NationStates Jolt Archive

I have a draft of a chemical weapons ban, which I was going to call 'The Houston Convention'. I thought it would be good to have a title in the way of the Geneva Convention, or the Ramsar Convention. All the cities in Sheknu are named after RL places, though, and the draft thread has been repeatedly beset by people suggesting I change the name, as it would be an illegal RL reference (even though it's referring to Houston, Sheknu, not Houston, Texas). Now, I probably will change it, because it's causing such fuss, and distracting from, you know, stopping people killing each other in horrible ways, but, partly out of curiosity:
1. is it now illegal to have a proposal named for a city/province/nation?
2. if not, is it however illegal if that place has a RL equivalent?

Thanks.

I wouldn't say illegal, as AFAIK there's no RL Houston Convention. That said, to avoid controversy you might want to consider dropping the name, as the Mods might not be looking over them that carefully. (They have pretty heavy loads, from what I hear it's hard work being a Mod.)

Since 99.9% of the people who will see that Proposal will think of Texas, it would be better to remove the reference.

"The Wolfish Convention" was passed in the days before Branding was considered a violation. I understand your reasoning, but sometimes you just have to be accomodating. Try making a title that somehow relates to what it is you're trying to pass.

When I was still approving proposals as a Delegate, I would pass on anything that reads as 'ego-boost'. I want content, not cleverness. I suspect a lot of players share that view.

"The Wolfish Convention" was passed in the days before Branding was considered a violation. I understand your reasoning, but sometimes you just have to be accomodating. Try making a title that somehow relates to what it is you're trying to pass.

When I was still approving proposals as a Delegate, I would pass on anything that reads as 'ego-boost'. I want content, not cleverness. I suspect a lot of players share that view.

While that is an opinion ... I certainly don't think the Geneva Conventions are a Swiss ego boost, nor is the Montreal Protocol a Canadian ego boost. In fact, I thought Wolfish's "Wolfish Convention on POW" was one of the better names for a resolution.

As for content, not cleverness ... I too try to avoid judging a book by its cover, but I wouldn't go as far as to guess how many players look deeply into resolution / proposal content. Case in point: 4-Hour Workweek. It had provisions for overtime pay, but if I had a $1,000 for every time in the resolution and subsequent repeal attempts that a player complained that the resolution FORCED people to work only a maximum of 40-hours a week, I'd be sitting on some *nice* California real estate now.

What would be cool is a RP title and then an informative subtitle. It would also give dumb players something to hang themselves with if they started abusing the title fields.

BTW, is there a NationStates Darwin Awards?

It's fine. It was just a thought, but I think it'd be more likely to be counter-productive. Thank you.

NS Darwin Awards? Try this? (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Hall_of_Ex-Nations)