NationStates Jolt Archive

An unofficial opinion

Why does The UN exist?

When you get down to it, it isn't about world peace, national sovereignty, cute black tie events, and disobeying everything you don’t agree with. In Nation States things are simpler. Well not for us but I'm sure it is for someone.

According to The UN FAQ "The UN is your chance to mold the rest of the world to your vision" which is true really. Although the members eventually decide what is UN worthy (unless a mod gets it first and then we are extremely grateful for not being submitted to it) for example, until very recently most members of the forum seamed to have collectively decided that we aren’t even going to bother touching abortion. But then we did it anyway.

The members seam to decide something's collectively and then change their mind. For a new player it could be helpful to hang around the forums for a couple of days and get the feel of things but remember that all things change and sometimes the none posting members sneak one up on us.

Most importantly, The UN doesn’t have an agenda, it's members do.

What can The UN pass resolutions on?

Just about everything but not-

Anything against game mechanics! Yes game mechanics, no one likes game mechanics (well I do but I'm strange so you really don't want to follow my example) but it's quite easy to stay on the right side of them, just follow these easy steps

No Amendments! It just isn't possible so don't even try it. Tightening or defining is usually allowed but get a mod's opinion just to be on the safe side. Also you can't just repeal one bit of a proposal it's all or nothing.
No limiting the UN's power. Now really, even if it was allowed you'd just create another rule and since I doubt anyone would be able to pop it into the coding a mod would have to do it by hand. In the immortal words of Enodia* clearly the UN can infringe on whatever it wants because the option to make such proposals exists.
No dictating what form of government someone can have. The game can't tell if your communist, a dictator, capitalist, or whatever someone has problems with. There would be no way to enforce such a resolution.
No changing how the game works. That includes how many endorsements people need, what percentage a vote needs to pass, no war, no 'it would be cool if we could…'.


Anything the mods don't considered worthy of The UN's attention. Rarely used because no one can make sense of it. This includes proposals that make war against a nation, real life proposals and joke proposals.

Anything the members don't considered worthy of The UN's attention. This is a harder one to pin down. For example but some people ignore proposals that are already national issues, some are fine with that.


Yes half of those contradict each over but that is how the game works.

What can The UN do for me?

It provides a place for you to have fun debating issues and give you access to the best bar in Nation States but most importantly it gives you a chance to force your political ideals on the rest of us.

It's give and take so don't join if you feel your country can't compromise. You will have to put up with stuff you don't agree with in order to get your say.

Please don't join The UN if you have problems with 'the tyranny of the majority' or sacrificing your 'national sovereignty' because The UN is not compatible with those views.

In the end you have to weigh up the good and the bad and decide if your nation would benefit from joining The UN.

Good Luck.

Clare,
Real world button pusher and UN observer,
The Black New World

*Ex-mod, God who walked amongst us.

Anti-newbie Behaviour

Generally speaking it doesn’t happen. It used to happen but it's mostly gone now. On your first visit to the forums I suggest reading all of the stickies (except for The Strangers Bar, even if you want to post there I wouldn't read all of it). You'll need to decide if your going to use a character to post with (more about that later).

A good place to post your first post is in the thread about the current resolution (if there is one) but don't start your own thread, it will only be locked. Remember, if you're going to take a stand on something you need to back that up. You need some knowledge of the issue, some knowledge of the rules of the UN (but then you did read the stickies, didn't you?) and you need to know about the resolution that have already passed.

We aren’t going to bite your head off if you make a mistake but that isn't a excuse not to learn the rules.

IC? OOC?

First off IC means in character and OOC means out of character.

Although The UN is not a role playing forum some players post using characters. This is either done because their real life views are different from their NS views, they think it sounds official, they wanted a character to drink in The Stranger's Bar, to make there statements different from their role playing characters, or they picked a really cool name and didn't know what else to do with it.

Ultimately the decision is up to you but if you do pick a character you can post a bio in this thread- http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=317022

Do previous decisions really affect me?

Yes.

Although they don't effect your stats you will no longer be able to see issues that could contradict them and your nation won't be able to go around saying 'well we don't do it'. Well you can but I'll get to that after the line break.

'I'm role playing so I can role play not following them' As valid as the argument as it might seam is some people consider it Godmodding and as such they will fire I.G.N.O.R.E cannons. Of course some don't and we enter into one of the more confusing aspects of The UN forums. Exploiting a loop hole is considered valid by most people although I wouldn't go too far with it.

You don't have a veto. If we had a veto everyone would complain that people get out easy by using the veto. It's a lesser of two annoyances thing.

Clare,
Real world button pusher and UN observer,
The Black New World

The Usual Responses

They show up every time a loaded issue is decided upon and they don't get any more interesting. The following is a list of things that get said a lot, so often that I am sick of them.

Please note that some of the complaints do make valid points but they have been addressed before and probably before that.

I Can't believe this proposal passed!

Well it did. If you disagreed you now have two options; a) live with it and b) quit The UN c) quit complaining and work to get it repealed.


The UN always let's [insert political ideal] proposals pass

Welcome to The UN. People here have different views. It may seam like only 'left wing' proposals make it but ask around the forum and you will find that well written sensible ideas usually win through. although what people outside the forums are thinking of is anyone's guess.

Although this proposal breaks the rules the mods let it pass. The mods are against me!

Grow up. Now.

The mods are very unlikely to let a proposal pass through that is illegal. Although moderators are allowed to have an opinion they don't, generally, let them get in the way of rule enforcement.

People who voted for this are idiots who didn't read anything beyond the title

Just because people disagree with you doesn’t mean they are idiots, it doesn’t mean they don't do what's best for their country. You can't understand why people vote yes? Believe me, some people don't understand why you voted no.

This is an attack on my National Sovereignty (TM)!

You signed up for it.

If you do disagree so much you feel you have to leave…

… don't make a show, don't call us immoral, in most cases don't even post. If you are known in the strangers bar a little note in there will suffice. If you are well known on the forum you may want to say bye in there. If you are going to make a protest post, that's nice, but once a proposal becomes a resolution you can't do away with it you can't change the way The UN works, and most people won't take you seriously.

Clare,
Real world button pusher and UN observer,
The Black New World

Black, if I may post something on writing proposals?

Telegram me.

If you do disagree so much you feel you have to leave…

… don't make a show, don't call us immoral, in most cases don't even post. If you are known in the strangers bar a little note in there will suffice. If you are well known on the forum you may want to say bye in there. If you are going to make a protest post, that's nice, but once a proposal becomes a resolution you can't do away with it you can't change the way The UN works, and most people won't take you seriously.

And for $DEITY's sake, don't pester us through your puppet nations either. Believe it or not, the rest of us are not going to respect this tactic so much that we rise as one to dissolve the UN.