The Writers' Block

[Outer Sparta]

There's one about pigeon feeding in cities. I think that's it.

Do you reccomend I do one about animal feeding?

Domestic animal feeding such as those raised on farms? That would be an interesting topic you can do - address the ethical concerns of fattening farm animals before they go to the slaughterhouse.

[Rabbit]

Do you reccomend I do one about animal feeding?

Domestic animal feeding such as those raised on farms? That would be an interesting topic you can do - address the ethical concerns of fattening farm animals before they go to the slaughterhouse.

Do you mean how animals are treated before they are slaughtered?

[Rabbit]

Also, are there any issues about deserters of another country going to your nation?

[Kiddian States]

I’m assuming there’s an issue about smoking

[Yaak]

Also, are there any issues about deserters of another country going to your nation?

Domestic animal feeding such as those raised on farms? That would be an interesting topic you can do - address the ethical concerns of fattening farm animals before they go to the slaughterhouse.

Do you mean how animals are treated before they are slaughtered?

[Candlewhisper Archive]

I've not kept up with the forum, but has anyone done a draft based on the Russian journalist who did her protest on state news? It'd be an interesting topic for nations that have state news... do you arrest her, laugh it off, call her a traitor? If anyone has already drafted that or has a draft that they think is well written, give me a poke.

[Trotterdam]

I haven't heard the story, but presumably, if she was an actual employee of a state-run news agency, the state would be entirely within its rights to simply fire her from her job in its capacity as her employer, even if it doesn't pursue an actual legal action against her in its capacity as a government.

Though I would be honestly surprised if the Russian government was that mature...

[Outer Sparta]

I've not kept up with the forum, but has anyone done a draft based on the Russian journalist who did her protest on state news? It'd be an interesting topic for nations that have state news... do you arrest her, laugh it off, call her a traitor? If anyone has already drafted that or has a draft that they think is well written, give me a poke.

The dynamics of whether or not it's a democracy or a dictatorship would also be interesting. Who knows what happened if somebody decided to interrupt a BBC broadcast in the 2000s broadcasting the Iraq War holding up a sign that says "Tony Blair stop the war in Iraq." Probably won't be the same repercussions if they did it in a dictatorship, but I'm sure the BBC would still be triggered at that given they push British foreign policy. State media has a pretty consistent definition regardless of where it's from.

[Trotterdam]

It's possible in NationStates for nations without elections to have high freedom of speech, or for nations with elections to have low freedom of speech.

However, there's a difference between a journalist who works for a news agency (state-run or private) using her position in that agency as a platform to push a personal agenda not officially backed by the agency, and some random person just happening to hold up a sign within range of the agency's cameras.

[Outer Sparta]

It's possible in NationStates for nations without elections to have high freedom of speech, or for nations with elections to have low freedom of speech.

However, there's a difference between a journalist who works for a news agency (state-run or private) using her position in that agency as a platform to push a personal agenda not officially backed by the agency, and some random person just happening to hold up a sign within range of the agency's cameras.

I don't know how NS would code for that potential idea especially if you consider a nation can only be a democracy or autocracy and that there is no in-between.

[Rabbit]

Also, are there any issues about deserters of another country going to your nation?

Do you mean how animals are treated before they are slaughtered?

[Trotterdam]

I don't know how NS would code for that potential idea especially if you consider a nation can only be a democracy or autocracy and that there is no in-between.

NationStates doesn't code states of election-freedom between "democracy" and "autocracy", but it does code other kinds of political freedom that are treated as completely unrelated.

[Rabbit]

Also, are there any issues about deserters of another country going to your nation?

Do you mean how animals are treated before they are slaughtered?

[Toonga]

Would like to know if there is an issue about purchasing weapons from the black market.

[SherpDaWerp]

Endlessly quoting and requoting easily answerable questions isn't going to help you. A fair few "experienced" contributors aren't really available right now, myself included, and the little time & energy I do have to look at GI isn't getting wasted on searching the spoiler thread for someone who can't be bothered to do it themself.

If you start looking on your own, you'll gain an intuition for the sort of "keywords" that relate to a given issue, and then you can just go through the 4 pages of the spoiler thread with Ctrl+F search (on mobile, the equivalent is opening the "more options" thing, and pressing "Find in Page"). If you can't even be bothered to do that, there's also sacara.info, that Sacara has helpfully put together to let you look for these keywords.

For example, an issue about "deserters of another country going to your nation" will probably have words like "deserter" or "traitor"; an issue about "animal treatment before slaughter" will probably have words like "slaughter" or "butcher"; and an issue about "purchasing weapons from the black market" will probably have words like "black market" or "illegal". I could be wrong about any of these, but that's part of the process of searching. I'd personally look for maybe 3-4 keywords per idea, and if none of them come up, then I start writing. You also have a better idea of what the keywords might be when it's your idea, because you have a better idea of what you'd be writing.

If you get it wrong, and you write a draft that overlaps, then learn from that experience. Read the issue and look at what keywords you might have missed, or American/British spellings, or whatever. Also, you can look at it from the perspective that you've written another issue, and you've gained more experience in putting the words on paper, characterising speakers, writing effect lines, and so forth. GI is a long game, and the only way to get "good" is through experience and putting in work. No-one here will judge an inexperienced writer for missing one of 1,500 issues that could overlap.

Asking others to look up your ideas for you is doing a disservice to yourself, as you're not experiencing a very key part of drafting, and it's doing a disservice to other contributors, by sucking up people's time and energy into answering these questions instead of giving useful feedback on drafts or writing their own issues.

[DeSanta Peradino]

Do you have any issues on emo/goth clothing being banned

[Outer Sparta]

Do you have any issues on emo/goth clothing being banned

There's definitely an issue on the legality of BDSM culture, but I'm not sure if emo/goth stuff would be as significant as the former. You could frame it as a morality issue with certain religious groups taking offense to emo and goth stuff.

[Kiddian States]

Is there an issue about gas station/convenience store robberies

[Outer Sparta]

Is there an issue about gas station/convenience store robberies

Wouldn't that be better tied into general crime and law enforcement issues? What makes that specific robbery more of a national issue when you could just wrap it up into a general issue about crime (which there are plenty)?

[Cretox State]

Is there an issue about gas station/convenience store robberies

You’ll need to be more specific. What exactly about the robberies make them a problem worthy of Leader’s attention? What’s the policy question?

[Kiddian States]

The dramatically increased amount of convenience store robberies

[Outer Sparta]

The dramatically increased amount of convenience store robberies

That would still fit better in a general crime issue, which there are plenty of.

[Kiddian States]

Is there an issue about rounded prices?
Like something being $10.00 instead of $9.99

[Outer Sparta]

Is there an issue about rounded prices?
Like something being $10.00 instead of $9.99

Why does that matter? Banning pennies is already covered and mentions rounding. Digitalized currency makes it moot.

[Kiddian States]

How about one about nepotism?
(Probably, but it’s worth a try)