Participate means many different things. I think that changing some of the ways citizenship works will encourage people to participate more and actually engage with each other. Yes, good behavior can be encouraged through such means. People encourage good behavior all the time and use methods such as making something a reward or achievement.

Some of the people in the recent election who voted for the ticket I was on, I don't know who they are and nor do I think I'll get a chance to know and to be honest I do not feel they deserved to vote.

Lurkers don't make for much of a community. If someone wants to lurk they can do so in the areas available to junior members, there's plenty of public areas. When there is an Assembly thread discussion it would be nice if lurkers actually put in some thought and posted, even if briefly, what they were thinking or why they were voting a certain way. I appreciate people who take the effort to do so.

I'm a fan of quantity only if it doesn't come at a cost of quality. I would take a handful of high quality friends or social group over quantity. And I think that changing requirements won't actually reduce the number of people who are active in the region, it will only shorten the list by numbers in terms of lurkers or one post wonders.

Finally, there's also the sense of reward for citizens who actually do bring their all or best to the community, to this particular community. Do we want to encourage activity? Let's give people a reason to post or be active. There's several different ways people can get active.

VC and Auralia made niche for themselves in discussing WA proposals. Several different people do roleplays. Aram does rankings, etc, etc. Curly used to do a comedy show. People will find ways to contribute if they are encouraged to do so.

It has always been my goal to encourage participation and new players and I think I've had some success in this area.

You have had amazing success since your days as MoRA in getting the forum alive and you should take that bow. The activities your talking are in game forum and RMB based so THEY can't vote, even tho they're contributors to the region along with a few others. In an ideal world all 4000 members of TSP would be active. You cant hope to know them all. IF someone wants to read campaign threads and vote for someone or assembly legislation WITHOUT GETTING INVOLVED IN A PISSING MATCH, it's a START. I can't see "requirements" being added, especially under a banner of Community and Strength, being productive. New people can't be expect to find the forum and get involved day one in an assembly debate just so they can vote and will just stay on the RMB, and long time players will get annoyed reapplying for citizenship every so often because they where in a roleplay or event in another region and not paying attention for the moment, It's about people having the Rights of the Charter without a new hoop to jump in.
If it were my ideal world, and it's not and I'm not pushing it, It would be the EC's role to verify every voter was a WA member and in the region during the election and votes would be on the forum poll, RMB poll and Vote Collector. You'd get a greater turn out, a greater representation of what the region thought was important and not who can jump through the most hoops to do something. It gets more active when it's EASIER, not by adding another requirement.

This is my opinion. I don't care who agrees or disagrees, It is what it is. I can live however it goes. One thing I've learned in NS is if it ain't going the way you enjoy, come back in two or three months and it will be new people doing it a new way.

(04-17-2014, 11:55 PM)Escade Wrote: VC and Auralia made niche for themselves in discussing WA proposals.

Well - exactly?

At the moment, there's nothing at vote in the WA, meaning I'm not really posting here. I still check the forum, though, and I don't see why I should lose my citizenship or voting rights just because there happens to be nothing going on in my area of interest, any more than I see why someone else should lose their citizenship or voting rights if there's not currently a roleplay thread, or a foreign affairs discussion, or whatever else their particular niche is.

The very fact that TSP is a community whose members have diverse interests means that requiring a common level of activity is not going to be workable.

What we're discussing now for those who aren't paying attention is having a requirement that before a citizen votes in the Assembly or elections that have a minimum post count (as in total). I suggested 20 posts.

The discussion has moved past what some of you are still going on about, only one other person agreed with me so I'm proposing an alternative which is that before someone votes in an election or in the Assembly they have a minimum post count.

This minimum post count would not have to be renewed monthly or anything like that but just be a minimum threshold. Most citizens would not be affected if they left for three months or two years. The only people who would be affected is those that have, over their lifetime on the forums, not yet reached a minimum post count.

Do I need to clarify any further?

No, you don't. It's fairly clear what your proposing; it's just that no one else seems to think it's a good idea.

(04-18-2014, 03:04 PM)Escade Wrote: What we're discussing now for those who aren't paying attention is having a requirement that before a citizen votes in the Assembly or elections that have a minimum post count (as in total). I suggested 20 posts.

The discussion has moved past what some of you are still going on about, only one other person agreed with me so I'm proposing an alternative which is that before someone votes in an election or in the Assembly they have a minimum post count.

This minimum post count would not have to be renewed monthly or anything like that but just be a minimum threshold. Most citizens would not be affected if they left for three months or two years. The only people who would be affected is those that have, over their lifetime on the forums, not yet reached a minimum post count.

Do I need to clarify any further?

Don't see that that changes anything. As I say, different parts of the community move at different speeds. Should two new players join the forums and participate in different areas, under your suggestion their opportunities for citizenship would arrive at different times. Someone who quickly spams 20 posts to the Bar & Grill is not showing any greater commitment to the region than someone who takes several months to accrue 20 posts of detailed factbook entries to the roleplay area.

So you just found the forum, you applied for citizenship, and as your waiting to get masked, your reading about something in the Assembly that comes up for vote and as a new citizen you vote your conscious, all excited that your a citizen using your new rights only to get told "I'm sorry, you can't vote yet because your too new and not participating enough. I just don't see this as productive.

Although I recognise that I would not obtained Citizenship under these rules, I believe that Escade is right to have a minimum level of posting in TSP for citizenship.

Unlike most regions, TSP does not have to worry about getting a stream of people engaged and I believe that having a minimum level of posting would help to ensure that Citizenship is better reserved for those most likely to contribute to the benefit of the region.

Obviously a minimum is not going to stop unpleasant individuals from getting in, nor will it ensure that they are going to be active and effective citizens, but I believe that it is a reasonable hurdle to ask people.

What that minimum should be is open for discussion, I personally think that something around the 20 mark is acceptable. Although I haven't been here long, I am confident that I would accrue 20 posts relatively quickly in TSP if I was seeking to be active in the community. Although perhaps additional weighting could be given to RP posting, recognising the argument that Vibrant Coconuts makes.

To what end? How does someone making 20 spam posts produce any benefit?

And why, exactly, should Citizenship be 'reserved'? There is to maximum number of possible citizens; it should be a right available to every resident of the region with as few barriers to entry as possible.

It doesn't make any benefit per se, but I would say that an individual who has made 20 posts is more likely to be an active that an individual with 0 posts.

I think that this has a number of benefits. Firstly, it would make administration easier, I imagine that a lot of people who are going to get bored and fade away into irrelevance will simply never have to go through the application process and thus time will be saved.

Secondly, I don't think that citizenship is merely a right, it is a responsibility as well and the responsibility is to be active and contribute to the betterment of TSP. One way that you can put a marker down that you respect that responsibility is to post a few times in the region.