The Writers' Block

[Remulia]

I'm thinking of an idea about a AI-human marriage adopting a child...with the obvious reactions, and not-that-obvious reaction.

[Edush]

I want to write an issue about the adoption of Windows, Mac OS or Linux on government computers. Is there already an issue with this theme?

[Trotterdam]

I want to write an issue about the adoption of Windows, Mac OS or Linux on government computers. Is there already an issue with this theme?

Only #1356, which is specifically for autark nations.

It appears to have been decided to not use real-life operating system names in the NationStates universe, with issues instead referring (rarely) to the standins "Windoors" and "Sprinux".

The equivalent of Apple is Pear, which are mostly known for selling uPhones, but there's also one mention of them selling what sounds like a laptop. The name of their operating system has not been established.

[Tinhampton]

The equivalent of Apple is Pear, which are mostly known for selling uPhones...

Have Pear stopped production of the Pear Phone line - mentioned in #721, #729 and #768 - or are they now being treated merely as the second-class phone in the Pear range? uPhones weren't discussed until #926 (even then only as a sly side-reference) and it wasn't confirmed that the uPhone line was even being produced by Pear until Christmas 2021 (Issue #1,496 "A Place For Everything").

Fun fact: Nobody knows who Pear's CEO is. Issues #340 "Defending Patent Pending" and #800 "Please Call 1-800-NTA-VRUS, Your Government May Be Compromised" name the CEO as Steve Tasks. Issue #1,199 "Locked Down" names him as Steve Task. Issue #726 "Jobless Fair" names her as Anita Jobs. Issue #850 "The Prints and the Slaughter" completely gives up and just refers to "the CEO of electronics giant Pear."

[Democratic Poopland]

I'm thinking of making an issue where a small group of millionaires find a glitch in the economic system but I think there's already an issue on that. Is there an issue on the subject?

[Verdant Haven]

I'm thinking of making an issue where a small group of millionaires find a glitch in the economic system but I think there's already an issue on that. Is there an issue on the subject?

I think you'll need to be more specific. "Find[ing] a glitch" typically refers to finding something wrong in a computer program. An economic system typically means a sort of broad philosophy applied to a means of production and distribution of products and services (like "capitalism" or "Mercantilism") - something that can definitely have flaws, but probably isn't "glitchy" in the usual sense. What exactly do you have in mind?

[Democratic Poopland]

I'm thinking of making an issue where a small group of millionaires find a glitch in the economic system but I think there's already an issue on that. Is there an issue on the subject?

I think you'll need to be more specific. "Find[ing] a glitch" typically refers to finding something wrong in a computer program, while an economic system typically means a sort of broad philosophy applied to a means of production and distribution of products and services (like "capitalism" or "Mercantilism"). What exactly do you have in mind?

Ah, my brain gave up on the idea already. Is there an issue on "digital bombing" yet? Digital bombing being: the process of destroying internet websites and communities via software-based attacks, like DDOSes, to take out a website, or server.

[Isomedia]

I need a bit of a tip

I noticed surfing a bit through the forums that people put @@RANDOMNAME@@ in their issue drafts, now, I have written a few issues and I don't put that what I assume is either a script code or a placeholder, I make up a name myself, am I doing something stupid? will my issues be denied immediately because I made a name instead of @@RANDOMNAME@@? Would a issue editor edit this into my issue if it miraculously got accepted? Am I freaking out over absolutely nothing like an idiot? I need just a quick tip about this random name thing.

[Southland]

In general, we only write out actual names in our drafts if it's supposed to be a reference to something that's related to the issue. For example, in my draft I wrote out "Crazy Pal" Wankovitch as a reference to "Weird Al" Yankovic since it touches upon music. I'm not sure how the editors would react otherwise.

[Democratic Poopland]

I need a bit of a tip

I noticed surfing a bit through the forums that people put @@RANDOMNAME@@ in their issue drafts, now, I have written a few issues and I don't put that what I assume is either a script code or a placeholder, I make up a name myself, am I doing something stupid? will my issues be denied immediately because I made a name instead of @@RANDOMNAME@@? Would a issue editor edit this into my issue if it miraculously got accepted? Am I freaking out over absolutely nothing like an idiot? I need just a quick tip about this random name thing.

It's known as a macro which can be used for generating customised content. For example, for Nation A, the issue says, "Nation A," but for Nation B, it says, "Nation B." How is this possible? By using the @@NAME@@ macro. @@RANDOMNAME@@ will generate a random name. There's a topic where there's a full list of macros for your usage.

[Edush]

I want to write an issue about the adoption of Windows, Mac OS or Linux on government computers. Is there already an issue with this theme?

Only #1356, which is specifically for autark nations.

It appears to have been decided to not use real-life operating system names in the NationStates universe, with issues instead referring (rarely) to the standins "Windoors" and "Sprinux".

The equivalent of Apple is Pear, which are mostly known for selling uPhones, but there's also one mention of them selling what sounds like a laptop. The name of their operating system has not been established.

Yes, yes. I know we are not supposed to use real-life names, I forgot to include that information in my post.

Thanks for your response! I'll try to make my issue as different as I can from #1356, so that it at least has a chance of getting accepted.

[Pogaria]

I have two ideas for the contest: the "Sample" one that's already posted, and one that deals with robot religious conversion. I have a draft of the latter sitting on my computer with the original intent of it being my follow up on the "Sample" issue (severely overestimating the speed of getting drafts resolved...), but I feel its unique premise would make it stick out more. Which one should I go with?

We can't tell you what to write or submit for the contest, but someone needs to write an issue on robot/AI religious conversion at some point, preferably with lots of Futurama references.

[New Anarchisticstan]

Is there an issue about school performance inspections? Nothing comes to mind. If not, then I could make one. For reference, such inspection body would be similar to UK's Ofsted. It would, quite broadly, monitor student behaviour, school administration integrity, and curriculum progress.

Now, the complicated part comes here: if a school is graded below average, would there be punishments handed out by the government, like taking away school independence (eg all school finance and assets will be managed directly by the government)?

Maybe this issue can be repurposed for independent private schools, idk. Any thoughts or extra input?

[Verdant Haven]

Is there an issue about school performance inspections? Nothing comes to mind. If not, then I could make one. For reference, such inspection body would be similar to UK's Ofsted. It would, quite broadly, monitor student behaviour, school administration integrity, and curriculum progress.

Now, the complicated part comes here: if a school is graded below average, would there be punishments handed out by the government, like taking away school independence (eg all school finance and assets will be managed directly by the government)?

Maybe this issue can be repurposed for independent private schools, idk. Any thoughts or extra input?

I can't off-hand come up with any issues that directly address the question of under-performing schools. Issue 93 touches on the concept tangentially, with some discussion of equality in educational opportunities, but it's definitely not focused on the topic.

[Trotterdam]

Now, the complicated part comes here: if a school is graded below average,

Wouldn't half of all schools be graded "below average"?

If your people think that merely being "below average" is something horrible that needs to be punished, then that's definitely a symptom of your poor school system.

[Verdant Haven]

Now, the complicated part comes here: if a school is graded below average,

Wouldn't half of all schools be graded "below average"?

If your people think that merely being "below average" is something horrible that needs to be punished, then that's definitely a symptom of your poor school system.

No. "Average" isn't the same as Median.

If you have fifty schools that earn a score of 80, ten schools that earn a score of 90, and ten schools that earn a score of 60, then the average score is 78.57, and those scoring "below average" are a small and obviously underperforming group.

If we switch that so it's fifty at 80, ten at 100, and ten at 70, then the average is 81.43 and "below average" means almost everybody.

Using the term "average" is the challenge - not being above or below it - but that can be easily tweaked in drafting. The idea is clear enough.

[Trotterdam]

No. "Average" isn't the same as Median.

Technically, "average" is an informal term that can refer to one of several different types of formal average depending on the context, one of which is the median.

However, even when you're using "average" to mean "mean" rather than "median", while it will no longer be inevitably true that exactly 50% of everything is below-average, it is still likely to be approximately-true in practice. Especially if the variable being measured is normally-distributed, as is often the case. (Or any other symmetric distribution.)

So my point still stands, even if I oversimplified a bit because I didn't want to get pedantic.

If you have fifty schools that earn a score of 80, ten schools that earn a score of 90, and ten schools that earn a score of 60, then the average score is 78.57, and those scoring "below average" are a small and obviously underperforming group.

If we switch that so it's fifty at 80, ten at 100, and ten at 70, then the average is 81.43 and "below average" means almost everybody.

Technically, but this is the kind of statistics that the "lies, damned lies, and statistics" saying refers to. The sensible way to read this is that the majority of schools are within a couple points of the mean (itself something unlikely to happen in a more realistic dataset), with about as many significantly above it as significantly below it.

Note that if I spread things out a little, so that instead of just fifty different schools that all score exactly 80 (something that is highly implausible in practice), those fifty are spread out symmetrically across the 75-85 range, then your calculations of the mean remain the same, but the percentage of schools that is "below" the mean will be dramatically different.

[Islands Of Ventro]

I want to make an issue about your governments stance emojis and their affects on messaging around the country and the divide between older and younger generations on them. I couldn’t find anything that was similar enough to warrant not writing it but just wanted to double check with this forum to make sure that this hasn’t been done before.

[New Anarchisticstan]

Adding to the school discussion: by below average, I did not mean a very hard border. Though, I will reword it. Maybe thresholds in a point system independent from other schools.
For example, the greater the proportion of pupils with a high score across subjects (70% or higher), the higher the score. And let's say atleast 40% of pupils had to get a 7/10 or higher. I won't put those figures in the issue, just an example. Now, if you have most of them failing, then Big Gov knocks on the school reception door.
For the issue, I'll mention it at best, because giving it a big explanation would be quite... long.

I want to make an issue about your governments stance emojis and their affects on messaging around the country and the divide between older and younger generations on them. I couldn’t find anything that was similar enough to warrant not writing it but just wanted to double check with this forum to make sure that this hasn’t been done before.

I don't think emoji have been done, but I'm sure there was an issue about adults not being able to write in teen slang

[Verdant Haven]

I want to make an issue about your governments stance emojis and their affects on messaging around the country and the divide between older and younger generations on them. I couldn’t find anything that was similar enough to warrant not writing it but just wanted to double check with this forum to make sure that this hasn’t been done before.

The main challenge with that would be finding a reason for emojis to matter to the government. Emojis are not, in and of themselves, relevant to national policy, and different generations not communicating in the same manner is a tale as old as human record keeping. If there is a way to use the discussion of emojis as a means to access a question or dilemma that actually does matter, then that's totally fair, but I don't see emojis themselves serving as the primary motivation for an issue.

[Islands Of Ventro]

I want to make an issue about your governments stance emojis and their affects on messaging around the country and the divide between older and younger generations on them. I couldn’t find anything that was similar enough to warrant not writing it but just wanted to double check with this forum to make sure that this hasn’t been done before.

The main challenge with that would be finding a reason for emojis to matter to the government. Emojis are not, in and of themselves, relevant to national policy, and different generations not communicating in the same manner is a tale as old as human record keeping. If there is a way to use the discussion of emojis as a means to access a question or dilemma that actually does matter, then that's totally fair, but I don't see emojis themselves serving as the primary motivation for an issue.

Thanks, I’m reality I’m just spitballing ideas for the contest, seeing if any stick or haven’t been done before. Thanks for the advice!

[Entropan]

Regarding Issue #73: @@NAME@@, Without Cars, Going Nowhere Fast

Why are the options only to bring back cars, bring back electric cars, or ban political dissent? Should there not be an option to increase funding for public transportation, or just a 'status quo' option if the nation has well-funded public transportation?

[West Barack and East Obama]

Issue idea: academics/smart people in @@NAME@@ are emigrating because they can get higher pay in other nations, causing a brain drain. Is this something that's covered/could be a viable topic?

Edit: Also, what issues are there on churches tax exemption/religions making huge profits? If any are applicable

[Edush]

Regarding Issue #73: @@NAME@@, Without Cars, Going Nowhere Fast

Why are the options only to bring back cars, bring back electric cars, or ban political dissent? Should there not be an option to increase funding for public transportation, or just a 'status quo' option if the nation has well-funded public transportation?

Well, if that's how the issue was written back then, than that's how its structure remains. There are plenty of other issues regarding public transportation, though.

Edit: also, is there any issue regarding revenge p*rn? I have an idea where we assume that the legislation of your nation regarding sexual offences is pretty old and it doesn't cover the newly-emerging problem of revenge p*rn, so the debate would be of including it into the legislation or not.

[Tinhampton]

NationStates does not have a word filter. You are allowed to say the word "porn" without self-censoring. Issues #52 "Is It Art Or Is It Porn," #323 "Get Teens out of MyFace?", #335 "Log us Back On?" and #1,090 "I Ain't Afraid of No Girls" all use the word "porn" in full.