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phoenixofthesun14 · 08-30-2020, 11:58 PM

Hey y'all, love y'all seriously.

Now, I know we had a thing all the way back from when I was a chair where the idea of Assembly commendations was brought up, and I've been thinking recently, why don't we do this sort of thing?

My idea for how we'd implement this is: we create a subforum for the commendations to go to after they've been voted on.

As far as legislating goes, I'd suggest editing the language in the Legislative Procedures Act, though perhaps this isn't even necessary.

As far as the actual commendations, my suggestion would be to keep commendations to players who have made TSP a better, more enjoyable place, who put in a lot of work into the region, who are massively inflluential because of their positive accomplishments in anything TSP does, whether it's on the RMB, or TSPRP, or in the SPSF, or in FA, or as a leader in the region. And there are a ton of people who can fit that bill.

I think these things should have a minimum debate time of 3 days, vote time of 3 days, and need a 50% majority to pass, and perhaps for simplicity's sake, we could have borrow from the Security Council's way of doing things.

Some examples of the language change (I'm a terrible writer and I'm sleepy so apologies)

Quote:
Legislative Procedure Act
An Act to define the procedural rules of the Assembly
1. Legislative Rules

(1) Any legislator may propose a bill, resolution, commendation, or appointment, which will be debated and refined collectively in the assembly under the guidance of the Chair.

(2) To be brought to a vote, a specific draft of a bill, resolution, commendation, or appointment must
a. receive a motion to vote by a legislator,
b. receive a second by another legislator,
c. be affirmed to be in proper formatting by the Chair, and
d. have been at debate for a minimum period of time equivalent to the length of its voting period.

(3) General laws, amendments, resolutions, commendations, and appointments will remain at vote for three days. Constitutional laws, constitutional amendments, resolutions dealing with matters of constitutional law, and treaties will remain at vote for five days.

(4) General laws, amendments, resolutions, commendations, and treaties require a simple majority of those voting to pass. Appointments, unless otherwise specified, require a simple majority of those voting to pass. Constitutional laws, constitutional amendments, and resolutions dealing with matters of constitutional law require a three-fifths supermajority of those voting to pass.

(5) Should a debate lead to multiple competing bills or resolutions on the same matter, the Chair will separately and simultaneously bring the competing bills or resolutions to vote, in the same manner as regular business is done. The bill or resolution that receives the most votes in favor and meets minimum threshold requirements for passage will become law.

(6) Any bill, resolution, commendation, or amendment which has been inactive for more than one month may be considered defunct and archived at the discretion of the Chair.

(7) Any legislator may motion to cancel voting and withdraw a bill that has been brought to a vote so revisions can be made. The Chair may cancel voting on the bill, provided that there is a reason deemed sufficient by the Chair and has no objection within 24 hours of the motion being made and seconded. Should the motion and seconding be made within the final 24 hours of voting, the legislation shall not pass or fail until the Chair makes a ruling on the motion.

(8) Should any bill, resolution, commendation, or amendment fail to become law, any proposal which is judged by the Chair as being substantially similar to that failed legislation shall be prevented from going to vote for two weeks after the closure of the vote. The Chair may waive this restriction should a legislator motion for them to do so, provided that there is a reason deemed sufficient by the Chair and has no objection within 24 hours of the motion being made and seconded.

(9) Should any bill, resolution or amendment become law, the document itself, its debate thread, and its voting thread and results shall all be archived.

Potential example of a commendation (I am not an SC author or know all the rules etc but a very light example etc of the thing probably someone who knows the stuff better can suggest much better stuff.)

Quote:
Commend Max Barry
Proposed by: Phoenix

The Assembly of the South Pacific,

Recognizing That Max Barry made this game to promote his book,

Fearing where NationStates players would all be had he not made this game,

Admiring how many people love this game and play almost religiously,

Hereby commends Max Barry

Phoenix shall GTFTS now..... but have at it, let's get this off the ground maybe?

Empress of Fire Fire

Current Minister of Military Affairs
Chair Perch of the Assembly (February to June 2020)
SPSF Soldier
MoRA Fellow
Ambassador to Forest and Lazarus

~~Whole India~~ · 08-31-2020, 07:51 AM

(08-30-2020, 11:58 PM)phoenixofthesun14 Wrote: Hey y'all, love y'all seriously.

Now, I know we had a thing all the way back from when I was a chair where the idea of Assembly commendations was brought up, and I've been thinking recently, why don't we do this sort of thing?

My idea for how we'd implement this is: we create a subforum for the commendations to go to after they've been voted on.

As far as legislating goes, I'd suggest editing the language in the Legislative Procedures Act, though perhaps this isn't even necessary.

As far as the actual commendations, my suggestion would be to keep commendations to players who have made TSP a better, more enjoyable place, who put in a lot of work into the region, who are massively inflluential because of their positive accomplishments in anything TSP does, whether it's on the RMB, or TSPRP, or in the SPSF, or in FA, or as a leader in the region. And there are a ton of people who can fit that bill.

I think these things should have a minimum debate time of 3 days, vote time of 3 days, and need a 50% majority to pass, and perhaps for simplicity's sake, we could have borrow from the Security Council's way of doing things.

Some examples of the language change (I'm a terrible writer and I'm sleepy so apologies)

Quote:
Legislative Procedure Act
An Act to define the procedural rules of the Assembly
1. Legislative Rules

(1) Any legislator may propose a bill, resolution, commendation, or appointment, which will be debated and refined collectively in the assembly under the guidance of the Chair.

(2) To be brought to a vote, a specific draft of a bill, resolution, commendation, or appointment must
a. receive a motion to vote by a legislator,
b. receive a second by another legislator,
c. be affirmed to be in proper formatting by the Chair, and
d. have been at debate for a minimum period of time equivalent to the length of its voting period.

(3) General laws, amendments, resolutions, commendations, and appointments will remain at vote for three days. Constitutional laws, constitutional amendments, resolutions dealing with matters of constitutional law, and treaties will remain at vote for five days.

(4) General laws, amendments, resolutions, commendations, and treaties require a simple majority of those voting to pass. Appointments, unless otherwise specified, require a simple majority of those voting to pass. Constitutional laws, constitutional amendments, and resolutions dealing with matters of constitutional law require a three-fifths supermajority of those voting to pass.

(5) Should a debate lead to multiple competing bills or resolutions on the same matter, the Chair will separately and simultaneously bring the competing bills or resolutions to vote, in the same manner as regular business is done. The bill or resolution that receives the most votes in favor and meets minimum threshold requirements for passage will become law.

(6) Any bill, resolution, commendation, or amendment which has been inactive for more than one month may be considered defunct and archived at the discretion of the Chair.

(7) Any legislator may motion to cancel voting and withdraw a bill that has been brought to a vote so revisions can be made. The Chair may cancel voting on the bill, provided that there is a reason deemed sufficient by the Chair and has no objection within 24 hours of the motion being made and seconded. Should the motion and seconding be made within the final 24 hours of voting, the legislation shall not pass or fail until the Chair makes a ruling on the motion.

(8) Should any bill, resolution, commendation, or amendment fail to become law, any proposal which is judged by the Chair as being substantially similar to that failed legislation shall be prevented from going to vote for two weeks after the closure of the vote. The Chair may waive this restriction should a legislator motion for them to do so, provided that there is a reason deemed sufficient by the Chair and has no objection within 24 hours of the motion being made and seconded.

(9) Should any bill, resolution or amendment become law, the document itself, its debate thread, and its voting thread and results shall all be archived.
Potential example of a commendation (I am not an SC author or know all the rules etc but a very light example etc of the thing probably someone who knows the stuff better can suggest much better stuff.)

Quote:
Commend Max Barry
Proposed by: Phoenix

The Assembly of the South Pacific,

Recognizing That Max Barry made this game to promote his book,

Fearing where NationStates players would all be had he not made this game,

Admiring how many people love this game and play almost religiously,

Hereby commends Max Barry
Phoenix shall GTFTS now..... but have at it, let's get this off the ground maybe?

You had my idea! Anyways I planned to propose it after I become a Minister and to commend few nations and regions and in same sense condemn few nations and regions. But instead of nearly adding the word commendation and condemnation everywhere in bracket of Resolution we can include Condemnation and Commendation. That would save our speaker's time. Also Honorable speaker please add the table of content in the laws I suggested.

***Tsunamy*** · 08-31-2020, 09:37 AM

So, should we make the threshold higher for a commendation? Or have a different process?

I'm thinking two things here:

(1) Would more than half the region vote down any commendation? I mean, on some level it's just a d--- thing to do? I could see people abstaining, but I doubt many people would outright vote against.

(2) If people were to vote against, I'm concerned there might be some (understandable yet undesirable) personal animosity that gets pulled into the Assembly.

I'm not opposed to the idea, but what to think through the ramifications.

Maybe we take commendations through a private vote? Make it something closer to a unanimous decree? Idk exactly.

-tsunamy
[forum admin]

~~Whole India~~ · 08-31-2020, 11:48 AM

(08-31-2020, 09:37 AM)Tsunamy Wrote: So, should we make the threshold higher for a commendation? Or have a different process?

I'm thinking two things here:

(1) Would more than half the region vote down any commendation? I mean, on some level it's just a d--- thing to do? I could see people abstaining, but I doubt many people would outright vote against.

(2) If people were to vote against, I'm concerned there might be some (understandable yet undesirable) personal animosity that gets pulled into the Assembly.

I'm not opposed to the idea, but what to think through the ramifications.

Maybe we take commendations through a private vote? Make it something closer to a unanimous decree? Idk exactly.

I guess that's complete conjecture. The question of animosity doesn't exist as its quite tangible that the Assembly either commends a nation via resolution or doesn't sees the nation or region fit to be commended.

~~Whole India~~ · 08-31-2020, 11:55 AM

Amendment to Legislative Procedure Act Wrote:
Legislative Procedure Act

...

1. Legislative Rules

...

(1) Any legislator may propose a bill, resolution (includes Commendation and Condemnation), or appointment, which will be debated and refined collectively in the assembly under the guidance of the Chair.
a. Commendation or Condemnation resolution can be proposed at any time in regards to any region except the coalition.
b. The Assembly can propose a Commendation or Condemnation for a nation only if that nation has ceased to exist or has declared that "he/she has decided to retire from Politics and shall not serve any office."
...

That's my draft on it

(This post was last modified: 09-01-2020, 12:26 PM by Whole India.)

**Belschaft** · 08-31-2020, 12:06 PM

(08-31-2020, 09:37 AM)Tsunamy Wrote: So, should we make the threshold higher for a commendation? Or have a different process?

I'm thinking two things here:

(1) Would more than half the region vote down any commendation? I mean, on some level it's just a d--- thing to do? I could see people abstaining, but I doubt many people would outright vote against.

(2) If people were to vote against, I'm concerned there might be some (understandable yet undesirable) personal animosity that gets pulled into the Assembly.

I'm not opposed to the idea, but what to think through the ramifications.

Maybe we take commendations through a private vote? Make it something closer to a unanimous decree? Idk exactly.

This is my biggest reason to be opposed to this (I have several) - I think almost every single proposed commendation will pass due to people wanting to be "nice" leading to them proliferating and becoming meaningless.

The only way I could possibly consider supporting something like this would be if we had a prohibition on commending active players.

_{Minister of Media, Subversion and Sandwich Making}
^{Associate Justice of the High Court and Senior Moderator}

PREVIOUS ROLES

**Griffindor** · 08-31-2020, 12:22 PM

My take on it is similar to Bel's. I envision a "Hall of Commended PAST Legislators/Citizens" with the eligibility point being 1-2 years of inactivity, and a notable contribution to the region/assembly.

-Griffindor/Ebonhand
-Current Roles/Positions
-Legislator 2/24/20-
-High Court Justice 6/7/20-
-South Pacific Coral Guard 11/17/20-
-Minister of Engagement 6/17/22-

-Past Roles/Positions
-Legislator 7/3/16-4/10/18
-Secretary of State 4/3/20-2/24/21
-Chair of the APC 9/24/16-5/31/17
-Vice-Chair of the APC 6/1/17-4/10/18
-Local Council Member 7/1/17-11/17/17
-Citizen 5/2012-12/2014 and 2/26/16-7/3/2016

Qwert · 08-31-2020, 01:36 PM

How about private nominations? There would be no list of players to choose from, just a fixed period for nominations. Then the nominations are counted and the player(s) with the most nominations and who fulfil certain criteria, are awarded commendations. Or something like that.

Roleplayer
Manager of the TSP and A1-0 maps
Roleplay moderator

My roleplay nations

Bleakfoot · 08-31-2020, 02:25 PM

What about some kind of South Pacific Order of Merit? Rather than a meaningless debate/vote thread that gets archived and forgotten about as soon as it's over, give people something that endures. The right to put letters after their name! A logo in their signature and/or on their NS flag! And, of course, a place in regional history.

***Tsunamy*** · 08-31-2020, 03:06 PM

(08-31-2020, 11:48 AM)Whole India Wrote:
(08-31-2020, 09:37 AM)Tsunamy Wrote: So, should we make the threshold higher for a commendation? Or have a different process?

I'm thinking two things here:

(1) Would more than half the region vote down any commendation? I mean, on some level it's just a d--- thing to do? I could see people abstaining, but I doubt many people would outright vote against.

(2) If people were to vote against, I'm concerned there might be some (understandable yet undesirable) personal animosity that gets pulled into the Assembly.

I'm not opposed to the idea, but what to think through the ramifications.

Maybe we take commendations through a private vote? Make it something closer to a unanimous decree? Idk exactly.

I guess that's complete conjecture. The question of animosity doesn't exist as its quite tangible that the Assembly either commends a nation via resolution or doesn't sees the nation or region fit to be commended.

It's hardly conjuncture to suggest that a nation that doesn't get approved for a "commendation" would be miffed. That's human nation. And I'm not talking about anger at the Assembly, I'm talking about annoyance at the people who votes "against."

I like the idea of doing this for past legislators as a hall of fame. That might be a good idea, but I'm not sure if that's what phoenix meant here.

-tsunamy
[forum admin]