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Just picture this dessert, a Banana Split brownie pizza.  A perfect marriage of fruits, chocolate, ice cream, and topped off with nuts and hot fudge topping.  Doesn't it just sound great?

Well now that I have your attention, let me talk to you about how I'm running for both the Delegate seat as well as the Thane of Gaming.

Delegate questions:

Spoiler

1) Why are you running for this position?
Because Wintreath needs a delegate, and it's another thing I can add to my portfolio of things I've done in the region as well as just my overall experience portfolio.

2) What do you aim to accomplish as thane? As part of this, you must include at least one thing that you promise to do beyond the minimum listed duties of the position during your term. It should be measurable, so that it's black and white whether you fulfilled this mandate at the end of the term if you are elected.
2a) If you are an incumbent running for re-election, did you fulfill your mandate from the September election? If not, why didn't you?
As Delegate, I'd continue what has been a thing for past delegates in the sense of voting on WA topics based on how the region as a whole leans.  I'd also want to bring back discussions as to why people are choosing to vote the way that they do so that it can help be an influence on how I vote as Delegate

3) What qualifications or experience do you have in the area that you are running in?
I've had extensive experience in the field of Foreign Affairs, running in positions such as the Underhusen where voting can be dictated based on how the populace feels, and almost a 14 years of continuous experience with NS in general.

4) How do you plan to have the time to fulfill the duties of the position until the next election in June?
Thankfully I have plenty of free time to fill both offices until June.

5) Are you currently a part of any other NationStates regional or organizational government? If so, please include those regions and positions.
Currently no.

Thane of Gaming Questions:

Spoiler

1) Why are you running for this position?
Because I love gaming, and I love doing reviews, so I figured since nobody else is taking it up, I'd run for Thane this time.

2) What do you aim to accomplish as thane? As part of this, you must include at least one thing that you promise to do beyond the minimum listed duties of the position during your term. It should be measurable, so that it's black and white whether you fulfilled this mandate at the end of the term if you are elected.
2a) If you are an incumbent running for re-election, did you fulfill your mandate from the September election? If not, why didn't you?
I plan to keep doing video game reviews and doing more to emphasize video games outside of our regional game night/minecraft stuff (which are already taken care of by more experienced people), maybe bringing back Game of the Month to throw out recommendations and put all types of games back in the spotlight.

3) What qualifications or experience do you have in the area that you are running in?
Aside from over 20+ years of being a gamer, I've had experience in various areas of Culture such as Roleplay, Werewolf, and overall, as well as overseeing the Orendi.

4) How do you plan to have the time to fulfill the duties of the position until the next election in June?
Thankfully I have plenty of free time to fill both offices until June.

5) Are you currently a part of any other NationStates regional or organizational government? If so, please include those regions and positions.
Currently no.

Welcome to the campaign!

On the delegate side, what are your stances on the last Security Council proposal Against Quorum Raiding and the current proposal Liberate New Western Atlantic? Overall, how do you feel the delegacy reflects Wintreath as a whole?

On the gaming side, why do you think it's so hard to get gaming going in a community of gamers? Also, are there any specific games you'd try to introduce or get people playing?

Welcome to the campaign!

On the delegate side, what are your stances on the last Security Council proposal Against Quorum Raiding and the current proposal Liberate New Western Atlantic? Overall, how do you feel the delegacy reflects Wintreath as a whole?

On the gaming side, why do you think it's so hard to get gaming going in a community of gamers? Also, are there any specific games you'd try to introduce or get people playing?

I know the latter has been making some waves in Karma since they're going out of their way to vote for liberating NWA (and by going out of their way, I mean the United Regions Alliance is strictly recommending their regions vote AGAINST) to where they made a treaty to be able to vote for it and to where it's made a couple of members uncomfortable.

Apparently, there's also some bad OOC history with them as well according to both the thread, and also according to something I read in Karma were one of NWA's people actually doxxed one of Karma's members.  Knowing that the people running it apparently can get that bad and seeing that 87% of our members support the liberation, I'd say my stance is also definitely more FOR the liberation.

I'm kinda torn on Quorum Raiding, to be honest.  On the one hand, I think it's wrong to try to resort to unseating delegates just to prevent proposals from reaching Quorum, though apparently it was originally started as an anti-fasc tactic? That's...interesting.

On the other hand, in the end this is just a game, and people are always going to come up with ways to make sure the things they don't like don't happen, and we just have to find ways to push past that.  Also, judging by the responses of the author in the thread, he knew the idea was terrible and wasn't even 100% backing it up, so that tells me all I really needed to know and makes me unsurprised that it was defeated in the end.

On the gaming side: It's hard because people are keeping busy in other ways.  Either they have jobs or are looking for work, they're either doing other things offline and keeping busy having a social life/doing non-gaming things, or they already have their set games that they play, or they just don't play video games...in the end there's always something that pulls people away from jumping into something new.

I'd probably start similarly to what I did when I tried Game of the Month during my stint as JoC.  Start with really well known and cheap/free games, and go from what people nominate and vote on, throwing my own nomination each month into the ring.  Maybe some months it'd be a popular and well known title, maybe other months it'd be an independent title, but I'd always try to make sure it was an easily accessible game for people that didn't break their wallets too hard (so if it was a popular and well known title, I'd make sure it was cheap/on sale for at least 50% before suggesting it as the game to play each month).

At the same time, I'd greatly promote and suggest MMOs for people to recommend in that same capacity.  Like, yeah WoW and FFXIV are wonderful titles, but at least one of those two I believe are pay to play monthly, so I'd recommend MMOs more like Atlantica, DDO, DC Universe Online, or even ESO...aka games that are either free with optional subscriptions, games that are a one time purchase but free monthly (and also have optional subscriptions that are less necessary but just give you extra perks, like ESO), or games that are free to play, but they have Marketplace transactions to balance out the lack of a monthly subscription (in cases like Atlantica).

Between promoting cheaper/on sale games that people can grab for a small amount and promoting free titles/MMOs, it'd still always be an uphill battle to get people interested (much like RP), but it's always worth a try.

@Michi: Yeah, we ran into that when NWE attempted to establish relations with us awhile back.

As abhorrent as that is though, I have to admit that I'm concerned about the precedent of liberating regions over OOC allegations. While there's no doubt that these particular allegations are true, the NSGP community has shown itself to be an...uneven...judge of these matters at best. This very resolution prompted the person who created the NS Leaders server and the OOC watchlist to state that the proposal's author is "just as objectionable as his former compatriots from NWA", and such a casual, fast and loose attitude about serious OOC matters hardly inspires confidence. And it's not as if a prominent NSGP region has made baseless OOC allegations before, right?

Then there's the fact that most off-site OOC allegations can't even be discussed on the NS website, which is important when you remember that the vast majority of WA voters aren't off-site. The people making the allegations can't detail them or provide evidence, they can only post vague innuendo or invite people to off-site areas to discuss them. The people on the receiving end of those allegations can't really respond or refute them except again in off-site areas, meaning that the 98% of WA voters who don't happen to be in the relevant off-site area have no way to make an informed decision because all they can base their vote on is whatever site-legal innuendo is in the proposal.

So we're talking about setting a precedent of liberating and potentially destroying regions based on serious but usually murky allegations from a community with an uneven record of handling such matters and approved by voters who literally can't know the basis of the proposal their voting for because it would violate site rules to tell them. Again, the situation is very clear with NWA, but I worry that this mechanism will be abused in the future in situations where it is less clear.

Not posting this because I would vote against you in the Thane election, btw. I just enjoy the discussion/debate. There's not usually enough interest in WA proposals in Wintreath to have a discussion about them.

@Michi: Yeah, we ran into that when NWE attempted to establish relations with us awhile back.

As abhorrent as that is though, I have to admit that I'm concerned about the precedent of liberating regions over OOC allegations. While there's no doubt that these particular allegations are true, the NSGP community has shown itself to be an...uneven...judge of these matters at best. This very resolution prompted the person who created the NS Leaders server and the OOC watchlist to state that the proposal's author is "just as objectionable as his former compatriots from NWA", and such a casual, fast and loose attitude about serious OOC matters hardly inspires confidence. And it's not as if a prominent NSGP region has made baseless OOC allegations before, right?

Then there's the fact that most off-site OOC allegations can't even be discussed on the NS website, which is important when you remember that the vast majority of WA voters aren't off-site. The people making the allegations can't detail them or provide evidence, they can only post vague innuendo or invite people to off-site areas to discuss them. The people on the receiving end of those allegations can't really respond or refute them except again in off-site areas, meaning that the 98% of WA voters who don't happen to be in the relevant off-site area have no way to make an informed decision because all they can base their vote on is whatever site-legal innuendo is in the proposal.

So we're talking about setting a precedent of liberating and potentially destroying regions based on serious but usually murky allegations from a community with an uneven record of handling such matters and approved by voters who literally can't know the basis of the proposal their voting for because it would violate site rules to tell them. Again, the situation is very clear with NWA, but I worry that this mechanism will be abused in the future in situations where it is less clear.

Not posting this because I would vote against you in the Thane election, btw. I just enjoy the discussion/debate. There's not usually enough interest in WA proposals in Wintreath to have a discussion about them.

I see where you're coming from and I can respect that viewpoint completely.  If it was just OOC allegations like we've dealt with against us, then I'd be a little more hesitant on voting for something like this purely on that level because I'd normally agree with you.

On top of that, it's supposedly a dead region being only kept alive as a memory, but if those people are still around then I'd rather just see them outted of the region in general.  Not to mention, like I said...our people only seem to have like 3 against it out of 25 voters, so since I've already been kinda leaning that way, I may as well just follow what the majority of our people are voting.  But I do always appreciate debates otherwise since I could always be missing something and always welcome having someone change my mind...especially since in the end (again) it's a dead region so either stance really doesn't bother me that much.

and I hate to say in the end:

but I worry that this mechanism will be abused in the future in situations where it is less clear.

This is going to 100% always be an issue with everything in NS, or really in general.  While the intention may always be pure in creating or implementing something, someone will always find a way to abuse it.  Again, going back to the Quorum Raiding topic where the intention was to push out unwelcome topics such as pro-fasc ideas from hitting quorum and reaching a vote...yet there are people that definitely abuse that for their own agenda.  But just because there's the possibility that it can be abused (which again, anything will always be abused by the wrong people at some point) doesn't mean we should never implement it.  We just have to be able to use common sense and realize when something is serious and with good intentions, and when someone is abusing it or "doing it for the lolz" or to fill their own agenda.