If you could start NS again, what would you do differently?

[Entronium]

Actually roleplay here instead of not.

Then become rich

[The Bruce]

Other than taking more detailed notes on the events of the earliest days of NationStates, there's very little I would do differently.

In the earliest couple of months of the Wysterian offsite forum, there was a division of labour where Equus focused on carrying to bulk of the administration and activity generation on the offsite forum, while I focused more on our NationStates region page, UN delegate duties, and regional security. I think there would have been more of a payoff for all the time spent on regional security and intelligence gathering, if I'd spent more time role-playing and socializing on our regional forum in those first couple months.

[Command and Conquer Players]

I would have reacted to multiple issues differently to raise income equality and environmental beauty+eco-friendliness while at the same time decreasing my social conservatism.

[Klaus Devestatorie]

Dont know why most of you are regretting your names.

At least you aren't known game wide as 'Codger'. I rather have something try hard edgy than something like that.

Zaolat and Avakael had quite successful naming rebrands although wabbitslayah would always remain in my heart.

The success of my name rebrand comes from a few things,
a; I did it ages ago, like, in 2010, and have since outlasted almost every single person who ever even remembers my previous name (except Zao who's a bastard),
b; Name rebrands were much more common back then,
c; My region of primary activity at the time (Equinox) adopted the change instantly which was super cool of them,
d; My new persona name is objectively better than my old one.

Most things that could have been done differently would likely have me wind up somewhere completely different to where I am now, or perhaps get me into significantly bigger strife, so I'm going to say "nothing".

Actually, a few changes;
- I wouldn't have lifted a finger about forum destruction after the Aeazen Combine were gone, because most of the regions who saw benefit from my work back in the day didn't deserve the help. I can barely even think of any times when my experience in the area actually meant anything I had to say on the topic was given any credibility- I'm certainly not given any now.
- I would have left The Ascendancy the hell alone because that was 100% not my problem, and making it mine meant an extremely unpleasant 6 months for more than just me.
- I would have stayed out of all of the GCRs, no exceptions. Never stuck with any of them. The only GCR community that didn't feel shallow was The Pacific, which I never really fitted into well anyway.

[Reventus Koth]

Pull off a name change bright and early in your career, and nobody will ever remember you even did it.

Nobody has called me "Sept" since 2012

[Nouveau Yathrib]

I would've made Jamilkhuze and Syfenq alter egos of each other with the same capital and currency from the beginning. I didn't do that until I'd been on NS for two years or so. I don't regret not joining NSG earlier though, that is a really big timesuck. I kept them in separate regions because I wanted their regions to somewhat reflect their ideological bent (Social Liberal Union for Jamilkhuze since 2013 or so, Sunalaya for Syfenq since at least 2015 onward)

In terms of NS decisions for my main account Jamilkhuze, I would've tried harder to keep income tax rates consistently below 30 %, maintain and grow a broader economic base, keep Religiousness levels a bit higher (my Religiousness stat got gutted after the recalibration), actually have the Mother and Child banner (which means having a Youth Rebelliousness stat below 0), and try to get World Benchmark-level Civil Rights at some point.

Wouldn't have done a lot of things differently for Syfenq, Nouveau Yathrib, or my various puppets- most of them exist just for getting certain WA government categories.

[The Dark Queens Pit of Fire]

Same for me. It's a pain to log in.

Would it be possible for you to save it as a notepad file or something and just copy & paste? (I'm fortunate enough that mine are saved in auto-fill... until I delete that portion of history files.)

[Zitravgrad]

So... After rethinking again and again, I think there are a lot of things I want to fix lol.
1) I would write as many factbooks as clearly as possible from the start, especially leader and history.
2) I would stick to one nation and one puppet.
3) I would stay in my second region.
4) I would not make a new nation out of impulse.
5) I would not take people on Forum 7 personally all the time.

[Coalition of North American States]

I wish I had started RPing ages ago.

[Drop Your Pants]

I would have spent more than 0.3 seconds coming up with a name. I would also have gotten involved on the forums/GI from the get-go.

Took me 2 seconds to come up with a name, no regrets there.

[Napantis]

I have gained a lot of experience, and a lot of lessons came hard, but I worry I would be super cringy still if I hadn't learned them.

[Arkeyana]

I would create my nation as a shattered reality, so I could rp more and hone my skills in different genres.

[Nov-Ameriko]

I wouldn't have disclosed all my puppets. The kind of nations I make reflect my personal interests, but not necessarily my beliefs, & disclosing puppets of opposing ideologies has caused me to have to deal with unnecessary messes. I don't do military gameplay at all. What I do with my communist nation residing in a communist region does not impact what I choose to do with my fascist nation residing in a fascist region & vice-versa.

[Crazy girl]

I would have used my oldest nation more so that would have been the name people know me by, not this one. >_>

[Queen Yuno]

If I could restart NS, I would have raided much less.
(Tag raiding addiction from day 1 of finding NS to one year and a half later.) thinking back, I could have slept instead.

I would have used my oldest nation more so that would have been the name people know me by, not this one. >_>

I love your name ^\\\^

[The Blaatschapen]

I would have named my nation 'Crazy Girl'

[Mangahhan Super Region]

I'l just make a puppet state instead

[Saint Block]

Not apologize for anything.

[The Dark Queens Pit of Fire]

I would create my nation as a shattered reality, so I could rp more and hone my skills in different genres.

Ooh, nice! I definitely think that is a good piece of advice for those who plan on RPing a lot, but don't want to have to switch between a zillion nations.

Definitely makes for some good plots (at least in my opinion. I love watching shows and reading books of that type.)

On one hand, I wish I had thought of that; on the other it's difficult enough trying to keep my ideas straight with out writing a whole book to do so. (and having the separate accounts helps organize.) (I only have two nations that I don't really get confused about my original intent for them, and that is one based off of nearly what I'd like if I had my own real country, and this one... which is just to have a crazy fun time and vent when I'm having a bad day. Based off a character in a short poem I wrote back in high school. I wanted some way for her to live on.)

- - - - -

Hmmm... So I guess I just discovered what is the thing I'd do differently... Before even building the nation, write out a couple pages to myself detailing my thoughts. History, what I plan on doing with it, any other details I came up with etc.

[Arkeyana]

I would create my nation as a shattered reality, so I could rp more and hone my skills in different genres.

Ooh, nice! I definitely think that is a good piece of advice for those who plan on RPing a lot, but don't want to have to switch between a zillion nations.

Definitely makes for some good plots (at least in my opinion. I love watching shows and reading books of that type.)

On one hand, I wish I had thought of that; on the other it's difficult enough trying to keep my ideas straight with out writing a whole book to do so. (and having the separate accounts helps organize.) (I only have two nations that I don't really get confused about my original intent for them, and that is one based off of nearly what I'd like if I had my own real country, and this one... which is just to have a crazy fun time and vent when I'm having a bad day. Based off a character in a short poem I wrote back in high school. I wanted some way for her to live on.)

- - - - -

Hmmm... So I guess I just discovered what is the thing I'd do differently... Before even building the nation, write out a couple pages to myself detailing my thoughts. History, what I plan on doing with it, any other details I came up with etc.

Funny enough, the way my nation is now wasn't how it was when it started, I stumbled upon this while browsing the internet and started off as an antartic underground nation with a massive airship fleet, now it is an Intergalactic Union of thousands of diverse species and wildly advanced technology.

[Marilyn Manson Freaks]

I would absorb the essence of Max Barry, crown myself "Supreme God-Emperor of NS", and treat my humble servants to caek and coffee.

[Fauxia]

I would also not have been an utter imbecile who pretended to understand things. It embarrasses me now. I’m still an imbecile, but not by as much

[Consular]

Nothing in particular I would change. Had my ups and downs but that's all part of the journey.

[Ambrella]

I would never have tried to start over as The Rainbow Collective. :/

In all seriousness, I would not have participated in the Hileville coup of TSP. There are plenty of other things I'd do differently, but that's the standout.

[Benevolent Thomas]

I'd do nothing differently. I have a few small regrets, but nothing that would make me change who I am.