A Guide to Writing an Effective Campaign Telegram

[Kaboomlandia]

Feel free to post below!

So you've gotten your proposal drafted, criticized from every angle, and you'e ready to submit it. The next stage is getting it to quorum. However, this is sometimes easier said than done. Many delegates don't often scan the proposal list, but some will approve everything. You're also likely going to need the delegates of the big regions to be convinced to vote for your proposal, as their votes cary a lot of weight. This will help in getting your proposal to quorum and (hopefully) passed, turning it into international law.

SECTIONS:
1. Who should I campaign? >>
2. How should I write it? >>
- Opening
- Explanation
- Examples of what not to wrte
- Ending
3. How should I send it?>>

[Kaboomlandia]

Who should I campaign?

Ideally, the best delegates to send your telegram to are the delegates of the big regions that will have a lot of pull in the WA. Many delegates vote early, causing what is known as the "lemming effect", in which latecomers to the voting table jump on the bandwagon and vote for the majority.

Good regions to send it to are:

• The feeders: The Pacific, The North Pacific, The South Pacific, The West Pacific, The East Pacific
• The sinkers: Osiris, Lazarus, Balder
• The Rejected Realms
• Large user-created regions: Europeia, 10000 Islands, The Communist Bloc

The delegates of these regions (save for The Rejected Realms) all have over 200-250 endorsements. Because a delegate gets their own vote and one extra for every endorsement they have, they can easily sway the vote.

[Kaboomlandia]

How should I write it?

Now that you've decided on your target delegates, you need to write your telegram. Ideally, you want to sum up your argument in a few sentences that explain concisely what your proposal's about.

Opening

I usually like to say something like "Honoured Delegates". Basically, you want to tell the delegates that you respect them and their work.

Body

For the body of your telegram, you will want to explain your proposal. The basic rule to follow is "Be Concise". Explain the problem that you wish to address (the preamble), and tell them how you'll address it (operative clauses). Explain possible problems with it, but don't make straw man arguments that you can tear down later. Be honest about the proposal.
It's also a good idea to include a link to the proposal in question. This will make it easier for the delegates to find the proposal.

Examples of what not to write

Begging

Approve my proposal because it's the best!

Provide reasoning for your argument. Don't beg.

Spamming

If you don't approve my proposal, I will send multiple copies of this telegram until you acquiesce!

Please don't spam, flame or troll the delegates, as this will bring mod action.

Signing off
You'll want to thank the delegates for considering your proposal. Politely ask them to look over your proposal and approve it. Thank them for their time.
I like to put "Regards" in the signature area, and then my nation name (in short form). You want it to look professional.

[Kaboomlandia]

How should I send it?

So you've got your telegram completed, your targets picked and you're ready to send. Now the next process is to send it. There are three ways to do this:

Manually: Simply write in names of delegates, copy-paste your telegram, and send it off.
Advantages:

• You can pick who you send it to
• Slightly greater chance of being seen

Disadvantages:

• Tedious (as you can only send to eight delegates at a time)

Telegram Stamps: Use telegram stamps to send mass telegrams.
Advantages:

• Quick
• You can send your telegram to as may delegates as you like

Disadvantages:

• There is a slight cost to purchase stamps. The cost is $1/1000 stamps.

Telegram API: Write a script to send telegrams for you.
Advantages:

• Automated
• Not difficult to obtain at all; simply lodge a GHR with the mods requesting a client key

Disadvantages:

• There is a rate limit of one telegram every thirty seconds

Telegram Template tags: Use tags to target specific types of nations.
Usage: You can address a telegram to:

region: <Name> to send a TG to all residents of a region. (Also available without the need for Telegram Stamps to the region's Delegate and Founder.)
tag: New<Number> will queue a Telegram for attempted delivery to the next <Number> newly created nations. Be aware, however, that new nations are telegrammed very quickly by very many region recruiters. In order to reduce spam, the system throttles recruitment messages so that nations only receive a few at a time; additionally, new nations have a limited amount of space in their Inbox. This means that many recruitment telegrams wired to new nations will arrive late or not at all—and consume Telegram Stamps even so. There is no special priority for recruitment Telegrams based on how quickly or by which method they are sent: All recruitment Telegrams enter the same queue and exit it in random order.
tag: Refounded<Number> will queue a Telegram for attempted delivery to the next <Number> of nations who are refounded (i.e. restored by their owner after previously ceasing to exist due to inactivity).
tag: NewDelegates<Number> will queue a Telegram for attempted delivery to the next <Number> of nations who become World Assembly Delegate for their region.
tag: Delegates will send a TG to all current World Assembly Delegates
tag: WA will reach all World Assembly member nations
tag: All will send a Telegram to all nations. (Please be aware of site rules!)
tag: Welcome can be used by Regional Delegates and Founders to set up an automatic greeting to new arrivals in their region. This requires no telegram stamps! Delegates/Founders can find the appropriate control on their Region Control page. A region can only have one Welcome Telegram active at a time, and it will be canceled if the sender loses power in the region.

Advantages:

• Easy to use
• You can decide how many people you want to target with the template
• Automated

Disadvantages:

• Still requires telegram stamps, even if you only pick eight nations

[The Dark Star Republic]

This was what I was posting in your Moderation forum thread, but you deleted it:

Seeing as this is not a report thread, I believe player comment is permitted.

This should not be stickied. I doubt there was any danger of the mods seriously entertaining thoughts of such, but stranger things have happened. The "guide", written by a player who has never written a successful campaign telegram themselves, offers essentially nothing of value. The first section is flatly incorrect: most large regions determine their votes by internal voting on off-site forums or through RMB polls, meaning campaign telegrams are useless; stickied guides should not contain actively misleading information. The second section contains information of such intuitive obviousness that it could only possibly be of value to people who would not read the guide anyway. The third section is already covered by other stickies and guides on the telegram system, which actually go into greater and more relevant detail.

Not only should it not be stickied or linked from the reference thread (or the forum guide if that's ever complained), it should be disclaimed so as to avoid misleading impressionable new players.

[Omigodtheykilledkenny]

This is a great way to make sure your Out box is full of thousands of duplicate telegrams. Nowhere does this "guide" mention templates, which are quite useful for mass-telegramming, and don't instantly flood your outgoing folder with copies upon copies of the same message.

[Kaboomlandia]

This is a great way to make sure your Out box is full of thousands of duplicate telegrams. Nowhere does this "guide" mention templates, which are quite useful for mass-telegramming, and don't instantly flood your outgoing folder with copies upon copies of the same message.

Added.

[Alqania]

This "guide" also fails to mention that it's generally (well, always) a sound idea to include a link to the page where delegates can approve the proposal... I'd say that's much more relevant than salutations and valedictions.

[Jean Pierre Trudeau]

You also fail to mention what script you should use when using an api.

[Omigodtheykilledkenny]

This is a great way to make sure your Out box is full of thousands of duplicate telegrams. Nowhere does this "guide" mention templates, which are quite useful for mass-telegramming, and don't instantly flood your outgoing folder with copies upon copies of the same message.

Added.

You added something about tags. Templates are something different.

At any rate, most of the mechanics of TGing are explained in the Game FAQ, so I really don't know why it must all be rehashed here.

[Vancouvia]

There's so few people who are actively proposing resolutions, and even fewer who are actively campaigning.

[Imperium Anglorum]

There's so few people who are actively proposing resolutions, and even fewer who are actively campaigning.

That really is true. The number of resolutions coming through the Silly and Illegal thread is dropping to zero already... Not sure what is going on.

---

EDIT: (23 September 2016, put here mostly so it doesn't bump the topic) I think that the most important thing about a campaign telegram is telling people why it matters. When you tell someone why some [x] policy is important and needs to be passed or opposed, they are much more willing to do it.

The only other real way to write an effective campaign telegram, but really, only for counter-campaigns, is to ad-hom the author and accuse them of lying. But I don't recommend that. You lose credibility with the voters very fast. The best way to write a counter-campaign is to concede the affirmative framework and say how it fails to do those things. Something like: '[Author] tells us that the main reason they want to do [x] is [y]. But their proposal would actually harm [people we care about]'. Similarly, one can also just establish a competitive framework and explain why it is important there. Also, because of the duplication and contradiction rules, an imperfect solution is a reason to oppose. Make it easy to present the facts, give the impacts for those facts, and explain why those facts are important. Or, recalling debate, Claim-Warrant-Impact.

[Blaccakre]

There's so few people who are actively proposing resolutions, and even fewer who are actively campaigning.

That really is true. The number of resolutions coming through the Silly and Illegal thread is dropping to zero already... Not sure what is going on.

This forum is not particularly welcoming to new players. There's, like, four or five bastards who do nothing but berate you. Kinda hard to get into the hobby when everything you want the WA to do is "not an international issue", unless you're already in the clique.

Edit: to be clear, I'm not referring to Imperium Anglorum here.

[Jean Pierre Trudeau]

There's, like, four or five bastards who do nothing but berate you. Kinda hard to get into the hobby when everything you want the WA to do is "not an international issue", unless you're already in the clique.

And do you know why? There are people who submit proposals on palm oil. They are told it is a bad idea, and spam away trying to get it to quorum, just to watch it fail. We are not being bastards because we can, we are being bastard because people refuse to listen.

[The Dark Star Republic]

That really is true. The number of resolutions coming through the Silly and Illegal thread is dropping to zero already... Not sure what is going on. :(

This forum is not particularly welcoming to new players. There's, like, four or five bastards who do nothing but berate you. Kinda hard to get into the hobby when everything you want the WA to do is "not an international issue", unless you're already in the clique.

Agreed, but that doesn't have anything to do with proposal numbers: most of the people who submit proposals don't ever visit the forum.

[Goddess Relief Office]

Delegates of large regions get a lot of telegrams. To them, answering telegrams from their own residents is more important than reading campaign telegrams. This is why the number 1 thing to remember is to keep campaign telegrams short and clear. Do not mislead with misinformation, for Delegates of large regions are usually very experienced. Contrary to popular belief, many Delegates do read resolutions before casting their votes.