Global Economics and Trade Help Desk and Q&A

[Vitaphone Racing]

Why do we have so many "We want a new X, psot ur stuff plz!" threads? Are people that fucking lazy nowadays that they can only manage a few dot points when roleplaying? Is it really that hard to browse the threads that other people have already created?

This shit is spam, high time it was treated as such.

[Virana]

Why do we have so many "We want a new X, psot ur stuff plz!" threads? Are people that fucking lazy nowadays that they can only manage a few dot points when roleplaying? Is it really that hard to browse the threads that other people have already created?

This shit is spam, high time it was treated as such.

To be honest, the sheer depth of GE&T and the massive amount of storefronts that offer similar products in a competitive monopolistic market, in addition to the fact that everyone has slightly differing requirements for equipment or products they seek, means that submitting RFPs for specific products pertaining to a set of requirements is not that bad a practice. It's when those RFPs are one to two liner posts rather than a deeper, well-thought-out request for products, that things get bad.

[Common Territories]

Why do we have so many "We want a new X, psot ur stuff plz!" threads? Are people that fucking lazy nowadays that they can only manage a few dot points when roleplaying? Is it really that hard to browse the threads that other people have already created?

This shit is spam, high time it was treated as such.

I need to go to the hospital now -- I clapped for so long and hard (he he he) that I seem to have broken a wrist. But in all honesty, I fully agree 189% with this statement.

[Alebcay]

To be honest, the sheer depth of GE&T and the massive amount of storefronts that offer similar products in a competitive monopolistic market, in addition to the fact that everyone has slightly differing requirements for equipment or products they seek, means that submitting RFPs for specific products pertaining to a set of requirements is not that bad a practice. It's when those RFPs are one to two liner posts rather than a deeper, well-thought-out request for products, that things get bad.

Amen.

While the number of RFPs is getting quite annoying, the people submitting them may genuinely have trouble finding a suitable product. NS, in the end, is a game, and this is roleplaying; we don't have actual storefronts with tens or hundreds of products. People also expect somewhat faster answers in games, as well.

However, that does not excuse the number of poorly formatted threads with grammatical errors littered throughout, asking for an impossible product. It would also be more fitting if these requests went on an appropriate storefront (although some storefront owners may object to that), or perhaps even open a subforum for such requests.

[Yohannes]

You have to remember, however, that the forums are littered with lots of alt accounts and puppet accounts. I can vouch personally that one or two I have come across are alt accounts of existing players, with, in some cases, whole 'newbie' group consisting entirely of alt accounts created, I guess, for entertainment value (nothing wrong with that )

Maybe they just want to do it for the 'fun of it' (what some people would say 'for the lulz', though I don't like that sentence personally) as I guess it can be fun taking the mickey out of the players who think of themselves as established for the somewhat bored individuals (who are using alts)

[Vitaphone Racing]

Why do we have so many "We want a new X, psot ur stuff plz!" threads? Are people that fucking lazy nowadays that they can only manage a few dot points when roleplaying? Is it really that hard to browse the threads that other people have already created?

This shit is spam, high time it was treated as such.

To be honest, the sheer depth of GE&T and the massive amount of storefronts that offer similar products in a competitive monopolistic market, in addition to the fact that everyone has slightly differing requirements for equipment or products they seek, means that submitting RFPs for specific products pertaining to a set of requirements is not that bad a practice. It's when those RFPs are one to two liner posts rather than a deeper, well-thought-out request for products, that things get bad.

This is not how tenders work, nor how they should work. What people should be doing is first formally inviting selected people to participate in the forum, preferably by posting in their storefront because that's what they're for, and then directing them to a thread where the tenders will be evaluated and the contracts will be awarded. In reality, what's going on is spam; people creating threads with little direction and very little scope for roleplay. Instead of roleplaying out an actual tendering process, people repost what they have in their storefront and that's a complete and utter waste of a thread. When you have all these useless threads occupying real estate on the first page of the forum, it pushes of other storefronts which entices people to bump their threads, which is also no better than spam. Suffice to say there's a vested interest for everyone for these useless threads to disappear.

Now, I should also point out that GE&T has had far, far greater depth in years gone by than what remains now and people were still able to browse storefronts in a convenient and timely fashion. There are no excuses for lazy roleplay, and lazy roleplay which clutters the forum needlessly should be frowned upon.

[9spaceking]

People, I can't find the "Mine ByteCoins" button....how do I get it? And what can I buy with Bytecoins?

[Maltropia]

People, I can't find the "Mine ByteCoins" button....how do I get it? And what can I buy with Bytecoins?

That was an April Fool's Day prank, only available for a few days. The currency used on GE&T is generally called either NationStates Dollars or Universal Standard Dollars (USD or NSD), and it's basically all role-played how you use it and get it.

[Britonisea]

Why do we have so many "We want a new X, psot ur stuff plz!" threads? Are people that fucking lazy nowadays that they can only manage a few dot points when roleplaying? Is it really that hard to browse the threads that other people have already created?

This shit is spam, high time it was treated as such.

At least someone agrees!! This is why I stopped posting on the GE&T Forum. I am bored of it and some individuals are getting away with it. Once I had a storefront. Britannual Foodstore. It was quite popular. Quite. With over 4, 000 view and nearly reaching 200 posts I decided to start fresh. Now no one signs up at my storefront as it only takes 5 minutes for my storefront to get to the third page and I can't keep on BUMPing because that is spam in itself. But nowerdays I see 5 forum topics for the same company and none of them have 5 posts or more. I am especially looking at the military products. It is very annoying and there needs to be stricter "GE&T Thread Laws" If I go to Cadbury.co.uk or Asda.com I do not see a page with 2 sentences on them.

Just saying what I feel...

[Common Territories]

Why do we have so many "We want a new X, psot ur stuff plz!" threads? Are people that fucking lazy nowadays that they can only manage a few dot points when roleplaying? Is it really that hard to browse the threads that other people have already created?

This shit is spam, high time it was treated as such.

At least someone agrees!! This is why I stopped posting on the GE&T Forum. I am bored of it and some individuals are getting away with it. Once I had a storefront. Britannual Foodstore. It was quite popular. Quite. With over 4, 000 view and nearly reaching 200 posts I decided to start fresh. Now no one signs up at my storefront as it only takes 5 minutes for my storefront to get to the third page and I can't keep on BUMPing because that is spam in itself. But nowerdays I see 5 forum topics for the same company and none of them have 5 posts or more. I am especially looking at the military products. It is very annoying and there needs to be stricter "GE&T Thread Laws" If I go to Cadbury.co.uk or Asda.com I do not see a page with 2 sentences on them.

Just saying what I feel...

To be honest, im tired of really bad quality "storefronts" popping up almost everyday. I have no issue with people making pages looking for things as long as they're not poor quality "I NNEEEEDZ STUFFS!". But im more upset by pages that just post a RL product, don't even bother to put up stats or puts barely any stats, and calls it a storefront. Doing this, or just listing stuff, is not a fucking storefront and it irritates me more and more with every post they get. I can't fathom how these people get posts tbh because there's almost no info; you wouldn't buy a car based on a picture you see and its name would you?

Now im not beating on newer players who can't yet put great quality or know-how into storefronts/products. The pages im talking about take 0 effort and 0 drive; these pages can literally be made in 2 minutes if you're going slow. I have more respect for bad looking storefronts that actually try to make a good looking business then a thread that just flashes a RL plane, gives it a new name, and asks for a certain price for each unit. I condemn those people in all honesty for they're not even trying to make a business. Those people oddly get customers while other storefront owners who put a shit ton of work into their businesses get little to none; it makes me sick in all honesty.

I think people on NS can do better then this. I have seen it in many people who have poured they're hearts out into making great businesses and products. I've seen ugly storefronts that had tons of work put into them and got customers through hard work. Ugly or good looking, any storefront that has work put into it deserves customers, and there is plenty of good examples in this forum of both the elite storefront owners and the newer growing talents. My only hope is that people learn to improve their quality and drive to make legitimate storefronts in the future.

[Lamoni]

I fully agree with TECT, on this matter.

[Vitaphone Racing]

You reap what you sow. If we desire a GE&T community where those with successful storefronts are placed on a pedestal and worshiped then we will inevitably attract people who seek a golden reputation above all else. Unfortunately, that also means that people will be encouraged to stoop to lazy roleplaying and oftentimes plagiarism in order to achieve their end ambitions. I don't want to single people out or start conflict but that TECT refers to people as "elite storefront owners" shines a spotlight on the preferential treatment those with popular storefronts are gifted with and, in some cases, seek.

I've created a moderately successful storefront before and I've previously been involved with another even more successful storefront which I contributed a substantial degree of time to. My thoughts are not based on jealousy or disappointment. I was very happy with my efforts on this forum before I discovered that some of my work had been plagiarized, and that individual's explanation and apology gave me a vastly different perspective.

[Common Territories]

You reap what you sow. If we desire a GE&T community where those with successful storefronts are placed on a pedestal and worshiped then we will inevitably attract people who seek a golden reputation above all else. Unfortunately, that also means that people will be encouraged to stoop to lazy roleplaying and oftentimes plagiarism in order to achieve their end ambitions. I don't want to single people out or start conflict but that TECT refers to people as "elite storefront owners" shines a spotlight on the preferential treatment those with popular storefronts are gifted with and, in some cases, seek.

I've created a moderately successful storefront before and I've previously been involved with another even more successful storefront which I contributed a substantial degree of time to. My thoughts are not based on jealousy or disappointment. I was very happy with my efforts on this forum before I discovered that some of my work had been plagiarized, and that individual's explanation and apology gave me a vastly different perspective.

To be fair, I meant elitist as in professional made storefronts, like yours, mine, and many of the newer ones that have popped up that showed real effort to make. I do see your point though. But you should know as much as I and other experienced players in this forum that there are two basic kinds of storefronts: the lazy made ones and the hard working ones. And some of those hard working ones have made it to such a level that they're popular. Im just addressing the lazy effortless people who do not try and, as stated, lazy. Im sure you and everyone else who has had success here has worked hard to get where they are. Something some people will simply not put forward, hard work and passion.

[Yohannes]

I did not follow the whole discussion, and didn't see how it begin (or what was the topic at the beginning), so this is simply a post in regard to Vitaphone Racing's post.

In regard to storefront owners usually able to exploit something which would not be handed to others, I will have to agree with this, as I myself was very much guilty of this in the past. GE&T is different now, however, where transparency and what constitute 'fair' or 'unfair' is being put more on the spotlight. There was a time when you can get away with doing things, or writing contents, that you would not be able to get away with, if you are doing that now.

And that is good. I like that. I myself will stress this once again: the number of posts in your storefronts [ Edit: or the number of your storefronts in the GE&T forum ] are meaningless (though they can be a good tool for bumping, I will admit that ). They mean nothing, and any run-of-the-mills three liners storefronts can have just as many posts in their thread, just as a detailed and well-designed storefront can too, and that will not necessarily make the storefront owner of one or the other 'stronger' economically (that is rubbish). Will that mean, say, that the storefront owner can claim '[nation] export its [product] to [number] of nations worldwide'? Of course. What is wrong, however, is when the said nation used that fact as a justification to IC-wise or OOC-wise 'beat' other nations, or to try to justify that as a way to say that his or her nation is 'more advanced' technologically than others, which will result in an endless cycle of overpowered/wanked (pardon my word) roleplaying environment.

Sounds familiar?

Personally, I feel it is not the number of posts or replies that are important: it is how we, as storefront owners and players, interact with those, who have put the time to draft, and post in our storefront. Their commercial or trading interaction with us in our storefront enrich our depth of roleplaying in the wonderful fantasy world of NationStates.

I myself was guilty of this. I thought back then that storefront equate to 'power', for some reason, which I guess was a lesson I subtly picked up from the rather competitive and unregulated roleplaying environment during the 2010 year, where I was a newbie looking up to those who proclaimed themselves as 'experts' and 'veterans', around me. Nowadays, I have learnt that that is not the case. With my presence in GE&T, I am more than willing to destroy this whole 'Storefront is power' chain of mess that has been established by individuals before my year, but that will require the other well-known storefront owners of GE&T to also acknowledge that principle. In fact, that is not a principle, that is the truth. Storefront means nothing if it does not enrich your roleplaying experience, or you don't feel like roleplaying with the people posting in your storefront any longer.

[The Devourer of Promises]

Hello,


I am an avid steampunk fan, and I am quite fond of the genre. However, I have not been able to locate a single storefront selling steampunk-style weaponry. Would anyone wish to point me in the right direction?

I know this thread is a bit old, but if someone could help, that would be awesome. It's not that I don't like the modern weapons, it's just that I would prefer a more classy feel to my military.

Anyway, cheers.

[Yohannes]

We used to have the Guild of Prevanian Airship Manufacturers back then... unfortunately, Prevania has for a long time left the GE&T scene

At the moment, I don't know of any well-known steam/dieselpunk storefronts selling well-designed airships with linearts, etc., sadly

[The Devourer of Promises]

We used to have the Guild of Prevanian Airship Manufacturers back then... unfortunately, Prevania has for a long time left the GE&T scene

At the moment, I don't know of any well-known steam/dieselpunk storefronts selling well-designed airships with linearts, etc., sadly

Alright, thanks anyway. That's too bad...

[Crookfur]

Whilst there isn't any real steampunk stuff on GE&T there is a fair bit of it kicking (or at least part tech stuff that would fit/could be adapted) around the infantry disscussion and create your own everything threads in the factbooks and national information section. Not everyone is up to l;etting others use thier stuff but there are several people worth talking to if you want soemthign specific. Naturally the focus in these threads is towards military stuff.

[Astholm]

With regards to pricing products, particularly automobiles, how do you take exchange rates etc. into account, my source is http://www.carsguide.com.au/car-news/wh ... _-6m0il2LM

I'm asking this so as to avoid IC questions of "But why is XYZ product more expensive here than in [nation name]?"

[Londsdale]

So Yohannes, the OP of the GE&T Storefronts List thread has left us. I'd be more than willing to take ownership of the thread so it doesn't die. It's a really useful tool for finding storefronts easily and I'm sure I'll be able to maintain it. Would it be possible to transfer it to me?

[Maltropia]

I'm all for it being taken over by a competent and proven GE&Ter. If that means you, so be it. You'll have to find an older version of it or start from scratch, though, since it's been wiped.

[Britonisea]

We used to have the Guild of Prevanian Airship Manufacturers back then... unfortunately, Prevania has for a long time left the GE&T scene

At the moment, I don't know of any well-known steam/dieselpunk storefronts selling well-designed airships with linearts, etc., sadly

1 Liner, irrelevant, storefronta should be denied access to The List of storefronts.

[Tippercommon]

So Yohannes, the OP of the GE&T Storefronts List thread has left us. I'd be more than willing to take ownership of the thread so it doesn't die. It's a really useful tool for finding storefronts easily and I'm sure I'll be able to maintain it. Would it be possible to transfer it to me?

You can use these assets if you want.

[Araraukar]

I am planning a "trade talks" RP with just one other person, no storefront involved - should that go on the NS forum or here?

[Tippercommon]

I am planning a "trade talks" RP with just one other person, no storefront involved - should that go on the NS forum or here?

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