Apaycalypse

[Veeblefetzer]

I know this is a complete waste of time but how about a new option in the store. I'll pay to avoid apocalypse. Maybe not forever but like 6 mths or even a year in advance. Make it pay per time feature. $5/mth up to 1 yr. $2/mth .. I don't know, just fkn do it.

[Grenartia]

I know this is a complete waste of time but how about a new option in the store. I'll pay to avoid apocalypse. Maybe not forever but like 6 mths or even a year in advance. Make it pay per time feature. $5/mth up to 1 yr. $2/mth .. I don't know, just fkn do it.

I just love how there's no shits given here.

[Frisbeeteria]

I'm not seeing this as something that adds value to the game. Sure, it adds money to Max's coffers, but it doesn't add active players. I can't see a benefit to having nations sit idle for a year at a time. If you can't be bothered to log in every 60 days, you're not "playing" the game.

[Enfaru]

There's more to Nationstates than logging in and deciding issues. I would guess, for the majority, the entire reason that we are here is because one day, we thought that we could start our very own nation. That's an idea, a concept, a dream and not one iota revolves around logging in or solving issues. I can completely agree that people who don't log in and don't contribute in one way or another to the site should be subject to the usual procedures...but if they're paying. That's a whole new ball game.

With the increased revenue, that would give rise to paid administrators, techies and professional moderators. This in turn, with the increased capacity to respond to bugs, features, upgrades and sparkly new website finishes would undoubtedly lead to greater activity and add to Nationstates marketing budget to attract newbies from far and wide. All this, because someone wants to pay Max some money so that they can effectively rent a mere twenty megabytes a month space on their server and never use it! Won't somebody think of the bandwidth savings!

Let us dream that we have our very own nations.

[Trotterdam]

What's the point of having your own nation if you never even look at it?

[USS Monitor]

There's more to Nationstates than logging in and deciding issues. I would guess, for the majority, the entire reason that we are here is because one day, we thought that we could start our very own nation. That's an idea, a concept, a dream and not one iota revolves around logging in or solving issues. I can completely agree that people who don't log in and don't contribute in one way or another to the site should be subject to the usual procedures...but if they're paying. That's a whole new ball game.

With the increased revenue, that would give rise to paid administrators, techies and professional moderators. This in turn, with the increased capacity to respond to bugs, features, upgrades and sparkly new website finishes would undoubtedly lead to greater activity and add to Nationstates marketing budget to attract newbies from far and wide. All this, because someone wants to pay Max some money so that they can effectively rent a mere twenty megabytes a month space on their server and never use it! Won't somebody think of the bandwidth savings!

Let us dream that we have our very own nations.

I think people sometimes overestimate how much money could do to improve NS. What would make "professional" moderators better than the current team? In fact, what makes you think paid mods wouldn't just mean putting the current team on payroll?

If I was doing it, I'd also put the more productive issues editors on payroll before hiring any new people. Maintaining the issues game is skilled labor.

But in practice, money isn't a priority and we're fine with the volunteer thing.

[Aclion]

What's the point of having your own nation if you never even look at it?

I Have quite few nations that are in regions to maintain residency, with the actual activity being done through forums or discord. I don't even need to log into Mingulay Isle for example since all my tito stuff is done with puppets and other activities are done offsite. That said I don't much like this idea, as once you have founders involved it means people can pay for shit with R/D implications.

[Veeblefetzer]

I'm not seeing this as something that adds value to the game. Sure, it adds money to Max's coffers, but it doesn't add active players. I can't see a benefit to having nations sit idle for a year at a time. If you can't be bothered to log in every 60 days, you're not "playing" the game.

It's not a matter of not being bothered. Sometimes the real world gets in the way. And it's not just NationStates that needs to be put on hold as a result of the real world interruption.

[Veeblefetzer]

What's the point of having your own nation if you never even look at it?

When was the last time you looked at the roof of your house, or the back of your TV, or underneath your car ...

I'm just presenting a point equally as meaningless.

[Avalornia]

I have an idea. Why dont we implement this potential "feature" with the postmaster and supporter options in the store? Buy one of those, your nation takes longer to cte. For example when you buy the postmaster package your nation now takes 100 days to cte instead of 60.
Would be something fairly simple and doesn't overhaul the website.

[Victorious Decepticons]

What's the point of having your own nation if you never even look at it?

I have one nation that I keep because it's my region's founder. I've forgotten to log into it several times now, and had to rush back to reactivate it and stop the region from being founderless.

I'd love it if I didn't have to be concerned with it getting apocolypsed...but I wouldn't love that enough to pay even $12/year. Maybe $6?

ETA: This thread just reminded me to check on it, and sure enough, it had CTEd and I had to restore it. That is a PITA that would be worth *something* to get rid of.

[Augustus Legions]

this a good idea take this to the wa

[Veeblefetzer]

There's more to Nationstates than logging in and deciding issues. I would guess, for the majority, the entire reason that we are here is because one day, we thought that we could start our very own nation. That's an idea, a concept, a dream and not one iota revolves around logging in or solving issues. I can completely agree that people who don't log in and don't contribute in one way or another to the site should be subject to the usual procedures...but if they're paying. That's a whole new ball game.

With the increased revenue, that would give rise to paid administrators, techies and professional moderators. This in turn, with the increased capacity to respond to bugs, features, upgrades and sparkly new website finishes would undoubtedly lead to greater activity and add to Nationstates marketing budget to attract newbies from far and wide. All this, because someone wants to pay Max some money so that they can effectively rent a mere twenty megabytes a month space on their server and never use it! Won't somebody think of the bandwidth savings!

Let us dream that we have our very own nations.

I think people sometimes overestimate how much money could do to improve NS. What would make "professional" moderators better than the current team? In fact, what makes you think paid mods wouldn't just mean putting the current team on payroll?

If I was doing it, I'd also put the more productive issues editors on payroll before hiring any new people. Maintaining the issues game is skilled labor.

But in practice, money isn't a priority and we're fine with the volunteer thing.

I certainly don't think it would be a revenue boost as it's not something that would be utilized often I'd imagine. I wasn't pitching it in that way.

I'm in the middle of some big life changes and I admit I didn't set vacation mode as I didn't expect my main computer to be offline this long. But after getting the looming apocalypse emails again yesterday it just made me think why can't I just pay a little for a few months holding pattern. That's all; just a simple thing.

Anyway ...

[Avalornia]

What about my idea above?

[Scottish Socialists]

I have an idea. Why dont we implement this potential "feature" with the postmaster and supporter options in the store? Buy one of those, your nation takes longer to cte. For example when you buy the postmaster package your nation now takes 100 days to cte instead of 60.
Would be something fairly simple and doesn't overhaul the website.

I like that.
It means that if you are into the game enough to pay, but can’t log in for 60 days due to like, going to Malawi for 3 months, then you’ll be fine, because with the account, you’ll take longer to CTE.

[Avalornia]

I have an idea. Why dont we implement this potential "feature" with the postmaster and supporter options in the store? Buy one of those, your nation takes longer to cte. For example when you buy the postmaster package your nation now takes 100 days to cte instead of 60.
Would be something fairly simple and doesn't overhaul the website.

I like that.
It means that if you are into the game enough to pay, but can’t log in for 60 days due to like, going to Malawi for 3 months, then you’ll be fine, because with the account, you’ll take longer to CTE.

Exactly. It's just adding features to something you are already paying for.

[Frisbeeteria]

this a good idea take this to the wa

The WA doesn't get a vote on code changes. It's entirely up to site admins.

Why dont we implement this potential "feature" with the postmaster and supporter options in the store?

[violet] could have easily implemented this when we added the various supporter accounts. She didn't. I don't believe it was because she hadn't thought of it.

It means that if you are into the game enough to pay, but can’t log in for 60 days due to like, going to Malawi for 3 months, then you’ll be fine,

You're already fine. Even if your nation ceases to exist, you've got up to 5 years to revive it.

I have one nation that I keep because it's my region's founder. I've forgotten to log into it several times now, and had to rush back to reactivate it and stop the region from being founderless.

This is the closest thing to being a valid reason I've seen, and I don't think it's valid. If you're logging in to the Founder nation less than once every two months, you're not doing much as a founder. At the very least, you need to participate. If you're not logging in to the Founder, your region is already effectively founderless.

[Veeblefetzer]

What about my idea above?

Yep, that's a good one too. And yes, much easier to implement. Perhaps the vacation option is longer for postmaster ...

Perhaps I should script a bot to log in every 5 days. I'd imagine that's already been done, actually.

Anyway, let's all hold hands and sing, "We are the worrrllllllllllld, we are the childrennnnnnnnnnn ..."

[Enfaru]

This is the closest thing to being a valid reason I've seen, and I don't think it's valid. If you're logging in to the Founder nation less than once every two months, you're not doing much as a founder. At the very least, you need to participate. If you're not logging in to the Founder, your region is already effectively founderless.

Sticking my nose in on this one. Once your region is set up the way you want it, there's often very little need to log in to the Founder nation aside from to re-buff raids and even then... it's actually quite common for older regions to have this issue where a founder nations keeps CTE'ing because no one has thought to log into it for three months. That doesn't mean the region is founderless, because you might have your main nation in the region as well and no, I don't always get those apocalypse alerts...because I don't always check my personal emails.

[Victorious Decepticons]

This is the closest thing to being a valid reason I've seen, and I don't think it's valid. If you're logging in to the Founder nation less than once every two months, you're not doing much as a founder. At the very least, you need to participate. If you're not logging in to the Founder, your region is already effectively founderless.

Obviously, I think it's a very valid reason.


(ETA: Almost all of my activity on here has been through Victorious Decepticons since I activated this nation. I log into this one several times a day! To me, Decepticons are simply far more interesting to RP with than playing as Yet Another Human Nation. However, the region was founded with an earlier nation, and I see no way to simply switch the Founder title for the region to this one. I don't want to give up my original region name, so I keep the founding nation alive to maintain the region as-is.)

I didn't be a founder to DO anything. I founded a region to ensure I would be left alone, and NOT have to deal with the stress of R/D, "doing much," or anything along the axis of what you have mentioned. My region is my little castle, not something intended to make my own life needlessly aggravating. What you seem to think of as fun would completely wreck the game for me. If I wanted to do any of that stuff you mentioned, I would NOT have founded a region, I would have gone to one of the big ones where the activity already is.

My region has only my nations in it. It is passworded so it stays that way. The founding nation is kept alive, and re-activated as necessary, specifically to ENSURE it stays that way, and is free from R/D raids. The only reason I'm in any region at all is because the game mechanics demand it. As long as they continue to do so, I strongly prefer it the way I have it.

When I do want to do something involving other players, there is plenty of non-region-based RP, the F&NI forum, NSG, and other things that don't involve me having to deal with any garbage arising from where I put my nations.

[USS Monitor]

This is the closest thing to being a valid reason I've seen, and I don't think it's valid. If you're logging in to the Founder nation less than once every two months, you're not doing much as a founder. At the very least, you need to participate. If you're not logging in to the Founder, your region is already effectively founderless.

Obviously, I think it's a very valid reason.


(ETA: Almost all of my activity on here has been through Victorious Decepticons since I activated this nation. I log into this one several times a day! To me, Decepticons are simply far more interesting to RP with than playing as Yet Another Human Nation. However, the region was founded with an earlier nation, and I see no way to simply switch the Founder title for the region to this one. I don't want to give up my original region name, so I keep the founding nation alive to maintain the region as-is.)

I didn't be a founder to DO anything. I founded a region to ensure I would be left alone, and NOT have to deal with the stress of R/D, "doing much," or anything along the axis of what you have mentioned. My region is my little castle, not something intended to make my own life needlessly aggravating. What you seem to think of as fun would completely wreck the game for me. If I wanted to do any of that stuff you mentioned, I would NOT have founded a region, I would have gone to one of the big ones where the activity already is.

My region has only my nations in it. It is passworded so it stays that way. The founding nation is kept alive, and re-activated as necessary, specifically to ENSURE it stays that way, and is free from R/D raids. The only reason I'm in any region at all is because the game mechanics demand it. As long as they continue to do so, I strongly prefer it the way I have it.

When I do want to do something involving other players, there is plenty of non-region-based RP, the F&NI forum, NSG, and other things that don't involve me having to deal with any garbage arising from where I put my nations.

If it has a PW and only your nations, it shouldn't be vulnerable to raids anyway. Raiders won't have the PW.

[Galiantus III]

Before I go ahead and reply to what you said, I would like to give some context to where my response is coming from. I would like it better if regions in NS were implemented a bit differently. First, I would like to have a clear separation between regions which participate in gameplay versus those communities which would prefer security. There should be a different setup for each kind of region. This includes the creation of a "void" for nations to exist outside of regions. Second, I would like regions not filling their designated purpose to CTE and expel their nations into the void. Third, I would like founders of regions participating in gameplay to eventually lose access to regional controls.

However, the region was founded with an earlier nation, and I see no way to simply switch the Founder title for the region to this one. I don't want to give up my original region name, so I keep the founding nation alive to maintain the region as-is.

The idea to allow foundership transfer has been suggested before, but I don't remember what Admin said about it. I think it makes sense to do because otherwise we just continue doing what we do now, and transfer founder nations; which has the potential to set off the multying checker thingy, and is something I've only ever seen mods and admin discourage with "you do so at your own risk". It's like giving condoms to teenagers - we're going to transfer power anyways, so why not give us the tools to do it safely?

The only reason I'm in any region at all is because the game mechanics demand it. As long as they continue to do so, I strongly prefer it the way I have it.

Admin, can we have a void please, or some kind of neutral, non-political region? (I know it will take a lot of work, but I just want some assurance this is on a to-do list somewhere, with the expectation of eventually being done within the Earth's lifetime.)

---

As for the main topic: Under the current system (where regions only become gameplay targets by their founder CTEing), I am against it. That, and any form of it would only serve to keep more dead, empty regions alive. Frankly, if someone is away from the game for that long there is no reason to change things to accommodate them. They can just revive their nation when they get back. The only exception I might grant on this would be for the very oldest nations in the game, as their age is a matter of history and evidence of long-standing activity in NS, and it would be a shame to lose that accidentally.

[Grenartia]

I have one nation that I keep because it's my region's founder. I've forgotten to log into it several times now, and had to rush back to reactivate it and stop the region from being founderless.

This is the closest thing to being a valid reason I've seen, and I don't think it's valid. If you're logging in to the Founder nation less than once every two months, you're not doing much as a founder. At the very least, you need to participate. If you're not logging in to the Founder, your region is already effectively founderless.

I've gotta disagree. One can be an active player, and yet have an inactive founder puppet.

[Bears Armed]

Don't some people use scripts to keep their nations alive, without checking-in personally, anyway?

[Grenartia]

Don't some people use scripts to keep their nations alive, without checking-in personally, anyway?

If they do, this is the first I'm hearing of such things.