Thank you for sharing your thoughts. It's exactly what we need to hear. I'm going to try and respond to your criticisms with my thoughts, but keep in mind I agree with you on several of these points and I'm not trying to make excuses as to why things are the way they are.
Many of the people that Gov has harmed (Pengu, Hannah, etc.) are involved in writing this bill, so their thoughts are well known. You can see from our actual drafting thread that we're struggling to set an acceptable pace for this, since we want to make sure the bill is
GOOD. This pacing issue is partly because this is the first ever legislative revocation of citizenship and we want to set a good precedent and cover all the bases, and partly because we need to balance the punitive mindset with the merciful. Some of us have more sympathy for Govindia than others, and some are more eager to see him go than others. We have a mix of both in the Storting right now, so naturally it causes some friction. This is also a legislative process, so we are statutorily constrained as to when the discussion period is over, when we can motion to vote, etc. These things have time limits built in. Which brings me to another point...
Wintreath has no moderation team, besides the Jarls who have authority over their respective forums and Wintermoot, who has admin privileges over the entire site. We have no warning system, no defined code of conduct, and no recourse to punish other than our judicial system (which would be slower than this) and revocations of citizenship. Revocations start either with the Storting or the Monarch. You'll have to ask the Monarch why action wasn't taken earlier (or perhaps he's already shared his views - I can't remember; there are so many threads dedicated to this one topic.).
Regarding why we keep stressing everyone comment - The referendum on the Constitutional Convention was very recent, and it sorta kinda exploded because we found there was actually considerable opposition to what we were trying to do, even though very little was expressed in the drafting phase. Afterwards it was revealed that those who dissented from the majority were actually afraid to speak in opposition or felt that their comments would be ignored. We want dearly to avoid a repeat of that, where we go through with this and then suffer cries of "You violated his rights, you should have tried more, this is unfair, etc." This is part of the reason we upped the number of Underhusen seats to 7 this term, to encourage better discussion and to present a variety of viewpoints.
Wintreath's number one quality - the one that drew most of us here, the thing that keeps us here, and the quality that keeps us all coming back, is our inclusiveness. Wintreath does not turn people away. After Govindia was rejected, banned, dismissed from every other region he's inhabited he came to Wintreath. Wintermoot can speak of the ridiculousness Wintreath has endured on the international stage because of our decision to offer him amnesty and to allow him to participate in interregional military operations. It's been a burden, but that only solidified in our minds that we were doing the right thing by giving him a chance. Even after every door slams in your face, Wintreath will open its arms to you.
Govindia has abused that charity. I'll repeat my thoughts from another discussion below, because I think they sum up my thoughts pretty well.
We know exactly where this road is heading. It doesn't matter whether we get there tomorrow or in six months: we know what we're in for. Another citizen is going to be harassed, insulted, humiliated, frustrated, and - worst of all - he'll attempt to manipulate them into thinking they did something wrong. I don't want to be part of the Storting that was ready to pull the trigger on the most serious sanction he's received, and didn't, and someone ended up getting hurt.
I don't think any of us were concerned with the fact this was taking too long. It might be because (and I can only speak for myself) we consider all of us, the whole region, to be victims. This overshadows the harm caused to the actual victims, or those that have suffered worse than the rest. I can't thank you enough for sharing this.
