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White House Press Release - Erepublik Day 3858

Today's WHPR News:
1 | eUSA Forums Update
2 | Discord, Use it!
3 | Department of Interior Info
4 | Ministry of Foreign Affairs Recap
5 | We Want You!

Greetings and Salutations, eAmerica.

I'm Jude Connors, Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda; and this is the White House Press Report. Today, PigInZen gives an awesome update about the eUSA Community Forums... We have information on the citizen assistance programs offered by the Department of Interiors... and a BigCDaddy recaps the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and tells us about a new MoFA program.

Happy reading, eAmerica!

eUSA FORUMS UPDATE
by PigInZen

Wait... there's a forum? Yes my dear fellow eRep nerds, there is a forum. For those who don't like to read here's the tl;dr version:

1. Forum has issues with sending secure email. Gmail won't accept. I'm aware, will fix.
2. Cute kitty kat pics.

The rest of you, carry on!

https://eusaforums.com

Forum Mission
Since December of 2010 the eUSA Forums have been dedicated to the facilitation and coordination of eRepublik players specifically located in the eUSA. The forums are the seat of the government and where Congress and the President/Cabinet conduct daily business and discuss matters great and small. There are other activities available at the eUSA Forums which still continue to draw the participation of many former eRep players.

Correcting Historical Neglect
For several years the forums have languished and I was content to not bother regularly monitoring them, either from the technical side or from the content side. While I was reachable by most of the forum moderation and administrative staff off-forum and would respond to technical problems, I really didn't check in that often. Since March/April of this year, however, I decided that I either had to pass on responsibility for the eUSA Forums to another interested admin or I had to rededicate myself to the community. I chose the latter, and have been investing time and energy in fixing up the place. There were numerous problems with the forum software, the most concerning of which was the inability to update software or uninstall/reinstall modifications without errors. I quickly became concerned that something on the catastrophic side might occur from which I might not be able to recover the content. That would have been unacceptable to me, given the history of the community.

Recent Improvements
Since early Spring the eUSA Forums have been completely rebuilt on the back end. This involved backing up the forum database, reinstalling the latest forum software, and automating forum database remote backups. I have slowly begun to add back in forum modifications, focusing on stability instead of features. This has positioned the eUSA Forums well for the future. I have no concerns regarding the ability to install forum updates nor with updating the server software on which the site operates. This is critical, in my opinion, since the security of the forum rests on regularly applying software patches and security updates. Security is important to the community since there are critical eRep discussions that impact the game and because forum members sometimes share private information regarding their personal lives.

There have been some significant changes to the community since I became more active a few months back. Most notably a new effort to encourage community. Some of the more divisive players have left and the community has been welcoming back old players who, due to in-game political battles, had been either discouraged from the forums, blacklisted from the eUSA, or outright banned from the forums. These are all positive signs for the continued vitality of the forum community.

Some Issues Remain
I am aware of still-needed maintenance, bugfixes, and improvements at the forum. Most notably any emails sent by the forum are not being signed by our secure certificate. This means that some email clients (most notably gmail) will not accept them for delivery. This includes emails for new registrations, password resets, and thread/reply notifications.

Fixing this is at the top of my list. Forum downtime occurs every Sunday (irregularly) and the are announced in advance in the news near the top of the forum page. Other upcoming fixes/improvements include:

- Upgrading php to version 7 (this is a major undertaking)
- Editing old content to remove links to awards & membergroup icons that no longer are able to be displayed with the current forum software
- Installation and testing of more modifications
- Forum rebranding with new themes

The forums are hosted on a server that's more powerful than we'll ever need. This is my gift to the eRep community. If you wish for me to host things like a Minecraft server or other stuff let me know. The forums are there to build the eUSA eRep community. I'm hopeful that with a little loving care they can serve an integral role in the rebirth of the eUSA.

Meet Oliver


We adopted him last fall. He's almost a year old. Here's an action shot:






We remind everyone out there to closely follow your MU's battle orders and join us in general-chat on Discord. Meet some people and enjoy the aspects of the meta-game that really make eRepublik the social RPG that many of us love.

For the most up to the minute orders, contact your MU commander or a member of Defense for appropriate masking, and we will get you in the #strike-room.

Department of Interior Info
by Herr Vootsman


The eUSA Department of Interior has two main citizen assistance programs; the American Air Rank Program (AARP) and Meals on Wheels (MoW).

AARP sends 4000 wellness daily to people who fight in air battles (and raise their air rank). You can request this food by commenting on the daily USA shout.
This month, 1,448 people were fed (just shy of 6 million wellness).

Meals on Wheels sends 1000 wellness to people who fill out the form: http://tinyurl.com/DoI-MoW
Roughly 400,000 wellness was sent last month.

For more information, Contact Herr Vootsman or Kellen Deming.


Foreign Affairs Recap
by BigCDaddy

Internationally, things have been somewhat quiet for us and our allies. Sweden is in the process of regaining all of their territories from Venezuela, and they should be successful thanks to some timely help from Poland. On the other side of the new world, RoC continues their resistance against a Croatian wipe (we in the eUS can relate).

Closer to home, we are still fighting Croatia, but our wars with our other occupiers have slowed down for the time being. That means that if you own companies in a US region that is not occupied by Croatia, then you will be finally be able to work as manager. Hopefully this will offer a small respite for American companies that haven’t been worked due to the war effort. Take advantage of this break in the hostilities, and be better prepared for the fight to come!
Our foreign affairs team has been hard at work developing the new eUS Embassy, and its subsequent Ambassador program. This program aims to involve average citizens in eUS Foreign affairs, and through their contributions bring us closer to other countries. If you are an active eUS citizen who is interested in getting involved in international politics, we need your help! Please send a message to Feynnman on Discord and he will get you all of the applicable information.


WE WANT YOU!

America needs your help! We are currently looking for active eAmerican players interested in assisting with various government jobs, including the Ambassador Program, Defense Team, and more! If you are interested in volunteering, contact me at anytime.

^{WHPR | Pony | PotUS | Interior | Education | DoD | Congress | Pacifica | Forum | Facebook}

Sincerely,
Jude Connors
Chief of Staff and Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda