Vice Delegate's Desk

Sorry for the 1-day delay on this one. The chart above is accurate to Sunday's totals.

A Summary of the Results of the WADP Survey

Without going into too much detail, here are some highlights of the recent survey we took of regarding the WADP:

1. Most of the respondents, in excess of 75%, were aware of the WADP and WA Members residing in TNP. A significant number of respondents, however, noted that they responded No to the WA Member in TNP question because they were NPAers.

2. Over 75% of respondents are endotarters, but only 19% of respondents send telegrams asking others for endorsements. I can see why, though. If everyone sent telegrams, mailboxes all over the world would be flooded, and endotarting TGs just being treated as spam.

3. 80% of replies indicated that they were aware of the Endorse TNP page on our forum, but, only a slim majority actually use it. The table-based results were more popular, with 64% of users using that, and 36% using Zen Mode. Personal note, I think Zen Mode is great when on a mobile device, so I'm curious about whether most users are mobile phone/tablet players or Desktop/Laptop PC players. At least one person disagrees with me on this, though, thinking of it as difficult to use on an iPad.

4. Did you previously know about the Keepers of the North? Yes: 92.8%. Are you currently a Keeper of the North? Yes: 59%. Now, some of this is NPA, and I think I saw at least one person that is a delegate of another region. Some aren't WAs, some are Siwale...

5. Overwhelmingly, people know about WA voting. Also overwhelmingly, people vote in both GA and SC. Nice!

6. WADP Censuses. 75% know about them. Do you? https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=338374#CENSUSES You do! Not as many actively seek to improve their rankings, though. Reasons: Time consuming, unclear significance, and at least one response wasn't clear on the criteria for each of the categories and how one wins awards.

7. How can we improve the Censuses and awards?
A> Indicate tied nations instead of going alphabetical. That's reasonable.
B> Day-to-Day Trending, with arrows indicating progression... might be possible?
C> "Reward people who already maxed out their endorsing, not just people who go from 0 to max in a day then let it go." - We already have that. That's called the Clout award, which tracks endotarting performance over a longer period. It's measured by influence points given to others through endorsements over the last 30 days, so the more consistent you are in maxing out your endorsements given, the more likely you are to win this one. Click-to-Endorse encourages people to get out there and get it done at least once a month. Clout is for the dedicated daily endotarters.

8. Awareness, victories, and effort to win descend in that order, with 85% aware, 65% were past winners, and only 41% actively trying. Reasons are similar to the last question about improving the censuses. Honestly, the questions about the censuses and awards could be merged together since they go hand-in-hand, as the awards are derived from the censuses.

9. Lifetime Achievements do not have a lot of awareness, and a lot of nations may not even be aware that they've won. Make sure to check this out: https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=338374#ACHIEVEMENTS

10. Now for what r3n's been looking forward to the most. Cards. More of you know about the card lottery than actually participate in the cards game, but even less actually try to improve their chances of winning. Seems like a significant reason is that the cards don't actually do anything and they're only collectibles, like baseball cards instead of Magic the Gathering cards or something.

11. Some suggestions for improving the card lottery include...
A> "Don't let Aerilia win." Such shade!
B> Don't award cards to nations that are about to CTE. The author of this one suggested 25 days, but remember that vacation mode allows a nation to persist for 60 days, just without answering issues. It'd be hard to tell who is in what mode right before the 28-day Normal CTE mark, and also, if the nation came back, then they have their reward for when they did exist and provide their endorsement to the SC.
C> Published odds of winning Not a bad idea. I think we're looking into this one.

12. It's good to know that most respondants know about TNP's Security Council, and the drop in numbers of those who aren't endorsing can mostly be explained away by NPA participation or they don't have their WA in the region.

Also... r3n has asked me to share a graph for you. We started the Vote Early Vote Often awards of the WADP in September of last year, so now we have a full year of data since then, including the summer slump. We also started the WA Voting piece of the card lottery in June, and what we noticed is that we've had a larger percentage of nations in TNP keep voting on WA resolutions compared to years past. Whether it was the awards or the cards, the fact that the drop off in WA voting was less severe this year is very promising.



See you next week for my End-of-Term remarks.

-Sil

Great update. Thanks for the survey results.

A Personal Note

I didn't want to clutter up the weekly update with this, but, as I just announced in the candidacy thread, I've decided not to run for re-election. The decision not to run is primarily because as we approach the end of the year, there are simply other things, here in NationStates (specifically, in TNP, of course) and outside of it, that I wish to focus on a bit more. I have no doubt that whoever succeeds me as Vice Delegate will do a fine job.

I think back to when I was Minister of WA Affairs for all of 2017, and how my third term was focused on finding my potential successors and teaching them all they needed to know. That was possible with the WA Ministry; not so much with the Vice Delegacy. So, while I may not be the chair, or be at the top of the Line of Succession, or have the second-most endorsements, etc., I see what's ahead as a pseudo-third term. Should the victor be a past Vice Delegate, I'm sure there's something to go over and bring you up to speed on. But, should the victor be a new face, know that I'll be there along with the rest of the Security Council to help and guide you.

Good luck to all the candidates!

-Sil

It's been great working with you Sil. Thanks for your fantastic service this term. Just over one week to go!

Thank you for your diligent work as Vice Delegate. I really think the SC is in a much stronger position because of your leadership and guidance.

I read your report yesterday when it was posted, but I wanted to stop back by for a moment and take the time to thank you for everything you’ve done for this region during your time as Vice-Delegate. Even when exiting the Office I have no doubt in my mind that you’ll continue to do right by our community as both a Global Moderator and a RolePlay Moderator. Keep on keeping on, Sil, you do it well!

I wish I could have ended the term with better numbers than this, but I blame summer in part and also recognize the efforts of our troops abroad. It's not terrible, though. We still have more keepers than necessary to maintain the minimum requirements for Security Council membership, which is nice. Our average endorsement saturation ended the term at 61.4%, which is about what I was shooting for. Hopefully, our new Vice Delegate can get the others into the 60% range with an aggressive campaign, but we'll have higher priorities first, including another double-transition with no WA resignations to help us out.

We've also greatly expanded our cards program and made the incentives for participating in the WADP easier to obtain, so I'm confident we'll see the benefits of competition soon enough. In our lottery and WADP programs, we've handed out almost 300 legendary cards to 222 unique winners, including some of the most expensive cards, like Soops, Queen Yuno, and Frisbeeteria. With a market value of just over 7k, if we handed all those cards to a single nation, they'd have the 12th most valuable deck in NationStates.

We'll always be looking for new ways to get the community involved, and I'm really excited to see what our new Vice Delegate has planned. Thank you all for a solid eight months, and bring on the new term!

-Sil

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Robespierre:

I read your report yesterday when it was posted, but I wanted to stop back by for a moment and take the time to thank you for everything you’ve done for this region during your time as Vice-Delegate. Even when exiting the Office I have no doubt in my mind that you’ll continue to do right by our community as both a Global Moderator and a RolePlay Moderator. Keep on keeping on, Sil, you do it well!

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For now, I'll be relaxing, sipping bubbly on a megayacht in the Norvalle harbor while watching surveillance on a 85-inch 8K TV. I'll also throw in a shot of rum, because that's what we drink around here. It's tradition!

Congratulations on a great term .

Well done Sil!

Congrats on a great two terms Sil

Mr. Vice Delegate,

To give you and the region an idea on the work we have to accomplish during this transition, here's this past Sunday's endorsement report with new delegate McMasterdonia on it.

Greetings All! I wanted to post my opening address as Vice Delegate beginning on a Sunday. This is the best time for myself to review data and analyze the trends of the region. I plan to continue to utilize the format that @Sil Dorsett designed and move forward with that.

As we continue to work with transitioning @mcmasterdonia into the Delegacy and raising my numbers for the Vice Delegacy we still have a ways to go with 249 endorsements to push McMasterdonia into the hot seat delegate's seat. El Fiji Grande has telegrammed all nations about the results of the elections, McMasterdonia has contacted all the Keepers of the North that are not endorsing him, the NPA has been ordered to return to TNP to assist with the transition, and nations that are endorsing El Fiji Grande but not endorsing McMasterdonia have been contacted. I would also like to thank the Gameside Advocates for assisting with the transition by reminding nations to endorse the Delegate-Elect and myself.

This coming week, I will be posting a Dispatch Alert for those who are not endorsing the Delegate and sending out another telegram alert asking those individuals to endorse McMasterdonia. In addition to further alerts, we are working on some other approaches to incentivize nations to endorse McM and me.

We have a steeper hill to climb this term as compared to the previous two delegacy transitions, but we will be able to do it with everyone playing their part to make this a smooth and fast transition. As we move past this transition, it is my hope to begin focusing on Security Councilor endorsements and work to bring everyone's numbers up to a 70% endorsement rating.

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Please ignore the Vice Delegate Minimum as it is currently calculating based on El Fiji's endorsement count.

Good stuff - All the best Artemis

Well, we now are into the second week of the term and we have made some progress in terms of the transition. I have sent out a WADP Dispatch Alert for nations to endorse McMasterdonia. Home Affairs has assisted with a telegram list of those nations not endorsing McM. As we can see we are making progress on moving them further up. Additionally, I have moved up to P2. Once we get McMasterdonia to above me, then we will start working on bringing El Fiji Grande's numbers down below me. We will continue to work with all facets of the region to make the transition as smooth and quick as possible.

To clarify my activity, I have only been endorsing nations who have already endorsed me and NPAers who know better than to endorse me back. If there's an issue with this, just let me know.

El Fiji Grande:

To clarify my activity, I have only been endorsing nations who have already endorsed me and NPAers who know better than to endorse me back. If there's an issue with this, just let me know.

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I don't see an issue with it. The law states that "Unless a delegacy emergency is in effect, any Council member who exceeds the Vice Delegate's endorsement count while the Vice Delegate is above the required minimum for their position must stop seeking endorsements until they have fewer than the Vice Delegate." You're clearly not seeking endorsements; you already have them through no effort of your own.

At ~58 a week. We will get McM in the Delegate Seat in about a month. One of the fastest transitions we have seen in years.

As you can see we are making quite a bit of progress in terms of transitioning @mcmasterdonia into the delegacy. Once again this previous week I have pushed out a WADP Dispatch Alert for those nations that have not endorsed McMasterdonia. Personally I have included on telegrams that I send out during my endorsement runs a request for those nations to additionally endorse McMasterdonia. From the time of the election, McM has gained roughly 162 endorsements and are currently sitting 75 endorsements away to getting them to P2 and begin having nations unendorse El Fiji Grande.

To assist further with this transition, we will be hosting an endorsement event to aid with the transition. This will be open to all members of the TNP community and provide an opportunity for the community to win further cards as rewards. We will be adding an additional legendary card lottery into our current lottery system for the duration of the transition. the entries into the Daily Card Lottery. The second award is given for endorsing the Delegate and Vice Delegate in the form of an Epic Card. If you are already endorsing the Delegate and Vice Delegate you will be given an epic card as well. The third award is given at the end of the transition. This one is based on how long the transition lasts. At the end of the transition nations endorsing the Delegate and the Vice Delegate will be given a number of Epic Cards. But the longer the transition takes, the fewer cards that can be won. For example, 4 cards will be rewarded if the transition takes less than one week from the start of the event; 3 cards will be rewarded if it takes two weeks, or 2 cards if the transition takes three weeks or more.

I want to thank @r3naissanc3r for working on this transition event and providing the cards for the community to use as an incentive for participating in this event. At the current rate of gain for McM, I predict that we will have about another two weeks before the transfer is complete.

Good stuff Artemis

Well, there have been some improvements in getting @mcmasterdonia into the delegacy. We are roughly 50 endorsements away from getting McM into P2 and then start working on lowering Fiji's numbers and completing the transition. We launched the endorsement event and are seeing some moderate results, but unfortunately, we are now in week two of the event and that means that those participating in the event do not win the three epic cards. But there is still the opportunity to win two cards! We will continue with regular telegrams, dispatches and posting on the regional message board to further the transition along. If you haven't endorsed McMasterdonia, please go and do so!

First off I would like to apologize for not uploading an update last Sunday, the weekend got away from me and before I knew it it was already Wednesday. But I'm happy to announce that we have completed the Delegacy Transition with McMasterdonia now holding the in-game delegacy! It has been an interesting two weeks since my last update. We witnessed a failed coup attempt with our friends in the East. I applaud all those who took part in routing the rouge members and congratulate the new government for its commitment to its region.

It was with a heavy heart that I accepted @bootsie resignation from the Security Council this past week. They have been a dedicated member of this region and a good friend on the Council. I wish them well with all of their future endeavours.

Now that we have finished the transition, we can start looking at the numbers of the other members of the Security Council. There is a lot of red up there on the board, but I attribute that to the immense focus that we put on transitioning McMasterdonia into the delegacy. So what are our next steps? I'd like to continue to push McMasterdonia higher up in terms of endorsements. They are currently sitting 4 points above the average endorsement percentage of the Security Council (60.4%). I will keep working on dispatches and alerts to bring those numbers up for the delegate. My goal is to get McM up into the 75% range with the Security Council averaging 70%. With the upcoming Security Council Weeks, I think that this will be a possibility for us to achieve.

I am going to try something new (at least for my term as Vice Delegate) and provide a summary of what the Security Council has been up to for the previous week. This hopefully will give residents and citizens an idea on what the Security Council has been up to.

Currently, the Security Council is evaluating three candidates who have applied to join the Council. The debate is currently underway in regards to each candidate. In addition to applicants, the Council was and continues to monitor activity in the East Pacific and reviewing options in regards to the individuals involved with the coup there. We are also reviewing options to better utilize cards and other incentives for participation with the World Assembly Development Program.

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Warmest Regards,

~Artemis

Evening everyone! As you can see, we are seeing a lot of green up on the board which is a good thing. We are seeing more nations endorsing members of the Delegate, the Vice Delegate and the other members of the Security Council. GBM had a big bump this week due to a telegram I sent out asking for nations to endorse her and the other members of the council. We will continue to work on building up McM's numbers as well to continue to build a wider gap in endorsements.

Currently, the Security Council is evaluating one candidate who has applied to join the Council. The debate is currently underway in regards to this candidate. The Council is currently voting on one applicant. We are also still reviewing options to better utilize cards and other incentives for participation with the World Assembly Development Program.

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Warmest Regards,

~Artemis

There were also 600 epic cards changing hands.

r3naissanc3r:

There were also 600 epic cards changing hands.

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I'm still waiting for the RMB posts.

Praetor:

I'm still waiting for the RMB posts.

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What RMB posts?

The RMB post for each nation who won a card

Artemis:

The RMB post for each nation who won a card

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I don't think we ever promised to do that. A dispatch should be good enough.

If people really want one RMB post for each of the 600+ nations that want a card, then:
1) they should find someone else to do it ;
2) they should do it from a nation other than TNL---we don't want TNL deleted for RMB spam.

Well all, we survived the Zombie Apocolypse! Unfortunately, there were a few minor mishaps regarding ejections and some influence was a loss. But never fear for we shall regain the lost influence and be bigger and better than ever. *Insert Trump Joke/Comment Here*.

Starting from the bottom, we see that COE had an influx of endorsements. I sent out a telegram earlier this week asking nations to endorse COE to help build up his numbers. I have been in communication with COE and he will be working on building his numbers up soon. He is currently out of town. For other members of the Council, we see relatively high numbers of endorsements sent, but we are still seeing an average endorsement percentage of 61.7% of endorsements received compared to an 87.9% endorsements sent (these numbers do not include McMasterdonia). Overall I would like to try to push both of these numbers up with endorsements received hitting about 65% to 70%. We've increased by about 1.4% in two weeks. We have also had an increase in Keepers from 473 to 482 so that is an improvement.

Members of the Security Council partook in policing the borders for the Z-Day event, helping remove rogue horders, exporters and exterminators. It was also reported that a wild Zaz was removed from the region twice. The Council continues on its deliberations regarding an application to the Security Council. A nominee is being considered for confirmation by the Regional Assembly. Additionally, the Security Council is reviewing its procedures regarding applicants and public disclosure of information.

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My % of WAs sent is low due to the delegacy transition. Over the coming weeks, I'll be boosting my endorsement rate again to catch up.

I will be unavailable from 12:01 AM CST (GMT-6) 11/08/2019 thru 11/10/2019 due to a real-life event. While not an absurd amount of time will elapse, I will be designating @Sil Dorsett as Acting Chair for the Security Council for the duration of my unavailability in the case that anything occurs. Thank you, that is all.

Firstly, I apologize for not having an update posted this past weekend. I had just had surgery and was staying off of electronics as best as possible and before I knew it, this weekend came about. But never the less here is your update regarding the Security Council from 11/03/2019 thru 11/17/2019.

The North Pacific has not seen its usual bump in numbers and that has translated to a lower than normal population of World Assembly nations. I am working alongside the Delegate, and several other members of the community to see what we can do about this and begin to increase our regional WA numbers. I will be looking to do several endorsement alerts and telegrams to help build up SC endorsements as well as regional WA numbers.

The WADP system has employed a tranch system when it comes to winning awards. Your chances of winning increase for every 250 endorsements given. Every time you meet one of these tranches, your nation is added to the endotarting lottery one extra time. We will be moving forward by removing the tranches. This means that for every endorsement you give, your odds of winning in the daily lottery increase. I would like to thank @r3naissanc3r for helping with implementing this and others who have provided feedback regarding this change.

Summary of Security Council Activity:

The Security Council discussed and approved by a 2/3rds majority exempting Security Councillor Artemis (Sundred) in regards to the influence requirement for office due to their service during the Z-Day scourge. The Council is entering final deliberations regarding requests from citizens about disclosure of information from the body. The debate is being conducted on final wording of the Security Council Procedures for Disclosure.

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Many thanks to @Praetor as well, who has provided extensive feedback on the card lottery (and other programs).

It is interesting that an increase both the number of WA nations and the number of Keepers has not translated into gains (and, in fact, that there have been drops) in endorsements across most Councillors.

I am also very glad to hear that the Council is progressing in relation to disclosure.

r3naissanc3r:

Many thanks to @Praetor as well, who has provided extensive feedback on the card lottery (and other programs).

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You're welcome.

Zyvetskistaahn:

It is interesting that an increase both the number of WA nations and the number of Keepers has not translated into gains (and, in fact, that there have been drops) in endorsements across most Councillors.

I am also very glad to hear that the Council is progressing in relation to disclosure.

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EDIT: I can't read.

I appreciate this

Zyvetskistaahn:

It is interesting that an increase both the number of WA nations and the number of Keepers has not translated into gains (and, in fact, that there have been drops) in endorsements across most Councillors.

I am also very glad to hear that the Council is progressing in relation to disclosure.

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Since the start of the term, we have been noticing a downward trend in WA nations in the region. We have seen increases across other regions. At the start of the term, we had 1314 WA nations in the region as compared to 1270 today. The last few updates we have been settling at around the 1250-1270 range. But this has been a downward trend that we have been seeing since the start of the summer (which is normal during the summer for numbers to decrease). Historically we have seen a bump in numbers by October to replenish the CTE's from the summer cycle. We have yet to really see that bump.

I am quite excited to see quite a bit of green up there in the change column. This past week, I sent out an advertisement telegram to non-wa nations and non-keepers within the region to encourage those nations to join the World Assembly and become a Keeper of the North. So far we have seen a minor bump this past week. Additionally, we are focusing on recruiting nations to join the world assembly and then focus on getting those nations to endotart. We are currently in the process of evaluating weekly mini-events focused on getting nations to join the World Assembly. Some potential incentives would be changing the flag of a Regional Officer for a week and so on. This is still early stage of planning and more will come in the future.

I would like to congratulate @Praetor on being appointed as the Guildmaster of the North Pacific Cards Guild. I look forward to working with Praetor and other members of the guild in developing and instituting events to help utilize cards for the betterment of the region and incentives to participate in the World Assembly Development Program.

The Security Council is finalizing its draft for amendments to the Security Council Procedures in regards to disclosure. The Council is also reviewing feedback given during the recent survey conducted in regards to the WADP. r3n has been working through some technical suggestions and making changes as appropriate. The Council is working on these suggestions and will make a statement regarding these changes when ready.

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Artemis:

I would like to formally welcome @Marcus Antonius (Ethnon) as our newest member of the Security Council. I do not foresee a significant drop in keepers due to Marcus' high endorsement numbers but I will monitor this and work with other members of the Security Council to help mitigate any losses. We are seeing a moderate increase to our Keeper of the North numbers as well as an increase in the number of WA nations in the region. Overall we are trending in the correct direction, but I would like to see it continue.

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Thank you Artemis.

I look forward to my work on the Security Council.
I would like to thank the Councillors and the Regional Assembly for their support and faith in me.
I will not let you down.

Your loyal and obedient servant

Marcus Antonius