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

[Reploid Productions]

true my real question is what does antiquity mean in the boneyard

If a nation's founded date is listed simply as "Antiquity", it means that the nation does not have a founding date logged in the system. The game wasn't tweaked to record a nation's founding date until a good few months after it started. Some players who remembered their founding date asked to have moderators manually add it to their nations, but most opted to keep their Antiquity founding date rather than have one entered for them.

[Mudreuque]

2 questions:

1) What was NationStates like when it was first released;
2) What was the first nation created?

[Daytime to Night]

2 questions:

1) What was NationStates like when it was first released;
2) What was the first nation created?

NationStates was born on 13th November 2002, so the first official nation would have been created on that date

[Ghost Land]

2 questions:

1) What was NationStates like when it was first released;
2) What was the first nation created?

NationStates was born on 13th November 2002, so the first official nation would have been created on that date

Not necessarily. There is a screenshot of NS from when it was still only in beta in October 2002, when there were 16 nations in 3 regions. Maxtopia was run by site founder Max Barry, so that is generally presumed to be the first nation created, though as the site itself didn't keep track of nation founding dates until November 2003, it's difficult to prove this conclusively.

[Duchanivee Islangragus]

Was DEN the acronym of "Delenda Est NPO"?

[Bormiar]

Was DEN the acronym of "Delenda Est NPO"?

No. DEN was a raider organization. You could try searching it here, on the forums (select Gameplay + Security Council for subforums and select sections like "topic titles only" and "first post of topics only"), asking people, etc. I'm sure others can elaborate on what DEN is here.

I believe a running joke was what DEN stood for, though you'd have to double check that. Others in this thread have stated that it's just "den".

Interesting conspiracy though .

[Jar Wattinree]

Was DEN the acronym of "Delenda Est NPO"?

No.

NPO stands for New Pacific Order, so the full acronym would be NPODE, or New Pacific Order Delenda Est, which is how the term is supposed to be. You got it backwards. It was always NPO Delenda Est.

[Dominioan]

Question: What was the most chaotic period of time in NS?

[Unibot III]

2 questions:

1) What was NationStates like when it was first released;
2) What was the first nation created?

NationStates was born on 13th November 2002, so the first official nation would have been created on that date

There’s actually a lot of dispute over NS’ founding date too:

viewtopic.php?p=33322705#p33322705

[Daytime to Night]

actually a lot of dispute over NS’ founding date

This just seems to be a post where you disagree with yourself. 13th November in one timezone would still be 12th November in another

[Ghost Land]

Question: What was the most chaotic period of time in NS?

With how many people there are on NationStates, it's hard to make an objective determination, but the early days before the move to Jolt in 2004 would qualify in my book. The forums were wild; people from back then will recall that the server was crummy and making a post during any hour when America or Europe would be online was a crapshoot - either it wouldn't post at all or it would post multiple (perhaps even 6-10) times. Even despite this, there were still plenty of spammers, trolls, and people who thought spamming porn all night was a good idea. The latter type of person is why, after several months, site founder Max Barry decided to add moderators in the first place.

I joined in April 2012. Soon after me came the annual flood of spamming n00bs that has come to be known as "NS Summer", stretching from late May/early June until early September, when American and European students are out for the summer and have too much free time on their hands; amplified by the fact it was a US election year. Several of NS's most infamous people were from my same generation, and I just remember that being a wild time.

[Unibot III]

actually a lot of dispute over NS’ founding date

This just seems to be a post where you disagree with yourself. 13th November in one timezone would still be 12th November in another

Hah! Just pointing out even Max uses either 12 or 13 as the founding date. The confusion probably does stem from timezones. I thought it was an interesting point because “NS anniversaries” have been celebrated rather arbitrarily on both dates over the years.

As for the most chaotic period in NS History, I would posit early 2003 as being especially chaotic because additional feeders were being created for the first time, ejection tools were being implemented without warning, server crashes upheaved governments, spammers were notorious, and invaders like the Farkers took an “anything goes” approach to disrupting the game.

Some of the April Fools dates have provided enormous confusion/panic too, especially the abolition of the NSUN and the Haxxker crisis.

[Flanderlion]

This just seems to be a post where you disagree with yourself. 13th November in one timezone would still be 12th November in another

Hah! Just pointing out even Max uses either 12 or 13 as the founding date. The confusion probably does stem from timezones. I thought it was an interesting point because “NS anniversaries” have been celebrated rather arbitrarily on both dates over the years.

As for the most chaotic period in NS History, I would posit early 2003 as being especially chaotic because additional feeders were being created for the first time, ejection tools were being implemented without warning, server crashes upheaved governments, spammers were notorious, and invaders like the Farkers took an “anything goes” approach to disrupting the game.

Some of the April Fools dates have provided enormous confusion/panic too, especially the abolition of the NSUN and the Haxxker crisis.

Are they really on both dates though, or just different times in the same day for Aussie?

[Dominioan]

This just seems to be a post where you disagree with yourself. 13th November in one timezone would still be 12th November in another

Hah! Just pointing out even Max uses either 12 or 13 as the founding date. The confusion probably does stem from timezones. I thought it was an interesting point because “NS anniversaries” have been celebrated rather arbitrarily on both dates over the years.

As for the most chaotic period in NS History, I would posit early 2003 as being especially chaotic because additional feeders were being created for the first time, ejection tools were being implemented without warning, server crashes upheaved governments, spammers were notorious, and invaders like the Farkers took an “anything goes” approach to disrupting the game.

Some of the April Fools dates have provided enormous confusion/panic too, especially the abolition of the NSUN and the Haxxker crisis.

...idk what the Haxxer crisis is.

[Tinhampton]

...idk what the Haxxer crisis is.

NationStates' last April Fools' prank (in 2011), before they started doing minigames instead. Put simply, it gave off the impression that your nation was hacked but everybody else was completely OK.

[Dominioan]

...idk what the Haxxer crisis is.

NationStates' last April Fools' prank (in 2011), before they started doing minigames instead. Put simply, it gave off the impression that your nation was hacked but everybody else was completely OK.

Oh k. That honestly sounds cruel, not funny. But anyway, another question (i can do this aaaall day >=), what was the largest defunct military organization in NS?

[Diarcesia]

NationStates' last April Fools' prank (in 2011), before they started doing minigames instead. Put simply, it gave off the impression that your nation was hacked but everybody else was completely OK.

Oh k. That honestly sounds cruel, not funny. But anyway, another question (i can do this aaaall day >=), what was the largest defunct military organization in NS?

The Black Riders come into mind. They are a large part of how the R/D scene in its current form came to be.

From the looks of it, they told the defenders to "git gud" when it turned out they were cheating to get ahead. It didn't take long before they got dissolved.

[Kanglia]

Oh k. That honestly sounds cruel, not funny. But anyway, another question (i can do this aaaall day >=), what was the largest defunct military organization in NS?

The Black Riders come into mind. They are a large part of how the R/D scene in its current form came to be.

From the looks of it, they told the defenders to "git gud" when it turned out they were cheating to get ahead. It didn't take long before they got dissolved.

I'd imagine that DEN also has to be in the running, along with the UDL(i'm actually not sure if the FRA is still alive, but there's been several big groups to come and slowly fade away for sure)

[Greater vakolicci haven]

Oh k. That honestly sounds cruel, not funny. But anyway, another question (i can do this aaaall day >=), what was the largest defunct military organization in NS?

The Black Riders come into mind. They are a large part of how the R/D scene in its current form came to be.

From the looks of it, they told the defenders to "git gud" when it turned out they were cheating to get ahead. It didn't take long before they got dissolved.

In the early days, the ADN could probably do with a shout-out as well.

[Wabbitslayah]

The Black Riders come into mind. They are a large part of how the R/D scene in its current form came to be.

From the looks of it, they told the defenders to "git gud" when it turned out they were cheating to get ahead. It didn't take long before they got dissolved.

I'd imagine that DEN also has to be in the running, along with the UDL(i'm actually not sure if the FRA is still alive, but there's been several big groups to come and slowly fade away for sure)

The FRA never died. We just closed down our defending division and just simulate the Regional Assembly. We've been trying to ban Falconias for years, but due to apathy and laziness we have not yet succeeded.

[Reploid Productions]

NationStates' last April Fools' prank (in 2011), before they started doing minigames instead. Put simply, it gave off the impression that your nation was hacked but everybody else was completely OK.

Oh k. That honestly sounds cruel, not funny.

It was cruel. Everybody including the mods reamed [violet] and Max several new assholes for springing that one on everybody. On top of the initial scare from the fake-hacking, the mods then had to deal with the fallout for days from users who were pissed off and worried that they'd had their banking passwords jacked (seriously though, don't use the same password on NS as you do for your banking or other financial accounts!), players who panicked and changed their passwords in said panic and promptly locked themselves out of their nations, and so on. It was not a fun time for anybody.

[Daytime to Night]

what was the largest defunct military organization in NS?

The largest defunct organization is undoubtedly ADN just in terms of the number of regions they recruited and the inclusion of feeders within the alliance. The FRA never came close to the same number of regions or total populations across those (even if it had two GCRs for a while), but is better noted for its longevity, competence (at times) and perceived leadership.

In terms of raider-leaning groups, Atlantic had a large force. I wasn't around so couldn't say how many of those they could actively deploy but I have a roster of theirs that shows 75 military members and a 'wait list' of another 30. As others have mentioned, DEN often had the largest force at various points in history (2005, 2009, earl-2016), Gatesville were by far the largest in the great decline but could only deploy around 40 WAs at that point.

The FRA never died. We just closed down our defending division and just simulate the Regional Assembly. We've been trying to ban Falconias for years, but due to apathy and laziness we have not yet succeeded.

This is all true, the Regional Assembly was always the most badass wing of the FRA

[The Notorious Mad Jack]

Oh k. That honestly sounds cruel, not funny.

It was cruel. Everybody including the mods reamed [violet] and Max several new assholes for springing that one on everybody. On top of the initial scare from the fake-hacking, the mods then had to deal with the fallout for days from users who were pissed off and worried that they'd had their banking passwords jacked (seriously though, don't use the same password on NS as you do for your banking or other financial accounts!), players who panicked and changed their passwords in said panic and promptly locked themselves out of their nations, and so on. It was not a fun time for anybody.

I seem to recall a group of players even threatened legal action.

[The Blaatschapen]

Oh k. That honestly sounds cruel, not funny.

It was cruel. Everybody including the mods reamed [violet] and Max several new assholes for springing that one on everybody. On top of the initial scare from the fake-hacking, the mods then had to deal with the fallout for days from users who were pissed off and worried that they'd had their banking passwords jacked (seriously though, don't use the same password on NS as you do for your banking or other financial accounts!), players who panicked and changed their passwords in said panic and promptly locked themselves out of their nations, and so on. It was not a fun time for anybody.

The moral of the story is, don't joke with security.

As one can learn by pulling pranks on a bouncer.

[Prosorusiya]

Heya! Got a bevy of new questions for people here:

1. Any significant gameplay history in the USSR, my region? We’re pretty old but seem to have led a quiet existence compared to other regions.

2. Notable times major IRL events (widely understood to be significant like say 9/11, though dosen’t need to be a tragedy) have had an significant impact on the game.

3. Political alignments of players and nations on the site: has there been a shift left, right or center over the years? I realize that the numbers are going to be inexact for nations since they don’t always reflect the political views of the people running them for a variety of reasons. And of course players alignments shifting would be strictly anecdotal.