[X] Yes, let's found the Sufficient Diplomacy Corps.
[X] Approve the embassy with The Gypsy Lands.
[X] Establish a recruitment leaderboard. [TIE!!!]
[X] Do not establish a leaderboard. [TIE!!!]
Well folks, it's been a good two days for our region. Let me tell you, it's been a good two days. First, let me give you the diplomatic report. With Good ol' Cornuthaum unable to perform his duties, not because of any deficiency in his fantastic ability but because he did not have the energy for it at the time (and let me tell you folks, our friend Cornuthaum, when he hibernates, he has a lot of energy, so we'll be holding out for the end of winter and listening for the chirp of that groundhog), I will take control of the Sufficient Diplomatic Corps. Not because I want to be a dictator, oh no- although, wouldn't my head look good on a bust, don't you think? I could swing it. But not because of that- but mostly because diplomacy in Nationstates is extremely personal and personable, and I am both a person and intimately personable. In fact, my recent debut onto the Nationstates forum has been such a smashing success that longtime players are asking me if I'm an experienced gameplayer. That's right, folks! Your ol' pal Cetashwayo, a long-time resident on Nationstates.
Of course, it's not true. I used to play Nationstates back in 2013, but I ceased to exist a long time ago, and only recently re-appeared. I am not in fact every experienced gameplayer in the entire game. Instead, I spent the last week or so reading about the metagame of Nationstates, and boy is it complicated. From the pseudo-Marxist ideology of Francoism, that says that all UCRs (user-created regions) are a disease for GCRs (Game-Created Regions), to the various insane coups that have happened over years, to the current situation in Lazarus, a game-created region designed to take players whose nations have revived, and has recently been turned into a center for the "Wolfist Revolution". What's the Wolfist Revolution?
Hell if I know, folks. That's more info than you pay me for. In fact, you don't pay me at all!
You all chose to pass the embassy with The Gypsy Lands on flying colors. Their show of good faith in warning us about the spam region and their forthright manner of explaining their intentions revealed them as a steady friend.
However, the matter of the leaderboard silently divided the membership. People weren't sure which way to go, but they sure as hell weren't going to say so either way. Instead, we got ourselves a silent tie, and that means that we're going to have to figure out ties will be handled. That decision will also handle the result of this vote, so it's a bit like a cascading vote. Crazy how that goes, eh, folks?
Now then. The part you've all been waiting for.
An original poster created by me, and nobody else. Ever.
That's right. It's time for the endorsement reports. And friends, friends. How can I put this? We've blown it out of the water. Like a great big asteroid propelling at sufficient velocity, we've slammed into every planet in our way and caused the deaths of trillions. Wait. That's not in my notes.
Ahem.
What I was saying was that the last time I posted this we were 11th in average world assembly endorsements. Yesterday we were 4th. Now, now friends? Now we're 3rd, ahead of the freaking North Pacific, the largest region in the entire game. That's right. And who's ahead of us? Two suspiciously closely named regions, Europeia and Europe. But let me tell you, they don't have what we have. They don't have our gumption, or our cooperation, or our sheer organizational grit. And we're going to show them the what-for, we will. That said, some of us need your help. Of course we've got the newbies, the greenhorns, the kind of kids who just got their way in and think that twelve is a decent number of endorsements- well let's put a smile on their faces and turn that 12 into a 21. And then you've got the Johnny Latecomers knocking at our door, asking for endorsements- but you know what? We're all SVers here. So keep an open hand and a generous eye, because I've got a few people for you to help today. And also, let me just give a thanks to everyone who moved their puppets to storage. Yeah, it's cute when you do the ventriloquist thing, but folks, after a while it just gets creepy, especially when they start gathering dust. Better to put them in the storage closet so they can feature in a horror movie in a decade or two.
These are members at or below 20 endorsements. In SV we don't believe in boundaries and endorsement hierarchies, and these guys need your help, so pull them up and out of the teens and straight into the golden 20s.
And remember, folks, this is all voluntary. Don't feel too put on, or too pressured, by me extensively pressuring you. The infractions for not endorsing, they'll come later. For now, just relax and ignore the black vans outside your door.
Now then, onto the voting business.
---
Sufficient Security: Liberate Nazi Europa
Yup, it's that time again. This one's pretty self-explanatory folks, and even simpler than KAISERREICH. These guys are just straight Nazis. Here's the text:
The Security Council, Acknowledging that Nazi Europa still has an executive Founder; Disgusted by Nazi Europa's open endorsement and promotion of Nazism throughout itself and other regions; Disappointed at the open use of Nazi imagery and attributes throughout the region; Irritated by the region's Nazi military and their interferences, such as in Dank Memes, Femdom Empire, and The Arab League; Intending to warn future fascist and Nazi regions from adopting such an ideology by making Nazi Europa vulnerable; Confident that Nazi Europa can be made vulnerable by this august body through liberating the region; Hereby Liberates Nazi Europa.
Here's the main issue you might have, and it's one that's been raised. A few people who aren't Nazis have been complaining about these liberation proposals. Their arguments are:
1. It doesn't do anything mechanically beyond stripping the password only if the founder is inactive. All these regions have active founders, so until those founders disappear it cannot lift the password.
2. It's a way to condemn someone by avoiding a condemnation. It's against the spirit of liberations, which are meant to free regions from raiders.
3. It gives Nazis and Fascists far more attention than otherwise, for minimal gain.
So that's the problem as it's laid out. It's something for us to debate and think about, because these are reasonable drawbacks to the current spate of liberations at the world assembly. Remember what Liberations do: They strip passwords from founderless regions, allowing anyone to join. But if the founder is there, it's a condemnation with only slightly more teeth.
Should we vote for Liberate Nazi Europa, keeping in mind it's less a question of whether we like Nazis (we absolutely don't), but whether it's a good precedent to set?
[] Let's vote for Liberate NE. Even with the precedent, it sends a strong message of anti-fascism and shows them they're not welcome on the site.
[] Let's vote against Liberate NE. It's a bad precedent and a poor way to fight Nazis. It just gives them attention for little gain.
Sufficient Voting: User Motions
User Motions were used in a little known quest called Magna Graecia, one of mine, a few years ago. Way they work is that they open up the floor for anyone to make a user motion if they can get three supporters. Then the motion gets sent to a general vote. However, the questmaster retained the right of veto, and it's one that I will retain here. Why? Mostly because it's open to abuse, and because as the one organizing these votes I need to make sure what is being suggested is actually feasible. That said, I'm not going to block all the motions. For one thing, they'll drive activity in this thread without me having to write these long posts all the time, which is always nice. Gives me more opportunity to shmooze and get confused with Laurentius Gordonus Maximus III, or some other presumable old Nationstates dignitary (note, that is not a real nation name, I hope not, at least. If it is, my apologies to Laurentius).
The main question is how hard we want user motions to be and to confirm whether we want them all. Vote with your phones. I mean posts. Posts.
Should we have user motions?
[] Yes, make user motions, but they need five supporters to go to vote.
[] Yes, make user motions, but they need three supporters to go to vote.
[] No, we don't need user motions.
An example of a user motion might be something like @logiccosmic proposing to create a ministry of memes, which I will not do myself but will happily support if he does so.
Finally.
Sufficient Voting: Tying a loose End
So, ties. They're the bane of every questmaster, and in voting they're nightmarish. With so few people, we can't really recount until someone's counted out for not having made a capital versus a lower x, or whatever gibberish they use to discount eligible ballots during recounts. Instead, we're going to have to pick some method to solve ties. No, jimmy, we can't vote to break the tie, that's what started it in the first place. I will open this up to write-ins of a sufficiently humorous fashion, but feel free to choose from the options below as well.
[] Flip a coin.
[] Roll a die (publicly, in this thread, using the dice roller).
[] Have @NonSequtur, the baleful sun, decide, as the supreme executive.
[] Have @Cetashwayo, the slimy diplomat, decide. Wait, slimy? I didn't write that.
[] A write-in of your choice. Cannot be dinosaur jousts, as our budget does not account for them.
[X] Let's vote for Liberate NE. Even with the precedent, it sends a strong message of anti-fascism and shows them they're not welcome on the site.
Fuck Nazi's.
[X] Yes, make user motions, but they need three supporters to go to vote.
We can revisit this if it ever forms a problem.
[X] Flip a coin.
I trust chance.
[X] Let's vote against Liberate NE. It's abad precedent and a poor way to fight Nazis. It just gives them attention for little gain.
[X] Yes, make user motions, but they need three supporters to go to vote.
[X] Flip a coin.
Also, the following nations have more than 10 endorsements outstanding.
The United Kingdom of Living in Sin (@Stormwhite) The Queendom of Transagenda (@veteranMortal)
The Constitutional Monarchy of Greater Samothrace (@horngeek) The People's Republic of North Jinshan (@Bob the Great)
The Lankan Confederated States (@Logos)
The Republic of the Republic of George (@jacobplm)
The Empire of the Hesperides (@ByzantineCaesar)
The Commonwealth of Atalar (@Attache)
The Living Will of Pseng (@Ellf)
The Confederation of Central Authority (@Crilltic)
If these nations would endorse those they haven't, our average endorsements would rise by a minimum of three.
[X] Let's vote for Liberate NE. Even with the precedent, it sends a strong message of anti-fascism and shows them they're not welcome on the site.
I second the 'Fuck Nazis' motion.
[X] Yes, make user motions, but they need three supporters to go to vote.
A write-in of your choice. Cannot be dinosaur jousts, as our budget does not account for them.
[X] The Nomination and Representation of the Various Voting Blocs of the Sufficient Union to resolve a Tied Vote of the Citizens of the Sufficient Union, in a manner that allows for the Will of the People to be Followed.
The Tie-breaking procedure of the Sufficient Union is as follows:
A tie in a vote has occurred, between two or more options.
Each member of the two or more voting blocs will nominate a Nominee.
This nomination will be decided by a ranked choice vote, within each voting bloc.
The proposed mechanism, open to revision, is the submission of a form or survey.
Once each voting bloc has a Nominee, a jungle primary will occur if there are more than two voting blocs and two Nominees.
Should this occur, all members of all voting blocs will vote for two choices among the Nominees.
The two Nominees with the most votes will proceed.
The proposed mechanism, open to revision, is the submission of a form or survey.
A Committee to Determine the Rules of This Instance of Tie-breaking will be assembled, or CtDtRoTI for short.
It will consist of the Delegate, Executive, all Nominees who were not advanced past the jungle primary, and enough Ministers to make the CtDtRoTI have an odd number of members.
Ministers will be selected from among themselves using a ranked choice vote.
The CtDtRoTI will choose the method by which the Tie-breaking Contest to Solve This Particular Vote, or TCtSTPV, will be handled, and the win condition.
Non-inclusively, the list for methods can include games, drawing contests, shitposts, etc.
The only rules are that both Nominees must have access to the methods, i.e., both Nominees must have the same game if they are to participate.
The CtDtRoTI will set a date and time for the TCtSTPV, along with agreements and acknowledgements from the Nominees.
The TCtSTPV will occur on the date, with the CtDtRoTI spectating and refereeing to the best of their ability, and as agreed upon during their earlier deliberations.
The Nominee who first reaches the win condition is then designated as an Elector.
The Elector is given the full spread of vote options, and allowed to vote.
The vote is counted.
Should the Elector abstain, or otherwise be unreachable, a coin flip is held between the second and third place Nominees, and the winner is made an Elector. If there was no primary, the losing Nominee is made an Elector.
IMO ties should be handled like in international organizations, i.e. it means the proposal isn't approved since it failed to achieve a majority. Indeed I'd advocate for a two thirds majority for a proposal to pass.
IMO ties should be handled like in international organizations, i.e. it means the proposal isn't approved since it failed to achieve a majority. Indeed I'd advocate for a two thirds majority for a proposal to pass.
[X] Let's vote for Liberate NE. Even with the precedent, it sends a strong message of anti-fascism and shows them they're not welcome on the site.
Even if it's toothless right now, if it's already in place, there can be immediate action, if the founder should ever disappear.
[X] Yes, make user motions, but they need three supporters to go to vote.
Getting three people to agree with your motion means that it'll either be important or silly enough to merit a vote.
[X] In case of a tie the vowels in the names of each voting nation shall be counted and the side which has more vowels in their names shall be the victor. In case of a tie in vowel, the number of consonants shall determine the victor. In case of a tie in consonants the Suffiont Union member with the highest corruption shall decide.
[X] Let's vote for Liberate NE. Even with the precedent, it sends a strong message of anti-fascism and shows them they're not welcome on the site.
[X] Yes, make user motions, but they need three supporters to go to vote.
[X] The formation of the Traveling Seat of Decisions or TSD.
A simple position with a simple purpose for whoever is within the seat at the time of a tie vote determines any of the listed options as the winner of the tie or if the tie vote should be dropped and ignored. After the seat has made use of their powers they must select an individual that was not on the side of the vote that they sided with to take their seat. The new TSD member can not be an individual that was one of the last 10 TSD members.
[x] Let's vote for Liberate NE. Even with the precedent, it sends a strong message of anti-fascism and shows them they're not welcome on the site.
The precedent for this sort of weaponized Liberation is the current KAISERREICH vote. Too late to change tack now.
[x] Yes, make user motions, but they need three supporters to go to vote.
Three supporters is about 10% of our current number of nations, and 10% is the target I'd say we should go for for user motions.
[x] Have @NonSequtur, the baleful sun, decide, as the supreme executive.
While I trust Cetashwayo's ability to perch like a stone carving of satan the deceiver and whisper words of joy and wonder into the ears of the other nations on the boards, I think we should decentralize power, at least until the canadians use fusion dance and amalgamate into a greater whole.
[X] Let's vote for Liberate NE. Even with the precedent, it sends a strong message of anti-fascism and shows them they're not welcome on the site.
[X] Yes, make user motions, but they need five supporters to go to vote.
[X] Have @NonSequtur, the baleful sun, decide, as the supreme executive.
[X] Let's vote for Liberate NE. Even with the precedent, it sends a strong message of anti-fascism and shows them they're not welcome on the site.
[X] Yes, make user motions, but they need three supporters to go to vote.
[X] Have @NonSequtur, the baleful sun, decide, as the supreme executive.
