[Passed] Reflections on 2021

[Praeceps]

I don't hate this idea.

I think you're limiting yourselves by going for one event each month. I'd suggest focusing on what you imagine will have the most impact on NS down the road. Nthing the comments about this being too GP focused.

Couple comments on specific items: No Crabopcalypse? And why is Entropy, the most hyped but underwhelming failed UCR to exist mentioned? I feel like regular raiding isn't needing to be mentioned.

[Honeydewistania]

Putting Crabpocalypse would be a huge waste of letters, considering its covered pretty comprehensively in the news post. And that other declaration. But I agree that the closure of a dead UCR doesn't merit being included here lol

[All Wild Things]

Heya, folks. UPC and I have been working on this draft for a couple of weeks and would now like to open it to the SC forums for feedback. Some things to note about this are that we have not decided on a noteworthy event for March which we'd like to discuss, we were unable to find one though NSGE is being considered - we're open to suggestions. We're also looking for events happening this month in December which we could not write about, for obvious reasons. Ideally, we'd like to aim for this to be submitted in time for passage by New Year if that's feasible. Please do leave constructive feedback - would be much appreciated ^-^

The Security Council,
-stuff-
Hereby declares that:

2021, though a year which brought many challenges and misfortunes, overall has been a positive year of growth, stability and inter-regional peace; and

The world enters 2022 with ample reason for optimism and hope.

Co-authored by The United Peoples of Centrism

Nice idea, but I'm not convinced. This feels more suited to an end-of-year reflection article in NS Today, or similar. (Which would give you the added advantage that you don't have to compromise to everyone else's opinions!)

In practical terms, already we're seeing a wide variety of opinion as to what should be included or excluded. And there are arguments over the wording.
Then there's the challenge of trying to get this to pass. Usually a proposal needs consensus on a single subject for it to pass. Here you're trying to get consensus on 12 subjects at once. If you get this through, I take my hat off to you!

I'm not convinced on the "one event per month" structure either. It feels a bit of a waste to mention that nothing happened in August whilst potentially excluding whatever the second-most exciting event in July was, for example.

Good luck with it tho.

[Goobergunchia]

And why is Entropy, the most hyped but underwhelming failed UCR to exist mentioned?

Agreed.

[Varanius]

I mean, Entropy was a project involving various big figures and groups. The original seizure of the region by Cormac was supported by Karma and TBH, while a coalition of most Independent and independent regions supported a candidate as well. It may not mean a lot now that it’s dead, but for an otherwise rather stagnant year, it did actually mean something for a bit.

[Honeydewistania]

I mean, Entropy was a project involving various big figures and groups. The original seizure of the region by Cormac was supported by Karma and TBH, while a coalition of most Independent and independent regions supported a candidate as well. It may not mean a lot now that it’s dead, but for an otherwise rather stagnant year, it did actually mean something for a bit.

The final day/taking of Entropy? That probably might be worth inclusion. Its closure after stagnation? Naw

[Andusre]

The draft has been edited slightly to incorporate some of the more minor edits that have been suggested so far, with other more impactful considerations still to be played around with.

Some things I wish to note about Ara's feedback are:

(a) yeah, looking at it there are a lot of mentions of occupations and it really could use more diversity. I think of all non-problematic occupations in 2021, Trovons was the most notable due to the founder's banjection so I imagine we'll be looking to diversify the proposal by removing other less notable occupations. We'll work on that and see what we can do.

(b) I don't entirely agree with the assessment that the Applauding clause is comparing raiders to fascists, but I can see what you mean and will try to fiddle with the wording to make the distinction more clear.

(c) The suggestion to change "Needing an explanation..." to "Pondering" is an awkward one because the resolution's clauses all start with words whose first letter corresponds to the month the event took place in, and "Pondering" breaks with that format since the Russian tik tok boom occurred in November.

(d) "The world enters 2022 with ample reason for optimism and hope" doesn't explicitly say that the world is entering 2022 with hope, only that it has reason to, so I think we should be clear for a rules violation on that? Not sure though, if you disagree of course please let us know. Thanks very much again, your feedback was really helpful ^-^

The most major change is that the Jittery clause has been rewritten to hopefully more accurately describe the events of Nasunia. The other changes are largely minor wording/punctuation edits dispersed across the proposal (see Ara's suggestions if you want specifics).

Still up for consideration/on the to-do list are:

• Diversify from GP and include cards, declarations, possibly some NS sports too. Please note that UPC & I are not members of every community on NS and as a result we don't know the intricate details of every event that happens on-site - please DM one of us details about an event you think would be worth mentioning!! UPC & I are involved primarily in GP, R/D, the WA and cards. Specific details about events outside of this scope would be much appreciated.
• Write more about the events of August - Tin suggested the Sieges of Chaylia & LDU though as Ara said we have a lot of mentions of occupations so far and don't need any more. The other event Tin suggested was Liberate NWA/the August debacle, but given I have a personal connection to that I'd be deferring the writing on that to UPC if we were to include it at all. Other suggestions for events of August would be very helpful too ^-^
• Probably going to either cut the Saluting clause out entirely or refocus it to mention the pile off to win Entropy. Although a pile off is kinda boring and not 100% sure if it's worth mentioning.
• Possibly fiddle with the structure of it with respect to one event per month. It's worth noting that some months which were particularly active (see: September and November) do have two events mentioned, and there are certainly other months that have other events that weren't given any mention.

Thanks for the comments, all, they've been very helpful. Will be working on the larger concerns/feedback that has been given later.

[Apatosaurus]

The other event Tin suggested was Liberate NWA/the August debacle, but given I have a personal connection to that I'd be deferring the writing on that to UPC if we were to include it at all.

I personally think that since the Liberate NWA and August thing was largely OOC, it's not really worth mentioning in this IC declaration.

[Quebecshire]

The other event Tin suggested was Liberate NWA/the August debacle, but given I have a personal connection to that I'd be deferring the writing on that to UPC if we were to include it at all.

I personally think that since the Liberate NWA and August thing was largely OOC, it's not really worth mentioning in this IC declaration.

I agree with Apatosaurus. The only semi-IC part of it would be the complete collapse of the JTF, which is both not really significant and wouldn't really improve the draft.

[Thousand Branches]

Gonna be honest, I actually think Great Algerstonia’s suggestions a while back were pretty good ones

EDIT: found it

Other various non-Gameplay topics I would add are COTA making all spots of the top 10 this N-Day, the two new stats (Patriotism and Food Quality) being implemented on June 12, the new regional banners that were added on May 22, and Farnhamia being the best nation in the world on April Fool's Day.

[Hulldom]

Gonna be honest, I actually think Great Algerstonia’s suggestions a while back were pretty good ones

EDIT: found it

Other various non-Gameplay topics I would add are COTA making all spots of the top 10 this N-Day, the two new stats (Patriotism and Food Quality) being implemented on June 12, the new regional banners that were added on May 22, and Farnhamia being the best nation in the world on April Fool's Day.

Is there a way to directly reference stats in an SC resolution like this one.

Could/would something like: "Appraising that on June 12 the World Census began measuring the proficiencies of all nations in two new areas: patriotism and food quality;" work?

[Minskiev]

I stand vehemently against the idea of including nations for passing a few resolutions this year. That is absurd ego-stroking. Now, if the resolutions were rather important, then that's more of a case.

Fair Treatment of Prisoners, Right to Assemble, Reducing Microplastics, Equal Justice Under Law, and Homelessness Mitigation and Protections Act were all the GA resolutions passed under the Strong category.

Military Death Penalty Ban had double-digit pages of debate.

"Strong" resolution =/= something to write home about, imo. And wow, shocker. A resolution on the death penalty had a lot of debate.

Although maybe I'm thinking about it OOC. I suppose IC a few of those would be relatively noteworthy.

[Great Algerstonia]

If there's any OOC put in the draft, I will be voting against regardless of the rest of the content in this proposal.

Fair Treatment of Prisoners, Right to Assemble, Reducing Microplastics, Equal Justice Under Law, and Homelessness Mitigation and Protections Act were all the GA resolutions passed under the Strong category.

Military Death Penalty Ban had double-digit pages of debate.

And wow, shocker. A resolution on the death penalty had a lot of debate.

That's right?

I'm not sure what you are saying here.

[Sedgistan]

I really like the concept of this proposal. It's a completely unanticipated but creative and worthwhile use of the Declarations category to record NS history while it's fresh.

[RiderSyl]

While I agree with Sedge that it's a novel idea, I'm not sure the momentary public consensus on the events of a year being etched into the SC is a great idea.

What happens when there's OOC revelations, changes in public perception, and/or newly acquired hindsight about an event described in one of these that outdates its passed description? We'd have to repeal the whole thing - there's no way to simply amend a SC proposal.

I find myself agreeing most with All Wild Things' take that this is more suited to an article in an NS paper.

[Andusre]

Three clauses have been added to the proposal (Fascinated, Jubilated & Amazed). I'd still like some representation for NS Sport but am having a mightily difficult time understanding its posts & such, and there is still need for something to be noted about March.

I also would tend to agree with the above post that the OOC stuff between myself & August is best left out.

I really like the concept of this proposal. It's a completely unanticipated but creative and worthwhile use of the Declarations category to record NS history while it's fresh.

^-^ Glad to hear it.

While I agree with Sedge that it's a novel idea, I'm not sure the momentary public consensus on the events of a year being etched into the SC is a great idea.

What happens when there's OOC revelations, changes in public perception, and/or newly acquired hindsight about an event described in one of these that outdates its passed description? We'd have to repeal the whole thing - there's no way to simply amend a SC proposal.

I find myself agreeing most with All Wild Things' take that this is more suited to an article in an NS paper.

I don't really think this is a particularly major concern, but a possible way to allay it would be a clause near the end stating that the opinions of the draft are only reflective of the opinions of the time & developments may have come out since then (in more sophisticated/flowery language). Would this work?

[RiderSyl]

I don't really think this is a particularly major concern, but a possible way to allay it would be a clause near the end stating that the opinions of the draft are only reflective of the opinions of the time & developments may have come out since then (in more sophisticated/flowery language). Would this work?

Minor concerns that could cause major headaches are the type of concerns I usually treat as major.

I'd certainly take a clause saying something akin to "Hey, some of this may age poorly, it's just a time capsule" to head off any future drama that could occur surrounding events or individuals mentioned in these.

[Suvmia]

Only a minor point, but the "Jarring" clause could be edited to more appropriately reflect who was involved; the URA wasn't the only group that came out against Force in that debacle.

[Honeydewistania]

I find myself agreeing most with All Wild Things' take that this is more suited to an article in an NS paper.

I feel like this is a superior idea. You can do all this, plus actually explain and give more details about these events as there is no character limit to adhere to. For example, who gave the Q&As in the Cards Symposium? What were they specifically about? What else happened?

If you want to create this year recap, does it have to be in a Declaration?

[Andusre]

I don't really think this is a particularly major concern, but a possible way to allay it would be a clause near the end stating that the opinions of the draft are only reflective of the opinions of the time & developments may have come out since then (in more sophisticated/flowery language). Would this work?

Minor concerns that could cause major headaches are the type of concerns I usually treat as major.

I'd certainly take a clause saying something akin to "Hey, some of this may age poorly, it's just a time capsule" to head off any future drama that could occur surrounding events or individuals mentioned in these.

A "However noting" clause has been added to near the bottom of the draft to include this.

Only a minor point, but the "Jarring" clause could be edited to more appropriately reflect who was involved; the URA wasn't the only group that came out against Force in that debacle.

Done ^-^

I find myself agreeing most with All Wild Things' take that this is more suited to an article in an NS paper.

I feel like this is a superior idea. You can do all this, plus actually explain and give more details about these events as there is no character limit to adhere to. For example, who gave the Q&As in the Cards Symposium? What were they specifically about? What else happened?

If you want to create this year recap, does it have to be in a Declaration?

For two reasons:

• Doing this in an article which I or others would have full control over would mean that it would be subject to those writers' and editors' bias, which reduces the actual legitimacy of the recap. By making this a declaration, everyone can have their fair share of input and takes on how global politics went down this year and - if it passes - hopefully we will have an easily-findable document on which most if not near-all of the world agrees upon to write down what happened this year & what we thought of it. None of that is possible in other formats.
• Articles/dispatches are boring. Simple as.

[Honeydewistania]

For two reasons:

• Doing this in an article which I or others would have full control over would mean that it would be subject to those writers' and editors' bias, which reduces the actual legitimacy of the recap. By making this a declaration, everyone can have their fair share of input and takes on how global politics went down this year and - if it passes - hopefully we will have an easily-findable document on which most if not near-all of the world agrees upon to write down what happened this year & what we thought of it. None of that is possible in other formats.
• Articles/dispatches are boring. Simple as.

I don't understand the being unbiased bit, when this draft is clearly skewed in favour of defending and GP events in general. While the 'fair share of input' is present during the drafting of a declaration, I don't see how that can't be applied to an article format. You can have multiple writers, interviewing others for their input, doing research etc maybe even publicly asking for stuff to include lol. Declarations do have the advantage of being more 'accessible' but in doing so sacrifices a lot of content which makes this declaration largely useless except as a basic summary, and that anyone who wants to find out information still has to go and find apparently not "easily-findable" sources for more information.

Also, what's so exciting about this draft? It's not amusing or funny. It's just a recap. It looks less boring than a long article because it's short so you quickly finish reading and not get bored. You can still include the funny first letter of the first word of every paragraph means the month it happened gimmick in an article.

[Andusre]

I don't understand the being unbiased bit, when this draft is clearly skewed in favour of defending and GP events in general. While the 'fair share of input' is present during the drafting of a declaration, I don't see how that can't be applied to an article format. You can have multiple writers, interviewing others for their input, doing research etc maybe even publicly asking for stuff to include lol. Declarations do have the advantage of being more 'accessible' but in doing so sacrifices a lot of content which makes this declaration largely useless except as a basic summary, and that anyone who wants to find out information still has to go and find apparently not "easily-findable" sources for more information.

The draft is "skewed in favour of defending" because the Security Council as a body sympathises far more with defenderdom than it does with raiderdom: this is why we (generally speaking) Commend defenders, Condemn raiders and Liberate invaded regions (where necessary). It would not be ideologically consistent for the Security Council to pass something that gives a glowing review of raiders when that breaks from almost 2 decades of precedent. Similarly, the draft skews towards GP because GP is by far the largest influence on matters the Security Council comments on. You are right though, and as we've said throughout this thread we're working on diversifying it through things like cards, NS Sports, et cetera.

The whole thing about having multiple writers is still pretty exclusive and depends very heavily on the connections of the person leading it + who they actually choose. In the SC forums the authors have no control over who gives input.

Plus, I think you're underestimating how valuable concise summaries of history can actually be. Sure, they might not be amazing detail for covering everything there is about a situation, but I think it would be very handy to have concise summaries like these because reading through brief synopses and allowing people to dig deeper on topics which pique their interest is a great way to make the history of the site more accessible. If there were 19 SC-resolution-short documents covering the history of NationStates from 2002 to now, I'd read them in a heartbeat and go looking for more info where I wanted to because that's literally just so much more convenient/time efficient.

Besides, it's not like an SC resolution and an article are mutually exclusive. If someone wants to commission a project to write a massive summary of the year in a huge NSToday article or whatever, I won't stop them and hell I'd even be interested in helping out where I could. UPC & I don't have the RL time to do both though and declaration is our preferred format because this is just the more fun IC way of doing things.

Also, what's so exciting about this draft? It's not amusing or funny. It's just a recap. It looks less boring than a long article because it's short so you quickly finish reading and not get bored. You can still include the funny first letter of the first word of every paragraph means the month it happened gimmick in an article.

I mean, on the one hand your post says that it would be better to record the year in a massive article with tons of detail, but that said article would be more boring & long?

I'm sorry this declaration doesn't take your fancy but so far based on the engagement we've seen in this thread I think it's received decent reception for being quite a light-hearted and friendly way to end the year. I'd urge you not to rain on the parade just because you don't find it amusing - 'cause that's the exact same Security Council culture you've complained about for months/years now.

[Giovanniland]

Some suggestions:

Fascinated by The North Pacific’s Cards Symposium which not only brought the leading global nations of the international artwork trade to give 4 Question and Answer sessions and 1 lecture to other nations aspiring to trade their artwork, but also organized the Card Awards to recognize nations that have left a significant impact in the artwork trade, for better or for worse;

I think the Cards Symposium item could be expanded on since the event had more than just the Q&A and lectures. Something like what I wrote above would be interesting (the last part is due to the fact there were also "evil" awards such as Card Villain).

[Events of March]

Idea: the 2nd edition of the NationStates Great Exhibition, which ran from March 5th-9th. The forum with its presentations can be found here, with topics including SC, nation stats, cards, gameplay, NS history, issue writing, NS sports and many more. There were also regional exhibits featuring various GCRs and UCRs, though I think it's better to focus on the non-gameplay parts of it for more diversity.

Other various non-Gameplay topics I would add are COTA making all spots of the top 10 this N-Day, the two new stats (Patriotism and Food Quality) being implemented on June 12, the new regional banners that were added on May 22, and Farnhamia being the best nation in the world on April Fool's Day.

And my other comment is to definitely look into these suggestions, also perhaps including the results of the 6th Issues Contest being published in July, but excluding N-Day since two declarations on that subject is already enough in my opinion. There are still 5 of 12 events fully referring to R/D, or 7 of 12 if we include partial mentions such as the Force and PfS clauses, so I think the proposal can afford to remove some of them.

[Andusre]

Draft has been updated again. Currently sitting at 4,427 characters.

A clause has been added for March to describe the NationStates General Exhibition and the addition of Patriotism & Food Quality in June.

Still hoping to trim down on the R/D mentions and hopefully will find a way to work in the issues contest in later too. More to come soon! Thanks all.

Also, bump for more feedback

[Unibot III]

"VERY GOOD!!! JUST . A . FEW . THOUGHTS . TO . ADD!!!," said Percy at the top of his lungs. The junior ambassador found the need to yell his speaking notes from the rafters where his widely disgraced, observer delegation generally resided these days along with fascists, anti-vaxxers, and the Jehovah's Witness.

He lowered his voice as the murmurs in the chamber dissipated.

"On balance, it is the view of our delegation that this resolution represents a novel use of this nascent category and as an annual practice, these reflection pieces will memorialize significant events for posterity. It also offers another opportunity for this hallowed body to advance the recognition of subcommunities and minorities previously underrepresented in the WA Security Council and present our international society as a whole in its totality," he prefaced.

"We would raise the question of whether the "joyful" tone of the resolution with regards to the creation of the Pact of Sovereignty may trouble the alliance's competitors. Although we here in the Unibotian delegation maintain our full support for the pact, we would caution the authors of this resolution to 'focus group' that clause with W.A.L.L dignitaries and test its support, if you have not already have done so in private," Percy said, adding, "I would also add that I found the resolution was overlooking the controversary regarding queue raiding that erupted in January of this year. It was as major a diplomatic event as anything already noted in this resolution."

Percy continued in a long, rambling diatribe:

• "Kindly suggesting that links to placeholder regions for URA, Force, would help navigate readers..."
• "The term "burst of activity" might be more accurately conveyed as a population boom, spike in population growth, immigration, or migration event..."
• "The use of "overawed" as a preamblatory verb may given readers the impression that the WA is endorsing, or is impressed with The West Pacific forcefully ejecting thousands of nations..."
• "It may be worth including that the Trovons liberation was a historically large effort..."

"The authors of this resolution may also find that sporting events conveniently fall into annual cycles, and therefore can be neatly included without much background. This year, for instance, three World Cups took place (87, 88, & 89). Among the winners, Nephara, Turori, and Ko-oren: Nephara is a two-time WC winner, Turori and Ko-oren are first time WC winners. There was also the Cup of Harmony, of course, and the Baptism of Fire. I would remember this, as I lost a considerable amount of money on Turori's victory. Bastards," said Percy, shaking his fist. "All in all, I would suggest that if the authors reached out to mentors or other community leaders, they may have an idea as to what events were consuming 'international incidents' this year. In the past, for instance, I am aware that the slave trade and economic meltdowns have monopolized the attention of the international community."

OOC: Felt like roleplaying my input. Good job!