WILD LIFE - May 2023

Ever read a Max Barry book? I'd love to hear from you - read this and telegram me your thoughts!

Lots of exciting stuff happened this month - history getting rewritten at The Rejected Times, an Easter weekend TNP blackmail scandal, the launch of Frontiers, and a new Warzone. Things not covered here (maybe another time!) include Injunctions of Canada and TCB, and Maps (I've still to try and figure those out, so I've nothing to say other than I loved the Rick Astley one!). But if this lot's not enough for you, here are some other dispatches worth reading.

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.

After fifteen months of media silence, The Rejected Times became the subject of its own story. Their news thread dates back to 2013, and records every story they've broken since. So it was a shock when thread-owner The rejected realms media corporation changed the thread title, and started blanking out the original posts.

The first post was changed to read:
"Thread closed courtesy of Salem and Guy"

And the second simply to "Thread closed".

Because the changes being made were edits rather than new posts, the thread didn't get bumped to the top of the Gameplay forum, but remained hidden behind over a years' worth of other threads. So it's believable that no-one would have noticed. However, minutes after making these first edits, the nation raised a Moderation request to have the whole thread archived, meaning it would be put beyond further use.

Thirty minutes later, moderator Sedgistan responded to the request:
"Why? And why are you going through it blanking the posts? Removing all the content from a series of posts is equivalent to turning them into spam. I've locked the thread to prevent you doing this further, and changed the title back from your rather baity one."

After another half-hour, Sedge followed up on the original thread saying:
"Bumping this thread up to note it's been locked [...] to prevent further vandalism. If someone from TRR wants ownership of the thread to restart it and/or restore the blanked posts, let us know, and we can change ownership of the posts over."

Within the hour, Minskiev requested the ownership change, announcing that they would be restoring the posts.

The rejected realms media corporation (a puppet of The church of satan) replied:
"As the OP, I challenge this request. TRT is inactive and the writers are doing nothing. There hasn't been a new TRT edition in two years.
However, there's no need. I fully intend on remedying the whole thing. I always did. :)"

Moderation were unimpressed.
"No. Not after pulling the stunt that you pulled earlier. Ownership will be transferred."

The church of satan passed control of puppet The rejected realms media corporation to TRT veteran Mans0n, but by this point moderation were already halfway through re-attributing historical posts from The rejected realms media corporation to Minskiev's new puppet.

Sedgistan recorded:
"Since the previous owner of 'The Rejected Realms Media Corporation' telegrammed me to say "Rest assured, this is just a stunt to bring back TRT. I made sure to copy the posts I edited." I look forward to them sending that content to the new owners of the thread, so it can be restored."

Manson acknowledged that the copies had been received. He also posted:
"I disagree with what CoS did and I don’t think it did anything positive, I guess besides encouraging me to write a few articles."

Those articles got written. Check out the links in the "More Reading" section.

Galactic Powers ran a poll, "Best Max Barry book". I thought it was a cool idea for a poll, and would also make an interesting article. If you've read one or more of Max's books, I'd love to hear from you. If you're willing to share thoughts, write what you like, but here's some prompts in case they help:
Which of Max's books do you think was best? What did you like about it? Which other Max books have you read, and what did you think to them? How do you rate Max against other authors? Send me a TG!

The Easter story. What a juicy tale! Betrayal. Denial. Crucifixion. Faith. Washing hands of responsibility. And rising again afterwards. But this particular Easter story is not set in Jerusalem. It's set in The North Pacific.

This article is a patchwork of my favourite forum quotes. There's no additional insightful analysis from me, so if you already followed the scandal across the various Gameplay threads, then I'm afraid there's nothing much new here for you. But I do hope it gives an entertaining telling of the story. The quotes here don't always appear in the order they were posted, and may have lost some of their original nuance and context. I don't think I've substantially misrepresented anyone, but speak up if you think I have.

With over 1000 endorsements, the delegate of The North Pacific casts the biggest single vote in the World Assembly. A vote that big has a huge impact on whether a resolution passes or falls. Whoever controls that vote has a lot of power. And (most days) it is the WA members of TNP that are in control.

They've a detailed World Assembly voting policy, of which Destructive Government Economic System gives an informative summary:
"If there's anything that TNP prides itself on, it's the region's commitment to respecting the will of its people. They hold votes everyday to decide how the Delegate will vote on certain WA proposals, and if the Delegate chooses to go against those wishes and vote their own way then that's going to raise many eyebrows".

And so eyebrows were raised on Friday 7 April (Good Friday) when A Bloodred Moon of raider region Lone Wolves United (LWU) broke some news on their Gameplay thread:
"On the 26th of March [...] Hulldom [delegate of TNP] sent me a screenshot of a message he received from HumanSanity, a screenshot he deleted later. Within it, HumanSanity, in their capacity as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the South Pacific, threatened that TSP, as well as prominent defender allies such as the League, the Order of the Grey Wardens and 10000 Islands, would go out of their way to oppose all proposals commending or condemning TNP members if the North Pacific did not vote the way they wanted: that is, against all proposals they perceived as benefitting LWU. A threat as blatant as one can get in gameplay.
[...]
Hulldom was aware the defenders were essentially attempting to strong-arm TNP into voting their way. As he disclosed to me, defenders were acting like “thugs”."

Defenders typically defend regional sovereignty. That is, they try to ensure that regions can make their own decisions, free from interference from raiders. Yet here were four of the most significant defender regions interfering with the worlds' largest region, trying to prevent TNP from making their own sovereign decisions, putting their own interests above those of TNP's WA members.

The Security Council proposals in question regarded Condemnations of LWU members Chef Big Dog and also Dream Killers (the second of which was co-authored by Hulldom himself). Rather than voting for, or even abstaining, Hulldom was expected by defenders to vote against his own co-authored proposal. The threat from HumanSanity was that defenders would vote against upcoming commendations of TNP members Madjack and Former English Colony. With Hulldom having changed their stance from "for", to "abstain", then later to "against", A Bloodred Moon's statement continued:
"The series of broken promises, breaches of trust and the willingness to buckle under foreign pressure is something we never expected from a region as proud and historic as the North Pacific. No diplomatic partner will always see eye to eye on everything with us, and we recognise this; however, we firmly believe that we must be able to trust our partners. And the Hulldom administration has damaged that trust repeatedly to the point where we can no longer in good conscience maintain embassies with the North Pacific."

TNP's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wymondham, resigned.
"I cannot, with good conscience, serve in an administration where my warnings are consistently ignored even as what I warned against repeatedly comes to pass as they have again today. The Delegate must stand for the North Pacific against any blackmail, and I will not serve in an administration which allows the region to be blackmailed into allowing other regions to dictate our policy in the World Assembly and Foreign Affairs."

Naturally, comments followed on the LWU thread:

Improper Classifications: "TNP has practically enough WA endorsements on each other to outvote TSP and defenders, why did they find this necessary?"

Aivintis: "It's always tragic to see certain regions violate the sovereignty of others by extorting WA votes out of them. I find it strange that the Moralists are giving the raiders the moral high ground by stooping so low as to oppose condemnations just because they are of political rivals."

Noahs Second Country: "Can't say I'm surprised, considering 82% of what the SC passes these days is a bland defender commendation. As an author this is frustrating to see"

Next day at 16:30 GMT, Hulldom resigned. They posted their lengthy resignation on TNP's forum. It was clear that in backroom discussions, the rights of TNP members had been forgotten under pressure from outside influences. The speech included:
"The Government was pressured by a coalition of regions including The South Pacific, the League, and 10000 Islands on a future WA vote to vote Against [one of the LWU Condemnations]. Other elements of our foreign relations (namely Lone Wolves United and The West Pacific) wanted us to vote For it. This was, and I mean, a tremendously difficult decision. We initially thought that an Abstention, as agreed upon by the League on the 15th of March, would be good enough."
"That led to what I view as a quite unfortunate statement by Lone Wolves United. I haven’t read it, I don’t intend to ever read it, or the comments in turn. This statement, in turn, prompted Wymondham’s resignation, and subsequently my own."

Despite not reading the comments on LWU's thread, Hulldom somehow managed to respond to one that had noted his resignation:
"Correct. You'd like to know more, read this." (which linked to his resignation).

[I love that choice of phrase. It's not "If you'd like to know more...", but an assertive "You'd like to know more".]

But sometimes, the more you know, the less you understand. Hulldom's resignation speech continued:
"I also think that the North Pacific should keep, more or less to the line it is on - minus cooperating with raiders. [...] we should also feel as though we can stick up for ourselves. [...] So why stick with defenders even after...all this? Put bluntly, TNP cannot operate on its own anymore."

[I heavily edited that, but to me it read like: "we should keep away from raiders and remain independent by being dependent on the defenders who undermined our independence"]

Comments on the resignation came on both threads:

Robespierre (Francois Isidore): "Someone who sold this region out to defenders and then had the audacity to suggest continued cooperation with them despite these events doesn’t deserve to be celebrated. The reality is that defenders are not our friends, nor have they ever been. At this point, Hulldom is a traitor to the North. Whether or not they return in the future to rewrite that story is, ultimately, up to them. Say no to bullies. Say no to thugs."

Mlakhavia: "this is so funny. not a single apology for any actions taken, and instead a bunch of 'advice' that effectively amounts to "the *real* villains are the raiders, and if the people who blackmailed us say sorry really nicely we can go back to brunch". resigning was a great idea -- but of course, the sentiment expressed has to be as weak-willed as your administration was."

The Universe World: "TNP becoming a lapdog is hilarious and also stupid. If I was del I’d gladly sacrifice two proposals in exchange for maintaining my region’s sovereignty and not selling us out to a coalition of power-hungry fendas in their mission to further destabilize the already remarkably horrible SC. I respect Hulldom on an OOC level, but IC he has no backbone and the incoming administration of Gorundu MUST correct Hulldom’s mistakes. I do not suggest TNP side with raiderdom, but I do suggest them asserting their sovereignty and becoming a true indie instead of being a lapdog. Give them an inch today and the next day there will be a mile-long inroad with dozens of demands that directly contradict TNP’s interests and desires. TNP can easily finesse this if they try. Hulldom backed down, Gorundu cannot."

St George (Madjack): "As for this incident, all I will say right now that for supposed allies, the Prime Minister/Foreign Minister of The South Pacific has not acted in good faith, has not spoken in the tones that allies speak to each other, has not demonstrated they even understand how to work co-operatively with allies except to browbeat them into submission. There should a reckoning for their actions, whether in TSP or in wider defenderdom or elsewhere. It is unacceptable that they chose to treat one of their longest standing allies in this way, and it seems that HumanSanity only sees TNP as a pawn they can use to advance their own agenda. They should reflect on their actions and whether they're appropriate, and should probably resign themselves."

Blankety Blank is where I write an incomplete sentence, and you have to guess what the missing word or phrase is.

That defender cabal treated the GCR delegate like a lapdog. They even…

*Drum roll...*

...kept him away from the big dog.

Yup, this was a snarky one! TNP's delegate Hulldom had been pressured to vote against "Condemn Chef Big Dog", and I couldn't resist a dig.

Thanks to our voters

Osheiga, Kophee23, New mordka, Name steal, Aalen, Cmauhin, Free social conservatives, Cokoland, Falafelandia, Sanasalia, Korruscant, Occidius, Catherine Louise Marie Ernestine Freneau, Choccolate, Free texan republic, Pupile, Hrid lopata, Ajidiali

Several hours later, Sporaltryus (aka ProfessorHenn, the Prime Minister of The South Pacific) started a new Gameplay thread, entitled "Response to Allegations by Lone Wolves United". The statement was signed by representatives of TSP, The League, 10000 Islands, and The Grey Wardens. Twelve pages of comments followed, few of which were supportive. Here it is, sections interspersed with selected subsequent comments from the peanut gallery. As mentioned earlier, the quotes don't always appear in the order they were posted, and may have lost some of their original nuance and context.

New Astri: "how like...cartoon-villain the "we have long enjoyed the substantial cooperation of the north pacific" line is. the "substantial cooperation OF" is such a freudian slip. if they had said 'with' it would have implied some both-sides cooperation and teamwork, but the "of" makes it comically clear that it's unilateral, that it was always the north pacific heeling to defenderdom's whims while receiving very little in return but scraps and threats"

A Bloodred Moon: "I would like to note this raises a fascinating point. Where, precisely, were defenders every time Stargate was raided? You say this "strengthened" military and political cooperation - did Stargate see the benefits of that? I know the NPO and the West Pacific stood by their allies, but there were never any South Pacificans, or Wardens, or XKIers to protect the historic founderless region of Stargate. Doesn't that strike you as odd? If only Malice telegraphed the night they would raid. If only Malice consistently kept hitting the same region that could be piled into by defenders. But I guess we'll never know what happened there."

Klaus Devestatorie:
"The North Pacific burned their ties with raiderdom. Intentionally burned them. Flew off the handle at TBH over an accident in Stargate, and refused to have anything to do with the new iteration of BoM in the first place. When BoM decided to intentionally raid Stargate to point out to TNP that nobody is too important to be covered in slime at the Nickelodeon awards, TNP was too busy blustering their way through statements of condemnation to realise that they were fundamentally changing their position in gameplay in a way they didn't fully understand.
The defender orgs headlining the statement in the OP don't need to paint any kind of picture about BoM to TNP."

While technically true, this statement seems to over-inflate the actual events. Back in March 2022, The League declared war on LWU. Three minutes later came the first fatality:
New king isles: "Im litterally dying of laughter lmao".
Seven months later, The League rescinded that declaration. LWU were visibly relieved:
Scardino: "That’s pretty funny. We had completely forgotten about this."
Chef Big Dog: "We humbly accept your surrender"

It's worth noting that if the proposed LWU resolutions were "self-congratulatory" because they were written about a region member by another region member, then the same could be said about the TNP proposals that the defenders had threatened to sink - TNPers commending other TNPers. And the phrase could be applied to other resolutions too, such as some of the "bland defender commendation[s]" Noah refered to.

At this point, the signatories appear to have mistaken Lone Wolves United for The Brotherhood of Malice.

The North Polish Union: "Also holy f*ck I just realized this whole thing is only happening because of bickering over who gets shiny badges next to their nation name, it's not even something like compromised security like most major FA fallouts are. This is pure optics-w*nking. Funniest sh*t I have ever seen"

Numero Capitan: "Hulldom’s handling of the whole situation would be open for question if they hadn’t been put in a fundamentally stupid position by defenders from the regions involved in the first place. LWU condemns have exactly zero strategic benefit and encroaching on the independence that is central to TNPs identity for the sake of horsetrading meaningless SC votes (that have no strategic benefit to the defender faction at all) needs to be called out for the stupidity it is."

Timiskrane: "This has echoes of what went down with "Repeal Condemn Ever-Wandering Souls" just some months ago resonating throughout it. Defenders unwilling to let raiders have any space or acknowledgment in the SC, even if it requires morally bankrupting themselves to do. It's about winning, not doing what's right."

The Universe World: "What a nice way of writing “we did everything we were accused of and are shameless.”
Absolutely disgusting. I’d like to know who the ghostwriter is for this pile of excusing, cookie cutter garbage. And I sincerely hope this is a wake-up call as to the corrosive force slowly taking over gameplay, of horrifically severe partisanship.
I am disgusted by the regions and people involved in this on an IC level, but I am not surprised.
This did nothing but state that what LWU said happened but it was wrote in a nicer way. If your PR team had the slightest bit of tact they’d at least have tried to deny anything or apologize for anything. Alas, we got the worst statement so far this year."

Wascoitan: "this statement doesn't really do much to dispute that it was blackmail beyond "uhhhh no it's not lol" and at least some folk in TNP clearly interpreted it as blackmail considering wym resigned and called it bowing to blackmail. so if the person you're blackmailing and an outside source both say something is blackmail and the only people disputing that it is blackmail are the people doing the blackmailing, seems kind of likely that it is, in fact, blackmail."

A Bloodred Moon: "Ah. So you threatened them, but really it's their fault, according to you."

New Astri: "this is like. this is KILLING me im sorry this is what the phrase 'a comedy of errors' was invented for thsi is the PR equivalent of propping up a stepladder climbing 2 the top clicking on your megaphone and going I DID IT, AND I DON'T FEEL BAD ABOUT IT, EITHER! you EVEN managed to cram in a "actually, it's raiderdom's fault"

A Bloodred Moon: "Precisely what about this is meant to demonstrate good faith? You threatened Hulldom, pressured him until he gave in, and now you want to portray yourselves as faithful allies because you voted for a proposal from a treatied ally? What a take."

Numero Capitan: "I have no doubt that the acting delegate’s newly appointed advisors will have some “open and honest communication” for the signatories of this statement and I’d advise them to listen carefully. [...] I’d like to think that those who have come out of this with their competence intact will find a way to reconstruct their collaboration on matters of mutual interest in a way that proves more productive, without making exact ideological alignment a prerequisite to operational success."

Ever-Wandering Souls: "Glad you can agree with Hulldom's resignation post that raiders are the true root of all evil, even while throwing Hulldom under the bus."

Notanam was first to respond:
"Perhaps this was supposed to be posted in NS Sports? Some of the most impressive mental gymnastics I've ever seen."

Aenglaland: "So you openly admit to extort TNP over SC votes and still think you did nothing wrong? Doesn't surprise me at all. I seriously hope this unfortunate situation acts as a wake up call for people who blindly believe the nonsense some of you preach."

Four pages of comments in, Grea Kriopia (a signatory to the statement above) doubled-down.
"The substanceless clamor in this thread showcases how many people are falling over themselves to help LWU publicly punish TNP for not going their way, especially highlighted by the loudest voices here being those from regions who attempted to stomp Commend MadJack at vote and from those who committed aggression toward some of TNP's treatied allies. The close relationships LWU keeps have never gone away and are on full display, if there was ever any doubt
"[...] We sought good faith dialogue at every turn with the previous Delegate, presenting our priority and seeking ways to combine our interests even as communication became muddied."

To which Valtarre (Koth) responded:
"You just can't help yourself, can you First Warden? Deflect, deflect, deflect, make it all about the peanut gallery and dodge the responsibility. It can't be that we are all responding to the bold defender statement that started this conversation, can it?
No, indeed we must be "helping LWU punish TNP". Even if most people who have chimed in aren't painting The North as a region as anything other than an aggrieved party in one way or another -- whether it be by the hands of their former Delegate, or the masters that pulled his strings. It was nice enough for you all to put your names on it together, at least."

Libertanny posted: "Imagine bullying your own ally and then pretending it's fault of your enemy and you are innocent. Ya all have some audacity here.
Each time I talk with defenders, after they screw up, I hear "I don't personally support it, it's fault of the bad moralists". But I hear it always from really all defenders. If that's never the defenders, it's always the bad moralists, so who is it?"

The premise for Repeal or No Repeal is pretty simple. A recently passed piece of legislation gets named, and you have to guess correctly as to whether it will be repealed before the end of the month.

Tinhampton's General Assembly proposal "Action On Period Poverty" (or "Tin's Tampon Resolution" as it was christened by Wayneactea) passed with 57.8% of the vote. It looked pretty bloody good to me, but would someone raise a red flag and repeal it before 1st May?

With a low vote share, I had thought this resolution might be cursed, but it's lasted so far. Jammy!

Thanks to our voters

La Xinga, -Astoria-, Life empire, UFROE, Osheiga, Large Ladz, Falafelandia, Cachard Calia, Eelfixwe, Sanasalia, Spratly Islands, Korruscant, Pye48

Surrounded by critical voices, defender Qvait came out in defence of the statement.
"The defenders did nothing wrong. Change my mind."

Some foolishly took Qvait up on that challenge. Qvait's replies (out of sequence here) included:
"LWU is a hostile force to my region and her allies, so I couldn't give much of a sh*t about what they allege."
"I understand that their statements should be taken with a grain of salt. After all, LWU has nothing to lose in causing a rift between TNP and TSP."
"What I'm saying is the event is being described in distorted terms by LWU."
"Framing matters, and LWU decided to frame it like it was blackmail."
"Like I would care that Wym resigned. The guy has a longtime vested agenda against defenders."
"Well, then it should shock zero people about Wym's ideology-driven agenda against defenders and his resignation carrying zero weight."
"Seems to me that it's Robes and a handful of people crying about it, hysterically even. Ghost and others seem to disagree. They are more than welcome to correct me if my observations here are wrong."
"And I'm here to tell you my MoFA did nothing wrong. They reasonably asked for mutual cooperation, as the joint statement says. You can frame that however you f*cking want, but that's how it is."
"I'm gonna take a break from sh*t posting to make an honest to the gods statement that is the truth and nothing but the truth:
Let's be honest here. The pertinent questions that should be asked is where did these allegations originate, and who has nothing to lose and stands to gain the most from it? In both parts of that question, there is only one answer. Sure, LWU lost an embassy, but that was of their own accord with the hope of making gains out of it.
I'm about to make the most painful admission here. I f*cking hate TNP's capital-I Independence bullsh*t with a passion. That's not my admission. My reluctant and regrettable admission that I hate with all my guts to admit is the sad, sad truth that TSP needs TNP as much as they need us, so why in the hell would TSP go out of its way to sabotage the alliance?
Not only that, LWU's characterization of HS [HumanSanity] is laughable. Do they really think that little of HS? That they would issue threats to another leader? TNP's delegate no less. We are talking about a person who is no stranger to the game, someone who has years of experience as a former delegate of XKI and former PM of TSP. I served alongside HS in Cabinets past, LWU's characterization of HS does not match the person I've worked alongside. In all the time I've known HS, they made calculated decisions and were cautious in their statements and conversations with other leaders. LWU's painting them like a schoolyard bully, but no HS I know would do that to the delegate of the biggest region in the game. That is ridiculous. Total dogsh*t.
Wanna know why I believe that's dogsh*t? It's because I served alongside HS when we approached TNP to renegotiate the gentlemen's agreement on quorum raiding. HS was calm and reasonable, a far cry different from the person that LWU is portraying. There was a time when I felt fire and fury for TNP, back when we were wrongly accused for supporting fascism. Just as Glen and Roavin negotiated the original gentlemen's agreement, it was HS and I who stood by the agreement, and it was HS who spearheaded the renegotiation a year later.
At no point during any of that did HS act like a bully and make threats. They were calm, collected, reasonable, and calculated. So, everyone here can believe whatever they f*cking want to believe. I was about to say something here but remembered the mod warning. And we can have people kissing LWU's asses, but we all know that the only people who have anything to gain from any of this is three words: Lone Wolves United.
Thank you, f*ck this noise, good night."

Earlier, Desperation had posted:
"I think the primary issue is that TNP and LWU don't believe it was a mutual decision for TNP & defenders to stop collaboration, but rather defenders said they'd vote against upcoming TNP commends if TNP didn't vote against the condemn. In other words, not saying "we may decide to not auto-vote for your stuff and we may consider other factors" but rather "we will explicitly fail your stuff for the sole reason of you not listening to us"
Deciding not to mutually cooperate in the WA isn't a bad thing for allies ig. But telling an ally you'll Oppose all their actions if they don't help you will your goals... doesn't really sound like friendship. Which is why it probably looks bad on some of the defenders' parts, the region's with relationships with TNP.
IG there is no way to truly know how the conversation was specifically phrased without direct logs (assuming ine thinks Hulldom misread the situation or overreacted), and it seems the devil is in the details.
But I will say that if LWU and TNP are right on this, then its highly, highly disappointing behavior from TSP and TL. So I'm hoping they aren't, because that reality would suck."

Then on Easter Sunday, anonymous puppet Interesting inquiries left these screen-shots.

Ever-Wandering Souls: "Incredible to see "a couple of wolves getting badges" as TSP, XKI, TL, and TGW's line for "when it actually matters." Peak culture war bullsh*t. Like, was TNP taking the lead on nuking mine and Koth's condemns not "when it actually mattered?" Did none of the recently-milled defender commendations "actually matter?" What about TNP stamping off a free vote rec for every lib in the past year, yknow, the SC res with actual tactical implications? Shouldn't those be what "actually matters?"
Incredible to watch defending fully intentionally drive a wedge in their SC powerhouse alliance over "Tom and Cain getting meaningless badges" on the eve of the release of injunctions as part of Frontiers, where they will need to be running the SC mill even more but for actual GP sh*t. Peak "taking a knee on the one yard line."
All over the badge-printing-press extending just a smidge past "your own" and "TNP's own" into one of TNP's allies you don't like. Risking a mile for the sake of an inch."

Given the tone of the original joint statement, it came as something of a surprise on Monday when (over on TSP's forums) ProfessorHenn (Sporaltryus) announced:
"Earlier today, Minister of Foreign Affairs @HumanSanity offered me their resignation. We both agree it is in the Coalition’s interests to chart a different course for our foreign policy, in light of recent events"

There was no mention of which "recent events". Presumably something completely unrelated to this. After all, no one had done anything wrong, right?

In real life, I found ants in my cereal box. I threw out the cereal. But it got me idly thinking about why I think it's OK to eat some animals, but not others. In the UK, we eat certain kinds of mammal, fish, and bird. But we get squeamish when someone suggests we eat something out of the ordinary. Like dog. Or invertebrates. But other cultures are fine with things like deep fried tarantula, or chocolate coated ants. So this month's poll was about delicious(?) treats.

The carnival is in town! But all these festivities are making me hungry. Luckily there are food vendors here. But what should I buy? Deep fried tarantula, or chocolate coated ants?

The poll was a close run thing all the way through. But in the end that sweet insecticide won out.

Thanks to our voters

La Xinga, Osheiga, West ondoles, Edge Hill, Korruscant, Swenfia, Edush, Agouti islands, Apalles and shichirou, All Wild Things, Aerilia, Lower Slobbovia, The Georgeian Empire, New Zander, Laforeia, Namvosk, The Triton Sodality, Zanderian State, Apocalypse Borg, Calabur

Looking for more gastronomic inspiration? Check out Osiris' Culinary Talents.

An hour and a half after HumanSanity's resignation was announced, on April 10th, The League and The Order of the Grey Wardens issued a joint statement.
"Follow-up, Retraction, and Apology

At even the best of times for both people and governments, mistakes are inevitable. Very few choices are flawless, and today The League & Concord and The Order of the Grey Wardens wish to acknowledge a recent occurrence of this and make a step towards productive and reconciliatory dialogue.
On April 8th, The League & Concord and The Order of the Grey Wardens signed on to a statement regarding recent events publicized by Lone Wolves United in response to actions relating to The North Pacific. This was a poor decision, a poor statement, and we retract our signatures and our assent to the contents of that statement effective immediately.
To the people and government of The North Pacific: We apologize for our role in these events from the original ultimatum onwards. Our convictions and frustrations, earnest as they may be, and fierce as they may be at times, did not warrant our involvement in the ultimatum delivered to your previous Delegate.
Our governments have reached out to The North Pacific and hope, either jointly or individually, that a productive conversation may ensue. We understand that this statement must be followed by sincere steps of action, and we hope that the opportunity for that arises as things move forward."

Grea Kriopia also retracted their previous "doubling-down" post.

Note that this retraction does not include 10000 Islands, or TSP (whose Minister of Foreign Affairs had just resigned).

Madjack (who had just been appointed TNPs Minister of Foreign Affairs by acting Delegate Gorundu) posted the first reply:
"The North Pacific thanks you for this statement and we look forward to further dialogue on matters of mutual interest."

And note this is not an explicit acceptance of the apology.

Most respondents were pleased to see the apology, though many maintained a degree of cynicism, such as Aivintis:
"It’s nice to see guilty parties in NSGP owning up for their mistakes, but I’m wondering how sincere this really is. This was quite the affair, and even without being a member of The North Pacific, I hope this statement indicates that steps are being taken to correct the errors of signing that statement and pressuring TNP in the first place, rather than just empty words and promises. I hope you hold true to your word. It’d be a real shame, though not surprising, if your regions turned around and did this again in a few months just to issue another apology. That said, I’m curious as to whether TNP has accepted the apology, and what the official stance is on forgiving, not forgiving, or making certain conditions to forgiveness in regards to TL&C and TGW. It’s interesting to see the South Pacific absent from this statement too, almost as if you were trying to let them take most of the flak for this. Were they contacted about signing onto this retraction?"

Francois Isidore (Robespierre):
"Let's not forget: Defenders weren't sorry when they thought that they were going to get away with this.
Defenders weren't sorry a mere 49 hours ago when they decided to issue this statement in response to LWU bringing the situation to light. They weren't sorry until now, until after they got called out by the wider gameplay community on their bullshit.
I want to believe you guys, I really do. But your actions tell me differently and you're absolutely right when you say that this statement must be followed by sincere steps of action. Hopefully, we'll get to see that. But until we do, I'd caution The North Pacific against accepting your apology prematurely."

Refuge Isle (Luca):
"Warden Command was not informed that TGW backed pressure aimed at TNP until after its support had been sent, nor were we aware to what specific degree of pressure was being applied. With regards to the statement posted by Sporaltryus, the draft was not made available to Warden Command but 90 minutes before it was posted, and no Commander was able to review or sign off but one. My stating that is not an attempt to sidestep fault; regardless of cause or circumstance, the effects still took place, and the OP acknowledges TGW's role in it.
Warden Command does not believe in extorting friends and allies, we do not believe in the priorities of recognition over the priorities of natives (which happened here), and we certainly do not support the concept of saying such extortion never happened when it plainly did. That is why I and the other Commanders put our name to paper to retract the statement and apologise to The North. It is why this retraction has the abundance of signatures from Warden-Command that it does."

A Bloodred Moon:
"It’s not that I don’t believe you’re being genuine, but it is a little tough to deny that your First Warden does believe in extorting diplomatic partners. She not only coordinated with the South Pacific, the League and 10000 Islands to strong-arm TNP, she then also signed her name onto the statement saying they weren’t sorry for it, and then even proceeded to double down on it in the thread. And while I fully believe you and Vinny would not sign off on such a thing, GK plainly did, at every step of the way."

Quebecshire:
"I'll add on to the above post by Luca a bit, mainly to include The League & Concord's perspective.
Luca is correct that an underlying issue in a lot of this is insufficient communication. A number of things in terms of how we got here were ambiguous or poorly communicated/portrayed to us, and steps will be taken in the future to catch these things earlier on and prevent subsequent issues of this, or similar kinds. Rest assured our government is displeased about this being a factor in getting us here, in addition to apologetic as explained in the original post."

A Bloodred Moon:
"I’m sure you’ll be explaining in detail to the North Pacific what precisely was “poorly communicated to” you. The problem here, though, is that from my understanding of Refuge’s post Warden Command was kept out of the loop on the initial threat, disagreed with the statement doubling down on it, and ultimately strongly opposed their leader’s actions. The same, evidently, does not apply to the League - all three of your Consuls signed the statement, and I am assuming that means all of you read it and were aware of it. You’re backing down now that you’re aware there might be consequences, but there is no way of denying three of the four signatures on this statement signed off on the previous statement saying “so what?”"

Next day, 10000 Islands Foreign Affairs posted on the 10000 Islands Embassy thread:
"As many of you will be aware 10000 Islands were signatories on a statement which responded to Lone Wolves United's thread.
We would like to retract our signature from this statement and offer our humblest apologies to The North Pacific, its citizens and its government for everything that transpired over the last week. That includes signing on to a pact to vote against SC proposals aimed at recognizing TNP nations, as well as not approaching TNP beforehand to discuss matters at hand.
Over the last few years, with the support and hard work of Hulldom, 10000 Islands and The North Pacific had begun to make great strides to improve our relations. This ultimately culminated in 10000 Islands recently voting to request an embassy with The North Pacific. We recognise that our recent and past actions have harmed relations between our two regions and will endeavor to put things right.
We hope that in the future we will be able to follow this statement up with not only words of goodwill, but with actions demonstrating our commitment to good relations with The North Pacific.
Once again we unreservedly apologize to Hulldom, The North Pacific's Government and its citizens. This apology encompasses recent actions, as well as all past actions and grievances between 10000 Islands and The North Pacific.

Signed on behalf of the Council of Nine and 10000 Islands,

Lenlyvit
Delegate of 10000 Islands

Markanite
Chief Executive of 10000 Islands"

A few comments in, Lenlyvit revealed:
"I will admit that I did not read the statement that was drafted before giving my permission to have my name added to it. I wasn't on much for the talks surrounding the whole ordeal, and will take the full blame for making the FA blunder and sh*t show that it was."

Wascoitan:
"gotta say, I kind of respect the honesty of this. speaking for myself if I approved my name being put on a statement without reading it then later it turned out I disagreed with the statement and also I was on blast for putting my name on the statement I absolutely would not admit that in public XD. I'd be taking that secret to the grave, or at least saving it for a funny story years down the road."

Syberis:
"I have to ask at this point how this statement came to be if apparently nobody read it or agreed to it - who wrote it? Doubling-down FA statements don't come from nowhere."

Notanam:
"I mean, what I'm presuming happened is that HumanSanity drafted it, the statement was then communicated to the defender leaders as "hey, please sign this real quick", and without reading it that closely, it was approved. Perhaps some names were even added to it without those people having read it. Who knows?
Still doesn't explain stuff like the GK double down in the original thread though."

Finally, on April 22nd, two weeks after the story broke, Sporaltryus posted this:
"Fellow South Pacificans and friends abroad,

Many of you are undoubtedly aware of recent events involving the South Pacific, alongside our allies in the League and Concord, the Order of the Grey Wardens, and 10000 Islands, and the North Pacific. In the time since, we have had invaluable conversations with South Pacificans at home and with other stakeholders, which have informed not only new perspectives on these events but also new ideas as we move forward.

We wish to express our deepest regrets for our role in this series of events, including both the original ultimatum and the April 8 response statement, and we retract our assent to both. Specifically, we wish to apologize to Hulldom, to the government of The North Pacific, and most of all, to the citizens of The North Pacific.

We regret the threats issued to Hulldom and The North Pacific on the behalf of and at the behest of the South Pacific and its allies involved in this matter. Our strongarm tactics were needlessly unproductive, disrespectful, and antagonistic, and were especially unbecoming given that our regions have been allies for over a decade. They did not conform to the high standards for diplomacy and cooperation with our allies that we have always tried to hold ourselves to, and that we will endeavor to hold ourselves to in the future. They also did not conform to our commitment to democratic principles, at home and abroad. The South Pacific would never have accepted such behavior against us, and we should not have engaged in it at the expense of a friend and ally.

We are ashamed that our actions impinged upon the democratic independence of The North Pacific. Both of our regions have long, treasured traditions of democratic governance. By its nature, this means that there will come times when our citizens make different decisions, our governments follow different paths, and our regions adopt different beliefs; that these differences emerge naturally from our differing democratic processes; and that our diplomatic communications should be mindful of these differences. Our recent actions overlooked these differences and leveraged our own interests, and the interests of our involved allies, against the voices of citizens of The North Pacific. It was unfair and unacceptable to force a choice between the democratic input of citizens and the policy concerns of foreign governments, and we will move forward with renewed respect for the voices of citizens of The North Pacific and commitment to respect those voices, even when such differences arise in the future.

We deeply regret that we went to such great lengths to achieve our goals. It is clear now, with the benefit of hindsight, that we relied excessively on the experiences and perspectives of individual foreign policy actors; that we deferred inordinately to the beliefs and expressed intentions of more established figures; and that our response to criticism was born of individual frustrations rather than collective level-headedness. But we remain well aware of the fact that these actions were carried out by not merely individual actors, but by a Minister of Foreign Affairs with the approval of the Prime Minister, on the behalf of multiple regions including the South Pacific. Moving forward as a region requires greater introspection at both individual and regional levels than demonstrated during these recent events. That process has already begun, of course, with changes to our foreign policy leadership and with important conversations domestically. It continues with this recognition of the error of our ways; the government of the South Pacific should not have authorized and issued the original ultimatum and should not have defended it in the response statement. This process will continue with ongoing discussions within the South Pacific about our foreign policy priorities, about the value of our alliances, and about our communications with and actions towards our allies going forward.

Finally, we wish to extend our sincere gratitude to the government of The North Pacific for their patience and willingness to discuss this matter with us at length.

Signed,

Sporaltryus / ProfessorHenn
Prime Minister of the South Pacific

Esfalsa / Pronoun
Minister of Foreign Affairs"

Mlakhavia:
"took u a while"

A couple of hours after the TSP apology, Gorundu posted this Response to Recent Defender Transgressions. Go read it - it's a great piece of text. I was tempted to copy the whole lot into here, but I felt that was maybe a bit overkill for this article (despite my extensive quoting of other statements above!).

To encourage you to read it, here's what the reviewers had to say:

Francois Isidore: "This is a statement that I can support."

Kazaman: "A strong statement that reinforces TNP's sovereignty and independence. As I said privately before, you have Balder's full support. I hope that this starts a path of reconciliation between the parties involved."

Timiskrane: "I was unsure what to expect from the new government, but you've knocked it out of the park. This is exactly what TNP needed to do, imo."

PhDre: "A powerful affirmation of Independent gameplay. Well handled."

Sweeze: "quite based"

So who wins and who loses?
We've read in Gorundu's statement that:
"For the foreseeable future [...]:

• The North Pacific Army will not partake in any bilateral military cooperation/training operations with the South Pacific Special Forces, The Order of the Grey Wardens, the League Defence Forces, or the Ten-thousand Islands Treaty Organization;

• The talks in pursuit of a non-aggression pact with The League will be suspended;

• No additional diplomatic agreements will be considered with the regions of The South Pacific, The Order of the Grey Wardens, The League, and 10000 Islands, nor additional embassies constructed where they do not currently exist;

• All planned cultural events with the regions of The South Pacific, The Order of the Grey Wardens, The League, and 10000 Islands will be canceled, and no future cultural events or collaborations will be considered."

Of the joint statement signatories, only HumanSanity resigned.

Wayneactia listed some casualties:
"Jack got his commendation, and Chef's is DOA. TNP's embassy with LWU is going to to closed, Hulldom is out as Delegate and Wyndo is out as MoFA."

And then Wayneactia himself became a self-inflicted casualty for pushing his outspoken opinions too far. First he was forum-banned, then Moderation decided to enforce his long over-looked Delete-on-Sight status. I'm going to miss Wayne's presence on the forums. Even if no-one else will.

The new Frontiers code went live on the site a couple of weeks ago. Largest of the frontiers at present is TNP's project, The Wellspring. With over 1000 nations already, this is a notable success. However, the sweet success of The Wellspring started with a sour taste for someone...

Americastrailia (a puppet of Galiantus iii) founded The Wellspring as one of almost 50 Frontiers created in the first hours after the new site code was launched. Smarter than most, they advertised it on the Gameplay forum, saying: "Let's Get the First UCR New Nation Spawn!"

The tactic worked, and attracted the attention of TNP. Dozens of nations flocked. When minor update started, this was the only region where endorsements had been swapped, and so the only place where a delegate was elected, and so the only frontier spawning nations for the next 12 hours.

I Came I Saw I Dominated was the first delegate of a frontier. And at the end of the update, the disappointingly named Cardfarmer21 was the first spawn. They moved off to their own region within minutes.

Between times, Vivanquian puppet 1 posted on the RMB: "TRANS RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS!"

In the past, the founder Galiantus iii had posted an anti-trans rant on the General forum. Many (hopefully most) in the NS community don't believe people should feel uncomfortable or unwelcome because of their gender or sexuality. So when people realised who the founder of TNPs pet project was, they asked for him to be removed from the community. TNP obliged.

Galiantus iii was upset at being rejected from their own region on it's second day of existence. They started a thread complaining. They and their thread were fairly rapidly shut down.

The main risk of starting a Frontier is not being able to keep control of it. That's exactly what happened here. And elsewhere...

Greater Sahara almost made history. It was one of the two frontiers with WA members just before that first minor update after the Frontiers code went live. Unfortunately no-one had thought to endorse anyone else before the update. No endos, no delegate, no spawns.

Wert boasted:
"If elected delegate, I will impose a regional welcome telegram to attract more members!
I have tons of experience in this game with my main nation having over 3 billion population!"

Just too late for that first update, Founder Acornesia endorsed them. Wert held the delegacy for the next four days. Then came the coup. For the blow-by-blow account, see Acornesia's dispatch "History of Greater Sahara - Lave Deldederady: The Tyrant Delegate". Four days sounds pretty short. But their delegacy didn't change as fast as the Weather.

Warzone Trinidad was created on 5th April. A genuine GCR warzone, this one is extra special, being the last region to update in the twice-daily update cycles. This makes Warzone Trinidad an ideal location for a jump point. And also very defendable. As explained previously in this publication:

"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 which 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."

That explanation is actually a bit simplified. You can jump from a region which updated earlier, but only if your nation hasn't updated. Which requires "update surfing".

Update surfing works something like this (I've never done it, and may well be missing some subtleties): Your WA nation starts off in a later updating region. During one of the twice-daily site updates, before your current region updates, you move into a region that has already updated. Because your new region has already updated, your nation won't get updated there. And because you're no longer in your original region, your nation won't get updated there either. So your WA endorsements haven't yet been counted. You can now wait until seconds before Warzone Trinidad updates, move in, and your nation will update there. And that's where your endorsements will be counted.

As an alternative to surfing, you can make an Instant Jump Point, or IJP (thanks for the terminology Koth!). This is where you found a new region after the site update has started. The new region won't update until around 12 hours later, so nations in the new region don't update either.

To me, update surfing certainly sounds more eco-friendly than having the beaches of Warzone Trinidad choked by the flotsam of many single-use jump points washing up on the shore! ;)

If you like any of the linked dispatches, remember and give them an upvote.
The Conch Times is worth checking out for the countryballs alone! I liked their pieces on maps and iiwiki.
The Osiris Oracle takes an early look at Frontiers and Injunctions, and also gives some tips on writing and lore for your nation.
The Rejected Times' 20th Anniversary Edition is great reading. There's a lot of open and honest thinking.
If you like your arts, nothing compares to Rogue magazine.

If you want more on the TNP scandal, The Rejected Times got in early with a special edition on the issue, and Libertia-Columbia has a thorough dispatch with links to all the relevant sources.

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