Congressional Discussions from today
Day 5,688, 17:56
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Published in United Kingdom 
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by
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by Artela
We are very lucky here in the eUK - our congress delegates bring items to the public country feed to garner feedback for things they are considering. Unfortunately, the speaker of the house feels that ordinary citizens should not give feedback via comments in those threads in the public country feed, so when such discussions are added I will try to give my thoughts here in my newpaper instead. Here are the ones I picked up on today
🙂
Citizenship Applications:
Congressman Mr. Woldy asks "Tweaks to CZ guidelines. Please discuss the eUKs approach to citizenship. Points raised are: different approaches based on whether people are previous cits. Min-thresholds rather than majority votes, and whether people can ‘pre-apply’ before their ingame application."
My thoughts:
If someone has been a previous citizen in good standing at the time they left, then that should weight things in their favour if they wish to return. Really the only thing that should preclude an application being approved is knowledge that the applicant is going to be anti-UK when they get accepted (no terrorists allowed), after all that's what vetting is to prevent?
Pre-applications make sense to speed up the process in immigration on arrival - I was most grateful for that myself. In addition, it means someone comes to this country knowing that they are welcome, that they won't get turned down for citizenship after waiting days for a discussion and a result, and that if rejected they won't be tied up without being able to apply elsewhere for another week. When someone is anxious to leave and move somewhere else these things matter to them. We should be welcoming of players in good standing and make their transition into this society as stressfree as possible.
Congress guidelines/rules storage:
Congressman Mr. Woldy asks "CC has suggested using the erep wiki to hold congress guidelines/rules so members can clarify their understanding of them. Please discuss this or any other such places they may be recorded in addition to the congress message where they are pasted and approved monthly."
My thoughts:
Although the wiki seems a logical place to store stuff, we need to be mindful that any wiki editor can amend a wiki entry. So yes, it is a good easy place to put the information to direct people to, and everyone in the game can get to it (as it should be available to the citizens to view as well so that they can apply to enter congress knowing what is expected of them), but I would suggest using the discord forums to also store these items, a forum just for storage of the official records which is under control of the country discord admin and the speaker of the house, thus limiting access to the true and fair record (which can then be used to restore the wiki if needed).
Speaker of the House:
Congressman Man Friday asks "Please discuss adding to the cong-guidelines a line about what triggers a speaker election and any expectations of that role, presently one is triggered whenever anyone calls one. It has been suggested that in addition to this one could be held at the start of term."
My thoughts:
A long time ago we used to have a speaker election when the new congressional session started. This is how most countries handle this. So I suggest we go to a congress election triggering a speakership election - that way the trigger for the election is totally non-partisan and fair. There should also be the ability to call mid-session to replace the speaker if needed, but with a super-majority (66percent) vote to pass it. And yes, there should be speaker guidelines that state what a speaker is responsible for and how business is conducted.
That's everything I've caught today. Some interesting topics there being discussed by our congress, and I hope they will take my comments in the manner in which they are intended - as helpful suggestions to feed into their discussions back in the House. Thank you congress for your transparency!
Artela
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There is no God but Dio Brando and Falcon is his Prophet!
In Boblo we trust
Ora ora ora ora ora ora ora!
I’d definitely say it’s not in the speakers remit to ask you not to comment on the public feed. That was the point of us bringing discussions to the public feed, so that non congressmen can see and have their input heard.
I would have asked if I was the speaker or just a member, I like this approach a lot more, posting an article about what you observed and your input on it instead of direct commenting with more opportunity to distract from the topic
Amazing article hope to see more
So far it seems you are a lone congressman in that regard. I look forward to returning to using the in game feeds for my contributions after the current discussion overrules you 🙂
in goat we trust ...
don't forget Goat save the Queen..
Fair reflection of congress events.
V + c
Great article - it is great to see some serious debate!
I am not supportive of ‘pre-applications’ for citizenship; if we go down this particular rabbit hole it opens up a whole load of complication - where the rule set for determining what can be considered a valid trigger becomes complex.
I do not see any problem with there being one simple way for incomers to trigger the citizenship application process - and the application (with time stamp) is visible for all to see.
Ref keeping a record of Government rules, decisions and history. The issue that I have with using Discord as a repository for records is that it requires a Discord account to access/edit the content. This is a complication that many will not be willing to go move to.
Using the eRepublik Wiki as a repository for eRepublik related material has the obvious advantage that it is easily accessible to ALL players without the need to set up an external account. Whilst it *is* possible for anyone to add to or change records, a full history/audit trail of changes is an integral part of the Wiki system, thus if a mischievous party were to add or change content in a way that causes issue, then content can be ‘reset’ back to pre-change state.
Also, I am a great favour of the ‘free access’ model, where anyone can add to a record - subject to there being a mechanism to erase unwanted content if required. This means that the system has no single points of failure - so should the Speaker or Minister for Home Affairs be mowed down by a London Bus, updates can still be made.
Welcome back Aretta - the eUK is richer for your presence!
On the contrary, it is pretty obviously a valid trigger when someone messages the speaker or a congressmen saying 'I am going to apply for citizenship'.
Atm no records are kept on Discord, theyre kept in the Congress PM thread. The wiki is a poor place because it can be edited. So what should be a quick reference to the rules actually requires an 'audit' as you put it every time someone wants to look. In the debate thread the use of the speaker paper has been floated which would be more appropriate if people insist their inboxes are too difficult to navigate 🙂
Great article - it is great to see some serious debate!
I am not supportive of ‘pre-applications’ for citizenship; if we go down this particular rabbit hole it opens up a whole load of complication - where the rule set for determining what can be considered a valid trigger becomes complex.
I do not see any problem with there being one simple way for incomers to trigger the citizenship application process - and the application (with time stamp) is visible for all to see.
Ref keeping a record of Government rules, decisions and history. The issue that I have with using Discord as a repository for records is that it requires a Discord account to access/edit the content. This is a complication that many will not be willing to go move to.
Using the eRepublik Wiki as a repository for eRepublik related material has the obvious advantage that it is easily accessible to ALL players without the need to set up an external account. Whilst it *is* possible for anyone to add to or change records, a full history/audit trail of changes is an integral part of the Wiki system, thus if a mischievous party were to add or change content in a way that causes issue, then content can be ‘reset’ back to pre-change state.
Also, I am a great favour of the ‘free access’ model, where anyone can add to a record - subject to there being a mechanism to erase unwanted content if required. This means that the system has no single points of failure - so should the Speaker or Minister for Home Affairs be mowed down by a London Bus, updates can still be made.
Welcome back Artela - the eUK is richer for your presence!
Wait. We can't comment to a thread on the National Feed?
Game mechanics say otherwise. I think I will pay more attention to these threads.
Absolutely absurd to try and prevent non congress members from commenting on the feed posts. That’s not how the game works and the speaker has no authority to try and enforce some meta rule against it
You have no authority here Jackie weaver
You have no authority here Jackie weaver
agreed