Questions for Senate candidates 11/21

[Valentian Elysium]

Welcome back, I hope everyone's doing well today. It seems the elections are upon us again, this time for the position of Himes West and Lyonesse East!
Now then, the questions, shall we?

Questions for all candidates:
When did you join XKI?

How active would you consider yourself? Where have you been active? (discord, RMB, etc.)

Have you ever held any previous government positions, whether it be in XKI or in other regions? If so, how will the experience aid you during your term?

Once in office, do you plan on having a deputy? If so, how will you determine which candidate to choose?

What do you hope to achieve whilst in office?

What do you admire about XKI?


Questions for Himes West candidates:

How active do you see yourself in A Taco Archipelago?

What events do you have in mind to host for our RP?

What do you want to do to increase the activity in the RP section of discord?

Do you have any plans for A Taco Archipelago? If so, what are they?


Questions for Lyonesse East candidates:

What do you hope to build on from the current senator's first term?

Have you participated in the House Cup and Shield competitions before? If so, how have you done?



Thank you for your answers, candidates. Best of luck in the upcoming elections! Till next we meet,
-Valentian

Tagging current candidates: Aschente , Flying Eagles , AxeCapital

[Aschente]

When did you join XKI?
I joined xki mid 2017

How active would you consider yourself? Where have you been active? (discord, RMB, etc.)
I consider myself fairly active? I've been on a bit of a hiatus from ns lately but I'm trying to come back strong.

Have you ever held any previous government positions, whether it be in XKI or in other regions? If so, how will the experience aid you during your term?

I have been senator for NRS and LE one term each. To be honest my NRS term was a little weak, but in my LE term I worked to better define the responsibility of the position and made stronger rules for dealing with inactive houses. I'm hoping I can take that experience and use it to help boost the activity of the current houses.

Once in office, do you plan on having a deputy? If so, how will you determine which candidate to choose?
I do not currently have plans to appoint a deputy.

What do you hope to achieve whilst in office?
To build on one of my previous answers. During my last term as LE senator I did a bit of work to try and cleanup a bit of the inactive houses (see 10000islands.proboards.com/thread/41078/activity-definition-closure-requirement-changes). With that bit of work done I want to try and turn my attention to trying to boost the activity of the remaining houses.

What do you admire about XKI?
Xkis community I feel is unmatched in forum culture and overall closeness between citizens. I have done lots of searching in recent times for similar communities but have yet to find something that feels similar.

Questions for Lyonesse East candidates:

What do you hope to build on from the current senator's first term?
I've noticed that the current senator took action on the houses that no longer met the activity requirements outlined in the law I proposed in my last term (NS 324-2). If elected, I will continue to work with houses to push for a stronger and more active house system as the current candidate has.

Have you participated in the House Cup and Shield competitions before? If so, how have you done?
I ran one previously, but did not participate as much as I should have. This is something I plan to change this term if elected.

[Porflox]

Aschente, Flying Eagles, and anyone else running for LE senator.
Do you plan to increase house presence on discord? If so, how do you plan to implement this change?

[Aschente]

Nov 3, 2021 17:08:58 GMT -5 Porflox said:

Aschente, Flying Eagles, and anyone else running for LE senator.
Do you plan to increase house presence on discord? If so, how do you plan to implement this change?

as things currently stand my focus this term will be more on the forum side of the houses, as that portion seems to be in the most need for attention

[AxeCapital]

Running for Senator of Himes West:


Questions:
When did you join XKI?
I joined in May 2021.

How active would you consider yourself? Where have you been active? (discord, RMB, etc.)
I'm very active in the RP community on RMB (A Taco Archipelago - ATA) and on RP channels on Discord.


Have you ever held any previous government positions, whether it be in XKI or in other regions? If so, how will the experience aid you during your term?
I was the Former Deputy Senator for Blue Canaria North assiting Porflox. This experience was helpful for me to understand the overall strucure and areas of 10KI, as I was new to the region then.
I am the Current Deputy Senator for Himes West assisting Zaberaz Hapang. This experience is of course the most relevant to the role. I assisted ZH in implementing new rules and ideas for the region, and was also part of the organizing commitee for the Great Worldbuilding Festival interregional discord event.

Once in office, do you plan on having a deputy? If so, how will you determine which candidate to choose?
I am open to having a deputy having been myself twice now. However, the first thing I will do is form an unofficial ATA RP committee group, that will include long-standing members of ATA, including ZH. I will bounce ideas and suggestions off this group before implementing them. Anyone from this group who is very interested, I will accept as my deputy.


What do you hope to achieve whilst in office?
I will carry on the efforts made by ZH in making the region more acessible to newcomers. I hope to attract more newcomers to ATA and retain them, as well as keep the current and older members active. Although ATA is very active, 10KI has way more activity than ATA does. I hope to be able to channel those interested in RP to ATA, and provide an accomodative way to integrate them into RP. I also hope to help make 10KI better overall, by presenting new legislation that would make the 10KI RMB, ProBoards, Discord, more organized as to improve communication, which would then lead to more engaged and active members.

What do you admire about XKI?
The Friendliness of eveyone. I researched many regions across NS before deciding on 10KI. Primarily due to the extensiveness and comprehensiveness of the region. But it was the person I reached out to, Wischland, who was very friendly to give me all this info. And after I joined, I found everyone else here was really friendly too.

How active do you see yourself in A Taco Archipelago?
I check in on the ATA RMB everyday, and post almost everyday too. Weekends is when I'm especially active on RMB. I have created many factbooks to support my RP on ATA.

What events do you have in mind to host for our RP?
I would like to have some ATA region wide events, and have many people participate. Something like NationStates Z-day, or N-day. These events will reset after that day is over, so everyone can take part without fear of permanent loss/damage to their RP nations.

What do you want to do to increase the activity in the RP section of discord?
RP discord tends to have very short but active RPs. I think it dies down because its not canon to ATA. With the creation of alternate dimension by ZH, I will make RPs on discord similair to other dimensions. This way people will be free to make Discord RPs as canon or non-canon to ATA as they want. I will also give opportunities to others to host RPs on Discord.

Do you have any plans for A Taco Archipelago? If so, what are they?
First thing is to make a newcommer guide to help new nations integrate. I will make the ATA rules estbalished by ZH a bit more clearer, simpler and more interactive (my unofficial ATA RP committee group will help me with this). I will add more ATA region factbooks that show the current nations in the region with what colonies they have, solar systems they are in, what alliances exist in the region, as well as some ATA history for any region wide incidents. I will then plan some fun region-wide events like mentioned earlier (Z-day or N-day).

[Porflox]

AxeCapital and anyone else running for Himes West. Do you plan to revive forum and discord roleplays? If so, how?
Also, how do you plan to increase interregional roleplay activity, if at all?

Aschente , is a dearth of forum activity a cause for concern (in general, not specific to houses) if other channels of communication (discord, rmb) continue to be active (possibly even more so as a result of migration from the forums)?

[AxeCapital]

Nov 5, 2021 9:11:43 GMT -5 Porflox said:

AxeCapital and anyone else running for Himes West. Do you plan to revive forum and discord roleplays? If so, how?
Also, how do you plan to increase interregional roleplay activity, if at all?

For interregional roleplay, I think ZH made a great effort, but i dont think the The Labyrinth is active enough as us.

My main priority will be 10KI, as 10KI does have a lot of members, but many of them arent involved in RP. So theres huge amount of members here to tap into. 

With regards to discord RP I already mentioned in my OP. But I hope to first and foremost propose legislation that would make 10KI communication and interaction easier, then use that to facilitate more discord/forum rp. Without this, RPs in discord and forums will just be too shortlived and inactive, like it is now 

[Porflox]

AxeCapital, what do you plan to do to "make 10KI communication and interaction easier"? And will any forum/discord roleplays adopt the ATA model of an infinite roleplay?

[AxeCapital]

Nov 5, 2021 10:00:35 GMT -5 Porflox said:

AxeCapital , what do you plan to do to "make 10KI communication and interaction easier"? And will any forum/discord roleplays adopt the ATA model of an infinite roleplay?

Well, nothing well-thought of yet, and would course first be passed by Co9. But basically, discord, proboards and RMB are just very disintegrated and not in sync with each other, so something that would make all three just more tightly knit. 

Infinite roleplay yes. So the dimension concept: lets say Discord WW1 rp ends. But through dimension portals, people can still come back to it. Time could even be reset.

[Flying Eagles]

When did you join XKI?
Technically June 2016, actively June 2020.

How active would you consider yourself? Where have you been active? (discord, RMB, etc.)
Mostly on the Discord daily to do my jobs, and on the forum for casino fun and games and on the RMB for office hours as needed.

Have you ever held any previous government positions, whether it be in XKI or in other regions? If so, how will the experience aid you during your term?
I was the LE senator for the last four months, so I got my feet pretty wet already and should have a better idea of what works and doesn’t as I run the House system.

Once in office, do you plan on having a deputy? If so, how will you determine which candidate to choose?
No, as I haven’t found them necessary so far.

What do you hope to achieve whilst in office?
More recruiters. Hoping that more advertising around the House system to generate rivalries and the like helps engage people to recruit as part of the House system more.

What do you admire about XKI?
The community and how helpful everyone is to everyone. Also, the length of which XKI has survived, which is now older than most of us I believe.

What do you hope to build on from the current senator's first term?
Countinuting to modernize the House system by taking more advantage of advertising of the House system across all three of our platforms.

Have you participated in the House Cup and Shield competitions before? If so, how have you done?
Yes. Hard for me to find the time to recruit consistently for me with school and all but I do what I can.

Do you plan to increase house presence on discord? If so, how do you plan to implement this change?
I created the houses channel, so I plan to use it more often and maybe create a role/roles so people can be more informed about houses/show off their house.

Have you heard about my super duper creative signature that I finally decided to write?
Yes. Took you long enough.

Great questions Valentian and Porflox!

[Wille-Harlia]

AxeCapital, what are your thoughts on the ongoing discussion and ideas in this thread: 10000islands.proboards.com/thread/42143/xki-roleplay-wishlist?page=1&scrollTo=1848461

[AxeCapital]

Nov 12, 2021 13:21:51 GMT -5 Wille-Harlia said:

AxeCapital , what are your thoughts on the ongoing discussion and ideas in this thread: 10000islands.proboards.com/thread/42143/xki-roleplay-wishlist?page=1&scrollTo=1848461

So I know there are many people who have good suggestions or at least think they have good suggestions. But ideas are worthless without implementation. And any potential implementation must be considered in how it might affect RP activity, as well as the overall 10KI region. Some people may not have even been here long enough to have the foresight to understand how those effects might take place, myself included. That is why I'm forming a RP Committee (all have already agreed) consisting of the most active and experienced members in 10KI's RP community, many of whom have been former Government/Co9 officials, the most pertinent of them being ZH. This Committee will guide my decisions, and all potential implementations will be run pass them.

The 3 main guiding principles I will have for my Role and the RP Committee will be:

1. Duty (Increase engagement, retention, and RP activity) - All implementations should consider the feasible integration of newer nations, allowing them fairly participate, engage, and have fun.

2. Fairness (Retain long-standing and active members) - Our RP region is very active relative to other regions, driven by active members, some who have been here for years. It will be unfair for any implementation to heavily disadvantage / invalidate their past efforts & time / reduce their enjoyment. The active and older members of the region will likely keep the region active far beyond what any newer nation could. So while decisions are unlikely to please everyone, it is important to note that fairness to members who have demonstrated long-term commitment to the region will ensure long-term sustainable RP activity.

3. Order (Rules that are rational, logical, unbiased, objective and effecient) - In a region as large as ours, rules are important to avoid complete chaos. The right balance is needed to mantain order without restricting fun, and should be grounded in a rational decision-making process that has been properly considered, and then effeciently communicated and implemented.


A quick response to the suggstions made:

General Improvements:

Will Implement -A guide to RP dispatch. This'll help introduce islanders to RP in a streamlined way, and avoid sending people to the forums (which are generally bad for nation retention). I will personally try to get a draft up sometime after the election for the HW senator's consideration.

Will Implement (Hope this initiative will also be taken up by other senators/council members to non RP channels/tabs)  -Connecting forum, discord, and siteside (ATA) RP. 


ATA Improvements:

Will consider (Must analyze hoe this would affect newer players, older players as well as the other stats in general) -More Defense Forces levels

-Add economy as a stat

Will Implement (I mentioned earlier I will be planning many one-off events like wars which reset after the event is over) -More wars. Wars have stagnated for a while, for a variety of factors (rise of large pacts, large nations dominating which prevents small-scale wars from starting, among other things). I'd suggest adding more things that matters and can be fought over without invading someone's actual nation (which is annoying OOC- no one wants to be owned by someone else, but losing a piece of Random-but-Important Planet A doesn't matter as much), though there are definitely many other ways to address this.

Will Implement (Yes please, very useful to get overall feedback and suggestions) -Give the Himes West senator Poll, Appearance, and Communications permissions on ATA

-Remove SA from stats list 

Will Consider (Considering the volume of suggestions, might be a bit hard, but I will try to reveal the overall process in the decisionmaking process and provide a schedule/timeline of initiatives) -Encourage detailing internal affairs

Will Implement (My main duty basically. I plan to have some events which are exclusive to smaller/newer nations, with some of the older players helping to organize the event)-Enable new nations to get involved, no matter how small, without getting harmed in the process


Off-site RP (Forum and Discord) Improvements:

Will Implement (With the linking of ATA to forums/discords, I think this can be achieved. I will also allow others to open temporary discord channels to have definite end RPs) -RPs with definite end points. This'll allow people who want shorter rps to have fun, and allow people to fight without making it actually matter too much. This is particularly well suited for the forum and discord, because people active there tend to have other NS duties, and would probably prefer a shorter RP without having to stay for the long term to have fun.