Westwind

Greetings !
 
The West Pacific has been through some interesting times lately.  From the silence of inactivity, to indecision on which way to go and what type of government to build.  From a system of chaos, to the building blocks of The Provisional Government. From there we encountered a challenge to the Delegacy of Yy4u followed by his renunciation of his WA membership.  And finally, the Wickedly Evil Chocolate Alliance (WECA) and The Opposition have formed in TWP.  Our friends from around NationStates have shown their concern and support for the well being and stability of TWP, and I thank all of you.
 
Firstly, I come before you today to invite you join me in The West Pacific Imperium.
 
I am converting the building blocks of The Provisional Government into the Imperium.  And I invite members of WECA, members of the Opposition, and all member nations of The West Pacific to participate.
 
The Imperium seeks to restore the legacy of greatness of The West Pacific, with allegiance to The Delegate and Guardians and a government that is open to participation for TWP players that wish to stand together for the brighter future of our region.  Today the West Pacific Armed forces are on the march, joining our friends from around NS to show our enemies that we do not sleep.  Our Ambassadors are active keeping our Embassies up to date on our latest happenings.  Our Court has displayed both justice and fairness for those that threaten us.  And The Landstraad is accepting all TWP nations that wish to join and have a place to be heard.
 
I have long been one to recognize the primacy of NS game mechanics over any forum government's attempt to usurp authority within the game. I support and uphold the cause of the Guardians to protect the security of the Delegacy and region.  And I also recognize the need to work together with the forum community to build a region and government that stands tall among the Regions of the NS World. Together, we can forge the future. Together, we are The West Pacific.
 
Secondly, I also come before you today to ask for your endorsement to serve as Delegate of The West Pacific.
 
It has been some time since I've sat in a Delegate's seat, but I have some..... small experience.  I have served The West Pacific and our former Delegates in helping to protect the security and stability of the region, and have been very honored to have been selected to join the Guardians. I have asked the Guardians to continue in their important service to the region, and I have invited former Delegate Yy4u to rejoin the Guardians.  He has accepted.
 
I am not as long winded in my speeches as I once was.  (For which I'm sure there will be applause.)  So I close with my pledge to protect and serve The West Pacific, and to act in our best interests in all matters.  I hope you will join me in the next chapter of our long and storied history.

Unfortunately, that is the nature of Game Mechanics.  Influence was established in NationStates in 2006, and had a dramatically negative effect on overall game participation.  And as it has been allowed to grow unchecked for seven years, old inactive player nations are able to gather levels of Influence that makes them untouchable. And with a large number of endorsements, an outside army could come into the region and endorse that nation into the Delegacy, and the Delegate would be unable to remove them.  We cetainly don't want other regions to have the ability to change our delegacy in that manner, thus we the players take a degree of control over the accumulation of Influence.  I've always been opposed to Influence, but Max Barry refuses to remove it.  This proposed change in how Influence in calculated is a major concession, and I'm pleased to see it.  It will give newer players a better opportunity to rise through the ranks of Influence much more quickly in the Game Created Regions.  And we really would love to see 'new blood' reinvigorate the game.
 
 
That would be interesting, but it's simply not possible as the game mechanics are designed.  As it is, one gives Influence by giving endorsements.  The more endorsements a nation has, the more Influence they gain daily. But you cannot share your Influence with another nation.
 
Yy's explaination concerning those that exceed the cap is accurate.  There are times when players deliberately test the endorsement caps to see if the Delegate is paying attention.  If the Delegate isn't paying attention, they will try to steal the Delegacy for themselves with no concern for the well being of the region and its community.  When someone is spotted swapping like that (endotarting), they will receive a warning, but their opportunity to rectify the situation will be short.  It only takes one update (12 hours) at most to leave the region and return with all endorsements removed.  A nation showing such disregard is a threat, and will be removed.
 
Inadvertantly passing the cap can occur, but I noticed when a nation is approaching the cap, and contact them before it happens to remind them of the cap, and provide information on what they can do to prevent themselves from exceeding the cap.  If after several contacts the nation is unwilling to comply and exceed the cap, I can eject the nation just before update, so that they are free to return afterwards.  Spending an update outside the region will remove all endorsements.  If they are beligerent about the situation, I will simply ban them outright.
 
The cap as it stands requires a bit of work to attain.  So casual endorsement swapping is not going to be curtailed by the cap.  Significant casual swapping will get you to the 50 endorsement level, more takes more attention to gain.  Adding a low cap for those that fail to endorse the Delegate is a fair burden.  And if a 'government level' cap will encourage government participation in order to be allowed more endorsements, all the better for our region and community.

We could try to include some kind of short survey with each mass tg I send out. Give them another way to participate, a way to express themselves, and the results can be part of our updates.

The implimentation of Regional Officers is still too unclear to make many assumptions about how to use that feature yet.  Seems most expectations are that there will be an Influence cost to appoint them, and I don't see how that would benefit me as Delegate of a GCR to waste Influence on RO's.  It's also undecided as to what powers a RO might be granted, and what the Influence cost to them might be.
 
These new features are being approached almost purely from a raider/defender dynamic point of view.  I support making the r/d game more dynamic, but it seems they are sidelining consideration of the non-r/d effects. 

It is my pleasure to announce and present our newest treaty, approved byThe West Pacific Council of the Imperium and The Pacific Senate. 
 
 
Signed this 24th day of August, 2013
All Good People, Delegate
 

Much of what happens depends upon each of you, our members. 
 
To be quite frank, the Guardians have picked up the slack in areas where others have failed in order to maintain the 'functional' status of TWP, even thought that isn't their job.  I am extremely thankful for their assistance. I haven't seen any initiative on the part of Ambassadors or the Council of the Imperium to assist in our Foreign Affairs, so I and the Guardians have been handling it even though they are not the government.  I have issued statements on behalf of TWP when FA has been unable to do so.  I have a full time job as Delegate/Administrator/Head of Government already, so as I've said before, I can only do what I have time to do, the rest will fall by the wayside unless others step up.  I don't expect anyone to overload themselves, and I won't overload myself. I know how quickly that will lead to burn out.
 
I am engaged in discussions with several of our fellow GCR's.  The offsite Embassies between TWP and Osiris have both been reopened, and the normalization of our relations should continue.  I have been engaged in discussions with The Paciific, The East Pacific, and The South Pacific.  We have provided informal adminstrative assistance to The North Pacific, and I've gained diplomatic access in Balder.  I handle diplomatic and WA requests and questions ingame daily.
 
I handle inregion requests and questions daily, and monitor the region for threats.
 
I opened discussions on Osiris in the Landstaad and mostly got silence.  Of course, the situation in Osiris and with Gatesville consumed a great deal of my time and resources to the detriment of other areas.
 
I opened discussion on the COPS Treaty and got silence.
 
Other discussions languish unattended.  I would like to see the proposal I made regarding the formalization of the Landstraad move forward.  Once that is accomplished, I would like to move towards electing a Speaker there.
 
ISS continues to work towards greater activity and participation of it's team.  More needs to be done.
 
I'd like to see FA issue regular updates to our Embassies. We haven't issued a new update since April.  That disturbs me.  I asked the Ministers to provide updates from each Ministry to be included in updates, and this has not happened.
 
Sometimes the Council of the Imperium is very slow to respond to anything I bring to their attention.  Sometimes I have to pm them to get them to notice. Sometimes they are absent on summer vacations, that's normal and perfectly acceptable.  Some have not contributed at the level I would like to see, but the alternatives are few.  I notice how some are more actively engaged elsewhere than they are here.
 
Interior Affairs has been hampered by the summer doldrums, but I hope that will break soon.  You can't have an event unless their are active people to participate in them.  There seems to be an uptick in activity, but it's too early to tell if that's temporary, or the beginning of a trend.  But always keep in mind that it does not require the Interior Mininster to start a thread or activity, anyone can contribute.
 
Arbiter General for RP, Vesica, has been suffering the effects of RL, thus has not be actively attending RP.  If someone else is interested in taking the initiative to manage and support this area, let Intelligent Holograms and I know.
 
TWP Armed Forces have suffered from two inactive commanders that failed to address their own inactivity, and failed to respond to me repeatedly. We also suffered the loss of Westwind's Flying Circus, so we have not had that cross-participation to work with.  I have been in discussion with a couple people to work towards a remedy to this situation. And I have been in discussions on miltiary cooperation with other regions.  We need experience in leadership there, but more importantly we need active leadership.  As I said in announcing the removal of Jakker, anyone is free to contact me about helping out.  And for those that I haven't fully followed up with, my apology, I have to prioritize my time, and try to coordinate with others.  I haven't forgotten you, I'll get to ya   But public affairs like this, require my more immediate attention.
 
The point of this is, the region is dependent upon it's members for it's activity and participation in all areas of NationStates. The Guardians' job is to ensure the security of the ingame region, and provide their valuable advice to the Delegate.  They've done their jobs exceedingly well.  My job is to manage the Delegacy and protect the region as my first priorities, then administer the forum and provide for the structure, policy and direction of the government. Foreign Affairs is a high priority as well, as other regions look to the Delegate. The Ministers' job is to manage their areas and keep them active.  TWP Armed Forces Commanders job is to manage, recruit, train and lead the military, as well as coordinate and cooperate with our military partners in other regions.
 
I need your help to make TWP the NS powerhouse that it can be. Your initiative, and your active participation will merit greater recognition and advancement. If anyone shows the ability to do a better, more active job than someone already in a titled position, challenge for the position.  Show me that you merit the title, the position.  I want TWP to have the best, the brightest, the most active, the most willing to provide service to our region.   The West Pacific is my first priority, and I'd like it to be the first priority of all our leaders.  I want us to have Ministries that are able to manage themselves and keep their respective areas active, both inregion and interregionally.  I want the TWP Armed Forces to grow and be known as a significant force in NationStates.  I want to see a new generation of TWP leaders and see potential future Delegates rise up in service to the region. 
 
IMO, the state of the region has improved quite a bit as the year has progressed, but there is still further to go.  We have a structure, we have a government, we have functionality, we have basic philosphy.  We just need to build on that foundation.

Cool aren't they ?  Or as my pre-title said last week, "Cold FIre". 
 
TWP was one of the three pillars of the ADN, so of course they must rise again together.  Along with Equilism and Nasicournia, The ADN will return the winds of Defender Unity across the regions. Yes, their turn will come, it has all been written in the Book of Max.  Amen.
 
But before all that comes the Delegate musical chairs among the GCR's., then in an NS coding glich of a magnatude never before seen. TAO will become Non-WA Delegate of the Five Feeders, leading the New TAO Order to clear the deadwood from all NS, preparing the way for the terrible Mod/Admin wars to come. *shudders*
 
So why wait to move your WA till tomorrow morning ?  It's always tomorrow morning someplace.

My daughter made the news, won the local United Way Kid's art contest
 
http://www.kxlh.com/news/four-georgians-students-wins-united-way-art-contest/
 
The presentation they mention is in an hour from now, so I'm headed there now.

At the top of the forum, on the right-hand side, you'll find your account name with a little upside-down triangle next to it.  Click on that, and select 'My Settings'.  Once there, you can click on 'Photo' to change your avatar.
 
Hope that helps !

My daughter made the news, won the local United Way Kid's art contest
 
http://www.kxlh.com/news/four-georgians-students-wins-united-way-art-contest/
 
The presentation they mention is in an hour from now, so I'm headed there now.

My daughter made the news, won the local United Way Kid's art contest
 
http://www.kxlh.com/news/four-georgians-students-wins-united-way-art-contest/
 
The presentation they mention is in an hour from now, so I'm headed there now.

This is the west pacific IH where we like people to act and if they make a mistake, we can always do something about it. Not acting, in my opinion, is worse than taking an aggressive action for the greater good.
 
Yes, you messed up but keep pushing the envelope!

There's info on it on the NS forum here:

http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=183419

I'll be even more depressing.....I don't think it's anything new or different.  I don't think it's anything that's changed.  Some individuals lose it.  It's a part of life.  Not all Human beings all well balanced, and unless we're prepared to let science choose our dna before we're born, and arrest people for pre-crimes I don't see it changing.
 
And with more population, there's going to be more people that lose it.  Just simple population pressure.  There's always been a percentage that freak out.  The percentage doesn't change, but the population is rising, so there appears to be more of them.  And when social pressures increase, more of them lose it.
 
Humans used to be rural, now we're urban.  Mass attacks will be more frequent beacuse that's how we live now....in dense population centers.
 
I agree, it has absolutely nothing to do with guns or gun laws.  If they don't have guns, they'll buy Castor beans at the natural food store and make Ricin laced envelopes to mail to schools, or whoever, whatever.  Or go on a knifing spree...or beat their victims with a baseball bat.....or set off home made bombs.  Lock the door and mix bleach and amonia together to gas everyone in the room...much cheaper than buying a gun.  Gun control is a red herring and a knee jerk "there outta be a law" from the busibodies that want to tell everyone else how to live (which is the nature of all politicians of all parties). It has absolutely nothing to do with safety.
 
A bad economy doesn't help (50% unemployment in high school/college graduates).  A future with no prospects or hope doesn't help.  Just adds to the pressure.  Governments that have parties where one wants to steal from the rich to give to the poor, while the other wants to starve the poor and protect the rich is destroying personal liberties and economic opportunity for everyone.  Left/right, conservative/liberal.....they're all fruitcake nuts that are only out for their narrow busibody worldview with a total disregard for all others. They want to tell you when you can have sex and when you can't.  They want to tell you what to eat and what not to eat.  (Castor Beans which contain deadly ricin is legal while cannabis which is harmless is illegal ?) Since when was any of this the business of these busibodies politicians?  The more pressure you put on the society, the more that pressure will seek release, and set off those venurable individuals. Basic sociology and psychology.  The politicians are playing games with things they don't understand.....because we elect idiots....because it seems only busibodies run for office.
 
Religion is another sociatal pressure.  "My god is better than your god, and if you don't believe then you're going to hell so It's okay if I kill you in the name of my god."  What the hell is wrong with human beings ?  What a terrible sickness !  Self-righteous bigots wear their robes and make their pronouncement of hell, sin, death, fatwa.....rather than focus on the teachers truths of love, hope, compassion and respect.  So venerable individuals cling to the inspiration to bring death to those they don't understand....after all, it's easier to kill what you don't understand than to learn respect for your fellow humans.  And religion can give you an excuse and absolve you for your shitty behaviour towards your fellow humans.
 
*sigh*
 
Now, where's that chocolate you promised.

And if Feux doesn't do something with his assignment to handle Interior quickly, I'll be happy to appoint anyone else with the drive to handle it instead.
 
Wanting a position is worthless to the community if you don't jump at the chance when it's provided.

I'll just mention what I've mentioned elsewhere.
 
This:
 
is in conflict with this...
 
 
TWP does not need to be forced to provide an avenue of redress for AdSpamming Nazi's our delegate banjects.

January, 2013
From the TWP Foreign Affairs Desk
http://twp.nosync.org

World Assembly Delegate:
Yy4u

The Guardians of The West Pacific:
Wickedly evil people - Darkesia – ROLHEATH- Bhang Bhang Duc
Punk Reloaded - All Good People
 New Forum

In case you haven’t heard, The West Pacific has archived it’s forum of six years in favour of starting anew. It’s the same address with a fresh install of forum software. Stop by, register and have a drink in The Clubhouse. We’d be glad to see you visit with us.
http://twp.nosync.org

 The West Pacific Armed Forces on The March

The newly revived and renamed WPAF! (The West Pacific Armed Forces) are now accepting applications for soldiers and field commanders. Experienced and Inexperienced are both welcome. In recent weeks, WPAF! Deployed in a number of missions around NationStates, and have worked closely with our allies in Equilism. A new Era in TWP military history has begun!

 Summit in The Pacific

The West Pacific is honored to be represented at the Anti-Nazi Summit of the GCR's. It is our hope that Unity among our Feeder and Sinker cousins will ensure that there is no doubt of our resolve to address the Nazi problem. We do not tolerate disrespect for the GCR player communities, and abhor the determination to purposefully annoy other players while spreading an ideology of hate.

"Once again, racists are finding new ways to exploit technology to spread their message of white supremacy, anti-Semitism and hate to a mass audience," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. " It's a disgusting, sick perversion of the original games...."

 Turmoil in the NationStates Republic

Activity has threatened to breath new life into the NationStates Republic, of which The West Pacific is a Founding member. As often happens, inactivity at the top of the organization resulted in a conflict of leadership and purpose.

Founder and Vice President Punk Daddy with the assistance of NSR Admin and House of Lords member Tweedy removed President People United Together from office for inactivity. Opinions from around the Alliance ranged from full support of PD's actions, to concerns that it was an unconstitutional coup. People United Together explained that RL matters had taken up his time, and provided evidence that accusations of 'forum destruction' were a matter of misunderstanding.

Voting was opened for the House of Lords to determine whether to restore PUT to the Presidency, or reboot the allinace as Punk Daddy proposed. With a mear total 4 votes cast, the House of Lords restored PUT to the Presidency.

It is the hope of The West Pacific, that this will present a new opportunity for the NSR members to ensure they are actively represented as new elections are due in about one month.


 SCANDAL! The West Pacific Ministry of Prophetic Events fails

Is your NationStates life constantly interrupted by that problem known as RL ? Well, we would like to apologize to those that were trusting in the November report of The West Pacific Ministry of Prophetic Events. The Ministry had announced that the true event of December 21, 2012 was that RL would come to an end, as the NS world replaces it. Unfortunately, reports of the continued existance of RL have been plentiful since the 'end of the world' came and went.

We hope that RL will treat you all gently in 2013.

 Report from The West Pacific Guardians.

Reprinted and embellished with permission of WTF news....

The Guardians of The West Pacific have been seen taking various hangover remedies to recover from the long holiday season. Delegate Yy4u got himself dehydrated and had to be rehydrated. Fortunately, he's recovered nicely and bites every nazi that polutes our RMB. Former Delegate Punk Reloaded (aka Punk Daddy) was seen in a post-holiday hangover rage, as he grabbed TWP Mayor Tweedy by the graphics and demanded, "More! We need more activity NOW!"

Meanwhile, former Delegate Enlightened Defenders (aka Mr. ED) returned from his walkabout, blaming a 'hard drive' for his absence. Likely story. Horses don't have hard drives installed in them. Might as well claim that the dog ate your homework.

Also, an alert to our freinds that maintain Embassies with us...... former Delegate ROLHEATH was again spotted raiding the liquor cabinet of one of the local embassies. Guard those liquor cabinets, or face the consequences !

And finally, former Delegate Darkesia was busy celebrating National Chocolate Day. Fresh chocolate cupcakes for everyone.

The West Pacific has been watching the unfolding situation in Osiris, and send our best wishes to all Osirian citizens in this trying time. The participation of non-Osirian entities in the events is somewhat unsettling, and TWP hopes that a lesson will be learned when it comes to becoming involved in the internal affairs of a Feeder or Sinker region. It is the position of TWP that this is an internal matter for the Government of Osiris to resolve itself, without interference from outside the region.
As always, TWP stands firm in it's committment to the security and sovereignty of our brother and sister Feeder/Sinker regions.
From the Foreign Affairs Desk of The West Pacific,
Guardian Westwind of All Good People

I've been considering distribution of TWP Updates via pdf as well. Well done!
I hope Osiris is able to quickly recover stability and security in light of recent events.

I'd love to be assigned to a region, or multiple regions. Of course, my familiarity with NS affairs is a tad terrible at present so I understand if I'm not regarded as particularly useful, Also. I don't think I'm quite annoying enough to make somebody declare war but I can't promise not to do something that causes sanctions to be imposed on us. Or to check my suitcases for plants or animals that cause a plague upon returning, I'm too absent-minded for that.
As an aside, I believe I still have the details of the ambassadorial medal scheme I created for retention and recruitment purposes should TWP ever desire them. They were focused on rewarding various stages of service and recognising exemplary effort so may need a little tweaking given the changes I missed.

Aye, agreed. Especially in an NS world full of UCR's that don't understand the nature of GCR's.

This embassy thread is created for Osiris.
*installs an ancient Osirian liquor cabinet found in Biyah's TWP storage unit*

I had applied as the TWP Ambassador to Osiris, but last I checked my mask had not been updated. I suppose I should check again, eh ?
*checks*
Mask updated...woot !
The Osiris Embassy is now open...