NationStates Jolt Archive

Frequently Asked Questions About Issues

If there's anything you don't understand, isn't in the FAQ (http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/page=faq), or that you wish to be clarified, ask it on this thread and, if it's not already in my thread on how to write issues, I'll put it here. I sometimes talk about issues in my blog, too, if you're interested: http://siroccothemod.blogspot.com/

How do I submit an issue?

In your sidebar there is a link that says 'Issues'. Click it, and if you have 500 million citizens or over, a link will be there that asks you if you wish to submit an issue. Remember to read the guidelines.

Why does my nation have to have a population of over 500 million?

Because hopefully by then submitters will know what a good issue looks like.

Argh, I don't know where to begin writing one! How do I know what I can put in?

Take a look at the stickies of the forum, and other issues. This should help give a general idea of what issues consist of. Remember that you don't need to add the [stats] when submitting your issue, so don't fret if you can't figure out exactly how an option affects your nation (that's my job).

Can you give me any advice on writing issues?

Sure, I made a thread for that very purpose: http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=338362

If you want personal advice on how to make your issue better, you can always e-mail me at sirocco@nationstates.net

How many issues are there?

Check here: http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=345941

Can I submit suggestions for edits to already existing issues?

No. As far as new options for old issues are concerned, it's not going to happen. As for spelling errors or contextual mistakes, you can post them to NuMetal's sticky in this forum.

How many options can I use when writing an issue?

Any number greater than one.

How do I know if my issue has been accepted?

If your issue has been accepted and put into the game, you'll get a telegram congratulating you, and you will get the issue you wrote to decide on as well, even if it's not valid for your nation.

How do I know if it's been rejected?

When an issue submission is deleted, the author is not informed. A good idea is to memorise when you submitted it.

Why?

Because the issue editors get to look at player-submitted issues in batches of about 2000 issues each which span across particular time-periods. If your issue was submitted in a batch which has been finished, then it has either been deleted or coded into the game. [violet] (or Sal, now) shows us these batches one at a time. Once we've worked through one, we can go to the next one. If you want to know whether your issue has been rejected yet or not, simply look here:

Issues from July 2003 to the 23rd of May 2007 have been finished. All issues submitted during that period have either been deleted or coded and put into the game.

The batch we're working on now extends from the 24th of May 2007 to the 24rd of May 2008.

If my issue has been rejected, can I submit it again?

Yes, but I'd think about why it was rejected before doing so and make the necessary changes.

How long will it take for you to get to my issue?

It varies a lot I'm afraid. Could take days, could take months, it depends what batch it's in.

What happens to my nation if I dismiss an issue?

Absolutely nothing. A popular myth is that dismissing issues lowers your population's growth rate. This is not true.

I've already had this issue, so why am I getting it again?

There is already a sticky covering this: http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=313282

Is there a way to review all the issues about which I have already decided to see what my answers were?

No, you can only view the effects of the last few issues you answered in your nation's description.

Is there any truth to the rumour that there are two sets of issues, large nation and small nation? if so when is one considered a "large" nation?

There is only one set of issues. You can only get the first 31 (the ones that Max Barry wrote) for the first two weeks or so of playing before getting player-submitted issues afterwards.

What do I do if someone copies my issue when I post it in this forum?

There's not much you can do unless we notice two issues being exactly the same and being submitted by two different people. If we come across an issue which has been copied, we can check out this forum to see who proposed it originally. If it's your idea that's been stolen, well, there's not much we can do. If you're particularly worried about your issue, you can ask for advice on it by e-mailing me at sirocco@nationstates.net

My issue got accepted but it looks nothing like what I wrote! Why?

Some issues have to be extensively re-written to be of the high quality we want.

How many issue editors are there?

It varies. Currently, the only editor who works with any regularity is Sirocco.

How do I get to be an issue editor?

Only game moderators can be issue editors, as it requires access to the modcentre.

Oh, so how do I get to be a-

There's a thread about it in the 'Moderation' forum.

Why is my issue still 'pending legislation' after the update?

This is a bug, a fairly common one. To fix it simply move your nation out of your region and then back in. The issue should enact after the next update.

I choose one option on my issue but I get the effects of another. Why?

This is a problem most commonly caused by web accelerators. Turn your one off for www.nationstates.net

Why can't we have more than two issues a day?

There's plenty of reasons as to why this is including the number of descriptors that fit on your nation, coding, values, etc. but in the end the answer will always be the same to any requests to make it bigger. The answer is no.

Is there a sticky anywhere listing the [stats] part of every issue option?

You don't actually need to put [stats] in, that's something that the issue editors will pore over anyway. And there's many variables that are secret too, so there's not much point in this.

Secret? I don't think so! I'm sure there's several of us who could create a spoiler thread for what each issue does do for those who are interested.

Not accurately, you couldn't. 99% of theories I've read about issues are either wrong or misleading. Anyway, such data will not be released, and I would argue against attempting to classify everything, as I can guarantee you'd get it wrong for reasons I'm not going to disclose. Besides, where's the fun in knowing everything?

Frequently Asked Issue Questions
reprinted from the NationStates FAQ (http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/page=faq) Page

http://www.nationstates.net/images/nsarrow2.gifI don't agree with any of the options on this issue!

Dismiss it, then. This is the equivalent of ignoring an issue until people stop talking about it and there's not so much pressure to do something. If you were a real government, you'd do this all the time, of course, but in NationStates it's more interesting if you respond to issues by actually making decisions.

http://www.nationstates.net/images/nsarrow2.gifWho wrote all these issues?

I [Max] wrote the first thirty, back in the days when I thought nobody much would be interested in playing a political simulation game. I imagined NationStates as the kind of game you might stumble across, have fun with for a week or two, then move on. Then this entire community just popped into existence, as vibrant and dedicated as any on the internet, and it became clear that 30 issues just weren't enough. Rather than devote the rest of my life to writing them, I decided to ask players to submit their own issues, and let the moderators edit them into a form suitable for use in the game. That's the current system: new issues are constantly entering the game.

If an issue has been written by a player and/or edited by a moderator, it says so whenever you view that issue. If it doesn't credit an author, it's by me.

http://www.nationstates.net/images/nsarrow2.gifWhy is my nation so weird?

Everything is exaggerated a little. Well, okay, a lot. Your decisions affect your nation very strongly, so your country might seem like a more extreme version of what you were aiming for. Unless you have radical politics. In which case you probably think nothing's wrong.

http://www.nationstates.net/images/nsarrow2.gifMy decision had unintended consequences!

Yep, that'll happen. For one thing, see "Why is my nation so weird?" above. For another, pretty much every decision you make will involve a trade-off of some kind. It's kind of an exercise in choosing the best of a bunch of bad options. You might find this frustrating, especially if you're the kind of person who thinks the solutions to all the world's problems are obvious.

http://www.nationstates.net/images/nsarrow2.gifMy decisions on issues aren't being processed!

Decisions aren't processed immediately: it takes time for them to become law. How quickly your decisions are implemented depends on how many you choose to receive per week. If you receive one issue per weekday, your decisions are only processed five times per week, too.

You can change this in your nation's "Settings".

http://www.nationstates.net/images/nsarrow2.gifI'm not receiving new issues!

If your nation already has five unaddressed issues, it won't get any more. You need to dismiss some first. Once you do that, you'll start to receive one new issue per weekday (or whatever time period you've set in your nation's "Settings").

If that's not it, make sure you don't have "Vacation Mode" enabled in your nation's "Settings".

The Issues FAQ has been updated with a few more frequently-asked questions that just refuse to go away, and the old comments have been split off to here (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=348680).

Is there a sticky anywhere listing the [stats] part of every issue option?

You don't actually need to put [stats] in, that's something that the issue editors will pore over anyway. And there's many variables that are secret too, so there's not much point in this.
So ignore the guidelines on this point?

Just want to make sure that if I omit stats, my issue won't get automatically deleted for violating the submission guidelines.

If you want, you can also provide more detailed instructions as to what should happen to the internal makeup of nations that choose this option. To do this, start a new line and write "[stats]", followed by a description as to what should happen.

The operative words being "if you want". No, you do not need to include [stats].

Several of the existing issues that I've seen mention certain specific nationalities, such as Bigtopians and Lilliputians, for example in the context of immigration. Am I right to assume that using those particular nationalities (& their homelands) as named examples of foreigners (& foreign nations) in new issues is also allowed?

Yes.

Would I be allowed to make up my own? I'm thinking of using a native group called the Kallistites. Is this okay?

Sure, but I'll probably change it to Bigtopians/Lilliputians/Maxtopians unless I see good reason not to.

Would mentioning the International Scouting Movement in an proposed issue be considered too much of a real-world reference, and consequently get that issue automatically dropped from consideration, or can I assume that the NS world has an equivalent movement?

We don't mind the mentioning of real-life organisations. After all, that's what Jennifer Government is all about.

I have a question which is probably considered stupid but I can't find the answer no matter how hard I look and it's gonna be bugging me until I find the answer. When do your nations issues get updated after you decide on which option you wish to take? I've only recently found the whole issues thing and I've picked my option, but I was just wondering if there is a set amount of time it takes before your choice is processed or if not then how does work?

Thanks in advance for any help. :)

I don't really know much about the technical side of things, but they'll have been legislated by the day after you decided on them (give or take a few hours depending on your time zone).

Issues are processed during the two daily updates, and fresh issues are distributed then as well. The times would vary depending on several factors, including your location in the world, the number of issues your have selected to receive, and the volume of server load to be processed. They tend to be about 12 hours apart.

These answers almost uniformly disallow a libertarian response.

For instance the marijuanna question.

The right response would be "No. We will not outlaw drugs. Yes. Your property rights entitle you to do anything you consider reasonable to protect your business including having manditory, random drug testing a requirement to receive the privilege of employment."

You have set up a false dichotomy... being pro business is not the same as being anti civil rights.

re: issue no. 16: Workers Strike

I wasn't happy with this issue - sorry to post this here but I couldn't find an better thread.

This issue assumes liberal pluralist state theory; that is either the government is captured by the interests of the business or the interests of labour. In pratice, nearly all first countries have at least experimented with corporatist alternative in which instead of becoming captured by such interests, governments attempt - with degrees of success - to capture the interests. This usually involves forcing the leaders of business and labour unions to sit down together and organise a more stable solution mediated by the government.

A typical third solution to this issue could run:

3. "This conflict and instability in the @@MAJORINDUSTRY@@ is helping no one!" rants visiting political sciencist @@RANDOMNAME@@. "The government must step in and help the leaders unions and business groups come together and find a compromise between wages and productivity - by force if necessary! That way the government can promote economic growth while still protecting worker welfare. Of course, this might cost a wee bit, and there will always be those who complain about enforced cooperation, but its' sure to be worth it!"
Effects Government personally steps into industrial conflict
Increases the economy, taxation and welfare and reduces political freedom

Sorry once more if this is the wrong thread to post this.

The batch we're working on now extends from the 18th of March 2005 to the 31st of May 2005.
Is this still correct? Are you really over a year behind on sorting through the issue proposals, or is this just out of date? Or are you just not bothering with new issues any more?

Hah, yes, I'd forgotten all about this thread. I am still doing issues. I've just been plagued by delays until recently. You can see my blog if you want to know why.

I understand that one may get issues more than once, but I think that there should be some means of recording and viewing which issues a nation-state has decided already.

That way, a government could simply dismiss an issue it receives more than once without having to reenact legislation for it.

On the other hand maybe you would reconsider your earlier decision, after all real governments tend to zig and zag a bit with policy matters.

Could you add this to the FAQ?:

Are those with less than 500mill. population aloud to discuss drafts in the Issues forum?

I either need a basic Yes or a detailing No.

--Havvy--

P.S. I have 2 Ideas. I want to get them in the game. One is a "branch" of the 25th question, if you give them money to allow... (not giving spoilers) Check it yourself...; it talks about how a group of clones escaped from the "labs" and are creating a crime spree. (It isn't the first time...)

My other one is about school districts trying to take over other ones. This is based over the events of OPS here in Nebraska. Would they be allowed?
--!--
Remember the FAQ question at the top first.

Are those with less than 500mill. population aloud to discuss drafts in the Issues forum?
Draft issues, yes. You just can't submit them until you hit 500 million.