III. Regional Development and CommunityA. What Powers Do I Have?If your Governor or Delegate have Executive authority, then they can access your region's administration page and exercise a range of powers. Remember; Executive nations are the region's Governor if they chose to retain their access when they created the region, and potentially the region's World Assembly Delegate if the Governor is not executive, if the Governor granted them access, or if the Goveror is not present in the region. It's important to take some time to familiarise yourself with the purpose of these powers and how they are used.
To access the administration page for your region, navigate to the region's main page. At the very top of the page, resting above the World Factbook Entry, are four buttons: "Board", "Activity", "History", and "Admin". Selecting the Admin button will take you to the regional control page.
Alternatively, this url will take you there directly, replacing [Your_Region] with the actual name of your region of course: nationstates.net/page=region_control/region=[Your_Region]
Note that any nation can see a limited version of the administration page, which will display information such the current regional officers, and which nations are banned from the region. However, only nations with the relevant authority can see the full options and actually make changes.
There are seven separate categories of powers available, which are described in the table below. This information is also available on your region's administration page, by clicking the (?) symbol beneath the "Officers" header. Executive nations have access to all these powers, and can additionally assign categories of powers to other nations, creating "regional officers". For a list, click the spoiler below!
B. What Are Regional Officers?Executive nations can assign any of the other categories of power, outlined in the above image, to other nations. This allows you to assign powers to other nations and share the workload of managing and building the region. It also allows members of a regional government to be given positions that are actually reflected in the game itself, for example you might appoint a nation as in charge of foreign affairs, and give them authority over embassies.
- Regions may appoint up to a maximum of 12 Regional Officers.
- Executive authority is required to appoint, dismiss, or modify Regional Officers. Only Governors and Delegates can have Executive authority (assuming the region is not a frontier and/or the governor has enabled executive authority for the Delegate).
- Apart from Executive authority, Regional Officers can be granted the ability to do anything a Governor or Delegate does.
- No Influence is required to appoint, dismiss, or modify a Regional Officer.
- Influence costs are doubled for Regional Officers. That is, most functions can be used freely, but some Border Controls, such as ejecting nations, are harder to use. See here for an explanation of what influence is.
- Regional Officers retain power until actively dismissed (they remain even if the Delegate who appointed them is no longer Delegate).
- The Delegacy can be given a specific set of powers, rather than being either powerless or fully executive. This allows the Governor to set the Delegate as non executive, then grant them specific powers, such as control over embassies or appearance, without giving them border control power, therefore avoiding the risk of the Delegate using border control powers for malevolent purposes.
C. A Regional FlagYou can upload a flag for your region, which will appear on the top right corner of your region's main page. Just select the "Change Flag..." button on the Region Control page to reveal the upload tools, and choose the image from your computer you wish to use.
This flag will be one of the first things players see when they view your region, and it forms a crucial part of your regional identity. Some more casual regions use a picture of someone or something (often amusing) as their flag, while more serious regions use flags that are more in line with the flags of real life nations and international alliances. Think carefully about how your flag will reflect upon your region and pick a design that captures what the region will stand for, symbolically or otherwise. It is definitely preferable to design a flag of your own, rather than using someone else's work sourced from a google search. Do not use the flag of other regions or nations without permission, as this could be seen as impersonation by the moderators, and they will act appropriately.
D. What are Tags?Tags are small descriptors you can add to your region. They appear on your region's main page, beneath the WFE and in between "Embassies" and "Regional Power". Tags are primarily used to help users find more relevant search results when looking for a specific kind of region that might suit their interests. For example, if you have a regional map, you should tag your region with "Map". Your region will then show up if a player searches for regions with a map.
Note that some tags have meanings that are not immediately apparent and could have political consequences. For example, tagging your region as "invader" may attract the ire of regions that dislike invaders, may make relations with defender organisations difficult, and may even discourage individual nations that perceive a negative connotation in the word "invader". Tags do not in themselves define your region or how the interregional community views it, but they can have an influence so be careful in which tags you apply.
E. Region Wide Telegrams, Welcome Telegrams, Pinned Dispatches, and PollsThe "Region Wide Telegram" tool can be used to send a mass telegram to every nation present in the region (this is free, whilst usually sending a mass telegram requires telegram stamps). The WA Delegate and other communications officers must have held office for at least 26 hours to be able to do so, to prevent invader or other undesirable Delegates from abusing this. The region's Governor does not have this restriction. Region wide telegrams are good for sending announcements, news or current events, and keeping all the region members up to date on developments. Keep in mind that using this without purpose or too often may irritate some players who might not want their inbox filled with dozens of unimportant announcements.
You can set up a message that will automatically be sent to new arrivals as they move into your region. The message could include a nice welcoming message, and information on the various things the region has to offer, such as how to go about applying for a map spot or joining a chatroom. Make sure you aren't just repeating the same lines from your recruitment telegram though, and ideally try to keep this message reasonably brief, as a long wall of text could dampen excitement at joining your region. This message if it invites a response can also be used as a prompt to start an actual conversation with other nations, which can be a great way to make them feel welcome and a part of the regional community.
Selected dispatches can be "pinned" to the main page of your region. They will appear as a part of your WFE, beneath your customised text and separated from it by a line (this means if you have pinned dispatches, ending your WFE with a line is unnecessary). The dispatches are not displayed in full but merely have their titles listed, as well as their authors and how many upvotes they have. You can attach as many dispatches as you please, but only three will be visible by default, while the rest can be viewed by pressing the "More" button that will appear at the bottom of the three visible dispatches. Pinned dispatches are usually used for information that is important, but too long to fit in the WFE proper. This can include lists of active role plays that members of the region are running, a copy of the regional charter or constitution (see here for information on regional government), the regional map if it has one, and so on. In general it is a good idea to minimize the amount of information you pack into your WFE, as smaller and neater is often more appealing, and to use pinned dispatches to make this excess information still accessible.
You can use Region Control to create polls, which will appear on your region's main page between the "World Census Report" and "Regional Happenings" sections. You can have the poll open to all nations, meaning anyone in the game may vote, and they may potentially vote more than once by creating multiple nations. You can restrict voting to only residents of your region, meaning nation who is currently in your region or moves there can vote. The native option will restrict voting to nations who have resided in your region for an extended period and accumulated regional influence, this will mean nations who only recently joined will be unable to vote. World Assembly restricts voting to WA nations only, which also means because of the WA rules there will be only one vote per player. Note that you cannot edit a poll once it has been created. Polls can be an excellent way to measure the feeling of members of your region on particular issues, such as World Assembly resolutions, flag designs, or even if cake is truly better than pie. You can also use polls for elections, such as for the WA Delegate, but always be mindful of how your poll could be manipulated -- make use of the special restricted voting options to ensure everything is fair.
F. The Regional Message BoardThe Regional Message Board is a great place for casual conversation between members of your region, and can be used for welcoming, questions and answers, announcements, debates, even in character role play posts. It's a good idea to keep your RMB active and interesting, for the enjoyment of nations already in your region, and to make your region appear more attractive to new players, who are much more likely to join a region that looks very active.
Nations that have "Communications" authority have the ability to moderate their region's message board, by "suppressing" posts. A suppressed post will not be deleted, but its content will be hidden and replaced with a line of text, i.e. "Post by [Nation] suppressed by [Nation]". Other players will still be able to read the content by expanding it, should they choose to do so. Suppression is best used to hide posts that are particularly disruptive or inappropriate to the conversation at hand. It is not a very good idea to excessively or arbitrarily suppress posts, especially if they merely voice an opinion you dislike, as such acts might be viewed negatively by other members of your region. To suppress a post, simply hover over the message in question with your cursor, and options to do so will appear. You can unsuppress posts in the same way.
Normally only nations physically present in your region can post on its regional message board. You can extend this right to Governors and WA Delegates of regions with which you have embassies, all regional officers in said region, all officers with communication power, or to all nations in said regions. You may not give posting rights to nations in regions you don't have an embassy with. This can be great for fostering friendship between regions, as it allows nations in different regions to freely chat on each other's message boards. It does entail a degree of trust however as you are allowing outsiders to post on your board, and while you can certainly suppress disliked content, doing so might cause tension with the other region. The options for enabling or disabling these extended posting rights can be found in Region Control.
G. What Are Embassies and Do I Want Them?You can use Region Control to request embassies with other regions. Embassies will show up on the region's main page, directly beneath the WFE. When you make an embassy request, a notification is sent to the other region, and they can decide whether to accept your request or deny it. Similarly, you may receive requests from other regions which will show up here, allowing you to choose whether to accept or not. If two regions agree on an embassy, a three-day timer will begin, during which a message indicating the embassy is being constructed will be visible on the main page of both regions. Once the timer finishes this message will disappear and regions will appear in each other's embassy lists. Note that an embassy can be canceled at any time, but cancellation requires the same countdown, throughout which a message will be visible indicating the deconstruction of the embassy.
For some regions, embassies are effectively just collectibles, while others consider them an indication of a formal relationship. Some regions accept embassy requests with all other regions, while others are stricter and impose criteria that must be met first, such as a minimum regional population or age. It is a good idea to contact the leader of the region you want an embassy with before sending a request, as many outright deny "unsolicited" requests. Remember that any public stances your region takes might affect whether other regions are willing to accept embassies. See here for more information on interregional politics (coming soon...).
H. A Regional MapWhen creating a region, you might want to have a map showing where nations are located. This is semi-easily done. Any nation can create a regional map, but Officers with appearance authority can choose whether or not to display it on the region page, which will be just below the WFE. For more information, check
here.
I. The Activity FeedNationStates provides you with an activity page that will automatically update with all the happenings in your region, much like the
global activity page. The page allows you to track which nations are endorsing which other nations, which nations have recently arrived or left the region, and lots of other useful information. This is particularly useful when it comes to regional security. You can find this feed just above the Message Board on your region's main page. Alternatively, you can use the following URL to go there directly, replacing [Your_Region] with the name of your region: nationstates.net/page=activity/view=region.[Your_Region]
J. Do I Need An Offsite Forum?The regional message board and telegrams both have their limitations, and are sometimes not ideally suited for complicated discussions. The message board only shows ten messages at a time by default, though by selecting "Older Messages" at the top of the message board, or "Forum View" at the bottom right hand of the page, you can view the rest. Forum view is particularly useful for looking back through the chat history. Having a serious discussion on the message board though is often complicated by multiple players having a multitude of different conversations at once, all in one place. Telegrams are limited to person to person, making group conversations tedious. As such, to allow better organisation of their affairs, many regions create their own offsite forums.
Offsite forums allow more control over content and structure, for example having different sections of the forum for debates, games, and other activities. Different threads can be created for different discussions. Polls can be created to vote on matters, with more options and the ability to better regulate who can and cannot vote. Typically NationStates focused forums will include areas for introductions, general discussion, spam games, role play, World Assembly matters, and any space needed for the regional government to conduct itself. The great thing about such a forum is the flexibility it provides, as new sections can be added or taken away as need arises.
Some regions pay for their own servers to host forums, but free alternatives are widespread and usually quite reliable. Some good options are
tapatalk and
proboards, to name but a few.
Having a forum can help your region greatly in developing a shared sense of community and history. However, it is
not recommended that you create a forum merely for the sake of having one. Unless you are willing and able to dedicate time into making the forum interesting and active, it can sometimes be better to not have one, and focus instead on your actual region. A desolate and inactive forum will reflect badly on your region and may discourage potential new members.
I feel it is important that you carefully consider whether or not you use offsite tools like this. Many large regions in NationStates prosper just fine without them. Offsite activity can be risky because it draws activity away from the main site to a less noticeable location, which can make your region appear initially less active which hurts your recruitment efforts. Many new players will be wary of offsite locations and may be unwilling to join your forum, which is an entirely reasonable stance to take and one you should be considerate of.
NationStates moderators cannot help you with problems that occur offsite.
If you are going to create an offsite forum for your region, it is highly recommended that you read this guide to forum security by Kshrlmnt. If you feel unwilling to read the complete guide, the most important point is that you
be extremely careful with who you give administrative power to.
If you create an offsite forum, you are accepting for yourself a great deal of responsibility. The burden of moderating behaviour on that site, and ensuring its users are protected, falls to you.
If you are unwilling to accept the very real and very serious responsibility of being a forum administrator, then do not create your own forum. K. Internet Relay ChatInternet Relay Chat, often shortened to just IRC, is an instant messaging service, essentially an online chatroom. Many regions establish their own IRC rooms (or "channels" as they are known) as a place for their members to talk, without the need to constantly refresh the regional message board to see if anyone has something new to say. Rooms like these can be a great way for your region members to get to know each other. Keep in mind that you will have to run the room yourself, which might require learning some technical knowledge. It is always better to control the room yourself rather than asking someone else to set one up for you.
NationStates moderators will not regulate activity that occurs offsite, so you will need to moderate the room yourself to ensure it remains a pleasant place for people to spend time. As noted above regarding offsite forums, if you create an IRC room,
you are responsible for ensuring it is a civil and safe environment for its users. If you do not want this responsibility, do not create a room.
See here for some more information on how to create and run an IRC channel, courtesy of
Jamie Anumia.
It is worth noting IRC is falling out of favour and has been largely replaced by the Discord service; see below.
L. DiscordMany regions and communities these days have stopped using IRC in favour of Discord. Discord is an all in one voice and text chat service, not unlike Skype, that can be used by downloading an app or simply through your web browser.
As with IRC above, this provides a place for their members to talk, without the need to constantly refresh the regional message board to see if anyone has something new to say. Rooms like these can be a great way for your region members to get to know each other. Keep in mind that you will have to run the room yourself, which might require learning some technical knowledge. It is always better to control the room yourself rather than asking someone else to set one up for you.
Unlike IRC above, Discord is significantly more user friendly and has a much more appealing interface. It also has a great many more features, such as allowing you to set up multiple chat channels on the same server for different discussion topics, which is fantastic for organising your region's affairs.
Remember, NationStates moderators will not regulate activity that occurs offsite, so you will need to moderate the room yourself to ensure it remains a pleasant place for people to spend time. As was the case with offsite forums and IRC, if you create a Discord room, you are responsible for ensuring it is a civil and safe environment for its users. If you do not want this responsibility, do not create a Discord server.