NationStates Jolt Archive

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=441102

I don't want to cause trouble, and I really admire all the work he's putting in. But he is effectively using the forums as an events log for issue decisions, his NSEconomy stats, and so on. Whilst harmless in its own right, it's a dangerous precedent, isn't it? Thousands of nations doing so would be bad.

Given that thousands don't, I imagine there's no problem with it per se...but it does seem like a potential for spam.

Yeah it does seem like spam to me. (or could turn into it.) I can only imagine all of us starting topics like that and effectively killing II and NS boards IMO.


/not a mod

Well we're not all doing it are we?
In amongst all those facts and figures is some actuall roleplay.
He's put one hell of a lot of work into all of that, it would be a shame to stifle such enthusiasm in my opinion.

Absolutely. I really hope he keeps it up - it's fascinating stuff. But it's unfair to allow 'good cases' and ban 'bad cases'. I really hope the mods don't lock/delete the thread, but do at least make some sort of statement as to whether, were lots of people to start this, it would constitute spam.

It's only minimally different than ever other factbook on the boards. Still, I've posted to remind him to be sure he's doing more than just cut/paste.

Thanks. That seems sensible.

Listeneisse TO&E (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=441102&page=6&pp=15) was flagged because, apparently, it was 'spammy' updating my economy twice daily, with intermittant updates of my TO&E, economic and defense analysis.

I've already pledged to post my TO&E only once every week to two. Any more often than that, and it is actually difficult to keep up.

Doing a quick survey of just the top level and first two pages of the NS Forum, I note that Listeneisse TO&E in the current 'top 20' list of active postings, on a per-post basis.

It has 77 postings, with 516 readings, about 6.7 readings per post. Which does not put it in the 'top 20' of most-read-per-posting threads. I never figured reading the logistics of a growing NationState were going to be fascinating, but it is, surprisingly, not the lowest-rated thread out there.

"Hot" threads have about 10-16 readings per post. Many other threads have a posting-to-reading rating of 5 or less.

At the same time, Listeneisse TO&E is nowhere near as long as the 1,000+ long threads are by an order of magnitude. At present rate of posting -- about 2.5 times daily -- it would take me about another 10 months to even approach the 1,000+ post rate.

Which I'm not planning to do.

The typical post on the NS and II Forums is about 23 posts per thread. So, in a way, it could be argued that the thread has already exceeded average length by 3:1. I had hoped to take it longer, but nowhere near 1,000 posts in the first year.

Basically, Listeneisse is in it's 'rapid growth' cycle. At first, population growth rate was 11-33% per day.

Now, it's down to about 4%-8%. As the nation grows and stabilizes, I anticipate that I will see less and less of a need to tweak the economy.

I'll probably drop back in the next 30-90 days to 1/day issues instead of 2/day. Firstly, I'll have likely adjusted my GDP to something reasonable, and will not feel the need to futz with it. Secondly, I'll have seen a majority of the issues, and new issues will not be as novel.

As well, I will probably at some time start making 1/week OOC comparisons, just as I'll do at first 2/month, then 1/month TO&E updates.

The thread will eventually drop in terms of post count based on the sheer preponderance of "other things to do with my life."

While this might seem "spammy" at present time, please consider that some of us are not just posting "ur pwned! lol!!!@@@"

This has been a serious attempt at tracking/simulating a nation as it grows in population and policy. I'm trying to do a diligent job tracking a nation across its growth curves. I must say, I was inspired by others who have provided examples before me, and who have called for other NationStates to try to remain 'reasonable' in their economic development and military logistics.

I also admit that such a consistant thread might be irritating to people if they keep seeing it pop to the top, and they have no desire to read it. However, they are not forced to click on the link, so I'm not sure that it's truly "spam" in that regard. I'm certainly not interfering with other threads on the Forum.

What I am doing is somewhat unique, I must admit. Few other people are really this much of a statistics nut or keep open records like I am.

I just hope to be shown a bit of lenience to allow this to serve as an exemplar state, for other people to watch how decisions can be made and develop a country over time. Once the point's been made, there's no reason to continue it ad nauseum.

If need be, I might continue the thread elsewhere. However, I'd first like to present this as a valid use of the Forums, and, I hope, suggest it's a somewhat interesting read for those wonks who are following along.

I freely admit it would be "a bad thing™" if everyone else decided to do this daily. With 100,000+ nations, you'd rapidly melt the servers. Yet, because it has been rather work-intensive, I believe I'm the only nutcase actually doing this on the Forums at present.

Yes, I do keep an Excel document for my data. I just don't have a way to get all the rest of the NSEconomy stats into it besides copy/paste, so I've simply relied on block copy/paste to the Forums. My apologies if it seemed to be statistical clutter.

I understand the desire to keep such in a local file, but that sort of defeated my 'public case study' goals.

Do I present a reasonable case for myself, or do you have any feedback?

Listeneisse TO&E (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=441102&page=6&pp=15) was flagged because, apparently, it was 'spammy' updating my economy twice daily, with intermittant updates of my TO&E, economic and defense analysis.As I posted in your thread, frequent posts to reflect the tiny changes reflected by Thirdgeek are unnecessary.

Doing a quick survey of just the top level and first two pages of the NS Forum, I note that Listeneisse TO&E in the current 'top 20' list of active postings, on a per-post basis.Forum rules are not a popularity contest. Views per post have nothing to do with anything. If they did, then one of my threads should be able to do anything it wants, as it has 57 postings and 1567 readings (27.5 readings per post). Nevermind the fact that many of those viewings were likely people following the link in the thread this post will be merged into once I finish this reply.

At the same time, Listeneisse TO&E is nowhere near as long as the 1,000+ long threads are by an order of magnitude. At present rate of posting -- about 2.5 times daily -- it would take me about another 10 months to even approach the 1,000+ post rate.Content is what matters here; not length.

Basically, Listeneisse is in it's 'rapid growth' cycle. At first, population growth rate was 11-33% per day.

Now, it's down to about 4%-8%. As the nation grows and stabilizes, I anticipate that I will see less and less of a need to tweak the economy.That's because of game mechanics. Over time every nation grows at exactly the same rate.

While this might seem "spammy" at present time, please consider that some of us are not just posting "ur pwned! lol!!!@@@"Strawman.

However, they are not forced to click on the link, so I'm not sure that it's truly "spam" in that regard.Nobody is ever forced to read spam, but it's still banned.

Do I present a reasonable case for myself, or do you have any feedback?I see no real "case" here at all. I see a lot of irrelevent statistics and an attempt to deflect a ruling because of what the ever nebulous "everyone else" is doing.

You weren't warned; your thread wasn't locked; you weren't told that you couldn't continue this project. You were told that if your posts amounted to no more than adjusting numbers from an unofficial site every day, it would be considered spam.

As per the Moderator's ruling, I'll post future updates to the national policy choices and leading economic indicators out on the WotD Regional Forum, in a Listeneisse Factbook (http://s13.invisionfree.com/Defenders_of_warzone/index.php?showtopic).

I will still be posting occasional TO&E, policy updates, and roleplaying episodes, but I will leave it to be recorded elsewhere more of the raw nuts & bolts, like the budgets and OOC comparisons to RL states.
My apologies for those who took issue with the thread.