The Rejected Times: Issue LVI

Index

"Growth on the Table: Thalassia Since the Move" | OPINION PIECE | WRITTEN BY INTERN Toerana
"The East Pacific’s Recent Delegacy Election" | NEWS | WRITTEN BY MEDIA OFFICER Bormiar
"Somyrion Wins the Delegate Elections in the South Pacific" | NEWS | WRITTEN BY INTERN Agalaesia
"Constipation in the Security Council" | NEWS | WRITTEN BY MEDIA OFFICER Bormiar
"Brief Interview on Reddit Boom with Contemporary Home Affairs Minister Konar and his Deputy Bobberino" | INTERVIEW | INTERVIEWED BY INTERN A Leaf on the Wind

"Growth on the Table: Thalassia Since the Move"
OPINION PIECE | WRITTEN BY INTERN Toerana

The Thalassian community, formerly located in Pacifica, has historically had a plethora of issues, at least until the community transitioned to Thalassia earlier this year. Since then, the Thalassian community has been able to flourish, having only a few incidents within the region from the move, a sharp change from their time in Pacifica. But, is it all good times ahead?

The regional population has slowly been in decline, having fallen from their 307 nation high in December down to as low as 231, before climbing back up and sustaining around 265 residents. This is a far cry from the numbers seen in Pacifica, with Pacifica’s population peaking at nearly 700 nations, around May of 2019, seeing around 340 just before the community’s move.

The January Elections

Thalassia is a democratic region, a key belief enshrined in its constitution. In the January Prime Minister Elections, there was one key concern on the minds of the voters: Recruitment. Four Candidates chose to run in the election:

• Arenado

• Wiskawga

• Toerana

• Ashurg
  

However, despite the issue of Recruitment being at the forefront of the election, and in the minds of many of the voters, only Arenado proposed a solution to the dilemma that was a point of concern for many Thalassian voters, and the basis of this article.

NSToday, having an unconventional partnership with the Thalassian government to preside over the election, interviewed the three “primary” candidates of Arenado (the favourite to win) Wiskawga and Toerana. The public could submit questions, and were polled on how they wished to vote. To summarise the polls, Arenado took the lead with 54% of the expected vote, followed by Wiskawga at 27% of the vote, and Toerana with 18% of the expected vote. You can see the full NSToday breakdown here. The polls were almost exactly correct, just slightly differing from the actual result.

Turbulence Ahead

On the 25th January, a sudden resignation was announced by President Rockiberg, citing a “very unpleasant scuttle” with the region’s founder, and incumbent Minister of Administrative Affairs. The role of President is of extreme importance to Thalassia, as it primarily includes Security, managing referendums and controlling the region's World Assembly Delegacy. Following this event, allegations of bullying against the former President came to light as the Vice President, Czech Germania, took up the helm as interim President, until an election was scheduled by the Prime Minister. Upon questioning, Liruslau, former MoC and current VP said he “didn’t know or experience any of what he is alleged to have been doing” during their term as Minister of Culture. We were unable to contact Rockiberg, as he has vanished from all NationStates related discord servers, and is incommunicado.

Another sign of potential troubles ahead occured on the 9th of February, when 7 members of the active roleplay community in Thalassia were banned for an indefinite amount of time, while being subject to appeal on the 9th of March. However, potentially worrying for the region, a number of those banned have formed a new region post their bannings, with one banned roleplayer stating on the RMB, “I'm kicking back and watching Thalassia kill itself by banning everyone that RP'ed”. Long term members of the community may see reminiscence with the incident that spurred the creation of “The Levellers,” a region with a poor reputation. Only time will tell what occurs in “Tidewater.” Other active members of the community that were banned have said that they believe rules should be loosened in relation to offsite property, given the nature of the discord. With former Minister of Security and one of the banned players Wiskawga saying, “I think it should be amended to say that the creation of any offsite platform not authorized by the Constitution is illegal. And regarding promotion, yes, I think it'd be great to have a set definition.” When asked if they had been contacted by the Thalassian government prior to the ban, Yaldian Territories stated, “sort of, arenado [The Prime Minister] asked me questions about the server but he told me not to tell anybody about them. I was not told to take it down however. He did say that it is illegal by the constitution.”

A Bright light at the end of the tunnel

Despite the hiccups that have occured over the past month in Thalassia, the future for the region looks bright with Minister of Culture Czech Germania stating, “a revamp of our stats system and our rewards system,” programs designed to reward the active roleplaying community of Thalassia, despite the recent bannings.

We asked some long term members and government officials where they think Thalassia will go next, with former Prime Minister Badivermeraed stating, “I think it will be focusing on recruitment, as well as continuing foriegn outreach and setting a standard for the government.” While founder Sho said when asked about what she believes will be Thalassia’s greatest challenge in the future, “Honestly? I think our greatest challenge will be trying to find a cohesive identity. I’m proud of how open minded our region is in terms of personal (ooc)/national (ic) identity, but I do think it occasionally puts people at a loss for what our collective goals should be. I’m hoping that the coming administrations will really work on giving our citizens the voice to shape our region into the home that we desire.”

Despite the banning of a large number of the roleplay community, plunging the Regional Message Board into silence, the Prime Minister has unveiled a new roleplay program to stimulate activity, and it has largely worked, with the RMB seeing renewed activity, despite it not being roleplay related. The roleplay community may have been shattered, but the region has come out of it’s turbulent hiccup stronger, and ready to face the challenges that lay ahead.

"The East Pacific's Recent Delegacy Election"
NEWS | WRITTEN BY MEDIA OFFICER Bormiar

The East Pacific has been in a rather tumultuous position recently. After Fedele attempted to coup the region, it was forced to revive itself and amend its security. On top of the new Concordat, developments under Marrabuk’s delegacy, especially those passed by Todd McCloud, have deliberately decentralized power on the delegate. As a result these changes, a Regional Officer (other than a vizier, the regional security position with influence and endorsements) must be confirmed by the magisterium (the private legislature of the East Pacific) in order to avoid an event like in Fedele’s delegacy, where he had full reign over Border Control positions. Additionally, endorsement caps are now determined by viziers instead of the delegate. These recent fixes to the East Pacific were fresh in the minds of voters, so naturally they would be a major section of delegacy campaigns. Marrabuk stressed this in his campaign, claiming that he helped increase viziers from 3 to 8 (adding ). Even if they are picked poorly, the additional viziers dilutes the power of one rogue vizier or delegate. The concept is similar to the North Pacific’s clever anti-endocap policy, which prevents a rogue delegate from banning all the high-endorsement natives. He also mentioned fixing the judicial system by filling in the arbiter positions (the justice equivalent), rebooting the East Pacific News Service, reviving the East Pacific’s military, and working to establish treaties with Balder and Osiris. He promises to continue to do this work.

However, he is met with some opposition. A Mean Old Man, a controversial figure who, despite being a respected ex-delegate (who created their military) of the East Pacific, is often reminded of their crimes in attempting to coup Lazarus and Osiris. In a premeditated response to this in his dramatic and somewhat unsubstantial roleplayed campaign post, he redirects blame, which partially just fits his roleplay. He finally made a post about policies when asked, where he promised to stomp in the World Assembly and host authorship conferences, particularly to repeal lacking proposals; he offers to take up a stronger suppressive presence which grants ROs more freedom to suppress. But what is most notable is his interesting Foreign Affairs take. A Mean Old Man makes comments in his campaign such as “UCRs recruiting endlessly from the GCRs while the latter is expected to have no reaction to this. Capitulation of this sort has never come easy to me” and “My paranoia towards raider and defender orgs and their possible ulterior motives in the GCRs has not subsided”, which is analogous to the ancient, now-gone and disavowed Francoist principles of previous incarnations of the New Pacific Order (of which AMOM has been a senator) that the UCRs were exploiting and infiltrating the GCRs, inspired by powerful contemporary UCR-based R/D organizations like the Alliance Defense Network and the Atlantic Alliance. As for official foreign policy, AMOM proposes that TEP reaches out to small, nascent regions and “spread [their] influence far and wide”.

In the end, the East Pacific overwhelmingly re-elected Marrabuk as their delegate. Marrabuk won by 78.8% majority, and after doing so he changed the cabinet by amalgamating the Ministry of Manpower and Ministry of Immigration, as well as unifying the Ministry of RMB Affairs and Ministry of Culture.

"Somyrion Wins the Delegate Elections in the South Pacific"
NEWS | WRITTEN BY INTERN Agalaesia
Somyrion has won the delegate elections in the South Pacific, following a two step electoral process.

Round One:

The first round of the South Pacific’s (TSP's) Delegate elections uses a system of approval voting. Candidates ranged from a wide variety of backgrounds, including Concrete Slab, a member of the Local Council (the Gameside administration body of TSP); Islands of Unity; Agalaesia, the region’s former Minister of Regional Affairs and Beepee, also a Local Councillor.

The campaigns made a broad range of pledges. Concrete Slab’s campaign promised to “Put the WA back in the WA delegate,” and called on his experience to highlight his ability to make the World Assembly more prominent in The South Pacific. Island of Unity’s campaign discussed his time within TSP. Island also promised to assist with integration; establish a legion of honour and to commission a formal TSP anthem. Agalaesia pledged to increase the endorsement count; while “Making the WA more Inclusive,” by creating focus groups to improve engagement with the World Assembly in the South Pacific, however, Agalaesia later dropped out of the race, citing his position as Minister of Regional Affairs and real life issues as reasons for dropping out of the race.

Eventually, Somyrion and Beepee progressed onto the next round of voting, with 29 and 25 approvals respectively, and Islands of Unity and Concrete Slab had 18 and 17 approvals respectively.

Round Two:

The second round of voting consists of a gameside poll.

Again, the campaigns from the two candidates who progressed were wide ranging. While Somyrion’s campaign (titled “Well, I’ve learned some things”) mainly reflected on his achievements and fallbacks during his previous term as delegate, and made promises based on those reflections (which included working more collaboratively with the Local Council; running World Assembly Endorsement Days which were successful during his previous term and bolstering World Assembly engagement), Beepee simply made a list pledges including (“I'll endotart my little heart out. I'm doing pretty good at it... check my links…” and “I'll be the big friendly welcome mat that everyone can use”), along with a small list of his experience and some other small facts about himself.

Somyrion won the elections with 90 votes to Beepee’s 68, re-electing him as the delegate of the South Pacific.

"Constipation in the Security Council"
NEWS | WRITTEN BY MEDIA OFFICER Bormiar

The Security Council has recently been hit with a massive slew of new and intriguing proposals to evaluate- this article simply summarizes that. These proposals have ranged from extremely heated debates to voting periods entirely devoid of comment. The chunk of resolutions began with Marxist Germany’s Commend Benevolent Thomas, which recognized a prominent region-builder and famous defender. Many voters considered the proposal to be long-overdue, despite the unfortunate failing of a previous attempt at commending Benevolent Thomas. Whether there was any disapproval for “Commend Benevolent Thomas”, not a single comment was made on the NS forum thread in the entirety of the voting period.

Roleplay proposals are not common in the Security Council, and “Condemn Norrlands” by Ultior, a roleplay-based resolution, was not added to the books. The proposal cites that Norrlands has nuked many nations, but the crushing defeat was largely because voters felt that Norrlands was godmodding in its roleplay.
In sharp contrast to the previous two proposals, the Security Council was shaken by “Commend Crushing Our Enemies” by Jakker City, nominating a prominent TNPer and member of TBH, who has been retired from raiding for years. Clauses 3-5 clauses recall COE’s work in the Black Hawks, which consist of taking up leadership positions, the OOC leadership COE provided in re-directing raiders after Predator, and their induction into the raiding hall of fame. This sparked a heated debate extending as far as mass telegrams, where McMasterdonia (for) and Kuriko (against) had a back-and-forth mass tg session. The proposal’s defenders interpreted the proposal as not commending COE for raiding, rather for exemplary leadership. A strong summary of the argument can be found coming from, oddly, Crushing Our Enemies themselves (link). They fiercely support their work in pragmatically revamping the ranks system, which had not been discussed greatly before. However, some gameplayers argued that COE’s leadership in The Black Hawks helped them raid regions, and thus commending it commended raiding. Likely because of this reason, the proposal struggled to garner support. During the approval stage, it was failing to reach quorum until the Black Hawks used its WAs to create delegacies and approve the proposal. Upon going to vote, it appeared to be passing by a decent cushion, but, after a long period of tied voting, the votes eventually turned to against, and remained such until the end of the voting period. While many high-endorsement delegates voted for the proposal, super-delegates still were no match for individual WAs.

The Security Council had a brief break following this, as two straightforward resolutions hit the voting floor, both of which passed easily. The first, condemn Gatesville Inc by Bormiar, admonished the successor region of Gatesville for its work in coups and denunciation of the World Assembly. The subsequent resolution, “Condemn Tinfect” by Morover, had trouble reaching quorum, but after a last-minute campaign telegram, enough approvals were obtained. It is a roleplay resolution centered on the despotic and genocidal actions of Tinfect in its interstellar roleplay, as well as their non-compliance with many GA resolutions.

Currently in the Security Council, we have a series of liberations designed to suppress fascist ideology and a raider organization run by blacklisted players. One of these liberations, “liberate Pars” by Kuriko, was a passing resolution to free a region raided by the intentionally unnamed organization, but many delegates switched their vote when he raiders fled the region, and it failed. Another, “Liberate the Union of the Axis Powers” by Praeceps, is an offensive liberation of a small fascist region in order to destroy fascist presence in NS. Nearing quorum is a liberation of a region invaded by the military entitled “Liberate the Unicorns of the World”. Several similar resolutions are currently being drafted on the forums, but are derided mainly for giving attention to the fascists. As for standard resolutions, “Commend Arconian Empire” by THX1138 is nearing quorum as a commendation for a dedicated defender.

One other controversy is “Liberate the East Pacific” by Marrabuk, the East Pacific’s delegate. It is an homage to a previous Liberate the East Pacific, also a joke, and was making fun of the East Pacific’s recent welcoming of A Mean Old Man. Many SC regulars got upset at the East Pacific’s government for the “badge hunt”, but they brushed it off. Despite a major stomp early on supporting the proposal from The East Pacific and The West Pacific, the proposal failed.

The Security Council has been invigorated by what appears to be controversy. It serves as yet another example of how fascism and raiding can be trusty ways of grabbing attention, and how standard the Security Council’s response can be Nevertheless, the debate and activity in the Security Council is fun and will hopefully continue.

Correction: Liberate Unicorns of the World was reaching quorum, before it got withdrawn for becoming unnecessary. Commend Arconian Empire Failed.

"Brief Interview on Reddit Boom with Contemporary Home Affairs Minister Konar and his Deputy Bobberino"
INTERVIEW | INTERVIEWED BY INTERN A Leaf on the Wind

NationStates recently experienced a boom in population due to a Reddit post. Being in TRR, we don't get to always see the full impact of these booms. We get the Rejected nations, sure; mostly inappropriate names that quickly get deleted. People that can't behave are ejected to us. I wanted to get the perspective of a Feeder, so I reached out to Konar (Bluie) and Bobberino, from TNP, Bluie being the Home Affairs (HA; outreach equivalent) minister at the time of the boom, and Bob his deputy.

(These opinions do not represent TNP, just the individual giving them.)

Bluie: TNP may have gotten a lot of new nations made in it, but not a lot have stayed or became more active. As far as I can tell, there has been no influx in the rate of people joining the forums or the discord server. We tried to send out telegrams via HA, but not much success. These influxes are always a net good, bringing new players into the game. The bad stuff though are some toxic or immature people also join, but with due diligence, these people are often outed and cast out”

Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, we did not get to continue this discussion. I then asked Bob, the deputy, several questions for his input.

Sarah: Roughly how many nations do you think TNP took in during the Reddit influx?

Bob: Give or take.... 5000.

Sarah: How many do think stayed?

Bob: 2000 or so - based on the 8000 to 10000 rough increase.

Sarah: Did you guys do anything extra or different to try to engage?

Bob: We specifically released “New Foundings for the Forum” lists, which send telegrams from Home Affairs staffers to new nations that have founded w/in the set period. These essentially recruit new nations to the forums and push them to register, apply for residency/citizenship and to get involved.

Sarah: What is something good and something bad about this random influxes?

Bob: Something good? New nations, new voices, new citizens and new community members. Something bad? TNP has a target on our backs for being too big. This gets bigger.

Discuss this Issue over on the NationStates forum here.

Find The Rejected Times Index here.

The Times gives our thanks for the ongoing support from our Subscribers:
Glacikaldr, Unibot III, Fauxia, Marilyn manson freaks, NOrTh pAcIfiC spY, Libetarian Republics, Morover, Outboundstagnate, Trabardia, North prarie, Dixadoing, All Wild Things, Asdersland, Windchia, Renegalle, Big structural bailey, Green Africa, Hydra Dragon, Jar Watinnree, Ctesiphonis, Zip, Hindu mahasabha, Bormiar, Crazybloxian empire, Abbots, Democratic Republic Of Unified States, Sensorland, Frattastan iv, Meggland, Babme merrourativa, Free city of rigia, Carstantinopipal, Doge Land, The logictalian union