The Almighty NationStates FAQ

by **Tinhampton** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:12 am

Good to know: At the time Tinhampton took over this FAQ, it had not been updated since February 2022. Tin is currently updating the entire FAQ to make sure that it is relevant to 2025's NSers.
As of this writing, Tin has updated the following FAQs: Game Mechanics; Flags, Banners and Custom Fields; Forums; Trophies; Miscellaneous. She will update the other sections in the coming days, and then update the below table of contents.

The Almighty NationStates FAQ
This is a general FAQ about the mechanics of NationStates. It may not be as specific as you require for your needs. Please refer below for more specific area FAQ's/help threads.
One Stop Rules Shop | Regional Raiding/Defending Military Guide | Guide to the Security Council | General Assembly Q&A | GA Proposal Rules | Sports RP FAQ | Economics & Trade Help Desk | General Roleplay FAQ | Factbook & National Info Guide

Grand Index of FAQ Thread Custodians
This thread has been reposted many, many, many times and is a co-operative work of the NS Public at the aim of providing a index of technical assistance for users. We thank all of those who have given their time and effort in the past to keep this repository of knowledge updated.

Qaaolchoura - (2003 - 2004) - Qaa's Thread
Goobergunchia - (2004 - 2011) - Goober's Thread
Mousebumples - (2011 - 2015) - Mouse's' Thread
Hobbesistan - (2015 - 2020) - Hobbes' Thread (formerly this thread)
Lord Dominator - (2020 - 2024) - Dominator's Thread (formerly this thread)
Tinhampton (2024 - date) - Tin's Thread (this thread)

I will work to keep this updated with questions that are commonly posed in this forum. Of course, if you have additional information to add or a question to ask, please feel free to add a reply to this thread.

GAMEPLAY

How do I increase my population?
How do I declare war? How do I trade with other nations?
How do I invade another region?
My nations description is saying contradictory things!

GAME MECHANICS

What language is this site coded in?
I have two nations and whenever I am logged into one it logs me into the other.
When do the updates run? What do they do? How long do they take to complete?

FLAGS

Why can some nations have such a large flag?
Why is the flag I uploaded auto-resizing to something smaller?
How do I get a cool flag if I don’t have any graphic skill?
My flag isn't updating after I upload a new one. / It says I have outstanding issues, but I've answered them. / Page X doesn’t look like it’s supposed to.

CUSTOMIZABLE FEATURES

Can we add national leader/capital/religion?
Can we add a new customizable field of another sort then?
Can Mods change my nation name?
There's no active nation with the name [XYZ]. But the game won't let me create a new nation with that name. Why?
How do I change my national pretitle?

THE WORLD ASSEMBLY

I’ve seen all sorts of acronyms around the World Assembly. What do they stand for?
I know that I can have only one WA nation. How many non WA nations may I have?
What's a Historical Resolution?
What does being a Delegate do?
I have the most endorsements in my region, so how come I am not the delegate?
What if there are two WA nations with the same number of endorsements?
I've got a new e-mail address. Will my WA status be affected if I put it in my settings page?
Is WA status retained when my nation is resurrected?
How long is the e-mail accepting me into the WA valid for?

FORUMS

How do I create a poll for my post?
What (and where) is the User Control Panel?
How do I set my signature?
How do I post pictures?
Can I upload images to the forums?
Free image hosting sites include:
Hey I have a great Idea! Lets split International Incidents into past/present/future (and possibly fantasy) timelines subforums.
I can't view images/signatures/avatars! How do I fix this?
How do I post smilies?
What software is used for the forums?
How do I link a specific post?
Why are some of my forum posts missing from the search results?

ISSUES

Why do I keep getting the same issues?
How many issues can I have per day?
How can I change my position on an issue?
What is a 'Issue Chain'?
How do I submit a new issue?

MODERATION

Can the mods delete my nation for me?
Well, I’ll just break some rules then to get the mods to delete my account!
How can I resurrect a nation?
Is WA status retained when my nation is resurrected?

REGIONS

How do I create a region?
What does the regional administration page do?
What happens if someone is kicked out of the Rejected Realms?
What is a “Feeder” ?
What are Warzones?
What if there are two WA nations with the same number of endorsements?
How can I become my region's founder?
But my region doesn't have a founder/has a dead founder and we want to get it one.
What formatting tags can we use in World Factbook Entries?
What formatting tags can I use in Telegrams?
How do I recruit for my region?
What formatting tags can I use on my region’s Civil Headquarters?
How is a region picked to be the featured region?
What executive actions can Founders and Delegates do?
What do Regional Officers do?
What region should I move to?

CODING

How do I code X, Y, Z?
How do I change the size of my text on the forums?
How do I code Proposal links for Telegrams?
How do I code images on the forums?
How do I code to align my text in a certain way?
How do I code spoiler tags?
How do I quote another person's post?
How do I link directly to a specific post?
How do I create a list?

TROPHIES

What trophies are there?
What on EARTH is an Easter Egg?
Can regions earn trophies?
Are the trophies cumulative?
Do I lose my trophy for writing a WA resolution if it gets repealed?
I've written WA resolutions and/or submitted issues with one of my puppets. Can I move the trophies I've earned there to my main nation?
I was listed as a co-author on a WA resolution. Can I get a trophy for that?
What's a Historical Resolution?
Can I put these trophies on my NS Wiki page?
Can you add trophy for any nation who has ..... ?

MISCELLANEOUS

Who is [violet]?
Where is the famous memberlist?
Is the photo with the weird mask really a picture of SalusaSecondus?
About the Players

USEFUL/RARE PAGES

Player accessible pages that aren't on the main menu
Information for script authors
Purely of historical interest
Unofficial semi-offsite pages of interest

Thanks to Sedgistan for his assistance in clarifying some of these answers.

by **Tinhampton** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:14 am

GAMEPLAY

How do I increase my population?
You can't. Your population increases automatically every 24 hours, so long as your nation exists.

How do I declare war? How do I trade with other nations?
Both war and trade are role played – mostly through the forums.

WAR is run through the International Incidents subforum.

TRADE is run through the Global Economics and Trade subforum.
If you’re just getting started with one of these actions within the forums, for the love of all that’s holy, please be sure to read the stickies atop each forum. Stickies (noted with the little lightbulb icons) are threads that offer essential, helpful information within the given forum.

I’d also recommend checking out this thread for more information on Nation States Diplomacy.

How do I invade another region?
If you want to learn how to region-crash and take over the leadership of a different region, I’d suggest checking out the Gameplay subforum. You may also want to look into joining (or creating) an alliance of like-minded nations since it’s all-but-impossible to successfully invade another region with only one WA nation. WA multi-ing is illegal – as detailed here.

My nations description is saying contradictory things!
Yup. That’s pretty much par for the course with NationStates. There have been some suggestions in the past to allow people to change the “environment” in which their national animal frolics. Of course, nothing has changed in that respect as of yet, and some people have fun having their national animal, the seahorse, frolic freely in their nation's many lush forests.

Basically, there are a number of different facets to your national description that is all based on separate aspects of the game. Some parts of your national descriptions are almost set in stone. These aspects are very difficult to change, especially for more established nations. The final paragraph is based on your last 4 issue choices and changes with each subsequent issue decision. As such, it’s not uncommon for these areas of your nation to be in conflict.

For example, a popular complaint used to be that a nation that was listed as an Anarchy had no government in the first paragraph, but an "omni-present" government in the second. This was because the player had met the requirements to become an anarchy (none of which have to do with government size), but had done so through massive government intervention.

The solution? Well, there really isn't one. You can take whichever of the contradictory descriptors you want to be the "correct" description of your nation, but the game would practically have to be rewritten from the ground up to get these contradictions out. No matter how important you think it is that you have a coherent national description, it’s not going to happen. If this really bothers you, you can write your own national page (complete with national description!) on NSWiki.

by **Tinhampton** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:15 am

GAME MECHANICS

What language is this site coded in?
The game is coded in Perl. The forums are coded in PHP and delivered via phpBB.

Why is my flag/nation page/forum topic not updating?
Because your browser has cached the old version of the page. You should try to clear the page cache at first (Ctrl+F5 on Firefox; Shift+F5 on Chrome and Edge; Ctrl+Shift+R on all three browsers); if this is not working, try going to your browser settings and clearing the cache manually.

Why was I logged out of my main nation?
Possibly because you ticked the "Remember Me" box on your puppet, or you logged into your main nation from a different device. In the first instance, you will log into your puppet every time you load NS after starting your browser, which is probably not the intended outcome. In the second instance, if you log into your nation from one device, you are logged out of it from the other device.

Why do I have to accept cookies before I can play NationStates?
You don't. Please blame Google AdSense, NationStates' ad host. The below cookie banner was not placed by NationStates itself; and it does not appear outside of jurisdictions like the UK, EU and California with strong data privacy laws. To avoid seeing this, turn on your adblocker and make sure to disable Acceptable Ads before accessing NS, or buy Supporter status at the store for three US dollars.

When do the updates run? What do they do? How long do they take to complete?
Major update runs at 9pm Pacific time and normally lasts for 90 minutes. Minor update runs at 9am Pacific time and normally lasts for 60 minutes. While the Delegacy can change at both updates, the difference in length is because regional World Census rankings are updated (national rankings have updated instantly since the Fast Issues update of February 2016), Today's World Census Report (that is to say, the featured statistic) is generated, Influence is calculated, the Featured Region is determined, and the Daily Dump is compiled at major. As of this writing, No way yes is the first-updating non-passworded region (and third overall); Warzone Trinidad is always the last-updating region.
Crossreference: "Why does Warzone Trinidad exist?"

To work out what time each update starts in your time zone, you can hover over an at-vote resolution's timestamp on the World Assembly page to determine when voting on it ends and therefore when update begins; or you can use a website such as Time Zone Converter or Time and Date (keep in mind that Los Angeles is the biggest city in the Pacific timezone).

As a general rule of thumb: if you live in the Americas, major update will be in the evening and minor update in the morning; If you live in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, or India, major update will be in the morning and minor update in the evening; if you live in East Asia or Oceania, major update will be in the afternoon and minor update at nighttime.

How does influence work?
Every update, you gain 1+N influence, where N is the number of endorsements you have. (This is only applied at Major update.) You can spend it in a variety of ways.

Banning and ejection: If you are a Delegate, to eject someone costs one-third of their influence; to ban someone costs half of their influence. If you are a Regional Officer, to eject someone costs two-thirds of their influence; to ban someone costs all of their influence.
Passwording: If you are a UCR Delegate or Regional Officer, it will cost you at least 200 influence - and 20 influence per nation - to impose a visible password, and twice that much to impose an invisible password.
Transitions: If you are a UCR Delegate, it will cost you at least 500 influence - and "20 x non-WAs + 80 x WAs" (with no more than 200 non-WAs considered) - to transition your region from a Frontier to a Stronghold. Regional Officers cannot transition.
Influence decay: If you live in a GCR or a Frontier, only the influence you have gathered in the past six months counts. If you live in any other region (colloquially called a Stronghold), influence lasts forever.
Crossreference: "Why do people sometimes talk about Strongholds?"
Governors: Governors do not have to spend influence to ban, eject, password, or transition.
Warzones: Warzone Delegates can ban and eject nations without spending influence, although bans always expire at the next update.

Although he is now retired, August wrote an excellent dispatch about influence a few years ago (before the Frontier/Stronghold update). He does the subject far more justice than I ever could.

by **Tinhampton** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:16 am

FLAGS, BANNERS AND CUSTOM FIELDS

How large can my flag be?
It depends, but it will normally be resized to 428 pixels wide by 284 pixels high. The rationale behind this is probably because the old default flags - in both gloriously noxious pre-2011 JPG and muted 2011-2020 PNG - was 107 pixels wide by 71 pixels high; 428x284 is a clean quadrupling of that precise ratio. (The post-2021 SVG default flags do not have a fixed size, for obvious reasons.)

Before February 2011, flags of any size were acceptable, so long as they were smaller than 12 kilobytes. In February 2011, the flag size limit was increased to 50 kilobytes, but flag height and width limits were imposed, with flags being auto-resized to 214 pixels wide by 142 pixels high:

The old "12KB Loophole" was upped to 50KB, and the resize presumption upped to 321 pixels high by 213 pixels wide, a year later:

These limits persisted for almost a decade, until they were upped once again in January 2020. Now, images are presumptively resized to 428 pixels high by 284 pixels wide; and there is now a 150KB loophole:

[violet] wrote:Automatic Flag Resizing

Your flag will usually be resized to fit within 428x284 pixels. Both height and width must fit, so if, for example, your flag is perfectly square, it will be resized to 284x284. This process also converts animated GIFs into static images.

Exceptions: You can have a bigger flag than usual if its filesize is small enough: If it's under 150kB and the image fits within either 535x355 pixels or 321x568 pixels, it won't be resized.

Animated GIFs are possible if the filesize is under 150kB and the image fits within 321x213 pixels. So you can have a small animated GIF so long as the filesize isn't too big. In this case, the animation will only run on your nation's home page.

It's worth noting that there are still a very small handful of nations - such as Seven by Nine - that have a pre-2011 supersized flag.

Two other changes have been made since 2020. Firstly, the drop-shadow effect was removed from nation flags and flag thumbnails gameside around the same time the 2020 rules came into effect. Secondly, since October 2021, you have been able to upload an SVG flag; this was paired with Tiago Silva's PNG default flags being replaced by new SVG defaults. (This was only possible because Microsoft stopped supporting Internet Explorer, a browser that did not support SVGs, with the launch of Windows 11 in that month. Edge, which has been the Windows default browser since Windowss 10 launched in 2015, is a Chromium-based browser with SVG support.)

How large can my banner be?
1200 pixels wide by 400 pixels high, and it should have a 4:1 ratio.

How does this apply to regions?
Regional flags will normally be resized to 375 pixels wide by 250 pixels high, although flags smaller than 150KB will not be resized if they are up to 1125 pixels wide by 750 pixels high. Regional banners can be up to 1200 pixels wide by 120 pixels high, and should have a 10:1 ratio.

I don't know how to make a flag! Where can I get my own?
Through the Flag Makers/Requests thread. (Please do read the OP first, however; Almonaster Nuevo and friends will thank you later for the clarity.)

What custom fields are available?
The currency and animal fields are available to all nations. Other fields are unlockable later. Issue #241 "A Capital City For @@NAME@@?" is awarded to all nations on attaining 250 million population - as soon as their issue inbox is not full - and allows them to choose a capital city. Similarly, Issue #242 "Follow The Leader" allows for a leader to be chosen at 750 million and Issue #243 "A Question Of Faith" allows for a national religion to be chosen at 1 billion. A custom pretitle is unlocked at 500 million automatically; unlike with the other fields, you are restricted to a preset list of pretitles before then, rather than it being the case that you have no pretitle whatsoever.

From the time you are eligible to get the issue that unlocks the relevant field until the moment you answer in a way that unlocks it, you will be told in your settings that the field is "Unlockable: Awaiting legislation" (except for the pretitle, obviously).

Between June 2018 and June 2024, all options unlocked the capital/leader/religion. The option arguing against any change to the status quo stopped unlocking the field in each issue in 2024 (the dismissal button had never unlocked the field). However, you are now warned if you try to select an option that does not unlock the relevant field.

In October 2024, it was restated that:

United Calanworie wrote:...we are not adding any more custom fields at user request due to the overwhelming number of custom fields that would wind up being.

Why are some pretitles longer than 28 characters?
Because the mods have "signed" them. This has previously happened with Islands of Ventro (see also), Ambis2 (see also), and virtually all newly-appointed moderators other than New Visayan Islands (as discussed). However, following the Roses Without Thorns incident, it is likely to be a very rare occurence from now on.

Luna Amore, when he was a moderator, said in October 2016 that he was able to set his pretitle to the Tao te-Ching - a lengthy work of around 35,000 characters - in a "sandbox" not accessible to the general public. Reploid Productions' pretitle on September 18th 2022, set as a result of this moderation thread, is believed to be the longest ever seen on nationstates.net:

Can Mods change my nation name?
Almost certainly not. There have been exactly two cases of this happening: Assjackistan was renamed Al Amarja in December 2003 as "assjack" was considered to be unfit for a nation name; the rules around inappropriate content were less hard-and-fast in the olden days, but as the player behind Assjackistan was considered to be a worthy member of the community rather than a troll, they were allowed to have the nation restored to another name of their choosing. Elohssadiputs was renamed Ellosidalputs under a similar arrangement in September 2010 - seven years after its creation - after the name of the nation was discovered to be "Stupidasshole" in reverse ("asshole" is considered to be a "naughty word" that is auto-blocked at the nation creation stage).

As your predicament is almost certainly not described by one of the above two cases, you have only two options. You can either create a new nation with your preferred name, or - if you cannot do so - you can register another name and roleplay using your preferred name (like Regnum Alea Spaceflee, a prolific II future-tech roleplayer in spring 2023, did after they found out that their preferred name of "Regnum Alea" had been taken).

Since December 2016. you have been allowed to change the capitalization on any letter in your nation name (except for the first letter) in your settings. There is one exception to the first-letter rule: Greed and Death, a prominent NSGer of the age, was previously "greed and death" - one of only a handful of nations, founded around March/April 2008, with a lower-case first letter - but recapitalised to "Greed and Death" shortly after the feature was introduced.

Reppy explained this discrepancy best:

Reploid Productions wrote:Capitalization of nation names means nothing as you accurately point out, because in the system, your nation name is "north_east_germany," and whatever choice of capitalization you use doesn't change that. Your nation name is your nation's ID to the system, and there are a lot of things in the game engine that point to your nation's ID that can very readily end up completely breaking your account if that ID were to be changed and one of those connected elements wasn't updated properly. Regions, World Assembly, RMB posts, telegrams... basically every element of the game's functioning is linked to that ID. And our clusterfuck of late 2002 code cobbled together with a wide assortment of patches and MacGyvered fixes makes ensuring all those connecting elements all properly update following an ID change... very, very difficult.

Why can't I create a new nation with this name?
Because it belongs to an active or notorious nation. All active nation names are obviously unable to be registered.

Names belonging to ex-nations cannot be registered, unless the ex-nation CTEd more than five years ago; had less than 1 billion population when it CTEd; was not mod-deleted without being restored (hence being "Disgraced"); was not a credited resolution or issue author of any kind; was not a former moderator or admin at the time of their CTE (unless they were dishonourably discharged, as with Stephistan and Jakker); was not the Founder, Governor, or former WA Delegate of a region that hasn't itself disappeared in the meanwhile; or is not otherwise retired (as in the cases of United Nations, the old name for the WA; and Dyakovo, the deceased NSGer). If even one of these criteria is met, the nation name will not be available for reuse: Endraas CTEd with only 400 million population, but is protected as the author of Issue 1214 "Blood Type: Gay Positive".
Crossreference: "Why can't I log into my nation?"

If your nation had more than one billion population upon CTE, you can revive it at any time. Even if it had less than one billion population, you can still revive it provided that nobody else has registered it in the meanwhile; I did this with The Opening Batsman about six-and-a-half years after its CTE at 108 million population.

Is it true that the site rules are enforced more stringently against custom fields than against RMB and forum posts?
Yes. Max Barry explains that the difference in treatment is because flags are "not open for challenge and debate" - as does the Acceptable Flag Policy, for that manner. Following the 2023 controversy surrounding all of well-known roleplayer The Kraven Corporation's posts being deleted for breaking the site rules, a Malicious Content Policy was published banning any customisable field with connotations "widely and primarily associated with real-life acts of violence or genocide."

by **Tinhampton** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:16 am

EVENTS

Coming soon!

by **Tinhampton** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:16 am

THE WORLD ASSEMBLY

I’ve seen all sorts of acronyms around the World Assembly. What do they stand for?
Yes, the World Assembly (also known as the WA) does love it’s acronyms. The most obvious ones are those most frequently used:

WA → World Assembly
GA → General Assembly (one of the WA’s chambers)
SC → Security Council (the second of the WA’s chambers)
UN → United Nations (the predecessor of the WA)

If you’re talking to an experienced WA player, you may see other acronyms make their way into telegrams or forum posts. GA#35 refers to GA Resolution #35, for example. CoCR is shorthand for a passed resolution – The Charter of Civil Rights. A list of passed resolutions can be found here, but if you find yourself puzzled by an acronym, ask! Most forum-goers are happy to help explain such shorthand to newbies. (And those that aren’t are probably in need of a good defenestration.)

I know that I can have only one WA nation. How many non WA nations may I have?
Some nations have multiple nations – some even have hundreds of nations!

Traditionally, non-WA nations are referred to as “puppets.” Of course, some elect not to have their main nation in the WA and instead have a WA-puppet.

What's a Historical Resolution?
These are resolutions that were passed under the United Nations, which preceded the WA. A complete list of these resolutions can be found here.

What does being a Delegate do?
WA Delegates are able to Approve Proposals. (Proposals require approval by at least 6% of the Regional Delegates in order for them to come to a vote.)

WA Delegates also have extra votes for WA Proposals that are At Vote. They receive 1 vote for each endorsement, as well as their own individual vote. For example, a WA Delegate with 5 WA endorsements has a total of 6 votes.

WA Delegates may have access to Regional Administration for their region. If your region has an active Founder, they may disable Delegate access to protect the security of the region. However, if your Founder has Ceased to Exist (CTE), the Delegate is automatically granted access.

I have the most endorsements in my region, so how come I am not the delegate?
The delegacy does not change over until the region updates with the Major or Minor Updates. If you are trying to invade a region and take over the delegacy, you need to be sure that you have more endorsements before the region starts to update. If you gain more endorsements after the update has started, you will not become the delegate until the next update.

What if there are two WA nations with the same number of endorsements?
If there is a tie in endorsement count involving the current delegate, the delegacy will not change over. In order for a nation to become the new delegate, they need to have more endorsements than the present delegate.

Other than that, if the current delegate is not involved in the tie, as Pyth said, "it's ... complicated."

I've got a new e-mail address. Will my WA status be affected if I put it in my settings page?
Not at all.

Is WA status retained when my nation is resurrected?
No, all nations resurrected are automatically resigned from the WA. However, you can re-apply your nation as long as you don't have any other WA nations.

How long is the e-mail accepting me into the WA valid for?
It's good until it gets bumped out of the queue. The WA only keeps track of some number of applications at a time, and then it drops the old ones. The length of time that takes is variable, but you can always reapply to the WA if your e-mail acceptance has expired.

by **Tinhampton** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:17 am

FORUMS

What are the ranks available?
Not the same ones Viinborg spoke about in 2013. The Viinborg list has been (and continued to be) widely circulated, but has proven somewhat inaccurate with the passage of time and the adjustment of some categories of post. This is the accurate list, as of October 2024 - which, of course, builds on Viinborg's original list.

Post-based ranks

Civilian: 0 or 1 posts
Political Columnist: 2-5 posts
Civil Servant: 6-10 posts
Lobbyist: 11-25 posts
Secretary: 26-40 posts
Bureaucrat: 41-65 posts
Attaché: 66-99 posts
Spokesperson: 100-200 posts
Envoy: 201-350 posts
Chargé d'Affaires: 351-500 posts
Diplomat: 501-1,000 posts
Ambassador: 1,001-2000 posts
Minister: 2,001-3,500 posts
Senator: 3,501-5,000 posts
Negotiator: 5,001-7,500 posts
Powerbroker: 7,501-9,999 posts
Postmaster-General: 10,000-14,999 posts
Post Marshal: 15,000-19,999 posts
Postmaster of the Fleet: 20,000-29,999 posts
Post Czar: 30,000-49,999 posts
Khan of Spam: 50,000-74,999 posts
Post Kaiser: 75,000-99,999 posts
Post Overlord: 100,000-199,999 posts
Post-Apocalypse Survivor: 200,000-???,??? posts

Post-Apocalpyse Survivor is the highest known rank as of October 2024. There are four higher ranks, but they are not public yet.

Moderator ranks
Forum Moderator
Senior Forum Moderator
Game Moderator
Senior Game Moderator
Technical Moderator

Other staff ranks
Admin
Senior Admin
Issues Editor - How did the Editors get this colour?
Senior Issues Editor
GA Secretariat - How did GenSec get this colour?

The roles of N&I RP Mentor and P2TM RP Mentor existed for roughly a decade until January 2022. They remain the only site staff roles to be abolished.

Staff manager "job titles"
Executive Director - currently, and likely to be in perpetuity, [violet] ("[v]")
Site Director - currently Sedgistan ("Sedge")
Events Manager - currently Chingis ("Chingis")
Director of Content - currently Verdant Haven ("VH")
Director of Moderation - currently Reploid Productions ("Reppy")
Director of Technology - currently Eluvatar ("Elu")

These job titles were created as part of the January 2024 hierarchy reform. Please note that the Development Managers - other than Chingis - do not have special DM-related titles.
Crossreference: "Why are there so many managers?"

Miscellaneous ranks
The Muse of the Westcountry - bestowed upon Charlotte Ryberg for designing the Issues Author badge, to right
Cute Purple Dinosaur - bestowed upon Pythagosaurus for his wit and wisdom. Especially his wit
Kirby Delauter - bestowed upon a few Delauter-themed nations by Reppy to make fun of the American politician of the same name asking, in January 2015, that the news media not publish his name
Retired Moderator - bestowed for obvious reasons

How do I create a thread poll?
By finding the tab at the bottom of the page that says "Poll creation." There, you will be able to fill in a poll question and answers, the maximum number of permitted options, and the number of days the poll will run for. You can also toggle the ability to allow users to change their vote. This option is only available to thread OPs; you cannot create a poll for a reply.

Beware that if you change the questions and answers for a poll, responses will not be reset. The best way to restart a poll from scratch, you have to delete the poll, then edit your OP again and create the new poll

Where is the User Control Panel?
At the top-left of every page on the forum. (Or, depending on who you ask, in the OP of every thread in Forum 7.)

What can I do in the UCP?
A lot of things. The UCP is made up of four easy-to-navigate-and-understand tabs. From left to right:

Overview allows you to view information about yourself, including your warning level (if you have one) via the Front Page. You can also manage your subscriptions and bookmarks, as well as review drafts of posts that you've made but are yet to lodge onto the forums.
Crossreference: "I was warned! When does my warning level go away?"
Profile allows you to edit your profile page - namely your Website, Location, Occupation and Interests - as well as your signature.
Board Preferences allows you to set your time and date settings; edit the visibility of BBCode, smilies, and your signature in posts you make; and edit the visibility of various helpful features discussed in the below Crossreference.
Crossreference: "Why am I not able to view smilies, images, signatures, and/or flags?"
Friends and Foes allows you to set Friends (largely a useless, symbolic feature) and Foes (whose posts are minimised by default, although you can choose to read them on a case-by-case basis). Note that while GenSec, Issues Editors, and normal players can be foed, Moderators and Administrators cannot be.

It is no longer possible to subscribe to forums or topics, even though there is a tab about this in your UCP Overview. The only functionality of the subscription feature - to enable NationStates to email you whenever a bookmarked topic was posted in - was disabled in February 2016, after a particularly prolific forum poster alleged that NationStates had spammed them with over 1,000 emails about two threads, therefore hindering the site's ability to send emails about anything at all.

I was warned! When does my warning level go away?
Six months for you; never for moderation purposes. It is not clear what "six months" means in terms of exact times, although it is likely to mean exactly six months from the imposition of the warning; I asked and was told that answering the query would be a waste of moderator time. If you are interested in your full moderation history (including forum warnings), then Reppy has said that you should file a GHR.
Crossreference: "What can I do in the UCP?"

There is technically a limit to how many warnings you can rack up, although the moderators will not confirm what exactly it is and, in any event, you will almost certainly be deleted well before you hit the limit.
Crossreference: "Why can't I log into my nation?"

What are the rules for signatures?
Primarily length. Signatures that break any of the rules will be acted on like a rules-breaking forum post. Other than that, signatures cannot physically be longer than 800 characters; normally, phpBB uses the common-sense definition of a characters, but BBCode tags are normally taken in and of themselves to be one character each. This is why my signature fits within the character limit, despite technically being over 5,000 characters long.

Signatures must also conform to the rule on...

OSRS wrote:Signature Spam: Maximum size should never exceed eight lines, including blank lines and a quote box is four lines; signatures should not use more than two of these. Signatures exceeding eight lines will be reduced using spoiler tags. Large font sizes should be avoided and may be trimmed without warning. See Advertisements and Forbidden Links above. See also Reppy's Sig Workshop for a guide on building your signature.

If you repeatedly defy the Signature Spam rule, then you will lose your signature privileges, meaning that you will not be able to have a signature for at least six months, unless you ask via GHR for your sig privileges to be restored after six months have elapsed.

I found this really cool image on the internet. Why can't I hotlink it on the forums?
Because you didn't follow the proper procedure. Firstly, you can only hotlink an image from an approved image host, such as Imgur or Postimages. You cannot upload images directly to the forums; nor can you hotlink images that are hosted on the forums itself, like the decommissioned facepalm smilie.
Crossreference: "Why have so many features on the forums been disabled since 2020?"
Crossreference: "What happened to the facepalm smilie?"

Secondly, your image cannot be larger than 1800 pixels high by 1800 pixels wide. (The size limit used to be 900x900 until that was bumped up in January 2017.)

Thirdly, you cannot hotlink any image - even if you did so from an approved image host - if your nation is younger than three days old.

Fourthly, you must sandwich your hotlinked image between image tags, and make sure that you have grabbed the image link rather than the page link (a particular issue with Imgur, now that it is pivoting to be more of a social media website than a pure image host). For instance, copying and pasting this string of text will make the below image visible, like so:

Code: Select all: [img]https://www.nationstates.net/images/island.png[/img]

Will there be new subforums?
Almost certainly not unless there is a new April Fool - such as N-Day, Z-Day, Trading Cards, Trivia and the Global Trade Fair. It was said in February 2010 - shortly after the creation of the post-Jolt forums - that:

Katganistan wrote:Max has made it quite clear he doesn't want the forums split any more than they are already. He prefers it to be a community, not a bunch of survival bunkers where no one ever interacts with anyone but those in their bunker.

However, in May 2012, Portal to the Multiverse was created following a staff consensus that there needed to be a more permanent home for high-quality non-nation roleplays beyond Forum 7.

Why am I not able to view smilies, images, signatures, and/or flags?
Because you turned them off. They are on for all users by default, but if you go to your UCP, then go to Board Preferences, then go to Edit Display Options - or, to simplify the process, just click here - then you should see the appropriate radio buttons to toggle. Set them to "Yes" as appropriate.
Crossreference: "What can I do in the UCP?"

How do I use smilies?
All smilies are available in the "Smilies" box, to the right of your post - provided you haven't turned them off in the Posting Defaults of your UCP. Some smilies are more complex, but a few can be easily memorised - :) becomes

and 8) becomes

, for instance.

What happened to the facepalm smilie?
It was removed from the Smilies menu, and then deleted altogether, due to its excessive use in trollish posts. In July 2014, it was moved to the "View more smilies" menu as it was being repeatedly used for such purposes. The final straw came in March 2016, when Leppikania was told not to use it when responding to a bug report on the grounds of civility; following a complaint by Trotterdam, it was deleted altogether. The smilie image itself has not been deleted and some users (including yours truly, circa spring 2020) were particularly fond of hotlinking it, but that avenue was closed off following the Approved Image Hosts reform of 2021.
Crossreference: "I found this really cool image on the internet. Why can't I hotlink it on the forums?"

How do I link a specific post?
By clicking on the little floppy page icon at the top-left. Examples of this for both read and unread posts are available below. Right-clicking/long-tapping and hitting "Copy Link," or left-clicking/short-tapping and immediately copying from your address bar, will give you the appropriate link.

Why are some of my forum posts missing from the search results?
Probably because of how the forum works. The forum is normally re-indexed on Thursdays, so if you try and egosearch on a Thursday, then you may notice that some of your posts are missing. You may have also made a few posts in Forum 7 which have gone missing; this is deliberate, as all Forum 7 threads are pruned after seven days of inactivity. (As an aside, F7 posts do not count towards the official posts tally in your profile to discourage spam, which is why you sometimes see people with zero forum posts having made a post in F7.)

From time to time, however, more serious and resilient gremlins emerge. There was a major issue in August 2024 which meant that virtually every post made in the space of a few hours disappeared altogether for about a month, because the server randomly shut down in the middle of a forum post backup. Shortly afterwards, posts made between September 25th and October 10th 2024 were not visible in forum searches for about a week, although no explanation for this was ever given.

Adapted from an answer originally written by Minoa/Charlotte Ryberg.

Why were 590 people on the forums on April 1st 2013?
Because of the inaugural Z-Day.

by **Tinhampton** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:17 am

ISSUES

Why do I keep getting the same issues?
When the game started, there were only 30 different issues, and each nation only qualified for a few of them. Later, [violet] (in all her greatness) coded an interface which allows game mods to edit player-submitted issues.

New players still only get the first 30 for their first couple of weeks. There are now over 400, yet the older ones still seem to repeat more often. (The whole list of issues can be found here.)

How many issues can I have per day?
The game only permits a maximum of four issues per nation per day (technically one every six hours). If you want more, you can use multiple nations. However, you can also have fewer - the other options are every twelve hours (two per day), every twenty-four hours (one per day), every forty-eight hours (every other day), and enabling 'Vacation Mode' disables issues entirely for that nation (as well as extending its CTE date by 60 days).

How can I change my position on an issue?
All of the issues - except for Easter Eggs - can eventually be repeated. As mods have said before, just because you make a decision on an issue (or decide to dismiss an issue) doesn’t mean that your citizens won’t make you answer the issue again!

What on EARTH is an Easter Egg?
It's a specific kind of issue - and each Easter Egg issue can only be answered one time per nation. This thread contains a list of all known easter egg issues and their preconidtions for receiving the issue. Read at your own spoiler risk.

What is a 'Issue Chain'?
A 'Issue Chain' is a story of sorts - It starts with a single issue you get, and the story can take several paths to completion; changing your nation along the way. While it offers a more 'intimate' (The hawwwwt issues editors ensured this) story, it is important not to "break the chain", as Issue Chains are only one-time, and failing to answer or dismissing any of the issues in the chain means you don't get it again. At the time of this posting, there is one major issue chain, 'Diamonds Are An Expat's Best Friend!', with multiple paths to take (a average being of 5 issues depending on how you chart it) and serveral other one-off chains you can find in your NSing experience.

How do I submit a new issue?
After you have over 500 million citizens, you can Submit an Issue. You’ll find the link at the bottom of your Issues page.

by **Tinhampton** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:18 am

MODERATION

Can the mods delete my nation for me?
No. The mods will not delete a nation by request. If you want your nation to die, you need to not log-in for 28 days. If you don’t think you’ll be able to stay away, you should scramble your password (i.e. bang on your keyboard a few times to get a random combination of keystrokes) and delete your email address from the Settings page.

Well, I’ll just break some rules then to get the mods to delete my account!
This approach is typically referred to as “suicide-by-mod,” and it is not recommended. Depending on what you do, you could end up IP-banned from the site, which means you’d never be able to come back. If you ever wanted to come back in the future, you wouldn’t be able to do so.

How can I resurrect a nation?
If your nation has Ceased to Exist (CTE), it can be resurrected by simply logging into the nation again. A resurrected nation will always be “reborn” in one of the three Sinkers, Lazarus, Osiris or Balder. From there, you are more than welcome to return your nation to its previous regional home. It is however, important to note that when your nation CTE's, your influence in regions will degrade over time, and, in addition, upon resurrecting it, the nation is cleared from all regional bans by World Assembly Delegates and Founders.

If your nation was deleted due to rule breaking, you will not be able to get that nation name back. Unless you are considered a Delete on Sight (DOS) or have been IP-banned, you are able to make a new nation.

Is WA status retained when my nation is resurrected?
No, all nations resurrected are automatically resigned from the WA. However, you can re-apply your nation as long as you don't have any other WA nations.

Previously, when you rejoined the WA with a resurrected nation, your endorsements (given and received) were also re-established. However, this was changed in a recent update, so you will need to re-endorse those that you wish to support in your region.

by **Tinhampton** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:19 am

REGIONS

How do I create a region?
On your (current) region's page, it says "Tired of life in (region name)?" Click that link and click Create a New Region. Complete the fields on the page that follows and hit “Create Region.” You will now be located in your new region.

What does the regional administration page do?
It allows you to bar/unbar delegate and regional officer access to regional control, ban/unban members, eject members, update your factbook entry, and password protect your region.

You can only ban members that are either presently in your region or who are on your Regional Happenings.

What happens if someone is kicked out of the Rejected Realms?
Any nations ejected from a region are moved to The Rejected Realms. As a result, The Rejected Realms are not allowed to eject any nations, nor is it allowed to ban any nations (as ejected nations must go to The Rejected Realms).

In addition, all Game Created Regions (The Rejected Realms, The Sinkers, The Feeders, & The Warzones) may not password protect their regions as they all serve some purpose to the game as a whole except with the temporary passwords allowed by Z-Day. Finally, should a nation be banned from Lazarus/Osiris/Balder, it will still be resurrected in one of those regions should it CTE elsewhere and be resurrected (the nation may then be re-banned).

What is a “Feeder” ?
Feeder regions are those where all new nations are born. There are five, and they are also commonly called the Pacifics.

What is a "Sinker"?
Sinker regions are those where refounded nations are reborn. This used to be only Lazarus, however due to increased traffic Osiris and Balder both got added in 2011. There are three of them, though The Rejected Realms is considered a "sinker" by most, and included in this list, it's not a "sinker" by the traditional sense of the word; it functions solely as a home for nations who where banned/ejected from their previous homes.

What are Warzones?
There are 6 Warzones:

These regions are specifically setup to allow for invasion-style gameplay. The normal influence costs for ejecting and banning nations apply for the WA delegate. However, bans expire with each update, so nations can keep coming back and trying to win the delegacy again. Passwords are also not allowed. These regions are often used as a "practice ground" for invaders and defenders.

What if there are two WA nations with the same number of endorsements?
If there is a tie in endorsement count involving the current delegate, the delegacy will not change over. In order for a nation to become the new delegate, they need to have more endorsements than the present delegate.

Other than that, if the current delegate is not involved in the tie, as Pyth said, "it's ... complicated."

How can I become my region's founder?
The only way to become a region’s founder is if you were the one who created (founded) the region.

But my region doesn't have a founder/has a dead founder and we want to get it one.
Refounding can be done, but it is difficult to do so successfully. All nations must leave the region, and those that do not leave by choice can be ejected by the WA Delegate.

The region will cease to exist (just like nations do) if there are no nations living there at the next update. Once the region has CTEd, you (or someone else) can re-create the region.

What formatting tags can we use in World Factbook Entries?
You can use bold, italics, underline, color (various shades supported), Links, Mousebumples (Nation links), Monkey Island (Region links), Proposal links, and Spoilers!

You can also use a Horizontal Line:

The details on how to code these (if you’re uncertain) can be found in the CODING section of this FAQ.

What formatting tags can I use in Telegrams?
You can use bold, italics, underline, Mousebumples (Nation links), Monkey Island (Region links), and Proposal links.

How do I recruit for my region?
If you manage a region, you are able to telegram recruit for that region. You either can use stamps or Telegram API, Stamps are faster however cost money (You can pay $1 for 1000 telegrams in the Store). Or you can use Telegram API, which is a free though slower option. Ever Wandering Souls has a shweet telegram API guide Here

What formatting tags can I use on my region’s Civil Headquarters?
The Civil Headquarters is frequently also referred to as the Regional Message Board (or RMB). You can use bold, italics, underline, Mousebumples (Nation links), and Monkey Island (Region links).

How is a region picked to be the featured region?
It's selected randomly. Any region with over five members that isn't password-protected can be picked to be the featured region.

What executive actions can Founders and Delegates do?
Founders and Executive Delegates both can do the following actions:

Eject*
Ban*
Ban & Eject (Popularly known as 'banjecting')*
Edit the World Factbook Entry
Edit the Regional Flag.
Password Protect the Region*
Suppress Regional Message Board posts
Create Regional Officers (see below)

The starred (*) actions indicate these actions require Influence in the region(See All About Influence for more info) if they are being performed by the Regional Delegate or Regional Officers, however, these actions require no Influence from the Region's Founder.

What are Regional Officers?
Regional Officers are a feature that enables the Founder and or Delegate (if the Delegate is executive) to, well, delegate (pun intended) their power to subordinates, or 'regional officers'. The powers are as follows:

Executive - This is the final executive authority. It only lies in the Founder and Delegate (if delegate is executive) and can not be given out.
World Assembly - Regional voting power on World Assembly resolutions. Reserved exclusively to a regions Delegate.
Appearance - Change the regions flag/world factbook entry.
Border Control - Eject/Ban & eject members from a region, and set/remove a regional password. Regional Officers need x2 the amount of influence a Delegate does to preform the same action. An Executive Delegate may only appoint 1 Regional Officer with Border Control powers every 26 hours.
Embassies - Accept requests, close, and make requests with other regions for embassies.
Communications - Send regional TG's without stamps/etc and suppress RMB messages (a nation must hold an unchanged position for 26 hours before being able to use Communications powers).
Polls - Lord Codger has blessed you, you may set/remove regional polls!

Any nation may have up to 12 regional officers, and the powers of a regional officer are retained into they are dismissed. It does not take any influence to appoint or dismiss a Regional Officer as a Delegate/Founder.

by **Tinhampton** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:19 am

CODING
How do I code X, Y, Z?
Reppy has a lot of the codes for the forum outlined here. There is also this BBCode guide. However, I’ll run through some of the more common/frequently used codes here, as well. (If there are others you’d like to see added, please reply with what else you’d want added, and I will happily do so.)

BOLD

Code: Select all: [b]BOLD[/b]

ITALICS

Code: Select all: [i]ITALICS[/i]

UNDERLINE

Code: Select all: [u]UNDERLINE[/u]

~~STRIKEOUT~~

Code: Select all: [strike]STRIKEOUT[/strike]

RED BLUE GREEN (You can also use the Hexadecimal RGB color code, if you’re familiar with those. A list of codes for those colors can be found here.)

Code: Select all: [color=red]RED[/color] [color=blue]BLUE[/color] [color=green]GREEN[/color]

LINK

Code: Select all: [url=http://www.nationstates.net]LINK[/url]

Mousebumples (Use the name of the nation in question where I have my nation name inserted.)

Code: Select all: [nation]Mousebumples[/nation]

Monkey Island (Use the name of the region in question where I have my region’s name inserted.)

Code: Select all: [region]Monkey Island[/region]

Horizontal Line:

Code: Select all: [hr][/hr]

How do I change the size of my text on the forums?

Code: Select all: [size=100]Normal Size Font[/size]

Font size is determined based on a numbering system. 100 (as listed in the coding example above) is "normal" size. Smaller numbers shrink the font size. Larger numbers enlarge the font size.

This is size 50.
This is size 75.
This is size 100 (normal).
This is size 125.
This is size 150.
This is size 200.
This is size 300.

How do I code Proposal links for Telegrams?
(1) Go to the WA Proposal Page (the GA or SC specific pages are fine) and find the proposal in the list.
(2) Right above the title of the proposal, there should be a line that reads: ID: nationname_234189435 (the numbers will be random). Copy paste this text (not the link) to your computer’s clipboard.
(3) Paste that into the coding below:

Approve! (You can put whatever you want where I have “Approve!” typed – you can type in the name of your proposal, for instance.)

Code: Select all: [proposal=gran_bolivaria_1297175383]Approve![/proposal]

If you click on the ID link that will give you a direct link to the proposal, which you can use to link to the proposal on the forums or elsewhere.

How do I code images on the forums?
Place the url of an image in between the [img] tags.

Code: Select all: [img]http://www.imageurl.com/image.jpg[/img]

How do I code to align my text in a certain way?
There are 4 alignment options:

Left (default on most browsers)

Right

Centered

Justified (Which only differs from Left when the text in question is long enough to take up multiple lines of continuous text. As a result, I'm babbling on and on with parenthetical aside in order to ensure that there is sufficient length within this tag, to make it clear how this tag differs from the Left justify option. You should notice that text tagged in this way has the first word start at the left margin and the end of the last word end at the right margin. This is accomplished by having the spacing between each word adjusted to accomplish this text appearance.)

Code: Select all: [align=left]LEFT[/align] [align=right]RIGHT[/align] [align=center]CENTERED[/align] [align=justify]JUSTIFIED[/align]

How do I code spoiler tags?

Code: Select all: [spoiler]Hidden text[/spoiler]

Code: Select all: [spoiler=Hidden Text]Hidden Text[/spoiler]

You can hide a spoiler tag within a spoiler tag. One needs to have the custom text, and the other cannot have the custom text.

Code: Select all: [spoiler=Nested Spoiler Tag]Nested Spoiler Tag[spoiler]More hidden text[/spoiler][/spoiler]

How do I quote another person's post?

Quoted text

Code: Select all: [quote]Quoted text[/quote]

Moderator wrote:Moderator quote

Code: Select all: [quote="Moderator"]Moderator quote[/quote]

The other obvious option is to click the "quote" button in the upper-right hand corner of each post.

How do I link directly to a specific post?
This image (

or

) is a direct link to the post in question. You can either use your mouse to Copy Link Location or click directly on that image. If you click on the image, the page you are directed to is the direct link to that post - Copy/Paste the url from your browser.

How do I create a list?

List
List

Code: Select all: [list][*]List [*]List[/list]

Alternate options include:
Numbered lists -

One
Two

Code: Select all: [list=1][*]One [*]Two[/list]

Lettered lists -

A
B

Code: Select all: [list=a][*]A [*]B[/list]

Roman Numerals -

I
II

Code: Select all: [list=i][*]I [*]II[/list]

by **Tinhampton** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:20 am

MISCELLANEOUS

Who is [violet]?
Nobody knows, except maybe Max Barry himself. There is speculation that she could be Max's codemonkey, or perhaps even his pseudonym. Reploid Productions said in 2020 that [v] was helping Max with his Providence book tour before it got cancelled due to COVID-19. The truth, however, is unlikely to come out any time soon.

Does Max Barry himself play the game?
Yes, and he is a member of site staff. He's never said what his nation is out loud, but a 2021 News post discussing "Exciting Max Content" appeared to show him logged into Testlandia (as discussed here) - a nation which, coincidentally, Sedgistan has previously said is mostly used by [violet] and which Frisbeeteria has also said is "occasionally shared with others" by [violet].

Contrary to the popular depiction of Max as being a passive actor, here only to look after his own Father Knows Best State, he was actually responsible for two of the most cataclysmic rule changes of recent years. In March 2020, he announced a crackdown on COVID-19 misinformation that lasted until January 2022, the sole stated rationale being that it was "dangerous" and that action should be taken to prevent NSers falling victim to lies. Then in May 2021, the NationStates moderators instigated a crackdown on Nazi and Fascist nations, which Reppy said came about because "Max and [violet] both took a look and basically went all "WTF why are there so many Nazis?!"... Max's old guidance on the subject wasn't working the way he'd originally thought it would."

I've just returned to NationStates after a few years away from the game. Why was I told to reset my password?
Because of the January 2026 data breach. NationStates was hacked by IKTeam, a player who exploited a bug with the newly-implemented dispatch search feature. This bug allowed IKTeam to access all email addresses, passwords, and IP addresses associated with all ~330,000 existing nations. The passwords were protected using MD5 encryption, which is a relatively weaker form of encryption.

The site staff have no means of determining which passwords IKTeam did and did not copy. At the same time, while IKTeam claims to have deleted all the data they copied, there is no realistic way of verifying this to any extent. Therefore, all passwords were reset, even if they belonged to a nation that CTEd before 27th January 2026. IKTeam was declared to be DOS for their actions, even after admitting to what they had done and cooperating with the staff. For about a week after the fact, anyone with a nation they had managed to reset the password for could claim a "Survived Major Disaster" badge.

Why have so many features on the forums been disabled since 2020?
Because of the impact of botspam. The vast majority of humans who visit and play NationStates are well-meaning and only submit a few requests. Unfortunately, a handful of malicious bots have spoiled the experience for everyone in recent years.

In April 2020, Discord was removed as a permissible forumside image host because pornspammers were hosting their NSFW imagery there. (This change is now moot following site staff's decision in July 2021 to block all images other than those on "approved image hosts," and Discord's decision in January 2024 to kill all Discord media hotlinks after 48 hours.)
In April 2021, logged-out users were barred from searching the forums, because of the sheer number of requests that some people were sending.
Also in April 2021, the 15-second cooldown between forum posts became 45 seconds, and then 30 seconds, before going back up to 45 seconds in late 2022, largely thanks to the pornspam outbreak around that time.
In July 2021, after a vulnerability in NationStates' forum software was discovered, the decision was taken to allow image hotlinks only from approved image hosts.
Also in July 2021, nations newer than three days old were blocked from hotlinking images on the forum, as another anti-pornspam measure.
Crossreference: "I found this really cool image on the internet. Why can't I hotlink it on the forums?"
In December 2022, the Find a Member feature was disabled because of the sheer number of searches that bots were attempting to run through it.
At some time after this - no later than July 2024 - it became impossible to go beyond page 41 on the memberlist (although searching and filtering the list remains possible). The cause? Once again, an outbreak of bot-submitted searches.

In the future - nobody knows when - NationStates will move to a new, safer forum platform for the first time since it won its freedom from Jolt in May 2009. The bugs that led to the "approved image host" restrictions will probably be patched to the point where they are no longer necessary. However, it is still not known what the admins are planning to do about the search spam problem that has forced the disablement of nearly all the other features. And it is very unlikely that the 45-second cooldown as we know it will ever be relaxed.

Can my nation be deleted even if I haven't done anything wrong?
Yes, but not arbitrarily.

Site staff warns against sharing accounts in part because it "increases the risk of one or more players being at risk for moderation enforcement they didn't actually earn." It's possible that all the keepers of a shared account could be deleted if one of the keepers, or the shared account itself, is deleted.
From time to time, nations can be hijacked by adspammers. Around 2024, Moderation started deleting these nations without warning, and then restoring them only once the original owner sent them a GHR asking for their nation back. The case of Folkvanger in September/October 2024 was particularly totemic - firstly because it was the first time such a deletion had played out in public; secondly because their first appeal against the deletion was denied on the grounds that a similar fate had befallen one of their nations before, only for the deletion to be reversed and Folkvanger to be restored to its original owner after a final appeal was lodged.
At least two nations - Dain Beran in May 2021 and Republie of Scotland in February 2022 - have been accidentally deleted by the moderators shortly after their creation, only to be mod-refounded in short order. (Separatist Peoples in May 2025 was also mod-refounded after his DoS, which - while deliberately effected by the moderators - caused more outcry than any other deletion of recent years.) Alvosa in October 2024 was also forumbanned for a day by mistake after they replied to an adspammer, although the behaviour wasn't considered deletable at any time.

Crossreference: "Why can't I log into my nation?"

Is the photo with the weird mask really a picture of SalusaSecondus?
Yes.

Who am I dealing with, anyway?
A lot of people. If, for whatever reason, you would like to jump into a time-warp and find out how the world worked in autumn 2010, I would highly recommend having a look at this then-mod-maintained Player Profile thread.

by **Tinhampton** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:21 am

TROPHIES

What trophies are there?
A lot of them. Please click the below spoiler for a full list of badges that a nation can have at the bottom of their page and what they look like as of current. (Note that "ci" indicates the census number).

If you want to find out what the badges looked like when they were first added in 2011, refer to this post by Ballotonia. The current formulation, that you see below, was made by The Unified Missourtama States - and adapted by Tinhampton to reflect the addition of the Patriotism and Food Quality stats since 2021, as well as the introduction of the Governor badge following the Frontier/Stronghold update in 2023. Please put your hands together for Ballo and TUMS.

Please note that RP Mentors (before that role was abolished in 2022), Issues Editors, and members of the General Assembly Secretariat ("GenSec") do not get trophies.

Also note that additional stat-related trophies are unknown at this point. As new ones are determined, they will be added to the above spoilered list.
Crossreference: "I have an idea for a new trophy/stat! Can I suggest it?"

Can regions earn trophies?
Yes! Contrary to what you may have previously read in this FAQ, regional trophies for all World Census rankings were introduced in February 2016, consequent to the Fast Issues update. (Historically, regions have always been ranked on these scales; they were just not awarded trophies until 2016.)

Are the trophies cumulative?
No. If - for example - your nation falls out of the top 10% for a given category, and you take no action to bring it back up to those echelons of the rankings, its top 10% trophy will be lost at the next major update.

Do I lose my trophy for writing a WA resolution if it gets repealed?
No. Badges are awarded for passed resolutions, not for active resolutions. You keep the trophy (and the count stays the same) even if your only authored resolution is repealed.

I've written WA resolutions/UN resolutions/issues with one of my puppets. Can I move the trophies I've earned there to my main nation?
Almost certainly not. Nobody's tried, to my awareness, but I very much doubt it would be possible. Each trophy is associated with a nation, not a player; as Accounts do not yet exist, there is no way to "link" multiple nations to one main nation, meaning that the game has no way of knowing - for example - that 12 Walruses is the same player as Minskiev (even though it is) and that its badge for authoring SC#469 "Injunct Magna Aurea" should therefore be transferred to Minskiev.

I was listed as a co-author on a WA/UN resolution. Can I get a trophy for that?
Yes! Contrary to what you may have previously read in this FAQ, co-authors started to get authorship badges for their resolutions in November 2021. All co-authors of resolutions passed before this date were also retrospectively granted badges for this. (Historically, co-authors of issues have been treated as co-equal with submitting authors, and badged on an equal basis.)

Can I put these trophies on my NSWiki/IIWiki page?
Yes. It's not illegal yet. (You are, however, encouraged to upload your own copies of these trophies to a website such as Imgur instead of hotlinking them directly from NS.)

I have an idea for a new trophy/stat! Can I suggest it?
Yes, but there are no guarantees. The editors are always running plenty of betas for new stats (and, as of this writing, started their most recent betas in July 2024); stats that clear all the hurdles in the process will be added to the game as official stats. All new stats in the past ten years or so have either been added through the beta process (Average Disposable Income; Patriotism; Food Quality), as a result of Z-Day (Survivors; Zombies; Dead; Zombified), or as a result of Trading Cards (International Artwork) - that is to say, through the impetus of site staff.
Crossreference: "What trophies are there?"

In recent times, editors have been receptive to player-suggested new stats for things such as homelessness, although - to my awareness - no stat has been implemented through such means yet. It's unlikely (and, as of May 2025, completely out of the question) that new player-suggested Industries, or indeed any Industries at all, will be added to the game any time soon, because doing so would necessitate a wholesale reform of Industries that site staff don't exactly have the time for right now.

by **Tinhampton** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:22 am

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Posting is opened after this post

by **Enfaru** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:41 am

Hobbesistan, I have no idea why people feel the need to make reserved posts (as above)...or any double posts at all, when we have things like [hr][/hr] and [anchor=webaddress_without_quotes_here][/anchor] tags which means that all of the content can be put in one neat post.

Is there a reasoning behind the incessant double posting that I'm missing? (I mean in general, it just so happens that this is the biggest example to demonstrate with).

For example what people could do is...

My Example wrote:
Title
Contents
[url=https://forums.nationstates.net/postid#Gameplay]Gameplay[/url]
[anchor=Gameplay][/anchor]Gameplay

by **Hobbesistan** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:44 am

Enfaru wrote:Hobbesistan, I have no idea why people feel the need to make reserved posts (as above)...or any double posts at all, when we have things like [hr][/hr] and [anchor=webaddress_without_quotes_here][/anchor] tags which means that all of the content can be put in one neat post.

Is there a reasoning behind the incessant double posting that I'm missing? (I mean in general, it just so happens that this is the biggest example to demonstrate with).

Because it looks (generally) more organized and less OCD tripping when I can definitively provide a post for a specific issue. Could we do it that way? Yes, but this has been the way it's been done since before the anchor tag existed and I'm partially too lazy to fix it and partially leaning towards the fact that it looks better when I can definitively put a post to a topic instead of spamming hr and anchor.

I suppose it's down to personal preference, but a post = a topic just looks more organized to me.

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