[Draft] International Emergency Phone Line

[Greater Cesnica]

OOC: I do know what rotary phones are and how they work. The one at my uncle's house starts turning at zero, hence why I didn't initially see any problem.

In any case, I'm gonna have to compromise again. '000' might be unacceptable for phones that start turning at 1 rather than zero, '999' would take a long time with rotary phone dials regardless, '112' has been deemed to be too specific to remember, so that leaves us with '111'. I am going to change the number, again, to '111' now.'

OOC: 999 was fine back in the day in the UK and Ireland and IIRC was chosen because it was easy to adjust payphones to allow it be dialled for free. 112 is no more difficult to remember that 999, 000, or 111. But anyway just choose a number and stick with it. Filibusterers are going to filibuster.

Yep I'm sticking to 111.

[Wallenburg]

IC: "I don't think the author is familiar with rotary phones and has no idea what you're talking about," Linda pointed out. "Araraukarian phones actually used to start from zero back in rotary era but too many false calls were made by kids playing with the phones, and then they were made to start from one. These days the vast majority of population has mobile phones and all but a few diehard fans of the rotary phones, have moved to ones with a numpad."

OOC: The author still hasn't answered how any of this would be less arduous than providing everyone at border check with the general info needed to, you know, visit a foreign nation? Like what side of the road to drive, what colour light means "go", and what number to call if you get in trouble.

OOC: I do know what rotary phones are and how they work. The one at my uncle's house starts turning at zero, hence why I didn't initially see any problem.

In any case, I'm gonna have to compromise again. '000' might be unacceptable for phones that start turning at 1 rather than zero, '999' would take a long time with rotary phone dials regardless, '112' has been deemed to be too specific to remember, so that leaves us with '111'. I am going to change the number, again, to '111' now.'

You'd think at some point you'd put 2 and 2 together that an arbitrary multiversal number just doesn't fucking work.

[Bananaistan]

OOC: I do know what rotary phones are and how they work. The one at my uncle's house starts turning at zero, hence why I didn't initially see any problem.

In any case, I'm gonna have to compromise again. '000' might be unacceptable for phones that start turning at 1 rather than zero, '999' would take a long time with rotary phone dials regardless, '112' has been deemed to be too specific to remember, so that leaves us with '111'. I am going to change the number, again, to '111' now.'

You'd think at some point you'd put 2 and 2 together that an arbitrary multiversal number just doesn't fucking work.

OOC: "If you have phones, make this specific number also connect to the existing emergency services switch" works perfectly fine.

[Greater Cesnica]

OOC: I do know what rotary phones are and how they work. The one at my uncle's house starts turning at zero, hence why I didn't initially see any problem.

In any case, I'm gonna have to compromise again. '000' might be unacceptable for phones that start turning at 1 rather than zero, '999' would take a long time with rotary phone dials regardless, '112' has been deemed to be too specific to remember, so that leaves us with '111'. I am going to change the number, again, to '111' now.'

You'd think at some point you'd put 2 and 2 together that an arbitrary multiversal number just doesn't fucking work.

Oh it's not arbitrary anymore. Concerns were raised about '000' and '999' and '112'. I believe that '111', or 'triple 1' if we want to get into potential branding and slogans for this emergency redirect, would be simpler for people to memorize as a universal number for emergency services.

[Separatist Peoples]

You'd think at some point you'd put 2 and 2 together that an arbitrary multiversal number just doesn't fucking work.

Oh it's not arbitrary anymore. Concerns were raised about '000' and '999' and '112'. I believe that '111', or 'triple 1' if we want to get into potential branding and slogans for this emergency redirect, would be simpler for people to memorize as a universal number for emergency services.

Ooc: 111 provides no benefit over 112, 999, 000, or 911. All, the same concerns apply.

[Greater Cesnica]

Oh it's not arbitrary anymore. Concerns were raised about '000' and '999' and '112'. I believe that '111', or 'triple 1' if we want to get into potential branding and slogans for this emergency redirect, would be simpler for people to memorize as a universal number for emergency services.

Ooc: 111 provides no benefit over 112, 999, 000, or 911. All, the same concerns apply.

OOC: 111 provides benefits with rotary phones over 999 and 000 with a rotary phone, and a smaller one over 911.

[Separatist Peoples]

Ooc: 111 provides no benefit over 112, 999, 000, or 911. All, the same concerns apply.

OOC: 111 provides benefits with rotary phones over 999 and 000 with a rotary phone, and a smaller one over 911.

Ooc: on phones as we design them. It's not entirely unreasonable to have a rotary phone with numbers going the other way in an alternate universe. Or a different approach to telecom 'numbers' entirely. That's the point. Every nation in the Real World has a slightly different system, imagine that with ten thousand more variations. My IC phones have a designated emergency button. This is a cultural and national specific arrangement that cannot be adequately standardized without massive external costs.

[Araraukar]

OOC: I'm glad people are using OOC comments. Makes it easier to refer to RL European Union practice of having a single union wide emergency number. If it makes sense for the EU and the dozens of other countries who subsequently adopted 112, it makes sense for the WA.

OOC: Except all EU nations are still on the same planet. All WA nations are not.

[Wallenburg]

You'd think at some point you'd put 2 and 2 together that an arbitrary multiversal number just doesn't fucking work.

Oh it's not arbitrary anymore. Concerns were raised about '000' and '999' and '112'. I believe that '111', or 'triple 1' if we want to get into potential branding and slogans for this emergency redirect, would be simpler for people to memorize as a universal number for emergency services.

"No, it's as arbitrary as all of the other ones."

[Bananaistan]

OOC: I'm glad people are using OOC comments. Makes it easier to refer to RL European Union practice of having a single union wide emergency number. If it makes sense for the EU and the dozens of other countries who subsequently adopted 112, it makes sense for the WA.

OOC: Except all EU nations are still on the same planet. All WA nations are not.

OOC: So? I don't see how it's relevant. We have legislation on seas despite not all WA nations being on the same planet, we have reams of environmental legislation despite not all WA nations being on the same planet, we have road transport legislation despite not all WA nations being on the same planet, and so on.

[Separatist Peoples]

OOC: Except all EU nations are still on the same planet. All WA nations are not.

OOC: So? I don't see how it's relevant. We have legislation on seas despite not all WA nations being on the same planet, we have reams of environmental legislation despite not all WA nations being on the same planet, we have road transport legislation despite not all WA nations being on the same planet, and so on.

Ooc: oceanic borders tend to operate limilarly across states. Telecom organization doesn't.

[Araraukar]

OOC: So? I don't see how it's relevant. We have legislation on seas despite not all WA nations being on the same planet, we have reams of environmental legislation despite not all WA nations being on the same planet, we have road transport legislation despite not all WA nations being on the same planet, and so on.

OOC: So those are all applicable per national standards. You're not mandating that every nation must have 4-lane highways between cities. Or bullet trains. Or airport in every city big enough to land an Antonov An-225 Mriya. That's the equivalent level of micromanagement madness here.

If the single system is so great, why hasn't USA switched over to using 112? Why are there more than one emergency number in RL? How do tourists cope with that? By, for example, bothering to find out what the number is, when traveling elsewhere?

Again, why is it supposed to be easier to require phone system changes, than people wanting to travel into a nation bothering to find out the most basic tourist info about the place they're traveling to???

And what of nations without phone systems, either because they're outdated relics of the past, or because they haven't yet been invented? Or because, for other reasons (Big Brother Is Watching, maybe), they're entirely irrelevant. I can make this point in IC with PPU if it's not good enough given OOCly.

[Bananaistan]

OOC: So? I don't see how it's relevant. We have legislation on seas despite not all WA nations being on the same planet, we have reams of environmental legislation despite not all WA nations being on the same planet, we have road transport legislation despite not all WA nations being on the same planet, and so on.

Ooc: oceanic borders tend to operate limilarly across states. Telecom organization doesn't.

OOC: Oceanic borders don't operate across different planets.

OOC: So? I don't see how it's relevant. We have legislation on seas despite not all WA nations being on the same planet, we have reams of environmental legislation despite not all WA nations being on the same planet, we have road transport legislation despite not all WA nations being on the same planet, and so on.

OOC: So those are all applicable per national standards. You're not mandating that every nation must have 4-lane highways between cities. Or bullet trains. Or airport in every city big enough to land an Antonov An-225 Mriya. That's the equivalent level of micromanagement madness here.

OOC: This isn't exactly mandating anything too arduous either but that's besides the point. Why does nations being on different planets have anything to do with this being inappropriate?

If the single system is so great, why hasn't USA switched over to using 112? Why are there more than one emergency number in RL? How do tourists cope with that? By, for example, bothering to find out what the number is, when traveling elsewhere?

Who knows why the USA does or doesn't do anything? EG metric system. Anyway, that something hasn't been done universally IRL has never been a reason that we can't do it here. Things can be assessed on their own strengths. In this case, one group of RL countries, combined in a similar fashion to our little RP nations here, decided that it was a good idea to have a universal emergency number. This merely shows that it's not a completely bonkers idea.

Again, why is it supposed to be easier to require phone system changes, than people wanting to travel into a nation bothering to find out the most basic tourist info about the place they're traveling to???

See above re EU: the effect of such differences is to create problems in contacting the responsible services for citizens facing emergency situations in other Member States;

And what of nations without phone systems, either because they're outdated relics of the past, or because they haven't yet been invented? Or because, for other reasons (Big Brother Is Watching, maybe), they're entirely irrelevant. I can make this point in IC with PPU if it's not good enough given OOCly.

See the proposal. It applies only to nations with phones. So RP-Wank-Just-To-Oppose-A-Proposal-Istan can carry on its merry way and be ignored by reasonable players.

[Separatist Peoples]

Ooc: oceanic borders tend to operate limilarly across states. Telecom organization doesn't.

OOC: Oceanic borders don't operate across different planets.

OOC: And to the extent that they don't, extant law doesn't apply. This has no such effect.

[Kenmoria]

“This is unobjectionable to me, since this would involve an addition of 111 to the already-existent 112, which is so minute so as to pose no conceivable difficulties to anyone in Kenmoria. I, therefore, have no objections, though I also don’t really have any particularly strong support for this either, since it is such a small difference.”

(OOC: I can imagine a nation where each button on a telephone is done alphabetically rather than numerically. Do any of those exist? Either way, I don’t think it’s possible for the author to address every single conceivable way of dialling across tens of thousands of nations, so the potential issues with different systems of phones aren’t significant enough, in my opinion, to warrant a vote against.)

[Merni]

Again, why is it supposed to be easier to require phone system changes, than people wanting to travel into a nation bothering to find out the most basic tourist info about the place they're traveling to???

See above re EU: the effect of such differences is to create problems in contacting the responsible services for citizens facing emergency situations in other Member States;

OOC: Except that, on average, amount of people travelling between any two EU nations is likely (indeed, almost certain) to be several orders of magnitude higher than the number travelling between any two WA nations. And, as you will notice, the EU standardisation is regional. Maybe soon it'll become worldwide. But creating a single multiverse-wide number creates far more problems than it solves.

Edit: And what about countries (or even entire regions, EU-style) that use 111 (or 112, or 999, or Single Number X) for something other than emergency services? (Directory assistance, social services, etc.) This proposal places the needs of some hypothetical tourists who are too lazy to learn the emergency number for the country they visit, over the needs of native citizens. (Not to mention that in any case tourists are far more likely to have someone to help them, be it a hotel receptionist/telephone operator/sticker on the phone, or their host, or whoever)

[Greater Cesnica]

So RP-Wank-Just-To-Oppose-A-Proposal-Istan can carry on its merry way and be ignored by reasonable players.

To the quotes list this goes.

[Greater Cesnica]

See above re EU: the effect of such differences is to create problems in contacting the responsible services for citizens facing emergency situations in other Member States;

OOC: Except that, on average, amount of people travelling between any two EU nations is likely (indeed, almost certain) to be several orders of magnitude higher than the number travelling between any two WA nations. And, as you will notice, the EU standardisation is regional. Maybe soon it'll become worldwide. But creating a single multiverse-wide number creates far more problems than it solves.

Edit: And what about countries (or even entire regions, EU-style) that use 111 (or 112, or 999, or Single Number X) for something other than emergency services? (Directory assistance, social services, etc.) This proposal places the needs of some hypothetical tourists who are too lazy to learn the emergency number for the country they visit, over the needs of native citizens. (Not to mention that in any case tourists are far more likely to have someone to help them, be it a hotel receptionist/telephone operator/sticker on the phone, or their host, or whoever)

OOC: Imagine this is what you hear: "Press 1 to reach Emergency Services, Press 2 to reach [X service]"

That could be one way for nations to maintain use of a previously allocated line, whilst still giving access to emergency services. Or, if the delay in calling is to severe for a nation, then they can switch directory/social services numbers and reserve 111 as a forwarding line. Of course, this is only one method, other nations may have other ways to maintain compliance with this resolution.

[Separatist Peoples]

See above re EU: the effect of such differences is to create problems in contacting the responsible services for citizens facing emergency situations in other Member States;

OOC: Except that, on average, amount of people travelling between any two EU nations is likely (indeed, almost certain) to be several orders of magnitude higher than the number travelling between any two WA nations. And, as you will notice, the EU standardisation is regional. Maybe soon it'll become worldwide. But creating a single multiverse-wide number creates far more problems than it solves.

Edit: And what about countries (or even entire regions, EU-style) that use 111 (or 112, or 999, or Single Number X) for something other than emergency services? (Directory assistance, social services, etc.) This proposal places the needs of some hypothetical tourists who are too lazy to learn the emergency number for the country they visit, over the needs of native citizens. (Not to mention that in any case tourists are far more likely to have someone to help them, be it a hotel receptionist/telephone operator/sticker on the phone, or their host, or whoever)

Ooc: thus shifting costs of a telecom restructure into state that previously had an appropriate strategic telecom arrangement. Given my experience with emergency response services, this is a particularly offensive proposal.

[Wallenburg]

"It is becoming increasingly apparent that the authoring delegation is not actually interested in the safety of those traveling member nations. This resolution, at best, costs a whole lot of money to update telephone systems for a new number nobody would use. At worst, it actively interferes with the ability to swiftly contact emergency services. I will not be voting for this proposal."

[Greater Cesnica]

"It is becoming increasingly apparent that the authoring delegation is not actually interested in the safety of those traveling member nations. This resolution, at best, costs a whole lot of money to update telephone systems for a new number nobody would use. At worst, it actively interferes with the ability to swiftly contact emergency services. I will not be voting for this proposal."

"Ambassador, can you elaborate on what updates would be required to facilitate the usage of this new number? Furthermore, how does it interfere with the ability to swiftly contact emergency services? It does not impede one's ability to call using the existing emergency phone line that has already been designated, and all that is necessary for a universal emergency phone line to be implemented is to forward calls placed to '111' to the existing emergency phone line."

[Wallenburg]

"It is becoming increasingly apparent that the authoring delegation is not actually interested in the safety of those traveling member nations. This resolution, at best, costs a whole lot of money to update telephone systems for a new number nobody would use. At worst, it actively interferes with the ability to swiftly contact emergency services. I will not be voting for this proposal."

"Ambassador, can you elaborate on what updates would be required to facilitate the usage of this new number? Furthermore, how does it interfere with the ability to swiftly contact emergency services? It does not impede one's ability to call using the existing emergency phone line that has already been designated, and all that is necessary for a universal emergency phone line to be implemented is to forward calls placed to '111' to the existing emergency phone line."

"Ambassador, I am not a telephone technician. The intimate details of how telephones and telephone lines operate is beyond my field of expertise. It is, however, clear enough to me that this proposal would require costly updates. As to the aforementioned interference, I would refer you to the statements made by the delegation from Merni, which you seem to misunderstand. Even if member states are capable of using the same code for two entirely separate services--and that's not at all guaranteed--that requires additional wastage of resources and in the end causes the emergency code to take far longer to reach emergency services than an operator could."

[Imperium Anglorum]

How do automatic telephone exchanges work? Well modern ones work entirely in software – initially on mainframes – so creating a number alias is likely updating a database table. How did old ones like for rotary phones work? They had this big machine which would take inputs and then route them to a bunch of output wires. How do you make an alias? Connect the 112 output to the 911 input. How much does an insulated wire cost? Max like five dollars.

This isn't expensive.

Those claiming it is really need to tell us why.

[Kenmoria]

(OOC: Here in the UK, 111 is the number for the non-emergency NHS helpline. Using 111 for emergency calls would either result in actual emergencies having to first go through a selection process to work out whether they are emergencies or not, or non-emergencies being forwarded to emergency operators, wasting their time.)

[Ainslie]

Delegate Aiden Remen watched the discussion as it unfolded, before stating Ainslie's position.

"Whilst we do not agree with the usage of the words some delegates in this Assembly have used to demonstrate their position, the Unified Electorates does believe many of them to be correct. We simply cannot see a need for a resolution to address this topic. Whilst we do acknowledge the Cesnian delegate's concerns that tourists may be trapped or left in unfortunate situations, the advent of the internet and social media makes it quite difficult to see a situation where this could happen - people are simply going to either search it up using their own language or ring their embassy.

Ainslie does recognise that it is an inexpensive and to an extent common sense move to implement the provisions of this resolution, we cannot seem to justify the need to enforce it on an extremely broad level. Rather, we would look on a resolution addressing emergency alert texts and forms of public address in times of crisis to be a more beneficial area for the Cesnians to focus on.

At this point, we will not be implementing this resolution at a domestic level."