The Editing Floor

I have founded a new region called The Editing Floor.

I decided it was high time there was a region out there for discussing daily issues in and by gum, I wanted to be part of it.

There's no password, all are free to join, be you an active participant or a passive observer.

Catching Up With Issues

That's the last backlog of issues completed.

The batch we're working on now extends from the 24th of May 2007 to the 24th of May 2008. Good luck everyone!

There have been exactly 1223 issue submissions this last year. Time to have a look at them...

Ideology Testing Inc.

In my travels around NationStates regions, I happened across one called Experiments which was run by some players who were messing about with the effects of issues.

Obviously I was intrigued.

So after some chit-chat I asked if New South Hell would mind writing up his findings and thoughts as an article for this blog which I'm glad to say he did. So, here it is, a probe into the ideologies of NationStates.

Small note before reading on: for some reason when copy/pasting there were formatting errors which I don't know how to fix which have broken some of the paragraphs up slightly. Not a big problem, but there you go.

=====================
IDEOLOGY TESTING INC.
=====================

This is a description of the NS region called Ideology Testing Inc.
I set it up for exploration of the NS issues system by means of
ideologically-based states. I started with the 10 government style
choices presented by NS during nation creation, and then added 4
(later 5) more styles that seemed to me to be missing from the
original set of ten.

Since the region was created, it has developed some internal geography

and geopolitics, primarily because it was fun to work out. In this
writeup, I will describe the ideologies, present a map of the region,
and discuss some of the geopolitical issues.

Each nation in the region has a name like "ITI X Extremist". The
single letter following ITI is a mnemonic for the ideology, often but
not always the initial letter of the ideology. Having a single
character mnemonic is very useful in shortening regional descriptions,
tables, summaries etc. After the mnemonic letter is the official
(adjectival) name of the nation ("Extremist" in the example above.)

First, the 10 NS nation creation ideologies:

Sensible (M for Moderate) - Those poor souls trapped between
Conservatism and Liberalism, believing in both fairness and
propsperity, torn between giving the bum on the corner food stamps and
telling him to get a job. The Sensible state wanders between
Inoffensive Democracy, Liberal Socialism and NY Times Democracy.

Liberal (L) - Believers in equality, diplomacy and selected liberties.
The Liberal state oscillates between Democratic Socialism (Liberal or
not), and Scandinavian Liberalism.

Conservative (C) - Believers in enterprise, chastity and selected
liberties. The Conservative state meanders between Moralistic and
Inoffensive Democracy.

Compassionate (S for Sensitive or Socialist) - Modern trendy liberals,
more interested in diversity and the environment than trade unions and
free speech. The Compassionate state equivocates between Democratic
Socialism (only rarely Liberal) and Scandinavian Liberalism.

Oppressive (O) - Played as a militant theocracy, whose tenets include
vegtarianism and polygamy. (While I don't know of any militant
vegetarian religions active at this time, dietary rules have always
been de rigeur, and so it doesn't seem all that far-fetched.) The
Oppressive state is pretty much a Psychotic Dictatorship, though it
occasionally softens into Iron Fist Consumerists.

Corrupt (B for Business) - Played as a state ruled by money, where
anything is available for a price. The Corrupt ideology is one of
three in the region which is neither democratic nor dictatorial, and
which simply dismisses questions about voting. It has a Parliament
and holds elections, but they're more important for the bank accounts
of the legislators than for the state of the nation. The Corrupt
state wavers between Capitalist Paradise and Compulsory Consumerist
State. It is by far the wealthiest state in the region.

Libertarian (F for Free) - Believers in unfettered liberty and
capitalism and, since these are Heinleinian Libertarians, a strong
military. The Libertarian state is an Anarchy, until it reaches that
point in its life cycle when it abolishes copyright, and becomes a
Civil Rights Lovefest for the rest of its days.

Anarchic (A) - Left libertarians, and the second non-democratic,
non-dictatorial regime. Let's face it - anarchism makes no sense
whatever. If you wanna protect the poor and downtrodden from the
strong and rapacious, how you gonna accomplish that without a
government? Almost all of the other ITI ideologies have been used
successfully throughout history, admittedly sometimes at great human
cost. But the closest you can come to a real-world anarchy is the
hellhole of Somalia, and I don't think that's exactly what the
proponents of anarchy have in mind. Never mind all that, in NS
anarchy works. But the Anarchic state is never an NS Anarchy, because
of its "strong anti-business policies". It's pretty much a Civil
Rights Lovefest, all the time. Take that, Somalia.

Evil (E) - The Evil ideology I play as Communists. Anti-capitalism,
anti-freedom, anti-God. But there's this little problem. NS doesn't
understand that when the state and industry are one, a pro-industrial
policy is not exactly a pro-business policy. And so the Evil state is
normally Iron Fist Consumerists rather than a Psychotic Dictatorship.
I've seen it spend brief periods of time as a Corporate Police State.

Psychotic (P) - The Psychotic ideology is not really an ideology -
it's a state of mind. It has no fixed beliefs, other than hatred of
Democracy. One moment it will make nudity mandatory, and the next
outlaw streaking. You would think the Psychotic state would be an NS
Psychotic Dictatorship, but you'd be so, so wrong. Apparently
insanity is good for business. The Psychotic state dithers between
Corporate Police State and Compulsory Consumerist State, with
occasional stopovers in Iron Fist Consumerists and Father Knows Best
State.

Then, we have the following other ideologies, which I have added.

Aristocratic (I for Imperial) - Played as a state of medieval
aristocrats, more or less lost in the modern world. The third
non-democratic, non-dictatorial ideology. The Aristocratic state
drifts all over the NS government spectrum, but is most frequently a
Corporate Police State or a Compulsory Consumerist State. Which is
really ironic, since the barons look down on the CEO's as little
better than the peasantry, people who deserve a big lesson in
humility if only they could afford to give it.

Technocratic (T) - This is government by the regulars on Slashdot.
Pro-liberty, anti-business, pro-environment and, above all,
pro-technology. A more practical blend of liberalism and
libertarianism than anarchy. Undecided between Scandinavian Liberal
Paradise, Left-Leaning College State and Left-Wing Utopia.

Populist (R for Redneck) - A liberal caricature of conservatism:
nationalistic, fundamentalist, xenophobic and poorly educated.
It's probably insensitive of me to offer such an ideology, but I don't
think I'm any harder on the Populists than I am on the Compassionates.
I try to be an equal-opportunity offender. The Populist state varies
between Inoffensive Democracy, Moralistic Democracy and, believe it or
not, Democratic Socialist.

Fascist (V for Vicious, or perhaps Volk) - A very recent addition to
the ideology set. Extremely militaristic, and pro-economy without
being at all pro-capitalist. It's too early for me to say for sure
how it will turn out, but right now it's a Corporate Police State.

Harmonious (H, or W for Wharmonious, or possibly Wholistic) - The
Harmonious ideology is a blend of all the others. It decides each
issue the way a plurality of the other ideologies decide it, with a
tie-breaking procedure I won't go into. The H Harmonious state was
based on the ideology set before I added Fascism; the W Harmonious
one is post-Fascist. Adding Fascism really made the Harmonious
ideology much darker. The H lands are a pretty good place to live,
the W ones less so. The Harmonious state alternates between
Inoffensive and New York Times Democracy. It's too early to know how
the Wharmonious state will turn out in the long run, but so far it's
mostly been a Corrupt Dictatorship or a Father Knows Best state.


The order of ideologies above is canonical. A useful mnemonic for
remembering it (should you find some reason you need to) is:

Mary Lovingly Cooked Some Outrageously Bloody Fowl (After Entirely
Plucking It) To Revolt Vegetarian Wimps


The ITI region contains two nations that are not ideologies.
Because they are not true ideologies, they're a bit out of place,
but I've become fond of them anyway. Note that their positions on
issues have no effect on the decisions of the Harmonious states.
These last two nations are as follows:

Nasty (N) - This is a dystopia, a government which decides issues in
order to inflict the greatest amount of unhappiness on its people.
It has elements of all the tyrannies in the region. Sometimes it is
atheist, and sometimes fanatical, whichever hurts more. Similarly, it
sometimes drives away business in the interest of poverty, and
sometimes instead allows foreign corporations to enslave its citizens.
It somewhat resembles the Psychotic state, but sometimes the Psychotic
state will make bizarre decisions that actually improve its residents'
lives, like flirting with pacifism. The Nasty state never makes such
mistakes. So far, the Nasty state has been a constant Psychotic
Dictatorship, though an older nation of mine with much the same
mission has occasional moments of Corrupt Dictatorship and Iron
Fist Consumerist to prevent monotony (and allow its population
the miserable experience of shattered hope).

Pleasant (G for Good or Grand) - An opposite to the Nasty state, but
not a utopia. A utopia would be hard to do, and would require deep
thinking about which of several states of the world is better. I
imagine that, while I'm capable of imagining a government that
virtually everyone would agree was wretched, coming up with one that
most everyone found admirable is a different story altogether. Just
asking the question of whether its economy would be a welfare state or
laissez-faire is probably enough to start fistfights. So the Pleasant
state is something immensely easier. It is a government which decides
issues based on the immediate happiness of its people, the future be
damned. Questions like "how will we pay for it?" or "what if the
police abuse their authority?" or "don't you think an army might be
a good idea?" are not to be asked. My mental image of the Pleasant
state is that it is a sleepy Pacific island, where the citizens spend
most of their time snoozing, playing the guitar and making love to the
tourists. The Pleasant state has spent most of its existence as
Liberal Democratic Socialists, with occasional vacations as a New York
Times Democracy or Civil Rights Lovefest.


Here is a map of Ideology Testing Inc. I wish it were a real map,
with nice colors and real borders, but unfortunately I have no artistic
talent.

(Editor's note: I've fancified it a little from being ASCII art with my own brand of No Real Talent. Hooray for MS Paint! -- Sirocco)



The map was derived from data on how often two ideologies decided
issues in the same way. In general, the states which border a
specific nation are those which most frequently echo its decisions.
My original map was a mirror image of this one, but I reversed it to
make the left and right sides of the map correspond, more or less, to
the leftist or rightist nature of the ideologies. The layout is not
really that different from what you would expect, except that I found
the placement of the Corrupt (B) state quite a surprise, since all the
states around it are honest democracies.


With such a variety of ideologies, government styles and economies in
the Ideology Testing Inc region, one might well expect its geopolitics
to be interestingly turbulent. And this is the case. The region
divides naturally into 4 subregions, and I think it most profitable to
consider each of these areas in turn.

The northern (freedom-directed) subregion consists of the Libertarian,
Anarchic, Technocratic and Corrupt states. Relations are amiable.
The Corrupt state is regarded with some suspicion by the other
northern nations, whose style is to permit all manner of hedonistic
behavior, in contrast to the less open Corrupt approach of banning
these activites and then paying no attention whatever to the laws.
The nations of the north have a history of cooperation in promoting
their common agenda, notably free trade in both legal and banned
items. But there will never be a formal alliance, as neither the
Libertarians nor the Anarchics would consider binding themselves
to any other nation in that way.

Northern relations with the rest of the ITI region are also generally
good. The Oppressive regime considers the Corrupt state to be the most
worthy of destruction of them all, but the Oppressives are far away,
and have considerably more pressing enemies closer at hand. Relations
are quite tense between the Libertarian state and the Conservative
state, due to drug trafficking. Both the Corrupt state and the
Libertarian state find the drug trade quite lucrative, but the Corrupt
state makes token efforts to stop the trade if asked (and will even
shut it down entirely for a while if rewarded with enough "foreign
aid"). The Libertarian state, however, rejects these requests with
amusement that the Conservatives would dare ask them to help deprive
their population of the basic human right to get high, a right which
apparently very many people under Conservative rule wish to exercise.
This flagrantly immoral attitude tends to piss Conservatives off a lot
more than simply pretending to cooperate would, even though the
practical effect is the same.

The western (fairness-directed) subregion of ITI contains the Liberal,
Compassionate, Pleasant, Sensible and Harmonious nations. These
states have a formal alliance for mutual protection and promotion of
their agenda. It should be noted that only the Sensible and
Harmonious states have significant military power. Ironically, these
two states are often felt by the Liberals and the Compassionates to be
only half-hearted in their support of Peace, Equality and Abortion,
and therefore suspect.

There is much angry rhetoric exchanged between the western and eastern
alliances, but in fact relations are not bad, and conflict between the
alliances is unlikely. The Harmonious and Sensible states have
excellent relations with both the Conservatives and the Populists, and
not infrequently act to reduce tensions when necessary. To the
north, relations are touchy between the Compassionates and the
Technocrats, due to Compassionate fears of runaway technology. The
Compassionates live in dread of the day that genetically-modified
grain drifts across the border, and they end up eating Frankenfood
without even noticing.

The one potential trouble spot in the western subregion is the border
with the Evil state. There is a constant flow of miserable refugees
into the Liberal and Compassionate states, giving eloquent testimony
to the inhumanity of the Evil way of life. But when the Liberal and
Compassionate leaders meet with the Evil empire, they are always
impressed by the sincerity of the Evil state's rejection of corporate
greed and determination to bring true equality to its people, and
therefore resolve to maintain friendly relations. Stories of slavery
and genocide are rejected as Conservative disinformation. Because the
Evil empire has very serious enemies elsewhere on its borders, the
western alliance will probably suffer little harm from its blindness
to the true nature of its southern neighbor.

The eastern (faith-directed) subregion of ITI contains the
Conservative, Populist and Aristocratic nations. These states have a
formal alliance for mutual protection. It was formed in opposition to
the Evil empire, but in recent years it has been much more concerned
with the Oppressive state on its borders, especially after their
allies the Fascists gave them nuclear weapons. The eastern alliance is
shaky, due to poor relations between the Aristocratic and Populist
nations. The Aristocrats look on the Populists as no better than
peasants, and nothing angers the Populists more than people who think
they're superior (except maybe for their own citizens who fail to
"support the troops"). The Conservatives have their work cut out for
them trying to remind their allies that they have more to worry about
from the Oppressive regime than from each other. All three states are
heavily armed, but the Aristocratic army is laughable because of its
failure to progress much beyond 18th century technology.

The border between the Oppressive state and the Populist and
Aristocratic states is the second tensest border in the world. The
Aristocrats have to be periodically restrained from declaring a
crusade against the Oppressives, an action which would result in the
rapid annihilation of the Aristocrats, even if the Oppressives'
Fascist allies chose not to help out. The hatred between the
Oppressives and the Aristocrats is mutual, but any attempt by the
Oppressives to intervene in the east would likely be exploited by its
other enemies, and so if the Aristocrats can be controlled, ITI War
III is unlikely to break out in this way.

Finally there is the southern (force-directed) subregion of ITI,
comprising five hellholes of human misery, the Oppressive, Fascist,
Psychotic, Evil and Nasty states. There's no unity here. The
Fascists and Oppressives are allied, and at present there seems to be
a detente beteween the Nasty state and the Psychotics, but other than
that, everyone hates everyone else, and says so loudly. The tensest
border in the world is that between the Fascist and Evil regimes - a
human disaster waiting to happen. All the states have large
militaries (except the Psychotics, during their intermittent periods of
pacifism), but only the Fascist military is modern and effective, a
fact which gives the rest of the south, and indeed of the region,
considerable pause. The Fascists also have the only truly functional
economy in the south.

Apart from the general aggressiveness of authoritarian regimes, there
are four causes of the instability of southern ITI: religion, the
refugee problem, the impending collapse of the Nasty state, and the
unpredictability of the Psychotics.

It would be useful at this point to interject something about the
general distribution of religions in the ITI region. Most of the
region is Christian, equally divided between Catholics and
Protestants except for the Aristocratic state, which is entirely
Catholic. In the West, church attendance has dropped off considerably,
to the disgust of the East. The other major religion of the region is
Oppressivism, practiced in the Oppressive state and a minority religion
in the Fascist, Nasty and Harmonious states. (At one time, there was
also an Oppressivist minority in the Aristocratic and Populist nations,
but intolerance, sometimes to the point of ethnic cleansing, has
forced them to go elsewhere.) Oppressivism is presently in a very
militant phase, and its leaders, both religious and secular, have made
their intent to subjugate or convert the Christian world very plain.
The Evil state is officially atheist, and periodically purges the
overtly religious within its borders (mostly Christians). In certain
parts of the ITI region, but especially the Compassionate, Technocratic
and Fascist states, new age, pagan and occult religions such as
Wicca have become popular. And finally, His Humble Insignificance
Psycho III recently proclaimed himself the Prophet of Psychosis, and
forced his people to convert. It is widely held that there is in fact
only one sincere practitioner of Psychosis, the First Inmate himself.
Rumor has it that the Psychotic ruler has recently begun the study of
Scientology, and the region awaits with some concern the next phase of
the religious evolution of His troubled state. It is however
considered unlikely that the Psychotics' regrettable flirtation with
Violetism a few years ago will ever be repeated, and that cult has
pretty much been suppressed even in the backwoods of the Nasty state
where it had its last hurrah.

As can be seen, religion puts the Oppressive state at odds with
everyone in the region except for the Fascists (who have no official
religion, and tend not to interfere with it) and the Harmonious (who
are unusually tolerant of the aspects of Oppressivism that most
Christians find disturbing). The Fascist toleration of Oppressivism
may well be an artifact of the alliance. It is widely believed that
if the alliance were to break up, the native Oppressivists in the
Fascist lands would find themselves in labor camps the next day.

One of the symptoms of the general dysfunctionality of southern ITI is
the refugee problem. This hurts all nations of the region, but the
worst hurt are the Fascists. Because of the economic health of the
Fascist state, it is the destination of choice for those fleeing any
of the other states (except for those lucky enough to be near the
Liberal or Harmonious borders). The Fascists try to find places in
their society (generally as menial laborers or cannon fodder) for the
refugees, because most of them have a very pro-Fascist attitude on
reaching what they see as safety. But the economic strain of the
neverending stream on Fascist resources has them considering sending
all the refugees immediately to labor camps, even if better use of
them might be possible.

Adding in great measure to the refugee problem is the imminent
collapse of the Nasty state. Its economy is in tatters, its people
are starving, and its army has been privatized. Its desperate people
imagine any other state in the area will be a distinct improvement,
and so they leave as quickly as they are able to make their way
through the minefields. Despite their mutual enmity, the Oppressive,
Fascist and Evil regimes have been holding secret talks about
partitioning the Nasty state among themselves. They have invited the
Psychotics to participate, but the First Inmate is currently very much
in favor of the self-determination of peoples, and vows to defend the
Nasty state's territorial integrity from any aggressor. (It has not
been noted that the Nasty citizenry particularly appreciates His
concern.) If a partition takes place, it will surely be an improvement
in the lives of many Nasty citizens, but not of Christians in the
Oppressive slice, nor of believers of any sort in the Evil portion,
nor of members of "inferior races" in the Fascist remainder.

Not much can be said about the final problem in southern ITI, the
complete unpredictability of the Psychotic state. Most of its ruler's
strange notions have been directed at His own population rather than
against other states, which leads one to hope that He will not decide
that the time is right for bringing on Armageddon with a bacteriological
strike on the Fascists. But hope is a fragile thing indeed in the
south of ITI, and was last reported in very bad shape in an Evil
reeducation camp.

This leads finally to the subject of weapons of mass destruction in
ITI, a problem affecting the whole region. All the states of the
area, except for four, have WMD's, as well as long-range missiles
capable of delivering them to any regional target. The four
nations without WMD's are the Compassionates, the Pleasants, the
Anarchics and the Aristocrats. The Aristocrats are too backwards to
make them, and rely on their alliance with the Conservatives for
protection. The Compassionates are ideologically opposed, and rely on
their alliance with the Liberals to protect them. The Pleasant people
find the whole thought of warfare disturbing, and are likewise forced
to rely on the western alliance for their defense. And while the
Anarchics as a nation possess no WMD's, a surprising number of their
citizens possess personal WMD's, which will definitely give a
potential aggressor pause. Further, it is widely rumored that the
Technocrats have a really terrifying black project, possibly involving
gray goo, and absolutely no one wants to annoy them sufficiently to
find out whether the rumors are true.


I do not know what the future holds for Ideology Testing Inc.
Certainly there are dangers galore, but there is always the
possibility that the vulgarity of the Corrupt, the decadence of the
Libertarians, the hypocrisy of the Conservatives, the complacency of
the Liberals and the indecisiveness of the Sensible may yet overcome
the forces of intolerance, madness and despotism at work in the south.

Attention All Issue Writers

I'm very close to reaching the end of the current batch of issues (the 24th of February 2006 to the 23rd of May 2007). As you can tell, I have some serious backlog. But after a lot of searching, a lot of pruning, and, happily, a lot of triumph (a shout-out goes to Vincon who got two of his submissions accepted) I'm nearly on to the next batch which will probably extend from the 24th of May 2007 to now.

So, listen up: if you've got a great idea for a new issue and want to submit it and have it put in the game and all that jazz then write it up and submit it as soon as possible before I get the new batch of issues. If you don't then I probably won't see it for a year to a year and a half. Possibly even two years if I'm very busy.

If you're stuck for ideas, here's a few issues I'd like to see:

Nuclear meltdown
Slavery
Issues affecting third-world countries

It's easy to notice that a lot of issues are topical for the nations of the Western world, but I'd like to see more issues submitted that relate to problems faced by African governments. Or Eastern European governments. Or Asian governments. Just more issues that lean away from being British or American-centric. Good luck everyone!

Promotions

I'm pleased to announce that Tsaraine and Ardchoille have been promoted from forum moderator to game moderator.

There's also a new issue in addition to the one I mentioned yesterday.

More issues on the way.

Issue #222 Is In The Game

Yup, another issue has come to the end of its long and weary journey through the issues queue. This particular one was originally submitted in September 2006. So yeah, I'm a little behind. It's another nice big one, but it is rather difficult to get so if you do, count yourself fortunate.

In other news, the NS2 blog has a big fat new FAQ to read. It's very exciting. I'm particularly interested about these spies and national newspapers mentioned.

Recently I decided to send my nation around the regions for a while. My first stop was Scotland. Then I decided to visit The Featured Region Followers who all visit the region randomly generated on the world page each day to congratulate them. Why? I have absolutely no idea. Still interesting though, the reasons for nations to tie themselves to others are so varied. You can find a region covering interests, hobbies, political affilations, and hundreds of other things.

The region I'm in right now is NationStates Cook Book where players can share their favourite recipes. Isn't that great?

One last thing before I finish this post. Is it only me who finds the region of Anarchy has an incredibly ironic World Factbook Entry?

Modliness Regained

I'm officially a game moderator again and have been for over a week or so. Why? Well, I've got a lot of spare time coming up. My one exam is on the 29th where I will be performing one of Satie's gymnopedies, a 15th century harpsichord piece I forget the name of, Einaudi Ludovico's La Linea Scura, and one of my own compositions. I'm confident I'll pass so no problems there.

Moving on, there's no need to worry about how this will affect my issue editing. Issue editing is still my biggest priority for NationStates and I've got a few ones I'm looking at right now. True, some of the issues in the queue are over two years old, but there's only one of me. I try my best!

I also discovered an error in one of the old issues' validity checkers which has now been fixed thanks to Pythagosaurus so people who are eligible for it can expect to see a 'new' issue at some point.

Finally, the computer that I got repaired has broken again about two weeks after. I'm going to have to get a new one which will either be a long drawn-out hassle (i.e. getting a free one from the university) or expensive (having to buy one when your average laptop costs two months' worth of rent). So I might not be on NationStates as much as I'd like.

No news on the NationStates 2 front... hopefully there will be some by the next time I post.

My New Niece

This is Johnny, my sister Rufus, and their new baby Maisie May. This is the first new bairn in the family in over a decade so everyone's quite excited about it. People will now go up to me and say 'Wow, you're an uncle!' but I've been an uncle ever since I was born, as one of my nieces is older than me (I now have three in total, and one nephew).

As for NationStates, there has been some interesting things to be read in the blog belonging to the NS2 developers. Looks like we'll have alliances instead of regions. Most intriguing.