General Forum Rulings and Good General Advice

[Katganistan]

Originally posted by Reploid Productions

The One-Stop Rules Shop

... is a compliation of all the rules of NationStates, both Games and Forums.

There are a few rules that refer specifically to the General forum here, including those listed below.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +



Following the massive purge of spam/chat/pointless threads in the General Forum, several of the mods discussed the issues raised by players. This is the ruling on the subject (subject to change should [violet] come to a different ruling):

1) General Forum threads will have a 65 page cap (1300 posts), at which point, they will be deleted if they are mostly spam (quote pyramids, word games, flaming, etc), or locked if they are mostly legit conversation (chatting/debating/etc). This is to prevent supermassive threads that clog the forum and only worsen the 'invalid session' problem.

2) Word game etc. threads are no longer allowed.

3) "Post-whoring" will not be tolerated, and will be treated as spamming. If you're going to post, make sure you're adding something to the thread's discussion. Those of you who lost massive chunks of your post count in the recent purge, take note.

4) Flaming, as always, is not tolerated, and will be dealt with according to the moderator rules of engagement as outlined by [violet].

The management apologizes for the confusion caused by this. Thank you for your cooperation, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

~Evil Overlord Rep Prod the Senior Game Mod

(Odd, I could swear I'd posted this here already o_O)
Last edited by Frisbeeteria; 02-05-2005 at 09:44. Reason: linked the One-Stop Rules Shop

[Katganistan]

Originally posted by Smokey the NSer

Smokey's Great Big Guide to Forum Fires
Hello, kids. Today I’m here to share with you a guide I’ve written. It combines information from the updated version of On The Prevention of Forum Fires and On Putting Out Forum Fires and in addition tells you what a forum fire is. I hope that this more centralized guide will be useful to you.

On Forum Fires

The following is a description of forum fires and an explanation of why they are harmful.

1. A forum fire is what happens when forum posters start flaming each other. Generally forum fires start when: a poster flames another poster and that other poster responds in kind; a poster flamebaits another poster; a poster engages in trolling. These acts may not start a forum fire in all cases, but they are very likely to do so. For definitions of words like flaming, flamebait, and trolling, see the One-Stop Rules Shop.

2. Forum fires are harmful because they create an atmosphere of hostility and encourage verbal abuse. One of the problems with these things is that they create a much less enjoyable forum experience for the serious debaters, those more interested in socializing and sharing, and even the lurkers out there. Everyone suffers from forum fires, including those directly engaged in the forum fire, who generally experience very negative emotions and will not feel very good about it. Forum fires decrease the quality of our experience here, and are generally destructive for the community rather than being constructive.

On The Prevention of Forum Fires

The following are tips for helping to prevent forum fires from occurring.

1. Be Understanding.

Sometimes people are joking or have not stated their position clearly. Take this into account when you feel like slamming someone for their posts. Carefully consider whether their current behavior is consistent with their past behavior, because an inconsistency may mean that they are joking or being unclear. Instead of jumping on them, ask them to clarify their position or ask them if they were joking.

2. Be Cool

Whenever you feel like doing physical harm to another poster, it would be advisable to move away from your computer and do something else for a while so that you can come back and approach the situation more rationally. You can hit a punching bag, have a snack, do a small chore, or any number of other things.

3. Use Smilies

The appropriate use of smilies is a very helpful tool in communicating your emotional state so that other posters do not take joke posts (or serious posts for that matter) as you being snarky.

These smilies can clarify joke posts or sarcasm if it's not especially obvious:



These smilies should not be used as much, since many posters find them annoying:



4. Avoid Trolls

To save the forum from trouble and to save yourself from irritation, try your best to avoid posting a response to a troll. It is almost always in your best interest to leave them alone and stay out of their way.

On Putting Out Forum Fires

The following are tips for helping deal with forum fires once they have started.

1. Humour is often a good way to get people to relax and take a step back from a heated debate. You can interject a joke (it should be on-topic or related to a post in the thread) into the discussion to help lighten the atmosphere. Even if your joke isn't funny, the people throwing flames around may start laughing at how goofy you are instead of flaming each other, which is what we want. Just remember to make it clear that you're joking, as I mentioned in On the Prevention of Forum Fires.

2. Sometimes people will stop flaming if you just ask them to. You can remind them that flaming is likely to get them an official warning, something that they probably won't want because they don't want to be one step closer to deletion. Expressing genuine concerns for their safety on the forum is generally more effective than threating them with "I'll have to report you to the Mods for this if you don't stop," but sometimes that threat can work as well. You need to exercise caution when using these methods, and remember that being patronising or condescending in using them almost always causes the situation to backfire.

3. If there's a forum fire and you think it needs a fire truck rather than a simple bucket of water (those forum fires can get out of control quickly), report it to the Moderation forum and let the professionals (Mods) deal with it. They have better tools to do so. Remember that using the first two methods can save the Mods some work and lead to a much cooler forum, but don't be afraid to report flaming.

And as always...



Remember kids, only you can prevent forum fires.
Last edited by HotRodia; 20-09-2006 at 18:14. Reason: Formatting.

[Katganistan]

The General Forum Rules

The General Forum is probably one of the easier forums to get yourself deleted, so watch yourself and what you say.
Allowed Threads
Think of it this way… if you are about to make a thread in General, will it offend anyone? Can it be labeled any worse than PG? (PG-13 allows swear words, which majority of the time, results in flaming.) If yes to either of these, edit your post, or just don’t post it at all. Play it safe. Don’t give the moderators a hard time.

General Forum Definitions (as defined by Sirocco: http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=288255 )

Flame: Expressing anger at someone in uncouth ways with OOC comments (i.e. swearing, being obnoxious, threatening etc.)though it does to watch what you post IC as well unless the other posters know you're not serious. Flaming in the forums should be reported in the Moderation forum, in the game itself, through Getting Help Page.
Flaming/Flame-Baiting Examples:
http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread...5&page=2&pp=30
http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=380510 (obvious reasons)
http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=380405
http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=6643809

Flamebait: Posts that are made with the aim of angering someone indirectly. Not outright flame, but still liable to bring angry replies. It's in the same context of trolling but with flamebaiting it's just the one person.

Gravedigging: Posting a reply on a long disused thread; bumping threads that aren't used anymore.
Example: http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=380731
This is the ruling of Gravedigging. As long as it provides new evidence to the original thread, which could add more debate, then its ok. If not, then it will be closed.

Post-Whoring: See Spam.

Spam/Copy + Paste Spam: Off-topic, irrelevant and multi-posts that clog the server. This includes posting lots of smilies which is known as Smilie Spam. Also akin to spamming is Post-whoring which is when a player posts anything just to increase the postcount. Copy/pasting something from another site without adding any meaningful commentary can also be considered spam. Spamming to the point where you get deleted is known as Klamathing. Spamming in the forums should be reported through the Moderation forum, and In-game, through the Getting Help Page.
Spam Examples:
http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=380536
http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=380337 (all but first post was deleted)
http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=380264

The problem is that you post articles in their entirety without adding any comments of your own or any analysis of your own. This qualifies as spam. ...or possibly even trolling (which is posting controversial material merely to ruffle feathers and make people mad).

Don't just copy-and-paste. State if you agree or disagree with the article. Describe why you agree or disagree. This is a political discussion forum; discuss any articles that you post or link to. Don't just reproduce them verbatim.
Basically saying that if all you do if copy and paste an article into a thread, and post it, that is considered spam.

It is one thing to make some argument, however radical, by yourself, drawing on a range of references or one's own experience.

It is quite another to copy and paste some cheap BS from nutcase sites, and leave it at that, with no original or insightful comment.

High quantity of posts, low quality of posts, not even written by the individual posting them, complete absence of original material, a refusal to improve on this when asked over a period of god knows how many months, all these things will wear down one's patience.

This is not about sinister political conspiracies somehow magically agreed upon by a collective spanning pretty much the whole range from communist to fascist. No, this is one individual's refusal to accept any form of authority, irrespective of what form it takes. There are some people who will never accept the concept of authority, never accept the concept of guidelines, let alone rules. Tough s---. Like it or not, that's the system you have to work with.

Write something original, and keep it to a relatively small number of active threads. This is not an unreasonable demand - it is what I do.

Thread Hijacking: Appropriating a thread for a discussion totally unrelated to the original purpose of said thread.
Hijacking Examples:
http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showpost.p...&postcount=122
http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showpost.p...4&postcount=37

Trolling: Posts that are made with the aim of angering people. (like 'ALL JEWS ARE [insert vile comment here]' for example). Also is used to refer to making obviously silly topics that people nonetheless will reply to. (making a case for the proof that teletubbies exist for instance. There will always be someone who feels compelled to post 'No they don't.' Threads like this should just be ignored.)
Trolling Example:
http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=380338

Trollbaiting: Posts that are made to attract trolls. First known instance is someone creating a topic for Republicans to gloat in after the 2004 election "So that I could see who to add to my ignore list!" I [Cogitation] had already declared gloating over the elections to constitute trolling.

Obscene and Explicit Content: Sexually graphic images and posts, and violent images such as bloody corpses. Very strictly forbidden. Obscene imagery and content in the forums should be reported to the Moderation Forum. Please provide a link to the topic, but do not quote it while explaining its illegality. Then we have to find and delete your posts too.

Threats: Any post, telegram, or other entry which can be read as a threat against a player's life or safety is forbidden. We will consider all such threats to be real and actual, not satire or hyperbole, and act accordingly.
Example: http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=377758
Threatening someone with their life is obviously not the smartest action to do. Doing so will get you deleted, and occasionally, could lead up to legal action in real life, depending on the level of the threat.

The consequences for the above violations may include unofficial warning, official warning, short-term ban, long term ban, deletion, or Delete on Sight, depending upon the severity of the violation and the player's history. Note that the last two categories (threats and obscene and explicit content) often result in instant deletion.

The Moderators:
Example: http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=380796
The Moderators were selected for a reason. Turning into an ‘oppressive regime’ and deleting specific threads/nations for no reason would be putting their position in line. These people were picked by Max Barry because obviously he can trust them enough to run his site for them. That should speak for itself.

Example: http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=381299
Moderators are people too. They are allowed to have their own political views, and the ability to express them as well. Just because a moderator disagrees with you, doesn’t give you the right to declare them bias.

Moderators do not act on political bias. Additionally, we Moderators do not all hold a single political viewpoint. None of them allow their political viewpoint to bias their judgment. Moderators are held to making their decisions without bias. Deleting threads that oppose their own political views would be irresponsible, and would be putting their position at risk.

[Katganistan]

For those interested in debate:
http://www.fallacyfiles.org/
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/forums/index. ... opic=28926
http://web.archive.org/web/200512311521 ... logic.html

[Katganistan]

Smokey's Great Big Guide to Forum Fires
Hello, kids. Today I’m here to share with you a guide I’ve written. It combines information from the updated version of On The Prevention of Forum Fires and On Putting Out Forum Fires and in addition tells you what a forum fire is. I hope that this more centralized guide will be useful to you.

On Forum Fires

The following is a description of forum fires and an explanation of why they are harmful.

1. A forum fire is what happens when forum posters start flaming each other. Generally forum fires start when: a poster flames another poster and that other poster responds in kind; a poster flamebaits another poster; a poster engages in trolling. These acts may not start a forum fire in all cases, but they are very likely to do so. For definitions of words like flaming, flamebait, and trolling, see the One-Stop Rules Shop.

2. Forum fires are harmful because they create an atmosphere of hostility and encourage verbal abuse. One of the problems with these things is that they create a much less enjoyable forum experience for the serious debaters, those more interested in socializing and sharing, and even the lurkers out there. Everyone suffers from forum fires, including those directly engaged in the forum fire, who generally experience very negative emotions and will not feel very good about it. Forum fires decrease the quality of our experience here, and are generally destructive for the community rather than being constructive.

On The Prevention of Forum Fires

The following are tips for helping to prevent forum fires from occurring.

1. Be Understanding.

Sometimes people are joking or have not stated their position clearly. Take this into account when you feel like slamming someone for their posts. Carefully consider whether their current behavior is consistent with their past behavior, because an inconsistency may mean that they are joking or being unclear. Instead of jumping on them, ask them to clarify their position or ask them if they were joking.

2. Be Cool

Whenever you feel like doing physical harm to another poster, it would be advisable to move away from your computer and do something else for a while so that you can come back and approach the situation more rationally. You can hit a punching bag, have a snack, do a small chore, or any number of other things.

3. Use Smilies

The appropriate use of smilies is a very helpful tool in communicating your emotional state so that other posters do not take joke posts (or serious posts for that matter) as you being snarky.

These smilies are probably not good to use in joke posts, or posts of any kind for that matter, because many posters find them very annoying:



These three can be helpful smilies, but you should be very careful about how you use them:



4. Avoid Trolls

To save the forum from trouble and to save yourself from irritation, try your best to avoid posting a response to a troll. It is almost always in your best interest to leave them alone and stay out of their way.

On Putting Out Forum Fires

The following are tips for helping deal with forum fires once they have started.

1. Humour is often a good way to get people to relax and take a step back from a heated debate. You can interject a joke (it should be on-topic or related to a post in the thread) into the discussion to help lighten the atmosphere. Even if your joke isn't funny, the people throwing flames around may start laughing at how goofy you are instead of flaming each other, which is what we want. Just remember to make it clear that you're joking, as I mentioned in On the Prevention of Forum Fires.

2. Sometimes people will stop flaming if you just ask them to. You can remind them that flaming is likely to get them an official warning, something that they probably won't want because they don't want to be one step closer to deletion. Expressing genuine concerns for their safety on the forum is generally more effective than threating them with "I'll have to report you to the Mods for this if you don't stop," but sometimes that threat can work as well. You need to exercise caution when using these methods, and remember that being patronising or condescending in using them almost always causes the situation to backfire.

3. If there's a forum fire and you think it needs a fire truck rather than a simple bucket of water (those forum fires can get out of control quickly), report it to the Moderation forum and let the professionals (Mods) deal with it. They have better tools to do so. Remember that using the first two methods can save the Mods some work and lead to a much cooler forum, but don't be afraid to report flaming.

And as always...



Remember kids, only you can prevent forum fires.
Last edited by HotRodia; 20-09-2006 at 18:14. Reason: Formatting.

[Katganistan]

The Guide to Instant Gratification: Nationstates IRC (chat) Channels! :

Here's a quick list of channels.

All of these rooms are either on this network: irc.esper.net
or on this network: irc.gamesurge.net

#internationalincidents
#internationalleaderslounge
#nationstates
#nationstates_gameplay
#nationstates_general
#nationstates_outcasts
#nationstates_politics
#nationstates_rp
#nationstates_technical
#nationstates_underground
#nationstates_2
#nationstates2
#ns
#sport
#themodcave (for when you need a NationStates mod in a hurry.)


Where would you download all the necessary IRC programs to use the channels?

* http://www.mirc.com for mIRC... with http://www.mirc.org as a resource for figuring out all the commands....
* http://www.trillian.cc/ for Trillian, which provides a freebie version as well as a paid one....
* http://www.xchat.org/ for XChat -- another freebie program.



Where can I find out more about IRC?

* A good beginner's intro to IRC can be found at http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/new2irc.html.
* For a thorough guide, try http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/ircprimer.html.
* Note that those guides don't address IRC services (as they were written in the old EFnet days).
* For services help, type "/nickserv help" and "/chanserv help".
* Oh, and for those curious, the #NationStates_General thread.
* http://www.newircusers.com/ also looks to be a useful site
* Kusarii's NS IRC Step By Step (using MIRC) tutorial


FireFox Links (Get the Chatzilla extension.)

irc://irc.esper.net/#internationalincidents
irc://irc.esper.net/#internationalleaderslounge
irc://irc.gamesurge.net/#nationstates
irc://irc.esper.net/#nationstates_gameplay
irc://irc.gamesurge.net/#nationstates_general
irc://irc.esper.net/#nationstates_outcasts
irc://irc.esper.net/#nationstates_politics
irc://irc.esper.net/#nationstates_rp
irc://irc.esper.net/#nationstates_technical
irc://irc.esper.net/#nationstates_underground
irc://irc.esper.net/#nationstates_2
irc://irc.esper.net/#nationstates2
irc://irc.esper.net/#ns
irc://irc.esper.net/#sport
irc://irc.gamesurge.net/#themodcave (emergency mod contact)

Kudos to Katganistan, Adejaani, Goobergunchia, Upitatanium, and the rest of that thread for this info

[Katganistan]

Introduction for newbies -- **REVISED VERSION**

Contents:
A. An Introduction to NS
B. An Introduction to the Forums
C. Helpful Links
D. The General Forum
E. General FAQs

------------------------ Introduction to NationStates & the forums ------------------------

Introduction (Pure Metal)
I'll assume you're playing the "game" part already if you've made it here. I'll also assume, for the sake of completeness, that the reader knows nothing of the general ways of an internet forum or this game.

The Forums
First, the game and forums are not directly linked/related. Second, the forums have a number of different levels - to see what else there is click on the "NationStates" link at the top of this page (by where it says "Welcome yourname").

NationStates and International Incidents are the role-playing forums. For an explanation of RPing see below. The following distinction is made between the two: NationStates (NS) is for character-based and sports role-playing, and more involved role-plays in general, while International Incidents (II) is more for nation-based, war, and trade role-playing. Note: There is a myth that the more "civilized" RPers stick to NS while all the spammers and n00bs are in II. I'll take a moment here to disprove that.


The United Nations is for discussions involving that august governing body made up of a good 32,000 of NationStates' members -- give or take. It is for debates over proposals and resolutions submitted to the UN. If you haven't joined the UN, don't bother coming here.

Gameplay is for game-related questions and regional advertisements. If you want to know how to improve your economy or find a new region, post here. Regional advertisements belong in Gameplay! Post them anywhere else and they will be deleted!

Moderation is where to get help from the moderators, whom you must have heard of by now. If not, the link explains who they are.

Technical is where to go to report bugs and ask questions about how the game works. It says "Ideas for improvement", but mods do not like you to post those there! Put those in NationStates 2.

Spam -- the dark hellhole of NationStates. Not even a part of the NS forums, it is where to go to post pointless, off-topic, and obscene things. Many people do this in General, but that's really the wrong place. Go to Spam and avoid getting banned, annoying the crap out of everyone (especially a small group of hard-working mods), and completely knocking out the NationStates servers for the umpteenth time.

That just about covers all the forums in common use.

----------------Helpful Links----------------[/b]

The NationStates Forum -- one of several threads explaining role-playing in NationStates.
The International Incidents Consolidation Sticky -- This massive sticky, assembled by our Sticky Master Euroslavia and friends, deals with everything you ever wanted to know about RPing but were afraid to ask.
Guide to NationStates -- The precursor to the above thread.
The NationStates Orientation is a superb thread that inspired this one, and should be read by anyone who -- no, make that anyone.
The One-Stop Rules Shop is a collection of all the rules, selected judiciously by Frisbeeteria, one of the hardest-working of our beloved Moderators.
General Forum rulings and good General advice -- The mods have collected the rulings and advice in this thread, concerning General. It is also very helpful and should be followed unconditionally.
NSwiki is a wiki (collection of interlinked pages editable by any user) about NationStates, the place to post your factbook, history, and anything else you want to write about your nation that Max Barry didn't let you.
The EP Flag Service contributed by 1 Infinite Loop: A service for designing quality flags that ought to be up and running soon. Contact him for more details, not me!
NSeconomy is probably the best known of several calculators developed for NationStates. It lists lots of helpful stats. However, it doesn't work for nations in large regions.
The Sunset Calculator lists more specific stats about your nation, but has no regional stats. These two calculators (Sunset and NSeconomy) provide an interesting study in contrasts.
((There's also the Pipian Calculator and a few others, but I'm not sure where those are...))

------------------------ The General Forum ------------------------

This is where you're at now, and is where posters discuss & debate real life, important issues (like the seperation of church & state), discuss trivial crap ("what is your favourite sandwich?"), get to know each other, and even hold mini-RP's of our own (the NS General Election). All are welcome and you're welcome to talk about anything you like as long as it complies with the rules above.


Etiquette:

From the General Forum rulings:

* It is also advisable to type vaguely properly & attempt to spell with some accuracy as to not annoy other posters (i.e. "l33t speak" & "msn/txt speak" are likely to piss others off, but its not against the rules)
* USE QUOTE TAGS! Please, the number of newbies who don't use them is astounding - they make the whole forum gig a whole lot easier... but fair enough if you don't know - that's precisely what this thread is for

In the bottom-right hand corner of each post you will see a button marked "quote". To quote someone's text (rather than copy it yourself and put it in quotation marks (" ")) simply click this and edit out the bits you don't want to quote. That's exactly what I did with your post, PM! ~Czardas

If you want/need to quote something manually, type/paste the text you want to quote, select it all and then click the Quote button at the top-right hand corner of the reply/new post box. this wraps [quote ] [ /quote] tags round your text.
To add a poster's name to the quote...

quoted text

... simply put "=poster's name" (minus the quotation marks) before the first end bracket ( "]" ) of the quote tag. like this:
[ QUOTE=poster's name ] quoted text [ /quote ]


* Remember to be courteous and respectful to everyone here - assume trust/respect until proven otherwise is my rule. Remember that on the other end of your keyboard is another living, breathing person, so be nice.


* Always keep in mind that there are differences in politcal culture around the world - for example Liberal and Conservative, as specific definitions, both mean something quite different in America and Europe... but don't let this stop your debates!


* Links to other games (particularly web-based ones) are prohibited. as are links (of any sort, including images) to websites such as ebaumsworld, newgrounds, rotten, etc...


* Don't over-use smilies. specifically, please don't pointlessly add the " , , , or " smilies at the end of posts - especially when not necessary or relevant. Newbies who overuse these smilies are called n00bs, and that is not a good thing to be on this forum. It gets you banned or deleted.


* The Mods: not a bunch of 1960s British alternative to Rockers who ride mopeds and have bad taste in music, but moderators...
Above all else be nice to them! The mods are, in fact, your friends, despite what some believe. There is not Mod Conspiracy, nor do they take sides. They do these forums a great service on their own time (& I don't believe they get paid), so please don't go nuts over mod decisions. Most of them are darn funny posters, too ;D (i'm looking at you, Cog, you poll-editing fiend you! lol)
If you have a problem with a mod's decision, take it up in the moderation forum


* Read at least 2 to 5 pages into a serious topic in order to become more informed about your opponents' (and even proponents') arguments, when feasible.


* With posts, quantity does not mean quality. Just because someone has a large number of posts does not necessarily mean they've said a single thing of great quality. Don't give into the temptation to simply replying to everything just to raise your post count. You'll be far more respected if you take your time to think about your post, and provide valid, logical points, rather than a single quick answer. Be careful not to make it too long, though. Most people lack an attention span to go through a thread full of insanely long points. Wait for your opponent to make a counterpoint, and respond in kind.

[Thanks, PM. My comments added in red. ~Czardas]

------------------------ General FAQs ------------------------

Here is a list of all the FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) available below:
1. What is "The Political Compass" and where can i find it?
2. What is the "Moral Compass" thing that i keep seeing round the place?
3. What can't I do?
4. Why isn't my nation growing or doing anything?
5. How do I do....[insert nation/game based question here]?
6. What does "BUMP" mean?
7. What is a "fluffle"?
8. What does "- snip -" mean?
9. How do I post an image?
10. Where can I post a picture of myself?
11. How do I do Spoilers?
12. What are these weird poll options I keep seeing like "Myrth", "Melkor", "Fris" and "Cog"?
13. How do I make a poll?
14. How do I review my posts or come back to topics I've posted on?
15. How do I post links and what links can I post?
16. How do I get to meet other posters?



1. What is "The Political Compass" and where can i find it?

The PC is a useful tool for gauging where you lie on the political spectrum. This is a politcal game after all, and most of the serious discussions that go on here are political/philosophical in nature. The test comprises six sections and takes around 5 to 10 minutes. At then end you are given an Economic Score and Social Score. the former indicates how economically right- or left-wing you are (negative numbers are left-wing), and the latter how socially authoritarian or libertarian you are (read: big state vs little state respectively, with negative numbers being libertarian).
Use this as a GUIDE only, as it says nothing about the specific beliefs of a poster. Most NSers put their PC scores in their signatures (text displayed after each of your posts - go to your Profile control panel to change yours; must be less than 8 lines long & are moderated)

Swimmingpool did a great job a few months back with a grand NSers Political Compass Chart, http://www.iol.ie/~roto/nspolc2.jpg
link: http://politicalcompass.org/

2. What is the "Moral Compass" thing that i keep seeing round the place?
Same sort of thing as the Political Compass. http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.ph...73&postcount=3
link: http://www.moral-politics.com/

3. What can't I do?
The rules can be found here, compiled by our outstanding Law Enforcement Officer, Frisbeeteria. I quote:

Copycat threads: When somebody creates a popular thread, copycats and parodies quickly flood the forums. Like any other fad, a few can be fun, but once everyone starts to copycat them it becomes overbearing and spammish. Such threads may be locked or moved to Spam by any moderator who considers that thread to be a copycat or spam thread. Threads with genuine content may be left alone, but that probability increases dramatically when you don't use a fad title.

Chat threads: If you want to have a private conversation with one or two other people, this isn't the place to do it. One of the instant message clients (AIM, MSN) or an IRC /query is best. If you must chat on forums, use Jolt's Chat forum.

Cybersex chats: Illegal under the "obscene" clause of the TOS. Take it elsewhere

Social RP: In the wake of several out-of-control threads, standards were established for socializing threads. These sorts of threads are tolerated as long as a) there aren't too many of them, b) they attempt to maintain at least a façade of roleplaying behavior, and c) they are locked at approximately 1300 posts.

Tag Games: Carrying on with a conversation or chase game in unrelated threads is spamming and topic hijacking. Don't do it.

Word Games are banned. Period. It's not a matter of bandwidth, they're just not coming back. If you want to play word games, go start or join some in the spam forum. They're not welcome here.

4. Why isn't my nation growing or doing anything?

First, this belongs in Gameplay and would be moved by the mods (see above). Second, NationStates is a long term game and you probably won't see any marked changes in your nation (certainly your "UN Category") for at least a couple of weeks, so hang on in there and entertain yourself here in General in the meantime!
similarly....

5. How do I do....[insert nation/game based question here]?
Don't come here, that's how. Go to Technical, Gameplay, or Moderation (see links above) to ask your question, so the mods can help you. How do you think they got their jobs?

6. What does "BUMP" mean?
"Bump" is what posters often say when they simply want to 'bump' a thread up to the top of the list, without saying anything (other than bump of course). Excessive bumping is spamming, however, and people will be happier with you if you find a clever way of saying bump. For example "But if you try to debate [x] you bump into a lot of difficulties."

7. What is a "fluffle"?
aha! we love fluffles here - especially TInk (FairyTInkArisen, one of our most active, friendly and hottest posters, Queen of NS ) of course!
this is a fluffle: [Tink is away at the moment; however, other posters will be just as glad to do you the favor ~Czardas]
It basically refers to a friendly or "informal" expression of affection. Don't post too many of them. The same can go for the other smilies as well

8. What does "- snip -" mean?
when you've quoted some text but snipped/removed a portion of it. sometimes all of it if its a lengthy piece

9. How do I post an image?
Get the URL (web address) of where your image is hosted and click the "insert image" button in the post reply box (yellow the one with a little mountain). You cannot post up images stored on your local machine (on your hard drive) - you must upload them to the internet first.

try http://www.imageshack.com, http://www.photobucket.com
To post images in the thread itself, use tags around your image, for instance [img ]image URL[ /img].

10. Where can I post a picture of myself?
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1137 there is a place to post your player information. Please note that not all pictures have to be posted there, just player pictures. you are free to use/post whichever other pictures you like (as long as they don't break any rules, including 'image spam')

11. How do I do "spoilers?"
Well, a spoiler is something used occasionally by posters - especially useful when posting jokes (but as word games are no longer allowed you see these used less and less).
Anyway, spoilers look like this:

AERIS DIES

The text is hidden until you select it with your mouse, whereby it changes colour and you can read it. Clever, eh?
To do a spoiler, simply type [spoiler ] (without the space at the end, inside the square brackets), type your text, and then end the tag with [/spoiler ]
so it will look like this: [spoiler ] your text [/spoiler]
Note that relatively often posters will colour ordinary white to hide it instead.
To do this, select some text and select 'white' from the [color] drop-down box in the reply/new post window.
See the pretty white text?
like this. posters will often add a smilie with the white/hidden text, partly just to let others know its there

12. What are these weird poll options I keep seeing like "Myrth", "Melkor", "Fris" and "Cog"?
Don't let these bother you as they generally have nothing to do with the poll in question. Myrth, Melkor (Unchained), Fris(beeteria) and Cog(itation) are mods here, and it's kind of customary to put them in some polls - on the whole not the serious polls, that is. Originally it was the mod Myrth who got all the poll options, but since he resigned and some posters got annoyed at the whole thing the other mods have been included in the more light-hearted polls. Some of us here would rather they were in the poll options, but you can't have everything... *shiftyeyes*

13. How do I make a poll?
There are two ways:
1. When you are making a new topic, scroll down the page and click on the “Poll Creation” tab.
You can add up to 10 options on a poll, and allow multiple choice voting by changing the “options per user” box.
2. In a thread you've already started, edit the first post and scroll down the page and click on the “Poll Creation” tab. Then go through the same procedure as above.

Note that unlike Jolt, you cannot make the results of a poll public.

14. How do I review my posts or come back to topics I've posted on?
On any page of the forum, towards the top, to the right of the “User Control Panel” link, there is a link to “View your posts” This will take you to threads you have posted in and list them in order of most recently posted (although not necessarily by you.

To search for your posts in order, you will need to search your username under the search link at the top right of the forum.

15. How do I post links?
Simply put tags around the link. For example [url ]www.nationstates.net[ /url], without the spaces, will give you http://www.nationstates.net. You cannot post links to any sites that are:

* Illegal -- ought to be pretty obvious lol.
* Obscene -- also pretty obvious. This includes porn, goatse, tubgirl, and lots of other things you shouldn't ask about.
* Other games -- for some reason, the mods don't want you to post links to other online games here. I'm not sure why exactly, and have never bothered to find out.
* Defamatory -- links to sites that slander other people. Very bad.

16. How do I get to meet other posters?
A lot of people post introductory topics telling a little bit about themselves, i.e. "Hi everyone, I'm new here. My name is Czardas. I am an anteater from Michigan." and so on and so forth. However, Fris has said that he will move or lock any future topics like this, as they have grown into a fad (see above. Remember the rules shop?). Also, there are several socialization RPs going around, notably the Paradise Beach and Reject Royalty things here in General (I know nothing about this!!! Someone help!!!).

Or, just jump right into debate and start inflicting your personality on everyone. Believe me, you'll be noticed. It may take a while, but it'll happen. Hey, look at me and where I am right now.


_________________________________________________________________________
If you have found this useful at all please post and let me know, thanks!

Also, feel free to post here and introduce yourself if you're new!

Idea (and much of text) stolen from Pure Metal and then revised by Czardas
Also significant contributions from Lord-General Drache.

[Katganistan]

This is the General Forum, Not Nationstates Homework Help
There have been a HUGE number of threads begging for help with college level classes in here lately. This is not a tutorial.

Go to your professors and ask for them to put you into contact with a tutor. Do NOT ask people here to do your work for you.

Note that 'go to your professor' is not an invitation to ask a mod, or other active NS participant, who just might happen to be a university professor/lecturer to help you; that's covered under not asking people here to do your work for you.

Any more of these threads will be treated as spam and the appropriate warnings issued.

Edit: Because the Archregimancy will not help you with your archaeology or history homework.

[Katganistan]

Picture links on this site
Ladies and Gentlemen, before the next round of "It's not fair!" begins:

The use of pictures of gore and carnage to support your point is strictly forbidden.
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.ph...41&postcount=3
Quote:
Originally Posted by OSRS
Obscene and Explicit Content: Sexually graphic images and posts, and violent images such as bloody corpses. Very strictly forbidden. Obscene imagery and content in the forums should be reported to the Moderation Forum. Please provide a link to the topic, but do not quote it while explaining its illegality. Then we have to find and delete your posts too.

The standard for both forums and game is the US movie rating "PG-13". Mild swearing may be tolerated, mild sexuality may be hinted, but explicit or excessive versions of either or both may result in proportional mod response.
The use of pictures of pornography is strictly forbidden.
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.ph...27&postcount=2
Quote:
Originally Posted by OSRS
Obscenities: Sexually graphic images in flags (very strictly forbidden), obscene nation names, national animals and/or currencies. In-game obscenities should be reported through the Getting Help Page.

[Katganistan]

Fradulent E-mail requests for account information.

We will never, ever, ever, EVER ask you to provide us with your password! Do NOT give this information to ANYONE who purports to be from Nationstates.net!

[Katganistan]

There is a growing tendency to use "shock titles" when creating threads. Bear in mind that titles appear on the sidebar of the nation pages, which are displayed in our classroom regions to young students (and their teachers!). These sorts of titles are unacceptable to that audience.

Titles which use offensive language, concepts, or pretty much anything that George Carlin might say will be edited. If it's done maliciously or repetitively, thread originators may expect the usual range of forum punishments, up to and including deletion of nations.

The standard for titles is not PG-13, but rather PG or even G.

[Katganistan]

It's come to our attention that some of you have received telegrams from a player welcoming you to UN status and offering the "official" off-site nation Stat-changer for your use.

Do NOT use it -- if you give up your password, they can take your nation from you.

[Katganistan]

Originally posted by Ardchoille:

MyMiniCities sites are referral links, and referral links are banned:

Originally Posted by The One-Stop Rules Shop
General classes of forbidden links include porn or other sexual imagery, warez (see below), sites promoting other illegal activities, referral links (see below), or sites that have links to such sites as a principal component.
and, later,

Referral Links: Posting links to "personal accounts" on websites (where you get some benefit from having multiple people click the link) is a warnable offense. This refers to Cyber-war, Outwar, plus all other variants, and even such sites as kevan.org (that dumbass zombie brain thing). They are not permitted in threads, titles, signatures, World Factbook entries, National Mottos, or anywhere else.
Several players have innocently posted such links lately, and one who refused to comply after being asked not to post it was banned for seven days

Please edit such links from your signatures.

[Kryozerkia]

Internet memes such as:

"For the Lulz"
LULWUT and any related picture
Epic Fail and any related picture
"Cool story bro"

Are now being classed in the same area as "in before lock" and "+1", which are treated as spam, as one would know if they read the rules.

Just because something isn't explicitly mentioned, doesn't give it an exemption. Chances are, if it's a meme, it's probably spam.

EDIT - For those who don't like looking far for the rules, here's a link: The One Stop Rules Shop

EDIT 2 - Additionally, "bait and switch" links, such as those which are clear RickRolls are also considered spam.

Further clarification for those wanting it:

To clarify, NationStates Moderators have seen a rise in posts that consist solely of one of the memes listed above. There has not been an actual substantive change in NationStates Forum Rules, but the rise in this particular type of spam requires additional attention this month.

The use of memes per se is not strictly forbidden, provided that there is actually some additional substance in the response. A post that consists solely of a meme, or memes that take up inordinately large amounts of screen space, will be treated as spam.

[Katganistan]

So What, Specifically, Is Forbidden?

Flame: Expressing anger at someone in uncouth ways with OOC (out-of-character) comments (i.e. swearing, being obnoxious, threatening etc). It does to watch what you post IC (in-character) as well unless the other posters know you're not serious. You do not need to curse to be a flamer. Erudite slams while maintaining a veneer of politeness can also be considered flaming. Flaming in the forums should be reported in the Moderation forum, in the game itself, through Getting Help Page.

Flamebait: Posts that are made with the aim of angering someone indirectly. Not outright flame, but still liable to bring angry replies. Flame baiting is a far more subtle and covert action; it is an underhanded tactic that is designed to provoke a response from another player. It's in the same context of trolling but with flamebaiting it's just the one person.

Gloating: Specific types of gloating are considered warnable. Posting "In before the lock" generates a warning to those posters who wish to gloat about an obviously lockable topic. IGNORE gloating is typically seen in the roleplay forums, though it can appear elsewhere. Politely informing another nation that you are henceforth using the "ignore" feature is acceptable, but repeating it in different threads or over long periods is considered gloating. Other cases will be considered on an ad hoc basis.

Griefing: Harrassing a nation because of what they did or said. This often manifests when one player follows another around in thread after thread, abusing and flaming the target nation. Note that this is distinct from Region Griefing, covered above.

Trolling: Posts that are made with the aim of angering people. (like 'ALL JEWS ARE [insert vile comment here]' for example). While Trolls often make these posts strictly in an attempt to provoke negative comment, it is still trolling even if you actually hold those beliefs. Intent is difficult to prove over the internet, so mods will work under their best assumptions.

Obscene and Explicit Content: Sexually graphic images and posts, and violent images such as bloody corpses. Very strictly forbidden. Obscene imagery and content in the forums should be reported to the Moderation Forum. Please provide a link to the topic, but do not quote it while explaining its illegality. Then we have to find and delete your posts too.

Threats: Any post, telegram, or other entry which can be read as a threat against a player's life or safety is forbidden. We will consider all such threats to be real and actual, not satire or hyperbole, and act accordingly.

The consequences for the above violations may include unofficial warning, official warning, short-term ban, long term ban, deletion, or Delete on Sight, depending upon the severity of the violation and the player's history. Note that the last two categories (threats and obscene and explicit content) often result in instant deletion.