Question about antiquity nations

[Pythria]

To become one, does a nation have to be around for a certain amount of time, or founded before a certain date? Does it matter if the nation was refounded? I'm wondering because I saw an antiquity that claimed to be from 2003, but some nations, Cogitation for example, has a founding date in 2002. (sorry if this is in the wrong forum)

[Zwangzug]

Antiquity nations are those who were founded before a certain date (when the system began tracking foundation dates, some time in 2003). So, all the 2002 nations and some of the 2003 ones are just recorded as "Antiquity".

[Mousebumples]

To become one, does a nation have to be around for a certain amount of time, or founded before a certain date? Does it matter if the nation was refounded? I'm wondering because I saw an antiquity that claimed to be from 2003, but some nations, Cogitation for example, has a founding date in 2002. (sorry if this is in the wrong forum)

As an "Antiquity" nation, I founded my nation in the summer of 2003. Likely late July/early August, but I'm not positive. My first off-site registration was August 2003, but I don't know that I registered off-site immediately after joining.

I haven't seen any nations with founding dates of 2002 - I believe all of those (and many from 2003) would be registered as antiquity. Do you remember which nations these were that you saw? Because ... I'm curious now.

Also: I don't think refounding matters. I've never been refounded (as this nation), so I can't be certain though.

[Cielos Negros]

To answer the refounding of antiquity nations - this nation has been refounded twice (at least) and still remains an antiquity nation. I can't say that I remember the details of when I created this nation - but I'd probably guess late 2003? Not sure ......

[Topid]

I think he is saying he is confused because nations like the above repliers from 2003 say 'antiquity' but Cogitation's posts say he was founded in 2002. He should be listed as antiquity by everything I've read... So I guess I'm confused by that too.

I suppose he got a special deal for being a moderator?

[Mousebumples]

I think he is saying he is confused because nations like the above repliers from 2003 say 'antiquity' but Cogitation's posts say he was founded in 2002. He should be listed as antiquity by everything I've read... So I guess I'm confused by that too.

I suppose he got a special deal for being a moderator?

That would make a lot of sense. Moderators do have special super-seekrit powers, after all!

So unless we can think of any non-mods (who are also not ex-mods) with 2002 or 2003 as a founding date ... ?

[The Most Glorious Hack]

He probably added in a birthday to his nationdata. Just like I did.

[HC Eredivisie]

Didn't [violet] do that when requested?

[Zwangzug]

I think he is saying he is confused because nations like the above repliers from 2003 say 'antiquity' but Cogitation's posts say he was founded in 2002. He should be listed as antiquity by everything I've read... So I guess I'm confused by that too.

I suppose he got a special deal for being a moderator?

Ooh, sorry, didn't understand that.

[North Mack]

I think he is saying he is confused because nations like the above repliers from 2003 say 'antiquity' but Cogitation's posts say he was founded in 2002. He should be listed as antiquity by everything I've read... So I guess I'm confused by that too.

I suppose he got a special deal for being a moderator?

That would make a lot of sense. Moderators do have special super-seekrit powers, after all!

So unless we can think of any non-mods (who are also not ex-mods) with 2002 or 2003 as a founding date ... ?

When we moved to the forums here (from jolt) and saw the antiquity "problem", [violet] ran a thread about antiquity nations. Any nation listed as antiquity that could remember its founding date would be changed to show that date rather then antiquity if they wanted.

[Mousebumples]

When we moved to the forums here (from jolt) and saw the antiquity "problem", [violet] ran a thread about antiquity nations. Any nation listed as antiquity that could remember its founding date would be changed to show that date rather then antiquity if they wanted.

Interesting - and very awesome of [violet] to offer to do so.

Personally, I like being Antiquity. Makes me feel special ... and like an elder stateswoman.

[Kandarin]

I think he is saying he is confused because nations like the above repliers from 2003 say 'antiquity' but Cogitation's posts say he was founded in 2002. He should be listed as antiquity by everything I've read... So I guess I'm confused by that too.

I suppose he got a special deal for being a moderator?

That would make a lot of sense. Moderators do have special super-seekrit powers, after all!

So unless we can think of any non-mods (who are also not ex-mods) with 2002 or 2003 as a founding date ... ?

When we moved to the forums here (from jolt) and saw the antiquity "problem", [violet] ran a thread about antiquity nations. Any nation listed as antiquity that could remember its founding date would be changed to show that date rather then antiquity if they wanted.

I see to have missed that thread - all I remember was a thread where [violet] restored the Antiquity status of ancient nations that had a more recent refound date listed as a result of a bug. Do you know where the thread you're referring to is?

[[violet]]

Kandarin is correct. The original thread is here. (Topic number 82, heh.)

To summarize:

• The old Jolt forums displayed a "Joined" date below your avatar, which reflected when you first visited those forums. For many nations, this was the same date their nation was created, but if you played the game for a while before entering the forums, it was out, sometimes by a lot.
• NationStates did not start recording creation dates of nations until some time in 2003. For nations created prior to this, we don't know for sure when they were created.
• When we established this forum, we switched to "Founded" dates below avatars. This was more accurate than the Jolt "Joined Forum" date for many nations, but since we didn't have data on pre-mid-2003 nations, we used "Antiquity."
• There was a very brief bug where the new forum could register a nation's resurrection date rather than its creation date in "Founded" for nations created in Antiquity that subsequently CTEd and came back. There were only a few of these and they were manually corrected.
• Some Antiquity nations pointed to their Jolt "Joined Forum" dates as proof of their creation date, and asked that these be displayed instead of "Antiquity." Personally I think Antiquity is better than a date, but subject to mods being in a good mood, nations who want this can submit a polite Help Request, with links to their Jolt profile as proof.
• We do not register Founded dates based solely on a player's say-so, e.g. "I created this nation on 12 November 2002, I remember because it was my birthday," because there's no way for us to corroborate this.

[Pythria]

Thank you! That clarifies things.