Where do I begin?

[Daves Computer]

I hope this is the appropriate forum to pose this question. I'm not new to Nationstates, but it's been a while since I've been on it. Originally, I participated as an active WA member, served in the administration of several regions, and did some roleplay in a variety of settings. But now that I'm back, I don't know what exactly I want to do. So where do I begin?

I know this is an extremely vague question that will vary from person to person, but I want to know what are some interesting activities you would all recommend I start to get engaged, or re-engaged rather with Nationstates. Where did you all start out and what would you all recommend I do to get myself re-started on the platform and gradually more involved?

[Morover]

source

There's a few different ways to play the game, such as:

1. issues-answering: It's what you're doing - you will get 1 issue every 6 hours to make a decision on your nation. You can also try and write issues here.
2. Regional Politics: You're currently in LKE, which has an external forum, which you can join to get started doing regional politicking (you can also go here to find another region if that's what you want.
3. Roleplay: There are several types of roleplay - you can either roleplay through your nation in one of these subforums, or here if you want to participate in non-NationStates related roleplay.
4. RL Talk: There's a vibrant General subforum which is used for talking about a big variety of different things.
5. Technical: If you have a background in programming or some other technical subject, there's a wide array of technical things you can do using that knowledge (more about that here)
6. Cards: Kinda a continuation of issues-answering, since you get card packs from answering issues, but the Trading Card minigame is a robust community with many very talented individuals. The Trading Cards subforum is located here.
7. World Assembly: You can join the halls of the World Assembly and try and legislate on international issues here, or you can work on commending and condemning nations here.

There's a wide variety of other things you can do, but this is just the stuff that was off the top of my head.

Personally, I started off (and pretty much remain) in the World Assembly - though I also do some regional activities nowadays, too.

[Daves Computer]

Thank you, Morover. How did you find the community that you fit best with, and how did you begin your participation in WA? I'm not sure if I want to found my own community since I know how difficult it would be to manage, but it's been difficult to find a community I feel comfortable with. And admittedly, with the WA, when I began, I was incredibly brash and hasty. I didn't build up the competence you'd expect from an author or editor, but the first thing I did save for simple constructive criticisms of another person's proposal was put forth my own resolution.

[Karteria]

Thank you, Morover. How did you find the community that you fit best with, and how did you begin your participation in WA?

I can't speak for Morover, but to answer the first part of your question, I recommend posting on the Find-a-Region Megathread to get started.

[Rummaisal]

Hey, thanks for starting this post. It really helped me out a lot too!

[Queen Yuno]

You could try this viewtopic.php?f=12&t=483718

Or join the discord server of some random region

[Morover]

Thank you, Morover. How did you find the community that you fit best with, and how did you begin your participation in WA? I'm not sure if I want to found my own community since I know how difficult it would be to manage, but it's been difficult to find a community I feel comfortable with. And admittedly, with the WA, when I began, I was incredibly brash and hasty. I didn't build up the competence you'd expect from an author or editor, but the first thing I did save for simple constructive criticisms of another person's proposal was put forth my own resolution.

So, I actually started off spending several months in a community that was rather toxic and known for fascism - I left once that became apparent to me. I then made a judgment call and ended up in The Rejected Realms, which is a very nice place and I'm happy I've landed there. I have since expanded into other regions, including Warzone Sandbox and The North Pacific.

As for the World Assembly, it can be an incredibly steep learning curve. It took me several tries to actually get my first proposal passed, and now I have several passed (and I'm about to have a few more go to vote)! Some of the regulars can be rude to newcomers, but it's something that you eventually get past - they aren't trying to be hostile, it's just an issue with the way they say things. The #1 thing I can say for success in the World Assembly is to listen to people who tend to know what they're talking about - and to most I'd say to join the WA Discord here, which has a vast array of knowledge that can help you in proposal drafting.

[Aynia Moreaux]

Even though I have my own established region to call home, sometimes I find it fun to go region hunting, whether it be looking for a new community to join myself or possible embassies for Caer.

One thing you can do is search the world by the tags that you are most interested in, and that'll keep narrowing down regions for you and give you a shortlist of regions to pick from. That way you aren't overwhelmed by 25 thousand regions at once. That's what I tend to do when I'm trying to find a new region, just click on the tags that I find most interesting and narrow it down one at a time until I get a nice little list to pick from. Then like the other's said there's always the find a region megathread that you can post in

I had a time where I took about a year away from NS and then came back and had a bit of a hard time jumping back in, so I feel your pain. If you are looking for new friends or just want to strike up a convo, my telegrams are always open!