NationStates Jolt Archive

No one is getting warned this round because the ruling was unclear--our fault. However, we\'ve decided this to be reasonable for advertising an alternate offsite regional forum in that region\'s message board:

1.) One advertisement/reference per user (NOT per account, so using puppets as a loophole is disallowed) per 24 hour period. This is different from the usual regional advertisement scheme in that each user can post one advertisement if they choose, rather than the entire board/region being represented by a single post.

2.) This must be done so the board does not scroll quickly or is not spammed. This is admittedly a judgement call, but spacing out individual advertisements hourly would seem reasonable.

3.) Using URLs as regional message board signatures is disallowed, as are making junk posts whose only intent is to reference URLs. (NOTE: This may be rescinded in the future; however, the current observed behavior has disappointed us greatly.)

4.) As always, posting messages simply to scroll the message board and thus scroll off information, advertisements, and the like is spam and will be dealt with accordingly.

Everyone who has already advertised their particular off-site forum (you know who you are), please wait until tomorrow before trying again.

Can I please add that Cogitation has ruled that our poetry was also deemed spam?

I'm really sorry to add this work for you guys. But when there are more than 10 people posting, how are we supposed to slow down the progression of our board? There are a LOT of people in TNP that want to talk about this.

:fluffle:

3.) Using URLs as regional message board signatures is disallowed, as are making junk posts whose only intent is to reference URLs. (NOTE: This may be rescinded in the future; however, the current observed behavior has disappointed us greatly.)

4.) As always, posting messages simply to scroll the message board and thus scroll off information, advertisements, and the like is spam and will be dealt with accordingly.


#4 can be a pretty subjective thing. Having been involved in the July 2004 North Pacific struggles, I have no plans to get involved this time, but I do understand that tempers flair and often players on both sides feel that the moderators aren't __moderating__ a tense situtation fairly. (So I'm happy to see and read this post, which seems pro-active and fair.)

#3 is a dangerous policy to make. Many of us use forum signatures with the URLs of our off-site forums, and that is allowed.

I'd like to ask that long-term that the Game Admins (not mods) consider looking into what the problems with feeder regions is and why these struggles (or when the UN Endorsement count glitch happened in the Fall of 2004) result in great frustration of players. The solution might be a reworking of how feeders work in NS2, but it seems to me that one way to ease tensions might be a very short addition to the FAQ warning players of the "political instablity" that can occur in feeder regions and politely pointing out that just getting banned or ejected from a region isn't always a personal thing, but a normal in game function.

Waking up in the rejected realms is a shock the first time ... but once you've been there, you either brush it off or get mad. I just don't want to see what is going on to spill over into other areas of gameplay and become personal. Though I do honestly now feel that political intrique and trickier add some element of interest to the game ... I just want the game to remain fun for many players.

Again, I happen to like these rules, even if I have a minor objection to the ban on forum URLs in sigatures. And I appreciate the moderation response! :)

10kMichael

4.) As always, posting messages simply to scroll the message board and thus scroll off information, advertisements, and the like is spam and will be dealt with accordingly.

Folks will particularly need to keep this one in mind. It was already a standing rule, but they did it anyway all the time. With one group trying to get their point across and another trying to stifle that point, there has been even more of this lately.

How does this ruling impact advocating FOR or AGAINST current UN resolutions?

However, we\'ve decided this to be reasonable for advertising an alternate offsite regional forum in that region\'s message board:
I'd say its impact is rather explicit.

I'd say its impact is rather explicit.

So if I were to send my puppet around to regions while my UN resolution is up for debate and not post links to the UN resolution *debate* on any forum, it is OK for me to do this, so long as it is with the approval of the region's UN Delegate?

But if I were to then include links, say to an off-site forum (say the West Pacific or East Pacific feeder debates), this is limited to one link per day?

What if the URLs actually point to a specific thread on the NS UN forum?

Thanks!

I'd like to ask that long-term that the Game Admins (not mods) consider looking into what the problems with feeder regions is

10kMichael

The problem with feeder regions is that certain groups of nations decided that they would make the feeder regions their own, and run it like an actual region instead of just a starting point. This is the same thing as the Rejected Realms. It was never designed as a place to play...merely a place to be shipped to.

Perhaps we need to ask ourselves why nations would not leave their starting points?

There are probably many different reasons, but as a UN focused player, I've found that the 300 to 700 votes a feeder Delegate has, that being in such a position naturally brings many other talented players through the feeder regions.

Another thing is that the feeder off-site forums tend to enjoy a bit of diversity that may or may not exist in specialized regions.



If we find our moderaters and players in frequent stress over feeder region issues, would a paragraph explaining what feeder regions are, namely starting points, from a Game Admin help at all?

I must admit I find them a very fascinating aspect of the game and enjoy many of the feeder long time residents (I'm not calling them natives, as I recall once that it was suggested by somebody that feeders don't have natives).

1.)(NOT per account, so using puppets as a loophole is disallowed
What if you are not aware that it is a puppet?

#3 is a dangerous policy to make. Many of us use forum signatures with the URLs of our off-site forums, and that is allowed.
Forum sigs can be turned on and off by the reader, they don't scroll off the board, and a single change in a sig line make a global change in all previous posts. RMB posts can't hyperlink URLs, they scroll off quickly, and have a different defined purpose.

Apples and oranges, Mik. There's no crossover policy effect here.

What if you are not aware that it is a puppet?

Are you trying to say you don't know when you are using an alternate nation from your usual? I think they're trying to say 'worry about what YOU do there and of you DO know without a doubt it is someone using a puppet, let them know'.

Oh. I thought it meant that you can't TG other people's puppets. I get it. OK, thanks.

First, I want to note that I was not the primary Moderator handling this situation. I walked in on the middle of this situation; it was already being handled by someone else.

Can I please add that Cogitation has ruled that our poetry was also deemed spam?
That was a temporary ruling meant to control the situation and buy time for the primary Moderators to make a more permanent ruling on the matter.

As Scolopendra has now issued a more permanent ruling, I am rescinding my moratorium on poetry per se. However, you must still abide by the ruling above and the existing rules against spam, obscenity, malice, etc. The poetry ban was imposed because there was a lot of it all at once (hence spam), people just seemed to be going nuts, and I wasn't quite sure what the hell was going on.

Remember: One URL advertisement per user per day. One endorse/unendorse message per user per day.

--The Modified Democratic States of Cogitation
NationStates Game Moderator

Thanks Cog! We'll not spam with poetry. :fluffle:

Hello,

As some of you may know, the East Pacific is currently hosting a NationStates World's Faire, on an invision board.

I think it is a great idea, and isn't "region" recruiting, but I wanted to know how frequently I could post reminders on regional forums where I have my puppets, including the URL.

Thanks.

With regards to regional forums; we don't police them. That's up to whatever admin and moderators those forums have.

Regional message boards, however, we do; here the ruling is the same with anything else; once per day (although you shouldn't need to do that if the RMB is moving slow enough that yesterday's message is showing, of course).

I'd suggest, however, that you be careful where you put it - in a region which doesn't roleplay much or at all, you're likely to get only grief from it.

~ Tsar the Mod.

Regional message boards, however, we do; here the ruling is the same with anything else; once per day (although you shouldn't need to do that if the RMB is moving slow enough that yesterday's message is showing, of course).


Danke!

I wasn't thinking anything massive, but I just wanted to confirm how frequently I could post on the feeder regional boards.

-M