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by The Free Lands of Vancouvia. . 6,839 reads.

Vancouvian Information Releases: The Pacific Did Nothing Wrong (to Us)

The Pacific Did Nothing Wrong (to Us)

by Vancouvia

December 12, 2018

Despite the dozen telegrams I've received over the past couple weeks, and not to mention the person who decided to come on to our region's RMB last week for a few days and bash us for not having enough "democracy" over a series of twenty or so posts, The Western Isles has not given in to increasing demands to burn down our embassy with The Pacific. Why?

First, The Pacific was the first and only game created region to accept our embassy request two years and 206 days ago, as of this writing. We have had no other game-created-region embassies since, and not for our lack of willingness to have more. Ironically enough, their embassy rules don't even allow us to post on their rmb, but hey, at least they were willing to accept it. We appreciate that. The Western Isles has arguably been one of the most active, if not the most active role-playing region on this site for the past few years and, yeah, it's nice that one of the largest regions lets us stack our name below their WFE and we do the same. So, it seems a bit ironic when delegates from regions who have refused our embassy requests try to tell us to break one we have had for almost three years.

Also, The Western Isles has been and still is, largely autonomous and isolationist. The few attempts we have made at involving ourselves in any sort of inter-regional anything have resulted in pure stagnation. It's very difficult to do anything between regions past the point of embassies, which anyone can tell just by reading these "treaties" the GCRs and Europeieieia like to plop out every couple months, where the main points are usually "collaboration" and "communication" and "fairs." The Western Isles has existed in our realm of good solid role-playing, and our community has repeatedly reinforced that this is the niche we do best in and want to continue to excel in.

The Pacific did nothing wrong, and The Western Isles has no qualms against them. Personally, I think coups/expanding to other regions is cool as hell and the best and most entertaining part of the worst part of this website - raiding/defending. The ability to use a little subterfuge and a lot of time to gain control of a GCR or other big region is impressive. Raiding/defending on this website sounds about as exciting as playing with a frisbee by myself, and I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would care enough to take part (which may be why they have to shove fork fulls of digital medals upon the loyal privates who enlist) but I can understand why couping a region is fun. Who among us hasn't dreamed of being in control of a GCR and savoring all of those free, limitless future soldiers region-members? It sure would save on stamps.

All embassies (usually) do is enable some slight inter-regional communication. It's also a nice little way to get some free cross-advertising. That's why when I was President in my first term, a couple years ago, I made sure to accept almost all embassy requests, and plan on doing the same now. Because, honestly, why not? The Western Isles is not some elitist, better-than-thou region nor do we care to be. We seek excellence internally, mostly in our quality of role-playing. We don't try to somehow rise above by only building the crème de la crème of NationStates embassies, which it seems so many other big regions do. "You must apply on our forums for an embassy." "They are reserved only for allies." Okay, all power to you, but don't try to attack The Western Isles' divergent policy of liberal embassy acceptance.

In short, the people trying to get The Western Isles to drop their embassy with The Pacific couldn't give two, or even three, shifts about The Western Isles. Their entire motivation is just to make The Pacific look ever so slightly worse. We don't care. We haven't ever been involved in inter-regional affairs to a significant degree, nor have we attempted to. We have, however, attempted to create embassies with many of the regions now attempting to convince and/or guilt us for having the ever so slightest bit of loyalty to the one GCR that was willing to click the "accept embassy request" button on this website - a website whose primary purpose, at least according to our members, is to answer weird issues and role-play with our friends.

Hail independent thought.

Temporarily Permanent Bans and How to Combat Them

by Vancouvia

December 7, 2016

As a Founder of a large non-forumed region for more than a year and a half, I have hammered my share of bans. Sometimes reluctantly, sometimes more than willingly, someone has to be the one to eject and ban that dude who just can't seem to shape up, and that's when you ship 'em out.

But what I want to focus on first in this dispatch is the sort of ironic fact that all regional bans are by their nature temporary. This is for a couple of reasons. First, and less pressing, is that the regional ban system is just downright faulty. There has been many times when someone who was banned from the region somehow lost their spot on the regional ban list and was able to move right back on in. Usually this is months after they were banned and have CTE'd and then get reborn. Possible correlation? I honestly don't know.

Secondly, bans are temporary because of puppets. When someone is regionally banned, it is only that nation which is prevented from rejoining. It takes less than a minute for someone to make a new nation and waddle back on in. In the past, when we have had problems with this, we've contacted the moderators who have warned nations from doing this, but this is an after-the-fact band-aid solution that only works if the region itself can root out the puppets. We can't shoot a telegram over to the moderators and ask them to do a bi-weekly metal detector sweep for any puppets of banned players. That's unrealistic, and I wouldn't blame them for not being able to do that.

Here's the thing: players are usually, at least in my experience, banned for a reason. Sometimes they're inciting arguments, sometimes they're spamming, sometimes they're attacking other players. But if and when they send a puppet back in, AND the region does not discover the relation, the only way that that puppet would ever be banned again is if they repeated the same or similar behavior.

My conclusion? Banned players can pardon themselves by assimilating and not repeating their past behavior. By restarting and acting like a new and improved player, they can melt right back into the regional melting pot and be hunky-dory. And that way everyone benefits. They get a clean slate, and the region gets a good, new member.

But many fail to do this. Over and over again I have seen the same banned players either 1. request a second/third chance or pardon or 2. send an easy-to-detect puppet into the region (sometimes with the same flag; sometimes with a similar nation name). Why? I have a couple of theories. First of all, the people who are usually banned are what some may call "trolls," people who did and do not have any intention of actually participating in the region other than to incite something. They want to make a name for themselves, be that infamous villain who riled everyone up back in September, and/or get a rush out of wasting the region's time. Second, they want to clear their name for their past bad actions. Their cognitive dissonance propels them to ask for forgiveness and another chance. However, one week down the line you'll have the exact same problems, because they haven't really changed or don't want to.

So what can be done? First, make a ban be permanent. Don't offer pardons or second-chances for the nation, because these are already built into the website as I mentioned above. If a player wants a second-chance then they are forced to actually be a good member of the region. They can't get forgiveness for their actions, and they have to waste their own time instead of the region's when setting up the new nation. Second, continue to actively ban any detectable puppets who show up, and then report these to the moderators. Don't let that player who rebelled against the rules be acting in open rebellion. Don't let them think that they got away with their actions, nor that what they did has a statute of limitations. Be vigilant, be clear, and be purposeful.

Vote Against Commend Vancouvia

by Vancouvia

April 26, 2016

I have already told the author of this proposal that it was very kind of him to think of me, among the several thousand possible candidates for commendation. It is not every day that someone is kind enough to spend their own time working to praise the actions of someone else.

I was, however, disturbed to see that the proposal had been submitted, and I was distressed when it reached quorum and went to vote. The author failed to spend any amount of substantial time drafting it on the forums, in order to correct errors or make needed changes; this disappointed me of course not for my own sake, but for the author's.

I voted against the proposal simply because I wouldn't have voted for it no matter whose name was on there. Despite an outpouring of support from my region mates and others, I cannot and will not support this proposal, but I thank everyone who did. I ask now that you follow my lead and vote against it, because I would not vote one way and tell others to vote the other.

I ask instead that you support Commend Ponderosa, a proposal that I put into submission several times before for someone who is much, much more deserving than me for a commendation. Ponderosa is the author of the guide on how to make wiki style factbooks, which many on this site, including myself, have used and got a great deal of satisfaction from. Honestly, making my factbook was probably the most pure, true fun I've had on this site, and having something I could be proud of--that I myself wrote and put a lot of time into--was very meaningful to me. I believe Ponderosa deserves to be commended for instilling this sense of pride in thousands of nations.

Why I Approve Every Proposal

by Vancouvia

March 12, 2016

In order for a proposal to become an enacted resolution, it needs to pass through three stages:

First, it needs to be legally written and posted.
Second, it needs at least 6% of all delegates to approve it within a period of three days.
Finally, it needs to attain at least 50% of the vote.

All three requirements are very difficult. A vast majority of proposals never make it past the first stage. Those which do make it past the first stage almost never make it past the second stage and go to vote. A fair portion of those that make it to the third stage receive the majority vote and are enacted.

The second stage, requiring 6% delegates' approval (swaying between 90 and 110 approvals required) is a pointless barrier, and if you called it pay-to-win, you wouldn't be half wrong. Proposals never get the 100 approvals unless the author or a friend of the author shells out almost two bucks in stamps for a telegram campaign. Or they can spend a couple hours manually trying to campaign, which is arduous and a lot less likely to succeed.

The 6% requirement does nothing but prevent good, legal proposals from having the chance to get voted on. It's essentially a holding period so that the moderators can have time to review them for illegalities, but even that isn't necessary, when the sometimes-slow moderation team has had no qualms with removing proposals that are currently at vote (as we've seen much of recently).

I advocate for a more reasonable and attainable requirement, so that hardworking authors who have written a legal proposal are not penalized for either lacking the money or time to "campaign" i.e. spam telegrams out to usually annoyed delegates. Good proposals should be able to reach quorum and go to vote through natural grassroots approval, not solely through the use of campaign telegrams. Another solution would be to increase the expiration period from three days to a much longer time, allowing legal proposals to slowly generate approvals until they reach quorum. Both of these suggestions could be enacted in conjunction.

Until that time in which this unnecessary roadblock is rectified, I will be approving every proposal, in order to do my part to counteract it, and I will encourage all of my delegate peers to do the same.

Ask Not What a Nation Can Do For You

by Vancouvia

January 25th, 2016

Many of you are probably familiar with the Arnhelm Declaration of Recruitment Standards. For those of you who are not, here is a link to the document. It is a two year old treaty signed by such regions as Europeia, The Land of Kings and Emperors, Ainur, The Communist Bloc, and Equinox.

That's enough introduction; here's my thesis: the existence of the Arnhelm Declaration and agreements like it are an insult to every common nation out there. It treats players like cattle, like a commodity to be bartered over and hassled on. Players are not a commodity, and they are not a resource. All players deserve to find the region that best suits their needs, not to be shuffled away into the backroom of one of the signatories of treaties like this, never to achieve the maximum utility that they can attain from NationStates.

In a perfect world/website, new players would have access to all the information they could ever want concerning regions. They would receive an honest, complete, and exact review of every region and have the ability to make their choice whenever they wanted. They would be able to switch regions easily after receiving new information or changing their mind, and they would be free from malicious repercussions for doing so. The best regions would have the most nations, the niche regions would find all their niche players, and regions would have to compete in a knowledgeable marketplace by either increasing the quality of their region and/or differentiating themselves.

But that's not the state of our marketplace. And a part of why that is is because of treaties like the Arnhelm Declaration, lofty dealings to attempt to limit the amount of information players receive. There are other obstacles too, of course, like the immense advantage regions which can afford stamps have over regions that cannot, and the fact that all Pacifics encourage players to immediately turn off recruitment telegrams the second they are "welcomed."

Censorship and other forms of preventing information from being received and circulated are bad. They keep players from achieving the highest degree of enjoyment possible. They keep players in regions they're miserable in for several months (I myself was this way because I didn't know there was anything better) and assume players are resources to be hoarded rather than humans who want to have fun.

Regional leaders, do not sign treaties that seek to reduce the information players receive. Instead, either make your region better or make it different; compete rather than conspire. Help players find the region they will be most comfortable in. Be friendly, welcoming, and helpful. Get rid of a macro "more numbers is better" viewpoint in favor of a micro "how can I help this person have fun on this game" outlook.

The Black Riders Lose Out

by Vancouvia

April 27th, 2015

Following an announcement by NationStates moderators on the deletion of The Black Riders' founder for illegal script usage, the infamous Black Riders region was set in turmoil. In an incredible twist of irony, the very region which so often raided and "tagged" founderless regions in the past was now among that very group, and thus vulnerable to attack.

It was inevitable that an attack would take place, with the candidate to spearhead this movement, Unitedgermanregions, coming from The Insane Region, a half-year old region of some sixty nations.

The announcement to begin the strike came from UGR approximately four hours ago on the Insane regional message board, stating:

OMG Everybody, important news, The Black Riders are now vulnerable. Their founder got deleted for script cheats. Their WA Delegate was made executive. Their region can now be conquered! All nations like this post if it is amazing news.

For the record, two nations liked the post. It was then followed by a simple order:

ALL WA GO TO THE BLACK RIDERS and endorse The Armed Republic of UnitedGermanRegions, NON-OPTIONAL

When this reporter followed up, UGR added, "We saw it immediately and were surprised but took action." UGR went on to say that they then messaged a "large list of regions" in order to seek help in gathering up delegate endorsements.

Throughout the morning, TBR's message board, often quite stagnate, flew by at an incredibly fast speed. Two factions soon emerged: the native riders who supported Ridersyl, and the attacker defender group who earnestly flooded into the region to support Unitedgermanregions.

With the daytime update came victory for UGR, who garnered approximately 60 endorsements, with Ridersyl lagging behind with roughly 35. This was a decisive victory for the UGR supporters, which leads this reporter to question the infrastructure of TBR. For a region with hundreds of native nations that prides itself on using endorsements to gain control of regions, it strikes bizarre that TBR couldn't even assume control of their own region, especially when considering the invaders this time were a very loose coalition of nations from around the world. Is this a sign of the Rider's ineptitude? Or is this simply a revelation of the intense disgust that so many hold against the Riders?

Whatever the case, the world's attention has shifted from Lazarus to TBR and will likely hold there for many weeks to come.

Feel free to pin this dispatch to your region's WFE

The Free Lands of Vancouvia

Edited:

RawReport