NationStates Today

[Lord Dominator]

Lazarus is trying its best to plug the leak.

I think everyone was already aware of this

[Honeydewistania]

Lazarus is trying its best to plug the leak.

I think everyone was already aware of this

[Boda]

I think everyone was already aware of this

Pretty pointless

[Honeydewistania]

Pretty pointless

Ok buddy

[Boda]

Pretty pointless

Ok buddy

Speak your mind, what is it?

[The Church of Satan]

No, I can compare the two, in that they both provide news to the NationStates community. In my opinion, one is much more effective than the other. Distribution of regional content is far superior to a selective company that a) affords the "main" regions/players a platform and b) contains inherent regional bias. The great thing about The NewsStand is that it gives even the smallest, arguably-irrelevant regions a voice. This indirectly leads to increased sharing of ideas and nurtures the spread of culture inter-regionally. Objectively, NSToday does this, but to a far lesser extent.

No, it's not an accurate comparison. Ns Today reports the news whereas The Newstand distributes the news other people write. No offense to The Newstand (I actually really like what they're trying to do) but they're an international paperboy whereas the staff of NS Today are journalists. That is the fundamental difference that makes your comparison inadequate.

The Rejected Times is better!

[Kyorgia]

Let me FTFY.

The concerning thing here is that Lazarus thought it had the inter-regional clout to clandestinely push around a newspaper without consequences and with censorship tactics worthy of despotic state like the USSR. This whole thing would not have been a big deal if Lazarus just had the balls to investigate the leaks internally but instead they chose intimidation tactics on Discord to try and keep NStoday in line. I hope every region, player, and organisation that plays NS takes note of this incident.

This comparison would only work if we assume im wrong and you Are right. Which we both know is wrong since im right. Any fault in this incident lays with NStoday and its quest for more clicks and engagement like all tabloids

[Sedgistan]

Boda / Honeydewistania, no more of that spamming.

[Yokiria]

Boda / Honeydewistania, no more of that spamming.

... They're the same player?

[Sedgistan]

No (or at least I'm not suggesting they are; I haven't checked). I should probably have put an "&" in there not the hyphen.

Conspiracy theory over, sorry

[Bormiar]

Boda is not Honeydewistania.

One is the head of Laz guard and the other is probably a raider.

[Honeydewistania]

Boda is not Honeydewistania.

One is the head of Laz guard and the other is probably a raider.

Boda / Honeydewistania, no more of that spamming.

... They're the same player?

Boda / Honeydewistania, no more of that spamming.

[Yokiria]

Boda is not Honeydewistania.

One is the head of Laz guard and the other is probably a raider.

Could be moonlighting with the Wolves! Kidding.

No (or at least I'm not suggesting they are; I haven't checked). I should probably have put an "&" in there not the hyphen.

Conspiracy theory over, sorry

Thanks for the clarification, Sedge.

[ShrewLlamaLand]

To the best of my knowledge, the nation in question is strictly RPing. Again, to the best of my knowledge, they're not even in our Discord. I'm not going to start witch-hunting mutes, and surely no reasonable person would expect me to.

Not an excuse. If you truly wanted to make CCD as non-fascist as possible you would’ve yeeted them, sinple.

hitelr

If The North Pacific wanted to be as non-Nazi as possible they would've yeeted them, simples. *meerkat noises*

Using a dumb example leads to a dumb counter example. CCD isn't going to start a witchhunt on nations roleplaying because they have the world "fascist" in their nation name.

Only because NST banned your main boy shrew (and rather all of CCD for that matter) you’re saying that lazarus needed to be more aggressive. And that’s exactly what you commented in this thread to do, show off your own spite for NST. Go away, Jocospor.

No, Lazarus should be more agressive because it's an entirely reasonable response to an action by NST that was frankly unacceptable.

[NationStates Today]

The latest episode of the Newsroom, featuring the first part of a debate over the 2017 Lazarene Civil War is live. Watch it here
This episode features Evil Wolf, the last Delegate of the Lazarene Khanate, Imki, Lazarus' Anarchqueen, Roavin, the player behind Curiois Observations, Omgea, former TSP MoFA and "the last legitimate justice of the Celestial Union" and Wymondham, PR Director at NSToday and opinionated Brit. During the podcast they debate, extensively on the whole civil war, with a second part to follow soon as we simply couldn't cover everything in 1h 30mins.

Sorry for the late forum post folks, RL has been hectic with a house move upcoming, thanks to Evil Wolf for reminding me.

[NationStates Today]

As part of the organisations ongoing commitment to diversity, the Governors have ordered the creation of a committee to issue report on "improving the representation of different communities within the staff, governance and content output of the Organisation". The committee is composed of 3 members of the NationStates Today staff, none of whom are members of the executive staff, and 7 external members, all of whom were confirmed by the Governors. The membership of this committee may be viewed in the spoiler below.

NSToday Members:
United Federated States of Omega (Chair): Former Minister of Foreign Affairs in The South Pacific and NationStates Today Governor
Calvin Coolidge: Senator in Europeia
North Prarie: Deputy Chair of the Assembly of the South Pacific, Junior Cabinet Member in the South Pacific, Former Governor of NationStates Today
External Members
Bormiar: Ex-Media Officer in TRT and Deputy Communications Minister in The North Pacific
Lamoni: Game Moderator, NS RP Symposium 2020 staff, and Head of the NS RP Mentor Program
Maowi: 4x GA resolution author and former Councillor of World Assembly Affairs in Europeia
Pallaith: Minister of Foreign Affairs in The North Pacific
Santheres: Forum Moderator and RP Mentor
Starblaydia: Game Moderator and former NS World Cup Committee President
Xoriet: Legatus of the New Pacific Order and former delegate of The East Pacific

The committee have created a public survey on content diversity at NSToday, the results of which will help inform the report's recommendations, please click here to fill it in

[Agalaesia]

This survey is quite franky awful, and although I'm sure it was created with the best of intentions in mind, I seriously doubt that this would gain responses from what would be considered a "diverse" audience.

People who read and work for NationStates Today will be part of those communities who NationStates today "over-represents," meaning that they are the ones who have heard about the survey and will fill it out according to their biases. Chances are that a gameplayer won't notice that there isn't very much coverage of the RP world because they do not care about RP and wouldn't notice the lack of coverage, for example.

And even if I am proven wrong and the survey is beneficial, how will NST act once the survey has concluded? Will they make staff who are from a certain background write a different type of article? I don't think that a GPer would write an RP article, and vice versa. Would they cease all coverage of a region entirely if the survey says that it is covered "too much?" Would they make staff who probably aren't from the regions that NST "underrepresents" cover articles from thos regions, despite probably knowing very little about those regions?

[Honeydewistania]

I appreciate the idea, but I think it’s better for you guys to stick to your GP-centric coverage. NSToday is widely unknown in other communities, like GA for example. Focusing more on GA may gain a small increase in viewership, but you’re sacrificing other content for it. Also, advertising in forums like that will be difficult, while GP is allowed to post your thread and promote your news, so you guys are already disadvantaged.

[Tinhampton]

I appreciate the idea, but I think it’s better for you guys to stick to your GP-centric coverage. NSToday is widely unknown in other communities, like GA for example. Focusing more on GA may gain a small increase in viewership, but you’re sacrificing other content for it. Also, advertising in forums like that will be difficult, while GP is allowed to post your thread and promote your news, so you guys are already disadvantaged.

NationStates Today is NationStates Today - it is not and was never supposed to be GamePlay Today.

[Aynia Moreaux]

This survey is quite franky awful, and although I'm sure it was created with the best of intentions in mind, I seriously doubt that this would gain responses from what would be considered a "diverse" audience.

People who read and work for NationStates Today will be part of those communities who NationStates today "over-represents," meaning that they are the ones who have heard about the survey and will fill it out according to their biases. Chances are that a gameplayer won't notice that there isn't very much coverage of the RP world because they do not care about RP and wouldn't notice the lack of coverage, for example.

And even if I am proven wrong and the survey is beneficial, how will NST act once the survey has concluded? Will they make staff who are from a certain background write a different type of article? I don't think that a GPer would write an RP article, and vice versa. Would they cease all coverage of a region entirely if the survey says that it is covered "too much?" Would they make staff who probably aren't from the regions that NST "underrepresents" cover articles from thos regions, despite probably knowing very little about those regions?

Aga, I love you, but the issue I take with this was the same issue I took with so many other criticisms. You are calling it awful, but I'd like to hear instead of instant negativity, what we can do to improve.

What I see from this personally is NST attempting to reach out and connect with a broader audience. They're meant to cover NationStates. Now speaking as HR director, we have departments that cover all kinds of things, so why shouldn't we reach all kinds of readers? If we haven't been doing that, it's a fault of the organization that we're trying to correct.

Personally I don't want NST to just focus on only gameplay. I want them to focus on roleplay news. I want them to focus on political elections and silly things and fun things and whatever the heck their writers want to write about.

I want NST to represent the whole of NS. I want writers from big regions, small regions, rp regions, and gp regions, feeders, sinkers, UCRs and GCR's. And I can promise you that as I vet the people who apply, I don't keep anyone out unnecessarily. In fact I think there is only one person I have ever turned away in my time as HR director so far.

I don't know why NST has this instant dislike reputation from a lot of people, where anything they do has a knee jerk reaction of 'I don't like it, this isn't going to go well, this is a bad idea, instead you should stick to doing x'. Like honestly. If I am missing something please explain it to me, because I've been there for months now and they are wonderful people and while it's not perfect, it's a pretty well run org.

When it comes to things being under or over represented, I can't definitively answer those questions, those are for people with a different title than I. But I know that we do have a variety of staff that could be utilized more, and we are constantly on the hunt for more writers, especially for niche areas.

So a big thing is this. If you see an issue, if you spot a hole, help us fix it. If you like to write, volunteer. We'd love to have you.

[Honeydewistania]

I appreciate the idea, but I think it’s better for you guys to stick to your GP-centric coverage. NSToday is widely unknown in other communities, like GA for example. Focusing more on GA may gain a small increase in viewership, but you’re sacrificing other content for it. Also, advertising in forums like that will be difficult, while GP is allowed to post your thread and promote your news, so you guys are already disadvantaged.

NationStates Today is NationStates Today - it is not and was never supposed to be GamePlay Today.

I am aware, but it is no surprise the audience and readership is not very diversified. It’s not really the content that is the problem, is that the audience comes from this forum or the related discord servers. I mean, if you’re going to start creating one hour discussion podcasts on whether the GA proposal at vote to regulate the dimensions of wooden furniture is an international issue, it’s a big leap of faith. (Hang on to that thought about the GA podcast though, might be interesting )

[LollerLand]

I enjoy the content that NST produces and reads most of its articles and have listened to at least some of its podcasts. But yes, there is a lot to improve and yes, several regions are under-reported. If NST wants to improve itself, they could start by making sure that they at are least properly covering the events in the regions they have agreements with. I mean, otherwise, those Agreements are pretty useless to those regions.

[Agalaesia]

Allow me to rephrase: while I'm sure that the survey was conducted with the best of intentions in mind, I'm not convinced that it will reach the widest audience, as the people who will promote the surveys will be ainly part of gameplay regions and regions which NST have agreements with. Although I'm sure that NST wants to broaden its horizons (and I can't wait to see NST do so), I'm just mildly surprised that NST decided to utilise this method (getting partnered regions to ask citizens to fill in the form).

I'm sure that NST is managed well, and I think that there is a niche for the content that NST puts out - I'm just mildly surprised by how the survey is published/promoted

[The Church of Satan]

I'm sure that NST is managed well, and I think that there is a niche for the content that NST puts out - I'm just mildly surprised by how the survey is published/promoted

This. If NST had taken the time to promote it themselves in regions that focus on areas they want to cover, regions they don't have agreements with (hey Mr. Delegate of Small Region A, R and Z, I'd like to talk to ya real quick about this survey) or if they had reached out to some GA regulars, RPers, etc it could have been much more diverse. If you want to diversify such things you have to really put in the effort to work with your audience.

[Twobagger]

Aga, I love you, but the issue I take with this was the same issue I took with so many other criticisms. You are calling it awful, but I'd like to hear instead of instant negativity, what we can do to improve.

What I see from this personally is NST attempting to reach out and connect with a broader audience. They're meant to cover NationStates. Now speaking as HR director, we have departments that cover all kinds of things, so why shouldn't we reach all kinds of readers? If we haven't been doing that, it's a fault of the organization that we're trying to correct.

Personally I don't want NST to just focus on only gameplay. I want them to focus on roleplay news. I want them to focus on political elections and silly things and fun things and whatever the heck their writers want to write about.

I want NST to represent the whole of NS. I want writers from big regions, small regions, rp regions, and gp regions, feeders, sinkers, UCRs and GCR's. And I can promise you that as I vet the people who apply, I don't keep anyone out unnecessarily. In fact I think there is only one person I have ever turned away in my time as HR director so far.

I don't know why NST has this instant dislike reputation from a lot of people, where anything they do has a knee jerk reaction of 'I don't like it, this isn't going to go well, this is a bad idea, instead you should stick to doing x'. Like honestly. If I am missing something please explain it to me, because I've been there for months now and they are wonderful people and while it's not perfect, it's a pretty well run org.

When it comes to things being under or over represented, I can't definitively answer those questions, those are for people with a different title than I. But I know that we do have a variety of staff that could be utilized more, and we are constantly on the hunt for more writers, especially for niche areas.

So a big thing is this. If you see an issue, if you spot a hole, help us fix it. If you like to write, volunteer. We'd love to have you.

I personally thought that the ways to improve were implicit in that post. But, sure, I'll bite. You've advertised this survey here, in the Gameplay forum. (I'm using "you" to mean NST, not you personally.) From the other posts in this thread, it looks like you may have also advertised it in regions you already have a partnership with, and I think you advertised it on the NSGP discord server as well. But this is probably already most of the audience NSGP usually reaches. Further, your survey seems targeted at current consumers of NST media: people who aren't current consumers probably aren't going to be able to answer questions regarding over/underrepresentation, because they don't know what you cover, because they don't read anything you cover.

If you want to reach a broader audience, perhaps better would have been to identify who you want to reach out to, and then to figure out where those people are. As CoS alludes to, this could have been done by going to places you don't have an agreement with. If you'd like to reach out to more RPers, for example, then perhaps you could contact RPers in regions you already have an agreement with to find out where the RPers they respect hang out, and go there. Perhaps there are discord servers which include people from many different regions - I may have missed it, but I don't think you've advertised this in the NS WA discord I'm in, for example. Is this something you considered? I see people from many different parts of NS among your committee members, and it looks like you recruited them specifically to represent many different parts of NS - maybe they would have some insights on how to get your survey in front of a wider audience.

Also, if you want to reach out specifically to people who don't already consume your media, I'd like to have seen the question "What NST products do you regularly use?" include an explicit option for "I don't currently use any NST products" or similar, so that you can easily filter responses by those who chose this option when you decide how to expand in the future. At least, I think that's your goal... right? To expand your readership, instead of just appealing to your current readership?

Anyway, if your goal is to expand your readership, it makes sense to get people who aren't already readers to fill out your survey (too), then have some way of identifying who those people are from your survey, and then figure out how to appeal to those people.