[Cong] November Report & Participation Stats
Speaker of the House
Order! Ooooorderrrr!
Welcome to the concluding Speaker’s Report for November 2023. This will cover the activity since the previous report with summaries of activity levels and Congress guidelines.
Health of the House
The Composition of Congress at the end of term is 13 TRS, 8 TUP, 8 UKRP, 4 BEP, 5 WRP and one independent (39 in total). During the term, Mr Immanuel Kant and Georgelakeland changed parties, which is why in the activity tables below you may see the percentage associated with numbers participating change across the proposals.
Sadly there have been focussed attempts to disrupt Congress over the back half of the term but this does not appear to have had a big impact on engagement, albeit it has restricted the range of topics discussed since the previous report. Options on Northern Ireland and the Government’s breakdowns of Ministry activities appear to have fallen by the wayside in the face of Keith’s ping-ponging of tax proposals and Humphrey’s affinity for speaker elections. This has however catalysed some common-sense additions to the Congress Guidelines (summarised below) which should help steer Congress time towards proposals with a (low) baseline of support rather than proposals with no backing.
I am hopeful that the opening of a new term will focus minds and that the Government will re-engage with the whole house rather than cherry picked members in order to discuss the issues of the day. Basic principles of participation and accountability should not be discarded for the sake of a very small number of people whose disruption does not spread far beyond the Congress messaging thread. Having received messages from across the political spectrum I know the overwhelming majority of members want to be involved and want to discuss issues together.
Since the previous report there have been a further two non-admin votes:
A speaker election (Sir Humphrey or Re-Open Nominations)
12 RON, 6 SHA.
A proposal to require a 7 day gap between Speaker elections
12 Yes, 1 No.
Engagement Levels
The below tables summarise the level of engagement of each Congressional group. Every single time a debate or vote thread has been started in the national feed, where everyone can see them, a corresponding message has been entered into the Congress messaging thread. The messages are accompanied by a colourful banner to help members spot them (click here to see an example).
For the purpose of the below tables, participating in either the debate or the vote has been recorded as taking part.
Engagement
The below shows the participation rates by Party status.
First half of the votes.
Second half of the votes.
The average participation across the term was:
TRS - 90.4%
TUP - 35.0%
UKRP - 31.1%
WRP - 28.0%
BEP - 20.0%
Ind. - 50.0%
All - 51.3%
Vote Distribution
The below shows the vote distribution by Party status.
Guidelines & Final Thoughts
My general view on what guidelines Congress applies to itself is that they should be as succinct as possible, and reflect the need to bring people together to make decisions around how to use their buttons. A record of the guidelines and accompanying flow chart can be found on the Wiki.
For ease of access I shall repeat them here!
“Citizenship requests should only be approved following a 48 hour joint discussion and vote in favour. This begins after a report on the applicant is provided to congress or when there's only 48 hours left on the expiry of the application. The report will include anything found from basic checks of the applying profile and a statement from the applicant about reason for applying and if they have eUK contacts/sponsors.
If a debate requests a vote that cannot be done via the Country Admin module then:
- Two Congress sponsors in addition to the proposer are needed within the debating period to move it to a vote.
- That vote should not begin within the first 24hrs of the debate and will last 2 or 3 days (depending on size of debate).
- The voting period will be communicated at the onset of a vote.
The duties of the speaker should be undertaken impartially. Additionally, a Congressperson's status as speaker shouldnt be used to promote parties. Speaker elections can be held when a proposer has the required number of sponsors outlined above. A nomination period for speakers cannot open until at least 7 days have passed since the conclusion of the previous speaker election (RON is not considered a conclusion). Please respect the outcome of votes.
President's votes are not counted except for in the in-game proposals they are able to participate in.”
Every line of the Guidance has been conceived of by Congress, debated, and passed by a vote. Part of the challenge this month has been that there have been proposals made in bad faith (not my words, we have had things proposed out of self-proclaimed malice) and some trolling. The guidelines rightfully minimise speaker discretion and in principle give people the chance for a fair hearing, but have been added to this month just to apply some basic filters on what is brought forward. As much as I think this is preferable to speaker’s just deciding what moves forward, no set of guidelines will ever be impervious to disruption or trolling and it can only be managed effectively via managing the messaging thread.
My suggestion to the next Congress would be to explore ways to try and regulate people's behaviour in messaging threads, or agree on a way to conduct business without messaging, such as in feeds. The vast majority of feedback I get is that it’s hard to follow tens of dozens of posts from three or four people which are sometimes off topic, name calling, or endless rules-lawyering.
That is not unfair feedback, and for some quick context of the 500 messages currently in the thread over half come from just four people. Some have commented almost 100 times outside of debate contexts. That is why I have tried clearly signposting debate and vote events, which has helped mediate that. There is sadly no button to eject disruptive personalities from messaging threads so some thinking around how to approach that going forward would definitely help make Congress a place that is easy to engage with and a place that actually drives real change in game. The National Feed is definitely still proving a much better place to hold a sensible discussion with more members then the message is!
I am unable to run for December’s Congress so I will be checking out for a few weeks, but hopefully the good work of Congress can continue unabated.
Thanks for reading,
Mr Woldy
Comments
This has the potential to be one of those articles.
Very sensible
wow the stats are amazing
That's his only job.
Good to see that whilst TRS congress members engage in the day to day debate, TUP members just turn up and vote for whatever Keith wants.
Absolutely not true, Charles. At least, not me.
What a joke from a member of the TRSheep party who always toe the party line.. also when you were in TUP how many times did I tell you how to vote?
For the record, Charles, I have been a member of TUP for over 2 years (since my return to eRep) and have not had even one occasion where my vote on anything was "ordered" by Keith. It's always a free vote, whatever the issue.
why lie ? you know yourself keith never tells anyone how to vote
I didn’t say he told you all how to vote. I said you all vote for whatever he wants
my mistake
This meta-Congress is dead as TRSheep failed to respect it and do their own thing.
The members of the democratic parties seen to have effectively if not actually boycotted it.
No one cares or respects what it decides as we have been told many times by TRSheep party members .. it is meta and in game they can do stuff whatever the consequences.
You've made your feelings clear about that, but no one is sure why you feel that way. Hopefully you can discuss it more civilly in the coming weeks
I condemn meaningless partisanship conflicts. I don't like when my party comrades accuse you and TUP party without solid arguments and evidence. And I don't like when you accuse TRS party as "undemocratic' and dream about some kind of TRS-conspiracy. I think the meta-Congress failed because of this meaningless party conflicts and you're one of the guilty ones for this
You started it you invaded Poland! Ever since the TRS was set up it accused all the other parties of being anti UK and that we were the elite that needed kicking out .. So this party was set up as divisive in the first place. Also trolling everyone else and dog piling etc., importing trolls (who then ended up being bullied out of the game).. oh and getting old hacks to pretend to be new, if you know what I mean 🙂
I don't think the terms anti UK have been used by anyone but yourself. TRS focuses on activity and community - the myth of dogpiling and importing votes has just been perpetuated by those who haven't liked our ethos because it challenges how they want to play the game. The irony ofc being I think anyone should play the game how they please.
The norther Ireland shambles and your TRS import tax (a vote which it seems hardly anyone was aware of. You also failed to declare an interest
Honestly, this is boring at this point. If you care so much about NI and the import tax do something about it. You are part of a coalition of partys that control Congress and government, yet you're still out here moaning about TRSheeple traitors like they are pulling all the strings. It's like the Torys blaming everything on Labour.
The government could have easily just invited another country to occupy NI and nothing would have changed. Or wingfield could have used the NI situation in a positive way, but instead, he decided to call a large portion of the UK traitors and disappear from public view.
The only shambles here is yours and the government's response.
Your party ignored congress were proud of it and acted without any regard for the consequences. You are like the bankers blaming the nurses for the 2008 crash... utterly shameful and you wonder why no other party wants to work with you!
You really need to differentiate between 'people in a party' and 'the party'. For example, I don't think everyone in TUP holds your point of view, possibly anyone.
Regardless, what are you going to do about it? Everything you claim is utterly shameful can be reversed by your coalition. Get on it.
How many more times do you have to be told that starting RW's is not, and never has been, the purview of Congress. Which even members of the Government have since confirmed.
The import tax was discussed. There was a post about it on the feed. If people were not aware of it, it was because the messages were buried by your constant complaining and insulting that was going on at the time.
And declare an interest? The majority of people selling houses in the eUK market are non-TRS members. None of you "declared your interest" either. Probably because that's never been a requirement.
This is exactly why TRSheep are held in contempt they justify a reckless and major change in foreign policy as nothing to do with congress even though it was decided by congress ages ago. Well import taxes and citizenship are also then not decided by congress in that case and I will be happy to ignore it just like TRS did! Looks like most congress members did not know about the tax vote as you can see in your biased speaker's report (who is one of the few that benefit from this)
TUPeepee
RW's are not in Congress purview. Government could have ordered people to lose the battle, therefore maintaining their policy.
From what I can see, there are more TUP members who would benefit from the import tax change.
Again, it was discussed. The feed was there. It was raised in the thread. Congress members had every chance to discuss it - 3 chances thanks to you. Their decision not to.
Also Citizenships require a Congress member to approve. So yes, they are within Congress' purview. As are taxes, which require Congress to vote in-game.
So you ignore congress whenever you like? The RW affected a policy approved by congress. If you are not going to respect congress on TW then why should anyone take any notice on citizenship or taxes I certainly will not. Take a leaf out of the TRSheep book and only bother with congress when it souts
TUPeepee
Because RW's are not in the purview of Congress. Citizenships and taxes are.
It's not a difficult concept to get. Plato gives every citizen the right to start a RW. It has nothing to do with Congress.
Also there was no policy that was approved by Congress regarding NI in the first place. The entire reason people decided to do it was because no discussion was happening.
Less than 20% of TRS members were involved. Not TRS as a whole. That's also not a difficult concept to get, although you constantly struggle with it.
Do you ever get tired of being so negative?
Do you? You are even proud of it!
The only thing I’m proud of is liberating Northern Ireland
You need to bring more positivity into your life Keith it’s not healthy
Again TRSheep proud of putting the eUK in jeopardy and ignoring congress. Well it looks like most of the democratic party members are ignoring your congress with your TRS block vote. Franky you are one of the most negative nasty people on here and you know why!!
“In jeopardy”?
What jeopardy. Literally nothings changed
I’m gonna end the conversation here Keith. You’re delusional. All this shows is calm and collected responses and nasty replies from you
Jeopardy? Lmao. It took one conversation for the Government to "fix" it. Could've always just said "some rogue elements did it, we'll set our orders for eUK to lose".
Now folk can see why I have blocked this troll 🙂
Keith I don't see anyone TRS attacking you first tho, you are a salty old man.
This ain't gonna fly if I get in congress, respect is earned.
I have had plenty of attacks from them, some TRS folk are noy very nice.
i see the participation in all votes was about half and under. In some parties it was very low or non.
I left the message thread because all this was too much and very boring and very uninteresting.
I hope that in the new term I get to be in the new message thread and I hope to last more days in receiving the many messages written in it.
The figures show the trends and how boring this procedure is. The figures also show that people use there time in the game for other things and do not want to spend it arguing about issues that only cause stress and DONATION VOTES that HAVE THE PURPOSE of dividing the congress members and causing stur ups in the parties.
The easy solution to this is just to abolish the congress message thread and do all discussion on the national feed where people can actually see it
And perhaps people would be more inclined to behave better if their words are on show for all
great article, look forward to you or Addaway being back as Speaker in jan
I do agree with the statistics to a certain point but.. shouldn't the Spearker be impartial all the time ? When you are showing percentage of votes/debates/etc. it's like you are comparing different parties that are part of the House(Congress); this only creates tension in between the politcal parties.
From a reader's view I see "TRS are voting, the rest don't"
Let's see the difference between the below sentences:
1) 90% WRP members voted YES to accept GEORGE as their Speaker
2) 10% of Congress voted YES to accept GEORGE as their Speaker
Understandable, TRS has the majority and cannot be denied - but it should say what Congress decided, not what a certain party voted from a total of debate participants, vote participants and ..oh well, cannot be asked to write 'participants' one more time.
Also, this paragraph below points out the same thing again and again and again, THERE SHOULD BE NO such thing as Speaker in eRepublik:
"Sadly there have been focussed attempts to disrupt Congress over the back half of the term but this does not appear to have had a big impact on engagement, albeit it has restricted the range of topics discussed since the previous report. Options on Northern Ireland and the Government’s breakdowns of Ministry activities appear to have fallen by the wayside in the face of Keith’s ping-ponging of tax proposals and Humphrey’s affinity for speaker elections. "
Anyway,
o7
I get where you’re coming from, so you share the same criticism of Keith’s Congress round up which lists the party performance also?
I imagine woldy followed a similar format to Keith’s recording of the in game votes
Keith's list and statistics are his personal information he recorded across the whole month; once you present 'official' records from 'Speaker of the House' you should take the responsability that comes with.
They’re both reporting information that should be public access given votes are held in the national feed. The in game cotes are recorded in game also.
The language of some of the other stuff could be more neutral, but the base reporting of the facts are simply facts on who voted. If people don’t like how their party looks, then do something to change it?
It only seems negative because the other parties contribution is low
(Stupid game - wrote a reply and it refreshed the page!)
It's still impartial as he's only presenting the pure facts, and alot of this is already public information anyway as votes are mostly done on the eUK feed.
It's a good point though.
Also the percentages are based on total party members, not participants or Congressman. So it would actually be more like the 90% in your example.
So an apolitical representative is actually keeping a record of how the House representatives are voting/debating .. but at the same time he is being part of a party that has the majority votes in Congress.
The votes are public... the record is out there on the eUK feed, he's just compiling the information.