Embassy - St Abbaddon

[Louisistan]

It is my pleasure to officially open the Embassy of St Abbaddon!

Welcome to the Islands! Please make yourselves at home.

[Topid]

Hello everyone! I want to thank the Council of Nine for approving this embassy. I really want to work toward a great relationship with 10000 Islands, and I've thought a lot about what the best thing to start off this thread with would be.

I know there was uncertainty as far back as the Liberation vote that I was worth investing the time and energy that 10000 Islands has put into this effort. And as I said back then that was more than fair, because my activity is far from a flat line, and it isn't likely to get more consistent with my full time profession and moving in with my significant other. I play NS when I have time, and I don't when I don't. So I think the best place to start this relationship is by continuing to address concerns that I'm getting myself and to a limited extension the defender world in over my head, and that St Abbaddon is going to fall victim to another "HAHA, you can't even protect regions with defender ties!" raid.

Can I start by bragging that St Abbaddon today has 479 nations, and I have 97 endorsements with an endorsement gap of 87 nations. I never would have guessed that's where we'd be in 3 weeks into my tenure as delegate, and I think it shows that I have sufficient ability and commitment to pull new members to this region to give us a shot at succeeding. But I'm not blind to the fact there are serious challenges.

What St Abbaddon most desperately needs is the active core of participators that other old regions have. When I have a couple days where I don't have time to get online, and I'm not posting on the RMB and telegramming people then activity falls off a cliff. And then I have to work twice as hard to get things moving again when I finally can get online. In communities with four or five active members engaging each other and the rest of the region, the absence or one or two of those players on a given day is not felt so extremely.

St Abbaddon had this at one time, we had Hawk, Pse, Spec, and Andrew, there were other moderately active members but those four were online daily or close to it long-term. That is not an easy thing to build, as a really active member is a rare thing to find. But that is what absolutely must be accomplished in the coming months. That's the 10,000 feet view of what I must work towards, because St Abbaddon cannot survive as a "region of one." Partly because that doesn't work as well for founderless regions and also because I'm not consistently active enough to be the 'one' in that region structure. I need those active nations right under me as delegate to keep this region alive and vigilant.

If that doesn't happen, then we're going to end up back where we started, but with me instead of Hawkswind as the target of the "HAHA, the defender sphere cannot even protect regions with defender ties" raid. And I don't intend to let that happen. If I haven't made significant progress in a few months, and I feel like this isn't working, then I fully intend to repeal the Liberation and lock and empty the region in favor of a more secure region. I don't think that's what is going to happen, but I'm on board if it needs to.

As I said at the start, I feel like I've made a great start toward achieving this goal, I'm pulling in huge numbers of new players, so the odds of finding those hidden gems are as good as I can make them. I'm also planning to hold elections for a "Council of Elders" which is the legislature of our region in the coming weeks, which I hope will bring people to the forums and foster active participation. I think if I keep working I can do this, and I am going to do just that.

To make a long post short in closing: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to take this last shot at saving St Abbaddon, it wasn't an easy decision I'm sure, but I'm glad I've got the opportunity. I know what needs to happen, I will do what I can to make it happen, and if it doesn't I'm ready to make the hard choice I really don't want to.

Topid
WA Delegate, St Abbaddon

[Louisistan]

Thank you for the update Topid. Let me know if there's anything we can do to help.

[Klopstock]

You have achieved a lot already, Topid, and have a good grip on St Abbaddon's tiller. We look forward to good relations and a strong and safe St Abbaddon.

[Topid]

Good friends at 10000 Islands, I just wanted to make a quick post that I am still here, and that I'm not at all excited with how things are going during my absence. I left 14-15 months ago to work on passing some pretty wicked exams that are required in my profession after college. There were some bumps along the road but that process is going well. Or at least, it could be going much worse.

I am hoping that when I soon return, I might still have some friends with the best interests of this old region in heart. If not officially on paper, then privately to bounce some ideas off of. It might take some time, but I am confident I can get this ship sailing in the right direction again.

[thepeninsular]

Hello Topid!

If you're wondering, I'm the new Foreign Affairs Secretary of XKI. I am relativley new to NationStates, so I didn't have the honor of meeting you before, but you can be sure that we'll help you and yer region to get things going again!