WA 101 - Lesson Seven

[Magecastle]

We are now on the final lesson -- thanks for enduring with us! More seriously, this lesson addresses GA culture and politicking. Exactly 100% of the time, a proposal will not pass if it is not campaigned for in some form. Understanding GA culture will also help you a lot engage with the Festering Snakepit.

The GA Community​

The GA community itself tends to be composed of legalistic, pedantic regulars on the forum and other community areas. Outside of the General Assembly forum, the main hub for the GA community is the World Assembly Discord, maintained by Imperium Anglorum. This may be found here.

Posts on the GA forum tend to have two means: In-character (Ic) and Out-of-Character (Ooc). Ooc posts are the perspective of you-the-player, and are meant to address players. Ic posts state the words or actions of "Ambassadors" of member nations, and are meant to address other Ambassadors. Your Ambassador is simply a diplomat character who represents your nation in the World Assembly. Many players roleplay being represented by multiple diplomat characters, rather than only one; but you are completely free to stick to having just one Ambassador. There is a whole "World Assembly Strangers' Bar" thread wherein Ambassadors can interact with each other at a fictional bar in the World Assembly Headquarters (more on this later!).

Etiquette regarding Ic and Ooc posts is that you should not respond Ic to Ooc posts, or Ooc to Ic posts. The sole exception is when you as a player object to something Ic, such as responding to an Ooc post; or to bring up real-world citations. Assume posts are Ooc absent indication otherwise, such as a signature from an Ambassador or quotes.

GA In-Jokes and Roleplayed Elements​

There are a number of GA inside jokes and canons which one should be familiar with as they are often referenced in the community. A longer, albeit somewhat outdated list can be found here, created by Omigodtheykilledkenny. Here is a list of the most significant ones,

• The World Assembly Headquarters, or WAHQ is, as indicated by its name, a building from which the World Assembly operates. The WAHQ houses Ic debates on resolutions, the Strangers' Bar, and the offices of both WA Committees and member nation offices to the World Assembly. There are a number of Portals in the WAHQ from which an individual can teleport to any member nation.
  
  
• Defenestration of Ambassadors, ie throwing them out of windows (at the WAHQ), is an established practice used on Ambassadors found to be acting in an annoying or disuptive manner. Defenestrated Ambassadors land in the Vastivan Memorial Reflecting Pool, an artificial pond at the WAHQ. To that end, your Ambassador should be able to promptly return to the debate, even if a bit wet. Often, your Ambassador getting defenestrated is a sign that you should make sure you-the-player are not acting in an irritating fashion; it is possible to roleplay an obnoxious character without actually becoming obnoxious, but it requires treading a very fine line.
  
  
• The Festering Snakepit is simply an affectionate name for the General Assembly, given the rowdiness, pedantry and defenestration which happens [strike]24/7[/strike] sometimes.
  
  
• Gnomes are the characters who staff WA committees. Some players refuse to roleplay the existence of gnomes, instead accepting that WA committees are staffed entirely by regular, human bureaucrats. However, the general consensus amongst the community is still that magical gnomes staff WA committees -- these gnomes are incorruptible in that they cannot be bribed, extorted, etc. They also use their magic to make sure they are fully compliant with resolution mandates upon the committees as much as possible; although mandates for committees which are physically impossible to achieve can still be (and often are) criticised.

GA Resources​

There a number of useful resources in the GA. Here I list the main ones,

• The World Assembly Discord, a Discord server owned by Imperium Anglorum which allows you to talk to other WA authors and regulars in real time about matters both related to and unrelated to the General Assembly.
  
  
• RexisQueris and RexisQueris Categories; two lists on the forum also maintained by Imperium Anglorum of every passed GA resolution. The former sorts resolutions by order of passage, while the latter sorts them by category.
  
  
• General Assembly Q&A, a forum thread maintained by Gensec member Separatist Peoples for you to ask questions regarding the General Assembly.
  
  
• The GA Proposal Compendium: Rules & General Advice, is an official thread on the forums maintained by Gensec, which -- as indicated by its title -- lists the GA rules, as well as some general advice, largely to do with proposal categories, why amendments are illegal, and a guide on submitting legality challenges.
  
  
• The Gensec Catalogue maintained by Imperium Anglorum, a Google Sheets spreadsheet which lists every formal ruling made by Gensec in response to a legality challenge.
  
  
• The General Assembly Committees List, maintained by Merni, lists every WA committee established in history, both by repealed and active resolutions.
  
  
• The Failed GA Resolutions list, also a spreadsheet on Google Sheets maintained by Thousand Branches (known off-site as Aramantha) which lists every failed GA resolution and (inter alia) the voting results thereof.
  
  
• InfoEurope, yet another useful resource maintained by Imperium Anglorum which allows you to (inter alia) view expired WA proposals, removed approvals on WA proposals, and the voting records of WA Delegates.
  
  
• The Festering Snakepit Wiki is a Wiki project for the General Assembly, maintained by myself. Anyone is free to edit this to add more information, although it is still relatively new.
  
  
• An Unofficial Listing of GA Stat Effects Data thread I also maintain, which lists public data regarding observed effects of GA resolution categories on national statistics.
  
  
• WACampaign, which I also created as a script to facilitate manual campaigning for WA proposals.
  
  
• Nstg-web, a very user-friendly script for sending API telegrams to every Delegate for WA campaigning. How to engage in WA campaigning, including with Nstg-web and WACampaign, is described in far more detail below, which brings us to the final section of this lesson...

Politicking and Campaigning​

In the GA, politicking and campaigning is a sine qua non for your proposal to pass. There are two types of GA campaigning; that which takes place to gather approvals once submitted, and that which takes place to gather support at vote. The former is certainly more important than the latter; largely as a proposal cannot even be considered by the voting population if it does not reach quorum, ie get approved by at least 6% of current WA Delegates (this usually means about 50 - 70 approvals are required for a proposal to reach quorum). This lesson will focus on approval campaigning, but campaigning for votes will also be covered.

It is important to be civil in all interactions regarding WA campaigning. If you act pushy or otherwise uncivil, your behaviour is very likely to turn away potential supporters from voting for or approving your proposal. This is something I have personally learned by experience >_<.

Approval campaigning​

There are three ways of doing this. Manual campaigning, in which you manually send a telegram to each WA Delegate; API campaigning, in which you use a script to automatically send the telegrams; and stamp campaigning, in which you use real-world money to send the telegram to all Delegates en masse. Some WA Delegates block campaign telegrams, which means that they cannot receive any sent to them; obviously you do not need to telegram these Delegates.

All ways, however, involve sending a telegram to every WA Delegate encouraging them to approve your proposal. All such telegrams must be marked properly as campaign telegrams, as this is required by site rules. To do this, when addressing a telegram, there is a dropdown next to the "To:" box. Click it, and you will get the option to set it as a recruiment or campaign telegram -- select the latter option.


The advantages and disadvantages of each method are listed below,

Manual campaigning,
-Advantages

• You can reach Delegates much faster than in API campaigning.
  
  
• You can start the process immediately, without having to either wait to receive an API key or spend real-world money on buying stamps.
  
  
• All campaigns will be received as you personally send them, meaning that Delegates are more likely to respond while you are online.

-Disadvantages

• You have to send each telegram personally, thus taking several hours of spare time.
  
  
• Can often be a tiring process due to taking very long.

API campaigning,
-Advantages

• Can be left alone after being initiated so long as your computer remains on, requiring little human effort or time.
  
  
• API keys are reusable, making it very easy to quickly set up API campaigning for future proposals.

-Disadvantages

• Very slow, as the process usually takes several hours, during which your computer will have to stay on.
  
  
• If this is your first time doing API campaigning, you will need to get an API key, which may take up to a few days.

Stamp campaigning,
-Advantages

• All Delegates can be reached instantly. (CF: Manual and API campaigning)
  
  
• Requires very little human effort (such as leaving your computer on or personally sending telegrams) after the telegram is sent.

-Disadvantages

• Requires the spending of real-world money to buy telegram stamps.

How to write a campaign

Before we go into each method of campaigning, we should first address what to write in a campaign itself. A campaign telegram needs to have a clearly visible link to the proposal, preferably at or near the top of the telegram. Then you need to explain why the proposal should be approved -- simply argue why the proposal is necessary. Then reiterate the request for approvals, and thank the Delegate for their time. I have given some examples of campaign telegrams I have written here, in case they are helpful (please do not plagiarise these telegrams, by the way),

Spoiler: Campaign telegram examples

Hello!

I want to ask if you can please approve yet another proposal of mine, "Repeal 'Comfortable Pillows for All Protocol'". To summarise, the target is intended to be humourous; however the joke has now largely run its course and the target has some significant issues which we can only address by repeal. If you approve, we can reconsider whether or not it is worth still having the target.

The primary issue with the target is that it is very expensive upon poorer or less-developed nations. Not only does it require member nations to ensure that pillows are "widely accessible and affordable", but also that all kinds ("rigidities, sizes, materials, coolnesses, shapes, and functions") of pillows be affordable and accessible. It then goes on to take this even further by requiring "functioning sleep medications and sleeping devices" to also be "all widely accessible and affordable", so even luxurious or expensive pillows, sleeping devices, and medications have to be made widely affordable, even where less expensive alternatives exist.

There are also other issues with this broadness. Sleeping medications with severe potential for abuse, such as Flunitrazepam which is frequently used as a date-rape drug, also have to be made widely affordable and accessible. However, this issue would be minor but for a very significant omission in the target: that it leaves each member nation to itself in ensuring that it can fund the distribution of date-rape drugs and luxurious silk pillows (inter alia). The target gives no assistance whatsoever to member nations in complying with the often expensive mandates.

These flaws are, in my opinion, very significant. The target may be intended to be humourous; however this is no excuse for its flaws. In real life, would a body such as the UN or EU impose a policy on its member nations simply because it may be funny to do so? If you do not agree with them being flaws, that is fair enough; however I would still encourage you to approve so that the target can be formally reconsidered.

Once again, you can approve here.

Thank you, and feel free to reply if you have any questions or concerns,
~The Ice States/Magecastle,
24x WA Author.

I'd kindly like to ask you to approve my submitted repeal of the recently passed resolution "Contact rights between Parent and Child". In summary, while well-intentioned, its target is flawed for two main reasons _

First, it is extremely vague on what "best interests" of a child actually are, leaving it up to member nations to decide, which opens the door to member nations just rephrasing their previous reasons for removing contact -- or other rights the resolution tries to grant -- as being for the "best interests" of the child. Nearly all of the resolution makes an exception where a court determines compliance would be against the child's "best interests", which leaves almost all of the resolution ineffective.

Second, section 6 is also actively harmful, as it coerces member nations to recognise legal parenthood at the whims of any member nation in which said parents happen to be citizens, even if clearly harmful to the well-being of the child. This opens the doors to WA-wide abuse of child's rights -- for example, if two clearly abusive parents living in one member nation are also citizens of another member nation, because of this resolution, the latter member nation is able to decide that the former member nation will not remove those parents.

If you approve my repeal, it would give the WA a second chance to review whether it is actually worth keeping such a flawed resolution.

Best regards,
~Jeramy Vliet,
Duke of Magecastle and WA Ambassador,
The Empire of The Ice States

Greetings!

I would, once again, like to ask you to approve my General Assembly repeal.

While the title may put you off, I have fully drafted a replacement which will be submitted should the target be repealed. As WA resolutions cannot be amended -- only repealed -- it is therefore important that the target's flaws be addressed through repeal and replacement.

The target's largest issue is its mandate vis-a-vis restrictions on religious practices. Member nations may only restrict a religious practice in the "least restrictive means" to further a "compelling, practical public interest [ in ] safety, health, or good order".

This has two main issues. Firstly, where such an interest is particularly compelling, member nations should be allowed to take more restrictive means. For example, cannibalism, which is often a religious practice, poses a very serious health risk of spreading certain (particularly prion-based brain) diseases; along with the risk of non-consensual cannibalism caused by allowing cannibalism in general, this is, in my opinion, sufficient to make it important that member nations have the authority to prohibit or regulate cannibalism as they see fit.

The second issue is that "safety, health, or good order" are not the sole reasons which a member nation would have an interest in regulating a religious practice. For example, prohibiting religious practices that contribute to overhunting, such as traditional whaling, would be prohibited by the target as environmental protection is not "safety, health, or good order".

These flaws are sufficiently major to justify repealing and replacing 430, as this is the only way to remove these flaws. For this to be possible, I would encourage you to lodge an approval here.

Thank you!
~Magecastle Embassy Building A5

Some notes on formatting,

• [url=INSERT_URL_HERE]text[/url] will render a link to INSERT_URL_HERE with the text "text". For example [url=https://www.nationstates.net]this[/url] shows as this. In telegrams, you can only insert links to the NS forum or NS proper -- links will not show properly in telegrams if they are to external websites.
  
  
• To bold, underline, or italicise text, use [b]this[/b], [u]this[/u], or [i]this[/i], which show as this, this, and this respectively.
  
  
• %NATION% shows to each telegram recipient as their nation name. This allows you to make campaign telegrams read as more personal.

Manual campaigning
If you have chosen to go with this, you will first need to make a telegram template. Go to your usual telegram page, and send a telegram to tag:template. Make sure the telegram is marked properly as a campaign telegram. If you did not mark your telegram properly, send the telegram again.

Once you have done this, you will see a disclaimer appear on your telegram page. This will give you a telegram template/template code, such as %TEMPLATE-2341923%, you can use to send the campaign telegram to Delegates. Next, you will need to send every Delegate that telegram template. This is a slow process, as you can only telegram eight Delegates at a time unless you are using stamps, and as a measure against spammers, NS places a delay between telegrams, such that the game prevents you from sending one telegram too soon after your last one.

You can get a list of WA Delegates here; however, it can be very difficult to work with just a list. It is thus very helpful to use a tool such as WACampaign for manual campaigning -- such tools make it infinitely easier to send telegrams. This guide covers how to campaign using WACampaign.

1. Go to https://canineanimal.github.io/GDRecruit/pages/cam.html and log in by filling in the "Nation you are telegramming from", "Template code" and "Verification code" fields. You do not need to register an account on WACampaign. The nation you are telegramming from should be the one you used to send the tag:template telegram. Leave the "Automatically get Delegates" box checked, and ignore the input field below it. Once you have filled in each of the fields, press the Log in button.
   
   
   Spoiler: Example

   
   
   
2. Once you have logged in, you will get a prompt. Eg [1]. Press only OK and do not fill in the prompt. You will be taking to a Loading screen. Eg [2].
   
   
3. Once you get to the Loading screen, it will take a few seconds before you get a Campaign button. If you press it, it will open in a new tab a filled-in telegram box. Eg [3]. Press the Send button to send the telegram as you normally would.
   
   
4. Once you have sent the telegram, return to WACampaign. You will find that the Campaign button will change to an Acknowledge button. [4]. Click it. You will be taken back to the Loading screen.
   
   
5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 until you get an alert telling you have telegrammed every Delegate. GDRecruit will take about a minute to generate a new link. The reason this takes a while is so that the links are only posted once enough time has elapsed that you can send the next telegram. Once a new link is generated, a ringtone will be played; to turn this off, uncheck the "Notify" box.

If, at any point, you want to take a break (totally understandable!) simply close the WACampaign tab. To resume campaigning, go to your Sent Items folder in your telegram box (link) logged into the nation you are sending the telegrams from, and find the tag:template telegram you sent. At the bottom-right corner, there will be a small "Delivery Reports" link in green. Eg [5]. Click it, then you will see a green "[NUMBER] Delivered [+]" line. Press the [+] and scroll down to the bottom to find the last few nations you telegrammed. Pick the last one nation of these in the alphabetical order (nations in the same batch of eight may be placed out of order by NS).

Now, this is what the prompt in the 1) was for! Log in again, however instead of ignoring the prompt, enter this last one nation to the prompt. WACampaign will automatically skip all nations you have already telegrammed!

If, for some reason, you want to exclude a Delegate from being telegrammed, add their name to the Blacklist string field you will find once you have logged in, and press the Add button. Eg this image shows how to blacklist "the_ice_states" from receiving a telegram. The screen will now look like this. If you change your mind want to remove a nation from the blacklist, press the red X button next to that nation's name.

API Campaigning
Okay, so you decided to do API campaigning instead of manual! Now, unlike manual or stamps, you have to get an API "client key" from the NS Moderators to engage in API campaigning. If you already have a client key, skip to Section 2.

1. If you do not already have a client key, this requires to found a region, which you can do here. You have to keep one nation you own in the region, although you can use a puppet to do this. (NB: You can use the client key on any nation you own, not just said puppet).
   
   Once you have done this, while logged into the nation in said region, go to this page, and send a Getting Help Request. As described by Game Moderator Frisbeeteria...
   
   

   You MUST include:
   Please send me a client key
   [BLOCKTEXT]<Your nation name>
   <Your region name> (and your requesting nation MUST reside in that region)
   <The reason for the script> (can be as simple as "Recruiting" [Addition by The Ice States: in this case, campaigning for WA approvals])[/BLOCKTEXT]
   
   It rarely takes more than a day or two, but wait patiently - we'll get to it eventually. If you pester us with "WHERE THE HELL IS MY CLIENT KEY" tasks, it's very annoying and will most likely get you an irritated response or even a warning for spamming.

   
   Once a Moderator has gotten to your request, you will get a telegram sending you a client key. Make sure to save your client key somewhere private you can retrieve it! Do not share your client key with anyone else, as you are responsible for all usage thereof and can be penalised by NS Moderation for rulebreaking usage.
   
2. Once you have a client key, similar to manual campaigning, you will need to make a telegram template. Go to your usual telegram page, and send a telegram to tag:api. Make sure the telegram is marked properly as a campaign telegram. If you did not mark your telegram properly, send the telegram again.
   
   Once you have done this, you will see a disclaimer appear on your telegram page. Now, press the "View Template" button, and click the green "Delivery Reports" text on the bottom-right. This will show you a TGID (Telegram ID) and Secret Key.
   
   
3. Now, you will actually send the telegram. Go to Nstg-web and fill in the form; it should be largely self-explanatory, however for the "User Agent" insert your nation name, in the "Rate Limit" entry select "Non-recruitment telegram" and in the "Recipients" box enter wa [delegates];. To exclude a nation, insert -nations [NATION NAME]; in the next line in the Recipients box, eg to exclude The Ice States, use,
   
   

   wa [delegates];
   -nations [The Ice States];

   .
   
   Once you are finished, press "Start".
   
   
4. Now you simply need to leave it running. Do not turn off your computer until it has finished running, in which case you will see a Process complete. line appear in the log.

Stamp Campaigning

If you are willing to spend real-world money on getting your WA proposal to vote, you can rely on stamp campaigning. Unlike the other forms of campaigning, this one is very simple. There are two steps to stamp campaigning.

Firstly, you will need to go to the NS Store. There, you will need to buy the stamps; usually you will need about 1000, but you will need the same amount of WA Delegates as there are when you send the telegram. You can view the number here.

Once you buy the stamps, you will simply have to go to your usual telegram page, and send a telegram to tag:delegates. Make sure the telegram is marked properly as a campaign telegram before sending. Once the telegram is sent, there is no going back, unlike with API or manual campaigns! And that is all -- now you just need to wait for the approvals to come.

Offsite Campaigning

Sometimes, your proposal may still have trouble getting the necessary approvals for quorum despite telegram campaigning. If this happens, you may have to rely on offsite campaigning, wherein you reach out to individual WA Delegates who have not yet approved your proposal offsite. However, this method cannot gather sufficient approvals to replace telegram campaigning, so you should always do it only in addition to, rather than as a substitute for, telegram campaigning.

The best way to find WA Delegates to approve your proposal is via Discord. The World Assembly Discord, or Discord servers of large regions such as TNP, may hold lots of WA Delegates; so if there you can go through their member list to see if there are any Delegates you can ask to approve your proposal. Remember when doing so to always be civil and respectful, even in the case of differing opinions! If you are antagonistic, Delegates may be less willing to approve not only that proposal, but future proposals you ask them to approve.

At-Vote Campaigning​

Okay, so now we have covered how to campaign for approvals. Now we just need to address how to campaign for votes. Your best bet is to view the forums of large WA voting regions, where said regions maintain public areas for discussing proposals. The North Pacific itself has a WA Affairs board, which is where upcoming or at vote proposals are posted. Other regions also have ones, for example 10000 Islands here. Other large regions, such as Refugia and The Order of the Grey Wardens, discuss proposals on their Regional Message Boards. It may be helpful to join these spaces (assuming they allow outsiders) to discuss your proposal and present any arguments for, or rebut arguments against. Remember that you most regions have settings allowing nations in embassy regions to post on their Regional Message Board

As with offsite campaigning, when discussing your proposal in the forums of other regions, always be civil and respectful, even in the case of differing opinions! Acting "pushy" or otherwise antagonistic will merely be counterproductive, and is likely to turn away individuals or regions from supporting your proposal, as well as future proposals of yours.

Conclusion​

And that is the end of the lessons! I hope you find them helpful. I do want to thank @Mousebumples for authoring the original versions of these guides, some of which have been directly used to write these guides. I would also like to thank Gensec member @Sierra Lyricalia for reviewing Guide 3 prior to its posting for factual accuracy regarding the ruleset.