The Writers' Block

[Chan Island]

Quick question: Do we have any issues regarding your nation's own emigrant community? Except for that one where Bigtopia hosts a couple of radio-loving rebels.

And what about a situation where another country asks for workers to immigrate to their nation?

Are there any issues about social media platforms being responsible for what its' users post?

I really want to say yes, but can't for the life of me remember the number and title, nor which keywords to look.

No issues about that specifically, but try to make it more interesting than "what do we do about postnatal depression".

We already have 62 for the general depression question, and there's probably nothing to gain by repeating the issue for each type of depression in turn. So write an issue, but make it interesting.

Well, that's a tall order. I guess I'll keep mulling this idea over until something comes to me.

The other idea I had is this - about how safety standards are based on the "average male" body. For example, a woman is 47% more likely to be seriously injured and 17% more likely to die in a car crash than a man, even when controlling for factors like height, weight and crash intensity. This is because, generally speaking, women sit in a different position than men when in the driver seat (this is not taken into account when doing crash tests) and because women have different muscle mass distribution, lower bone density etc to men which is also not taken into account when doing crash tests (even the "female" dummy, if it is used at all, is a scaled-down male dummy which doesn't account for physiological differences). Another good example is protective equipment like body armour - women are given male body armour in a small or extra-small size, which obviously doesn't account for breasts. The bad fit is not only uncomfortable, it leaves the wearer vulnerable. The same goes for protective clothing like lab coats or even respirators (which are designed for the "standard male" face).

It's in part a hangover from the times before women did jobs that required protective equipment, but the fact that this crisis persists to the present day shines a harsh light on the lack of women's perspectives when it comes to safety and design. If ever there was an example of how we still live in a "Man's World", it's this.

That sounds like a hell of a good issue, and I don't know of anything even close. 1000% go for it.

[Terrabod]

Are there any issues about social media platforms being responsible for what its' users post?

#875 tackles the rise of online death threats, with Option 2 blaming the platforms' lack of effective moderation. Option 4 of issue #550 does the same, although this time the problem is the promotion of violent content on social media. You might be able to find a niche in there somewhere for your idea - I hope reading these shows you what has been covered and what has not.

That sounds like a hell of a good issue, and I don't know of anything even close. 1000% go for it.

Thanks for the feedback! I've just got the bare bones at the moment so it might be a little bit before you see it on the forum.

[Trotterdam]

Are there any issues about social media platforms being responsible for what its' users post?

#832? #550?

Quick question: Do we have any issues regarding your nation's own emigrant community?

#226, mainly, but that also has a strong element of foreign intervention/aid.

Other than that, not really. For the most part, once citizens leave your nation, they stop being your problem.

I guess there are reasons a nation might be concerned, because for many foreigners, the behavior of your emigrants in their country dominates their perception of your culture. However, I don't know if you can make a compelling issue out of that.

[Baloo Kingdom]

Hmm, I haven't tried to make an issue in a while. I've filled my time with card farming, and since then, I've seen a lot of issues. I think I may try again.

[Terrabod]

For the most part, once citizens leave your nation, they stop being your problem.

I guess there are reasons a nation might be concerned, because for many foreigners, the behavior of your emigrants in their country dominates their perception of your culture. However, I don't know if you can make a compelling issue out of that.

Yeah, this. The only major incident I can think of in recent years where a country was concerned about its emigrant population would be the Windrush Scandal of 2018. The governments of a bunch of Caribbean countries criticised the way their emigrant populations were treated by the UK government, with emigrants (who were British citizens!) being unlawfully detained, denied legal rights and in some cases even deported. The Prime Minister of Grenada called for financial compensation, the Jamaican Prime Minister called for a process to be put in place allowing wrongfully-deported emigrants to freely return to the UK and the High Commissioner of Barbados even advised the entire Barbadian emigrant population in the UK not to approach the Home Office until first notifying their lawyers as there was a chance they could be detained illegally.

Maybe you can divine something useful out of that Chan Island haha.

[Australian rePublic]

As we're approaching closer to the 2000's, can I please suggest that we leave 2002 as an issue to celebrate the year that NS was founded? I won't be writing such an issue, but if anyone does, it would be nice to assign it to 2002

[Sensorland]

As we're approaching closer to the 2000's, can I please suggest that we leave 2002 as an issue to celebrate the year that NS was founded? I won't be writing such an issue, but if anyone does, it would be nice to assign it to 2002

I second this.

[Sengoku Americas]

I'm wondering if there's been an issue regarding Truth and Reconciliation commissions regarding some form of oppression or darker history in one's nation?

[Chan Island]

For the most part, once citizens leave your nation, they stop being your problem.

I guess there are reasons a nation might be concerned, because for many foreigners, the behavior of your emigrants in their country dominates their perception of your culture. However, I don't know if you can make a compelling issue out of that.

Yeah, this. The only major incident I can think of in recent years where a country was concerned about its emigrant population would be the Windrush Scandal of 2018. The governments of a bunch of Caribbean countries criticised the way their emigrant populations were treated by the UK government, with emigrants (who were British citizens!) being unlawfully detained, denied legal rights and in some cases even deported. The Prime Minister of Grenada called for financial compensation, the Jamaican Prime Minister called for a process to be put in place allowing wrongfully-deported emigrants to freely return to the UK and the High Commissioner of Barbados even advised the entire Barbadian emigrant population in the UK not to approach the Home Office until first notifying their lawyers as there was a chance they could be detained illegally.

Maybe you can divine something useful out of that Chan Island haha.

Hm, I was running on a few other ideas, but that's an angle that is mightily intriguing. It's easy to imagine multiple scenarios where some other nation is expelling your people back at you- which would obviously be a problem worthy of the country's leader.

Will think about this.

[Baloo Kingdom]

I got a quick question:
Is there a maximum amount of issue drafts a single account can post and have in drafting on the Got Issues Forum at one time?

[Candensia]

I got a quick question:
Is there a maximum amount of issue drafts a single account can post and have in drafting on the Got Issues Forum at one time?

There's no limit, assuming all of the drafts are of acceptable quality, and not rushed-out spam.

[Sorianora]

Has anyone tried to write an issue that deals with a situation similar to the one with game stop a few weeks back?

[SherpDaWerp]

Has anyone tried to write an issue that deals with a situation similar to the one with game stop a few weeks back?

Go back a couple pages in GI and you'll find many examples of drafts on that topic. That said, to my knowledge not many ended up submitted, and in my unprofessional opinion even less seem likely to be published.

If you're thinking of attempting another draft, the biggest problems facing those drafts were ensuring that it retains relevancy (i.e. will people get it 5 years later?) and balancing understandability with detail in a complex economic issue.

[Ransium]

Can an IE do me a favor and look at the issue selection balance of “The trans panic button” issue I wrote? I recall it being somewhat balanced in selection between 1 and 2 so it’s somewhat surprising to see the WA resolution on the same topic passing by overwhelming margins.

[The Marsupial Illuminati]

Can an IE do me a favor and look at the issue selection balance of “The trans panic button” issue I wrote? I recall it being somewhat balanced in selection between 1 and 2 so it’s somewhat surprising to see the WA resolution on the same topic passing by overwhelming margins.

Nearly half of all answerers chose the first option, with little more than a quarter choosing the last option. The anti-LGBT option is the least popular among the three. These stats are surely skewed by card farmers somewhat.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

No issues about that specifically, but try to make it more interesting than "what do we do about postnatal depression".

We already have 62 for the general depression question, and there's probably nothing to gain by repeating the issue for each type of depression in turn. So write an issue, but make it interesting.

Well, that's a tall order. I guess I'll keep mulling this idea over until something comes to me.

The other idea I had is this - about how safety standards are based on the "average male" body. For example, a woman is 47% more likely to be seriously injured and 17% more likely to die in a car crash than a man, even when controlling for factors like height, weight and crash intensity. This is because, generally speaking, women sit in a different position than men when in the driver seat (this is not taken into account when doing crash tests) and because women have different muscle mass distribution, lower bone density etc to men which is also not taken into account when doing crash tests (even the "female" dummy, if it is used at all, is a scaled-down male dummy which doesn't account for physiological differences). Another good example is protective equipment like body armour - women are given male body armour in a small or extra-small size, which obviously doesn't account for breasts. The bad fit is not only uncomfortable, it leaves the wearer vulnerable. The same goes for protective clothing like lab coats or even respirators (which are designed for the "standard male" face).

It's in part a hangover from the times before women did jobs that required protective equipment, but the fact that this crisis persists to the present day shines a harsh light on the lack of women's perspectives when it comes to safety and design. If ever there was an example of how we still live in a "Man's World", it's this.

That's a real thing? How terrifying.

Definitely makes for a good issue.

Reading around the topic now I see similar complaints in a whole host of different fields, from construction (a brick is designed to fit in an average male hand), to mobile phones (again, man hand sized), to piano keyboards (though it doesn't seem like there's a shortage of female pianists, they're definitely weighted towards the longer fingered centiles of that gender), to voice recognition software (which apparently is 70% better at recognising male voices).

Dead interesting.

Issue title: "An Average Man"

[Trotterdam]

Though there's also some interesting implications about the notion that the difference between an average man and an average woman is more important than the range of variation within each gender...

[Terrabod]

Though there's also some interesting implications about the notion that the difference between an average man and an average woman is more important than the range of variation within each gender...

Well, we have XS to XXL sizes for body armour but no fit that accounts for breasts in any of those sizes. And regarding the crash test dummies, I did mention that women have lower bone density and different muscle mass distribution compared to men (among other physiological factors), so even using a dummy of a 5th percentile (i.e. small-proportioned) male doesn't account for these physiological factors. Women are at greater risk of whiplash than men, for example, but this isn't reflected in the design of safety features in cars because all crash test dummies have male muscle mass distribution and a male spinal column. It's quite clear that a woman of any size is at more risk than a man of any size, so to respond to your point the gender disparity is absolutely the significant issue here.

While the size of a mobile phone may inconvenience a woman and man with smaller-than-average hands, you'd be as well pointing out that a tall man is equally inconvenienced by, say, having to bend down in the shower or having his legs chewed up by the chair in front at the cinema. It's annoying, yes, but at the end of the day the issue of male-led safety standards which puts all women's lives at risk is in my opinion more issue-worthy.

That's a real thing? How terrifying.

Definitely makes for a good issue.

Reading around the topic now I see similar complaints in a whole host of different fields, from construction (a brick is designed to fit in an average male hand), to mobile phones (again, man hand sized), to piano keyboards (though it doesn't seem like there's a shortage of female pianists, they're definitely weighted towards the longer fingered centiles of that gender), to voice recognition software (which apparently is 70% better at recognising male voices).

Dead interesting.

Issue title: "An Average Man"

I'm still working on this one away from the forum for now, but it's coming. I was personally considering calling it simply "It's a Man's World" which I think sums up the problem quite nicely. It's also a reference to James Brown's famous misogynistic song because it shows the dark side of a world where "Man made the cars/ To take us over the road" etc.

[New Celoveniortan]

Hello, quick question. Can I mention my nation in an issue? More specifically, a product that comes from my nation, or not?

[Pogaria]

Hello, quick question. Can I mention my nation in an issue? More specifically, a product that comes from my nation, or not?

There's no rule against it, but that sort of shameless self-promotion would almost certainly be removed during the editing process (if the issue is edited).

[Jutsa]

I'm still working on this one away from the forum for now, but it's coming. I was personally considering calling it simply "It's a Man's World" which I think sums up the problem quite nicely. It's also a reference to James Brown's famous misogynistic song because it shows the dark side of a world where "Man made the cars/ To take us over the road" etc.

Not saying you need to add this - and it is a somewhat silly option, but this is a political satire, so I think it'd be fitting -
would you be including an option where someone's upset because they think the fact that you think there's that big a physical difference between men and women makes you a misogynist?

[New Celoveniortan]

Hello, quick question. Can I mention my nation in an issue? More specifically, a product that comes from my nation, or not?

There's no rule against it, but that sort of shameless self-promotion would almost certainly be removed during the editing process (if the issue is edited).

Alright, thank you!

[Silvedania]

Is there an issue about dangerous 'life hack videos' that lead to injury?

[Omigodtheykilledkenny]

Just curious: Is @@ANIMAL@@ City in Northern @@NAME@@?

And is @@NAME@@ City just a variant for nations who don't have a capital yet, or are there issues that only cite @@NAME@@ City?

[Drew Durrnil]

Just curious: Is @@ANIMAL@@ City in Northern @@NAME@@?

And is @@NAME@@ City just a variant for nations who don't have a capital yet, or are there issues that only cite @@NAME@@ City?

1. Yes
2. The former.