Beta 009: Authoritarianism Rescaling

[[violet]]

[009] Authoritarianism Rescaling

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

[Drasnia]

Hard to argue with this one other than saying I'll miss having 0.00 Stalins.

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

[[violet]]

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

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

[The Candy Of Bottles]

Wait, what happened to Beta's 004 to 008?

[[violet]]

They haven't gained internal sign-off yet.

[Fauxia]

Damn you [violet], you subversive trying to make my Authoritarianism rise by over 1,000,000%!

Seems like a good change though

[Drasnia]

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

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

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

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

[Leutria]

Gives me something to work on. At the 0.1-0.2 range I felt like it was low enough, but now at 500 I am going to feel the need to bring it down further

Looks good to me, makes sense.

[Merconitonitopia]

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

[Eluvatar]

What kind of system of units is this that there are 1,000 microStalins per Stalin rather than 1,000,000!?

[Leutria]

What kind of system of units is this that there are 1,000 microStalins per Stalin rather than 1,000,000!?

True, milliStalins might be more accurate given the scale

[[violet]]

milliStalins! Of course.

This is exactly why we're doing these betas.

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

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

[Merconitonitopia]

milliStalins! Of course.

Love it

[Minoa]

My suggestion for the new unit is the Juche, in reference to the modern authoritarian state of North Korea.

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

[Candlewhisper Archive]

What kind of system of units is this that there are 1,000 microStalins per Stalin rather than 1,000,000!?

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

[Aclion]

I'll miss the constant struggle to get(and stay) at 0 stalins while balancing all my other state. But it's all worth it if the editing team has to spend the next six months explaining what happened to people in the unusual issues effect thread.

[Bedetopia]

What about the upper cap? Right now it's 14.55, will it become 15k or will there be no more cap?

[[violet]]

What about the upper cap? Right now it's 14.55, will it become 15k or will there be no more cap?

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

[Eluvatar]

Would the historical scales get multiplied by 1000 or deleted?

[[violet]]

That's an excellent question. Generally, the plan for betas is to preserve history, and some people will have jumps on their census history charts that are due to measurement changes rather than their own decisions. For breaking changes, though, where the new data is very incompatible with the new data, we will throw out the old history.

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

[United Massachusetts]

[009] Authoritarianism Rescaling

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

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

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

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

[[violet]]

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

No, because of this part:

Additionally, scale more strongly as nations approach zero.

[Merconitonitopia]

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

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

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

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

[Bluelight-R006]

I think this would make a good update. The current measurement, ‘stalins’ is a little too huge and reducing would be great. Go easy.

[CheeseSnackistan]

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