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Are you saying that is what we have, or that is what you'd like to see?

That's what we currently have.

What I see:

• Regular and already highly visible elections
• Recruitment telegram that devotes one third for politics
• Large column dedicated for government on the forum front page
• 39.5% government related topics (and with applications taking 20%, it's as good as half)

Just to clear up how I made my mistake.

I'm not sure how you're getting from your points to the conclusion that Wintreath is a political region.

1. If there are elections, they're obviously going to be very big events in the region, even if the region isn't that political.

2. Good point. I never received a Wintreath recruitment TG, so I would never know.

3. The majority of that is the Riksråd, though, which AFAIK isn't political. The Overhusen isn't that political either, since it's mostly there to approve laws in the Monarch's name. So only a relatively small part of the sidebar is devoted to the "political" Underhusen.

4. I will attempt to calculate my own statistics as well.

As I said before, many parts of our government are largely apolitical, as Wintreath is largely a meritocracy. This includes the Riksråd and Monarchy. IMO, the "political" subforums currently are: Constitutional Convention on the Storting, April UH Election, Storting, Citizen's Platform, UH Archive, OH Archive, Tombs of Elections Past, Constitutional Convention Archive.

Adding those topics together, we get 745 topics. When divided by the total number of topics (3180, according to the Info Center at the bottom of the forum), we get 23.4%.

The "culture" subforums I will be using are: Amalyan Quarter, RPers' Gathering, Dumping Grounds, Howling Wind Tavern, Gaming Lounge, Hall of Great Discussions, Summersend Hills, Festival Fields.

Adding these topics, we get 862 topics, which leads to 27.1%. At first, these two percentages look roughly equal. However, if you look at the culture subforums, many of the topics have formed into megathreads, while most government topics (whether they be political or not) haven't. Thus, I will also be calculating the the percentages by number of posts.

Adding together the number of posts in political subforums, we get 10,349 posts. Using a total post count of 68,673, we get 15.1%.

Adding together the number of posts in culture subforums, we get 38,465 posts, which leads to 56.0%. So while the topic count might imply that the political and cultural sides of Wintreath are about equal, in reality a lot more activity is generated in the cultural side.

Of course, only looking at statistics of post/topic counts doesn't really achieve much. I don't really have much of a stance on this subject; I just saw your statistics and became interested (numbers are cool ).

What I see:

• Regular and already highly visible elections
• Recruitment telegram that devotes one third for politics
• Large column dedicated for government on the forum front page
• 39.5% government related topics (and with applications taking 20%, it's as good as half)

Just to clear up how I made my mistake.

I'm not sure how you're getting from your points to the conclusion that Wintreath is a political region.

1. If there are elections, they're obviously going to be very big events in the region, even if the region isn't that political.

2. Good point. I never received a Wintreath recruitment TG, so I would never know.

3. The majority of that is the Riksråd, though, which AFAIK isn't political. The Overhusen isn't that political either, since it's mostly there to approve laws in the Monarch's name. So only a relatively small part of the sidebar is devoted to the "political" Underhusen.

4. I will attempt to calculate my own statistics as well.

As I said before, many parts of our government are largely apolitical, as Wintreath is largely a meritocracy. This includes the Riksråd and Monarchy. IMO, the "political" subforums currently are: Constitutional Convention on the Storting, April UH Election, Storting, Citizen's Platform, UH Archive, OH Archive, Tombs of Elections Past, Constitutional Convention Archive.

Adding those topics together, we get 745 topics. When divided by the total number of topics (3180, according to the Info Center at the bottom of the forum), we get 23.4%.

The "culture" subforums I will be using are: Amalyan Quarter, RPers' Gathering, Dumping Grounds, Howling Wind Tavern, Gaming Lounge, Hall of Great Discussions, Summersend Hills, Festival Fields.

Adding these topics, we get 862 topics, which leads to 27.1%. At first, these two percentages look roughly equal. However, if you look at the culture subforums, many of the topics have formed into megathreads, while most government topics (whether they be political or not) haven't. Thus, I will also be calculating the the percentages by number of posts.

Adding together the number of posts in political subforums, we get 10,349 posts. Using a total post count of 68,673, we get 15.1%.

Adding together the number of posts in culture subforums, we get 38,465 posts, which leads to 56.0%. So while the topic count might imply that the political and cultural sides of Wintreath are about equal, in reality a lot more activity is generated in the cultural side.

Of course, only looking at statistics of post/topic counts doesn't really achieve much. I don't really have much of a stance on this subject; I just saw your statistics and became interested (numbers are cool ).

#MathForTheWin

The point behind my list was to illustrate why I thought we were political. I don't know other regions so I can't compare, but all those points are ones that newcomers could quickly notice and come to the same conclusion.

It shouldn't be that a region can't be many things at the same time, but my wording has resonated in ways that astonish, or even confuse, me.

I'm trying to think what I should take out of this turn in the discussion, pondering how I should adjust myself when told by several highly respectable members of the region that I'm viewing the region in wrong light. I'm not pompous enough to argue against you, but then again I haven't really been told that I shouldn't be doing something (unless I have failed to realize it).

I really would like to dignify taulover's extensive response with one in kind, but I'm afraid the best "counter" I can do is to say that in the end people can view activity in many ways. To some people two threads with 10 replies in each may stand out more than one thread with 100 replies. Going to semantics about what "politics" is would be tempting but I'm afraid I'd lose against the first dictionary someone throws at me.

I think the real area we should be focusing on is the gaming and cultural aspects of Wintreath; from what I've seen, Minecraft and weekly gaming things could be quite a recruitment draw, as could active and well-run RPs

I have been defeated in the field of arranging multiplayer games that I'm skeptical if anyone can ever pull that off better than what we already have. I would absolutely love to see that happen, but if someone has that caliber miracle up in their sleeve, I would suggest that it be used to solve world hunger or to cure all diseases.

RP meanwhile is something I find difficulty dipping my toes in, so I couldn't really do anything on that front either. (I feel a bit self-centered commenting in this manner, and we probably should continue in a general thread about possible recruitment draws.)

That said, you mentioned that you are challenging candidates "from getting votes for just who they are". That's a fine goal, and seeing candidates putting in the effort to campaign is great, but I believe it shouldn't be something that is enforced or pressurized by the government, whichever branch you are referring to. Peer pressure from fellow candidates would be a better alternative. Though I must say personality traits will probably still be a rather significant factor when it comes to voting.

The problem we from time to time have is that elections dry out. We have had great ones lately, but we have also seen ones where hardly any campaigning (or anything) happens and people just get elected because voters are free to do Italian hand signs and conclude "that name fits my lips well, I shall vote for it". I may not have the right ideas about how that could / if it should be improved, but it's a start.

I realize that it is not really fair to accuse that "people just get elected for no effort" because usually it's still backed by their efforts in the region, my stance on the elections may be a little too inward. Another viewpoint would however be that if we let people to ride their overall "credits" in the region in the elections, we put newer members in a needlessly difficult position, especially when our unpolitical Monarch can adjust for that while assigning other positions. Not that I recall anyone expressing being offended by my interpretable "accusation", but it works as good bridge to why it the system could use an improvement.

In the fears that this thread will start to dry out from now on I'd like to use the opportunity to thank all the respective members of government and other individuals who have heard my requests and reacted on them.

Your views are quite different from mine, but you have my support in the coming election.

EDIT: @ tau: Mathematik. Mathematik über alles.