people involved in NS were decent people who were concerned. I sought a few of these out, leaders of their regions, and we drafted the Accord. At the time, it was brought up that we were really just putting in writing what most regions were already practicing. That was true, of course, but I thought that it was still important to do to set an example for both new regions and those regions that might not have been as diligent in protecting their players."

Altino recalls:
"It was an important part of a larger effort to create a safe standard of behavior on NS. At the time you could for the most part count on GCRs to be relatively sane when it came to the content that they allowed in their spaces, but we were incessantly running into these small UCRs that were shocking when you took a look around. They would have fascist connections, unsafe conditions for kids, rampant racism, the kind of trolly content that kids like to say is a joke but really is just inappropriate. When you tried to lead them away from dangerous connections and toward a better standard of moderation they would just get mad at you and all up in arms about GCRs or large regions 'controlling' them. In many cases it did more harm than good to even try to help them - for instance one time Karma tried to talk to a region about their bad practices and they responded to that by banning us and then spamming our server with inappropriate content.

"It was all very messy and ended more often in UCRs getting ostracized than in change being made, so we tried to rethink how we approached those regions. This was less about fixing our personal moderation standards - of course Osiris, TWP, etc. did not have this kind of behavior going on. It was more about setting a standard down in words and having that to point toward."

Indeed, erotic roleplay was already banned in both The Pacific and The South Pacific. And Bonnie Blue Republic, the signatory for Lands End, reflects:
"The Protecting Our Players Accord was basically just what we were doing anyway; that was how it was pitched to our leadership and that is what we have continued with."

So for a number of regions, there was no need to change their existing practices. Illahee said:
"The Sasquatch Republic is a small, curated community. We do not actively recruit in traditional methods, so from the start our residents possess a known quality. This means we did not require a change of course or have to implement corrections. Additionally, the bulk of our roster includes not only folks who upheld it in regions such as TWP and Osiris these past three years, but also other signatories and people who were in the room writing the accord. For this community it was a simple unified statement of Here We Stand."

And of course in Halo's own region:
"The West Pacific was one of the regions that already had a pretty low tolerance for this behavior so we really didn't change much in response [to the Accord]. Anyone who engages in this sort of thing is immediately ejected and banned. There is and always has been zero tolerance."

Buried under three years' worth of Gameplay forum posts, the Accord is not a prominent document. Many readers will not have heard of it before now. Has it really made an impact on NationStates?

The spirit of the Accord has certainly lasted in Lands End according to Bonnie Blue Republic:
"We've had a few instances of people breaking such rules but they were very quickly shut down as soon as any of us learned of 'em and would have been regardless. To be honest I'm probably the only person still in LE government who was around then, and definitely the only one who knows anything about that Accord. The region has seen in influx in underage members over the last few months, and we have had to tread very carefully and ride herd on them quite heavily in order to ensure they don't get up to any particular shenanigans of that nature; a couple people have actually had to be banned for refusal to knock it off."

Halo said:
"I'm not sure how other regions changed their policies after they signed on to this Accord. I do wish we had maybe established an ongoing committee or some such to at least keep it in the public mind, but other drafters and signatories wanted to be careful not to set up a policing body, and that's understandable."

Altino is convinced of the benefits it brought:
"Shortly after this I opened up the NationStates Leaders [Discord] server up and started the Watchlist to support these same goals. Instead of trying to approach these [non-PG13] regions individually and scaring them with my presence I was trying to give them an opportunity to come to me instead and have access to positive examples of strong and safe regions, guides and strong standards for both their region's function and their administrative function, and access to to definite evidence about problem players so they weren't forced to rely on hearsay from either scary admins from other regions or uninformed randoms from other regions.

"I think at the end of the day it's had a very positive influence on the administrative health of the game at large. It seems really obvious now that we wouldn't promote that kind of content in our regions. This was not the case in 2017 and 2018. Even the NSGP server had a NSFW channel back then - most regions did. They were only available to people over 18 in regions with any shred of responsibility, so at least there's that. But now they don't exist at all! We've changed our standard a lot and I think it's in large part due to people like Halo taking the time to just write out what those standards should be so that we could walk into a future where those standards are a 'duh' moment."

Twice a day, regions and their nations update. The order in which the regions update doesn't change, though the exact time does. Amongst other things, the delegate is decided at update, based on the number of endorsements each nation has. Raiders and defenders try to jump into regions seconds before they update. That means that there is little chance to eject them before their endorsements get counted.

When jumping into a target region, raiders and defenders move from a "jump point" region which updates later than the target. (If they tried to jump from a region whuch updated earlier, their endorsements wouldn't be counted, as their nations would already have been updated along with that region.) The perfect jump point would be the last region to get updated. That way the raiders or defenders could jump into any other region in NS.

One of the most notable defender jump-points is Artificial Solar System (ASS). And one of the most notable raider jump-points is Suspicious, which updates just a little later. Meaning raiders can jump on the defenders' ASS.

And it looks like that's exactly what happened when four raiders from The Eternal Order carried out a tag raid in February, leaving their mark upon ASS.

It's pretty bad optics when four raiders take over a region of over 6000 defender puppets. How could that even happen?

If you're not familiar with gameplay mechanics, take a quick read of The Embassy's tips to new founders for avoiding raids. Simple, right? So it's surprising that the WA Delegate role in ASS comes with Appearance and Poll authorities. Defenders aren't daft. Well, not usually. It must be a deliberate decision. And it could be changed by the founder at any time. But it hasn't been. So you have to wonder why. And you have to wonder just how frequently raiders will try and kick ASS.

With Union of Christian States, founder of the League of Christian Nations, having ceased to exist, raiders did what raiders do. Raid. Led by The Communist Bloc's New Astri, a coalition of raiders took the region, and were soon at least 97 strong. But then events turned against them - the founder returned. As the ultimate power in the region, the founder could rapidly reverse the damage. But that turned out not to be such a simple task...

19/02/2023, 22:43:30 GMT: Union of Christian States was refounded in Osiris.

This wasn't their second coming - they'd CTEd three times in their history. Union of Christian States proceeded to banject, then dismiss the raider ROs. And then removed powers from the raider delegate.

19/02/2023, 22:50:28 GMT: Union of Christian States removed Executive, Appearance, Border Control, Communications, Embassies, and Polls authority from the WA Delegate New Astrian Outpost 6 in League of Christian Nations.

Heavens! They must have forgotten to remove Executive power.

19/02/2023, 22:50:34 GMT: Union of Christian States removed Executive authority from the WA Delegate New Astrian Outpost 6 in League of Christian Nations.

Damn. Was there some kind of glitch? They tried again to remove Executive power.

19/02/2023, 22:51:51 GMT: Union of Christian States removed Executive authority from the WA Delegate New Astrian Outpost 6 in League of Christian Nations.

It must have been a glitch. Because from their new home in the Rejected Realms, New Astrian Outpost 6 chose to exercise their Executive authority as delegate of League of Christian Nations.

19/02/2023, 22:52:37 GMT: New Astrian Outpost 6 granted Border Control authority to the WA Delegate New Astrian Outpost 6 in League of Christian Nations.
19/02/2023, 22:53:26 GMT: New Astrian Outpost 6 granted Appearance, Communications, Embassies, and Polls authority to the WA Delegate New Astrian Outpost 6 in League of Christian Nations.

Of course these powers needed to be removed again by Union of Christian States.

19/02/2023, 22:54:05 GMT: Union of Christian States removed Executive authority from the WA Delegate New Astrian Outpost 6 in League of Christian Nations.
19/02/2023, 22:54:12 GMT: Union of Christian States removed Executive, Appearance, Border Control, Communications, Embassies, and Polls authority from the WA Delegate New Astrian Outpost 6 in League of Christian Nations.

Then in a move that would test the patience of a saint:

19/02/2023, 22:54:21 GMT: New Astrian Outpost 6 granted Appearance, Border Control, Communications, Embassies, and Polls authority to the WA Delegate New Astrian Outpost 6 in League of Christian Nations.

Then Union of Christian States saw the light! It wasn't a glitch. Because they (the founder) weren't in the region, the delegacy was automatically set to Executive. The simple solution was to move back in, then remove the powers. So they moved.

19/02/2023, 22:55:00 GMT: Union of Christian States relocated from Osiris to League of Christian Nations.

But before they could perform any acts:

19/02/2023, 22:55:07 GMT: Union of Christian States was ejected and banned from League of Christian Nations by New Astrian Outpost 6.

Unenlightened about this ejection, the founder tried to remove delegate powers again.

19/02/2023, 22:55:09 GMT: Union of Christian States removed Executive, Appearance, Border Control, Communications, Embassies, and Polls authority from the WA Delegate New Astrian Outpost 6 in League of Christian Nations.

Good God, that glitch again!

19/02/2023, 22:55:16 GMT: Union of Christian States removed Executive authority from the WA Delegate New Astrian Outpost 6 in League of Christian Nations.

But devilishly:

19/02/2023, 22:55:21 GMT: New Astrian Outpost 6 granted Appearance, Border Control, Communications, Embassies, and Polls authority to the WA Delegate New Astrian Outpost 6 in League of Christian Nations.

After another moment of revelation:

19/02/2023, 22:55:58 GMT: Union of Christian States removed Union of Christian States from the regional ban list in League of Christian Nations.
19/02/2023, 22:56:13 GMT: Union of Christian States relocated from The Rejected Realms to League of Christian Nations.

But it was not easy for a founder to enter the League of Christian Nations.

19/02/2023, 22:56:15 GMT: Union of Christian States was ejected and banned from League of Christian Nations by New Astrian Outpost 6.

Again unaware of the ejection:

19/02/2023, 22:56:23 GMT: Union of Christian States removed Executive, Appearance, Border Control, Communications, Embassies, and Polls authority from the WA Delegate New Astrian Outpost 6 in League of Christian Nations.

Then hell broke loose again.

19/02/2023, 22:56:31 GMT: New Astrian Outpost 6 granted Appearance, Border Control, Communications, Embassies, and Polls authority to the WA Delegate New Astrian Outpost 6 in League of Christian Nations.
19/02/2023, 22:59:38 GMT: New Astrian Outpost 6 updated the World Factbook entry in League of Christian Nations.
19/02/2023, 23:04:49 GMT: New Astrian Outpost 6 appointed Mannyton 2 as tcb with authority over Appearance, Communications, Embassies, and Polls in League of Christian Nations.
19/02/2023, 23:05:19 GMT: New Astrian Outpost 6 appointed 1st SAFTian Squadron as tcb also with authority over Appearance, Communications, Embassies, and Polls in League of Christian Nations.
19/02/2023, 23:05:35 GMT: New Astrian Outpost 6 appointed Belarusian Air Force as yup, still tcb with authority over Appearance, Communications, Embassies, and Polls in League of Christian Nations.
19/02/2023, 23:05:54 GMT: New Astrian Outpost 6 appointed MKH Gyrfalcon Squadron as this one is also tcb with authority over Appearance, Communications, Embassies, and Polls in League of Christian Nations.
19/02/2023, 23:06:40 GMT: New Astrian Outpost 6 appointed Brezzian Air Force as you guessed it, tcb! with authority over Appearance, Communications, Embassies, and Polls in League of Christian Nations.
19/02/2023, 23:07:31 GMT: New Astrian Outpost 6 appointed Czechoslovak Air Force as youre not gonna fcking believe it but this is also tcb with authority over Appearance, Communications, Embassies, and Polls in League of Christian Nations.
19/02/2023, 23:07:50 GMT: New Astrian Outpost 6 appointed Commie Raider Lesbians as not tcb, but cool and lesbian! with authority over Appearance, Communications, Embassies, and Polls in League of Christian Nations.
19/02/2023, 23:08:54 GMT: New Astrian Outpost 6 appointed Dinosauriaan Air Force as this tcb nation is dinosaur themed, sick right? with authority over Appearance, Communications, Embassies, and Polls in League of Christian Nations.
19/02/2023, 23:09:40 GMT: New Astrian Outpost 6 appointed The Toukaian Night Bomber Squadron as yeah it's tcb again with authority over Appearance, Communications, Embassies, and Polls in League of Christian Nations.
19/02/2023, 23:10:34 GMT: New Astrian Outpost 6 appointed CostcanianAirForce as By God. A TCBer. with authority over Appearance, Communications, Embassies, and Polls in League of Christian Nations.
19/02/2023, 23:11:18 GMT: New Astrian Outpost 6 relocated from The Rejected Realms to League of Christian Nations.
19/02/2023, 23:13:42 GMT: New Astrian Outpost 6 appointed Venico in a Sombrero as Venico in a Sombrero with authority over Appearance, Communications, Embassies, and Polls in League of Christian Nations.
19/02/2023, 23:19:43 GMT: New Astrian Outpost 6 appointed VRAF SQUADRON GAMMA as void, who is from TCB also with authority over Appearance, Communications, Embassies, and Polls in League of Christian Nations.

But best to clean up that bad language, given the surroundings.

19/02/2023, 23:31:47 GMT: New Astrian Outpost 6 renamed the office held by Czechoslovak Air Force from "youre not gonna fcking believe it but this is also tcb" to "youre not gonna believe it but this is also tcb" in League of Christian Nations.

But in the end was the word, and the word was with new RO Commie Raider Lesbians, and the word was "Silly":

20/02/2023, 5:30:02 GMT: Commie Raider Lesbians added the tag "Silly" to League of Christian Nations.

Raiders started moving out. Defenders moved in. Next update, defender Nolized Halmaringstan took the delegacy. They dismissed ROs, fixed the Appearance, and set to work ejecting the remaining raiders.

New Astri wrote this dispatch to commemorate the event. It swiftly made it to second in the dispatch list, gaining 27 or more upvotes. But mysteriously, next morning, it had dropped down the rankings with a net upvote count of 1. It looks suspiciously like someone organised a down-voting campaign. But who? And will they try down-voting my account of events? Screenshot those stats, or we'll never know!

Ran out of Issues? Get a quick fix here. Author Modz has been deleted by mods but left this entertainment behind.
In the real world, this eggsciting story made me laugh. It has a gooed ending.
And then there's this spooky RL tech story. *shivers*
Phew! At least we can end on something heart-warming from the Best Nation in NS. Congratulations Felpolandia!

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