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Day 1,707, 18:05
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Published in Canada 
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by
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by Plugson
Note: Special Congress Election Day Title Swap
(send me your best fair election title suggestion and I'll post it until the next one comes in
No tanks required, but thanks given)
Suggested Reading: "Why You Should NoT Sell Your Vote" by Rigour6.
"When You Sell Your Vote" by ElPatoDiablo
This election, I'm actually trying to be a Richard:
"I was elected to govern New Brunswick. Nobody ever said I had to live there." - Richard Hatfield
Considering voting for me in New Brunswick under the Canadian Progressive Front's Blue Moose banner.
Day 1,7o7, Ontario is finally proven to be the centre of Canada...mainly because our capital is cut off from all regions. Expect a little less bacon with your self-sufficiency breakfast tomorrow morning.
Hello New Brunswickers and those with 20 CAD and an itch to hop provinces,
It’s time for the Congress rat race once again. Last month, I successfully ran in Manitoba with the CPF alongside the returning-to-game hometown hero and MDP rival, Thordan. We both got elected, and dare I say, the Manitoba congressmen were some of the finest speakers in the Legislature this past month. Sadly, there shall be no Manitobans in the Leg. this coming month.
Here’s a couple things I worked on during the past month:
1) Put the lid back on the Merc Fund cookie jar (CPF Tenet#2)
2) Kept alive the motion to de-prioritize forum votes (CPF Tenet#4)
3) Protested a Congressman’s indefinite forum ban (CPF Tenet#5)
4) Approached the Supreme Court for a point of inquiry into CRoO & Charter
5) Presented a funding proposal for Night’s Watch and appealed the vote (CPF Tenet#1)
6) Denounced the 80% activity requirement for in-game rosters (to no avail) (CPF Tenet#4)
7) Became Deputy Speaker for 3 whole days (where’s my 50k activity bonus?)
Since I won’t be running in Manitoba, don’t be looking for me there. Instead, I’ll be heading on over to the Maritimes, an old favourite. New Brunswick is still a great province, mainly because it brings back memories of Rigour6 and NB Pride (click on my “presentation” link on the congress ballot). Here are some things I would like to see discussed in Congress if voted back in under the Canadian Progressive Front banner.
a) Call the motion to de-prioritize forum pre-votes to a vote(CPF Tenet#4)
b) Find ways to avoid the suggested tax hike, cut MU funding costs (CPF Tenet#2)
c) Remove disinterested Justices, change the Supreme Court into MU Disciplinary Tribunal(CPF Tenet#4)
d) Remove 250 words+ from the current Charter and CRoO (CPF Tenet#4)
e) A cease-fire with the eUSA with peace offering and reparations (if Congress can pardon home-grown enemies of the state, we should be able to do the same with international ones, too) (CPF Tenet #3,maybe)
So what’s my take on Congress currently?
On Dronegress:
Re: CPF Tenet #5~Develop a positive political sphere
The upside:
~~There’s not a lot of wasted verbiage in the forum like there once was. Pouring through reams of Chochi-esque forum postings made the game rather wearisome, though I understand that it did add depth to the government (were the in-game outcomes any ‘deeper’?) The drones are a content bunch buzzing monosyllabically from discussion thread to ODC vote, pollinating our Congress flora with curt comments. In some ways, I do like this. It saves a lot of time having to sort through muddled explanations or the trickey well-considered connivings.
The downside:
~~A slim discussion thread generates fewer ideas than the one originally proposed. Sometimes you can discover other benefits not previously considered when people are open and willing to hash out the “what ifs” and agree to disagree sometimes. I’m not into the shrill name-calling or partisan blocking, but I’d put up with it if it meant Congress learned something new along the way.
On 80% Activity Requirements:
RE: CPF Tenet #4~To respect, recognize and uphold the supremacy of the mechanics of the game
Just another forum-law make-work project designed to make it seem that players who invest their time into the game can actually have greater control over the mass of players who log in to click and rank up each day.
Most MUs will adjust quite easily. The biggest loser (ie. inconvenienced) will be the CAF because of the many new players that automatically join our chief MU. These casual players will get bumped from the CAF roster and then re-apply to get bumped again (unless there is a PM to explain what’s going on). They’ll just get bumped to another lower-ranked MU that will repeat the same process. In the end, these casual players won’t be motivate to fight more frequently. Most likely, they’ll get annoyed with having to join a new MU in order to complete the Daily Order.
In actuality, the MU Funding amendment won’t have a big impact on the activity or player retention of eCanada either way. It’ll just give auditors and MU managers something else to consider and wrangle over until the next blow up.
Forum regulations should be as minimal as possible in a place like eCanada where simple sentences can be turned into garbled interpretations of law. Usually, our regulations and associated requirements are simply overlooked by the majority of players who never check what is gathering dust in the Law Repository…case in point, the Comptroller’s term that expired 2 months ago and was never renewed…do regulations even matter to the average joe?
There are only 3 documents that matter in the Repository:
a) The Charter
b) The MU Funding Act
c) The Comptroller General Act
d) The Congress Rules of Order
The Charter is the over-arching document that ties together and keeps these other 3 in check (actually the forum Terms of Service is the real one, but we’ll role play like that’s not the current case).
The MU Funding Act keeps the oil flowing that lubes up the well-honed war machine of eCanada. The Comptroller Act is the carburetor that ensures the right mix of bang for buck. The CRoO and Charter are supposed to be the regulation that keeps the drivers steady on the road. I guess the taxes collected would have to be the gas...okay, enough of that extended metaphor
All I can say is that we’ve had a few disputes over the last month because of the ways players are interpreting the Charter and CRoO, triggering a ToS clause to set it straight. These documents should really be made so that we avoid conflict and the need to interpret because when we do engage in those activities, it usually goes down the crapper.
Adding on an 80% activity clause in the MU is like buying the can of worms that you know somebody is going to open sooner or later. Leave the well-oiled engine run as it is. If it ain’t broke, why are we trying to fix it with unproven amendments to one of the most basic and essential forum laws in our Law Repository. CRoO doesn’t really matter as much as the MU Funding Act. Be careful what you let some mechanics tinker with.
On Tax Increases:
RE: CPF Tenet #2~Make the accounting of government funding more open and important
We just balanced things out not long ago when we lowered taxes, yet now there is talk about raising them again. Except now we are under threat of occupation ~ not the right time to start constraining the economy. Not to mention, we just lost all our production bonuses except for Aluminum in Ontario. In other words, our economy is seeing hard times. Our player retention is seeing hard times. Our MU funding scheme is seeing hard times. Times are hard and gathering up more taxes is a big band-aid on a very hairy back that you’re going to have to peel off soon anyhow. Like I tell my kid each time she asks for a Dora the Explorer band-aid on every little scratch and splinter, “Honey, band-aids don’t grow on trees. If they did, they’d be a renewable resource. But these ones are made out of petroleum products and you don’t want the world to burn up from increased fossil fuel consumption just because you bumped your knee on the couch, do you?”
Tough it out MU leaders and Congressmen. Cuts do happen & VAT band-aids aren’t always the fix. So trim the fat, let the mean get leaner, and let’s get the RW show on the road.
In a Pig War, someone’s bound to get a strip torn off of ‘em ~ fact’o’life
There’s my spiel for Congress. Most likely these concerns will be overlooked by International Drama and Foreign Relations Intrigue, or by Masked ForumMen Role-play Wrestling, or by our complete and utter wipe at the hands of our Bros and their new Spanish Hermanos.
Most will not pay notice to the consequences of these distractions until they find out there are no more band-aids in the box and the funding cuts begin to sting as the players depart for greener production bonus pastures. That’s the bad news story. The good news is that the game just got a bit crazy interesting in the short-term. eCanadians may want to wonder what’s ahead in the long-term and how we can avoid becoming the next UK of the New World.
Seven Tenets of the Canadian Progressive Front
1. Uphold the equality of all active Military Units
2. Make the accounting of government funding more open and important
3. Enhance our place in TERRA
4. To respect, recognize and uphold the supremacy of the mechanics of the game
5. Develop a positive political sphere
6. Bring in Canadians to eRepublik
7. To encourage growth and stability to the eCanadian economy, by making forever available credit and bursaries to the general public.
(send me your best fair election title suggestion and I'll post it until the next one comes in
No tanks required, but thanks given)
Suggested Reading: "Why You Should NoT Sell Your Vote" by Rigour6.
"When You Sell Your Vote" by ElPatoDiablo
This election, I'm actually trying to be a Richard:
"I was elected to govern New Brunswick. Nobody ever said I had to live there." - Richard Hatfield
Considering voting for me in New Brunswick under the Canadian Progressive Front's Blue Moose banner.
Day 1,7o7, Ontario is finally proven to be the centre of Canada...mainly because our capital is cut off from all regions. Expect a little less bacon with your self-sufficiency breakfast tomorrow morning.
Hello New Brunswickers and those with 20 CAD and an itch to hop provinces,
It’s time for the Congress rat race once again. Last month, I successfully ran in Manitoba with the CPF alongside the returning-to-game hometown hero and MDP rival, Thordan. We both got elected, and dare I say, the Manitoba congressmen were some of the finest speakers in the Legislature this past month. Sadly, there shall be no Manitobans in the Leg. this coming month.
Here’s a couple things I worked on during the past month:
1) Put the lid back on the Merc Fund cookie jar (CPF Tenet#2)
2) Kept alive the motion to de-prioritize forum votes (CPF Tenet#4)
3) Protested a Congressman’s indefinite forum ban (CPF Tenet#5)
4) Approached the Supreme Court for a point of inquiry into CRoO & Charter
5) Presented a funding proposal for Night’s Watch and appealed the vote (CPF Tenet#1)
6) Denounced the 80% activity requirement for in-game rosters (to no avail) (CPF Tenet#4)
7) Became Deputy Speaker for 3 whole days (where’s my 50k activity bonus?)
Since I won’t be running in Manitoba, don’t be looking for me there. Instead, I’ll be heading on over to the Maritimes, an old favourite. New Brunswick is still a great province, mainly because it brings back memories of Rigour6 and NB Pride (click on my “presentation” link on the congress ballot). Here are some things I would like to see discussed in Congress if voted back in under the Canadian Progressive Front banner.
a) Call the motion to de-prioritize forum pre-votes to a vote(CPF Tenet#4)
b) Find ways to avoid the suggested tax hike, cut MU funding costs (CPF Tenet#2)
c) Remove disinterested Justices, change the Supreme Court into MU Disciplinary Tribunal(CPF Tenet#4)
d) Remove 250 words+ from the current Charter and CRoO (CPF Tenet#4)
e) A cease-fire with the eUSA with peace offering and reparations (if Congress can pardon home-grown enemies of the state, we should be able to do the same with international ones, too) (CPF Tenet #3,maybe)
So what’s my take on Congress currently?
On Dronegress:
Re: CPF Tenet #5~Develop a positive political sphere
The upside:
~~There’s not a lot of wasted verbiage in the forum like there once was. Pouring through reams of Chochi-esque forum postings made the game rather wearisome, though I understand that it did add depth to the government (were the in-game outcomes any ‘deeper’?) The drones are a content bunch buzzing monosyllabically from discussion thread to ODC vote, pollinating our Congress flora with curt comments. In some ways, I do like this. It saves a lot of time having to sort through muddled explanations or the trickey well-considered connivings.
The downside:
~~A slim discussion thread generates fewer ideas than the one originally proposed. Sometimes you can discover other benefits not previously considered when people are open and willing to hash out the “what ifs” and agree to disagree sometimes. I’m not into the shrill name-calling or partisan blocking, but I’d put up with it if it meant Congress learned something new along the way.
On 80% Activity Requirements:
RE: CPF Tenet #4~To respect, recognize and uphold the supremacy of the mechanics of the game
Just another forum-law make-work project designed to make it seem that players who invest their time into the game can actually have greater control over the mass of players who log in to click and rank up each day.
Most MUs will adjust quite easily. The biggest loser (ie. inconvenienced) will be the CAF because of the many new players that automatically join our chief MU. These casual players will get bumped from the CAF roster and then re-apply to get bumped again (unless there is a PM to explain what’s going on). They’ll just get bumped to another lower-ranked MU that will repeat the same process. In the end, these casual players won’t be motivate to fight more frequently. Most likely, they’ll get annoyed with having to join a new MU in order to complete the Daily Order.
In actuality, the MU Funding amendment won’t have a big impact on the activity or player retention of eCanada either way. It’ll just give auditors and MU managers something else to consider and wrangle over until the next blow up.
Forum regulations should be as minimal as possible in a place like eCanada where simple sentences can be turned into garbled interpretations of law. Usually, our regulations and associated requirements are simply overlooked by the majority of players who never check what is gathering dust in the Law Repository…case in point, the Comptroller’s term that expired 2 months ago and was never renewed…do regulations even matter to the average joe?
There are only 3 documents that matter in the Repository:
a) The Charter
b) The MU Funding Act
c) The Comptroller General Act
d) The Congress Rules of Order
The Charter is the over-arching document that ties together and keeps these other 3 in check (actually the forum Terms of Service is the real one, but we’ll role play like that’s not the current case).
The MU Funding Act keeps the oil flowing that lubes up the well-honed war machine of eCanada. The Comptroller Act is the carburetor that ensures the right mix of bang for buck. The CRoO and Charter are supposed to be the regulation that keeps the drivers steady on the road. I guess the taxes collected would have to be the gas...okay, enough of that extended metaphor
All I can say is that we’ve had a few disputes over the last month because of the ways players are interpreting the Charter and CRoO, triggering a ToS clause to set it straight. These documents should really be made so that we avoid conflict and the need to interpret because when we do engage in those activities, it usually goes down the crapper.
Adding on an 80% activity clause in the MU is like buying the can of worms that you know somebody is going to open sooner or later. Leave the well-oiled engine run as it is. If it ain’t broke, why are we trying to fix it with unproven amendments to one of the most basic and essential forum laws in our Law Repository. CRoO doesn’t really matter as much as the MU Funding Act. Be careful what you let some mechanics tinker with.
On Tax Increases:
RE: CPF Tenet #2~Make the accounting of government funding more open and important
We just balanced things out not long ago when we lowered taxes, yet now there is talk about raising them again. Except now we are under threat of occupation ~ not the right time to start constraining the economy. Not to mention, we just lost all our production bonuses except for Aluminum in Ontario. In other words, our economy is seeing hard times. Our player retention is seeing hard times. Our MU funding scheme is seeing hard times. Times are hard and gathering up more taxes is a big band-aid on a very hairy back that you’re going to have to peel off soon anyhow. Like I tell my kid each time she asks for a Dora the Explorer band-aid on every little scratch and splinter, “Honey, band-aids don’t grow on trees. If they did, they’d be a renewable resource. But these ones are made out of petroleum products and you don’t want the world to burn up from increased fossil fuel consumption just because you bumped your knee on the couch, do you?”
Tough it out MU leaders and Congressmen. Cuts do happen & VAT band-aids aren’t always the fix. So trim the fat, let the mean get leaner, and let’s get the RW show on the road.
In a Pig War, someone’s bound to get a strip torn off of ‘em ~ fact’o’life
There’s my spiel for Congress. Most likely these concerns will be overlooked by International Drama and Foreign Relations Intrigue, or by Masked ForumMen Role-play Wrestling, or by our complete and utter wipe at the hands of our Bros and their new Spanish Hermanos.
Most will not pay notice to the consequences of these distractions until they find out there are no more band-aids in the box and the funding cuts begin to sting as the players depart for greener production bonus pastures. That’s the bad news story. The good news is that the game just got a bit crazy interesting in the short-term. eCanadians may want to wonder what’s ahead in the long-term and how we can avoid becoming the next UK of the New World.
Seven Tenets of the Canadian Progressive Front
1. Uphold the equality of all active Military Units
2. Make the accounting of government funding more open and important
3. Enhance our place in TERRA
4. To respect, recognize and uphold the supremacy of the mechanics of the game
5. Develop a positive political sphere
6. Bring in Canadians to eRepublik
7. To encourage growth and stability to the eCanadian economy, by making forever available credit and bursaries to the general public.
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Comments
Too many notes
But 0 hyperlinks this time.
That's an improvement.
The economic reality is that most active users don't buy in the marketplace and prices are driven by the market bot. I support a VAT increase if we:
1) Actively educate our users on how to sell at the bot price which always changes according to VAT. Thus letting the admins fund our government.
2) Create a support mechanism to provide food and weapons to help users that are not self sufficient and do need to buy in the marketplace.
~hyuu~
Elect the Queen Bee to control the Dronegress! ;P
Good luck Plugson!
vote for Plugson
I must say, moving on to pursue my own thing and leaving Plugson behind is the hardest thing I have to eLive with these days.
I admire the yeoman's work that you are doing in eCan Plugson, keep it up, it is a bright spot in eCan's darkness.
Funky, ED and Wilhelm also come to mind, but leaving Plugson behind reaches me the most.
I feel confident in saying that if NB Pride was still alive, we'd endorse Plugson.
Excellent read Plugson and voted as always. And the thing you say to your daughter about band-aids is priceless.
So, I'm not even sure when the forum vote before a vote started (possibly when Homer was Speaker) but it wasn't always like that nor do I think it's even a requirement.
You have my full vote of confidence
Wally, the second part of the proposal also permits in-game articles to serve as the same thing as proposals made in Open Door Congress. The aim would be to have proposal, discussion, and voting happen all in-game. I do agree that forum votes are not a requirement but the forum proposal still is. Hoping we can change that to be more flexible for our AFK folk..
Mihai, interesting suggestions. If there were a way to educate people to have enough mass effect on the market, then yeah.
As for part b) of what you wrote, would the Ministry of Health run by Doctor of Souls be doing the same thing now? Maybe that work can just be expanded on or better funded.
@Plugson For part a) We could have a Ministry of Finance newsletter publishing bot prices every 3 days and having it voted hard so that it makes Top 5. We only need to educate users in saturated markets which are: Food RM, Food Q1, Q2 and Q3. For the other market a VAT increase won't affect anything as the lowest offers are always above bot price plus 12% VAT.
For part b) most people already get supplied trough their MU and Doctor of Souls is the biggest donator of his own program and I guess he could use more help. But communication here is essential either change the Welcome Message or PM new users everyday to let them know of this freebies so that they don't spend their money in our overpriced bot market.
Btw, I'm actually doing some experiments with Chochi testing the daily buying capacity of the bot to see if this idea makes sense at all.
I got banned during my 1st congress term for opening an in-game vote before a pre-vote was held in ODC. Muglack was the Speaker that month. So that business has been going on for a while. We've had no pre-votes so far this month, so I'm not sure what you're complaining about?
Leo, I'm not complaining ~ I'm trying to improve the way Congress operates so that it fits how the game is played now. I was a bit on the offensive in Congress this past month so I can see why you think I'm complaining about Congress, but really I'm not.
There were no in-game proposals that actually needed forum pre-votes this month, or perhaps even last month. We've left taxes pretty much as they are and our NEs were never discussed/proposed so there was no need for a pre-vote either.
With the rise of AFK, it seems that more people want to play the eRep in-game and move away from the forum.We should make the CRoO flexible enough to allow for in-game articles and PMs to equal forum proposals
But if no one has anything to propose and there's nothing to change, then it's not a big issue yet. That's why I let the proposal linger, because there was no pressing need for it and it would be better to have the change when enough people feel they want it, if ever~whatever goes
well, we shall see, won't we.
we shall see seashells by the seashore, surely
thats what she said
I agree that selling votes is terrible, and hurts democracy.
Sadly, I need tanks.
I'll tell you what. If you send me the tanks I would of got from Rolo for voting the way he wanted me to I'll be free to vote my conscience.
Now before you say no because there's a chance I would vote for one of your opponents, you should probably know that if I were to vote for the person I most wanted to see elected, I would vote for you.
Ah, that's very nice of you to say Muglack, in a circumlocutionary sort of way, but up front about what your needs are. However, if I send you tanks to free up your vote and then you vote for me, I'll never really know if your vote was actually freely won or gotten out of a sense of gratitude. I'd rather know that you did what's best for you and I do what's best for me, so everyone gets what they deserve...that's sorta fair, too, in a roundabout sorta way, I think.
btw,democracy doesn't exist here in true form~try this
When we pick who's going to be on our team in gym class, we usually go for the best players and leave the wheezers and gimped legs for last.We wouldn't choose them at all if possible and leave them on the sidelines, which is one of the awesome things about eRep elections~there is the potential for exclusion and promotion
The kid who gives you candy to get picked is still a good choice if you want reward but don't feel the need to win
The worst thing that can happen here is a TO. Even though Canada's population dropped, I think that this is still not possible, yet. Now, every voter has his/her own way for choosing who to represent him/her. Still, for a country to exist (even this is just a game) it's crucial that the majority of the chosen ones is working in the country's best interest. Sure, some of the congressmen bought their chair, but some are really to be trusted. And in my opinion Plugson is the latter.
Good heavens, man, I just pressed the link to your presentation. Hot tub time machine!
You saw through my elaborate ploy to sell you my vote.
For this you have earned my vote.
Too bad Manitoba couldn't be freed sooner, it would have been nice running against you again Plugson. GL with the campaign and hope to see you in congress once again.