Last WA Election

[Eluvatar]

Several days ago I introduced a new feature: showing the last update. On each region page this has been implemented as a line under the WA Delegate and Founder lines, reading Last WA Election.

This topic is for discussion of that feature and desired changes to it. Where should the information be presented? How should the game describe it?

My current intentions are to add description of this item to the FAQ and make the "7 hours ago" part clickable to show the exact timestamp (i.e. 9/28/2017, 12:26:48 AM EDT) much like the timestamps for happenings in the activity page. My intentions are not settled. I'm interested in what ideas people have. I was particularly interested in rewording ideas and the suggestion of combining this information with another, previously existing, line.

You may post comments, criticisms, and suggestions about Last WA Election in this topic.

Do not discuss possible follow-on features (i.e. "Next WA Election") in this topic. The previous topic was disrupted by unproductive comments on that subject. Another topic will be made for discussing "Next WA Election", but that topic is not this topic.

[Sanctaria]

As I mentioned in the last topic, I think Last Endorsement Tally would be the best way forward.

1. It makes no mentions to elections, thereby reducing any confusion that could be had in either democratic or non-democratic nations and regions.

2. It makes no mention to a census, to differentiate it from the the in-game Censuses that run at different update times.

It simply tells the region the last time the game made a tally of endorsements.

[Klaus Devestatorie]

It's a bit tricky to name a shard in an informative in-context way if we have to avoid the words "update", "census" and "election" if they're all either potentially misguiding or too closely named to other OOC functions. Either "Tally" as suggested by Sanctaria, or something like "Confirmation" or "Recognition".

[Trotterdam]

As I mentioned in the last topic, I think Last Endorsement Tally would be the best way forward.

1. It makes no mentions to elections, thereby reducing any confusion that could be had in either democratic or non-democratic nations and regions.

Yeah, when I first saw "last election" appear I was confused because it sounded like "when this delegate was elected", rather than "confirmation of business-as-usual". I don't think of every game update as a new "election", even if no endorsements changed.

[Aclion]

Regarding the term election it should be noted that it is already used in the regional history page and in the WA delegate line (elected 2 years 44 days ago).

[Imperium Anglorum]

Yeah, when I first saw "last election" appear I was confused because it sounded like "when this delegate was elected", rather than "confirmation of business-as-usual". I don't think of every game update as a new "election", even if no endorsements changed.

I guess I've won more than something like 1460 elections then! What a show!

[Wordy]

Well it is government so why not call it something in line with that?
Endorsement Audit or World Assembly Tally (as suggested by Sanctaria)

[Fauxia]

Yeah, when I first saw "last election" appear I was confused because it sounded like "when this delegate was elected", rather than "confirmation of business-as-usual". I don't think of every game update as a new "election", even if no endorsements changed.

I guess I've won more than something like 1460 elections then! What a show!

And you have 6699 posts, which is brilliant. Not as brilliant as winning 1500 elections straight though

[Minoa]

My region (Minoa) looks a bit odd when I am a founder with executive authority but there are no WA members: maybe such regions should have the following text instead:

Founder: The State of Minoa

WA Delegate: none (last updated n hours ago)

And I think we can compact the WA delegate and election part:

WA Delegate: The MikesHope Essence of Mikeswill (in office for 13 years 6 days; last updated n hours ago)

For the most recent change:

WA Delegate: The Hive Mind of Testlandia (newly-elected; last updated n hours ago)

Ordering of Founder and Delegate should depend on who has the executive authority or the most roles of authority: in an event of a tie, the founder takes precedence.

For accessibility reasons, the timestamps could have a dotted underline (see this for example).

[Unibot III]

Perhaps "Last Updated: 57 Mins Ago." Underneath the Delegate.

I think using 'game' language here just confuses what you're trying to say. It's not necessary for everything to be perfectly R4 complaint.

If the whole point of this feature is to make Gameplay more accessible, we should try to avoid language that makes it inaccessible and esoteric.

[Mount Seymour]

We already have precedent for using "WA Update"— below nations' endorsement lists that have changed since last update, we have "WA update pending: Nation has X verified endorsements." If only for continuity, we should keep the terminology the same in both places.

[Minoa]

Perhaps "Last Updated: 57 Mins Ago." Underneath the Delegate.

I think using 'game' language here just confuses what you're trying to say. It's not necessary for everything to be perfectly R4 complaint.

If the whole point of this feature is to make Gameplay more accessible, we should try to avoid language that makes it inaccessible and esoteric.

It's something I can support, but I think NS can make the wording a bit more versatile depending on the situation.

I am also mindful of not making the text smaller than 10 points. As a side note, NationStates could do with a design grid.

[Unibot III]

We already have precedent for using "WA Update"— below nations' endorsement lists that have changed since last update, we have "WA update pending: Nation has X verified endorsements." If only for continuity, we should keep the terminology the same in both places.

This is a good point, I forgot about that!

[Eluvatar]

To be clear, only WA Delegate nations (who's endorsement count has changed) have this message shown.

That "WA Update pending" message being out there already is a very fair point. The two messages should be consistent, and it may well be that WA update is clear enough for new players.

I should be clear that my intended target audience is new players, not long time players. Long time players will learn what it means even if we were to call it "Recent Mondering".

My challenge in deciding on a final text is that it neither I nor most of the posters here have any firm idea of how new players would understand either "Last WA Election" or "Last WA Update" or any of the alternatives.

Were I to have unlimited time, I'd do a random sample of apparently new player nations and poll them. More likely I will change the message to "Last WA Update" and see who complains.

[Unibot III]

To be clear, only WA Delegate nations (who's endorsement count has changed) have this message shown.

That "WA Update pending" message being out there already is a very fair point. The two messages should be consistent, and it may well be that WA update is clear enough for new players.

I should be clear that my intended target audience is new players, not long time players. Long time players will learn what it means even if we were to call it "Recent Mondering".

My challenge in deciding on a final text is that it neither I nor most of the posters here have any firm idea of how new players would understand either "Last WA Election" or "Last WA Update" or any of the alternatives.

Were I to have unlimited time, I'd do a random sample of apparently new player nations and poll them. More likely I will change the message to "Last WA Update" and see who complains.

Perhaps more work, but if you were to write up a section on how Update works for the FAQ or an Advanced FAQ or a separate explanatory page altogether, "Last WA Update" could link to the explanation.

I could write something up if you wanted to go that route.

[Eluvatar]

I plan to do that, yes. I don't think that text would be suitable to writing by committee.

[Roavin]

Note that I particularly enjoy Minoa's suggestion to have it shown inline with the WA Delegate rather than on a separate line. While that separate line is great for us R/D gameplayers since we can now instantly see whether a region had updated already or not, that's most likely not useful at all for the vast majority of players. Displaying that inline, as per Minoa's suggestion, is still easily visible for the gameplayers while not unnecessarily increasing vertical space, particularly for players on mobile, for something that is mostly irrelevant for ~99% of us.

[Minoa]

To be clear, only WA Delegate nations (who's endorsement count has changed) have this message shown.

That "WA Update pending" message being out there already is a very fair point. The two messages should be consistent, and it may well be that WA update is clear enough for new players.

I should be clear that my intended target audience is new players, not long time players. Long time players will learn what it means even if we were to call it "Recent Mondering".

My challenge in deciding on a final text is that it neither I nor most of the posters here have any firm idea of how new players would understand either "Last WA Election" or "Last WA Update" or any of the alternatives.

Were I to have unlimited time, I'd do a random sample of apparently new player nations and poll them. More likely I will change the message to "Last WA Update" and see who complains.

I think new players only want to know what an region update is, plain and simple, although I don't know if it involves the World Census any more.

The explanation can be linked to with a circled question mark icon at the end of my proposed text: the icon is available on Fontello under the Font Awesome category.

[Unibot III]

I plan to do that, yes. I don't think that text would be suitable to writing by committee.

Excellent! Honestly, if there's a FAQ on Updates and it's linked, I think putting anything other than "Last WA Update" would probably be more confusing, not less.