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Good evening America. Today is January 4th, day 1506, and I was in the market at 15:00. It appears that the admin has adjusted the borders of Spain’s Aragon after the US took it from France. The good news is that the map is now accurate, the bad news is we won’t be getting the food bonus because we no longer connect to it. Speedcat McNasty published the most comprehensive “Best of 2011” article, and I sat down with him to chat about it. First, let’s do the numbers.

Food
Price | Price Per HP | Change
Q1 | 0.58 | 0.29 | -3%
Q2 | 1.16 | 0.29 | (no change)
Q3 | 1.84 | 0.30 | +8%
Q4 | 2.29 | 0.28 | -7%
Q5 | 2.90 | 0.29 | -3%
Q6 | 3.90 | 0.32 | (no change)

Weapons
Price | Price Per Use | Change
Q1 | $6.25 | 6.25 | (no change)
Q2 | 12.15 | 6.07 | -1%
Q3 | 18.35 | 6.11 | (no change)
Q4 | 24.89 | 6.22 | +2%
Q5 | 30.99 | 6.19 | -2%
Q6 | 36.37 | 6.06 | -2%

Materials
Foo😛 0.27 USD (no change)
Weapons: 0.33 USD (no change)

Money Market
Gol😛 991 USD (no change)
US😨 0.002 G (no change)

Salary
177 USD (-3😵


Instead of news today, I had a good conversation with Speedcat McNasty who recently published a large poll with the “Best of 2011.” I asked him about the poll, and here’s what he had to say:

Point Taken: How many people filled out your survey?
Speedcat: There were 328 surveys filled out in total, including people doing at least 3 questions.
I set up a filter to catch duplicates and only counted 188 responses total. It filtered out people taking it twice by trying to spoof whatever block was up and also took out some that were obviously fakes, like if someone finished 5 questions and voted for the same person in the highest grades or something like that. Naturally some people may have had real entries removed because of that filter but all in all I think it did pretty well overall.

Point Taken: Why did you choose to have such a large poll, and how did you come up with your questions?
Speedcat: Well, I had been seeing a few 'Best of 2011' articles out there and the one by Josh Whitehead (Dirty Scarlet Silverbeard now) was done well, but his questions weren't what I wanted and the results were easily manipulated, as most google docs are and can be. There used to be something called the Synergy Poll that would come around about every few days that did something similar to what I did with charts and graphs. It asked things about the month, how was POTUS doing, Congress, Military, etc. I somewhat based my survey on that style.
My questions were things I had wanted to know or that I thought were the major issues for the year. Mainly I was highly active in the first 6/7 months and then took a hiatus for the next 3, so I was fairly certain I didn't have a firm grip on the entire year. I asked a few people specific questions to gauge their ideas as well and added theirs or changed my questions to more fit in with a broader base over the entire year.
I truly have a few regrets about it, I should have taken the time to include a Media section, should have included iNCi OWLs under Best Military/Militia section and a few more candidates for Player of the Year could have been added. I actually wish I could have run a larger poll but this was specific towards the eUS which does limit the replies of course.


I'd like to include some eRepublik related comics. If you'd like to draw them, PM me.

Point Taken: Which results surprised you the most?
Speedcat: A few actually. POTUS of the year was a big one. I wasn't around for too much of A^2's first term; limited log ins and such. His second term is when I actually started to get more active as Goalie talked me into helping him a bit with his CP run. And I think even Alexander will say his second term wasn't nearly as active as his first, so I would have gone with Cerb or Blank personally. Player of Year was a bit of a surprise to me. Colin is a very well-known tank, congress member and former CP, so he'll get votes for being those of course. 2010 was his breakout year, for sure MVP of the eUS, no questions. I truly expected A^2 or Glove to win it. Colin does a lot of work quietly (and a lot not so quietly too) as he very rarely writes anything, most of his public work is in tanking somewhere and a lot of stuff is under the radar, so it was nice to see all that he did be appreciated.

Point Taken: Was there any part that you felt was lacking, or could be improved?
Speedcat: Congress section, I wish I could have figured a better way to do that. The numbers are a bit misleading, as I wrote in the article. I believe the majority of people just voted names they knew, which is great but overvalued some of those names. I consider Ligtreb to be an outstanding member of Congress and a very good friend, but his last few terms were nowhere near what he was capable of and for him to almost get a 4 is truly not right. There are several people I'd have rated higher then they got; Custer, Evan Feinman, Animis to name a few. But I've been in Congress a lot so have had a front row seat. Most people don't see everyone's contributions first hand to know and that's to be expected.



Point Taken: You asked a timeless question in your poll: Bacon or Sausage. Where do you stand?
Speedcat: I'd give up sausage to keep bacon in my life all day. I saw another article that was promoting sausage and mentioned bacon was better, got into a fun small comment war over it and thus, the question had to be asked. And I prevailed!

Point Taken: Any final comments?
Speedcat: I'd be remiss to say this shouldn't be taken as gospel for the entire eUS. 200~ people does not represent the whole of the country, or even close. A large majority of these responses were by active players, which of course will skew the numbers quite a bit. I enjoy writing, even though I’m not much good at it, but I have fun and know that's my niche. I'll probably do another survey aimed at a broader base sooner rather than later just to see what comes of it. But not for a bit, this one wiped me out somewhat. It will probably be something on the lighter side next, or an interview. I’ve been meaning to get back into those, just need to pick a subject and hammer on em.