[CP] Manifesto part 1 : Home Affairs
Day 894, 11:18
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Published in Belgium 
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by
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by Apotygma
Hello dear Belgians and thank you for reading this newspaper,
Writing a manifesto for a presidential campaign is not an easy thing, a lot can happen and you have to think about every single word you say. Promising impossible things will come back against you, not giving what you want to your electors will not get you elected. I’ve been around long enough, and all over the eWorld to be able to get your concerns. We are in a small, boring and economically weak country. We are not a superpower like Poland, Greece, Russia or Hungary that are actively involved in a war for survival. We are not economic super-powers like eUK that can survive through a lot. We are simply a small and peaceful country.
This means that we need to make our country interesting to live in ! I truly love my country, but only having politics to keep you playing is not in our advantage. We need a growing and staying population. We need to have something to offer to them and allow them to have fun in our country so that they don’t quite or move abroad. Military is obviously not an option, our neutrality is at stack, but we can act through economic and home affairs.
Several option exist to make a small country interesting, look at Latvia and eUNL. Both small countries, but strong and respected on the international scene and able to maintain their new population ! Despite the fact that they are PHX allies, and involved in their wars, some elements can be taken over to strengthen our own country. I will present to you what we can do in order to mirror them. Social interaction must become our main concern.
Social interaction can be improved through several ways : economics, politics, forums, IRC or even military. Those elements must be put forward in order for us to grow !
Home Affairs : How to involve people
http://www.erepublik.com/images/parts/icon-law_valid.gif "> Less and clearer ministries
http://www.erepublik.com/images/parts/icon-law_valid.gif "> Forum promotion
http://www.erepublik.com/images/parts/icon-law_valid.gif ">Games and fun
http://www.erepublik.com/images/parts/icon-law_valid.gif "> Town Meetings reïntroduction
One of the main drivers in a society is politics. eRepublik is a political simulator and being part of it is one of the main elements to keep your involved. Targeting this, allowing players to get involved easily is, one of my main targets this term. Older players should be involved and lead the younger when they need it. How can we achieve my goal?
First of all we will have fewer ministries, more than 10 like we have now is not handable for a CP and bad for our country. Responsibilities where too scattered to be efficient and a lot of posts where occupied by the same persons. We will be this reduce the amount of available ministry positions. Less ministries, does not mean less posts ! The ministry positions will be for those with experience and that know what to do. They will have the responsibility to lead a team to glory and success. When we take a ministry, several position as UnderMinister will be available for all persons interested. They will report to the Minister allowing a quick and smooth chain of command. This will also allow a better transparency, something that is inexistent for the moment. We don’t know what our ministers are doing (most of the time), we don’t know how much they spend, this is unacceptable.
A second point we can work on is our forum. We can still improve the commitment and activity over there by promoting it, centralizing it. IT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE that Belgians should be active on 2-3 forums based on their political believes. ONLY ONE forum should be promoted. That political parties offer advantages if they join their sub forum/party is fine, but not if it is a disadvantage for our national forum. Player retention can also be promoted by more forum games. What am I thinking about?
The current games are great and keeping some people active, but it is not enough. Taken from eUNL or eUK : a series of Awards that will be handed out to active citizens by other citizens. This is fun and keeps people involved. On IRC: Trivia nights ! It’s an IRC bot that allows you to hold trivia quizzes on the national IRC. It’s a fun moment, bringing people together and bonding. How stronger you bond with people, how harder it will be to leave the game/country.
Third point : IRC. Our IRC is not active enough, people should be promoted to come online and have fun together. I spent days on IRC and this only because I had fun doing it. IRC is in fact a huge MSN and this should be promoted. This through several bots etc…
Last but not least, I want to reintroduce the “Town Meetings” like they were held at the beginning of our country. They don’t exist anymore and this is a problem. It’s an ideal way to chat about the concerns of eBelgium, ask questions to the government, raise ideas, etc… I know this could be a problem for a lot of our American friends, BUT we still live in BELGIUM. A majority of eUK is American and this has never been a problem over there (like GladOS lives in L.A., how can he lead a government in eUK ?), why should it be here in Belgium?
Home Affairs : citizen contact
http://www.erepublik.com/images/parts/icon-law_valid.gif "> Open communication
http://www.erepublik.com/images/parts/icon-law_valid.gif "> Financial overviews
To get a little further into details, for now, MoHA does a great job through citizen.info it PM’s a lot of young people to inform them about Wellness, wars, etc… This job should go on and should even be enlarged. It is important that we enlarge the coaching program and get them on our NATIONAL forum. People are then involved and could become active citizens later on.
The second point about citizen.info is a better transparency. Today, we barley know how much BEF they are spending on MT’s, gifts, who they are handed to. I am sure the current MoHA keeps track of all this somewhere, but this should become public. Our country needs to know what our financial possibilities are.
http://www.erepublik.com/images/parts/icon-law_valid.gif "> More articles
http://www.erepublik.com/images/parts/icon-law_valid.gif "> Center of communication
Last point is the ministry of communication, for the moment the information about Wellness and a few government announcements goes well. But I want to enlarge their publication, more articles to give our players something to read. For example : a list of the best national and international articles so that they can keep our players informed about what is going on ! We are not living in a bubble, opening ourselves up is a key to retention also. Communication should also be made responsible to gather a weekly update from ALL ministers and president. This in order to make our government open and close to the people.
Closing word
This where my ideas and campaign about the Home Affairs, another part will follow about economics and Foreign affairs. Stay tuned if you are interested. An article to form the government will also be published with the jobs to fill, etc…
Greetgings
Apotygma
Candidate CP
May 2010
Writing a manifesto for a presidential campaign is not an easy thing, a lot can happen and you have to think about every single word you say. Promising impossible things will come back against you, not giving what you want to your electors will not get you elected. I’ve been around long enough, and all over the eWorld to be able to get your concerns. We are in a small, boring and economically weak country. We are not a superpower like Poland, Greece, Russia or Hungary that are actively involved in a war for survival. We are not economic super-powers like eUK that can survive through a lot. We are simply a small and peaceful country.
This means that we need to make our country interesting to live in ! I truly love my country, but only having politics to keep you playing is not in our advantage. We need a growing and staying population. We need to have something to offer to them and allow them to have fun in our country so that they don’t quite or move abroad. Military is obviously not an option, our neutrality is at stack, but we can act through economic and home affairs.
Several option exist to make a small country interesting, look at Latvia and eUNL. Both small countries, but strong and respected on the international scene and able to maintain their new population ! Despite the fact that they are PHX allies, and involved in their wars, some elements can be taken over to strengthen our own country. I will present to you what we can do in order to mirror them. Social interaction must become our main concern.
Social interaction can be improved through several ways : economics, politics, forums, IRC or even military. Those elements must be put forward in order for us to grow !
Home Affairs : How to involve people
One of the main drivers in a society is politics. eRepublik is a political simulator and being part of it is one of the main elements to keep your involved. Targeting this, allowing players to get involved easily is, one of my main targets this term. Older players should be involved and lead the younger when they need it. How can we achieve my goal?
First of all we will have fewer ministries, more than 10 like we have now is not handable for a CP and bad for our country. Responsibilities where too scattered to be efficient and a lot of posts where occupied by the same persons. We will be this reduce the amount of available ministry positions. Less ministries, does not mean less posts ! The ministry positions will be for those with experience and that know what to do. They will have the responsibility to lead a team to glory and success. When we take a ministry, several position as UnderMinister will be available for all persons interested. They will report to the Minister allowing a quick and smooth chain of command. This will also allow a better transparency, something that is inexistent for the moment. We don’t know what our ministers are doing (most of the time), we don’t know how much they spend, this is unacceptable.
A second point we can work on is our forum. We can still improve the commitment and activity over there by promoting it, centralizing it. IT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE that Belgians should be active on 2-3 forums based on their political believes. ONLY ONE forum should be promoted. That political parties offer advantages if they join their sub forum/party is fine, but not if it is a disadvantage for our national forum. Player retention can also be promoted by more forum games. What am I thinking about?
The current games are great and keeping some people active, but it is not enough. Taken from eUNL or eUK : a series of Awards that will be handed out to active citizens by other citizens. This is fun and keeps people involved. On IRC: Trivia nights ! It’s an IRC bot that allows you to hold trivia quizzes on the national IRC. It’s a fun moment, bringing people together and bonding. How stronger you bond with people, how harder it will be to leave the game/country.
Third point : IRC. Our IRC is not active enough, people should be promoted to come online and have fun together. I spent days on IRC and this only because I had fun doing it. IRC is in fact a huge MSN and this should be promoted. This through several bots etc…
Last but not least, I want to reintroduce the “Town Meetings” like they were held at the beginning of our country. They don’t exist anymore and this is a problem. It’s an ideal way to chat about the concerns of eBelgium, ask questions to the government, raise ideas, etc… I know this could be a problem for a lot of our American friends, BUT we still live in BELGIUM. A majority of eUK is American and this has never been a problem over there (like GladOS lives in L.A., how can he lead a government in eUK ?), why should it be here in Belgium?
Home Affairs : citizen contact
To get a little further into details, for now, MoHA does a great job through citizen.info it PM’s a lot of young people to inform them about Wellness, wars, etc… This job should go on and should even be enlarged. It is important that we enlarge the coaching program and get them on our NATIONAL forum. People are then involved and could become active citizens later on.
The second point about citizen.info is a better transparency. Today, we barley know how much BEF they are spending on MT’s, gifts, who they are handed to. I am sure the current MoHA keeps track of all this somewhere, but this should become public. Our country needs to know what our financial possibilities are.
Last point is the ministry of communication, for the moment the information about Wellness and a few government announcements goes well. But I want to enlarge their publication, more articles to give our players something to read. For example : a list of the best national and international articles so that they can keep our players informed about what is going on ! We are not living in a bubble, opening ourselves up is a key to retention also. Communication should also be made responsible to gather a weekly update from ALL ministers and president. This in order to make our government open and close to the people.
Closing word
This where my ideas and campaign about the Home Affairs, another part will follow about economics and Foreign affairs. Stay tuned if you are interested. An article to form the government will also be published with the jobs to fill, etc…
Greetgings
Apotygma
Candidate CP
May 2010
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Comments
Excellent article...
It's good to have a real presentation of your ideas and of your program before the election day !
Good luck Apotygma 🙂
Very well written. You put a lot of thought into this.
Good luck.
Voted!! Good luck!
Great article. Hope to see more others like that. Good luck Apotygma!
These are very good ideas! Good luck with your campaign!
valid.gif">I wish I could vote Apotygma 🙁
One day James, one day maybe.
Good luck 😉
Voted, Good Luck Apotygma !
"Military is obviously not an option" Oh... 🙁
Even though, good luck. This was one of the best written manifestos I've ever seen.
A lot of great points, but I have a couple small considerations about some of them:
- Ministries: at the moment we're supposed to have about 6 Ministries, not more than 10 as you claim. Our problem is still finding enough active people who can devote some extra time (in some cases a lot of extra time) to take up a responsability as Minister or "UnderMinister/Director".
- Different forums: I assume that you hint at the Res Belgica forum. Every active member there also visits the national forum regularly, so it shouldn't be seen as competition for it. And retention-wise, such a forum only enhances the commitment of these members and keeps them coming back. I do agree that the national forum should be further promoted.
- IRC: our IRC isn't active enough, but at some extent this is due to the fact that not everyone likes chatting (at least this is my perception). The IRC could be enhancing some fun, but it shouldn't try to take up the main informative function of the forum.
Otherwise, a very good manifesto, and it's just part 1 😉
Good luck Apotygma , and looking forward to the town meetings 🙂
@Aldous :
1 - Sorry I took directors as ministers. Then my point should be reformulated as : only 6 clearly responsible persons. They should be communicated to the external world. And I know it is hard to find, but we can manage it for sure, in a lot of other countries you have a lot of people that want to do it. In my eyes having a few people responsible would allow a lot of newbies to come along and get a job as uM. Like : just PM some people for 10 min a day, not a hard job and some people might be interested to be known and get further on !
2 - From what I heard you promoted the Res Belgica forum for new players in order to get free food (or a gifts whatever). Not very good for our national forum because just checking isn't enough. It even happens to me that I'm only going to check if something has been written on the BfB forum and that I see that a new congress threat emerged and that I read it. That's why we should all stay on the national forum, just the chance that you put 2-3 more messages a week is already a big imporvment.
3 - Not the intention, only having some fun evenings and 1 evening per week/2 weeks to be a little more serious can be usefull. We need an open communication with our citizens. This can be achieved through IRC, and with a clear timeframe they don't have to stick around for hours.
That is how it works now Apotygma, as MoHA I am responsible for the 3 directors under me. So when Palodigon quit as Director of Health and Wellness and Bertie wasn't doing his job as Education director, I was (and am) still responsible for those reports.
Thankfully I found a more than capable replacement for Palodigon in Mudduck95. I have filled the role of Education director as best as I can but I certainly can't do as well as Aldous 🙂
I am pro-war, but Im voting for you anyway. 😛
Current Cabinet Structure (for anybody who is interested)
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/the-ragoth-plan-structure-1278635/1/20" target="_blank">http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/the-[..]/1/20
**Prime Minister
Chancellor
Deputy Chancellor for Legislative Affairs
Shadow Chancellor
**Minister of Home Affairs
Directorate General for Education
Directorate General for State Companies
Directorate General for Health and Wellness
**Minister of Foreign Affairs
Directorate General for Embassies
Directorate General for Neutrality
Directorate General for Intelligence
General of the National Guard
**Minister of Budget and Revenue
Directorate of Taxation
Directorate of Accounting
**Minister of the Treasury
**Ministry of Comunication
Press Office
Directorate General For Dutch Communications
Directorate General For French Communications
Directorate General For Technology
**Minister of Fun
Directorate General for Amusement
Directorate General For the Win
pro-war with who Manong?
Thanks for the clarifications, Apotygma 😉
As to the Res Belgica forum - we used to grant 5BEF fo registration as a "New Citizen Fee", but I believe we haven't granted any in about two weeks. I can assure you that everyone who's active on our forum is also a regular visitor on the national forum, so once again I don't see any competition here. I do agree that the national forum needs to be promoted, but the freedom of assembly and association can't question the right of existance of other forums. Don't worry, we stimulate our members to be part of the whole eRep experience and it is in everyones interests that the national forum receives the attention it needs 😉
And my total respect for Gibberish and Mudduck - these guys have worked their buts off during the babyboom highdays, and have continued doing a great job for the new citizens ever since!
Voted, goodluck !
Voted!
I hope to meet Apotygma soon in a town meeting!
I can support Aldous about the forum. I also got some food to join their forum and they got me involved in the game and I go to the Belgium forum also. All people that go to the Res Belgica forum and don't join the national forum, don't write on the Res Belgica forum also... So I think there is no problem 😉
I don't mean to come off as a naysayer here, but I have a problem with the same old "let's get people involved with [blank]" idea. Nobody, count them, nobody who doesn't want to be involved, will get involved because of fun and games. The only people that continue to keep playing day in and day out are those who are interested in:
A) Politics- Open up opportunities to get people involved in politics.
😎 Military- Set up and promote military outfits, command structures, and ranks.
C) Business- We can get people involved in business ventures by setting up a fund that we can redristibute monies to people interested in starting a company, based on their presentation.
So you see, if we step up these elements, people will keep playing. We all are a special breed. We've all been playing for a while, and we all care about this country, all at the expense of RL stuff. Ask yourself, why do you play? And go from there, its simple really.
@Kylero : I did, and the points you specified are treated as I wish to make the politics closer to home and involve people, and restart the military to have fun ! But, I did not only pay because of this, doing what I said : trivia nights, or games on the forum kept me playing when all the other stuff became boring. It made me bond with people and those people I still work with today and that keep me playing.
Personal experience indeed, but if this can work for 1 person, I will already be happy.