OpenId On NationStates

I have to be frank and admit I'd never heard of OpenId before now, but those who do know about this handy internet device can learn more about its NationStates application here. There's also a discussion about it in the Technical forum.

In other news, the forums have some new member titles which has prompted a long discussion. I think the new titles are vastly superior to the old ones, though I'd have preferred there not to be any postcount-based titles and just call everyone 'member'. But the hordes of the General forum probably feel differently.

I've also involved myself with another two small enhancements of NationStates. One is related to the description of a nation's population. Once your population goes over one billion, it's described as massive, when it starts out it's referred to as tiny, and there's a bunch of others too. Well, I thought, since we now have nations pushing twelve (thirteen?) billion, it's high time we revised those descriptors. So I edited the code and sent it off to the admins. If the boss approves, we'll see some new descriptors, and some new parameters for the old ones.

The second feature is something that was suggested to me by e-mail by one of our players New South Hell. It also deals with descriptors, but more specifically the ones following 'renowned/remarkable/notable for its' on the spotlight page. Like this:

The Holy Hippocracy of Sirocco is a massive, economically powerful nation, renowned for its compulsory vegetarianism.

NSH sent me a whole bunch of ideas for new descriptors. This was something I'd actually been planning to do for a while because it's a very easy enhancement to add to the game. NSH did all the hard work though, so why not use it? I refined the list and added the appropriate code for the admins and sent it off. If anyone else would like to submit new ideas for new descriptors, I'll be very happy to compile a new list for submission to the admins. Just send me an e-mail at sirocco@nationstates.net

I don't know when we'll see these changes. Keep an eye out.

OMAC Interviews Max Barry

Check it out: http://blog.nationstates2.com/2008/07/q-and-a-with-ma.html

In other news, the world page buggered up today because the 'featured region' feature glitched. The randomly chosen region that turned up was deemed inappropriate, so we renamed the region causing a giant error message to distort the page. Ah, c'est la vie.

More Forum Work

The changes to the forums are becoming more obvious now with the introduction of ads right in the middle of every single thread. I'm using a Firefox browser which blocks ads, so I'm not affected too much, but of course there're a lot of people who are. Here's some threads where the new changes are being discussed:

Wilgrove's NSG thread
Chaotic Nightmare's Technical thread
Rambhutan's open letter to OMAC

The general consensus is that the ads are obnoxious and in-your-face, interrupting the narrative flow of threads, especially the ones in the roleplay forums. But if we're going to have OMAC pay for the expensive hosting of NationStates and its forums, not to mention the development of NationStates 2, then I think it's something we're going to have to put up with. Oh, and the ads sometimes link to very inappropriate material. If you see any of these ads, please report them to Jolt.

If you really can't bear the ads then download the Firefox browser here.

NoScript and AdBlock are the best add-ons for blocking online adverts I am told.

Finally on the subject of changes to the forums, if anyone has anything to suggest to the Jolt admins about what they'd like on the forums, or are coming across any bugs, then I recommend this forum: Suggestions/Bugs/Feedback

Feel free to comment your opinions on this blog too, I rather miss knowing that anyone reads this thing.

Remember that many changes are forum-wide and can't actually be forum-specific, like the member titles. You know, the annoying descriptors like 'Pimp' and 'Honorary Spam Forum Owner'. Any changes to those happen to all of Jolt's members, not just us. So remember that what you want may not be possible.

Also, NationStates 2 now has its own great big forum for everyone to have fun with, as I subtly mentioned in my last post.

In other news, two of the seven new World Census rankings have appeared, which I'm pleased about. For those who missed them, they were 'Laxest Drug Laws' and 'Most Godforsaken'.

There is also a new issue.

Forum Work

There's been a little rejigging of the forums. At the bottom of the screen is a list of all players viewing forums, a counter of how many are viewing each individual forum, and even those viewing the same thread as you. It's quite nostalgic, reminds me of the pre-Jolt days, though the mods' names aren't green this time. We're just plain black. Like civilians. Ah, I jest. Thread displays are now a bit more customisable, and you can send little messages to forum users directly by clicking on their names in the forum. You can even befriend them. Aww. I have a feeling that, as a mod, being able to receive messages directly from anyone clicking my name on the forums may either be really useful or bane of my thread-prowling life. But I survive well enough with the same sort of thing happening on NationStates with telegrams. Out of all the mods, I'm the one with a link to my nation strewn about the site most. Now, moving on, the NationStates 2 forum is missing... oh my god, it's gone! It's the end of days! What will we do now?! Oh, wait. There it is. In a new home.

If you want to discuss these latest developments, check out this thread by Ifreann.

New World Census Rankings

After some brainstorming I designed some new world census rankings for possible addition to NationStates. I am pleased to announce that [violet] has coded (and enhanced) most of these and put them in for me. So keep your eye on the World page. There are seven new rankings that could crop up any day.

General Forum Purge

At some point in the near future, a great whopping bunch of posts and old threads are going to be excised from the General forum. So if there's anything you want to save then direct your attentions to these threads:

Tell us which threads you want archived here.

Comments and discussion goes here.

In other news:

I did a quick tally and I have edited 113 issues and written 4. So out of the 230 issues NationStates has at the time of writing, I'm responsible for over half of them. Go me!

Behold: The Tourism Industry!

About five weeks ago, I went through all the old issues fixing as many typos and bugs as I could find (I'm 99.99% sure I found all the bugs) and on top of that, added a new feature to the game. It's only recently that players have noticed the new feature which is, of course, a new industry. Yes, along with the other seventeen industries, NationStates now has a tourism industry which is a very important business in many parts of the world today. I reckon this addition will maybe make players think twice before choosing particular options...

There is no World Census ranking on the tourism industry yet, but there will be soon. In the meantime, if you have any requests for other World Census rankings you'd like to see then send me an e-mail, telegram, or whatever and I'll consider it.

In other news, in startling (and slightly maddening) contrast to my own failure to garner any interest in an NS meet, the New York NationStates Meet is progressing in leaps and bounds. If you're in the area, check it out.

Oh, and I've put a new issue into the game, NationStates' two hundred and thirtieth no less. Enjoy!

Issue #229 Is In The Game

Managed to set aside some time to put a new issue into the game. Enjoy!

The NS2 Beta Is Here!

As of Monday, the beta for NationStates 2 has launched, and I'm afraid that's pretty much all I'm allowed to say on the subject, except that there's a post about it on the NationStates 2 blog.

I've had a grand total of zero replies on the Scottish NS meet so I'm thinking it's not going to happen. It's a shame but I guess everyone lost interest.

This is also the blog's three hundredth post. Not bad.