[DRAFT] Commend The Atlae Isles

[Westinor]

Hey everyone! Have written up a commend for an incredibly awesome and very fun-to-work with person; since the days of the Indie Dream Team and before Atlae has been nothing but amazeaballs and I'm certain that many think the same. Thank you to Zuk for allowing me to work off your old draft and for all the help, and much appreciation to Vor for being amazing at research as always. I'm aware that the past draft had a few questions of commendability, but I feel that since then Atlae has only continued to do good work and is deserving. Please leave any feedback, comments, or criticism - I'm not quite sure the draft is quite where it might need to be yet. Anything and everything is greatly appreciated!

The Security Council,

Understanding that in this world, filled with the legacies countless nations, a certain few quietly but assuredly distinguish themselves as the face of a community, through diligent work and a strong will in helping to redefine and reshape the halls around them,

Grateful for [nation=The Atlae Isles]’s (Atlae) work in [region=the East Pacific] (TEP),serving as an incredibly crucial Overseeing Officer in the region’s military, the East Pacific Sovereign Army (EPSA). Upon entering the scene, they would revive the largely derelict EPSA, nearly singlehandedly engineering its rise to the status of an elite military force by:

• building up the military’s rank-and-file with an increased focus on recruitment, and mentoring future core officers like Catiania who would be key in helping carry on the military’s activity and functions in the future,
• running regular operations to capitalize on EPSA’s increased activity, training soldiers into top-notch military operatives in fast-paced operations and utilizing EPSA as a tool for outreach with allies in Europeia, the North Pacific, and Thaecia, and
• leading numerous clashes against invader forces, including the liberations of Indonesia Raya, the Imperium of the Wolf, and Smol Fur Empire, and serving as Commander in the legendary Phoenix Flock Fleet in the siege of South Pacific, which, despite its defeat, served as a statement in regards to the ability of EPSA and TEP to rise to the occasion under Atlae, who was also key in the operation’s timing and execution,

Appreciating Atlae’s further work within TEP government, including the Foreign Affairs (FA) scene, carrying over their military expertise and connections with TEP’s allies into their position as Senior Diplomat, where they served as the go-to contact for military affairs and was influential in overcoming many FA crises, and the halls of Justice, where they worked the aftermath of the 2019 coup and the case of TEP v. The Python as Chief Officer of Justice,

Admiring Atlae’s term as TEP’s Delegate in 2021, where they built on their efforts to improve the functions of all aspects of the regional government and the community, focusing on issues both at home and abroad, including:

• automating and running the REWARD program in TEP, which served as the main integration system for World Assembly Development since its inception and was streamlined by Atlae, stabilizing and helping to facilitate the maintenance of TEP’s endorsement levels and security,
• ensuring the strong establishment of bilateral relationships with the East Pacific’s former regional alliance of the Consortium following its collapse, and seeing through the ALPACA Accords with the Alstroemerian Commonwealths (AC), the last member of the Consortium to establish relations due to the AC’s network system,

Proud of Atlae’s role in the international artwork community, developing the Eastern Association of Pacifican Ornamental Traders (TEAPOT), which furthered artwork culture in TEP with monthly collection contests and the introduction of artwork into government program incentives, and completing a full collection of second edition artwork from every single nation in TEP and a similarly near-complete first and third edition set, an impressive feat symbolic of their regional pride,

Glad for Atlae’s work in facilitating the collection of massive, themed artwork portfolios, using their technical knowledge to develop tools that assist in the mass placement of bids or asks on artwork and help with reaching out to despondent owners of artwork that have eased the process of compiling said collections, as well as developing miscellaneous tools for many in the artwork community who need more tailored assistance,

Appreciating that for all their work in specific communities, Atlae also chose to help raise awareness for key issues that have cropped up across the multiverse, including:

• the moral quandary of the continued use of ElGr cells from the deceased Elizabeth Gratwick, whose immortal cells have proven a scientific marvel, though her family has continued to protest their use across time and space due to the lack of consent in extracting the cells from her deceased person,
• the widely-adopted practice of controlled fire, which blazed into a hot topic throughout many forested nations, where representatives from the Atlae Isles provided both scorching criticisms against and fiery arguments for the practice that have helped develop environmental policy across many nations, and
• the revelation that a widely-believed scientific study surrounding the health benefits of pizza were false, helping to raise awareness about the lies, damned lies, and statistics that often plague uninformed citizens of many-a-nation,

Certain that, be it at home or abroad, Atlae has worked tirelessly to improve the institutions and community around them, proving time and time again to be a reliable and exemplary leader,

Hereby Commends the Atlae Isles.

Co-Authors: Zukchiva, Vorhollah

[Westinor]

Reserved!

[Drew Durrnil]

uwu yes

[Varanius]

Hey West! You’ve been just churning out drafts lately, and for that I congratulate you. Big fan of most of them, but I’m afraid I’m not so keen on this one. While Atlae has certainly had a career in the East Pacific, I don’t believe what you’ve laid out really sets the picture of an exceptional player, who is deserving of the Security Council’s official badge of international goodness. If I may:

Grateful for [nation=The Atlae Isles]’s (Atlae) work in [region=the East Pacific] (TEP),serving as an incredibly crucial Overseeing Officer in the region’s military, the East Pacific Sovereign Army (EPSA). Upon entering the scene, they would revive the largely derelict EPSA, nearly singlehandedly engineering its rise to the status of an elite military force by:

While his work in EPSA certainly seems noticeable, I’m not convinced it comes at all close to the level of commendable given what follows.

building up the military’s rank-and-file with an increased focus on recruitment, and mentoring future core officers like Catiania who would be key in helping carry on the military’s activity and functions in the future,

Can you name any other long term core officers or why those people are notable? Cat seems like the only example I can think of, especially provided their last Overseeing Officer was originally a Europeian, and their current OO is, assuming their government dispatch is up to date, no one. If Atlae’s work developed a competent officer core for the future, it’s not currently being reflected by the state of EPSA.

running regular operations to capitalize on EPSA’s increased activity, training soldiers into top-notch military operatives in fast-paced operations and utilizing EPSA as a tool for outreach with allies in Europeia, the North Pacific, and Thaecia, and

Raiding regions with your allies is and always has been something regions do. This isn’t particularly remarkable for a normal military commander much less a commend nominee. And assuming by top-notch military operations you mean the volume of regions that Atlae and Cat tagged for EPSA, then yes they did perform a variety of high-speed tag raids, that’s really about it. And while yes large tagging runs like these are…cool. I don’t know that they’re so unique as to justify inclusion in a C/C. They ultimately have very little effect on the rest of the world, and similar feats (if not harder) are regularly performed by other orgs (Lily namely, though I believe TBH has also done a few big ones).

leading numerous clashes against invader forces, including the liberations of Indonesia Raya, the Imperium of the Wolf, and Smol Fur Empire, and serving as Commander in the legendary Phoenix Flock Fleet in the siege of South Pacific, which, despite its defeat, served as a statement in regards to the ability of EPSA and TEP to rise to the occasion under Atlae, who was also key in the operation’s timing and execution,

So, I don’t quite remember the Phoenix Flock Fleet, and I had difficulty finding anything about the numbers of updaters in Libcord, so if I’m leaving that out, please do correct me. The other really big op here I recognized though was Smol Fur Empire, which was one of the biggest ops of 2020. In total, EPSA provided a total of 13 updaters to the whole of the Smol Fur Empire liberations. While this number is perhaps larger than EPSA has historically brought, it’s not actually that much. Those numbers are pretty (albeit slightly smaller) than what NPA and TWPAF brought to the recent England attempts. I don’t bring this up to flex, but rather to point out that those are not super large numbers. Don’t get me wrong, they’re good, and I’m sure they were helpful, but they don’t ascend into the realm of commendable. It looks like he just kinda…helped.

Appreciating Atlae’s further work within TEP government, including the Foreign Affairs (FA) scene, carrying over their military expertise and connections with TEP’s allies into their position as Senior Diplomat where they served as the go-to contact for military affairs and was influential in overcoming many FA crises,

Such as? What FA crises did TEP experience that Atlae was instrumental in them overcoming in this position? I understand there’s only so much you can delve into when it comes to stuff like FA, but we need more. It would be slightly better if he was MoFA or something I suppose, but Senior Diplomat? Assuming this was equivalent to there modern FA council, it is a position that currently has 12 members including….Raiu East? Lol. Unless there’s some proof Atlae did something spectacular here, this is just middle level bureaucrat work

and the halls of Justice, where they worked the aftermath of the 2019 coup and the case of TEP v. The Python as Chief Officer of Justice,

If you can provide some details of their work of their restructuring of TEP post-2019 coup that would be great. Otherwise it’s really too vague to be meaningful. Also….TEP v. The Python? The case for when some random defender noob tried to infiltrate the region in the laziest and most obvious way possible? That’s not a groundbreaking decision.

Admiring Atlae’s term as TEP’s Delegate in 2021, where they built on their efforts to improve the functions of all aspects of the regional government and the community, focusing on issues both at home and abroad, including:

• automating and running the REWARD program in TEP, which served as the main integration system for World Assembly Development since its inception and was streamlined by Atlae, stabilizing and helping to facilitate the maintenance of TEP’s endorsement levels and security,

Atlae peaked at around 600 endorsements. This is a number which is topped by Atlae’s successor, Atlae’s predecessor, and Atlae’s predecessor’s predecessor. Atlae actually had an exceptionally low delegate endo count for TEP.

ensuring the strong establishment of bilateral relationships with the East Pacific’s former regional alliance of the Consortium following its collapse, and seeing through the ALPACA Accords with the Alstroemerian Commonwealths (AC), the last member of the Consortium to establish relations due to the AC’s network system,

Did Atlae do much else here? I’m a little concerned if Atlae went his entire delegacy, with the two things of note being his development of a WA program (which either didn’t work or he didn’t use), and this one treaty. AC is probably pretty cool, but this does not seem at all remarkable.

Proud of Atlae’s role in the international artwork community, developing the Eastern Association of Pacifican Ornamental Traders (TEAPOT), which furthered artwork culture in TEP with monthly collection contests and the introduction of artwork into government program incentives, and completing a full collection of second edition artwork from every single nation in TEP and a similarly near-complete first and third edition set, an impressive feat symbolic of their regional pride,

A regional collection for a GCR is something to be proud of for sure, and as I recall Atlae was the 2nd or 3rd person to ever complete one. This is impressive. Though I do have to wonder what about TEAPOT is so special? Most big regions have card organizations, and most ultimately don’t amount to a ton. For an example of what this would look like to be commendable, TNP’s Card Guild is enormous. It is unquestionably the biggest and best in the game, and consistently actually draws cards players to join TNP with how amazing it is. That’s incredible. It’s top of the line and probably helpful. I’m not saying TEAPOT needs to be the TNP Card Guild for the record, but I do mean to say that unless there’s something real here that makes TEAPOT an impressive and noteworthy card organization, this should not be in a commend.

Glad for Atlae’s work in facilitating the collection of massive, themed artwork portfolios, using their technical knowledge to develop tools that assist in the mass placement of bids or asks on artwork and help with reaching out to despondent owners of artwork that have eased the process of compiling said collections, as well as developing miscellaneous tools for many in the artwork community who need more tailored assistance,

This, similarly, is cool and good. There are a good few collectors who routinely see use of Atlae’s tools.

Don’t got anything to say about the issues’ section. That all looks good.

So, I’m honestly rather unimpressed with this proposal. While Atlae has done some things which were arguably, if surrounded by a greater career, commendable (specifically certain cards actions and the issue authorships), I really don’t think that this quite hits the Commend :tm: bar. His career in TEP doesn’t seem to be particularly special, and unless there’s something more I’m missing, seems pretty empty. It’s honestly so inconsequential in a lot of ways I’d suggest getting rid of most of it entirely if there’s not something greater there.

[Westinor]

Hey Vara! Thanks for the concise feedback, let me address each;

building up the military’s rank-and-file with an increased focus on recruitment, and mentoring future core officers like Catiania who would be key in helping carry on the military’s activity and functions in the future,
Can you name any other long term core officers or why those people are notable? Cat seems like the only example I can think of, especially provided their last Overseeing Officer was originally a Europeian, and their current OO is, assuming their government dispatch is up to date, no one. If Atlae’s work developed a competent officer core for the future, it’s not currently being reflected by the state of EPSA.

While this is certainly true, EPSA has held up as essentially the most competent speed-tagging force in Atlae's model with Catbot at the fore. Any recent r/der can attest to this - EPSA, under Vor, Cat, and Atlae, have been exceptional in terms of their tagging ability. It's unfortunate that they do not currently have an OO, but this is not what I'm getting at, and up until the most recent lack of OO EPSA has worked well despite little focus largely as a product of officers like Cat, and others like Phil (though I omitted them as they disappeared). This is a fine quandary, but looking a little bit past current states and making a nitpick out of this imo does not disqualify Atlae's tremendous work at all.

running regular operations to capitalize on EPSA’s increased activity, training soldiers into top-notch military operatives in fast-paced operations and utilizing EPSA as a tool for outreach with allies in Europeia, the North Pacific, and Thaecia, and
Raiding regions with your allies is and always has been something regions do. This isn’t particularly remarkable for a normal military commander much less a commend nominee. And assuming by top-notch military operations you mean the volume of regions that Atlae and Cat tagged for EPSA, then yes they did perform a variety of high-speed tag raids, that’s really about it. And while yes large tagging runs like these are…cool. I don’t know that they’re so unique as to justify inclusion in a C/C. They ultimately have very little effect on the rest of the world, and similar feats (if not harder) are regularly performed by other orgs (Lily namely, though I believe TBH has also done a few big ones).

This is a reduction of what role this clause plays in the commendation. Sub-clauses play a special role in Commendations - while it is an outmoded assumption to say that every action in a c/c needs to be "commendable" (being that the larger argument is often what is built up by what would otherwise independently be not c/cable actions), it is especially so in this particular case, being that EPSA's speed tagging essentially helped to redefine what r/d was for a while outside of occupations. This is in reference to times like the Indie dream team week, where specifically NPA and EPSA were able to supplant libcord doomstacks in tremendous odds because EPSA's taggers were so fricking proficient. I was there, I can attest. I've since chased them - and I can tell you that these are some of the most elite and competent r/ders you'll see around, in any metric. I don't think reducing "just speedtagging" to nothing at all is a strong argument; tagging is a huge part in building r/d proficiency, and EPSA has used that to the max.

leading numerous clashes against invader forces, including the liberations of Indonesia Raya, the Imperium of the Wolf, and Smol Fur Empire, and serving as Commander in the legendary Phoenix Flock Fleet in the siege of South Pacific, which, despite its defeat, served as a statement in regards to the ability of EPSA and TEP to rise to the occasion under Atlae, who was also key in the operation’s timing and execution,
So, I don’t quite remember the Phoenix Flock Fleet, and I had difficulty finding anything about the numbers of updaters in Libcord, so if I’m leaving that out, please do correct me. The other really big op here I recognized though was Smol Fur Empire, which was one of the biggest ops of 2020. In total, EPSA provided a total of 13 updaters to the whole of the Smol Fur Empire liberations. While this number is perhaps larger than EPSA has historically brought, it’s not actually that much. Those numbers are pretty (albeit slightly smaller) than what NPA and TWPAF brought to the recent England attempts. I don’t bring this up to flex, but rather to point out that those are not super large numbers. Don’t get me wrong, they’re good, and I’m sure they were helpful, but they don’t ascend into the realm of commendable. It looks like he just kinda…helped.

I'm going to argue that 13 updaters is a massive amount, being at the head of the whip for this most recent liberation attempt. 13 updaters is huge, and you take that from any org, especially one that did not have really any focus on the military before this; the biggest consequence of Atlae's OOship is that he was able to take EPSA from literally nothing - Cat was the org's most senior officer at the time, at 2-3 months of experience - to an actual legitimate military. I don't think any non-defender military is pulling more than around 13 updaters consistently without reaching into their pockets, especially before the recent spate of liberations that have elevated the need for an incredible amount of liberators. I think this is a matter of lens in which you approach this, and most certainly in my experience? You absolutely take those.

Appreciating Atlae’s further work within TEP government, including the Foreign Affairs (FA) scene, carrying over their military expertise and connections with TEP’s allies into their position as Senior Diplomat where they served as the go-to contact for military affairs and was influential in overcoming many FA crises,
Such as? What FA crises did TEP experience that Atlae was instrumental in them overcoming in this position? I understand there’s only so much you can delve into when it comes to stuff like FA, but we need more. It would be slightly better if he was MoFA or something I suppose, but Senior Diplomat? Assuming this was equivalent to there modern FA council, it is a position that currently has 12 members including….Raiu East? Lol. Unless there’s some proof Atlae did something spectacular here, this is just middle level bureaucrat work

That's fair enough, and part of it is how much I'm allowed to delve into and another part of it is character count. Atlae was generally the one reporting on a variety of developments abroad with not particularly close allies that might be relevant in the r/d sphere, determining decisions with which partners to work with, noting things like XKI's CE stepping down, and being big in decisions like cutting off ties with the JTF. FA in general is an area I don't delve into, and really, most commendations don't, because it's tough to get FA right in terms of tangible accomplishments. FA is, more often than not, a discussion in which voices are weighed but never decisionmakers, and in my experience attempting to justify or quantify this, even if there is reason to, is not a good idea.

Admiring Atlae’s term as TEP’s Delegate in 2021, where they built on their efforts to improve the functions of all aspects of the regional government and the community, focusing on issues both at home and abroad, including:
automating and running the REWARD program in TEP, which served as the main integration system for World Assembly Development since its inception and was streamlined by Atlae, stabilizing and helping to facilitate the maintenance of TEP’s endorsement levels and security,
Atlae peaked at around 600 endorsements. This is a number which is topped by Atlae’s successor, Atlae’s predecessor, and Atlae’s predecessor’s predecessor. Atlae actually had an exceptionally low delegate endo count for TEP.

REWARD has run since then, and is one of the key reasons for that increase in endorsements, as that is its function.

ensuring the strong establishment of bilateral relationships with the East Pacific’s former regional alliance of the Consortium following its collapse, and seeing through the ALPACA Accords with the Alstroemerian Commonwealths (AC), the last member of the Consortium to establish relations due to the AC’s network system,
Did Atlae do much else here? I’m a little concerned if Atlae went his entire delegacy, with the two things of note being his development of a WA program (which either didn’t work or he didn’t use), and this one treaty. AC is probably pretty cool, but this does not seem at all remarkable.

Atlae did, but I felt these were the two at the top of the list in terms of the two approaches Atlae took to internal and external work. The current draft is 7 characters over the limit. Delegates are, barring the most exceptional ones, often behind-the-scenes workers who rely on Ministers to get things done and often work in advisory roles. This has been a challenge for me to work with in past drafts, as it goes against the conventional wisdom, but as far as I understand it is true. I'm not going to give partial credit for those kinds of things, both for context and to buff up the argument. If there were room, I might add more.

Proud of Atlae’s role in the international artwork community, developing the Eastern Association of Pacifican Ornamental Traders (TEAPOT), which furthered artwork culture in TEP with monthly collection contests and the introduction of artwork into government program incentives, and completing a full collection of second edition artwork from every single nation in TEP and a similarly near-complete first and third edition set, an impressive feat symbolic of their regional pride,
A regional collection for a GCR is something to be proud of for sure, and as I recall Atlae was the 2nd or 3rd person to ever complete one. This is impressive. Though I do have to wonder what about TEAPOT is so special? Most big regions have card organizations, and most ultimately don’t amount to a ton. For an example of what this would look like to be commendable, TNP’s Card Guild is enormous. It is unquestionably the biggest and best in the game, and consistently actually draws cards players to join TNP with how amazing it is. That’s incredible. It’s top of the line and probably helpful. I’m not saying TEAPOT needs to be the TNP Card Guild for the record, but I do mean to say that unless there’s something real here that makes TEAPOT an impressive and noteworthy card organization, this should not be in a commend.

Again, going to refer you to the argument about everything needing to be commendable. If something stands alone in a clause? Sure. But if it's in a subclause, or is part of a greater clause, then I would argue that it acts as support for an argument and as framing for the greater work of a nominee. I don't really like the approach of trying to highlight every single incredibly commendable thing and cutting out the meat, as you may have noticed in... all of my commendations. I leave in auxiliary accomplishments that, while not the most absolutely successful or commendable, are reflective of the nominee's work and time. TEAPOT was, as you say, a pretty well functioning but not exceptional card organization. Arguably, none were aside from TNP's card guild, in terms of size. But TEAPOT did it's thing in getting the region to start getting into cards and, was to my understanding, pretty helpful for a lot of TEPers who ended up getting into cards, though I could not list names off the top of my head (I only recall like, Phil). It was also the main apparatus for introducing cards into government program rewards, like mentioned, which is a pretty big part of most government programs, and is actually pretty standout considering quite a few regions that had card guilds or programs attempting to synthesize cards into the government did not manage to complete the process.

In the end, I feel that while, yes, this isn't a two-decade-old career that blows your socks off, Atlae has done good work and has most definitely made more out of nothing than most would. Simply put, I do feel a lot of this is based on the perception that every step needs to be commendable, and I would argue that if you take that lens to most modern commendations, and to be certain, a good amount of them, you would find this to not be the case. Rarely, are the full breadth of most nominees' actions up to the standard you set for a few of these clauses. I'm glad you bring them up, and I will continue to consider qualifying where I can, but at the moment I don't quite see it just yet. Though, to be fair, I've not been along as much as you and am not really as qualified to speak on it as you, so you may very well be right on this! Will continue to ponder, for sure, and see what I can fill out.

[Witchcraft and Sorcery]

support in concept, honestly and I’ve said this a few times in private now, atlae is one of like 3 people I can think of who did anything noteworthy to improve the clusterfuck situation in TEP that’s persisted for a few years. it’s unfortunate that these achievements would pretty much be a slam dunk for a commend had they happened in any other region. As it stands, given the above I can understand the opposition but it seems a little manufactured.

I can’t give any substantive feedback now since I’m about to go to bed but I will attempt to tomorrow.

[Varanius]

Hey Vara! Thanks for the concise feedback

Happy to help

While this is certainly true, EPSA has held up as essentially the most competent speed-tagging force in Atlae's model with Catbot at the fore. Any recent r/der can attest to this - EPSA, under Vor, Cat, and Atlae, have been exceptional in terms of their tagging ability. It's unfortunate that they do not currently have an OO, but this is not what I'm getting at, and up until the most recent lack of OO EPSA has worked well despite little focus largely as a product of officers like Cat, and others like Phil (though I omitted them as they disappeared). This is a fine quandary, but looking a little bit past current states and making a nitpick out of this imo does not disqualify Atlae's tremendous work at all.

I mean, that’s the thing though. The fact that EPSA lacks an OO is directly relevant to what you’re talking about. If Atlae “mentor[ed] future core officers like Catiania who would be key in helping carry on the military’s activity and functions in the future”, then it is not shown by their lack of core officers willing to take over the OO position to maintain their activity and functions in the future…which is now. This would be slightly less of a relevant point if their last OO wasn’t Vor, an import who had nothing to do with Atlae.

This is a reduction of what role this clause plays in the commendation. Sub-clauses play a special role in Commendations - while it is an outmoded assumption to say that every action in a c/c needs to be "commendable" (being that the larger argument is often what is built up by what would otherwise independently be not c/cable actions),

This is not what I am saying. Not literally every clause should be a home run, but most of the resolution should be about why they are commendable. And most of the clauses here just don’t convince me.

it is especially so in this particular case, being that EPSA's speed tagging essentially helped to redefine what r/d was for a while outside of occupations. This is in reference to times like the Indie dream team week, where specifically NPA and EPSA were able to supplant libcord doomstacks in tremendous odds because EPSA's taggers were so fricking proficient. I was there, I can attest. I've since chased them - and I can tell you that these are some of the most elite and competent r/ders you'll see around, in any metric. I don't think reducing "just speedtagging" to nothing at all is a strong argument; tagging is a huge part in building r/d proficiency, and EPSA has used that to the max.

This isn’t really something with the full awareness of what tag raiding is though to be honest. EPSA’s tag raids, while extensive in terms of hit count, ultimately damaged and saved no natives. It’s low-stakes graffiti. To be clear though, I don’t think that tagging can never be C/C able. The sheer scale with which orgs like Lily (actually just Lily) tagged, if for no other reason than they hold most of the records lol. The bar for tagging as a notable and C/C worthy concept should be way higher than for other types of R/D, because tagging is borders on morally neutral with how overall inconsequential it is. It’s also not fair to say that EPSA was particularly revolutionary in this. Speed tagging being a thing was not an Atlae concept. While he did “introduce” it to a lot of other large independent regions, it was ultimately a pretty big nothingburger in NS history, and it’s mostly fallen out of style. Perhaps had EPSA utilized this as training to make exceptionally fast R/Ders who did meaningful things (like Alt), then this speed would be “used to the max”, but fast is not inherently a commendable virtue.

I'm going to argue that 13 updaters is a massive amount, being at the head of the whip for this most recent liberation attempt. 13 updaters is huge, and you take that from any org, especially one that did not have really any focus on the military before this; the biggest consequence of Atlae's OOship is that he was able to take EPSA from literally nothing - Cat was the org's most senior officer at the time, at 2-3 months of experience - to an actual legitimate military. I don't think any non-defender military is pulling more than around 13 updaters consistently without reaching into their pockets, especially before the recent spate of liberations that have elevated the need for an incredible amount of liberators. I think this is a matter of lens in which you approach this, and most certainly in my experience? You absolutely take those.

Sure, but this was EPSA pulling into its pockets, because it was one of the biggest R/D operations of the year. And, given this context, my comment stands. TEP was trying really hard, and this is all well and good, they did well. But they didn’t do exceptional. While I understand that not every clause has to be exceptional, surely some of them do, right? There has to be a real, solid case that this player stands out and did something unique and worthwhile. This commend, though it has some good points at the end regarding the issues and card scripts, isn’t selling me that case all too well. I’m not denying that those liberators were probably extremely helpful. I’m also not denying that EPSA did a good job pulling them all out. What I’m saying is that that is not a shattering level of turnout for an independent military (especially a feeder) giving its all at a liberation.

That's fair enough, and part of it is how much I'm allowed to delve into and another part of it is character count. Atlae was generally the one reporting on a variety of developments abroad with not particularly close allies that might be relevant in the r/d sphere, determining decisions with which partners to work with, noting things like XKI's CE stepping down, and being big in decisions like cutting off ties with the JTF. FA in general is an area I don't delve into, and really, most commendations don't, because it's tough to get FA right in terms of tangible accomplishments. FA is, more often than not, a discussion in which voices are weighed but never decisionmakers, and in my experience attempting to justify or quantify this, even if there is reason to, is not a good idea.

Sure, it may be difficult, but we have to try, right? Like, surely this can’t just be you saying “he’s good at FA” and the WA just accepting that no questions asked. Like I trust you West, but that can’t be the precedent we set for C/Cs.

REWARD has run since then, and is one of the key reasons for that increase in endorsements, as that is its function.

Well then it is in a near constant state of failure. While Albrook (Atlae’s immediate successor) had remarkably impressive endos, the delegates after her were significantly less successful. Aivintis’ endos peaked at 700 and ultimately struggled to stay above TWP at the end of his term, whereas the delegate after Aivintis was shadow, who could barely hit 600 once. So if REWARD has been running this entire time, it hasn’t been doing a very good job. Now you could argue that recent TEP delegates have simply failed to fully utilize it but at that point, I mean. A tree falls in a forest and nobody is around.

Atlae did, but I felt these were the two at the top of the list in terms of the two approaches Atlae took to internal and external work. The current draft is 7 characters over the limit. Delegates are, barring the most exceptional ones, often behind-the-scenes workers who rely on Ministers to get things done and often work in advisory roles. This has been a challenge for me to work with in past drafts, as it goes against the conventional wisdom, but as far as I understand it is true. I'm not going to give partial credit for those kinds of things, both for context and to buff up the argument. If there were room, I might add more.

I mean, many delegates have been commended for work in their delegacy (and being exceptional is literally what someone should be commended for), but that’s kinda besides the point. If everything Atlae did was behind the scenes and not publicly knowable, then there simply isn’t solid argument to include it in the commend. It’s not fair to the Security Council to advocate we vote for a proposal because he’s probably done something and we just don’t know if. If Atlae genuinely did nothing impressive in the delegacy that wasn’t behind the scenes, then save yourself the characters and remove it from the proposal. It’s filler otherwise.

Again, going to refer you to the argument about everything needing to be commendable. If something stands alone in a clause? Sure. But if it's in a subclause, or is part of a greater clause, then I would argue that it acts as support for an argument and as framing for the greater work of a nominee. I don't really like the approach of trying to highlight every single incredibly commendable thing and cutting out the meat, as you may have noticed in... all of my commendations. I leave in auxiliary accomplishments that, while not the most absolutely successful or commendable, are reflective of the nominee's work and time.

I think you misunderstand me. I am, again, not saying that every word has to be filled to the brim with commendable aspects. But at a certain point the lack of commendable aspects in quite a bit of the proposal is concerning.

TEAPOT was, as you say, a pretty well functioning but not exceptional card organization. Arguably, none were aside from TNP's card guild, in terms of size. But TEAPOT did it's thing in getting the region to start getting into cards and, was to my understanding, pretty helpful for a lot of TEPers who ended up getting into cards, though I could not list names off the top of my head (I only recall like, Phil). It was also the main apparatus for introducing cards into government program rewards, like mentioned, which is a pretty big part of most government programs, and is actually pretty standout considering quite a few regions that had card guilds or programs attempting to synthesize cards into the government did not manage to complete the process.

This is fair. I imagine if the rest of the proposal was more convincing I’d be a little happier with this bit but alas.

In the end, I feel that while, yes, this isn't a two-decade-old career that blows your socks off, Atlae has done good work and has most definitely made more out of nothing than most would. Simply put, I do feel a lot of this is based on the perception that every step needs to be commendable, and I would argue that if you take that lens to most modern commendations, and to be certain, a good amount of them, you would find this to not be the case. Rarely, are the full breadth of most nominees' actions up to the standard you set for a few of these clauses.

I don’t think that that’s accurate or fair. The bar I’ve set is not absurd, and there’s definitely a lot of people every year who meet and exceed that standard, as things are always improving. Atlae just doesn’t seems to be an exemplary player. A good player to be sure, but that’s all the can be said.

[A Bloodred Moon]

I would generally support a commend of Atlae but this draft is not particularly convincing to me. I can't comment on cards and issues, but this bit stood out:

[*]leading numerous clashes against invader forces, including the liberations of Indonesia Raya, the Imperium of the Wolf, and Smol Fur Empire, and serving as Commander in the legendary Phoenix Flock Fleet in the siege of South Pacific, which, despite its defeat, served as a statement in regards to the ability of EPSA and TEP to rise to the occasion under Atlae, who was also key in the operation’s timing and execution,

Smol Fur Empire was not a successful liberation, it was a series of attrition runs that got close to a liberation but not quite there. I was the commander on all of these raids you cite (South Pacific excepted), so I should know. That said, I would dispute Vara's suggestion that TEP's contribution was small - from my recollection, it was TEP with the Phoenix Flock Fleet that gave them a fighting chance. It would be more accurate to say that the Phoenix Flock Fleet served as a statement in regards to the ability of TEP to summon huge numbers, but which was ultimately defeated on both times it took to the field.

Imperium of the Wolf isn't exactly exceptional, but the inclusion of I like due to it being the only time I've ever seen four distinct factions fight over control in a founderless region, with LWU occupying the delegacy, defenders trying to liberate, EPSA and the JTF staging a separate liberation attempt, and The Black Hawks and the NPA running a joint tag raid on it. A fun update, to be sure, even if EPSA and JTF failed to liberate on their own (I was focussed on keeping defenders out). The region was only liberated when EPSA and JTF joined forces with defenders - but I am unsure if Atlae led the successful update.

I don't remember anything about Indonesia Raya - a search in LWU informed me we did raid it as part of an LWU solo hold. I'm mildly curious as to why this one in particular was included.

Semi-related to the draft, there's a few points I'd like to address that you make outside of the proposal:

I don't think any non-defender military is pulling more than around 13 updaters consistently without reaching into their pockets

Out of curiosity, was this throughout the siege or just for a single update? Either way there's a few non-defender militaries that can absolutely fit the bill: TBH, BoM and LWU can all gather that number for a single update with a bit of a push, the Legio can do it for a single update, the NPA was able to do so around 2018, etc.

This isn't to say 13 isn't a good number - it is - but to say "I don't think any non-defender military is pulling more than around 13 updaters" is false. Defender turnouts for liberations are indeed significant, but the narrative that no other militaries can remotely compare is silly.

Atlae did, but I felt these were the two at the top of the list in terms of the two approaches Atlae took to internal and external work. The current draft is 7 characters over the limit. Delegates are, barring the most exceptional ones, often behind-the-scenes workers who rely on Ministers to get things done and often work in advisory roles. This has been a challenge for me to work with in past drafts, as it goes against the conventional wisdom, but as far as I understand it is true. I'm not going to give partial credit for those kinds of things, both for context and to buff up the argument. If there were room, I might add more.

If Atlae was not exceptional as a Delegate, why cite it as commendable? Neither of these two items appear remarkable. If you need room, then I would recommend replacing these with more notable accomplishments.

Simply put, I do feel a lot of this is based on the perception that every step needs to be commendable, and I would argue that if you take that lens to most modern commendations, and to be certain, a good amount of them, you would find this to not be the case.

I agree - a good number of modern commendations make poor arguments at best for their nominee's commendability.

[HumanSanity]

running regular operations to capitalize on EPSA’s increased activity, training soldiers into top-notch military operatives in fast-paced operations and utilizing EPSA as a tool for outreach with allies in Europeia, the North Pacific, and Thaecia, and

Raiding is not commendable. If those operations had been detags, then sure, but they weren't, and while the relationships TEP built with Europeia, TNP, and Thaecia are valuable, they could have been built through other pathways that didn't involve flinging graffiti at unsuspecting regions.

[WayNeacTia]

running regular operations to capitalize on EPSA’s increased activity, training soldiers into top-notch military operatives in fast-paced operations and utilizing EPSA as a tool for outreach with allies in Europeia, the North Pacific, and Thaecia, and

Raiding is not commendable. If those operations had been detags, then sure, but they weren't, and while the relationships TEP built with Europeia, TNP, and Thaecia are valuable, they could have been built through other pathways that didn't involve flinging graffiti at unsuspecting regions.

I was going to ask about that.

[Giovanniland]

Proud of Atlae’s role in the international artwork community, developing the Eastern Association of Pacifican Ornamental Traders (TEAPOT), which furthered artwork culture in TEP with monthly collection contests and the introduction of artwork into government program incentives, and completing a full collection of second edition artwork from every single nation in TEP and a similarly near-complete first and third edition set, an impressive feat symbolic of their regional pride,
A regional collection for a GCR is something to be proud of for sure, and as I recall Atlae was the 2nd or 3rd person to ever complete one. This is impressive. Though I do have to wonder what about TEAPOT is so special? Most big regions have card organizations, and most ultimately don’t amount to a ton. For an example of what this would look like to be commendable, TNP’s Card Guild is enormous. It is unquestionably the biggest and best in the game, and consistently actually draws cards players to join TNP with how amazing it is. That’s incredible. It’s top of the line and probably helpful. I’m not saying TEAPOT needs to be the TNP Card Guild for the record, but I do mean to say that unless there’s something real here that makes TEAPOT an impressive and noteworthy card organization, this should not be in a commend.

Again, going to refer you to the argument about everything needing to be commendable. If something stands alone in a clause? Sure. But if it's in a subclause, or is part of a greater clause, then I would argue that it acts as support for an argument and as framing for the greater work of a nominee. I don't really like the approach of trying to highlight every single incredibly commendable thing and cutting out the meat, as you may have noticed in... all of my commendations. I leave in auxiliary accomplishments that, while not the most absolutely successful or commendable, are reflective of the nominee's work and time. TEAPOT was, as you say, a pretty well functioning but not exceptional card organization. Arguably, none were aside from TNP's card guild, in terms of size. But TEAPOT did it's thing in getting the region to start getting into cards and, was to my understanding, pretty helpful for a lot of TEPers who ended up getting into cards, though I could not list names off the top of my head (I only recall like, Phil). It was also the main apparatus for introducing cards into government program rewards, like mentioned, which is a pretty big part of most government programs, and is actually pretty standout considering quite a few regions that had card guilds or programs attempting to synthesize cards into the government did not manage to complete the process.

I won't talk about the rest of the draft as Vara's got it pretty covered, but as a cards enthusiast, I am seriously disappointed by this approach here. If TEAPOT is not exceptional, then why is it commendable among the many cards organizations? Especially when it currently stands on a state of inactivity. In fact, while I have never been involved there, I decided to dig up information and its Charter has RMB-based applications, and the last application was two years ago (!!), the member list spreadsheet last updated around the same time. Lack of remarkable activities in recent times that had widespread impact, owing to the few mentions in the main cards discord server during the entirety of 2022 (which means no events or anything that were held to the wider card community to my knowledge). Given how recent card organizations are, one would hope that a better legacy is needed for a mention in what is meant to be the highest honor a nation can receive.

And then your comment that "Arguably, none were aside from TNP's card guild, in terms of size" lumps organizations as inactive as TEAPOT and as thriving as the Card Gardens (60+ members with several monthly competitions, giveaways, active people joining, etc) on the same group which is... I don't even know what to say about this. I don't mean this as bragging, simply a statement of fact.

Commendations are not given to those who made regular things. They're meant for those exceptional. And I'm focusing my comment solely on TEAPOT here, but based on the rest of the posts here it seems as if the same approach taken to mention TEAPOT was also taken elsewhere.

[Westinor]

Again, going to refer you to the argument about everything needing to be commendable. If something stands alone in a clause? Sure. But if it's in a subclause, or is part of a greater clause, then I would argue that it acts as support for an argument and as framing for the greater work of a nominee. I don't really like the approach of trying to highlight every single incredibly commendable thing and cutting out the meat, as you may have noticed in... all of my commendations. I leave in auxiliary accomplishments that, while not the most absolutely successful or commendable, are reflective of the nominee's work and time. TEAPOT was, as you say, a pretty well functioning but not exceptional card organization. Arguably, none were aside from TNP's card guild, in terms of size. But TEAPOT did it's thing in getting the region to start getting into cards and, was to my understanding, pretty helpful for a lot of TEPers who ended up getting into cards, though I could not list names off the top of my head (I only recall like, Phil). It was also the main apparatus for introducing cards into government program rewards, like mentioned, which is a pretty big part of most government programs, and is actually pretty standout considering quite a few regions that had card guilds or programs attempting to synthesize cards into the government did not manage to complete the process.

I won't talk about the rest of the draft as Vara's got it pretty covered, but as a cards enthusiast, I am seriously disappointed by this approach here. If TEAPOT is not exceptional, then why is it commendable among the many cards organizations? Especially when it currently stands on a state of inactivity. In fact, while I have never been involved there, I decided to dig up information and its Charter has RMB-based applications, and the last application was two years ago (!!), the member list spreadsheet last updated around the same time. Lack of remarkable activities in recent times that had widespread impact, owing to the few mentions in the main cards discord server during the entirety of 2022 (which means no events or anything that were held to the wider card community to my knowledge). Given how recent card organizations are, one would hope that a better legacy is needed for a mention in what is meant to be the highest honor a nation can receive.

And then your comment that "Arguably, none were aside from TNP's card guild, in terms of size" lumps organizations as inactive as TEAPOT and as thriving as the Card Gardens (60+ members with several monthly competitions, giveaways, active people joining, etc) on the same group which is... I don't even know what to say about this. I don't mean this as bragging, simply a statement of fact.

Commendations are not given to those who made regular things. They're meant for those exceptional. And I'm focusing my comment solely on TEAPOT here, but based on the rest of the posts here it seems as if the same approach taken to mention TEAPOT was also taken elsewhere.

I unfortunately did not have the contextual information on the size front; Good to hear that the Card Gardens were similarly active, though were there any other ones that I should know about?

TEAPOT is, as mentioned in my point to Vara, a contextual addition. I'm sorry that it didn't live up to your standards once you took a closer look at it, but TEAPOT is neither framed nor put forward as the spearpoint of the clause; I'm willing to move it back and give it less credence, given that you're more knowledgeable on this front than I am, but I think it's a little unfair to pass this judgement given cards organizations in general have to my limited understanding initially cropped up in spades before largely blowing away being that there's little for them to do. TEAPOT served as the introduction for cards for TEPers; it might not've had a lot of outwards impact but that's not the point of most cards organizations, I don't think. So I do feel that this judgement is unfair without the context of the larger argument, especially wide-swathing the "approach" to the rest of the proposal that you assume is being taken, given that yes, commendations are meant for those that are exceptional. But I don't want to be a broken record - this is the standard that has existed for a long while. I can agree with an argument that says near each and every recent and past proposal did not live up to this standard of having exceptional accomplishments particularly with relative relevance in each clause, in which case I would be most willingly happy to drop this attempt, and repeal each and every single one that doesn't match this level of accomplishment, starting with all of mine (see Jo's comment further below).

It would be more accurate to say that the Phoenix Flock Fleet served as a statement in regards to the ability of TEP to summon huge numbers, but which was ultimately defeated on both times it took to the field.

I think this is the argument I laid out, no? I can specify huge numbers > "rise to the occasion", if that feels more accurate to you, but I argue that's simply a matter of perspective.

Imperium of the Wolf isn't exactly exceptional, but the inclusion of I like due to it being the only time I've ever seen four distinct factions fight over control in a founderless region, with LWU occupying the delegacy, defenders trying to liberate, EPSA and the JTF staging a separate liberation attempt, and The Black Hawks and the NPA running a joint tag raid on it. A fun update, to be sure, even if EPSA and JTF failed to liberate on their own (I was focussed on keeping defenders out). The region was only liberated when EPSA and JTF joined forces with defenders - but I am unsure if Atlae led the successful update.

Thanks for the context, can work with this.

Westinor wrote:
I don't think any non-defender military is pulling more than around 13 updaters consistently without reaching into their pockets

Out of curiosity, was this throughout the siege or just for a single update? Either way there's a few non-defender militaries that can absolutely fit the bill: TBH, BoM and LWU can all gather that number for a single update with a bit of a push, the Legio can do it for a single update, the NPA was able to do so around 2018, etc.

This isn't to say 13 isn't a good number - it is - but to say "I don't think any non-defender military is pulling more than around 13 updaters" is false. Defender turnouts for liberations are indeed significant, but the narrative that no other militaries can remotely compare is silly.

This was in reference to Vara's point, and I'm sorry, I should've clarified. I wasn't attempting to spin this wasn't the case at all - I was referring specifically for liberation attempts, in context. I think the fact that of those listed, most are raider organizations, the NPA hasn't in half a decade, and Legio isn't around for most liberations, kind of speaks to my point.

Atlae did, but I felt these were the two at the top of the list in terms of the two approaches Atlae took to internal and external work. The current draft is 7 characters over the limit. Delegates are, barring the most exceptional ones, often behind-the-scenes workers who rely on Ministers to get things done and often work in advisory roles. This has been a challenge for me to work with in past drafts, as it goes against the conventional wisdom, but as far as I understand it is true. I'm not going to give partial credit for those kinds of things, both for context and to buff up the argument. If there were room, I might add more.

If Atlae was not exceptional as a Delegate, why cite it as commendable? Neither of these two items appear remarkable. If you need room, then I would recommend replacing these with more notable accomplishments.

I don't feel he wasn't exceptional as Delegate - he wasn't a filler delegate. His infrastructure was important for TEP's WADP and is really the core of it. He stabilized TEP's FA and salvaged an implosion of their FA goals. Inherent to TEP, this was great work.

Simply put, I do feel a lot of this is based on the perception that every step needs to be commendable, and I would argue that if you take that lens to most modern commendations, and to be certain, a good amount of them, you would find this to not be the case.

I agree - a good number of modern commendations make poor arguments at best for their nominee's commendability.

A completely fair point to make. If this is the case, I do think that it should be applied in broad strokes to modern, and to be certain, older commendations as well. It's maybe a paradigm shift from normal approach but there's no reason not to argue for a higher standard as a whole, so I appreciate this sentiment and would love to see it applied to other drafts/commendations.

While this is certainly true, EPSA has held up as essentially the most competent speed-tagging force in Atlae's model with Catbot at the fore. Any recent r/der can attest to this - EPSA, under Vor, Cat, and Atlae, have been exceptional in terms of their tagging ability. It's unfortunate that they do not currently have an OO, but this is not what I'm getting at, and up until the most recent lack of OO EPSA has worked well despite little focus largely as a product of officers like Cat, and others like Phil (though I omitted them as they disappeared). This is a fine quandary, but looking a little bit past current states and making a nitpick out of this imo does not disqualify Atlae's tremendous work at all.
I mean, that’s the thing though. The fact that EPSA lacks an OO is directly relevant to what you’re talking about. If Atlae “mentor[ed] future core officers like Catiania who would be key in helping carry on the military’s activity and functions in the future”, then it is not shown by their lack of core officers willing to take over the OO position to maintain their activity and functions in the future…which is now. This would be slightly less of a relevant point if their last OO wasn’t Vor, an import who had nothing to do with Atlae.

Completely fair, but I would argue that this is the case because Atlae's been responsible for EPSA activity for nearly four years. Under Atlae, Cat, Phil, etc. and with the infrastructure he helped create, and the runs off of Catbot with great help from Cat, EPSA distinguished themselves as some the best speedtaggers and really the only viable ones aside from and under Lily who can attempt a hundred targs in one update (barring some strange raider-Lily cross-member abomination), and if you recall in past updates have been the only non-Lily challenge that can outpace defender numbers at poor ratios and come out with even a winning record. It's not as if they have Koru to work off of either. Unfortunately, yeah, EPSA doesn't have an OO right now, but I'd argue their activity has been for a long time fueled by and brought off the back of Atlae. Thanks for the continued focus on this point though, I'll see how I can continue to refine it. But again, going to point out that you'll be hard pressed to find very many military commanders who can sustain this level of activity with the level of support EPSA generally had from its government aside from Atlae, being that as much as you think a feeder might be inclined to provide a lot of resources to constant military activity I don't think this is usually the case, though I may be wrong. Regardless, I do think that over 3 years of activity and competitiveness in a difficult tagging field and environment is pretty impressive.

it is especially so in this particular case, being that EPSA's speed tagging essentially helped to redefine what r/d was for a while outside of occupations. This is in reference to times like the Indie dream team week, where specifically NPA and EPSA were able to supplant libcord doomstacks in tremendous odds because EPSA's taggers were so fricking proficient. I was there, I can attest. I've since chased them - and I can tell you that these are some of the most elite and competent r/ders you'll see around, in any metric. I don't think reducing "just speedtagging" to nothing at all is a strong argument; tagging is a huge part in building r/d proficiency, and EPSA has used that to the max.
This isn’t really something with the full awareness of what tag raiding is though to be honest. EPSA’s tag raids, while extensive in terms of hit count, ultimately damaged and saved no natives. It’s low-stakes graffiti. To be clear though, I don’t think that tagging can never be C/C able. The sheer scale with which orgs like Lily (actually just Lily) tagged, if for no other reason than they hold most of the records lol. The bar for tagging as a notable and C/C worthy concept should be way higher than for other types of R/D, because tagging is borders on morally neutral with how overall inconsequential it is. It’s also not fair to say that EPSA was particularly revolutionary in this. Speed tagging being a thing was not an Atlae concept. While he did “introduce” it to a lot of other large independent regions, it was ultimately a pretty big nothingburger in NS history, and it’s mostly fallen out of style. Perhaps had EPSA utilized this as training to make exceptionally fast R/Ders who did meaningful things (like Alt), then this speed would be “used to the max”, but fast is not inherently a commendable virtue.

Fair enough, I think it's perspective here then but I'll still qualify and argue that again, EPSA are right under Lily in terms of proficiency, and especially relative to any other updaters I've seen on the field are the fastest and most difficult you'll get besides them. I've been on both sides of that shoe, and it can get crazy as fuck running against and alongside them. Particularly in dips of Lily activity, it's pretty easy to see why EPSA stands out, and EPSA has run speedtags in my memory as recently as Vor's term, and I know it was pretty helpful for every EPSA r/der you can think of, I know running alongside them helped me personally get faster, but I can understand then why you think that doesn't reach a high enough bar. However, I think that it comes to your perspective on how important tag/detag runs are, and what meaningful means.

I'm going to argue that 13 updaters is a massive amount, being at the head of the whip for this most recent liberation attempt. 13 updaters is huge, and you take that from any org, especially one that did not have really any focus on the military before this; the biggest consequence of Atlae's OOship is that he was able to take EPSA from literally nothing - Cat was the org's most senior officer at the time, at 2-3 months of experience - to an actual legitimate military. I don't think any non-defender military is pulling more than around 13 updaters consistently without reaching into their pockets, especially before the recent spate of liberations that have elevated the need for an incredible amount of liberators. I think this is a matter of lens in which you approach this, and most certainly in my experience? You absolutely take those.
Sure, but this was EPSA pulling into its pockets, because it was one of the biggest R/D operations of the year. And, given this context, my comment stands. TEP was trying really hard, and this is all well and good, they did well. But they didn’t do exceptional. While I understand that not every clause has to be exceptional, surely some of them do, right? There has to be a real, solid case that this player stands out and did something unique and worthwhile. This commend, though it has some good points at the end regarding the issues and card scripts, isn’t selling me that case all too well. I’m not denying that those liberators were probably extremely helpful. I’m also not denying that EPSA did a good job pulling them all out. What I’m saying is that that is not a shattering level of turnout for an independent military (especially a feeder) giving its all at a liberation.

Looking back at records, it looks like EPSA dwarfed other indie militaries in outreach here...? But what I'm looking at looks pretty scuffed. But if that's right they pulled out a rather large portion of updaters as opposed to other non-defender militaries. I'd point out again the contrast between three years ago and now, where 13 continues to be a pretty huge amount that has required gameside outreach and regional TGs from feeders or similarly sized and structured regions to reach. And bringing that back into the fact that three years ago expectations for r/d were nowhere near as high as this, I don't think it's a reach to say this was more than just good work, but again, perspective. If you don't feel that's good, fair enough.

REWARD has run since then, and is one of the key reasons for that increase in endorsements, as that is its function.
Well then it is in a near constant state of failure. While Albrook (Atlae’s immediate successor) had remarkably impressive endos, the delegates after her were significantly less successful. Aivintis’ endos peaked at 700 and ultimately struggled to stay above TWP at the end of his term, whereas the delegate after Aivintis was shadow, who could barely hit 600 once. So if REWARD has been running this entire time, it hasn’t been doing a very good job. Now you could argue that recent TEP delegates have simply failed to fully utilize it but at that point, I mean. A tree falls in a forest and nobody is around.

REWARD has stood as really the only WAD system for TEP. I don't know TEP's infrastructural capacity super well but my understanding is that it's not as developed as others might be, but without REWARD, TEP would've certainly not maintained their level of endorsements here. If you want to argue, too, that this is not proving that it was big in making a terrible situation not so, then I guess pull up a regression table or something showing that REWARD was inconsequential in its effect, because I think developing, automating and continuing to run the region's working WADP, based off a model that has worked in other regions, is a large feat that is important for any region, and that the poor results are products of not having other similarly built systems around but. Maybe I'm just flat out wrong.

Atlae did, but I felt these were the two at the top of the list in terms of the two approaches Atlae took to internal and external work. The current draft is 7 characters over the limit. Delegates are, barring the most exceptional ones, often behind-the-scenes workers who rely on Ministers to get things done and often work in advisory roles. This has been a challenge for me to work with in past drafts, as it goes against the conventional wisdom, but as far as I understand it is true. I'm not going to give partial credit for those kinds of things, both for context and to buff up the argument. If there were room, I might add more.
I mean, many delegates have been commended for work in their delegacy (and being exceptional is literally what someone should be commended for), but that’s kinda besides the point. If everything Atlae did was behind the scenes and not publicly knowable, then there simply isn’t solid argument to include it in the commend. It’s not fair to the Security Council to advocate we vote for a proposal because he’s probably done something and we just don’t know if. If Atlae genuinely did nothing impressive in the delegacy that wasn’t behind the scenes, then save yourself the characters and remove it from the proposal. It’s filler otherwise.

It might not be fair to the Security Council but commendations are passed, again and again, off the back of these very "not publicly knowable" points. Intangibles are big in the SC, and small things that add up to larger things, especially those behind the scenes, are the essence of most good work done on NS, but perhaps you're right too.

[Bhang Bhang Duc]

The writing is up to your usual high standard Westinor and I did read the draft two or three times before I read the comments in this thread.

I admit I had some misgivings about the Commendability of the nominee before I read those comments, just didn’t think their accomplishments were strong enough. Vara and Gio have given their reasons and to me those objections have substance.

Overall I would have to say close, but no cigar for this one.

[Westinor]

Thanks BBD for the comment, it's very helpful in trying to evaluate where I am with this draft. The criticisms have been awesome and I do appreciate it very much!! I'll be trying to re-workshop this draft in whatever way I can to make it better, though I absolutely understand that commendability is a big portion of the issue for many. Thank you all again, and have a wonderful day!!