[Plato-Foundation]Second life: From the community for the community

Day 3,843, 04:43 • Published in Belgium Belgium • by mittekemuis

From the community for the community with the help of plato’s notorious gold reserve

Ever hear about the saying: Money doesn’t make you happy but it helps? Plato-Foundation fits this description perfectly. Most players don’t need thousands of gold in their account but would be happy with some help on their progress to the next level or when other players recognise them for their value in the community. The Plato Foundation initiative started in July 2017 and has since granted or sponsored dozens of initiatives. Plato-Foundation deserves a second chance, endless chances as long as there is an eRepublik community to benefit from it. I am here to give it a push in to the right direction. To give you guys the opportunity to once again aid, encourage your communities and make it as good as possible for everyone.


Some history
To start with, I would like to say that when I was introduced to the board the initiative was already running on a minimum activity. It was claimed not dead but...yeah well... it was! Even though myself and others still have a shiny badge and a title on discord, nobody cares enough to assemble the board members and discuss the propositions on the table. Admittedly, the proposals are few. But they’re still legit questions that deserve our full attention. Hence why I took it upon myself to talk with Adinushk and agreed I would do a second start-up.

I can hear the criticism, cynicism come from all directions already and therefore I will list a few previously written observations about the Plato Foundation and the about the game itself.
After every served month the board members were asked to write a recap of their month and give feedback. After the first month, Master_rg wrote a lengthy observation in which he was then later quoted by Yui’s Roadmap and in which I can relate.

What kind of projects can be created by the community. As you’ve read it in this article already, there are really beautiful ones. Nevertheless: What other kinds of projects were possible? I’m looking forward to seeing new ideas but we’ve reached some kind of limitation already which is also represented in the number of new proposals for the Plato Foundation. After more or less 2 weeks there wasn’t really anything new, no new proposals or “just” the same idea repeating over and over again.

Master_rg points out that there’s very little content a user can create within the confines of eRepublik. You can host competitions, like most kills, most damage, best guerilla performance, but when looking at the rest, there are so few options.

In my opinion, the possibilities are definitely limited therefore we shouldn’t look down on the same old propositions emerging from different communities. It’s not because someone was lucky enough to see the benefits from a certain set-up first that others can’t benefit from the same ideas. Granted, originality is always easier to reward, but at this point, I would say anything that helps the communities of erepublik rekindle or grow should be rewarded.

Freiheitskaempfer wrote: In my opinion, the Plato Foundation is just one step into the right direction when it comes to supporting the active players. The community has been left out by Plato for too long which led lots of players to leave the game. However, lots of the submitted projects were not exactly what we were looking for. This initiative was meant to support the community, not to request game-changes or to submit suggestions.
For sure there’s a lot more which needs to be done by the administration of eRepublik and I still hope that someday communication between players and administration will be brought to a higher level.

Past awarded efforts entail:
1) Social interactions and entertainment category:
* Competition in the media through a meme contest( Gnilraps) or an actual article writing contest by William Thomas Riker
* eRepublik Idol project by Eraclev
* Sollam’s project, The eRepublik Weekly Journal
* gustavo35 received Gold for his project The Cultural exchange Program
* Hoffman12, Citizens’ dearest Achievements

2) Military category:
* Worldwide Donation Project to Young Players by Mentalist de Bucovina
* Raphael Louis Habsburg Bourbon’s project helps the eBrazilian Best Aviators
* The Gyantse Foundation
* Swiss aviation program was running for quit a few weeks.

3) Community enriching category
* Icurlybear is the creator of Socrates, a smart and useful bot which can be added to the community’s Discord channels.

These are the ones that come to mind and I am sure there are more I could list up but meanwhile, they give a pretty good idea what has worked in the past.


The team:
One last topic I want to address before I really am opening the Plato Foundation for new projects is one that may provoke discussion. In the past, board members switched very often. Every month new people were introduced by previous members or players who applied for the job. I feel that too much change in a team is counterproductive. On the risk of being called elitist, I would like to start again with a small team but one that will stay and work together for a longer period of time. Of course, these members will be all outstanding citizens (like myself) and open for constructive criticism.

* Adinushk & Gucio will be overseeing the team.
* MaryamQ started playing erepublik in October 2009. She is known for writing quality articles and brings a calm balance in any community.
* Another outstanding player is Huey George. He is the most trusted player in the United Kingdom and a wizard with numbers.
* Gyantse is known by many in the eWorld. Gyantse likes to get around the world and is liked by many.
* Who doesn’t know Icurlybear! Especially the players who use Discord know Curly for his socrates bot that makes our eLives a little easier.
* n0s3 is always around for a nice chat on discord and a aiding small countries on the battlefield.
* Those who frequent discord will know Yui as Minister of Discord affairs and an excellent game analyst. He has served in the plato-foundation board before.
* I present you: me myself and I





Leaves me to go over some ground rules. The entirety of the rules can be found on the forum

Steps for submitting a project:
Come up with an idea!
Are you trying to help your community grow? Do you want to support new players? Are you aware of a need that needs to be met? Do you think that a player needs to be rewarded for his activity within/for the community? We’re here to help!

Write your presentation…
Under the form of an article. Describe your project clearly, giving details about how it will work, its goals and the impact it should have on the eRepublik community. We’d also love to hear about similar projects from the past and effect they had. Last, but not least, let us know about your personal contribution to the project, whether it’s time or resources - all help is welcomed! Remember that transparency is key here so try to be as clear as possible when it comes to these details.

The article MUST be written in English. You can, if you want to, translate it into one or more languages if you think it is necessary, but make sure the English version is written clearly.

Get the community on board!
Once you have published your article, you should try to make it popular - shout it and get the community to vote and comment on it. We want to hear the opinions of other Citizens as well.

Submit it
Once you are happy with your project and the community’s feedback, submit it officially via the Discord channel of the Plato Foundation. You can also propose projects that aren’t yours but you consider as a good cause for the Plato Foundation. Congratulations! The following days you should be available to answer any other questions the Board might have and wait for the list of projects that have been chosen.

Timeline:
Grants and sponsorships will be given weekly. Throughout the week, players can submit projects which will be analyzed by the board. The voting takes place on Monday and the winning projects of the week will be announced through an article which will be posted each week on Tuesday.

Types of Sponsorship:

One time sponsorships
Are contributing with resources to one time events as contests, programs aimed at growing eRepublik (programs aimed at new users, players behind baby booms), outstanding articles etc.

Sponsorships reward individual projects. The Gold Reward of maximum 500 Gold is given all at once. However, a Citizen can apply/be proposed again if they come up with a new project.

Grants
Rewarding continuous work on projects that adhere to the foundation mission. Those can include developers of external tools that significantly benefit the community, volunteers in the team with outstanding performance, journalists that work on a series of relevant and high-quality articles (i.e. a world status update).

Grants offer a maximum of 1000 Gold over a period of one month. The Gold will be transferred to the project leader to be shared according to the rules proposed. At the end of each week, he must post a follow-up article, giving details about how the Gold has been used before the next deposit is made. If the resources haven’t been used as promised, the board can choose to stop the funding. At the end of the month, the project can be proposed again for a Grant.



Short recap of a tl;tr article to tell you that Plato-Foundation is alive and kicking.
The new team is eager to see your proposals. After 10 years eRepublik the community may be smaller but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to nourish or room to grow.
We are here to aid you and answer all question. Come and find us on our discord channel or send a PM ingame.