NationStates Today

[Tinhampton]

What makes the P20 panel less prone to popularity bias than the aggregation of the entire gameplay community?

[Madjack]

What makes the P20 panel less prone to popularity bias than the aggregation of the entire gameplay community?

Lack of a compelling motivation to skew the results as opposed to say... those responding to a ping on a regional discord to go vote a certain way.

[Xoriet]

What makes the P20 panel less prone to popularity bias than the aggregation of the entire gameplay community?

Lack of a compelling motivation to skew the results as opposed to say... those responding to a ping on a regional discord to go vote a certain way.

The past polls in the Gameplay forum for this thing have indeed been subject to either private campaigns for votes or even a public notification to vote this or that way. I remember there was one "Best GCR Delegate" poll and some regions had to have words with their people about skewing it when it was intended to be more widely representative of the views. Forumside polls will vote the most popular people but will have massive biases from rigging by the allies and regions of listed individuals.

[Jar Wattinree]

Lack of a compelling motivation to skew the results as opposed to say... those responding to a ping on a regional discord to go vote a certain way.

The past polls in the Gameplay forum for this thing have indeed been subject to either private campaigns for votes or even a public notification to vote this or that way. I remember there was one "Best GCR Delegate" poll and some regions had to have words with their people about skewing it when it was intended to be more widely representative of the views. Forumside polls will vote the most popular people but will have massive biases from rigging by the allies and regions of listed individuals.

You just don't want Chicken overlords to rig the poll.

[NationStates Today]

NationStates Today Appoints New Executive
By Aav on February 15, 2022

On the 4th of February 2022, NationStates Today’s root administrator, Lewis, opened a tender to recruit a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Content Officer (CCO). Two candidates emerged, Aga (a former Delegate of the Rejected Realms and staff editor at NS Today), and All Wild Things, possibly best known for The NewsStand. After an internal selection process, they were chosen to become the interim CEO and CCO respectively, replacing long-time CEO Somyrion, and long-time CCO Lime, who leave their positions following many months of distinguished service.

In a statement upon the position of CEO, Aga discussed the future of the organization:

“I am excited to work with NationStates Today to produce high quality interregional media. As one of the preeminent international newsletters of this era of NationStates, the organization has come leaps and bounds since it started in 2018, and as CEO I will work with the existing staff and readership to form a structure that is fit for purpose in the next chapter of its existence.”

The incoming CCO, All Wild Things stated:

“NS Today is a great concept, with a great history, and a great team. I’m really pleased to be working with Aga and the team to take the project forward.”

https://nationstates.news/nationstates- ... tive/4460/

[Malphe II]

Glad to see new talent getting in, & I look forward to future journalism!

[Not A Plant]

Congrats to both of the appointees. Aga is a fantastic choice and really has always done a lot for the area of journalism in NS and All Wild Thing's Newstand if equally iconic.

[Unibot III]

For whatever reason people are engaging with Unibot without actually addressing his points. Either engage and address or don't. Here's how easy it is:

The reason the P20 is done on a panel model, has always been done on a panel model and will be done on a panel model in the future if NSToday survives, is because if it were opened to a wider audience it would end up a popularity contest. And whilst popularity and influence can have a close relationship, I would not say they are the same. With a diverse panel that recognises that, you will likely get a more accurate view of just who is influential or not, because it has been my experience of working with this panel that things like popularity were largely set aside during this process, which likely wouldn't be the case in a wider vote.

Certainly I understand the point, George, I mean I think we’ve both seen popularity and influence be linked erroneously in NS, but I would argue if we take past “Most Influential” polls and compare them against panelist choices, the top influential players tended to be more divisive and more controversial players as they were more actively involved with recent developments in NSGP (Milograd was a common top player in around 2013 in those polls, then Cormac). This suggests to me that the public was answering the question honestly and they were picking people who had been at the centre of major events in NSGP at the time.

My instinct is to say that if the organization is trying to create a controlled view of what NSGP thinks, with static placeholders for different communities in NSGP, Power20 is and has been churning out an analysis of NSGP built by committee - and there’s a certain inertia to it. It’s an idea of what influence looks like in NSGP disconnected from the activity in the game.

Take for example, yourself, George. You’re the leader of the region that most NSers consider to be the most influential region in NS. At the beginning of the month, you voiced and led a fairly significant shift in the foreign policy of that region, which likely has implications for the whole of NSGP. I would have expected you to have ranked fairly high in any such influence list as you did in this Power20 release. But it seems like the committee built a list of “important-ish people in different factions, pre-supposed by the panel structure” around you in a chaotic fashion.

[Lord Dominator]

Congratulations to the new people, hope you do well

[Les Claypool]

For whatever reason people are engaging with Unibot without actually addressing his points. Either engage and address or don't. Here's how easy it is:

The reason the P20 is done on a panel model, has always been done on a panel model and will be done on a panel model in the future if NSToday survives, is because if it were opened to a wider audience it would end up a popularity contest. And whilst popularity and influence can have a close relationship, I would not say they are the same. With a diverse panel that recognises that, you will likely get a more accurate view of just who is influential or not, because it has been my experience of working with this panel that things like popularity were largely set aside during this process, which likely wouldn't be the case in a wider vote.

Certainly I understand the point, George, I mean I think we’ve both seen popularity and influence be linked erroneously in NS, but I would argue if we take past “Most Influential” polls and compare them against panelist choices, the top influential players tended to be more divisive and more controversial players as they were more actively involved with recent developments in NSGP (Milograd was a common top player in around 2013 in those polls, then Cormac). This suggests to me that the public was answering the question honestly and they were picking people who had been at the centre of major events in NSGP at the time.

My instinct is to say that if the organization is trying to create a controlled view of what NSGP thinks, with static placeholders for different communities in NSGP, Power20 is and has been churning out an analysis of NSGP built by committee - and there’s a certain inertia to it. It’s an idea of what influence looks like in NSGP disconnected from the activity in the game.

Take for example, yourself, George. You’re the leader of the region that most NSers consider to be the most influential region in NS. At the beginning of the month, you voiced and led a fairly significant shift in the foreign policy of that region, which likely has implications for the whole of NSGP. I would have expected you to have ranked fairly high in any such influence list as you did in this Power20 release. But it seems like the committee built a list of “important-ish people in different factions, pre-supposed by the panel structure” around you in a chaotic fashion.

Wouldn't ideally then having a Popular Vote option alongside the regular rankings, maybe every 3 months or bi-annually?

[NationStates Today]

We the People – Pt. 1

Vulshine takes us through the first part of a series on constitutional writing for your roleplay nation.

By Vulshine

Read the article here.

[NationStates Today]

The Mystical Council Disbanded

Sincluda and AllWildThings collaborate to discuss the largest raid in NationStates history as of publishing, and how it happened.

By Sincluda and AllWildThings

Read the article here.

[Tinhampton]

With disclaimers like

This article has been amended.

The article previously noted that the peak raider endocount was 256 on 15 February. This was the peak value recorded on-site for a major update. The NS site does not record values for minor update. Miravana advised that the peak value was in fact 260 at a minor update.

The article also stated that defenders had cross-endorsed at every update. This has been amended to reflect that defenders cross-endorsed on numerous updates.

A correction was also made to note that Acythe was a puppet of Ray, and not Jay.

no wonder NationStates Today's tagline has warped from "NationStates' Most Reliable News" to "Delivering Content For You."

[Ever-Wandering Souls]

And defenders did fight. Defenders appeared update after update to siege the region.

...

Defenders tried their hardest to slip past banhammers and build influence to make themselves even harder to eject.

A kind way to phrase "Defenders wholly gave up after 3 updates to the point of resigning beachhead nations to chase tags and never rejoining, and then pulled fewer numbers for a couple of updates a week later in an 'oh shit' last ditch effort to waste influence once they realized a refound was increasingly possible, to no avail."

[Ozenev]

With disclaimers like

This article has been amended.

The article previously noted that the peak raider endocount was 256 on 15 February. This was the peak value recorded on-site for a major update. The NS site does not record values for minor update. Miravana advised that the peak value was in fact 260 at a minor update.

The article also stated that defenders had cross-endorsed at every update. This has been amended to reflect that defenders cross-endorsed on numerous updates.

A correction was also made to note that Acythe was a puppet of Ray, and not Jay.

no wonder NationStates Today's tagline has warped from "NationStates' Most Reliable News" to "Delivering Content For You."

Would you rather them not amend their articles at all? They don't have a staff of 100 content reviewers like CNN does ofc.

[A Bloodred Moon]

A kind way to phrase "Defenders wholly gave up after 3 updates to the point of resigning beachhead nations to chase tags and never rejoining, and then pulled fewer numbers for a couple of updates a week later in an 'oh shit' last ditch effort to waste influence once they realized a refound was increasingly possible, to no avail."

Not to mention their baffling decision to prioritise a repeal of a shitty Commend over a Liberation, guaranteeing time before the liberation could come to vote. I can understand NSToday’s attempt to paint a narrative that both sides gave their all - there isn’t really a good way to word “defenders gave up and grossly miscalculated how the raid would proceed” without drawing accusations of raider bias - but it would be inaccurate to claim defenders did all they could yet failed in the face of overwhelming odds. Though the tactical ability, unity and hard work to increase piler turnouts of the raider faction should by no means be understated, it’d be dishonest to claim there was no way to save the region. There was - defenders just weren’t willing to do it.

[Malphe II]

With disclaimers like

This article has been amended.

The article previously noted that the peak raider endocount was 256 on 15 February. This was the peak value recorded on-site for a major update. The NS site does not record values for minor update. Miravana advised that the peak value was in fact 260 at a minor update.

The article also stated that defenders had cross-endorsed at every update. This has been amended to reflect that defenders cross-endorsed on numerous updates.

A correction was also made to note that Acythe was a puppet of Ray, and not Jay.

no wonder NationStates Today's tagline has warped from "NationStates' Most Reliable News" to "Delivering Content For You."

Would you rather them not amend their articles at all? They don't have a staff of 100 content reviewers like CNN does ofc.

Ditto, this is a giant topic with a lot of data to sort through, it's not surprising that there will be amendments after publication & I'm glad that every factor is stated explicitly in the article. AWT has been nothing but professional on my end, basically the only other complaints I've seen are raiders nitpicking it.

[NationStates Today]

The Largest Siege in History and Special Elections in The South

By Aga, Sincluda, and Istillian.

Read the article here.

[NationStates Today]

NST’s World Atlas: Navigating the Star System

Nationific tells the story of Cyrranus Star System in the first settlement of NationStates Today's World Atlas.

By Nationific

Read the article here.

[NationStates Today]

We the People – Pt. 2

Vulshine takes us through the second part of a series on constitutional writing for your roleplay nation.

By Vulshine

Read the article here.

[Pathoal]

HumanSanity’s resignation has triggered a special election, where the only candidate who has confirmed their intent to run is the South Pacific’s incumbent Minister of Defence, Moonstar

(Emphasis mine) isn’t it a different Moon?

[Refuge Isle]

HumanSanity’s resignation has triggered a special election, where the only candidate who has confirmed their intent to run is the South Pacific’s incumbent Minister of Defence, Moonstar

(Emphasis mine) isn’t it a different Moon?

"Corrected an error where the leader of the SPSF was confused with a BoM raider."

[Lord Dominator]

(Emphasis mine) isn’t it a different Moon?

"Corrected an error where the leader of the SPSF was confused with a BoM raider."

Spies, spies everywhere

[Emodea]

Spies, spies everywhere

[Reventus Koth]

(Image)

The Largest Siege in History and Special Elections in The South

By Aga, Sincluda, and Istillian.

Read the article here.

Quick question: What is the word "siege" referring to here: the raid or the attrition runs/liberation attempts by defenders? My understanding is that the term "siege" is a modern day branding of attrition runs (it does sound more upbeat), and I don't think defender sieges in TMC would qualify for the largest in NationStates history. The sieges in A Liberal Haven had far more numbers and were much more threatening, at the very least.