Request: Counter-Recruitment

[Charax]

Delegate and Guardians;

 

I, along with at least seven other nations in The West Pacific, have recieved this recruitment telegram from a member of International Northern Union (it's recuitment if you tl;dr):

 

Hello to you all.

My name is Zwotstyg; I am the founder and secretary of recruitment of the International Northern Union, a medium-sized region of currently 92 nations. I apologize for bothering you; however, rather than choose new nations from the spawning lists, I search through regions and choose the most appealing nations I can find. I am aware that recruitment telegrams are annoying, but if you bear with me, you will find this much more of a personal invitation than a mass-recruitment effort.

I have an unusual story to tell, and it is the reason you are receiving such an unexpected recruitment telegram. To begin, my original nation is GROSS Independency, located in the International Western Union (IWU). About five months ago, myself and several others from the IWU decided to form several sister regions to the IWU; these became the International Arctic Union (IAU), the International Southern Union (ISU), and the region I founded, the International Northern Union (INU).

Our goal with the sister regions was to bring each one to a population of 40 nations, with a regional government; at that point, the IAU, ISU and INU would speak with the IWU to form an interregional government. We had created plans to form a full interregional government, complete with a president, legislature, and various other offices; once established, it would have had authority over each of the regions, though each individual region would retain its own regional government. Alongside this interregional government, though, we'd hoped to create something a little more significant.

Recently, I witnessed a series of raids by The Black Riders, most notably on K and J Alliance. This--the destruction of innocent regions years in the making--made me very frustrated that I was not doing anything to help those regions defend themselves (and, to date, nobody has helped any of them). As a result, the other regional leaders and I created a plan to form, alongside the interregional government, an interregional defense organization. This organization would work like a defender region; however, it was to be comprised of four regions (the IAU, ISU, INU and IWU) working as one. The organization would also have kept its primary focus on smaller regions--the ones raided most often--and be set up to respond to raids within a very short time. Of my courtesy, we have a complete 15-page, detailed plan on how the organization would be set up and how it would specifically function.

However, recently, we had a turn of events. The INU met stark hostilities from Kialga (the founder of the IWU) and Vasuvius (the founder of the IAU), and, believing that such hostility would make the interregional work with the IAU and IWU impossible, the INU voted to break away from the IWU. Fortunately, we still plan on carrying out interregional plans, rather with the ISU and the International East Union (IEU), an independently-created region, as well as possible sister regions of our own. Furthermore, the INU recently voted to become a defender region, which is the first step towards our intended interregional defense organization. These two things--the interregional government and the interregional defense organization--will both be very difficult to implement. It will require the most active and best nations possible for help; your nations fall into that section, and that, then, is the reason I have chosen you eight to invite to the INU.

As I feel it is necessary, I will also provide you with some information on current events within the INU itself. We have recently concluded our second regional elections; our new government is ready to operate. As mentioned, we recently voted to become a defender region; we have completed our regional elections for the defense and intelligence ministers, so applications to join the military or intelligence branch are now open. Eventually, if events allow, we will pick up our interregional work with the ISU, IEU, and possibly new sister regions of our own. Extra features of the INU include a map that your nation can be placed on, an offsite forum with political parties and regional roleplay, and a regional website with additional information for everyone to access.

That concludes my message to you; if you have any questions or comments, feel entirely free to contact me.

If you decide to move to the INU, simply click the button at the bottom of this telegram that says "Move to International Northern Union" (if you didn't already know that). Please note that, if you come, you will be expected to contribute to the INU's mission by helping within the defense organization and regional government as you can; you have been specifically selected as among the elite of NationStates, and as a result, we expect you to be--or become--the elite of the region.

I very much appreciate your time, everyone, and I do hope you will consider helping us at the INU!

Best regards,
Zwotstyg

 

In the meantime I replied with this telegram to the 7 others I know have received it;

 

Hi!

I'm Charax, and I'm the interior Minister of the West Pacific, the region in which you're lucky enough to reside. Like you, I've just received a telegram from a nation called The GROSS Independency District of Zwotstyg. This telegram is filled with lies and mistruths, designed to lead you astray from residency in one of the game's greatest regions. The message claims that you "have been specially selected from the elite of NationStates". This is a lie, as this nation has been known to frequently blanket telegram nations throughout the West Pacific and her sister feeder regions, begging for the numbers to inflate their region. The telegram also claims that they "expect you to be--or become--the elite of the region". This is perhaps the most obvious lie of them all. Here in the West Pacific there is no limit on your potential to achieve. Want to become a statesman, or a legislator? These opportunities are open to you with the greatest of ease on the The West Pacific's regional forum. Want to be the delegate? In the West Pacific, if you have the support of the World Assembly nations in the region, you can be just that. User Created Regions which function on forum democracy are all too often dominated by exclusive and elitist cliques. Here in the West Pacific, we are a true Democracy. And here in the West Pacific is your home.

Thanks for reading this, and I hope you see through the lies and choose to stay here, where you truly belong.

 

I'd like to request that the delegate sends a region-wide telegram informing the region of these mistruths, as well as advertising the forum. In addition, I was wondering if the Guardians would consider sanctioning a counter-recruitment strategy, sending West Pacifican recruitment telegrams to every nation that enters International Northern Union.

 

Thanks for your time!

[Westwind]

I fully expect the recruiting game to get more targeted and specialized as time goes on.  [violet] has stated that is ADMIN's intent.  ADMIN expects regions to move away from targeting new nations, and on to other targeting qualifiers.  ADMIN also expects cross-regional recruiting (UCR to UCR/GCR to GRC/GCR to UCR) to become common.  As [violet] said just this past week, targeting only new nations isn't working.

 

I would also expect you'll see more manual recruiting in the system again.  Also last week, [violet] noted the intent to tweak the recruitment telegram queue to better balance stamps, scripts, and manual recruitment telegrams.  It had already been tweaked so that Inboxes no longer simply become full, but rather will allow new recruitment telegrams to bump old ones out when the Inbox is full.

 

It's a bit unsettling on one hand, but mainly because we're not used to it yet.  Myself....I'm surprised it hasn't become more of an issue yet.

 

- I had approached Equilism about adding a recruitment clause in our treaty, but they failed to see the threat to their own region.  I still think this should be part of all modern treaties.

 

- There is the UCR recruitment treaty that some have signed, that pledges that those regions will not recruit from each other.

 

- And there is the informal agreement among the GCRs that we do not recruit from each other.  An attempt at a more formal arrangement at a conference in Balder didn't go far.  Although.....there is an alternative thought on that notion that could use cross-GCR recruitment to emphasis the strengths of each to players...to retain them in the GCRs as opposed to losing them to the UCRs.

 

From the Delegate's chair, I've set my basic policy that TWP will not accept ingame Embassies with regions that mass recruit beyond new nation in TWP.  And I had suggested The Concillium discuss further measures and policies, as I am quite willing to enforce stricter standards. 

 

As for sending a mass tg, I'll be happy to do so.  I've asked our Ministers in the past to write on matters that need distribution regionwide such as this, and it's rarely been taken advantage of.  So please write what you think would best express and explain this matter to our nations....I'll edit it/add to it and send it.

[Pestarzt]

there is an alternative thought on that notion that could use cross-GCR recruitment to emphasis the strengths of each to players...to retain them in the GCRs as opposed to losing them to the UCRs.

I still think this would be preferable and awesome.

[Intelligent Holograms]

I also think that would be the best option.

 

Give me a week or so to get something properly written on it for distribution to GCR embassies.

[Consular]

I didn't the telegram, despite having them enabled. 

 

 

"an interregional defense organization"

 

Dear god, because there aren't already enough of them that already don't do anything.

[Westwind]

I didn't the telegram, despite having them enabled. 

 

 

It appears they were manually sending to eight nations at a time rather than sending en masse.

[Charax]

I'm somewhat hurt that they looked at my nation and thought "he isn't anything important, he won't report it to the delegate, let's send it to him". Feels bad man.

[Consular]

That reminds me, I think the welcome telegram still listed IH as interior minister.

[Westwind]

Yes, it's on my 'to do list'.