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There are two sides to any debate, and in this situation, there are two teams that fuel the fire: the supporters and the haters. Some don’t think I’m ready for President of the United States and some are pushing me to go full throttle into the strom. My dear ladies and gentlemen, It’s time for you to decide which side you’re on. I now present to you part one of my two part presidential platform~

Over the upcoming month, I’m going to focus on one main idea: Retention. Retention is vital in eRepublik today, and is an always under looked factor. And while we have been trending slowly upwards in citizen retention since Version 1.5 was implemented, there is still room for improvement, and we are far from what we were during version one of eRep. However, during my Presidency, it will be a top priority to make America as great as it used to be activity wise. I’m taking retention in to stride, and if elected in February, I will work towards stamping out inactivity and giving new players the opportunity to shine and have a good time.

How do we do it?

Synergy Polls
Some of you V1 old guys remember the Synergy Polls as being one of the most exciting parts of the game of eRepublik. Run by Robert Oakden and AmyHat, the Synergy Polls were a series of polls run about subjects such as economics, presidential approval rates, congressional approval rates and oh, so much more. Personally, one of my wishes during the program was to be interviewed, to get a chance to speak my mind and be featured in one of those articles. It never happened, and while I regret not getting the chance to be a part of the program, I want to bring it back. However, for those of us who remember, one of the most important aspects of the Synergy polls is that it contained a reward based system for players to contribute in. These polls allowed semi-active players to speak their mind, and get rewarded for their time..I want to feel the nostalgia, and I want to make this happen again. If elected president, the Synergy Polls will return, with a new name and a new leader, out of respect for AmyHat and Robert Oakden. It will be a part of the Department of Media, and will have a group of players who are competent and active enough to handle the workload. It’ll be great. America, you just have to trust me on this one.



More Articles and Communication because there isn’t enough of that and stuff
The media sector of the United States has slowly been dying. With the loss of Gulden Draak and soon Glove, an instance of the death of media and possibly eRep is coming into play.If elected, I plan to restart Gulden Draak’s “Best Article” competition to encourage new players to write more. Additionally, I will assure America that we have more White House Press Releases and Pony Express articles, to the tune of once every three days at least. I myself will also write at least one State of the Union article every week, as well as articles thrown in-between. and will strongly encourage my cabinet to write public update articles on their sectors of the government.



Transparency
The people of the United States deserve to know what the White House is doing, especially more then they do now. Despite the increased frequency of released articles from the Department of Media and from Secretaries, I feel that there’s still more we can do. As President, this is what I plan: Skype with the President. For a few times every week, I’ll open up my Skype and will invite any player in the United States to come chat with me. I will answer any questions they might have and will try to address any concerns that may pop-up. In addition to the Skype calls, I plan to fully utilize and revive the public #whitehouse channel. So, if Skype and voice calls aren’t for you, you’re free to hide behind your monitor and troll talk to me or any secretaries in a public channel reserved for government officials and the people of the United States. And there’s more, too ~ I will continue to expand the knowledge of America’s youth with the Internship program. Brought up by CRoy and Haliman in previous months, I will allow 10 trusted citizens of the United States to follow and observe the executive cabinet as they do their respected duties in the USA. They will learn about how the executive works, and god knows if some of them someday will be leading this fine, fine nation.



Separating Secretary of Fun from Interior
It’s actually interesting, because this is a position that Haliman had cut from his cabinet. As Interior Secretary, I took it under my wing, although I always felt it could prosper better with a full crew and on its own. As President, I will reignite the Department of Fun, and will hire staff to split the position with Paul Proteus. They will each have their own role in how Fun operates, such as Paul writing articles, this person doing irc games, that person finding games on the Internet to play, and so forth. This is a project I’m really excited about, and I can’t wait to get to work on it.



For now ladies and gentlemen, that’s all I have for you. As you can likely tell, as I said, my main goal in February would be to focus on retention and to just have some fun with eRepublik because, at the end of the day, eRepublik is still a game, and we should have fun with it. What’s the point in playing something if you’re not actually playing? Everyone should have a good time when they log in, and intend to be very infuential in that category.


Make sure to check back in a few days as I unveil my Platform Part 2, everything that’s not my retention, as well as my cabinet and a description of the positions and what I hope to accomplish for each of them. America, stay cool, and remember: Justin McCravok; Like Emerick, just harder to say.