NS History: You've Got Questions, We've Got Answers!

[Mallorea and Riva]

That number (for -Ukraine-) seems very, very high. It makes me wonder if it was excessive hyperbole or just interpreting game data wrong. Even if they were counting all the nations that were ejected, left to go elsewhere, and died of inactivity you might not get that high a number.

Infinite Loop (ejecting every WA nation in the East Pacific not endorsing them immediately) punted more nations than Francos Spain ever did and Francos Spain was contending with puppet flooding by opponents of the NPO. Infinite Loop and Francos Spain were 1 and 2 for ejection records at that point, and they were in the 2500ish nation ball park.

I think JAL would have set an almost unbeatable benchmark if he hadn't gone full on kamikaze with an obscene flag, while the region was under a microscope by the Mods at the time. I'm pretty certain the numbers were a lot higher than 600 though and it was the first time someone tried to empty a feeder for the sake of emptying a feeder (at least the first time someone tried to and made enough progress for other people to take notice). I remember everyone speculating what would happen if they completely emptied a feeder for the update.

It does look as though that figure is correct, I’ll confirm it later though by looking at changes in TRR’s population at the time. There was definitely a four thousand nation + drop over about five days in the Pacific which is a major shift.

Looks like JAL got around 1600 nations in his 2010 TNP coup according to NS history. Both TRR and TNP's population fluctuations confirm it.

[The Blaatschapen]

15 years ago today I started playing.

Then five minutes later I logged out, there was not much else to do besides answering issues.

[The Noble Thatcherites]

15 years ago today I started playing.

Then five minutes later I logged out, there was not much else to do besides answering issues.

O.o wow. Congrats on 15 years!

[Pax Nerdvana]

15 years ago today I started playing.

Then five minutes later I logged out, there was not much else to do besides answering issues.

Congratulations. I've been playing since May.

[Luna Amore]

15 years ago today I started playing.

Then five minutes later I logged out, there was not much else to do besides answering issues.

Did you quadruple post on the forum too?

[The Blaatschapen]

15 years ago today I started playing.

Then five minutes later I logged out, there was not much else to do besides answering issues.

Did you quadruple post on the forum too?

I only posted twice on the original forum. One of the posts would constitute a flame nowadays.

[Pax Nerdvana]

Did you quadruple post on the forum too?

I only posted twice on the original forum. One of the posts would constitute a flame nowadays.

What were the original pre Jolt forums like?

[Luna Amore]

I only posted twice on the original forum. One of the posts would constitute a flame nowadays.

What were the original pre Jolt forums like?

They were actually hamster powered.

[Pax Nerdvana]

What were the original pre Jolt forums like?

They were actually hamster powered.

That slow?

[The Blaatschapen]

I only posted twice on the original forum. One of the posts would constitute a flame nowadays.

What were the original pre Jolt forums like?

Not available most of the time.

[Pax Nerdvana]

What were the original pre Jolt forums like?

Not available most of the time.

I have read through the news archive. I don't think there have been any forum issues for some time now. Was the server too small or something?

[Reploid Productions]

Not available most of the time.

I have read through the news archive. I don't think there have been any forum issues for some time now. Was the server too small or something?

Basically in the dark ages of 2003, our server was just not up to the task of handling both the game and forum processes under heavy load. Which.... was pretty much any time the US was awake. The old forum was basically an older version of this one- it ran an older version of phpBB, and it just could not handle several thousand users all trying to browse and post at the same time on the hardware we were running back then.

Thankfully, decent servers/hosting providers cost a whole hell of a lot less these days, which is a large part of why we were able to politely tell Jolt to kiss our collective asses in 2009.

[Pax Nerdvana]

I have read through the news archive. I don't think there have been any forum issues for some time now. Was the server too small or something?

Basically in the dark ages of 2003, our server was just not up to the task of handling both the game and forum processes under heavy load. Which.... was pretty much any time the US was awake. The old forum was basically an older version of this one- it ran an older version of phpBB, and it just could not handle several thousand users all trying to browse and post at the same time on the hardware we were running back then.

Thankfully, decent servers/hosting providers cost a whole hell of a lot less these days, which is a large part of why we were able to politely tell Jolt to kiss our collective asses in 2009.

I've read about the Jolt problems. Were Jolt's forums terrible?

[Reploid Productions]

Basically in the dark ages of 2003, our server was just not up to the task of handling both the game and forum processes under heavy load. Which.... was pretty much any time the US was awake. The old forum was basically an older version of this one- it ran an older version of phpBB, and it just could not handle several thousand users all trying to browse and post at the same time on the hardware we were running back then.

Thankfully, decent servers/hosting providers cost a whole hell of a lot less these days, which is a large part of why we were able to politely tell Jolt to kiss our collective asses in 2009.

I've read about the Jolt problems. Were Jolt's forums terrible?

Jolt's forums were decent, though near the tail end of our stay there, they got extremely obnoxious with the ad placements. The main issue with Jolt wasn't the forums, it was the company's mishandling of NS2, failure to uphold their end of the contract with regards to payments, and increasing attempts to pressure us to moderate our section of the forums differently. (Going so far as to permaban at least one of our users from the forums outright because he called them out on the NS2 bullshit.)

[Pax Nerdvana]

I've read about the Jolt problems. Were Jolt's forums terrible?

Jolt's forums were decent, though near the tail end of our stay there, they got extremely obnoxious with the ad placements. The main issue with Jolt wasn't the forums, it was the company's mishandling of NS2, failure to uphold their end of the contract with regards to payments, and increasing attempts to pressure us to moderate our section of the forums differently. (Going so far as to permaban at least one of our users from the forums outright because he called them out on the NS2 bullshit.)

I think I heard about that. I think most NSers consider NS2 to be some sort of demon spawn. Is that true? And why would Jolt try to tell you how to run a site that they don't own? Maybe Jolt is plotting world domination.

[Reploid Productions]

Jolt's forums were decent, though near the tail end of our stay there, they got extremely obnoxious with the ad placements. The main issue with Jolt wasn't the forums, it was the company's mishandling of NS2, failure to uphold their end of the contract with regards to payments, and increasing attempts to pressure us to moderate our section of the forums differently. (Going so far as to permaban at least one of our users from the forums outright because he called them out on the NS2 bullshit.)

I think I heard about that. I think most NSers consider NS2 to be some sort of demon spawn. Is that true? And why would Jolt try to tell you how to run a site that they don't own? Maybe Jolt is plotting world domination.

More like sleazy, shitty business practices. Debates on NSG for instance can get into topics that a lot of other forums would prohibit outright (look at how many games or sites outright bar political debate for instance), and since Jolt's model entailed "sucker in as many people as possible to sell shitty games to", the fact our slice of the Jolt forums weren't hyper-sanitized caused them concern.

Fortunately these days, Jolt no longer exists.

[Pax Nerdvana]

I think I heard about that. I think most NSers consider NS2 to be some sort of demon spawn. Is that true? And why would Jolt try to tell you how to run a site that they don't own? Maybe Jolt is plotting world domination.

More like sleazy, shitty business practices. Debates on NSG for instance can get into topics that a lot of other forums would prohibit outright (look at how many games or sites outright bar political debate for instance), and since Jolt's model entailed "sucker in as many people as possible to sell shitty games to", the fact our slice of the Jolt forums weren't hyper-sanitized caused them concern.

Fortunately these days, Jolt no longer exists.

That's good. They can't come back and take over NS. I generally avoid the political debates, but they're good to have. It sounds like Jolt was trying to restrict freedom of speech. In my opinion, forums should be more like NS's. You know freedom of speech and all that.

[The Blaatschapen]

More like sleazy, shitty business practices. Debates on NSG for instance can get into topics that a lot of other forums would prohibit outright (look at how many games or sites outright bar political debate for instance), and since Jolt's model entailed "sucker in as many people as possible to sell shitty games to", the fact our slice of the Jolt forums weren't hyper-sanitized caused them concern.

Fortunately these days, Jolt no longer exists.

That's good. They can't come back and take over NS. I generally avoid the political debates, but they're good to have. It sounds like Jolt was trying to restrict freedom of speech. In my opinion, forums should be more like NS's. You know freedom of speech and all that.

There is no freedom of speech here.

But for me, it would be silly to have a political simulator and not have political debate too of course, the admins might have a different reason for it.

[Pax Nerdvana]

That's good. They can't come back and take over NS. I generally avoid the political debates, but they're good to have. It sounds like Jolt was trying to restrict freedom of speech. In my opinion, forums should be more like NS's. You know freedom of speech and all that.

There is no freedom of speech here.

But for me, it would be silly to have a political simulator and not have political debate too of course, the admins might have a different reason for it.

I guess the mods can ban people who are trolls or whatever. I agree that a political simulator would be kind of pointless without debate.

[The Bruce]

I only posted twice on the original forum. One of the posts would constitute a flame nowadays.

What were the original pre Jolt forums like?

Imagine typing a thoughtful reply, on a forum, where you had to accept there was a 50/50 chance the post wouldn't even happen, and either way you had to wait a couple minutes to find out if the post went through.

What it taught me was to write longer posts down on Word documents, to have a backup before posting.

[The Bruce]

I think I heard about that. I think most NSers consider NS2 to be some sort of demon spawn. Is that true? And why would Jolt try to tell you how to run a site that they don't own? Maybe Jolt is plotting world domination.

More like sleazy, shitty business practices. Debates on NSG for instance can get into topics that a lot of other forums would prohibit outright (look at how many games or sites outright bar political debate for instance), and since Jolt's model entailed "sucker in as many people as possible to sell shitty games to", the fact our slice of the Jolt forums weren't hyper-sanitized caused them concern.

Fortunately these days, Jolt no longer exists.

NS2 was a soulless version of the original. There were some technical improvements on the system, but it just didn't feel right.

[Guy]

More like sleazy, shitty business practices. Debates on NSG for instance can get into topics that a lot of other forums would prohibit outright (look at how many games or sites outright bar political debate for instance), and since Jolt's model entailed "sucker in as many people as possible to sell shitty games to", the fact our slice of the Jolt forums weren't hyper-sanitized caused them concern.

Fortunately these days, Jolt no longer exists.

NS2 was a soulless version of the original. There were some technical improvements on the system, but it just didn't feel right.

I'd agree with this.

[Yes I was here for NS2]

[Klaus Devestatorie]

I think I heard about that. I think most NSers consider NS2 to be some sort of demon spawn. Is that true? And why would Jolt try to tell you how to run a site that they don't own? Maybe Jolt is plotting world domination.

More like sleazy, shitty business practices. Debates on NSG for instance can get into topics that a lot of other forums would prohibit outright (look at how many games or sites outright bar political debate for instance), and since Jolt's model entailed "sucker in as many people as possible to sell shitty games to", the fact our slice of the Jolt forums weren't hyper-sanitized caused them concern.

Fortunately these days, Jolt no longer exists.

NationStates wasn't the only game they weren't keen on the moderation standards forum- Earth 2025 and Utopia (two other games they acquired when they bought out Swirve) didn't take it well either, especially Earth which had virtually non existent moderation for ages.

[Unibot III]

More like sleazy, shitty business practices. Debates on NSG for instance can get into topics that a lot of other forums would prohibit outright (look at how many games or sites outright bar political debate for instance), and since Jolt's model entailed "sucker in as many people as possible to sell shitty games to", the fact our slice of the Jolt forums weren't hyper-sanitized caused them concern.

Fortunately these days, Jolt no longer exists.

NS2 was a soulless version of the original. There were some technical improvements on the system, but it just didn't feel right.

2008's Uni (a littler, more innocent version, with more acne) was almost heartbroken at how shitty it was. Really quite a soul-sucking affair. (Lovely modernist artwork though.)

Also, by the way, I looked into TRR's population level between May and June 2003, I didn't find any particular bumps that would justify believing that 4,500 figure in mid-May. So you're probably right. I believe the evidence suggests that -Ukraine- probably only ejected and banned a few hundred nations from the Pacific at most - but that, at that very time, the Pacific shed a lot of nations due to CTE'ing perhaps.

Interestingly, I did see a smaller population bump in TRR - about two hundred nations - over the course of May 06. I was curious if I might be seeing the aftermath of the creation of TEP. Loop took over May 25th, but Loth would have been there a couple of weeks prior. In the week of May 11th, when the formation of TEP is more likely however, is also unfortunately the week I have less Wayback Data for from TRR.

[Intelligeneria]

What is/was the League of Nations, and is it still around? If not, why not?