The OFO: good or bad for Osiris

[Looney Luna Lovegood]

So I've heard talk from both sides about the OFO, some say its good, that it'll create stability in an unstable region, others say its just another way for cormac to exert his power, but what's YOUR opinion, is it a good thing or a bad thing?

[Abbasmehdi]

Bad.

[the Imperial Crown]

Awkward moment when someone other than Cormac is ruling the region.

[Cormacville]

So I've heard talk from both sides about the OFO, some say its good, that it'll create stability in an unstable region, others say its just another way for cormac to exert his power, but what's YOUR opinion, is it a good thing or a bad thing?

Anonymous puppets are bad.

[Venico]

Considering the fact that Cormac no longer holds positions besides citizenship (and maybe a deputy type thingy?) it's hard to say he's exerting power. Trust me I know, I founded it. =P So far it has produced an active Pharaoh and long time resident Lord Ravenclaw, a thriving culture section, and an active military. Community has never been stronger and morale is high. *shrugs* I say let time tell and the results will speak for themselves.

[Zeorus]

I think we've done pretty well by becoming one of the less dickish GCRs.

[Looney Luna Lovegood]

I personally think its a good thing, being a citizen and all, and I want you to guess which wonderfully wicked citizen I am, Cormac.

Osiris #1 sexiest war goddess

[Zaolat]

I personally think its a good thing, being a citizen and all, and I want you to guess which wonderfully wicked citizen I am, Cormac.

Osiris #1 sexiest war goddess

Too easy, Nox.

It's done good.

[RiderSyl]

Good.

[Glen-Rhodes]

The OFO has been neither good nor bad for Osiris. The region has always been unstable since shortly after its creation. Weak political institutions and deleterious cultural traditions have been a problem for Osiris. While the OFO is certainly a step up from Asta's idea of government (if we can even call Asta's regime "government"), the new political institutions are still largely untested. In my opinion, the shenanigans with Cameron highlighted an underbelly of corruption and a poor culture of accountability, both which are part of the "deleterious cultural traditions." I don't think there's any evidence that the culture of Osiris has changed from the KRO to the OFO.

[Ambroscus Koth]

Kinda hard to gather evidence when you're not involved in the region, GR. Unless you're implying that you're an expert on the region despite being the definition of an outsider, in which case LOL.

[Zaolat]

The OFO has been neither good nor bad for Osiris. The region has always been unstable since shortly after its creation. Weak political institutions and deleterious cultural traditions have been a problem for Osiris. While the OFO is certainly a step up from Asta's idea of government (if we can even call Asta's regime "government"), the new political institutions are still largely untested. In my opinion, the shenanigans with Cameron highlighted an underbelly of corruption and a poor culture of accountability, both which are part of the "deleterious cultural traditions." I don't think there's any evidence that the culture of Osiris has changed from the KRO to the OFO.

You don't know what you're talking about unfortunately.

[Glen-Rhodes]

You don't know what you're talking about unfortunately.

I've had enough interactions with people in the OFO, and enough observations of it in order to provide informed recommendations to the TSP Cabinet, to be confident in my position. It's not difficult to size up the community, and public displays like the Cameron affair tell me not much has changed in what people in the region view as acceptable behavior. Just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed.

I may not know what I'm talking about, but plenty of people agree with me.

[Mallorea and Riva]

You don't know what you're talking about unfortunately.

I may not know what I'm talking about, but plenty of people agree with me.

A glorious quote which accurately sums of the collective mindset of those who have been critical of the OFO.

[Communist Eraser]

I liked Earth Madjack pre drama era better, but this is alright.

The Asta anarchy peacezone was a lost opportunity to actually see it work in a major GCR. Too many people from all sides trying to tear it down. And woefully ignored in NS anarchist discourse. Lol

[Venico]

When I refer to culture, I mean roleplay, games, interactions, media. Things that are intended to be pleasant interactions amongst the people. GR I can tell you the atmosphere shifted 180 from before the founding to about 3 weeks after. People were happy, the community enjoying itself and there was almost no divisiveness that was previously seen. The Cameron charges were spoken out against by the community and they were in fact dropped. I can hardly call that "acceptance".

[the Imperial Crown]

I would advise against judging the region because one person had a tantrum and started a thread in Gameplay to cry and moan. A thread that the Government of Osiris has ignored. He decided to try and force the hand of the Government with a public showing, and it failed.

I don't judge TSP by the actions of a few people, but I can't expect people to treat Osiris in the same way.

[Tim-Opolis]

I'd say it's an improvement to the culture Osiris had directly before the OFO coup. I still think there were more prosperous times for the region, but it's not horrible now.

[Southern Bellz]

I hate to be that guy, and I said the same thing to Milograd in a Laz post. It is really easy to say 'the community is happy' now when you eject the part of the community that is discontent. That isn't really a measure of progress.

[Glen-Rhodes]

I liked Earth Madjack pre drama era better, but this is alright.

Rose-tinted glasses! The Madjack era was the start of the fall. You can pinpoint the failure of the region to Madjack's refusal to ban Biyah, who so eloquently abused Osiris' poorly crafted constitution, for committing a coup d'etat supposedly to show the region how weak its security regime was.

When I refer to culture, I mean roleplay, games, interactions, media.

I use culture in its normal anthropological sense. Particularly, Osiris has a culture of deference to authority, while simultaneously having an elite culture of unaccountability. Those two reasons are why it experienced coup after coup. Those who weren't authority figures deferred to those who were, and those who were authority figures felt no need to be held accountable to constitutions, laws, promises, and democracy. There's no evidence, in my opinion, that things have changed on that front. After all, for all the outrage that led to the trumped up charges against Cameron being dropped, who has actually been held accountable for the scheme? As far as I can tell, nobody.

It's nice to think that the OFO has ushered in a new era of stability, but it's still a very young regime that is untested and vulnerable. History tends to repeat itself. It would be unwise to think the OFO is immune to the same conditions that allows its predecessors to overthrow their predecessors.

I would advise against judging the region because one person had a tantrum and started a thread in Gameplay to cry and moan. A thread that the Government of Osiris has ignored. He decided to try and force the hand of the Government with a public showing, and it failed.

Douria and Cormac conspired to entrap Cameron into advocating your overthrow. When they failed, they manipulatively interpreted the IRC chat logs to make it look like he did anyways. I'm judging the region based off two long-term, well-respected members believing what they were doing was okay, a belief fostered by the cultural deficits of Osiris.

[Venico]

I hate to be that guy, and I said the same thing to Milograd in a Laz post. It is really easy to say 'the community is happy' now when you eject the part of the community that is discontent. That isn't really a measure of progress.

I got rid of a group that constantly threatened Osiris with war. There are public logs of, incident after incident. They DID coup the region. They manipulated the system and constantly used their in game influence as leverage to get their way. They thought that if they threatened war that everyone would back down. This happened with the Georgie admin situation, this happened with the Security Council raising Empire flags, this happened in the neutral talks I hosted between Asta and Biyah. I could go on listing the crimes they did to the community and I have in multiple places so I'll keep this one brief. Their mistake was that they didn't think anyone had the balls to say yes. I did and the community backed me.

To address Gr, I completely agree that we can't tell whether or not the OFO will work out for better or worse. If you refer to my post I didn't say it was good or bad. I said let's wait and see. We're three months in and there was one "scandal" which was resolved in less than 12 hours if I recall. I'd say it's really dumb to call out a "This is the best Osiris and it will be the best!" or "It'll run Osiris into the ground again!" I'll say it's had a hell of a start and it's a much more solid foundation for the future than what was presented before. If this is built on then it will continue with this progress. I can comment on the shift in culture GR. I don't think a single threat of war has been issued by the Security Council. The culture section is thriving and people are building friendships instead of political alliances. Will this last? I hope so. Predicting the future is hard. But to say nothing has changed in the culture of Osiris is bold faced lie.

[Durkadurkiranistan III]

I hate to be that guy, and I said the same thing to Milograd in a Laz post. It is really easy to say 'the community is happy' now when you eject the part of the community that is discontent. That isn't really a measure of progress.

sure it is

[Southern Bellz]

I hate to be that guy, and I said the same thing to Milograd in a Laz post. It is really easy to say 'the community is happy' now when you eject the part of the community that is discontent. That isn't really a measure of progress.

I got rid of a group that constantly threatened Osiris with war. There are public logs of, incident after incident. They DID coup the region. They manipulated the system and constantly used their in game influence as leverage to get their way. They thought that if they threatened war that everyone would back down. This happened with the Georgie admin situation, this happened with the Security Council raising Empire flags, this happened in the neutral talks I hosted between Asta and Biyah. I could go on listing the crimes they did to the community and I have in multiple places so I'll keep this one brief. Their mistake was that they didn't think anyone had the balls to say yes. I did and the community backed me.

To address Gr, I completely agree that we can't tell whether or not the OFO will work out for better or worse. If you refer to my post I didn't say it was good or bad. I said let's wait and see. We're three months in and there was one "scandal" which was resolved in less than 12 hours if I recall. I'd say it's really dumb to call out a "This is the best Osiris and it will be the best!" or "It'll run Osiris into the ground again!" I'll say it's had a hell of a start and it's a much more solid foundation for the future than what was presented before. If this is built on then it will continue with this progress. I can comment on the shift in culture GR. I don't think a single threat of war has been issued by the Security Council. The culture section is thriving and people are building friendships instead of political alliances. Will this last? I hope so. Predicting the future is hard. But to say nothing has changed in the culture of Osiris is bold faced lie.

I wasn't trying to really make a point of the ejections were good or bad, just that people who would be unhappy aren't there to be unhappy.

[Wintermoot]

I agree that it's hard to say at this point, and I suppose it would also depend on your definition of good and bad.

By the numbers, it would appear that the OFO is as or slightly more active than the Kemetic Republic which it replaced, and it certainly seems to be more stable with fewer contentious or dramatic events taking place. On the other hand, it also appears to be a much smaller community with significantly fewer people that call Osiris their main or only home, and it should be noted that even Venico, the delegate that created the OFO, has left the region to dedicate his time to the Brotherhood of Malice. This may be reflected as well in the Delegate's endo count, which has rebounded from a low of ~75 (with some foreign support), but hasn't reached the ~100 endorsements I believe the Pharaoh generally had at the end of the KRO and during Asta's Imperial period.

Currently, I have three major concerns about the OFO:

1) As stated previously, I believe there is an ongoing issue with defenders in the region...perhaps there isn't an official policy against defenders, but for whatever reason defender participation in the OFO is anemic. Former long-time defender residents of the region such as Campinia and Mahaj have found themselves banjected for no apparent reason, the most prominent defender in the region recently had trumped-up charges of treason leveled against him that couldn't even withstand public scrutiny, and it would appear that the makeup of the region from July 2013 to the present has dramatically shifted, with very few if any active defenders. I attempted to compare the KRO and OFO on this to determine the extent of whether this is true or a bias on my part, but unfortunately KRO Citizenship records were so poor that it wasn't possible to reliably do so.

2) I'm somewhat concerned about the level with which The Empire group is still being scapegoated three months after the creation of the OFO, and even in this very topic. While it may be that the group was less than reputable (it's hard to say since there was never a trial), they have essentially been blamed in some way for everything that has ever gone wrong with Osiris. Even OFO member Treize Dreizehn's coup of Osiris was framed as The Empire's fault, because apparently Biyah somehow originally interested Gatesville in Osiris. Additionally, I've noticed that although there seems to be less contention and drama coming out of the region, whenever it does happen the parties of quick to accuse each other of being "Empire-like", or "acting like The Empire", or even of working for The Empire against Osiris. This would appear to be a symptom caused by this attitude.

3) Finally, I'm concerned about the power structure of the OFO...it should be noted that those behind the creation of the OFO now hold essentially the same levers of power that they accuse The Empire of abusing, such as a large portion of the high-influence nations in the region, root admin over the OFO forums, etc., and the structure of the government appears to create a moderately weak Executive, which could protect the region from rouge delegacies, but could also invite the sort of threats and abuses that The Empire were accused of, especially considering the Delegate's current relatively low endorsement rate. It'll be interesting to see what happens if the OFO starts to fundamentally drift from the course the founders set it on at the beginning, and what sort of pressure, if any, they utilize to fight off such changes. Perhaps this isn't even a concern at all, but in the absence of such an event so far and considering Osiris' history, it can't be ruled out of the question.

Just some thoughts from an outside observer. Again, perhaps these aren't issues at all, and even if they are perhaps the OFO will grow out of them in time, especially if it gains residents that weren't involved in gameplay or Osiris prior to the OFO's founding. I haven't decided that it's good or bad myself, I'm just taking a wait and see approach to it at the moment.

[The North Polish Union]

The OFO started out as an exceedingly good thing for Osiris and the world community as a whole. However, I fear that it may risk losing its positive influence in the future.

The OFO was founded on noble and lofty ideals; an embracement of Raiderism and a wholesale condemnation of defending. However, it has since rejected those principles and, as it moves farther away from the beneficial ideals it was founded upon, risks becoming corrupt.