The Writers' Block

[Trotterdam]

Checking whether a flag is GIF or PNG, or even whether a GIF flag actually has more than one frame (it's not just an animation format, people), is in theory something the techs should be able to code pretty easily. The problem is that people could cheat the test with an "animated" flag where both frames are identical (or differ only by a tiny color shift on a single pixel, or whatever), thus making such a simple check think they're animated while a human wouldn't actually see anything move.

[Melicorium]

Uhh, hello?
Not a single person has replied to my draft. >~<
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=490584

[SherpDaWerp]

Uhh, hello?
Not a single person has replied to my draft. >~<
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=490584

GI can be a slow forum. Your draft should probably be up for multiple weeks before submission.

People may not be online during any given period. In the US, the 5 hours your draft was up were the morning, when people are getting ready for work. In Australia, those 5 hours were very early morning (1-6am).

Patience is virtue. You'll get feedback in time.

[Fauxia]

Uhh, hello?
Not a single person has replied to my draft. >~<
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=490584

In addition to what Sherp said, some of us usually go through topics from the bottom up, so you'll frequently have to wait for a little bit.

Be patient. Advice will come.

[Random Country 453632]

help I need an idea for a submission

[Fauxia]

help I need an idea for a submission

https://www.nationstates.net/nation=jut ... id=1104850

The above is Jutsa’s list, which I linked because it’s fairly long. I think some other authors have some.

Or just look up news and see if anything interests you.

[Australian rePublic]

FOR nations with renewable energy targets, what would you guys think of an issue about how to implement solar panels with the title "Polar Solar"

The options would be:
1. Wind turbines
2. Ditch renewable targets in that part of the country
3. Lunar powered solar panels

[Jutsa]

Definitely my list is not an "all ideas apply" list. Frankly, several of them may not work, meanwhile it's but a small and frankly niche sector of ideas.
However, definitely feel free to check them out! I'm probably not going to end up writing most of them (much as I might somewhat want to, it's low-priority atm )

[Australian rePublic]

Definitely my list is not an "all ideas apply" list. Frankly, several of them may not work, meanwhile it's but a small and frankly niche sector of ideas.
However, definitely feel free to check them out! I'm probably not going to end up writing most of them (much as I might somewhat want to, it's low-priority atm )

I actually had plans to write a laser issue titled "Don't Point That Thing At Me" but I can't ever see it seeing the light of day (if you pardon the pun) if I write alone. Wanna co-author?

[Trotterdam]

FOR nations with renewable energy targets, what would you guys think of an issue about how to implement solar panels with the title "Polar Solar"

The options would be:
1. Wind turbines
2. Ditch renewable targets in that part of the country
3. Lunar powered solar panels

Solar panels might not work in polar areas during the winter, but they'd be particularly effective during the summer. The problem is that long-term energy storage is difficult and expensive. I'm not sure whether or not storing a half-year's worth of energy in advance is practical, even if you're willing to pay for it. You could, though, just wire the power from more equatorial areas of the country. Or from the other pole, if your country is that large

Lunar panels will never work. The moon is just so much less bright than the sun that any energy you get from it would be insignificant.

But like you point out, there are plenty of other renewable energy sources besides solar, and I don't think there's an issue right now that even lets you specifically promote solar power over other forms of renewable energy. So it's not like it's a huge problem.

And though I guess you'll never know what some people's NationStates nations' roleplay lore might be like, in real life polar regions are very sparsely populated, so they just wouldn't have that much energy demand to begin with.

[Jutsa]

I actually had plans to write a laser issue titled "Don't Point That Thing At Me" but I can't ever see it seeing the light of day (if you pardon the pun) if I write alone. Wanna co-author?

Oh, absolutely I do.

just gotta find time is all.

[Terrabod]

Hi everyone, I was thinking about writing an issue on implementing a watershed for the radio ("$#*% on the Radio"), but wanted to see what you folks think first. I know there's already an issue about getting rid of the TV watershed (#119: Watershed Down? - although I can't find one implementing a watershed for the TV) but nothing so far about the radio to my knowledge...

Choices would probably be:
1) Banning all explicit content 24/7
2) Allowing all explicit content 24/7
3) Watershed
4) Fitting every citizen of @@NAME@@ with a #*!@ing device to automatically censor their speech 24/7

[Trotterdam]

Hi everyone, I was thinking about writing an issue on implementing a watershed for the radio ("$#*% on the Radio"), but wanted to see what you folks think first. I know there's already an issue about getting rid of the TV watershed (#119: Watershed Down? - although I can't find one implementing a watershed for the TV) but nothing so far about the radio to my knowledge...

I don't think TV vs radio is an interesting enough distinction to warrant two issues. They're both broadcast-oriented media, the only difference is that one has pictures and the other doesn't, and that in the modern day the one without pictures seems to be becoming less and less popular since, even in mainly-audio programs where the pictures of people talking at each other aren't really the point, many people go ahead and include them anyway.

What reason would a nation have to want different censorship standards on each?

[Terrabod]

What reason would a nation have to want different censorship standards on each?

They certainly do where I'm from, but I take your point.

[Sanghyeok]

Hello,

I want to know if my issue about erotic content in games would be against the "editor's willingness to accept questions on child pornography"?

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=490783

Thanks!

[Pogaria]

Hello,

I want to know if my issue about erotic content in games would be against the "editor's willingness to accept questions on child pornography"?

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=490783

Thanks!

Please don't submit any issues that involve child pornography or "erotic content depicting fictional characters who appear under the age of eighteen", as it says in your issue. Those will not be published.

[Sanghyeok]

Hello,

I want to know if my issue about erotic content in games would be against the "editor's willingness to accept questions on child pornography"?

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=490783

Thanks!

Please don't submit any issues that involve child pornography or "erotic content depicting fictional characters who appear under the age of eighteen", as it says in your issue. Those will not be published.

I see, thank you.

[Jutsa]

I looked and didn't come across any, but do we have an issue for nations with no guns and hunting?

Also, think that could be an interesting issue?

[Nattily Dressed Anarchists on Bicycles]

Not sure about the title. It's a WIP.

Anyway, I understand this is the place to discuss issue ideas. After watching this video of a disabled mountain biker being harassed...

https://www.reddit.com/r/bicycling/comm ... _trying_to

...I thought there is a good issue here. Or, at least a couple.

Although the above self-appointed Trail Police (TM) went about pursuing the debate in the worst possible way, there is a legitimate existing debate concerning the use of e-bikes on mountain bike trails. On the one hand, they provide assistance on steep and/or large climbs, and, of course, serve as assistive devices. On the other hand, the additional power provided by electric motors has been known to rapidly accelerate wear and tear on trails (especially during or immediately following wet conditions), and critics are concerned that increasing use of e-bikes might lead trail maintainers to ban bicycles entirely - electric or not.

Assistive devices, as in the above video, fall into this spectrum of debate somewhere, although there are two issues at play: 1) should motorized bi/tri/quad-cycles in general be allowed on trails, and 2) should assistive motorized devices be allowed on trails. Question 1 is relevant to the extent that if motorized devices have blanket permission to begin with, then Question 2 isn't really relevant since assistive devices are included by default. The more interesting question/debate is whether Question 2 should get a "yes" given that Question 1 gets a "no."

So, I did a quick search of the issues archive thread and found the following:

#659: Ramping up the Difficulty: This issue seems most directly relevant, and would probably affect validity here. Or the idea proposed here might make for an "undo" issue for certain of #659's options.

#557: Take a Hike!: Found this while searching for an issue concerning more general trail usage and/or safety. I think it reasonable to consider as part of the debate how the level of general trail maintenance and/or rescue capability affects individuals using or wanting to use assistive technologies in the wild.

At any rate, my first question: is an initial issue concerning e-bikes/motorized devices on wilderness trails necessary first, or can we see the two questions being adequately addressed in a single issue?

I appreciate any ideas and discussion! I'll try drafting something after some initial feedback. I'm seeing a @@DENONYM@@ Paralympian backfliping an e-trike across @@LEADER@@'s desk. It's gonna be sick.

[Trotterdam]

I looked and didn't come across any, but do we have an issue for nations with no guns and hunting?

I don't think so, though if anything, I'd expect the opposite concern: even in nations that allow citizens to own guns, there might be restrictions on hunting with guns because using less effective weapons is considered to be more "sporting", and/or because you're less likely to kill enough animals to threaten them with extinction. Some places in real life compromise by allowing hunting with guns during a fairly short hunting season, and hunting with primitive weapons for a longer period.

Hunting without guns isn't a problem by itself. We've been doing it for thousands of years.

[Trotterdam]

Although the above self-appointed Trail Police (TM) went about pursuing the debate in the worst possible way, there is a legitimate existing debate concerning the use of e-bikes on mountain bike trails. On the one hand, they provide assistance on steep and/or large climbs, and, of course, serve as assistive devices. On the other hand, the additional power provided by electric motors has been known to rapidly accelerate wear and tear on trails (especially during or immediately following wet conditions), and critics are concerned that increasing use of e-bikes might lead trail maintainers to ban bicycles entirely - electric or not.

You could probably design electronic bikes whose motor is deliberately gimped to provide no more power than a healthy person could by pedalling.

[Nattily Dressed Anarchists on Bicycles]

Although the above self-appointed Trail Police (TM) went about pursuing the debate in the worst possible way, there is a legitimate existing debate concerning the use of e-bikes on mountain bike trails. On the one hand, they provide assistance on steep and/or large climbs, and, of course, serve as assistive devices. On the other hand, the additional power provided by electric motors has been known to rapidly accelerate wear and tear on trails (especially during or immediately following wet conditions), and critics are concerned that increasing use of e-bikes might lead trail maintainers to ban bicycles entirely - electric or not.

You could probably design electronic bikes whose motor is deliberately gimped to provide no more power than a healthy person could by pedalling.

Maybe, but there are lots of good reasons not to do so. Not having power and/or traction precisely when I need it can be extremely dangerous, especially in an off-road scenario. And besides which, a typical two-legged bicyclist can actually produce a significant amount of power. A professional cyclist can beat a motor vehicle across an intersection from a dead stop easily. Hell, I've lost count how many time's I've almost been right-hooked by drivers turning to driveways in that precise scenario, and I'm just a bike commuter on a 25 year old steel dinosaur. An internal combustion engine produces a crap-ton of energy, but dumps most of it overboard as waste heat. A cyclist produces far less total energy, but something like 97-98% of it goes straight into moving the bike.

Or ripping up a wet trail. If the solution were as simple as just gimping things, you'd have to hamstring a lot of people too.

At any rate, e-bikes are usually speed limited to prevent them from being legally classified as "motorcycles," but on a flat-and-level or, even more so, on a downhill, an able-bodied cyclists can get to those kinds of speeds surprisingly easily. That's precisely why the jump from "ban e-bikes" to "ban all bikes" is so small, and that's why e-bike critics are worried. If I place my self in the shoes of a land owner, I can see an argument to be made not that e-bikes are particularly destructive, so much as they are just the straw that broke the camel's back.

[Zwangzug]

I looked and didn't come across any, but do we have an issue for nations with no guns and hunting?

I don't think so, though if anything, I'd expect the opposite concern: even in nations that allow citizens to own guns, there might be restrictions on hunting with guns because using less effective weapons is considered to be more "sporting", and/or because you're less likely to kill enough animals to threaten them with extinction. Some places in real life compromise by allowing hunting with guns during a fairly short hunting season, and hunting with primitive weapons for a longer period.

I think this tension is pretty well covered by the options in #169.

[Jutsa]

Oh, right. Fair enough Thank you

[Rhim Flavezztowland]

Excuse me, but I'm not sure if I drafted a good issue in this. Right now, my biggest concern is about whether my draft fits in with the internal reality of the game, even though it may not be realistic...

(By the way, the inspiration for my draft is this 2013 CNN article, albeit probably loosely.)