The Writers' Block

[Sanctaria]

What's controversial about drinking alcohol in a moderate way?

Anti-alcohol stereotypes are so bad that some people hate even moderate alcohol drinking.

I'm not convinced someone drinking a moderate amount of alcohol would make it to leader's desk, or quite frankly even be controversial, unless prohibition already existed in the nation - of which your original suggestion makes no mention.

[Bears Armed]

We already have an issue about drinking -- called" Alcohol On The Way Out?', IIRC -- with a moderate option (as in, only ban the types of drink that the speaker thinks are most likely to be abused) as well as the two rival extremes. Isn't this suggestion effectively too similar to that?

[Sanctaria]

We already have an issue about drinking -- called" Alcohol On The Way Out?', IIRC -- with a moderate option (as in, only ban the types of drink that the speaker thinks are most likely to be abused) as well as the two rival extremes. Isn't this suggestion effectively too similar to that?

Moderate alcohol consumption, or the promotion/admonishment thereof, is fine for an option in an issue, but I'm sorry, I'm not seeing it as the basis for the premise of an issue.

Feel free to write one up and maybe another Editor will take it based on how it's written, but purely based on what's been presented here so far ... I struggle to see it being much of a runner.

[Trotterdam]

So I happened to notice that #1022's "frivolous emergency calls" include "a fake bomb scare, a patient taken to hospital with a runny nose, a man with his beard trapped in a deckchair, a mum having trouble getting groceries home from the store, and a broken DVD player in need of "emergency" repairs", and it occurred to me that nowadays, a runny nose probably would send everyone into a panic

[Sensorland]

Happy ten-year anniversary to this thread, by the way.

[Wind and Void Rapture 1]

I've been sitting on the issue #1318 Blitzed, and I want to know: is there any way to figure out in advance whether the 4th option on Blitzed will increase or lower civil rights? Particularly as I got an unexpected reduction of civil rights from #595 Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?, I'm interested in seeing if #1318 Blitzed would help me repair that damage.

[Daulise]

Do we already have an issue concerning school food? I just got an idea for that.

[Trotterdam]

Do we already have an issue concerning school food? I just got an idea for that.

#477, #620, #811, #882.

[Novella Islands]

In the wake of another spur of late night inspiration... In order to avoid further embarrassment (and perhaps more importantly, wasted creative energy ), I should probably ask here:

Have there been any issues relating to ICBM-interceptor missile systems, a la those covered by the ABM Treaty? Searching separately for "ballistic", "missile", and "interceptor" separately show nothing specifically related, but I would like a second set of eyes in case I managed to miss the glaringly obvious again.

Thanks in advance!

[Trotterdam]

Have there been any issues relating to ICBM-interceptor missile systems, a la those covered by the ABM Treaty?

There was a draft about this, but from what I can tell, it doesn't seem to have ever been accepted, or even submitted.

[Yaak]

Is there an issue on:
1. Kosher food or something similar?
2. Protests against one country occupying another in your nation?
3. A famine?
4. A creation of a new island in your nation?

[Outer Sparta]

Is there an issue on:
1. Kosher food or something similar?
2. Protests against one country occupying another in your nation?
3. A famine?
4. A creation of a new island in your nation?

Check the Sacara issues hub or search through the list to see if any ideas have been taken.

[Libertas Omnium Maximus]

I had an idea for an issue related to high-density residential zoning in [your nation's capital] and was wondering if a similar issue already existed. The issue would also presuppose that certain zoning laws already exist in the city, and I'm curious if that's fair game or off limits.

[Yaak]

Is there an issue on:
1. Kosher food or something similar?
2. Protests against one country occupying another in your nation?
3. A famine?
4. A creation of a new island in your nation?

Check the Sacara issues hub or search through the list to see if any ideas have been taken.

Doesn't help.

[Outer Sparta]

Check the Sacara issues hub or search through the list to see if any ideas have been taken.

Doesn't help.

Maybe use the keywords you're using with those places. Then you'll know if they are taken or not (all of them have been taken out of your list, so I'll save you the hassle of looking through them all) instead of asking repeatedly here.

[DeSanta Peradino]

This may be an offtopic post, but I was reading Isusue 1,191 and my cat's in the room. I get to Option 4, and my cat ran EXTREMELY fast and just jumped onto my bed. Coincidence, huh?

[Jutsa]

Think an issue about NFTs would be worth writing about, or do you think it'd get pretty dated pretty quickly?
(I'd only be putting it in my issue ideas list anyway :v)

P.S. Updated my issues ideas list if you're interested. There's 0 chance I'll be able to get through a quarter of these.

[Outer Sparta]

Think an issue about NFTs would be worth writing about, or do you think it'd get pretty dated pretty quickly?
(I'd only be putting it in my issue ideas list anyway :v)

P.S. Updated my issues ideas list if you're interested. There's 0 chance I'll be able to get through a quarter of these.

I don't think NFTs would get outdated, unless if it's one of those newfangled financial fads. One of the options could focus on how it's an outright scam.

[SherpDaWerp]

There's a lot of interesting topics that you could write about NFTs.

• The actual "data" associated with the token is often a link, and the data you're buying ownership of is hosted elsewhere. The "elsewhere" effectively has 100% control over what you bought, regardless of what data is recorded on the blockchain.
• Money laundering. There's lots of it.
• Technically, NFTs are buying ownership of an item, rather than buying an actual item. Commodifying ownership was predicted by Marx as a method of extracting more capital out of items when those items start to have less value; does this have implications for capitalism at-large?
• The sheer volume of NFT scams that are out there; it's known as a "rug pull" when a company advertises their NFT series, with grand plans, and then once people have put enough money in, they disappear.
• The hypocrisy of advertising everything blockchain-based as "decentralised" when a handful of companies basically own exclusive access to the underlying blockchain as it's prohibitively computationally expensive to access. OpenSea currently has basically sole control over the NFT market, and can allow/block NFT sales almost at will.

[Jutsa]

I.e. almost too many issues to cover for such a niche topic.

I'll definitely consider it - I'll put it in my list of issue ideas in case anyone else is interested. (I have a lot of others I'd sooner work on however.)

[Candensia]

And more broadly, many NFTs are bought using cryptocurrencies, many of which are energy intensive. That could present a rather unique environmental debate.

[Yaak]

Debtor's prisons?

[Yuts Knenxland]

Hi all, just wanted to run a bit of something through yall before I consider writing.

I was looking at the issues hub for issues about driving, and I noticed something rather interesting.

We have several issues about driving licenses, but no issue about whether a license is actually needed to drive.

I do suppose that in most, if not all of our countries where we hail from irl, driving licenses are needed.

But this is NS, and the choice for a nation to need a license to actually drive could let them have a bit more say over their nation.

But what I'm concerned about is that it might change existing issues validity. Looking at #826, #1228

Would appreciate all your thoughts on this, thank you!

[Trotterdam]

We have several issues about driving licenses, but no issue about whether a license is actually needed to drive.

#826 option 4 and #1228 option 3 (in other words, exactly the two issues you linked yourself) explicitly abolish driver's licenses. I suspect that this isn't tracked as an explicit policy, but even so, that sounds like exactly what you're talking about.

There are also a few other issues which greatly relax road laws without getting rid of licensing entirely, or conversely, which ban cars entirely or make self-driving cars mandatory, rendering licenses irrelevant from the other direction.

Unless you're suggesting issuing driver's licenses but having them not be necessary to actually drive, which is just silly. That goes against the point of what a "license" is.

[Yuts Knenxland]

#826 option 4 and #1228 option 3 (in other words, exactly the two issues you linked yourself) explicitly abolish driver's licenses. I suspect that this isn't tracked as an explicit policy, but even so, that sounds like exactly what you're talking about.

Hmm since it isn't being tracked... maybe best to drop it.

The two issues both have the assumption that a nation already has licensing, and the options make it possible to abolish it.

I was thinking of a starter issue, for new nations, to confirm if their nations did need licenses to drive.

But yeah, that would make it become trackable, might be too much of a hassle.