Reçueçn

UPDATE
I'm please to see what looks like a great crew coming together! We'll be getting things rolling soon. I'm here to bring a little bit more information in the meantime.
Sign-ups will probably be closing early next week. Typically, I'm hoping to get two or three game days in each week so that we can have a bit of a regular schedule once the season starts, but we'll have a slightly longer period--one week--between the closing of sign-ups and the first RP cutoff. This will allow people to work on rosters, etc. I've decided also that the RP bonus you will receive for your roster won't decay the same way other RP bonuses will. This means: write a roster! Even if you're not going to RP, it's nice to at least let other people know who they're playing against. I will post a guide to writing your own roster when I post the RP thread, which I will do when sign-ups close. Also, even if you don't get around to it right away, it means that it'll help you out to write a roster at any point. As they say, better late than never. I will also be giving you extra time before the first cutoff so that if you like, you can write a roster as well as your first RP. I will be giving space for a bonus for both.
Another note on scheduling: I'm hoping to have a nice round number of teams so that organizing you guys into conferences can be nice and symmetrical. I have a little control over the numbers, but I may jump in and cut off sign-ups if I see there's nice round number, which is why I'm not publishing an exact date for the close of sign-ups. That said, all of you who are members of the Hall of Nations are eligible to enter two teams. That means that a few of you can still enter one more team. @Podium, @Craiolia, @Arnic, @ghouldovka, @HankTheTank87, and @ete74, you can all still submit one more entry.
My goal is to have 4 conferences named after the continents on the map; Polaris, Doll Guldur, Aura, and Andolia. Since most of the teams are from Polaris, and some people aren't on the map, the conferences won't actually reflect the geographic location of the teams. It depends on the numbers, of course, but I'm hoping that each team will play every other team in their conference at home and away. The conferences will also be put into pairs and teams will play an inter-conference game with each team in their paired conference. I will try to place teams into conferences so that no one who has two teams will have to play against themselves--what's the point of that?
Anyway, that's the plan, so I hope that this is nice and transparent and gets us all on the same page. Sorry for the wall of text.
You'll hear back from me next week!

ARC Arnic
BAS Bran Astor
BBB Big Bad Badger
CDS Crandolus
CRL Craiolia
FJA Fujai
NIU Nieubasria
OVT Overthinkers
PDM Podium
RCN Recuecn
Here's my list I'm compiling for TWP football. If I can get a two letter country code, can I have RN? .rn works great as a domain, too
 

IC Thread
Welcome to The West Pacific’s inaugural college football competition, hosted by WPCAA, the West Pacific Collegiate Athletic Association. Any resident of TWP may participate in this event, over the course of which you will be able to watch your teams play against your region-mates in pursuit of victory and glory! This thread is where you will sign up, and it will also serve to establish the rules, as well as provide a platform for any OOC (out of context) discussion or questions that may arise.
How to Sign Up
Signing up for TWP college football is easy! Just make a post in this thread saying you would like to sign up, and provide the name of your TWP nation, the name of the team you are entering, and the name of the school they represent! That’s it! If you prefer, you can fill out the application form below, which will allow you to provide a little more information. (One thing you might want to give me is a style modifier, a tool I use to simulate your team’s style of play.)

Rules & Info
Sign-ups will be open until around the end of the month. Exact date TBD depending on my schedule.
Only Residents of The West Pacific may enter.
Members of TWP’s Hall of Nations may enter 2 teams in the competition, all other nations may enter 1.
Results will be determined through the use of a ‘scorinator,’ a program used to randomly generate scores.
Contestants are encouraged to roleplay; any roleplay will gain for its author a bonus to boost their team’s chances of winning their next game. A roleplay thread will be posted when sign-ups close.
Roleplays, or RPs, can be about anything. They can be written specifically about the team and its past results, or anything else. Users with two teams can roleplay for both. I will split the bonus between the two teams as indicated or as seems appropriate.
A decaying cumulative RP bonus will be used. In other words, recent RPs will count for a larger bonus than older ones, but all RPs will grant at least some bonus. Not all RPs will receive the same bonus.
The teams of any contestant who endorses the guardian will be granted a small bonus.
Nations who do not provide a style modifier will be given a modifier of 0. Nations who don’t provide a trigram will also be given one.
Based on the number of teams who sign-up, the teams will be divided into conferences. Ideally, no player will play against themselves, and some vague correspondence to our TWP map will be maintained. The season schedule will include conference and inter-conference play, and will be determined based on the size and number of the conferences.
The winners of each conference will enter the post-season and have a chance to gain eternal fame by winning TWP’s first Dragon Bowl!
Currently, we hope to post results two or three times a week, according to my personal RL schedule and the conference schedule. The season will start sometime at the beginning of June.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask here!
 

IC Thread
Welcome to The West Pacific’s inaugural college football competition, hosted by WPCAA, the West Pacific Collegiate Athletic Association. Any resident of TWP may participate in this event, over the course of which you will be able to watch your teams play against your region-mates in pursuit of victory and glory! This thread is where you will sign up, and it will also serve to establish the rules, as well as provide a platform for any OOC (out of context) discussion or questions that may arise.
How to Sign Up
Signing up for TWP college football is easy! Just make a post in this thread saying you would like to sign up, and provide the name of your TWP nation, the name of the team you are entering, and the name of the school they represent! That’s it! If you prefer, you can fill out the application form below, which will allow you to provide a little more information. (One thing you might want to give me is a style modifier, a tool I use to simulate your team’s style of play.)

Rules & Info
Sign-ups will be open until around the end of the month. Exact date TBD depending on my schedule.
Only Residents of The West Pacific may enter.
Members of TWP’s Hall of Nations may enter 2 teams in the competition, all other nations may enter 1.
Results will be determined through the use of a ‘scorinator,’ a program used to randomly generate scores.
Contestants are encouraged to roleplay; any roleplay will gain for its author a bonus to boost their team’s chances of winning their next game. A roleplay thread will be posted when sign-ups close.
Roleplays, or RPs, can be about anything. They can be written specifically about the team and its past results, or anything else. Users with two teams can roleplay for both. I will split the bonus between the two teams as indicated or as seems appropriate.
A decaying cumulative RP bonus will be used. In other words, recent RPs will count for a larger bonus than older ones, but all RPs will grant at least some bonus. Not all RPs will receive the same bonus.
The teams of any contestant who endorses the guardian will be granted a small bonus.
Nations who do not provide a style modifier will be given a modifier of 0. Nations who don’t provide a trigram will also be given one.
Based on the number of teams who sign-up, the teams will be divided into conferences. Ideally, no player will play against themselves, and some vague correspondence to our TWP map will be maintained. The season schedule will include conference and inter-conference play, and will be determined based on the size and number of the conferences.
The winners of each conference will enter the post-season and have a chance to gain eternal fame by winning TWP’s first Dragon Bowl!
Currently, we hope to post results two or three times a week, according to my personal RL schedule and the conference schedule. The season will start sometime at the beginning of June.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask here!
 

IC Thread
Welcome to The West Pacific’s inaugural college football competition, hosted by WPCAA, the West Pacific Collegiate Athletic Association. Any resident of TWP may participate in this event, over the course of which you will be able to watch your teams play against your region-mates in pursuit of victory and glory! This thread is where you will sign up, and it will also serve to establish the rules, as well as provide a platform for any OOC (out of context) discussion or questions that may arise.
How to Sign Up
Signing up for TWP college football is easy! Just make a post in this thread saying you would like to sign up, and provide the name of your TWP nation, the name of the team you are entering, and the name of the school they represent! That’s it! If you prefer, you can fill out the application form below, which will allow you to provide a little more information. (One thing you might want to give me is a style modifier, a tool I use to simulate your team’s style of play.)

Rules & Info
Sign-ups will be open until around the end of the month. Exact date TBD depending on my schedule.
Only Residents of The West Pacific may enter.
Members of TWP’s Hall of Nations may enter 2 teams in the competition, all other nations may enter 1.
Results will be determined through the use of a ‘scorinator,’ a program used to randomly generate scores.
Contestants are encouraged to roleplay; any roleplay will gain for its author a bonus to boost their team’s chances of winning their next game. A roleplay thread will be posted when sign-ups close.
Roleplays, or RPs, can be about anything. They can be written specifically about the team and its past results, or anything else. Users with two teams can roleplay for both. I will split the bonus between the two teams as indicated or as seems appropriate.
A decaying cumulative RP bonus will be used. In other words, recent RPs will count for a larger bonus than older ones, but all RPs will grant at least some bonus. Not all RPs will receive the same bonus.
The teams of any contestant who endorses the guardian will be granted a small bonus.
Nations who do not provide a style modifier will be given a modifier of 0. Nations who don’t provide a trigram will also be given one.
Based on the number of teams who sign-up, the teams will be divided into conferences. Ideally, no player will play against themselves, and some vague correspondence to our TWP map will be maintained. The season schedule will include conference and inter-conference play, and will be determined based on the size and number of the conferences.
The winners of each conference will enter the post-season and have a chance to gain eternal fame by winning TWP’s first Dragon Bowl!
Currently, we hope to post results two or three times a week, according to my personal RL schedule and the conference schedule. The season will start sometime at the beginning of June.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask here!
 

IC Thread
Welcome to The West Pacific’s inaugural college football competition, hosted by WPCAA, the West Pacific Collegiate Athletic Association. Any resident of TWP may participate in this event, over the course of which you will be able to watch your teams play against your region-mates in pursuit of victory and glory! This thread is where you will sign up, and it will also serve to establish the rules, as well as provide a platform for any OOC (out of context) discussion or questions that may arise.
How to Sign Up
Signing up for TWP college football is easy! Just make a post in this thread saying you would like to sign up, and provide the name of your TWP nation, the name of the team you are entering, and the name of the school they represent! That’s it! If you prefer, you can fill out the application form below, which will allow you to provide a little more information. (One thing you might want to give me is a style modifier, a tool I use to simulate your team’s style of play.)

Rules & Info
Sign-ups will be open until around the end of the month. Exact date TBD depending on my schedule.
Only Residents of The West Pacific may enter.
Members of TWP’s Hall of Nations may enter 2 teams in the competition, all other nations may enter 1.
Results will be determined through the use of a ‘scorinator,’ a program used to randomly generate scores.
Contestants are encouraged to roleplay; any roleplay will gain for its author a bonus to boost their team’s chances of winning their next game. A roleplay thread will be posted when sign-ups close.
Roleplays, or RPs, can be about anything. They can be written specifically about the team and its past results, or anything else. Users with two teams can roleplay for both. I will split the bonus between the two teams as indicated or as seems appropriate.
A decaying cumulative RP bonus will be used. In other words, recent RPs will count for a larger bonus than older ones, but all RPs will grant at least some bonus. Not all RPs will receive the same bonus.
The teams of any contestant who endorses the guardian will be granted a small bonus.
Nations who do not provide a style modifier will be given a modifier of 0. Nations who don’t provide a trigram will also be given one.
Based on the number of teams who sign-up, the teams will be divided into conferences. Ideally, no player will play against themselves, and some vague correspondence to our TWP map will be maintained. The season schedule will include conference and inter-conference play, and will be determined based on the size and number of the conferences.
The winners of each conference will enter the post-season and have a chance to gain eternal fame by winning TWP’s first Dragon Bowl!
Currently, we hope to post results two or three times a week, according to my personal RL schedule and the conference schedule. The season will start sometime at the beginning of June.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask here!
 

this has become far more flashy and complex since i last played many years ago. so, I have founded The Constitutional Monarchy of Innislynn really to see where it goes this time. (i was there so long it got rather repetative)
in meatscape life i'm a live-in carer for someone, avid gamer and historical re-enactor. depending on with group i'm with vikingr, yeoman archer, and medieval heavy infantry. (unfortuantely during season i may vanish for a few days at a time being camped out in some field somewhere)
 

Such an interesting thread! I love having our own local historian here in TWP. Although most historians aren't also important historical figures...

I thought the RMB discussion was really good, and I don't know if it's just me, or if it seems like our RMB is doing a bit better the last couple days. I think talking about this has made me personally more aware of how I interact with it and with the other people on it. Westwind's also definitely right in that it's important to include everyone in these sort of discussions, and it was nice that using the RMB allowed people even from different regions to weigh in. (I didn't mean to be exclusive when I started a topic in the Hall, my bad.)
I don't feel, though, that just talking about it has really resolved the issue. I don't want to monopolize the conversation, or drag this on if people feel it's not worth their time, but I do want this dialogue to move forward and arrive somewhere. Just talking about it and saying "yeah we should do something" might make us individually a bit more mindful for a little bit, but that wears off awfully quickly.
As Dali has said, legislation isn't the answer. We don't need more rules. But I think what's attractive about that is that if we voted on something, the symbolism of a collective agreement would make it more meaningful. So here's another idea from me before I just let this drop.
What if we drafted a statement--not strict guidelines, not rules--just a declaration of the kind of behavior we'd like to see on our RMB. We'd talk about where we've come from as a region, what it is that makes TWP unique, and talk about the RMB culture that that's created and that we'd like it to create. We can put our values--order, respect, merit, snark, second chances--and say something about who we'd like to be.
Then, to make it truly true-to-TWP love of game-side authority, as well as making it more inclusive and representative, we can put it in a dispatch, have a poll on the WFE, and have people sign it through the poll like you might a petition. The names of all the signatories can be added to the dispatch.
This was just one idea I thought of while brainstorming last night. Thoughts?
 

Those really are terrific, @Fujai !
... as are the contributions from @Reçueçn and @Kawaii, and those of you who posted in other threads in the forum and elsewhere.
Thank you all!

The Celestial Empire of The West Pacific
 
A couple minutes late, but here's the most of it.
 
Flags:
I didn't separate out flags for TWP/TWPAF because they can be used for either or.
 
 
Emblem:
 
 
 
Wordmarks:
 
 
 
WFE and Dispatch Style:

Here is the Proposed WFE; I've tested it and made sure it fits. The exact wording is hinged on a complete overhaul of our regional dispatches. Most of the ones we use are written by half a dozen different people and can be difficult to find. There's no cohesive look and half of them aren't properly updated. It would fall to the Ministry of Education to create a nation to write TWP dispatches, keep a master dispatch, dispatch index, and all the dispatches a functioning region needs. Please see my earlier post for designs. I didn't have enough time to make new templates, but it would be the same or similar to those ones with the new emblem.
 
 
Newspaper:
I propose renaming "The West Pacifican" to "The Western Dragon," and revamping it with a new theme.
 
 
Government Structure:
Here is the more practical area of changes. The government would be reworked to be similar to the system of Three Departments and Six Ministries used many times in the history of Imperial China. The Delegate would be renamed the Emperor, and would keep executive authority, and the Three Departments would report to them. The Imperial Court would act as the peerage system, with no powers and assorted titles based on merit. The Hall of Nations would be renamed the Secretariat, headed by the Grand Secretary. The Guardians would be renamed the Chancellors, together making up the Chancellery and tentatively headed by a Grand Chancellor. The Ministries would be grouped under the Department of State Affairs, headed by the Grand Minister.
The current ministries would be consolidated into four:
Ministry of Interior - Ministries of Internal Affairs and World Assembly Affairs Ministry of Education - Ministries of Education and Recruitment and Citizenry Ministry of Diplomacy - Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ministry of War - Ministry of Military Affairs (TWPAF renamed the Imperial Navy or something similar) This consolidation would help streamline the government and make it easier to organize. Each Ministry's activity would continue as usual, just under a different name.

 
PS: There's probably a big image of the emblem at the end of this post. I didn't put it there and I can't get it off no matter how many times I delete it, so here we are.

I thought I was going to get around to creating a full theme entry, but at this point that's not going to happen. Instead, I'll just post what I do have now.
I've attached three flags, all of which use lots of google images I pasted in: 1 for TWPAF and 2 for TWP. The TWPAF flag is alright I thought. (I think there's some untapped potential in putting a space in TWP AF like so.) The TWP flag with the dragon on the sun is pretty shoddy and I think I stole someone's idea even maybe? I forget. I wasn't going to post it if I'd had a complete theme submission, but here you are. The other, with the red stripe, I think looks pretty nice, with the blue meant to represent the pacific ocean and the red meant to represent our tradition (in both aesthetic and meritocracy). But I realize that this flag is a big departure from our look now.
I also thought that maybe April 19 could be our regional holiday, "TWP Day," to celebrate when Max Barry first created the region that is now our home (according to Unibot's best guess in the NS history thread here).
Edit: spoilered the flags

No problem. I hadn't cast my own vote earlier because I didn't want to influence anyone's choice. I cast my vote for China, breaking the tie between the two. 

I am! And welcome back to you too, sorry to hear about your mother-in-law. The whole region was thinking of you

I changed themes two or three times during my Delegacy. We started out sort of Dune based with the Laandstrad for the Assembly. But no one could remember how to spell it. *chuckles* Later went to the Sacred Order of The West Pacific and The West Pacific Imperium.  Policies stayed the same, graphics stayed the same. The theme is just a costume you put on  
In the end, it's delegate's choice IMO. I mearly added to titles for my themes, so a Minister became Holy Minister and a Guardian became a Cardinal Guardian.
In Equilism we went through a period when we changed the theme with each government. By the time they'd gotten to a Game of Thrones theme, they lost me as I didn't know anything about it (still don't) - so was all meaningless to me.  Houses, titles, all irrelevant and confusing to me. 
I like the dragon imagery in the graphics proposal. You can tie that to TWP having had two Delegates associated with Dragons.  You could take the Eagle and Crossbones flag and replace the Eagle with a Dragon.
I gotta admit, I haven't been fond of TWPAF flags for some time.
I think folks are too resistant to making use of the ingame polling. This would still be somewhat restrictive, but it would cast a wider net than the forum and still would be secure:  Set the poll to both Native and Large Nation - it will prevent nations from other regions jumping in to vote, and prevent new founded nations from voting. (A nation would have to be about 6 months old to vote...a nation voting age requirement based on game mechanics).
You could even form a bi-cameral legislature: ingame based on those polling rules (House), and Hall of Peers voting (Senate), Delegate has veto authority.
Although, having a bi-cameral legislature is what got TWP into trouble before. The Senate becomes and exclusionary old boys club that eventually goes inactive and blocks the Delegate (I've seen this movie before)
*chuckles*  Nothing.  I've championed more open citizenship, and removed citizenship oaths when I was delegate. It was never a problem. I haven't been a TWP citizen since oaths were reintroduced. So I'm just being me.     

Please do not post in this thread if you are not the Foreign Affairs Deputy Advocate or its equivalent. If, however, in the future, a situation arises where the FADA doesn't have mod powers, getting a guardian to edit this OP might be aesthetically better than adding another post every time the list is updated.
This thread will be used to track our current ambassadors and the embassies we have in the forums of other regions. Applications for ambassadors or embassies can be submitted here or here, respectively.

Current Ambassadors
and assignments, by alphabetical order
Antahbrantahstan: BalderApplesauceLand: The North Pacific
Benjamin Mark: Osiris, Unknown, The Rejected Realms
Big Bad Badger: The East Pacific
Fujai: Lazarus
Liberillia: Internationale
Malviet: Warzones
Munivita: The New Inquisition
og joker: The South Pacific
President Eden: Europeia
RealmWWin: The Land of Kings and Emperors
Tzcharnorberg: Wintreath
Zogradia: Albion

Special Positions
WestWind: Special TWP Envoy to EquilismElegarth: Special TWP Envoy to the Pacific

Current Embassies
Treatied Allies

by alphabetical order, with their respective ambassadors
Albion: ZogradiaEquilism: Westwind
Land of Kings and Emperors: RealmWWin
The New Inquisition: Munivita
The Pacific: Elegarth

GCRs
by alphabetical order, with their respective ambassadors
Balder: AntahbrantahstanLazarus: Fujai
Osiris: Benjamin Mark
The East Pacific: Big Bad Badger
The North Pacific: ApplesauceLand
The Rejected Realms: Benjamin Mark
The South Pacific: og joker
Warzones: Malviet

UCRs
by alphabetical order, with their respective ambassadors
Europeia: President EdenInternationale: Liberillia
Unknown: Benjamin Mark
Wintreath: Tzcharnorberg
Current as of February 14th, 2016

Yes, that's true, but since invasions there are so commonplace, the Warzone governments have been designed to ride through these things. So please don't worry until the Airspacian government makes known its distress.
Ninja'd by Drak.

I'm sorry, but then why are we having a diplomatic relationship with them in the first place when they are the most unstable form of government in the whole NS world? I, as ambassador, treated the native Airspace government like any other. I, in my heart, believed that was the mission that was assigned to me ever since Recu gave me the job. To support and uphold the native Airspacers. As neighbors. As allies. As friends. I'm starting to get the impression that I was doing my job totally, totally wrong. What a f__k-tastic way to start the day.(Rhime intended.)

Thanks for the fond farewells, all. I hope someday I can step up my activity again, and in the meantime, I'll be a quiet but law-abiding TWP citizen.

Thanks for the fond farewells, all. I hope someday I can step up my activity again, and in the meantime, I'll be a quiet but law-abiding TWP citizen.

Hi everybody,
 
I assume this is the correctest place to announce this.
 
I handed in my resignation to URA yesterday. The reason given for the dissolution of the voice was "inactivity," and I feel mostly responsible for that as FADA. However, I am not resigning out of guilt--rather, it is largely due to RL committments. Just as I have been busy lately and have not had time, I do not see an improvement in my schedule in the near future. Thus the dissmissal of the DAs and the dissolution of the voice, while not things I agree with ICly, came as a welcome break in workload. However, URA has unveiled his plan to put the guardians in control of many of the areas the DAs were before, and thus I would still have the same duties, just under a different title.
 
In order of decreasing importance, my RL committments, combined with one NS dissmissal and another job-description change, as well as disagreement with URA's new policies and his decision to dissolve the union (although I highly respect him, his opinions, and his decisions), all topped with a growing sense of self-questioning about whether or not TWP is reall the kind of political atmosphere I would like to be active in, have grouped together to cause me to resign. It has been a pleasure working with URA, Medio, Hariko, Elegarth, and Yy, and I'm going to miss being politically involved here.
 
I would probably join the rebellion BBD's trying to start myself, or try to influence URA, but in the interests of solidarity, and of course, my RL, I won't be.
 
Best of luck to everyone in the delegate's office as well as the voice.

Just putting this here to remind people.  If you are uncomfortable with the direction of the Delegate, you are perfectly free to set up a different government here on the forums. 

Good luck and fare thee well.
 
When you break up with RL, don't forget about your mistress NationStates.
 

 
She's always willing to give you a good time.

The off-site government(regardless of what form it takes) is under the jurisdiction of the Legislative RP Minister, which is in turn appointed by the delegate.
Is it just me, or is TWP becoming more and more NPO-ified?

The Government of TWP is in your hands people. It is not Vlagh's or URAP's to dissolve at their whim. Do not be sheep. Fight for your right to maintain a government you voted for.
Were there problems? Yes, no doubt. The solution is not to have a hissy fit and chuck everything out. Look at the issues, work with people and find a path forward.
Instead we're going to get some half-baked plan imposed.
The revolution starts here!