If the Chair will forgive a double post, does he have an intention of appointing a Deputy Chair pursuant 2.a of the convening resolution?

If I understand the resolution correctly then the appointment is made by the Great Council. That said, if you question is if I intend to nominate a Deputy Chair, then I am open to the possibility if a suitable name is suggested to me for consideration.

Former Delegate of the South Pacific
Posts outside High Court venues should be taken as those of any other legislator.
I do not participate in the regional server, but I am happy to talk through instant messaging or on the forum.

Legal Resources:
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There are three very important As that I want to raise in this GC:

• Abolish the Local Council (LC)
  
• Abolish gameside approval for any and all laws
  
• Abolish gameside elections
  

I wish to abolish your head

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There are three very important As that I want to raise in this GC:

• Abolish the Local Council (LC)
  
• Abolish gameside approval for any and all laws
  
• Abolish gameside elections
  

I wish to abolish your head

This venue is not a place for jokes or for messing around. Please take them elsewhere.

Former Delegate of the South Pacific
Posts outside High Court venues should be taken as those of any other legislator.
I do not participate in the regional server, but I am happy to talk through instant messaging or on the forum.

Legal Resources:
THE MATT-DUCK Law Archive | Mavenu Diplomatic Archive | Rules of the High Court | Case Submission System | Online Rulings Consultation System

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There's been mention of the CRS, but no actual description of what topics are relevant there. HumanSanity has brought up Border Control, but not in direct relation to the CRS itself.

I am mulling over how to address this. I think it's actually fairly safe to say the CRS is the branch of government in the region that is most consistently subject to public scrutiny without providing anything that resembles public engagement or a satisfactory response, much less accountability for CRS members. This lack of accountability, communication, and responsiveness is an issue, contrary to the regular assertions that "we are solely a security body" which come from CRS members. (At some point, communicating effectively with the public is an essential part of the security role of the CRS.)

At the same time, it's hard to think of what structural flaws are causing this issue, since from my perspective the issues seem to be more cultural and activity-based. The structure of the CRS, at least from my perspective, is sound. The culture of non-responsiveness and inactivity is an issue.

That said, I'd be open to putting it on the agenda. I have some ideas that I don't even think qualify as half-baked. Others may have them as well. More than a lot of things on my list or Glen's list, the CRS is one I'm very much wanting to hear the discussion on, because I think the CRS is a tricky thing to reform but also a part of the government which is not functioning as it ideally should and which the region would be well served by being more responsive and open.

*queue CRS members saying "everything is fine and there are never issues with the CRS responding to public concerns"*

Minister of Foreign Affairs
General of the South Pacific Special Forces
Ambassador to Balder
Former Prime Minister and Minister of Defense

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It’s not an issue of the CRS not being there to respond to your inquiry, but rather the CRS not wanting to, in all honesty. The core issue is a demand for the CRS to care about RMB moderation, which nobody except Penguin does (and she only started to when she became Delegate, since that’s part of the Delegate’s job). The CRS is composed mostly of long-time government officials, whose long service makes them trustworthy to wield tremendous power in a time of crisis. It’s not filled will people who frequent the RMB. And when we caved and added people who *were* RMBers, they either fizzled out of activity altogether or their views realigned with the the rest of the group (eg PS2). Or in the most egregious case, betrayed the Coalition entirely. The CRS just isn’t the body you go to about RMB issues, it’s not in our purview or area of interest at all.

To address that issue, we need to look at RMB moderation itself, not the ancillary things like whether or not the LC get BC powers and how many. There are a lot of issues with how we approach it:
- Why is it being handled by elected officials? The history of the LC includes a long pattern of people poorly suited to be mods, who we would never choose to be mods if they applied for it.
- Are the RMB rules actually good? Often what’s deemed as spam vs not spam is just what any particular LCer finds slightly annoying. Lots of suppression happens that’s not actually necessary, or it’s not consistently applied at all. Overburdened moderation because of this doesn’t constitute a problem for anybody else. The LC makes it bed, they have to lie in it. They should adjust policies based on the resources they have, not vice versa.
- What is the proper role of the Delegate in RMB moderation? What are the consequences for failing to deliver?
- Are requests being made that actually need to be lodged to NS mods, rather than RMB mods? Is there an emergency need to shove a site rule breaker to TRR’s RMB and make it their problem, or can we wait for NS mods to ban them and just encourage people to ignore trolls?
- Given that the RMB will never be a high quality/high engagement venue (it’s low quality/high engagement), is it worth heavily moderating in the first place? Is it a wise use of limited resources? This ties back to “are the rules good?”

(This post was last modified: 07-11-2022, 12:51 PM by sandaoguo.)

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- strengthen the assembly of the tsp and the owl by giving importance to the ministry of engagement so that it guides as many nations as possible on this forum and on the discord. This will allow for better representation of the region with more legislators and owl staff.

The MoE's outreach team should have a real impact (I've never seen it) by emphasizing communication with the nations of the region. For example, Election Commissioner Kringalia does a very good job of communication: the same should be done for the MoE.

And the decisions taken here need to be better communicated to the region: the nations need to know what their "representatives" are doing.

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It’s not an issue of the CRS not being there to respond to your inquiry, but rather the CRS not wanting to, in all honesty. The core issue is a demand for the CRS to care about RMB moderation, which nobody except Penguin does (and she only started to when she became Delegate, since that’s part of the Delegate’s job). The CRS is composed mostly of long-time government officials, whose long service makes them trustworthy to wield tremendous power in a time of crisis. It’s not filled will people who frequent the RMB. And when we caved and added people who *were* RMBers, they either fizzled out of activity altogether or their views realigned with the the rest of the group (eg PS2). Or in the most egregious case, betrayed the Coalition entirely. The CRS just isn’t the body you go to about RMB issues, it’s not in our purview or area of interest at all.

I think this paragraph takes the broader issue (potential CRS reform due to poor communication/inaction) and makes it about a specific issue. The idea of CRS reform would have to be thought of in the context of more than just one issue.

To address that issue, we need to look at RMB moderation itself, not the ancillary things like whether or not the LC get BC powers and how many. There are a lot of issues with how we approach it:
- Why is it being handled by elected officials? The history of the LC includes a long pattern of people poorly suited to be mods, who we would never choose to be mods if they applied for it.
- Are the RMB rules actually good? Often what’s deemed as spam vs not spam is just what any particular LCer finds slightly annoying. Lots of suppression happens that’s not actually necessary, or it’s not consistently applied at all. Overburdened moderation because of this doesn’t constitute a problem for anybody else. The LC makes it bed, they have to lie in it. They should adjust policies based on the resources they have, not vice versa.
- What is the proper role of the Delegate in RMB moderation? What are the consequences for failing to deliver?
- Are requests being made that actually need to be lodged to NS mods, rather than RMB mods? Is there an emergency need to shove a site rule breaker to TRR’s RMB and make it their problem, or can we wait for NS mods to ban them and just encourage people to ignore trolls?
- Given that the RMB will never be a high quality/high engagement venue (it’s low quality/high engagement), is it worth heavily moderating in the first place? Is it a wise use of limited resources? This ties back to “are the rules good?”

When it comes to discussing RMB governance ideas/reform, I agree that all of these questions are important.

The MoE's outreach team should have a real impact (I've never seen it) by emphasizing communication with the nations of the region.

This issue is better addressed by lobbying the Minister of Engagement around the issue (or endeavoring to join their staff). Constitutional reform is intended to address structural factors, not just activity ebbs and flows in specific regions.

Minister of Foreign Affairs
General of the South Pacific Special Forces
Ambassador to Balder
Former Prime Minister and Minister of Defense

Reply

The MoE's outreach team should have a real impact (I've never seen it) by emphasizing communication with the nations of the region.

This issue is better addressed by lobbying the Minister of Engagement around the issue (or endeavoring to join their staff). Constitutional reform is intended to address structural factors, not just activity ebbs and flows in specific regions.

Why can't structural factors can affect activity levels though?

It's already been mentioned but I certainly think that the organization and responsibilities of our ministries is a worthwhile topic for discussion.

Esfalsa | NationStates | Wiki | Roleplay | Discord

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Why can't structural factors can affect activity levels though?

Fair, I didn't phrase that super well. What I mean to say is that Jagged Fel's point "the MoE should do more of X" isn't a "MoE as a Ministry should be restructured" problem, it's a "the Minister should endeavor to do more X" thing to bring to the Minister's office.

Minister of Foreign Affairs
General of the South Pacific Special Forces
Ambassador to Balder
Former Prime Minister and Minister of Defense

Reply

It’s not an issue of the CRS not being there to respond to your inquiry, but rather the CRS not wanting to, in all honesty. The core issue is a demand for the CRS to care about RMB moderation, which nobody except Penguin does (and she only started to when she became Delegate, since that’s part of the Delegate’s job). The CRS is composed mostly of long-time government officials, whose long service makes them trustworthy to wield tremendous power in a time of crisis. It’s not filled will people who frequent the RMB. And when we caved and added people who *were* RMBers, they either fizzled out of activity altogether or their views realigned with the the rest of the group (eg PS2). Or in the most egregious case, betrayed the Coalition entirely. The CRS just isn’t the body you go to about RMB issues, it’s not in our purview or area of interest at all.

To address that issue, we need to look at RMB moderation itself, not the ancillary things like whether or not the LC get BC powers and how many. There are a lot of issues with how we approach it:
- Why is it being handled by elected officials? The history of the LC includes a long pattern of people poorly suited to be mods, who we would never choose to be mods if they applied for it.
- Are the RMB rules actually good? Often what’s deemed as spam vs not spam is just what any particular LCer finds slightly annoying. Lots of suppression happens that’s not actually necessary, or it’s not consistently applied at all. Overburdened moderation because of this doesn’t constitute a problem for anybody else. The LC makes it bed, they have to lie in it. They should adjust policies based on the resources they have, not vice versa.
- What is the proper role of the Delegate in RMB moderation? What are the consequences for failing to deliver?
- Are requests being made that actually need to be lodged to NS mods, rather than RMB mods? Is there an emergency need to shove a site rule breaker to TRR’s RMB and make it their problem, or can we wait for NS mods to ban them and just encourage people to ignore trolls?
- Given that the RMB will never be a high quality/high engagement venue (it’s low quality/high engagement), is it worth heavily moderating in the first place? Is it a wise use of limited resources? This ties back to “are the rules good?”

Guess I can try answering these questions.

1. Honestly, I don't know. I came into a process that happens to run on an electoral system. Although having poor moderators is a very notable consequence of the electoral system, a pro, albeit a risky one, is a system of trust. Candidates for Local Council are generally members of the region that have strong connections and/or relations with players that are on the RMB. The risk would be however, someone trusted by the community may not necessarily be an effective moderator, which goes back to the consequence having an electoral system. Would appointments be better? Not sure. A system via appointment would be more restrictive, but more secure as, if I may assume, either the Coral Guard, Delegate, or CRS would oversee the process. At the same time however, would there be interest in become a moderator as the role can be stressful and would there be enough applicants (in recent times, the number of candidates for the LC role has dropped).

2. The RMB rules, for the good part do work, however, that does not eliminate discussion of reforms to the rules. Sometimes it is good to test out some of the more controversial rules such as the double post rule for example to see if a change is necessary. Now for spam, it falls sometimes, if not often, into a gray zone, where, unfortunately, the application of the rule may fall into subjectivity. So, it is sometimes difficult to manage it since what even to consider spam can be tough to define. If suppressions are not necessary, there is an appeal process or an LC may correct the mistake. For inconsistent application, yes, that does happen, but most of the time, application of the rules are done correctly. 

3. I may leave out this question for the Delegate to answer, but one if it's suitable roles would be to assess and respond to a request from a Local Councillor or any other official relating to Border Control. Consequence for failure to deliver would be a prolonged situation on the RMB that could have been resolved faster.

4. Both. If there is a situation that does require NS mods, call both. The Local Council and members with the Border Control power may be able to handle the situation within the scope of the region, therefore we've done our part. NS mods have no limit to a region so they will do what they need to do. So far this term, we've responded quickly to situations in the region to the best of our abilities, though unfortunately we've ran into, though rarely, complication where there is regional ban evader which can't be stopped by NS mods.

5. Yes, it is necessary to moderate the region. The region is one of the largest regions due to its feeder status and is very active as already noted. This means that it would be prone to situations that require moderation. If it's already "low quality" (which is subjective depending on how you look at the region), why should it be left to further deteriorate? For a very prominent and structured region, that wouldn't be a good look.

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