Great Assembly Agenda

[Southern Bellz]

Here are somethings I think should be put on the list from the pre lim talks this region has had.1: The role of the delegate2: Democratic ideals vs streamlined government - where do they meet3: Ideas to help inactivityThat is all I have for the agenda, feel free to add more and I will update it!

[HEM]

I think everything should be about the last option. We have to be working against inactivity, and creating a streamlined government that is accountable, but workable.

[Todd McCloud]

Ideas to help inactivity:- Give the people stuff to do - this is very broad, but yeah.- Have some sort of invitation program involved to get new members involved- Make some changes (which we're doing, yeee!)- Perhaps hold a contest?- Have elections. Those *tend* to bring people out if advertised well (didn't work last term, but what about this one?)- Establish a chatzy or some type to get people chatting (I am doing this atm for the General Assembly, but we could keep it going. This works well for those who do not have MSN or AIM)- Get a newspaper out. Let's try to lay the groundwork for an issue to get going- Hold an inter-regional event (debate contest?)- Establish political parties (yeah I know, not a feeder thing, but the rivalry could spark numbers. This would also mean open elections, though)- Pick a day where we could have a theme (maybe we could fly the Bars and Stars and have a Dixie day, being The South Pacific, lol. Just an idea).- RMB games (three-word stories are often fun, until the mods delete it)- Perhaps create a short 'How to get around TSP' thing, to help newcomers?- Move away from just forum games. Those tend to be more post-padding than anything else, although they are fun from time to time - Make a new forum for real-life discussions? Re-order the forums to shake things up a bit?- Become more opinionated as a region. Let's get our voices out thereOf course, a really good way for us to get active is for those who are already here to get active *sneakily looks around the forum*. This is apparent even with this General Assembly stuff. This doesn't mean people *have* to post, and I believe in quality over quantity, but hey, it's not a problem to make your voice heard here! If *we* are active, other people tend to look and catch on. Activity does breed activity.

[Guest]

Hm, I only see these topics just now Anyway, I have thinking about activity a lot, so please bear with Dr. Tsrill's theory about life, the NSverse and everything for a moment.What kind of places/communities are popular? I don't roam the internet far and wide, but: Facebook is insanely popular. Specialized sites like NS or Elfwood are reasonable popular. Sub communities of those rise and fall fairly quickly. NS or similar games is much more popular than micronations. World of Warcraft is far more popular than forum-based free form roleplay. Games are generally more popular than communities. Word association is by far the most popular forum game. Based on these examples, what would make a place popular?1. Generally, people like to talk about themselves2. Generally, people prefer "pre-made acitivities" (I also like to call them "point-and-click activities).For many people, a place like NS is a short distraction from their day-to-day activities. A place with simple decisions within an existing and limited rule-set (as NS has to offer) is then appealing, a place that requires to create a rule-set from scratch, not so much. We, as we are here, like to get a bit more out of this place: build a community, make friends, build a network, practice skills (e.g. debating, leaderhsip, web development), get experience you can't get elsewhere easily (law making, politics, diplomacy). The trick is thus to lure people from the first group into "our" kind of activity (hm, that sounds a bit dodgy, but you know what I mean )So what we have to do (in my opinion) is to create activities with a limited set of rules (that still allow for some decision making, of course), while having a clear channel to getting in charge of those activities. Now this is a big fake, so some examples of things we had going in the past:- The SP market place: this was basically an organized role play system. Not a lot of rules, but still a given setting to direct peoples thoughts- SPAA (Awards ceremony), functioned both as a roleplay with a given,restricted setting, and also an opportunity for people to get their ego tickled.- Poll of the Week, the options are given, all you have to do is drive-by voting. It can't get much easier than that.- Word of the day: people were encouraged to use the WotD on the RMB. Worked for a while, but had too high maintenance.- SPFA: "Soccer simulation" where people could sent three settings and based on that a match result was calculated. Ultimately failed because it was running for too long, so apparently there is a 3. Generally, people like a place that offers enough change to keep them interested.- Badger racing: Somewhat similar to SPFA, but in a much shorter timeframe, and thus hugely successfulSofar my theory on activity...

[Todd McCloud]

It feels to me (don't take this the wrong way, btw) that many places on the forums are kind of low on the morale scale. What I mean by that is I feel some of the mentioned forums have seen their heyday years ago and it is hard to start something new with having the forums full of old posts. People tend to post more when they feel like they can join in without having to read what's already occurred, lol.It is to this end that I suggested each forum given a sub-forum archive that is locked, but still allows users to view what has happened. I can use the MOR board as an example. Currently, it has all the MOR dealings in it. It can get confusing - am I following some of CR's policies, or am I adopting my own to fit the role? Would it be easier for someone to jump in and help without having to move through the old historical stuff initially, but rather just only see the current stuff? An archive section for each board would help keep the integrity of the forums as well. If I or someone else wants to see what Fudge or Shaft did during their term, I can look at the delegate archive sub-forum. That way, I know whatever's *not* there is current, so Bellz's stuff would remain. I'd also like to see our embassy section tuned up a bit. Maybe each embassy is given a sub-forum, and we can put their logo as a header to that sub-forum. I realize these are both jobs that will require a lot of effort (I've done forum maintenance before, and I can appreciate those who work with that), but I think they could help. I'd also suggest a few different forums: A forum where all 'outside of TSP' news could occur, and one where all our current events could be placed, so we have a good regional talk place. Perhaps that would be a good way to re-connect?We should also remove those who are no longer in cabinet positions. It would help to suggest that these posts are, in fact (for the time being) open.With these changes, we may need to select new admins to help initiate these changes - many of our admins don't show up much here anymore. My first suggestion would be Mav. Really, this guy has been here and been active since I got here. I think he would be an excellent choice.

[Guest]

Please, do clean up the boards and move what's no longer relevant to the archives. Cabinet folks should at least have moderator powers over their respective subforums, I'll see to that.As to embassy row, I have seen both the thread and subforum based embassies, and I think the one-thread-per-embassy is better. There are a few bits and pieces on the forum that probably could be rearranged, and indeed, old stuff needs to be archived. We have an extensive archive at the bottom of the forums, those are best to be used. If necessary with redirect links such as in the assembly.I'm not so sure about Mav as he hasn't been around as much after his retirement from FA.

[Todd McCloud]

Okay, I'll get on the MOR board tonight and start clearing some stuff up. I don't know how much longer we'll have one of those cabinet spots, but I'll get on it XD. Which archives do we move them to? Personally, I think it'd be better if each board got its own archive subforum, just for congruency. As for the embassy row, that's fine - I've seen both styles work. The separate sub-forum is what I'm used to, but either way is fine I think.I see Mav sign on almost every day here, and he's a cool dude who's been here for a while. If not him, then who is I guess what I'm asking XD. That's sort of up to you remaining active admins though.

[Southern Bellz]

While I can't complain about the fact that the forums being cleaned up, I can't help but feel we are addressing a symptom and not the root of the problem. It seemed to me, when I first started as delegate and functioned much more as a visionary, things were going more smooth then when I assumed the functioning leadership.Maybe the problem is that our government no longer inspires anyone to rise to action. Think about it, we are full of ideas, bandaids and solutions to problems, yet at the same time we have failed to create a unified end goal, or have taken any steps to reach at goal. For that failure I will take full responsibility. I am going to start taking more action, acting now. I don't think speeches is my forte, I think that while I was a delegate of action, things have never been better.

[QuietDad]

I started playing NS about 2 yrs ago. I started in the West Pacific and was very happy there. I was one of those lurkers who logged on, decided my issues and played with WA endorsements. I tried to get involved, but the delegate there had issues with how close I was to the endocap limit, ocasionally going 1 or 2 over when someone would finally endorse me 2 months later. Getting tired of the shouting, I moved on and have tried to "behave" here which I think I am.What I see here is a handful of well intentioned people trying to get the ball rolling. What has happened is an entire summer of discussion with little or no action except for mass agreement when someone points out things.The forum here is INCREDIBLY difficult for a new user. the portal doesn't function right, searching for new posts never works and view active topics only lists today, you cant find topics since you were last here. The 1st page is massive with topics 2 or three years old and it takes alot of effort to find a topic that is current.Organizing this forum so when you click it from the region page to get a screen showing you new topics since you last logged of as the 1st thing you see would make more people use it. The West Pacific also had a link on its 1st page not only showing you the RMB but allowing it scroll back in time so if you missed something you could get there.The RMB should be FLOODED with "Come see the forum!!" entries. The west Pacific even had a "Keep the spam off the board" committee who would post messages just to scroll the spam off.Maye it's time to Archive ALL of the forum except for the current charter and embassies and start again with a RMB campaign "looking for appointees".Who knows. I do know another 3 months of discussion will not resolve things.

[Guest]

Quiet dad, thanks for your input. Most of the things you mentioned never occurred to me, probably because I'm so much used to these kind of forums even from before I joined NS. I especially like the idea of a more customized link from the WFE, I'll see what's technically possible with this forum.However, I guess that everyone has their own way of navigating a forum. A list with just topics with new posts would get me lost because I would have difficulties placing them in context, but as I said, I'll see what can be done.I must say I find the portal function rather confusing myself (and thus never use it). When I ran a poll a long time ago most people who came her didn't even know this thing existed so I never really spent much time to optimize it. Although I have no idea why currently the EC forum is exported, that doesn't make much sense. So I changed that to Assembly for now.

[QuietDad]

I don't mind coming up to the first page being the main menu of forums, but there is no way to list topics replied to since your last visit. A button on the main menu saying "view new posts since your last visit" and actually working is just as effective. I prefer to see who's responding to what first, then going to the foum list to see if I want to go further. Either or, its a matter of taste. The point is there is now way to effectivly see new posts since my last visit without going thru every forum since it only show the last post in each forum. If 4 threads get replied to, you only see what was replied to last.I have been a admin/mod on a few forumns and I am just offering my 2 cents. I know what your going thru and appreciate the effort involved.

[Southern Bellz]

I think part of the reason things are confusing here, as well as there being a lot of clutter is that is just the nature of an NS democracy. As our system stands, we are one of the most democratic regions in NS. Because of this, we have a ton of laws, talks, and less action. It's the nature of our system, and I have come to terms with that. However, I think the key thing for myself was that I was not comfortable with how I can use my power as delegate. It takes awhile to get to know what can happen here, because during my delegacy it has been based less on laws, but more on what the people think.Which is odd, because by pushing the laws that this region has, it has become more democratic in a sense.What I am going to do, and I encourage the rest of the region to do so as well, is make myself much more public in both TSP and around the NS world. If we are interacting in NS, we can then go from there.