Leaderboard

What is it about a redemption story that draws us in? Is it the drama of the fall from grace? Is it the hope of a better tomorrow? Could it be that each of us has a nagging memory of a wrongdoing we hope won't follow us the rest of our IC, OOC, and IRL lives? The author of the White List Campaign telegram is betting on that. NationStates, for the most part, has a good Admin and Moderation team that does indeed protect its players. We've witnessed them warn, correct, suspend, ban, and delete accounts that commit everything from spam to flamebait to harassment. However, as most of us know, the communities and overall nature of gameplay extends to several off-site locations, such as forums, IRC, Skype, and Discord. Does the protection of the Admin and Moderation team extend to those locations? No. Do certain players take advantage of that? Yes. NationStates should be a safe space for people of all ages. A vast majority of communities have admin teams comprised of good, sensible, caring players who diligently extend the umbrella of protection to all facets of gameplay. They have long drawn a line of decency against bad behavior in the sand and proclaimed "Here we stand." The West Pacific has a long memory. We remember the White List author. We remember their actions. You and your kind will never be welcome here. Here we stand.

Last week I dismissed four Guardians from their posts. The action itself is not what caused issue, but rather the manner in which I handled the dismissals. Each Guardian has served TWP with honor and distinction and I failed to treat them with the respect and dignity their service demanded. Their devotion to TWP is unquestionable and their professional character is beyond reproach. Failure to recognize that - however temporary - constitutes a gross misjudgment on my part. I want to personally apologize to Elegarth, Yy4u, Wickedly Evil People, and Bhang Bhang Duc. Furthermore, I would like to apologize to the rest of the region for the undue stress and anxiety caused by this situation. Going forward, I pledge to earn back the trust in me that has been shaken, and to continue to serve the region and her interests to the best of my abilities.

As part of The West Pacific's month-long recognition of Autism Spectrum Disorder, we present three essays from our friends on the spectrum. Wymondham So, I suppose I should start by telling you all about myself. I’m Wymondham, Vizier of CA in Osiris, NSToday PR Director and Court Justice in Lazarus. But, I’m not here to talk about that. I was diagnosed with High Functioning Aspergers at age 13 and that helped explain a lot to me. However, to explain the rest of my story, we need to go back further to when I first started primary school aged 4. I had always found making friends difficult and the same was true at Primary school, I made 2 or 3 friends and was very close to all of them. I quickly found that, although I excelled at the work, I would misinterpret the teachers instructions and was often told off despite not really knowing what I had done wrong. When I got to the older years though I had an excellent teacher who seemed to really understand me and I cannot thank her enough for the ways she helped me. Whether it was from giving me instructions that I could follow and easily understand, to stretching me in terms of work difficulty by moving me up a year, which is an arrangement that I have continued to this day. Moving up to High School was difficult for me. I struggled very much to make friends and was bullied until the summer of last year. Without a diagnosis my teachers refused to make allowances for me. I got into a very heated row with my Head of House when he refused to give me some space to calm down following a fracas with another boy who had been mocking me because of my appearance. I’ve always struggled with expressing my feelings and, as such can often find opening up to people rather difficult. I was diagnosed aged 13 and it helped me understand a lot about myself. Suddenly certain things I didn’t understand why I did suddenly became a lot clearer and it has become a lot easier to develop strategies to control my often explosive anger. Routines are a major part of my day and since getting my diagnosis people have certainly been a lot more accepting off it. For example, when I go on discord, I will always say good morning to servers in a certain order: a friends personal discord server, followed by Osiris, then my two family servers, then Thalassia and finally Karma. Same goes for saying goodnight in PMs, I say goodnight to Rigel first and Altino last. I will have lunch at a certain time every day, go for my walk at precisely 2PM. Therefore, disruptions to my routine such as the Coronavirus can be extremely disorientating, I go to a boarding school which I find extremely useful due to the routine. Going home has required a readjustment to my routine and for the first week I was very very confused until I adjusted to the new normal. The internet and NS have been so useful for me as someone with Aspergers syndrome. It has given me the opportunity to interact with people without having to read facial expressions, which are the bane of my social existence - as a Brit I have grown up around Sarcasm so do not find that as difficult to deal with as other people with Aspergers. It has enabled me to meet people like Altino, Rigel, Halo, Rachael and Sho who have all helped me so much with my other mental health struggles which my tendency to hyperfocus does not exactly aid. So yeah, that’s me and Aspergers. If you’ve got any questions TG me or shoot me a discord PM (Wymondham#3478) Dilber As a kid, I always was a little different. I skipped speaking individual words and went straight to sentences. My teachers told my parents I was far behind on reading, and that I had major learning disorders until all of a sudden, I could read paragraphs and was years ahead of my class. When I was four years old, I was playing with a friend and he teased me mercilessly. Instead of getting angry at the time, I waited a day, and then bit his finger to the bone. My favorite book to read for years was volume A of the encyclopedia. I received my initial diagnosis back when Aspergers was just added to the DSM. My mom had read up about it, and was pretty sure I had it. The psych, however, didn’t believe that it was a real disorder. In the end, I was diagnosed with ADHD, Dysgraphia, and Non-verbal learning disorder. I started therapy at 4 years old. I don’t remember much of my early therapy, but one of the things I do remember was my writing therapist giving up on me. I went to a writing therapist for four years, but by second grade I was using a laptop because the therapist didn’t know how to improve my motor skills. I didn’t have a good experience with therapy until I was 8 years old, and we’d moved to a different city. I got a fresh start with a new therapist that I would end up seeing for the next thirteen years. Through middle school, I went to therapy 2-3 times a week. I lacked very basic social skills and was unable to read people at all. I was very young for my grade (made the cutoff for being in that grade by 2 days), and then skipped 4th grade. My peers were 2-3 years older than me, and I just didn’t know how to interact with them. Therapy was a very important part of my life and helped me learn how to function. I was regularly bullied by some of the kids, and therapy helped me learn coping skills, and how to handle people. I was very lucky to have incredibly supportive parents. Therapy also taught me how to connect with my father. We also conflicted when I was young, because he had issues understanding my actions. I had a tendency to use my “logic” which no one else could understand where I came to the conclusion that something needed to be done. The most common therapy that I did as a kid was “play” therapy. The therapist and I would talk and play games, and he’d indulge all the rules changes I would make to the game. This allowed me to open up more, and really helped me learn how to communicate. Over time, I learned how to read body language better, while also getting really good at the made up version of connect 4 that we used to play. I ended up repeating 8th grade, not for academic reasons but because I would have been going into high school as a 12 year old, and that would have made the bullying worse. When I was 14 or 15, my psych admitted that I most likely had Asperger’s, but it wasn’t worth changing my diagnosis because it would mess with all the educational plans I had at school. I would have been forced into special education classes, and taken out of my honors classes, and it would have really been detrimental to my social life that I’d finally managed to start developing. In middle school and ninth grade, I always had a very small circle of friends but I started blossoming in tenth grade when I joined the school jazz band. Music helped me connect with people, and I was able to form close attachments with friends. I still was the “weird” kid, but all of us were a little bit weird and that taught me it was ok. Making friends was the next important step in development for me. Back in middle school, I thought it was “cool” to sit by myself because it would impress the girls. I wasn’t any smoother in high school, but navigating social groups and bonds helped set me up for the learning how to become a functional adult. This was also around the time I got into Nationstates. Nationstates was great because on the internet you could be anyone, and no one had to know your struggles if you didn’t want them to. Nationstates taught me a lot about online communication at the same time I was really learning how to interact with people in-person. The next step for me was in college when I got into Improvisational Comedy. One of my long running-struggles was a massive need for “structure”. Without structure, I was unable to operate and basically shut down. Improv taught me how to play around with-in the rules, before later learning how to break them. This was a big improvement over me as a kid, where I once tattled on my cousin for buying me ice cream when my mom told her not to get it for me because I knew I broke the rule and it wasn’t right. I’m now a “slightly weird” adult. I had a conversation with a former co-worker that told me that when I was hired, they thought I was going to be incredibly annoying. I had a tendency to want to talk while they were doing work and wouldn’t understand their body language that they wanted me to back off. This was a really important learning for me, and I’ve told my co-workers to straight up tell me “hey, I need to do stuff.” Therapy helped me learn how to read people, but when I get excited I still run into issues. I hyper-focus on this, and I get really excited about stupid things and then explain it to my poor wife. I got really into smart home technology, and now I own three smart ceiling fans. It’s interesting to think of what I would have been like without years of work. When people think of the spectrum, they think of what they’ve seen in movies. Not everyone needs to live in a group home, but if they do that’s ok. We all cope and learn to do things different ways. My business partner was diagnosed with Autism as an adult, and it made a lot of things in his life “click”. We have discussions because sometimes it feels like we’re on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of our preferences to do things, but because our brains are different that “normal” people we can understand each other better. Normal is a relative concept. Most people have no idea that my friend or I are on the spectrum, and many would be surprised to find out. There is a stigma attached to the spectrum that needs to be cleared up. People on the spectrum can be just as unique from each other as they are to neurotypical brains. If you know someone with autism, just talk to them about it. Ask about their preferences or why they said something. Be gentle, be kind, and be understanding. This doesn’t mean be a pushover. Being on the spectrum is not a license to be an asshole, and I thank my parents, friends, and coworkers for giving me boundaries. Awareness of the spectrum is key for the future. There’s a whole gap between the public perception of “group home” or “rain man”. Awareness is really important, and I’m glad that people are starting to learn more. Ithobbit I think a lot has been written by people close to Autism, quite a number of articles, studies, notes and even projects that heralded new insight as to what Autism (and the spectrum) is. Not so much (or at least published in great numbers or popular in nature) has been written by the autistic to tell their part. The new found use for Social media and Social networking has shifted the balance here, everyone can get a platform to shed light on the things close to their hearts and to be able to express themselves somewhat. We know what the DSM says about Autism: "Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Fifth Edition of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM 5)*, is a complex developmental disorder associated with symptoms that include "persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts" and "restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities." But, from the point of view of someone in the spectrum, what does that really mean? To me, being on what used to be called Asperger’s and now is just a part of the ASD, it means that certain things are FAR more important or worthy of attention than others. That I’ll settle in and be comfortable with certain tasks and situations, while being absolutely unable to cope with others, and for each one of us, these are different. My son, also on the spectrum will tirelessly research, learn and go on to teach if allowed anything and everything he can about video editing, cinema and movies. He’s dedicated dozens of hours to analyzing the differences in DVD (or BluRay) menu options between different versions of a movie, and will gladly share everything he knows about it if you just sit down “for a minute”. Some of us are very prone to bouts of “self isolation”, alone playtime, going into closets, under beds, or dark places. Others are hyper and love moving about and doing all sorts of physical activity, but one major thing we have in common is that social “awkwardness” that prevails over most of our interactions; be it that we miss social cues, we take things at face value, or simply, miss absolutely anything relating to sarcasm or innuendo because we only really register the words, not the nuances. Overall it makes daily things hard. People may take advantage of it (we trust a lot) or be afraid of our aloofness or possibly even they fear that we may become irate “over nothing”; quick hint here, very rarely it’s over nothing. We on the spectrum obsess easily, that’s a great gift for learning, but we also don’t let things go as fast as others. Someone making fun of you stays, sometimes even for years, which lends itself for some really hard times when forgiving a slight. Eating is another “fun” time. Some of us have issues with textures, some foods that are absolutely enjoyable by most, are actually retch producing and we need to work around that daily. It all is variable, and some people seem very far removed from “neurotypical” while others are far more functional, but sometimes none of us get a chance to show how or why. I’ve taken my son out of more schools than I care to admit, we’ve tried different systems, education patterns, teachers and methods, and only some work, and not all the time. We’ve had parents force our kid out of the classroom because they are afraid that their children may miss classes, have a hard time, or, in the worst cases “catch something”. It’s been 11 years of schooling, Jr has moved to seventh grade now, he’s moved out of the city and into a more rural environment, people are somehow more open there, teachers try to explore different ways, and the fact that there is more space and nature, has brought anxiety levels down on all of us. Not everyone is this lucky, we had a choice, we were able to move him to a place where people were willing to not just shy away, but reach out; in times like this, don’t we need a bit more of reaching out, albeit metaphorically if not actually?

For days I have been ruminating on the legislation sent to me concerning Gord. On this date, 11/25/2021, I've received your mixed-vote petition, and have come to a decision concerning Gord. Gord is hereby pardoned for all crimes in the West Pacific, and shall be set free. Unfortunately, it turns out that we don't have any sort of treaties with the entity known as "Canada", and he has not been pardoned for his crimes of being delicious there. Also, it turns out their petition date was like a month ago and I'm pretty sure his goose has been cooked. Rest assured, your delegate is doing everything in his power to repatriate his delicious remains, preferably by about 4 PM today. Dilber, Platypus Delegate of the West.

Here today, we usher in a new reign. It’s a bittersweet moment for me, as I have supremely enjoyed my time as Delegate. When I entered the chair, I knew that I had big shoes to try to fill. I came in with detailed plans, but my only goal was this: When I was done, would the region be even better? I’d like to think we’ve hit that goal. We’ve accomplished so much over the past 14 months, from FA changes to launching a radio station to public high minds and cyberbullying a man named Jimmy so much we now own a shawarma shack. We’ve become a force in the Security Council, with multiple passing resolutions even with attempts to stomp them. Our newspaper is the premier newspaper in NS, putting out quality content on-time for multiple years. Our FA position is incredibly strong, with new friendships that have sprung up while old friendships remained solid. Our military is strong and active, and is on an upwards trend. We’ve come together to do so much: We’ve raised hundreds of dollars for charity, won N-Day in the most convincing fashion ever, exterminated all the dang zombies, and have continued to be the strongest community in Nationstates. People in the past have referred to us as a retirement home, but when I look out at the newer players all I see is the future. We have the best young bench of talent in Nationstates, and I don’t see that changing. The last 14 months have been an interesting time for all of us, but I want to thank all of you for growing alongside me. In the last 14 months, I’ve changed jobs, dealt with personal issues, and most importantly sold a child to other regions for Pope Hope cards. While I have not completed my personal goal of owning every single pope hope card, I want to say that I appreciate our community always being there for each other, whether it be voice chats, game streams, or yelling at me about crabs. And now, my time as delegate is over. I slip back into the shadows of the mere Prime Minister-in-Exile-in-Residence, once again a poster child for democracy. Gio is going to do an amazing job, and I hope he does so well people go “who was Dilber?” (but actually not that good because boy would I feel bad about that question). Most importantly, this community will remain strong. We’ve all been here for varying amounts of time, but gosh dangit we’re family. Thank you all for making this a wonderful delegacy for me, and for supporting Gio in whatever the future holds. There are too many of you for me to thank individually, so I’d just like to say this: You all are what made us great. I could not have achieved everything we’ve done on my own. You’ve filled in my weaknesses, and made us brilliant. Keep it up, because it’s what we all deserve as a region. Have no fear, I’m not going anywhere. I’m not even sure I can get off my couch right now anyways Dilber P.S. The real reason I stepped down is so Vara can message OTHER people at 3 AM. (He can still message me I guess though, he’s cool) (Edited because ALON and Tera noticed the spelling error I put in to see who was reading it closely and they got the dilber's choice award for it)

Be Thankful, Not Entitled By Madeline Norfolk ( @Lady Madeline) Over my years in NationStates, I’ve come to realize that I have these phases in my time in regions that I put a lot of work in. I go from being gracious just to be given the opportunity to do what I like, and extremely humbled when recognized by folks that I’m doing a good job, to being frustrated that nobody appreciates my work and my time I’m putting in. Currently, I’m in a weird place where I’m not really gracious or frustrated—I guess that comes with more RL maturity. I’m in a place where I just want to do what I enjoy in NationStates and if that means cutting down how many regions I’m involved in, or taking a step away from a position or part of a region I really enjoy, then that’s what I’ll have to do. Through this journey of maturity and general peace in NationStates activity, there’s something we all should learn, we need to be thankful instead of entitled. What I mean is, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve worked in a position or a region, Be Thankful every time someone recognizes you for doing good! Don’t expect people to fall to your virtual feet and sing your name in praises every time you do whatever your job is. I certainly don’t play this game to stroke the ego of strangers on the internet, and you probably don’t either. If you’re getting frustrated because no one is praising you anymore or thanking you, then it may be time for you to take a step back or go in a different direction! It is amazing how much a term break or letting someone else take over with as little involvement from you as possible can be. Not only can it be rewarding to see your hard work continue in others, but it can also help you reassess why you’re doing this job. So why am I even talking about this? Too many of my friends and people I know in NationStates come to me or others frustrated that nobody cares what they’re doing or they’re feeling underappreciated because they got negative feedback. It isn’t fun and it really just stinks worse than leftovers from Thanksgiving that you left in the fridge for a month. As we enter this season of giving and receiving, remember that everyone here is human, and not only that, but most are not here to make you feel good about this game. You should find your feel good in things you accomplish, the surprises when you do get recognition, and most importantly in the friendships and communities you join. At the end, if this game were to shut down tomorrow, it isn’t like we’ll all just stop talking to one another, and frankly nobody cares if you’ve built 8 different proboards forums or written 4 Constitutions. So be thankful for your opportunities— Be thankful for the unexpected recognitions— Be thankful for the communities you have— And don’t feel entitled that you deserve things because you did a thing or anyone owes you things because you did a thing for them. Do things because you like doing them, not for whatever prizes you expect to get for doing them! I wish you all a wonderful holiday season, be thankful, be gracious, be humble, be loving, be caring, be intentional. ✌

Once upon a time a statement regarding the status of a TWP citizen would have been posted here first rather than in NS Gameplay. https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=35703941#p35703941 Now not all TWP members go to the GP forum, nor do they bother with Discord. Would be nice if TWP’s government could remember that.

Hey you guys! Sending some love out today! <3 I was talking to someone earlier today about a silly tag that we did with TWPAF back when Kawaii was Commander and I was just a First Commander in revenge on The Bee Movie! It brought back a lot of fun memories in TWP, so I wanted to share some of my favorite TWP times with you guys. The Spanish Inquisition - I've been on a ton of raids during my time on NS, but the most fun that I ever had with one was when Khanter helped us plan a big raid on Spanish-speaking regions. Like, ALL of the Spanish-speaking regions! We had just kicked off our pirate theme, so we needed to do something big and fun to really cement that direction, and between my Pirate Code, Ban's excellent Graphics, and Khanter's excitement to help with that raid, this put us in the perfect position to really sell it! I spent days hyping everyone up about a secret raid that we'd have coming up and screaming "¡SOMOS PIRATAS!" to anyone who would listen, Khanter made us a WFE all in Spanish for the raid, and Bran made us this cool image as a teaser: It ended up being a ton of fun and the beginning to my favorite military theme on NS! Punday Monday! - Listen, you guys, I am not in favor of puns, I'm honestly not, but thanks to Badger and Roavin have had to take on the title of Ocassional Punstress. Badger used to poke at me EVERY MONDAY to get my pun on with everyone on the RMB, and EVERY MONDAY I would grumble at him for it. But secretly, I gathered puns throughout the week and was always excited to post them and make all my friends groan! I don't think I ever ended up getting most likes for the best pun, but I'm pretty sure I came fairly close. Badgerbot - Idk how many of you know this, but when I first met Badger, I legitimately thought that he was a really, really well programmed chatbot. Something about his avatar, I don't know, seemed very botish to me! When I finally figured out that he was an actual person, I was really embarrassed, but had to tell him about it, and for the long day time after that I called him Badgerbot when I saw him! Eventually he created an actual BadgerBot to rule over TWP's Discord server and I was tickled pink! Now we have BadgerBot2.0 and it continues to be a weird, inside joke legacy that always makes me smile! Glitter Apprenticeship - Before I got really involved in TWPAF, I got really involved in TWP in the form of RMB shenanigans. This is where I met some of the old greats in TWP and learned to respect them! I was a wee noob, but I got friendly with BBD, YY, Medio, and a lot of the other Guardians at the time while I was there. I'm still upset that Medio didn't get unlocked until after I was done with TWPAF! I always wanted to raid with him. :c But my crowing achievement was one day convincing NeeNee to let me be her Glitter Apprentice. I spent like a week after that glittering everyone on the RMB and learning her ways. It was a great time. Bugging Forum Mods - I'm sorry to finally be admitting this, but I got... really into recruitment when I was running TWPAF and almost my entire motivation behind big numbers (besides pilers) was making tons and tons of posts in the mask request thread for the forum mods to have to do. :3 I just liked peeping in every day like "FIVE MORE MASKS FOR YOU, THANK YOU GUYS!" It was my own private little game. But every time I see someone join TWPAF now I get a little shot of glee that the mods will have to mask someone. xD Sorry. <3 Anyway, just sending out some love from me and Osiris! Hope everyone is doing well! What about you guys, do you have any really special memories with TWP that make you happy? What do y'all have going on!

Important Announcement from the Office of the Delegate Ladies, gentlemen, wild animals and creatures of all types, Today is my 200th day as the Delegate of The West Pacific! We are now the 3rd largest region in the game! I want to thank you all for the privilege of serving the region in this role. I appreciate each of you for your confidence in me! Throughout my 200 days, I have worked hard to place TWP in the spotlight deserving of a region of this quality for all of the NSverse to look at and envy! I have always said that the number one resource of The West Pacific is great creative, snarky, and hardworking people of the region. I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by the best group of people a no0b Delegate could hope for. I would like to thank the guardians for their assistance and guidance in assisting me in developing and establishing plans for the betterment of the region. The seven of you have provided me with so much and without you TWP, nor I, could not be successful. I would like to thank the members of my NS family, House Rahl for their support, mentorship and guidance! Contrary to the belief of some, they never have imposed or dictated business here, moreover respect and collegiality of this group as well as their experience is what makes their brilliance! Rather they have empowered me with the knowledge and confidence to be a Delegate and lead the region. Without the people around me, whether it be the former Delegates and Guardians of TWP or House Rahl this job would not be nearly as much fun nor would TWP be the shining star and leader in the NSverse! On a personal note, I would like to welcome my NS bride-to-be to the region @bellahtrix! She goes by the name Rigel on our forum and discord server. She has been a member of KGB and Exodus before joining us here in TWP. We will be married on 4/28. There will be more details in the forum. I hope that you will all welcome her to the region! When I first became Delegate I said that activity was going to be my first and foremost priority. I am proud to say that our regional forum, discord server and RMB are brimming with activity. Our foreign affairs, internal affairs, and military were three aspects I was going to focus on to help build activity. Today each of these areas is having immense success. Through a stroke of luck or genius, I was able to procure four of the best, hardest working NS’ers in the game to takeover these endeavors (@yuno_owl, @davelands, @doppio_giudici and @theparis) and I am forever indebted to you for making me look good as the region swells with activity in all of her platforms. Each of these ministers have worked their tails off for you the citizens of The West Pacific! Our foreign affairs have become one of the largest webs of information and outreach in the NSverse under the guidance of @Davelands. I am proud to say we have opened up new relationships and treaties with a number of regions including the relationship I am proudest of The Kingdom of Great Britain. Meanwhile we have expanded relations and activities with old friends in regions like The Pacific and Osiris. Furthermore, we have worked to diligently to provide stability and leadership in several organizations we belong in the GCR Sovereignty Accords and CAIN. Our military has been bustling with activity ever since @yuno_owl came on board to provide her leadership. Our numbers of soldiers are at an all-time high. We are operating on nearly every update leading operations and providing support for our friends and allies. The work she has done in recruiting and keep active this force is to be commended! I am so proud of TWPAF, their capabilities and knowledge. We will flex our muscle to set foreign affairs policy, protect our allies, or smite those who attempt to harm TWP! Internal affairs is the ministry that I see the most work in because of the hustle and creativity of the co-ministers: @doppio_giudici and @theparis. We have always joked that TWP was the place for RP to die. These two have done a tremendous job in changing that fact and developing opportunities for RP in discord and the forum. They recruited players from other regions to help and play. The newspaper continues to thrive and our newly developed TWP radio is expanding. Our internal affairs went from one of the most forgotten about aspects of TWP to a healthy thriving and contributing member. All of these things have made a mark in the greater NSverse for TWP! We are gaining experienced members of NS from a multitude of regions that are coming here to be a part of our activity! We are now 3rd most in the world in population! I am excited about the work done here in the last 200 days. However, I am more excited about our future. Looking forward to our next 200 days I am anxious to see our activity continue across the board as we build a better and stronger standing for TWP becoming the type of region that others look to for inspiration, leadership, and action! I am looking forward to the work of The Hall of Nations as we work together to forge the future of The West Pacific! As I have said in the past, young nations I challenge you to make a difference in your region. Join the Hall of Nations! Join one of the ministries! Veteran nations I challenge you to find a place where you can assist to make TWP the greatest, most powerful region in the game! We have many exciting opportunities for nations looking to get involved in any aspect of the region. Please TG the respective ministers to find out what you can do to help TWP achieve. Together we can be Brilliant! tl:dr

Firstly, I thank @Saint Mark. I joined NS at the time of Halo's reign as Delegate. He showed me that there was a lot more of NS beyond issues, and encouraged me to become a citizen and join the Discord server and forums. Although the delegate change happened not much time after that, I still remember Halo's delegacy, and I thank him for helping me. I also thank @Ark for introducing me to Foreign Affairs, which was the first ministry I decided to join, and I thank @Bran Astor for being an amazing Delegate and helping me with the Speaker position after I was elected, such as giving me ideas on how to start the Regional Commendations. Furthermore, I also thank @Reçueçn, @Elegarth, @TUMS and @Mediobogdum for being Trading Cards players that constantly trade cards with me and help keep the TWP Card Channel in Discord active. From all these card farmers, I think I should especially thank @Reçueçn for also encouraging me when I was seeking the last cards for my TWP S1 collection, giving me ideas to contact the players who had these rare cards, and showing me some tools to make card farming faster and less boring. It is important to say, though, that those are all individual players. I thank the West Pacific as a whole for being a wonderful region! Without you all, TWP wouldn't be the same.

@Bran Astor You've been one of my closest friends. This was the case before you were my boss. This will be the case after you're my boss. While you're my boss here, you've been one of the best people that I've served under. I like that you challenge me to think in new ways, and I like that you allow me to challenge you as well. I like that we can have very frank discussions and as much as I've be annoyed for a brief couple days, you're always ready for the next discussion that I bring up. You're a true comrade and friend.

Anything that drives healthy activity is a good thing IMHO. I see nothing wrong with an attempt to give the region a cultural theme and I applaud the creative work being done by the region's residents. That said. Can we get an option for an in-game theme that doesn't involve memorizing new titles, please? Can the Delegate and Ministers still have titles that clearly state what they do? the one thing that really irks me about the themed regions is the crazy titles everyone has. I need a glossary to figure out who has what job in Osiris for example.

In keeping with both the COPS Treaty and Administrative policy, account 94 Block has been banned as a known forum destroyer. Attempts to violate this ban may result in the filing of charges to the full extent of the law. (That's RL law, in case it's not clear enough.)

Have you ever sat back in the evenings, eyes closed and your favorite "lets be evil" hat on, and wished that you could only be given the opportunity to relentlessly barrage NationStates with nuclear missiles that left even the moderators shaken? Yeah. Me too. Gracefully, we were recently given such a chance! For NationStates' second Nuke Day, The West Pacific teamed up with Osiris, The East Pacific, and Karma to form a Superfaction. The designated server for the event reached nearly a hundred members and our faction had nearly 1,300 nations in it. Needless to say, we dominated. Onlookers watch in fear as Syberian Badgers with Caek ransack their nations with nukes SBC spent the entire first half of the game at the top of the leaderboard. The most common complaint from our team was from those making Shields - the world was too afraid of the massive arsenal of Nukes we were gathering to even shoot at us, and their jobs seemed boring because of it. We spent hours blowing other factions to smithereens and being begged for mercy. Here are just a few of the messages we received from enemy factions in their desperate attempts to end our waves of nukes: - Founder of The Peoples Red Army. We did not have mercy. They were destroyed. - Member of USSF. Hint: No. - Member UPPERCUT. We did accept this one! GCRs gotta stick together. - Member UDS. We didn't ally with them, but did cease fire and switch targets as good faith to UPPERCUT. - Member The Galactic Defense Force. Easy target, man, sorry! SBC finished off the event with alliances with UPPERCUT, Glitter Squad, Friendship and Explosives, and Collaborating Defensive Alliance. We remained on the Leaderboard until around 6am, when the leaders of SBC finally had to call it quits and go to sleep. We couldn't stay up forever! We awoke to find ourselves to have fallen all the way down to 26th place and though we fought valiantly, there wasn't enough time on the clock to make it back onto the Leaderboard. That's what we get for sleeping until an hour before the event ends... Still, SBC managed to dredge itself up from 26th place all the way to 15th place in the span of 30 minutes! A glorious victory, if I do say so myself. We even managed to absolutely cream the Mods' faction, DEAT From Above, and will forever be memorialized as aggressors to their faction and also the guys who ultimately blew the place up. Mods angrily grumble as SBC steals their caek and nukes their houses SBC ended the game with the 3rd most nations and 3rd most strikes (nukes that landed successfully) in the entire game, but with the most nuclear radiation in the game, with nearly 20,000 more radiation than the next closest faction - Jak Attack, who were the big faction to beat during our last Nuke Day in April. Despite being very obviously the key faction to attack, SBC managed to keep on the Top 20 and take the world by storm! Everyone did a very good job, and we can't wait to do that much better next year. Special thanks to @Chron for staying up until 5am with me to help keep us on the leaderboard, @Les Claypool for sneaking behind enemy lines and turning factions who were on our backs against each other, and @Maria Isaraider for being the best and most dedicated nuke sender in the faction! Please feel free to take this forum badge that @Bran Astor made for everyone in TWPAF who participated in the event! Once again, great job everyone!

You will never be deleted! We will keep your likeness forever. And when we get bored of it, we will stuff it full of beer cans and airplane bottles of booze and create an adult piñata out of you!

See my comment in the other thread. This is silly. The Delegate has the authority to ignore an offsite government, but not to dissolve it.

I am not bowel incontinent, thankyouverymuch I was however surprised by some basic mistakes made by a group that should have known better. Also, for the record: I have always hated the dumbass ranking questions. It's like highschool prom queen or something. Stupid and irrelevant. What do I deem important? Simple: It's a game. Are you having fun?

It's somewhat the height of hubris what I'm about to do, but hubris and punk daddy are often listed as friends. I would like for you two to stop personally arguing with one another in every thread. It's not productive and really detracts from the conversation. If you both wish to lead then do what great leaders do and lead. People are willing to follow those they trust to make wise decisions. People who are bitter, backbiting, and vindictive don't typically inspire said trust. I want to see you both show the rest of us you have the ability to civilly disagree. If you can't then we need leaders who can because the type of "dialogue" the two of you are having are just what tears regions apart. Do you think that all of us old guys agree with one another all of the time? Heck no. during my time as delegate, Eli sent me a note that - paraphrased - said if I didn't start to do something he was going to overthrow me. Haha. And we like each other. But that's also happening behind the scenes and not in front of the "cameras" as it were because many of us understand that what is said publicly has value and that disagreements privately can remain just that, private. So I am asking and pleading that you let go of your differences and help continue the conversation on the direction of TWP. Please.

Hello everyone! I am Giovanniland, 51st Delegate of the West Pacific, and today I will deliver an opening speech just like my predecessor. Firstly, I would like to thank @Dilber for the time and effort he has put into the region for his 14 months of delegacy. Dilber's reign has been the longest in the history of the West, and during it we saw numerous new initiatives that have benefited our region in multiple spheres of NationStates. I am thankful that he has chosen me as the next Delegate of the West, and am happy to announce that Dilber will continue to serve as a Guardian and advisor to our region. Talking about Guardians, I also have another announcement to make: @Saint Mark (Halo) will return to the team as well, so congratulations to both Dilber and Halo for their new positions! Here I will also announce some other major changes in our regional leadership. As @Fuentana has already led the Ministry of Foreign Affairs together with myself during Dilber's delegacy, I am pleased to announce that he will now assume the full duties of this position. Fuentana has done a great job so far in advancing this key part of the region, and I am confident that this will extend to my delegacy. Furthermore, @Fujai will return as the main editor of The Western Post after my leadership for most of 2021, and I believe our regional newspaper will continue to flourish just like when Fujai previously oversaw it. Now, I would like to talk about some of my plans for the West Pacific. In the World Assembly, I wish to increase our activity both internally and externally. Internally, this means there will be campaigns to encourage not only endorsements for myself and the Guardians, but also cross-endorsing between the other WA member nations in our region, as this is often one of the first steps for new nations to get more involved in our community. Externally, I wish to continue our increasing presence in resolution authorship and interregional cooperation, especially in the Security Council, as our region has seen great progress in that area during 2021. Promoting this part of the game within the region and getting other people interested in writing resolutions is one of my goals. In regards to Foreign Affairs, one of the big achievements of Dilber's delegacy was to greatly expand our Foreign Affairs horizons, and I wish to continue this legacy. A working relationship with another region means to actively collaborate with them in many ways; exchanging active ambassadors, holding cultural events, cooperating on World Assembly and military affairs, and many more. So this will be one of my key points to ensure that the West Pacific continues to have active ties with the current regions we have diplomatic relations with, as well as working on newer ones if opportunities arise. Meanwhile, our Hall of Nations has seen great reforms spearheaded by Dilber, especially on the field of transparency, and events such as government Q&As and community cabinet meetings will continue to happen under my delegacy. There will also be another election cycle taking place from January 10th to 19th to elect a Speaker and Guardian of the Hall of Nations for the next 3 months. Last but not least, the Regional Guides keep their mission to foster gameside involvement through welcoming new nations and hosting the daily Today in the West activities, while the Cultural Trust and its many communities will also continue promoting our culture to the entire region: Roleplay Community, Card Club, News Group, West Pacific Gaming, Fine Arts Society, and The West on The Waves have all achieved many things recently and deserve not only a spotlight, but also encouragement to reach even more goals. On a closing note, as I highlight many of our recent regional achievements and outline future plans, I also leave my thanks to everyone that has contributed in any way to the region: the community is what turns the West Pacific into the Best Pacific. And for the residents looking to start their NationStates journey, I invite them to look at some of the great opportunities our region has to offer. I look forward to leading the West Pacific and its community, and I am open to any suggestions or ideas. Giovanniland, Delegate of The West Pacific

Do you really respect someone? Do you admire someone or their hard work? Then use this thread to thank them. Right now we live in uncertain times, the world we create is the one we make. We should spread as much gratitude as we can. Recognize someone in the thread below, list out why they mean something to the region, to you or to thank them for contributions.

https://r8.whiteboardfox.com/810372-3549-9959 Use this whiteboard to write or draw anything you want! The sky's the limit, and in the end a wonderful collage of TWP's thoughts will come out! [May take a few tries to connect to it.]

I'd like to thank @Sensorland for getting me more involved and for also being a friendly and fun presence, and @Bran Astor for liking my haiku and getting me even more involved! Thanks as well to the folks in Karma who have so kindly welcomed me as a new ambassador.

There are so many people I could thank here. TWP is filled to overflowing with good people. I really am blessed to have been "born" in this region. So one person .... hmmm ... I think I would like to thank @Big Bad Badger. When I was a noob, he was the TWPAF Commander and tried to teach me raiding. I stunk at that, but he saw potential in me in other ways and stuck with me, mentoring me when he became delegate and including me in his plans. In addition to helping me personally in NS, he has been a huge asset to the region. His reforms began our TWP renaissance. Even after his delegacy, he has continued to be active and supportive. Thanks, Badger!

Once upon a time in NationStates, failure to clear the citizenship rolls of inactive members became a problem. Entropy of Activity in NationStates is a problem that arises over and over again. No matter how dynamic and active a region's community may be, activity eventually wanes, folks are distracted by RL, and Regional Officials get burn-out. Citizen/Players fade away. Then newer players with their own ideas of activity come along. They find the inactivity of the existing citizenry boring. So they write and present new Legislation to be voted upon, to shape the region with new activity that interests them. The ideas come up for a vote, and those old inactive citizens that haven't posted in months come out of the woodwork to vote, and they vote against the new player's legislation. The idea dies. Inactivity is thus perpetuated, and the frustrated new players go elsewhere. To combat this phenomena of the 'Old Guard' coming out to vote when they are otherwise inactive, Regions began to establish Activity Requirements to ensure that voting citizens are actively engaged in the regional community. Posting requirements can be more important for Regional Officials as well. Once upon a time, there were requirements for Ministers and Deputies to post no less than every other day, and requirements to post a notice and assign a deputy if a Minister will be absent for longer than a couple days. Activity begets Activity in NS, while the Entropy of Activity is the corrosive rust that destroys regions and communities.

Let me state for the record that TWP will never become anything even close to TEP. Let me also say that the idea that if TWP adopts a Japanese theme, that does not and should not ever be seen as a bad thing that will lead to an influx of memers, disrespectful types of any kind, or any kind of individual that we wouldn't normally banject on the reg. I think too many people have let the bad "weeaboo" kids ruin the image and idea of a Japanese theme, but it's important to remember that there's more to Japan than Anime and J-Pop, just as China isn't all about kung fu and Mauism. :^) I had an idea to adopt a fun and promising environment that reflected Japan's Bubble Economy of the 80's, complete with the aesthetics as you can see by my flag. (And I'm aware that's not exactly "imperial Japan but it's what I was feeling so I went with it lol.) To give some background on the general culture of the Bubble Era, it was a time in Japan when its economy was at its peak and commercial success was high for many people. There are a certain feel and mood that's strongly present in many media depicting 80's Japan, that paints a picture of the good old days. It wasn't too far off from what the 80's was like here in the US. I wanted to try and take the key aspects that made Bubble Era special and incorporate them into a theme, allowing us to leave a good first impression with those who come to our region. I wouldn't have sold them short either. I would do anything to give them something reminiscent of the high spirits and energy that was everpresent in 80's Japan. This coupled with a nice retro look would pull in many people. Especially as it relates to Japan. A lot more people now than ever are falling in love with Late 20th Century Japanese culture, it's been growing in popularity for over the last decade, and doesn't show any sign of stopping; nostalgia is very easy to market. Now with all that being said, TWP wouldn't be "80's Japan," it would be TWP but with the characteristics and overall environment present in 80's Japan. I agree with keeping our coastal beach idea, but adding in a more fun, active, and promising vibe to it along with retro imagery. Anyway, that's my two-cents as it relates to my theme. I know the other two are quite different. But now I've spilled my beans and explained my thought process with my theme a bit, hopefully, it may be to more people's liking.

Just a note: What ever you decide, Halo. ~for the love of all that is holy, I'm begging you; do not go with anime or kpop or any of that weeb stuff. I can happily adjust to almost anything but that. I can't bear the discord channels that have been consumed by it.~ But in reality, you are the Delegate. It's your choice. This sort of seeps into the other area of your changes. (The desire to add a Senate level to the off-site government structure) If you are waiting for complete consensus on something, it will never happen. So, if you think the peanut gallery is being difficult now, just wait until you try to tie legislation to arguments from two separate bodies full of strong, intelligent opinionated players. I am not passing judgement of right or wrong. I'm just reminding us all of the difference between expectations and reality.

Howdy! I want to start by saying both thank you and f--- you to Ark, Kawaii and OT for making this a hard choice. I like all three options and will be weighing each carefully in the next couple of days. But why the theme change at all? Why not stick with tradition? Well, what even is traditional for us? As Westy mentioned above, we have taken plenty of different directions on how we wish to theme our government. We started out as one of the key pillars of the ADN, and proudly were one of the most effective forces in defenderdom, never mind in-game. We experimented with different themes since then, be it a committee-structure when Eli couped that one time to the various themes Westy listed above. We have had a great past couple of years and I don't think anyone wants to tarnish that legacy. Rather, updates and new priorities, such as the theme, peerage, point system, and Ministry of Education, can be made to help make us a better region. What doesn't change are our core values. Delegate supremacy, meritocracy and community do not change. What matters most is that we have a fun time here and allow newer folks the chance to feel welcome and able to learn from those of us who should honestly be NS dead by now. There is a lot of work to be done on both sides, myself included. I like the idea of a new theme. Right now as I mentioned above I'm not sure which way I'll vote, but I like having options. Our Delegate has made it clear that not all presented aspects will be included in the final theme design, which is good because we can talk about what is good about the general idea and what might need to be nixed. I echo the concerns raised about changing the titles of Delegate and Guardian. I certainly don't mind there to be a title made for them and other ranks, but I probably will still use Guardian as my job title We don't need to go hardcore on the titles, but it is nice to have our own regional way of describing who we are. What we get with that is more of a cultural identity. I'm not necessarily saying that we'd get up to such status with a theme change, but I preferred the communist-themed Pacific over the bunny-themed Pacific.

Greetings to my fellow TWP citizens, our allies and friends and the regions and nations of NS. I am honored that Neenee has chosen me to succeed her as Delegate of TWP. She, Badger and Davelands have been my mentors and best friends ever since I joined. I have always had their support and am grateful for their promise of continued support in my new role. While I am excited for this opportunity to lead my native region, I am also humbled by the thought of trying to build upon the accomplishments of the legendary Delegates that have preceded me. If Neenee hadn’t been couped by rl, her tenure in TWP would have been magnificent. While not completely without experience, I know that I am an infant compared to many of my peers here. The Holy Principality of Saint Mark was “born” in TWP a mere two and a half years ago. TWP has been my primary region, my home, ever since. During this time, I have represented TWP as an ambassador to several of our allies and was the principle author of The Etiquette of The Hall of Nations while I served as the first Speaker of The Hall. I was Minister of Foreign Affairs and am currently a Guardian and Minister for Recruiting and Citizenship. Maybe because of my early focus as an ambassador, I have been a bit of a cosmopolitan. Even though this may have competed with my TWP duties at times (sorry Badger ), it allowed me to make many friends throughout NS. I serve or have served as a Priest of Osiris, an Arbiter of TEP, Pyo Sage of Karma, a regional officer of The Sasquatch Republic and Archbishop of Albion. TWP is a friendly, active, snarky GCR that believes in the supremacy of the Delegate and awards merit. Neenee is our glittery goddess, all of our chocolate belongs to Dark and a pirate shanty stirs our blood. I have always found TWP to be a good fit for me. I consider myself friendly and imaginative … my snark could use work. NS is a game and games are meant to be entertainment. It is most important then that TWP be fun! I pledge to do my best to always make it so. I also pledge to do my best to make TWP a safe place to play. There are many minors among us and it is our responsibility to protect them. Even adults, though, deserve to be treated with respect. Bullying and intolerance will never be acceptable in TWP. Toxicity is why I rarely hang out in GP (although I guess I’ll be around a lot more now … maybe I can help set a gentler tone? ). I see no point in digging up old grudges or launching the same old personal attacks. I will always try to conduct myself with civility and kindness, and will expect the same behavior from the people of TWP. Finally, it is my opinion that, as a feeder, TWP should strive to educate the new players about the world they have entered. To that end, I will also try to improve the educational opportunities in our region. I have a lot of ideas that will help us achieve these goals, but TWP isn’t just the Delegate. A very strong central government, be it an absolute delegacy or an oligarchy, can lead to stagnation. That is why it is crucial to award innovation and hard work. The region will flourish only if it enjoys the creativity, support and efforts of its residents. TWP has terrific people. I am honored to have been chosen to serve as its Delegate and look forward to working with my fellow citizens to realize our region’s full potential. Long Live Neenee! Long Live The West Pacific!

Dec 3 2002 I had just got to work, same office I'm in now just three different owners since then. Browsing National Review, Jonah Goldberg's column said check out nationstates.net, I'm still here. That morning as I was getting out of the car, Eli's Coming; Three Dog Night version was playing, so I'm humming Eli's Coming. My first nation was born that day, Eli was and is a libertarian leaning plain spoken type... I had to have been born in the Pacific, since it was the only GCR at the time, I think this actually pre-dated the Rejected Realms *scratches head* Soon I went to the Capitalist Alliance, founded by New Caithness who is still around today as El-Cid, and started building alliances between my nation and others in that UCR. I ran for Delegate, in game only, and got elected. Not too long after this I woke up in some other region, I don't believe there were founders yet, and discovered to my chagrin/pleasure that I'd been ejected from the Capitalist Alliance by some sordid scoundrels going by the name of the Atlantic Alliance. <insert boos and hisses here> It seems that they had discovered they could take over regions with a bit of organization and a bull rush to the endorsement button of their favorite take over figurehead. It was a result that had never crossed my mind. I did a bit of looking around and found out that there were some in the Meritocracy that would help us recover our region. Some treaty organization that Free4All was in, so we in the CA joined it. This eventually resulted in us overtaking the AA's figurehead (or they got bored and went elsewhere) and in Eli becoming interested in the Meritocracy. https://www.nationstates.net/page=news/2003/12/12/index.html. *I'll add to this later this will become a very postzilla type deal before long*

I'm going to vent. It's stupid to think that banning AR 15s could have prevented the recent school shooting. It's stupid to not ban AR 15s, no one can make a coherent argument for a private citizen to own one. But remember it's just symbolism, there are 300,000,000 guns in the USA. It's ridiculous that the FBI didn't do something about the shooter. I bet they get 10k of those warnings a month, humans-mistakes are pretty common. I've never owned a gun legally myself, 35 years ago I illegally owned an Uzi machine pistol with a fully automatic trigger mechanism. I lived in Illinois at the time so they were illegal there. I traded it for a 10 speed bicycle, once I sawed a limb off a sapling with a magazine I couldn't figure out why I'd want to do that again. Very little if any property crime in my area, everyone owns a gun (except me). You walk in someone's back yard without a compelling reason you're putting your personal safety at risk. More likely from their dog, I doubt Mr and Mrs Average could hit a Suburban with their Glock 17 from further than 10-15 feet. Ricochets on the other hand could be a problem. There is a reason the AT+T guy and the Charter guy where those neon vests and it isn't traffic. It's to make sure Mr/Mrs Suburbia don't light them up. Cnn is a fucking joke, so is Fox. Chris Cuomo should be flayed, while tied to Shawn Hannity, being flayed at the same time. Not really but surely neither one is as stupid as the characters they portray on their nightly BS, if they are God help us all. It's too bad that outright lies and propaganda is peddled as news, Reality TV for ratings rather than facts is all it is. more later, time to go pay for this mess...

I like our open door policy. Tightening citizenship just means driving away potential new players from inside and outside TWP. Citizenship like you describe would make TWP exclusionary to people who don't really know how things work but are happy to help. And ultimately, the heart of TWP is our RMB and the community on it, not the political processes that happen around it. Keep TWP open to all.

Recognizing The Holy Principality of Saint Mark as a leader in many aspects of NationStates. Realizing Saint Mark has influenced many Nations by serving as a leader in the feeder region, [region]the West Pacific[/region]: -Serving as Delegate of the West Pacific -Serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. -Serving as a Guardian of the West. -Green-lighting the the The West Pacific Armed Forces, helping bring peace to game created regions and their allies Also remembering Saint Mark’s Service as a Regional Officer in [region]Osiris[/region], [region]Albion[/region], and [region]The Sasquatch Republic[/region]. Observing Saint Mark’s recognition by NSToday as one of the 20 most influential nations. Appreciating the establishment of the Protect our Players Accord by the Holy Principality of Saint Mark, which created a fun and safe environment for all. Seeking to commemorate the Influence and goodwill of the Holy Principality of Saint Mark. Hereby commends the Holy Principality of Saint Mark. authored and researched by @Teralyon, @TUMS, @Kurabis

Dear all, When I started my nation and signed up on the forum, I was a little intimidated since it was clear that there are some long-time players here. Sorry for not posting sooner! It's also been a bit of a learning curb. It took me time to understand RMB etiquette with things like double posting. I am Fuentana and I have been lightly spamming our RMB with puns and Haikus with some regularity, so this might be a bit of a delayed and unnecessary intro for some. It's been a lot of fun getting more involved over the last few months. I'm looking forward to more chuckles through the region's snark, wordplay, and RP. But I do want to note that I'll be posting Haikus here in the Library and Coffee Shop section of our forum, as well as various RP stuff as I learn them. Probably a decent amount of my RP contributions (if valid; I'm still learning my way in these parts) will be cultural in nature, playing on some of my real life interests. So I hope you'll visit the library from time to time with a cup of coffee in hand (or a dram of whisky) to see what the poetically just people of Fuentana are writing. Cheers!

Hello, and welcome to Fujaian Designs, formerly Flags by Fujai, a graphic design service run by yours truly, Fujai (pronounced foo-'jay or foo'yay). While this service began with flags, it has since expanded to include regional themes, branding (for nations, storefronts, or anything else), maps, seals, badges, awards, coats of arms, banners, and any other type of graphic design! To request a design, simply send me a telegram, forum PM, or a Discord message at Smithy876#6074. I ask that you include what you would like, any ideas you have, such as color or style, and what it will be used for. After I send you a first draft, let me know if there is anything you would like to change—I encourage constructive criticism so that I can make you the best product possible. You can see a gallery of my work at my dispatch here. A couple notes: My only request is that after I've made you a design (assuming that you like it), you point people in my direction if they ask about it or need something designed. Programs I use, if you're curious: For designing, I mainly use Adobe Illustrator (95%), Adobe Photoshop (4%), and FlagMaker (1%). Free alternatives to Illustrator and Photoshop are Inkscape and GIMP. If you are a student or work for a university or large company, you probably have some sort of discount for Adobe products. If you don't have a discount, they charge ridiculously exorbitant prices for much the same functionality as the free alternatives. ColorBrewer.org is a great utility for making scientifically tested color schemes for maps and other forms of data visualization. Color.adobe.com is also a useful tool for making color schemes. I use Instant Eyedropper to sample the color of any pixel on my screen, and Image Resizer for Windows to resize my images easily. This will always be a completely free service. Thanks! --Fujai

Hi there TWP o/ I'm W&S. Some of you know me, others don't, but I'm a soon-to-be-stateless gameplayer who's taken up residence in TWP recently and I realized I hadn't made a forum account here yet. https://www.nationstates.net/nation=twpaf_temp_worker is my nation in TWP. More on the name below :P A little about me for those who don't know me so well: My main nation is Witchcraft and Sorcery and I usually go by W&S or WS or whatever variant of that you please. I just celebrated (or rather completely forgot) my sixth anniversary playing NS on February first. Most of that time has been spent in 10000 Islands, where I've been a senator, dean of the university, and tactical officer of TITO among other things. I also spent a year and a half in the Grey Wardens before returning to 10ki. Right now though I'm in the process of leaving 10ki, this time likely for good as my military ideas have shifted well away from what 10ki stands for. What the heckee am I doing here? Just chilling for now, honestly. I've become friendly with a lot of people in TWP's government over the last couple of years. Badger, Dali, Rigel, Ark, and I've had pleasant interactions with a lot more. Y'all are cool and I'm happy to be here ^_^

That is such a treat, Westwind! Whoa! TWP's history is one of my favorites to hear about. Always do silly and fun. TWP has always been a region that made things their own, I love it. Also I finally found the other thread people were talking in. xD I just commented on the legislation one. My vote was for Imperialist China. Though now I'm sad no one tried to enforce Klingon TWP, I definitely would have voted for that instead. I'm really sad to see some of these older TWP folks discouraging this newer generation from making things their own and investing in a vision for TWP on their terms! Badger sees TWP as a laid back beach vibe, but clearly that's not what anyone was going for when TWP was a Klingon crazyland. Giving newer generations an opportunity to invest in their region is really important. If you're not going to grow with TWP, then it can't be the TWP that you envisioned forever. It has to be the TWP that reaches out to the people investing in it right now, y'know? I get the discomfort. But I feel like these new themes do definitely keep classic TWP elements in them - like the colors didn't go anywhere! - while letting the TWP of the present make their own mark on the region. They need a history too. Also I agree with Dark about confusing names and keeping them clear at least on Gameside. Regions with hard themes are great, but hard to decipher for FA purposes or for new people if they're not pretty well spelled out in like, RO titles or at least a Dispatch somewhere.

Sorry I'm just getting back to this. Westie, reading through your post was emotional and I wasn't able to properly respond. I'm still not but thank you for sharing. Eli, Cormac, and Dark...thank you. I wasn't able to write about my dad they way I wanted until the end of the year. I wrote about my mother too. http://donroach.org/blog/2017/12/31/so-long-2017/ So far, in 2018 I've been making choices to "live" and it's been really good.

So, I've started the process of studying to become an Enrolled Agent. https://www.irs.gov/tax-professionals/enrolled-agents Why? My Job is dull? My neurosis about always being in school? My compulsive need to collect certifications? Tired of not getting my tax questions answered coherently? I'm insane? Yes.

Sounds like you guys had a hell of a blast!

*wipes the dripping sarcasm off his shirt* There was a time when the only thing you had was the RMB and TGs. Then regions started using forums. Then they got into IRC and Skype. Now Discord has supplanted (only) IRC and Skype. If you don't accept and embrace new ways of doing things (especially when everyone else is using those tools) you risk being left behind in the dustbin of history. Better?

The night before Christmas(TWP style) Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the region, Not a nation was posting, cause they were all sleepin'! The preferences all set to vacation mode with care, In hopes that St Delegarth soon would be there. The newbs were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of endorsements danced in their heads. And mamma in her slippers, and a cat in my lap, Had just settled down for a long movie recap. When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below. When, what to my wondering eyes should show, But a miniature sleigh, and five tiny RO's. With a little old driver, so lively and swarth, I knew in a moment it must be St Delegarth! More rapid than eagles his coursers they came, And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name! "Now PD!, now Yy,!, now Badger and Medio! On Bhang Bhang! On all you, we got to go! To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall! Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!" As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky. So up to the house-top the coursers they flew, With the sleigh full of endos, and St Delegarth too. And then, in a twinkling, I heard, just out of view, The prancing and pawing of each little shoe. As I drew in my head, and was turning around, Down the chimney St Delegarth came with a bound. He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot. A bundle of endos he had flung on his back, And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack. His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry! His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry! His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow, And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow. The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath. He had a broad face and a little round belly, That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly! He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself! A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread. He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work, And sent all endorsements, then turned with a jerk. And laying his finger aside of his nose, And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose! He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle. But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight, "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

I think it's time to move on. I appreciate Mal starting this thread, but I believe we should look at what we've done already and say that's enough, no need to keep picking the scab.

And this my friends is the crux of the issue. The delegate has no authority as far as I can tell to dissolve the offsite government. But Minister of Legislative RP did, technically, and he may have some backing to do so. I have no desire to participate in any form of government that can be so unilaterally dissolved without so much as a notice. The reason is, why invest in something if someone - per whatever - just wants to pull the rug out. Not cool in my book.

*Gets on soapbox* I feel that leadership in the voice was an issue. No sooner were people selected to fill positions, then they were absent. Frequently! For long periods of time without interacting with or leading the voice. It happened frequently and caused a void at a time when we needed guidance. Furthermore, several leaders in abstentia were guardians. So their void was felt on both sides of TWP. I would not complain without a possible solution. Nearly every absence was announced, but no one was substituted to take their place. When a DA or guardian has to leave because of RL, then a replacement, either full time or temporarily must be selected. Another leadership concern I have observed that has stifled activities on the forum is ejecting active members. I'm sure the people deserved to be removed but we haven't replaced their activity. Banning people has consequences. Makes some not want to be active. Lastly, leadership has not been as welcoming and encouraging as they need to be. Many never comment, post, or play the games thereby encouraging less forum usage with their absence. Some are negative or too stern when commenting. This is a game! People who are chastised do not have fun. Furthermore, I feel that many in the leadership are too clique-ish and exclude others especially new participants. Dissolving the Voice was the choice made by leadership to create more forum activity. Perhaps a change in management philosophy was all that was necessary? I'm not writing this as an indictment on delegates, guardians, advocates or deputy advocates. I'm writing this because I care. TWP has been fun for me and I'd like to increase my enjoyment. I'd like to be more active because it's fun for me! But leadership needs to be there for us to inspire activity! *Steps off soapbox* PS: I typed this on my phone, sorry for editing issues on an important post.

The trouble with leaving TWP for a while and then returning for the occasional pop-in, is that you've not the slightest idea what's going-on; most of the old regulars have left, you don't know many of the active new regulars, and they haven't the slightest idea who you are! Severely limits the understanding of any gossip that's gone-on, or anything else for that matter!

I am opposed to in game polls having any role what so ever with the forum government.

The in-game population has the most powerful voice of all: It elects the Delegate. This forum would not even be linked on the regional WFE if not for the Delegate elected by the in-game population willing it to be there, and if the in-game population disapproves of this forum or its community government, it can elect a Delegate who will link to a different forum and/or support a different community government. This proposal doesn't strip anyone of anything. Any resident of the West Pacific would be free and more than welcome to participate in the Union via this forum. Where this proposal differs from yours is that the Union does not force participation on a diverse in-game population. Take a look at the poll Darkesia is running right now. Most of those who have voted in the poll have indicated that they've declined to join the forum because they don't care. They're entitled to not care. Another option getting a lot of votes is from people who only play on weekends and don't want more commitment. Why should we force these residents to care and make more commitments by shoving government in their faces via dispatches, RMB clutter, and polls that would increasingly be devoted to government rather than casual fun? I've been critical of the West Pacific's system in the past, but one benefit of it is that this is one of the few regions in which not everyone has to participate in government in order to participate. Anyone who wants to can join this forum; let's not make them participate in government when they don't want to, and risk losing the other ways they participate, by inundating the in-game region with governmental matters.

Ainur appointed forum destroyer 94 Block to command their military. That was strike one. Ainur retained forum destroyer 94 Block to command their military after he took up arms against a fellow GCR. That was strike two. Ainur dispatched forum destroyer 94 Block to conduct diplomacy with The West Pacific via their forum embassy. That was strike three. Ainur is, in my opinion, out. I move to close Ainur's forum embassy.

lacking perfect people the odds seem remote, but I get your point. I for one will not detail my imperfections because it would detract from my narcissism