The Writers' Block

[Terrabod]

I'm definitely familiar with the hobby some people have of finding "evidence" that such-and-such historical figure was homosexual or not. I find it a pretty silly exercise: these people lived hundreds or thousands of years ago and any evidence we have of them is pretty flimsy, and anyway does it really matter? It's just tawdry celebrity gossip. Also, the people who do this seem to keep forgetting the possibility that those people might just have been bisexual.

That's not really what it's about, it's about people who really were LGBT+ (that includes bi) being labelled as straight by historians. I think any historical inaccuracies should be corrected even if some people don't like the truth, because giving an accurate picture of history (e.g. CWA's Tchaikovsky issue) is a historian's duty. The "x couldn't be gay because he's a cool guy" argument and its more subtle/insidious variations need to be challenged because it helps us to re-examine current prejudice as well as historical prejudice.

I remember CWA drafting an issue on whether an esteemed composer in @@NAME@@ (who is deceased) was gay or not (based on some recently recovered writings or so). It was inspired by the homophobic Russian government debating whether Tchaikovsky was really gay or not. I don't think that issue got published, but it must be somewhere in the pile of staff issues, so if you write an issue in the same thematic area, you will be competing with him, I guess. It is not a problem to do so, and if your issue has at least equal merit, it may be prioritized over a draft written by an editor (because players > editors), but it will not be easy.

If it's been done and it's been done well (as I'm sure it has) then I shan't waste my time covering old ground. Thanks for the info!

[Frieden-und Freudenland]

I'm definitely familiar with the hobby some people have of finding "evidence" that such-and-such historical figure was homosexual or not. I find it a pretty silly exercise: these people lived hundreds or thousands of years ago and any evidence we have of them is pretty flimsy, and anyway does it really matter? It's just tawdry celebrity gossip. Also, the people who do this seem to keep forgetting the possibility that those people might just have been bisexual.

That's not really what it's about, it's about people who really were LGBT+ (that includes bi) being labelled as straight by historians. I think any historical inaccuracies should be corrected even if some people don't like the truth, because giving an accurate picture of history (e.g. CWA's Tchaikovsky issue) is a historian's duty. The "x couldn't be gay because he's a cool guy" argument and its more subtle/insidious variations need to be challenged because it helps us to re-examine current prejudice as well as historical prejudice.

I remember CWA drafting an issue on whether an esteemed composer in @@NAME@@ (who is deceased) was gay or not (based on some recently recovered writings or so). It was inspired by the homophobic Russian government debating whether Tchaikovsky was really gay or not. I don't think that issue got published, but it must be somewhere in the pile of staff issues, so if you write an issue in the same thematic area, you will be competing with him, I guess. It is not a problem to do so, and if your issue has at least equal merit, it may be prioritized over a draft written by an editor (because players > editors), but it will not be easy.

If it's been done and it's been done well (as I'm sure it has) then I shan't waste my time covering old ground. Thanks for the info!

I found the issue draft and can confirm that it is in the staff issues pile. As I said, your choice, I am not trying to say that you should not attempt a draft.

[Terrabod]

I found the issue draft and can confirm that it is in the staff issues pile. As I said, your choice, I am not trying to say that you should not attempt a draft.

Thanks for dredging this up for me. Man, that's good! I know there was no dissuasion on your part, but I don't think I can top that draft.



If you, uh, pardon the pun.

[Indimu]

Hmm I have a question... has there ever been an issue about something similar to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

https://theoceancleanup.com/great-pacif ... age-patch/

It’s a topic I’ve been researching a lot recently and I was wondering if an issue had ever been created in its likeness(I wouldn’t be at all surprised if one did exist but if not I would love to write that) ^-^

[Fauxia]

Snip

Yeah, that’s great. Especially the line about all music being banned.

[Terrabod]

Hmm I have a question... has there ever been an issue about something similar to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

https://theoceancleanup.com/great-pacif ... age-patch/

It’s a topic I’ve been researching a lot recently and I was wondering if an issue had ever been created in its likeness(I wouldn’t be at all surprised if one did exist but if not I would love to write that) ^-^

I'm afraid we already have #480 - One Nation's Trash Is Another Nation's Trash which deals with that problem.

[Pluvie]

Hmm I have a question... has there ever been an issue about something similar to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

https://theoceancleanup.com/great-pacif ... age-patch/

It’s a topic I’ve been researching a lot recently and I was wondering if an issue had ever been created in its likeness(I wouldn’t be at all surprised if one did exist but if not I would love to write that) ^-^

I'm afraid we already have #480 - One Nation's Trash Is Another Nation's Trash which deals with that problem.

Ah oh well thanks for letting me know ^-^

[UDont]

Ok you might wanna know how to gain pop well it's just by waiting

[Megistos]

is there a issue about electric cars being too quiet for pedestrians to hear, so many are now getting, well, in accidents?

[Pluvie]

Okay another question... has there ever been any issues discussing food allergies? My specific idea would be something like a company not listing proper allergens on their food(not sure what kind of food but that is something I could figure out later on) and deaths/people getting sick resulting from this. This is something that has happened before although I can't seem to find the particular instance of it that I was looking at the other day. But something about having tighter regulations about listing allergens. Has anything like that been done before?

[Trotterdam]

Okay another question... has there ever been any issues discussing food allergies? My specific idea would be something like a company not listing proper allergens on their food(not sure what kind of food but that is something I could figure out later on) and deaths/people getting sick resulting from this. This is something that has happened before although I can't seem to find the particular instance of it that I was looking at the other day. But something about having tighter regulations about listing allergens. Has anything like that been done before?

There is exactly one previous issue about food allergies, #882. That one's specifically about food in school cafeterias, so there's probably space left to explore.

[Indimu]

Okay another question... has there ever been any issues discussing food allergies? My specific idea would be something like a company not listing proper allergens on their food(not sure what kind of food but that is something I could figure out later on) and deaths/people getting sick resulting from this. This is something that has happened before although I can't seem to find the particular instance of it that I was looking at the other day. But something about having tighter regulations about listing allergens. Has anything like that been done before?

There is exactly one previous issue about food allergies, #882. That one's specifically about food in school cafeterias, so there's probably space left to explore.

Thank you so much! This one is gonna be a lotta fun to write :3

[Lelscrep]

Is there an issue regarding newfound evidence posthumously proving the innocence of an executed individual? For nations with capital punishment, obviously. I did some keyword searching and couldn't find anything.

[SherpDaWerp]

Is there an issue regarding newfound evidence posthumously proving the innocence of an executed individual? For nations with capital punishment, obviously. I did some keyword searching and couldn't find anything.

#318.

[Lelscrep]

Is there an issue regarding newfound evidence posthumously proving the innocence of an executed individual? For nations with capital punishment, obviously. I did some keyword searching and couldn't find anything.

Thank you.

[The Allied Tribe]

Is there any issue concerning the following:

- @@NAME@@ having radical political parties
- @@NAME@@ spending too much on foreign aid
- @@NAME@@ spending too much on defense
- @@NAME@@ discovering natives inside its borders
- Pro-democracy rebellions in @@NAME@@

If you can only do one it's fine. Give priority to the second and last idea.

[Jutsa]

I believe we have issues for all of those except foreign aid spending, possibly military spending. Regarding the former, I had worked on that one a little bit before, but had significant trouble.

I was being pulled in two directions when it came to that; one part of me was trying to follow NationStates logic in how aid is just handed out, out of the goodness of their hearts,
at the expense of, you know, the nation. And tbh most options that raise foreign aid behave in this way.

But the other part of me, mostly sparked by the comments, addressed that foreign aid is usually delivered strategically to allies and junk,
which, tbh, would definitely make for a more interesting story and is probably more realistic.

I can't actually remember why I never finished it, so if you want to have a go at it, help yourself. Er, my draft of it is here if you'd like to recycle anything,
but the comments on said draft might be even more valuable to you.

Kind of sad I didn't rework this, not going to lie, but then again there were several drafts part of me wanted to push and most of me didn't.

As for military spending - totally unsure about that one's existence in the issue base. I actually had worked on a collab project involving that, but it was ditched. In hindsight, it wasn't exactly the greatest draft, either. But maybe something could be worked out; I actually had a draft in progress about your nation being overly belligerent,
but I was waiting for an "at war" policy to be added, which never came about.
(Plus I thought someone else drafted on the topic but I hadn't seen it added to the base yet, so that might still be a good issue topic.)

Radical political parties... uh. Not certain. Actually could be an interesting issue for nations with high averageness* seeing as we don't have any issues using averageness,
and instead of focusing on averageness, maybe focusing on radical political parties could be interesting. I know we have issues involving more joke parties,
featuring prominent figures like a reference to Mr. Buckethead. (I literally would vote for him for my president if I had the choice.)

Pro-democracy rebellions... hmm. I did submit an issue about rioters being paid for by the United Federation, which wasn't added to the game.
Aside from that, I have no idea. As for discovering natives within your borders, we definitely have an issue about that - #129 actually opens with this exact statement.

[Silvedania]

I have decided to make myself useful and work on an issue submission to follow up 343.

[The Allied Tribe]

snip

Thanks!

[Fauxia]

I have decided to make myself useful and work on an issue submission to follow up 343.

Good luck! Make sure to draft here on the forums.

[Australian rePublic]

Would the following issues work?

-A proposal to charge car drivers by kilometre rather than by a fuel tax to ensure that electric car drivers pay their fair share for using the road?
-Forcing bike riders to obtain licences and registration?
-An infrastructure issue on rail gauge standardisation (which is a problem in Australia)
-What types of road trains are allowed in and near major cities (Darwin allows triple-road trains within a kilometre of downtown, and Blacktown Council in Sydney proposes to allow B-Triples to operate in their Local Government Area)

[Australian rePublic]

Okay another question... has there ever been any issues discussing food allergies? My specific idea would be something like a company not listing proper allergens on their food(not sure what kind of food but that is something I could figure out later on) and deaths/people getting sick resulting from this. This is something that has happened before although I can't seem to find the particular instance of it that I was looking at the other day. But something about having tighter regulations about listing allergens. Has anything like that been done before?

Interesting premise, the same applies to trolley buses which have been around since at least the middle of last century. See if you can also incorporate them (one potential solution could potentially be forcing all major cities to have a trolley bus network so that pedestrians can get used to the quietness)

[Australian rePublic]

A few years ago, the European Union had the shits with Cyprus because Cyprus was selling citizenships to wealthy people, which allowed the new citizens of Cyprus to become EU citizens and move to other EU countries until they brought an end to the program. Could this work for NS in any of the following ways:

1. Nation is in a free travel agreement (e.g. the transpacific agreement where Australian and NZ citizens can live in each other's countries) or the proposed CANZUK
2. Two states with nation are arguing with each other about how the federal government is handling immigration policy

It doesn't have to be specific to millionaires who wish to migrate, it could apply to refugees or any other types of people

[Trotterdam]

Okay another question... has there ever been any issues discussing food allergies? My specific idea would be something like a company not listing proper allergens on their food(not sure what kind of food but that is something I could figure out later on) and deaths/people getting sick resulting from this. This is something that has happened before although I can't seem to find the particular instance of it that I was looking at the other day. But something about having tighter regulations about listing allergens. Has anything like that been done before?

Interesting premise, the same applies to trolley buses which have been around since at least the middle of last century. See if you can also incorporate them (one potential solution could potentially be forcing all major cities to have a trolley bus network so that pedestrians can get used to the quietness)

What. Just, what. How do you get from food allergies to trolley buses?

[Terrabod]

Interesting premise, the same applies to trolley buses which have been around since at least the middle of last century. See if you can also incorporate them (one potential solution could potentially be forcing all major cities to have a trolley bus network so that pedestrians can get used to the quietness)

What. Just, what. How do you get from food allergies to trolley buses?

I did a double take at this too, but I think Aussie was referring to this post and mistakenly quoted the wrong one:

is there a issue about electric cars being too quiet for pedestrians to hear, so many are now getting, well, in accidents?

For the record, I think the idea about food allergies is a good one. It reminded me of that girl who died after eating a Pret a Manger baguette that didn't say it contained sesame (source) and I think it could make for an interesting issue.