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The Cable - December 2020


The Cable

December 2020 | The Embassy

_ PREAMBLE

Our newsletter, The Cable, aims to build communications between our embassies. Please share this with your region-mates by posting a link on your RMB!

We saw some long-running reigns unexpectedly end this month. First, a fourteen year fiefdom finished. Second, a sixteen year sovereignty ceased. Our polls got saucy. We found something to smile about. And a fix for the fat-fingered was proposed.

But if you're just thinking, "I don't care about any of this. Why did I get a notification?", then this section is for you.

_ GAMEPLAY - MENTA LEE-IL

After fourteen years of madness, DEAREST LEADER (Menta Lee-IL) stood down from their supremacy in Psychotic Dictatorships. The SC Condemned region will now be ruled by a Triumvirate. The announcement can be read here.

_ GAMEPLAY - NATIONSTATES DRAMA

NationStates woke up to a surprise on 29 November. Mikeswill, who held the delegacy of founderless region NationStates was toppled after a streak of 5907 days (that's over 16 years for those who like me can't do that bit of mental maths).

Mike took it on the chin, posting on the RMB: "Congratulations to King Zhaoxiang of Qin on ascending to the position of WA Delegate of NationStates". This attitude is consistent with Mike's long-standing view on raiding.

Qin was a long term resident of NationStates, having been in the region since July 2015. For most of the time, Qin had over 20 endorsements. They had 24 just before the coup, compared to Mike's 52.

So was this the ultimate long-game raider plot by Qin? Had this been meticulously planned over five years? Nah. Qin was just a pawn in a devious move by Lily and friends. Although the multi-regional raiding crew pulled together a massive 39 members, Mike's 52 endorsements was too high for these invaders to beat. But by adding thier endorsements to the unsuspecting Qin, they could topple Mike from the position he'd held for so many years. Oddly, ten of the raiders were from The Grey Wardens, who are usually known for being Defenders.

The raid was the brainchild of Frenchy ii, celebrating thier return to NS after a year and a half break. They posted on a forum thread: "Congratulations to King Zhaoxiang of Qin for becoming the first delegate of NationStates since I was one year old. My party was quite the success."

Mike acknowledged the achievement: "The credit goes to the 17 year old kid that took down the 16 year old streak. That kid (Frenchy II) organized a flawless invasion."

_ POLLS

West sauceland dropped by our RMB this month, prompting some saucy thoughts. We already know that more people choose ketchup over mayonaise. So we asked a spicier question: HP Sauce or Tobasco? (For those outside the UK, HP is kind of like A1 sauce. But better :D ). It was a close thing, but it's clear that Tobasco is hotter!

Abbeyverne, Celestial wave, Colin advance wars, Coradortodos, Doge Land, Dos britanos, Eireannnn, Emirato mesoamericano, Explodeingtnt, Factbook center, Firesquidland, Graag brom, Greater kopmakia, Khwhp, Koga2, Michaliav, Moving nation, People of phoenix, Qazqazzaqzaq, Revanch, Seven Seas, Supolinia, The great tsar of ncr, The reformation of qing dynasty, Unojo, Viciebskaja, Vorounovia, Warren buffet, West sauceland, Wi sd ea d, Wynoi, Zicona


I'd wanted to run a poll on the coming Venezuelan election, but as it's not expected to be Link"free or fair", it seemed a bit pointless. I went with Ghana instead. You can keep up to speed with it Linkhere.

Bangkok night market, Brawlha, Colin advance wars, Disgracia, Kongfuzia, Puppet of the puppet, Rohingya, Sierra Grand, Unojo, Vardocalifar

Click to see if we're running a poll. Need to vote some more? Check out your eligible polls.

_ AN EMBASSY COLLECTOR - HOLLOW POINT

When you're in a strange place (like NationStates!), it's good to see a familiar face. And there are few faces more familiar than Smiley Bob's. Bob kindly took time out from a very busy real-life to answer some burning questions:

Ambassadors Reception: How come you're always smiling?

Smiley Bob: Am I? I think I'm just drawn that way.

AR: You've a level of Cheerfulness that could make the rest of us cry. (In fact, you have a whole list of stats that could make the rest of us cry!). Is Cheerfulness a stat that you deliberately try to boost when issue answering?

SB: I don't really pursue cheerfulness, it's just a happy by-product of my choices.

AR: You're ranked second in the multiverse for Political Apathy. How do you feel about this achievement?

SB: Like I could have been first if I didn't take a two year break from answering issues. I do like that I have one really high stat

AR: LOL! I'm glad you're not apathetic about your apathy. Do you answer your issues most days?

SB: I try to but sometimes I don't feel like it.

AR: What's your approach - Does your nation reflect your real life values? Do you use a "cheat sheet" to boost particular statistics? Do you ever dismiss issues?

SB: Originally I answered issues based on my real values. Somewhere along the line, I realized I had some really good stats in some categories so I started tracking my answers to try to keep those stats up. I do dismiss some issues. ...According to Excel, I started on April 13, 2015. I'm sure my computer is making that up, it was probably last year.

AR: You're obviously an issues player. Do you get involved in other aspects of the game? (eg raider / defender, roleplay, cards etc)

SB: I've tried everything at some point but don't have time for most of it anymore. Although I have gotten addicted to cards...

AR: *Checks your card collections*
Wow! You are involved in the card game! Those are some fantastic collections. If you had to choose a favourite, which would it be, and why?

SB: I'd probably pick my Doctor Who collection just cuz I've put the most effort into it. I've traded away Legendary and other high value cards just to get a low owner card for it.

AR: You've spent 12 years in NationStates. Can you remember how you discovered the game?

SB: Yes. Like many people, I watched anime and there weren't a lot of official places to find it back then so I watched fansubs. The group who subtitled Bleach, had a post that mentioned Nationstates. I decided to check it out and for some reason I'm still here.

AR: Another question to test your memory! Back in September 2017, your embassy count suddenly started to rocket. What made you decide to open hundreds of embassies?

SB: Probably boredom and it seemed like something fun to do.

AR: I see you out sometimes, celebrating embassy-versaries on RMBs. That's a really nice touch! You usually leave chocolate, or a cake. Does the real-life you do anything similar? (The real-life me finds any excuse to share cookies at the office. I've been working at home since Covid broke out, and I've gone down a belt size as a result!)

SB: I used to take cookies to work and this time of year I would usually make Christmas candy for everyone. But sadly I've also been stuck at home.

AR: Outside of NS, what's a good way to spend your time?

SB: You mean besides working all the time? I like reading, playing video games, watching TV shows...

AR: Any NS related top-tips that you'd like to share?

SB: Have fun and be nice to people.

AR: Thanks for your time!

SB: :)

_ TOURADVISOR

Category (click to browse)

Total reviews

New this month

🗳️ Government

4

📖 WFE

11

👫 Community

23

🎟️ Activities

4

📗 Dispatches

4

2

🃏 Cards

2

🌍 TourAdvisor is the searchable, crowd-sourced guide of places to go in NS. Build the best browsable guide to the NS-verse by reviewing the places you've been, and the things that you've seen. Read our guidelines, and post your review!

Possibly Covid caused travel restrictions - our TourAdvisor reviews are all armchair based this month! Reviewed this month are Dear Natives (a guide to how to react to tag raids), and Earth's Location In The *Entire* Universe.


_ TECHNICAL - CONFIRM REGION MOVES

The Dream of Kirby raised an issue on the Technical forum. Should we have an extra check to confirm region moves? If you're anything like me, you'll have had a few "fat-fingered moments" in your NS career. Many of us have accidentally moved region whilst looking at another region's page. Most will have been luckier than I, and haven't found themselves outside their password protected region, having forgotten what the secret password was. But I'm not alone in making this embarassing mistake!

The issue has been raised in the past. One of the more obvious communities this would impact is the raiding / defending community. Gameplayers like these deliberately move regions at short notice, hoping to secure the delegacy of a target region. Having an extra check would slow them down significantly. So this is a feature that players would want to opt in to, or out of. However, three years back, [violet] expressed reluctance at making this change:
""There are lots of requests for confirmation buttons on everything. Every single button on the site, someone wants a confirmation for it because they misclicked it. But some people don't, so then everyone agrees there should be a checkbox in Settings for whether you want confirmations or not. Settings would be eight pages long if I did this. Even when I implement the setting, like for issues, people don't always use it and so then they say it should be the default. But no. There will not be confirmations on everything."

_ THE EMBASSY'S EMBASSIES

As at 1 December, we have 4,300 embassies, representing 17.62 percent of Nationstates' 24,402 regions.

_ THE NEWSSTAND - NEWS FROM ELSEWHERE

Read all about it!
- The Monthly Tabloid | November Edition
- St Abby Times
- The Rejected Times Brief News III
- The Herald - Issue I 
- Layem Times Issue 26
- Layem Times Issue 25
- LinkNS Today
- Daily Line

Get involved!
- Play Sands casino games
- Place a sports bet

_ DIPLOMACY AWARDS

The Diplomacy Awards celebrate the foreign dignitaries that interacted with our RMB in the past month, either by making posts, or clicking 'Like'.

Floored Award

We can't say it straighter - you're the greater orator. This month's premiers of praises per post are:

Style

Likes per Post

Nations

🖋

4.5

The emirate of the emirate, The potatoez

🖊

4.33

Dominioan

🖍

4

Sail nation

A tusken cantina, A x o l o t l, Abbeyverne, Accipitridia, Apocalypse doomscape, Apostate, Boris Cult, Bovie ale, Celestial wave, Cirrus Azale, Deostan, Doge Land, Dollystana, Dominioan, Dsi, Eastern Tatarstan, Ethics committee of the scpf, FABER-OF-WILL-AND-MIGHT, Fcn orange star, Firesquidland, Free city of eastern shuckleita, Frostland, German roadblock, Germanicat, Grand duchess sophia von bozen-blutchen, Greater Northern Pokemon Reich, Greenkeep, Grishahakkaverchynot, Gypsy Lands, Herzgevenia, Hyperl3land, Ilaprio, Iskcon founder, Jiucai, Kemalia, Khwhp, Lanaograd, Lesser mexico, Lord xonnel, Maxconian khal, Miksy, Mons magnus, Montanity, Navarro-aragon, Neo Splatoonia, Nequan, Nister, Nooooooooooooooo, North Cromch, Northern water tribes, Not Pacific, Oden armitage, OMG IS THAT A WAIFU, Omnia ii, Paran toho, Plus Nova Imperii, Poetheests elannede, Pokemon Talk, Puppets anonymous, QnOanyOk, Ravib, Real madrid club de futbol, Revanch, Rinotu, Russian instigators, Rwekazaland, Sail nation, Seven Seas, Silesia-slovakia, Spanish universal monarchy, Spartan ops, Stickmin, Surainian, Tamiy, Taungu, The Age of Utopia, The anime imperialists of japan, The bank of nationstates, The Dream of Kirby, The emirate of the emirate, The Gold Mines, The great tsar of ncr, The newsstand, The potatoez, The red review, The reformation of qing dynasty, The socialist republic of astrakhan, Theberstan, Tinhampton, Tranzoria, Treciene, United States of 1776, Unitess, Velvet elvis, Wapistan, Warren buffet, West sauceland, William Beebe, Wooloos, Wwe world, Xinzostan, Xyanth, Yertania, Zearoko, Zpuppet12, Zpuppet18, Zpuppet2

* Nations making multiple posts during the month are eligible for The Floored Award.

Adored Award

We think it is great to appreciate a state. This month's 'like' button bashers are:

Hearts

Like Count

Nations

297

Colin advance wars

🧡

29

Abbeyverne

💛

28

Boris Cult

[nation][/nation], A x o l o t l, Apocalypse doomscape, Beldanibon, Brinckerhoff, Celestial wave, Doge Land, Dollystana, Dominioan, Eastern Tatarstan, El Spana, Ethics committee of the scpf, Fcn orange star, Free city of eastern shuckleita, German roadblock, Grand duchess sophia von bozen-blutchen, Greater Northern Pokemon Reich, Greater thistand, Gypsy Lands, Hagston, Hyperl3land, Indotai, Japanese ronald mc donald, Khwhp, Kimmerra, Lemmingtopias, Lord xonnel, Maxconian khal, Miksy, Mons magnus, Montanity, Nooooooooooooooo, Not Pacific, OMG IS THAT A WAIFU, Omnia ii, Paran toho, Real madrid club de futbol, Revanch, Russian instigators, Rwekazaland, Seven Seas, Sierra Grand, Surainian, Tamiy, The Age of Utopia, The potatoez, The red review, The reformation of qing dynasty, Tinhampton, Unitess, Wapistan, Warren buffet, West sauceland, Xinzostan, Zpuppet12
Scored Award

We get really psyched about those who were 'liked'. This month's most praised posters are:

Awards

Like Count

Nations

🥇

139

Colin advance wars

🥈

96

Sierra Grand

🥉

48

Greater thistand

A tusken cantina, A x o l o t l, Abbeyverne, Accipitridia, Apocalypse doomscape, Apostate, Boris Cult, Bovie ale, Celestial wave, Cirrus Azale, Deostan, Doge Land, Dollystana, Dominioan, Dsi, Eastern Tatarstan, Ethics committee of the scpf, FABER-OF-WILL-AND-MIGHT, Fcn orange star, Firesquidland, Free city of eastern shuckleita, Frostland, German roadblock, Germanicat, Grand duchess sophia von bozen-blutchen, Greater Northern Pokemon Reich, Greenkeep, Grishahakkaverchynot, Gypsy Lands, Herzgevenia, Hyperl3land, Ilaprio, Iskcon founder, Jiucai, Kemalia, Khwhp, Lanaograd, Lesser mexico, Lord xonnel, Maxconian khal, Miksy, Mons magnus, Montanity, Navarro-aragon, Neo Splatoonia, Nequan, Nister, Nooooooooooooooo, North Cromch, Northern water tribes, Not Pacific, Oden armitage, OMG IS THAT A WAIFU, Omnia ii, Paran toho, Plus Nova Imperii, Poetheests elannede, Pokemon Talk, Puppets anonymous, QnOanyOk, Ravib, Real madrid club de futbol, Revanch, Rinotu, Russian instigators, Rwekazaland, Sail nation, Seven Seas, Silesia-slovakia, Spanish universal monarchy, Spartan ops, Stickmin, Surainian, Tamiy, Taungu, The Age of Utopia, The anime imperialists of japan, The bank of nationstates, The Dream of Kirby, The emirate of the emirate, The Gold Mines, The great tsar of ncr, The newsstand, The potatoez, The red review, The reformation of qing dynasty, The socialist republic of astrakhan, Theberstan, Tinhampton, Tranzoria, Treciene, United States of 1776, Unitess, Velvet elvis, Wapistan, Warren buffet, West sauceland, William Beebe, Wooloos, Wwe world, Xinzostan, Xyanth, Yertania, Zearoko, Zpuppet12, Zpuppet18, Zpuppet2

_ NOTIFICATIONS

With thousands of embassies, it is difficult to stay in touch with them all. The Cable uses notifications as the most efficient way to share our news.
You will have received a notification if you have been mentioned somewhere in this dispatch, and have a tick in the "Dispatch mention" box of your subscriptions page.

Almost all nations mentioned will have:
- posted on our RMB during the month
- 'liked' a post on our RMB during the month
- voted in one of our polls during the month
- subscribed (specifically asked to be notified)

If you would like to subscribe, please post the word 'Subscribe' on our RMB. Thanks for your interest!

If you would prefer not to be notified in future, your choices are:
- Un-tick in the "Dispatch mention" box of your subscriptions page
- Don't interact with our RMB or polls
- Existing subscribers only: send The ambassadors reception a telegram asking to be removed as a subscriber. (Don't ask via our RMB, or it will automatically trigger another notification next time).

Thanks for subscribing!
Absolutly Terrible, Aredita, Awell islands, Awesomeland012345, Barrow Cove, Cirrus Azale, Coasta sol, Danubian hungarian republic, Doge Land, Dominant Oppressors, Doom soul, Dorchester and sussex, Dorsla, Drawkland, Eternal hallownest, Ethics committee of the scpf, Greenkeep, Joeanian republic, Kemalia, Mathuvan Union, Maxconian khal, Nation, New good order, New hyannisport, Nooooooooooooooo, Nouguinkelospianland, Of altonianic islands, Oneid, Ostrovskiy, Parakka, Random Country 453632, Really Big Bama Fan, Romagina, ScotlandSerenity, Sierra Grand, Skoda Drivers, Smiley Bob, Stratocratic-Anarchy Oceanic Empire, Sultanate sultanate, T-26e4 super pershing, Team lennox, Texjeeps, The antartic legion, The Gold Mines, The industrial city, The martian nation, The new empire of bigboom, The peoples caribbean union, The reformation of qing dynasty, The republic oftexas and northern mexico, Tinhampton, Uhay, United States of 1776, William Beebe, Wolfranya, Yertania, Zion-israel

The ambassadors reception

Edited:

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