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Beta 009: Authoritarianism Rescaling

PostPosted: Sun Nov 12, 2017 7:10 pm
by [violet]
[009] Authoritarianism Rescaling

Proposed Change: Change unit of measurement from Stalins to microStalins, with 1,000 microStalins per 1 Stalin, which provides greater granularity. Additionally, scale more strongly as nations approach zero. Together, this fixes a current problem where many nations score 0.00 Stalins despite having different levels of underlying authoritarianism. All nations will show large increases: those currently on 1 Stalin or above will show rises of approx. 100,000%, while those with fewer Stalins, particularly if close to 0, will show greater rises.

PostPosted: Sun Nov 12, 2017 7:24 pm
by Drasnia
Hard to argue with this one other than saying I'll miss having 0.00 Stalins.

So just to clarify, nothing is changing with the underlying value, we're just changing how the value is displayed, correct?

PostPosted: Sun Nov 12, 2017 7:37 pm
by [violet]
Drasnia wrote:So just to clarify, nothing is changing with the underlying value, we're just changing how the value is displayed, correct?

That's correct. There's no change to what's actually being measured.

PostPosted: Sun Nov 12, 2017 7:40 pm
by The Candy Of Bottles
Wait, what happened to Beta's 004 to 008?

PostPosted: Sun Nov 12, 2017 7:58 pm
by [violet]
They haven't gained internal sign-off yet.

PostPosted: Sun Nov 12, 2017 8:03 pm
by Fauxia
Damn you [violet], you subversive trying to make my Authoritarianism rise by over 1,000,000%! :p

Seems like a good change though

PostPosted: Sun Nov 12, 2017 9:11 pm
by Drasnia
[violet] wrote:
Drasnia wrote:So just to clarify, nothing is changing with the underlying value, we're just changing how the value is displayed, correct?

That's correct. There's no change to what's actually being measured.

Thanks [v] :) I wanted to make sure there was a definitive answer so we avoid the confusion that for some reason arose with the IT stat rejiggering.

I also want to thank you, all the tech staff, and the editors for how you've been handling these proposed changes instead of foisting them upon us unannounced in a big update. It's really appreciated and I love how the last couple years have really helped reinvigorate issue answering and transparency.

PostPosted: Sun Nov 12, 2017 9:18 pm
by Leutria
Gives me something to work on. At the 0.1-0.2 range I felt like it was low enough, but now at 500 I am going to feel the need to bring it down further :P

Looks good to me, makes sense.

PostPosted: Sun Nov 12, 2017 9:40 pm
by Merconitonitopia
Not only does this make sense practically when considering how nations would differ on the statistic, but microStalins also serves as a very humours unit of measurement.
That said, I will also miss many of many nations no longer have 0 Stalins. Ah well, it would make it more fun trying to get it as low as possible.

PostPosted: Sun Nov 12, 2017 9:47 pm
by Eluvatar
What kind of system of units is this that there are 1,000 microStalins per Stalin rather than 1,000,000!?

PostPosted: Sun Nov 12, 2017 10:03 pm
by Leutria
Eluvatar wrote:What kind of system of units is this that there are 1,000 microStalins per Stalin rather than 1,000,000!?

True, milliStalins might be more accurate given the scale

PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 12:09 am
by [violet]
milliStalins! Of course.

This is exactly why we're doing these betas.

Drasnia wrote:I also want to thank you, all the tech staff, and the editors for how you've been handling these proposed changes instead of foisting them upon us unannounced in a big update. It's really appreciated and I love how the last couple years have really helped reinvigorate issue answering and transparency.

Thanks, very glad to hear it! Lots of credit is due to the Issue Editing team for their tireless pestering.

PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 12:12 am
by Merconitonitopia
[violet] wrote:milliStalins! Of course.

Love it

PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 1:12 am
by Minoa
My suggestion for the new unit is the Juche, in reference to the modern authoritarian state of North Korea. :p

Also, I wonder what happened to betas 4–8?

PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 1:54 am
by Candlewhisper Archive
Eluvatar wrote:What kind of system of units is this that there are 1,000 microStalins per Stalin rather than 1,000,000!?


Oops. My lack of mathematics-fu is showing here. That one was entirely my fault.

PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 3:40 am
by Aclion
I'll miss the constant struggle to get(and stay) at 0 stalins while balancing all my other state. But it's all worth it if the editing team has to spend the next six months explaining what happened to people in the unusual issues effect thread.

PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 6:46 am
by Bedetopia
What about the upper cap? Right now it's 14.55, will it become 15k or will there be no more cap?

PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 1:28 pm
by [violet]
Bedetopia wrote:What about the upper cap? Right now it's 14.55, will it become 15k or will there be no more cap?

There's no change to the cap in this beta, other than the fact that it becomes 14,550 milliStalins instead of 14.55 Stalins.

PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 1:50 pm
by Eluvatar
Would the historical scales get multiplied by 1000 or deleted?

PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 3:46 pm
by [violet]
That's an excellent question. Generally, the plan for betas is to preserve history, and some people will have jumps on their census history charts that are due to measurement changes rather than their own decisions. For breaking changes, though, where the new data is very incompatible with the new data, we will throw out the old history.

This one is kind of special, in that we ideally want to change all the old data and keep it. I haven't investigated how challenging that will be.

PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 3:51 pm
by United Massachusetts
[violet] wrote:[009] Authoritarianism Rescaling

Proposed Change: Change unit of measurement from Stalins to microStalins, with 1,000 microStalins per 1 Stalin, which provides greater granularity. Additionally, scale more strongly as nations approach zero. Together, this fixes a current problem where many nations score 0.00 Stalins despite having different levels of underlying authoritarianism. All nations will show large increases: those currently on 1 Stalin or above will show rises of approx. 100,000%, while those with fewer Stalins, particularly if close to 0, will show greater rises.

Hm...I have 0.07 Stalins now, but would have 430-ish micro-Stalins if this went through. Shouldn't I have about 70 ish?

Also, shouldn't we call them Milli-Stalins to keep the units in line with SI?

EDIT: I saw y'all's already talked about milliStalins. :)

PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 4:04 pm
by [violet]
United Massachusetts wrote:Hm...I have 0.07 Stalins now, but would have 430-ish micro-Stalins if this went through. Shouldn't I have about 70 ish?

No, because of this part:
United Massachusetts wrote:
[violet] wrote:Additionally, scale more strongly as nations approach zero.

PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 4:09 pm
by Merconitonitopia
United Massachusetts wrote:Hm...I have 0.07 Stalins now, but would have 430-ish micro-Stalins if this went through. Shouldn't I have about 70 ish?

Also, shouldn't we call them Milli-Stalins to keep the units in line with SI?

EDIT: I saw y'all's already talked about milliStalins. :)

Additionally, scale more strongly as nations approach zero. ... All nations will show large increases: those currently on 1 Stalin or above will show rises of approx. 100,000%, while those with fewer Stalins, particularly if close to 0, will show greater rises.

PostPosted: Mon Nov 27, 2017 3:37 am
by Bluelight-R006
I think this would make a good update. The current measurement, ‘stalins’ is a little too huge and reducing would be great. Go easy.

PostPosted: Mon Nov 27, 2017 5:28 am
by CheeseSnackistan
Will this proposal (or any of the others), if implemented, alter our nation's trend lines? Right now, both our political freedoms and civil rights are "World Benchmark," and we have striven for many years to achieve/maintain those designations. It would be most frustrating, to say the very least, to have to re-achieve those designations if these proposals throw them off.