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The 5th Cabinet Era; the beginning of a 'Golden age' for the DSA?
Topic Started: 12 Dec 2013, 17:54 (320 Views)
Lemur Isles
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Grobladonia had approached the Cabinet with a suggestion that we write a historical report, similar to the ones on The Great Split and The Christmas Coup and Second Exodus.

For those of you that weren't there, or don't remember, the period in question was between 4th of April, 2013 - 17th of June, 2013, and was marked by a dramatic increase in both population and activity. I'm now trying to document this period, to write up as comprehensive an account as possible. For this, it would be great to get the opinions of everyone, from long time residents, former ministers from the fifth cabinet, and even new comers since then, whose experience of the DSA today we can contrast with the past.
Edited by Lemur Isles, 12 Dec 2013, 20:44.
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Lemur Isles
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Here's some questions that might want to consider to help you answer. Of course, you don't have to answer these specifically.

  • 1 - What was the DSA like before then? in terms of activity? Did the community have a different atmosphere? Did Cabinet ministers have a different approach to running the region in the past?
  • 2 - A bunch of new ministers were elected to the fifth Cabinet, what were their achievements? Do you remember any large events that occurred? (the former ministers might be best suited to answering this question)
  • 3 - During this time the DSA became larger and more active. What were the factors?
Edited by Lemur Isles, 12 Dec 2013, 20:59.
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Haltari
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1. The DSA was had a low level of activity between January and March of 2013, particularly in March. There were almost no new threads or comments on the forum during the first half of the March if I remember correctly. The former SG, Nordland, stopped logging in and CTE entirely sometime in April. Suceavija, who is much more active now, was going through some RL issues from what I can remember, and as a result, the nominations and elections were delayed because no one could start them. I remember that Terlibe and I actually became increasingly more active during this time, which is probably one factor why we were elected to Admin positions in the 5th Cabinet Election. This election ultimately occurred about 10 days late, but everything went on pretty easily, and the actual transition was smooth. Before, the region was run a bit differently that it is today. Many of the current duties and actions of the P/WAD, MDA, and MIRP changed quite significantly over the course of the 5th, 6th, and 7th cabinets primarily due to the creation of the auto-telegram system, the auto-welcoming system, and changes to the charter.

2. I don't think I can really judge the achievements of the cabinet as a whole, but I can definitely point out some individual examples. I think the most important achievement was a reinvigoration of the DSA after its fairly inactive period. This was brought about by Grobladonia's hard work on creating the Daily Spam, starting new discussion topics, and starting various games, like the DSA Scavenger Hunt. Additionally, once Gervase implemented the auto-telegram system, our population really took off, and this absolutely helped bring more life into the region. Unfortunately this cabinet was plagued by a large dispute with the Internationale at the very beginning of the term. This dispute would only be largely repeated again in the 7th Cabinet. You can look through the RMB for more detailed answers about what was going on.

3. I basically already stated the reasons above, and they were Grobladonia's efforts to increase activity domestically and Gervase's implementation of the auto-telegram system.

EDIT: Oh and I forgot to mention that we were actually negotiating a peace treaty with TI, but the deal collapsed when Cuba Socialista began sabotaging it. This is what started the 1st TI dispute during my Presidency.
Edited by Haltari, 13 Dec 2013, 06:49.
International Affairs Office of The Constitutional Monarchy of HaltariFormer Secretary-General of the Democratic Socialist Assembly for the 9th Cabinet
Former President and World Assembly Delegate of the Democratic Socialist Assembly for the 5th, 6th, and 7th Cabinets
Former Minister of Immigration and Regional Promotion of the Democratic Socialist Assembly for the 3rd and 4th Cabinets

"National Unity and Liberty"

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Terlibe
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Yes, Grobladonia was a phenomenal Minister of Domestic Affairs. I remember being shocked at all he had done in such a short time especially because he was such a new nation.

Gervase also did a fantastic job at setting up the auto-telegram system and pretty much doubling our population.

That was my first real bad experience with TI as well. It was my second time serving in the Cabinet and my first time as Secretary General. It was really a wake up call to how difficult this game can be. Not only did it take me nearly the entire term as SG to get the hang of the Admin stuff, but I was also a representative of the region during a very difficult time and in the middle of a dispute that I really knew nothing about. I'm sure Haltari got annoyed with me more than a few times. :P

Most importantly, I credit that term for teaching me so much about the history of the DSA and about how to actually play the game. I am confident that if I didn't get elected SG, I wouldn't be where I am today.
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Grobladonia
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The 5th Cabinet was an extremely active and dynamic cabinet, so there is a lot to say. I'll start from my point of view since it's the one I know best and then move on to the other members of the Cabinet.

I arrived in the DSA on March 3rd and while the region had looked quite interesting at the beginning it soon found that it was quite inactive and this continued until mid or late march. I tried to spark up conversations but had little success. As the elections neared a dispute erupted with TI that somehow manged to bring the region back to life. Suceavija also returned to begin the elections (about two days late) and to manage the dispute. Towards the 4th Cabinet's term a peace process between TI and the DSA was initiated, mediated by the UPFS.

In that election I had not intended to run for any office and had instead been eying the job of assistant to the Sec-Gen. To my surprise I was nominated for MDA (probably due to activity since arriving) and chose to accept, despite having no clue as to what I would need to do in that job. I was elected with 16 votes out of 21. Two things formed the core of my motivation for all I did during my term: the desire to not disappoint all those who had put their faith in me and my determination to not let the DSA fall into the same state of inactivity as the one I had found it in.

My first couple of days in office can be described by the words “pure panic”. Not only had the inactivity of my predecessor left me with a considerable backlog of things to do, but I had just two days to organize the festivities celebrating two years since the founding of the DSA. I managed to scramble up some things with the main event being a discussion on the future of the DSA which I tried to use as a source of ideas for the rest of my term.

The following weeks I used to gradually eliminate the backlog I had inherited by updating what needed to be updated, creating an NS wiki account for the MDA (mostly useless considering how often the wiki is down these days), keeping the Capitol's factbook up to date, starting various thematic contests (I ran a “Biggest Commie in the DSA” contest starting May 1st), forum games inspired from the NS forums (some of which are still ongoing), several debates, setting up a greeting system (now mostly obsolete due to changes in the game, though the welcoming TG in use today is mostly the same). In keeping the list of map nations I was often helped by New Andureo, then Minister of Chartography, who would keep me notified of any changes to the map.

At some point during the early stages of my term, while the peace negotiations were taking place between TI and the DSA I decided to try and figure out just what the region's position on defending was. To do it I decided to run an opinion poll and spammed the RMB with reminders that the poll was running, sometimes even twice per day. At one point I decided to add a reminder about some other event (I forget which) just in the hope that it would be seen as less annoying, then someone asked me to include another reminder in my update and I did that too. After the opinion poll had ended I realized that this could be a valuable tool in bridging the gap between the Forum and the game so I chose to keep doing it. And so the Daily Spam was born. Of all the ideas I tried to implement I believe this was the most useful and it is the one I am most proud of. It has also been quite interesting to see it evolve under several MDAs and it has become so much more than it was during my term. The amount of information that is included in it these days is immense and I am not really sure if I could maintain it at the same level if necessary. So congratulations are in order for all the MDAs since me. :)

The rest of my term was spent with various projects, starting debates (or trying to popularize debates started by various members, which I considered the ideal situation) and trying to help out new members with information so that they could more quickly integrate themselves into the region. Throughout my term I also tried to lead by example and tried to be a model of the sort of activity I wanted to encourage in the region.

Of all my projects my biggest failure was in reviving the RP section of the forums since I lacked the experience needed to manage Rps. Thankfully the RP section has taken off in the mean time so this important aspect is now mostly solved.

The final weeks of my term were marked by three big projects. The first was a historical entry in the factbook of the Capitol regarding the Christmas Coup in the DSAlliance, an event that involved both DSAs. To do it I used the story-gathering format used here as well. The second was the DSA Scavenger Hunt, undoubtedly the most complex contest I ever ran. The basic idea for it was not mine as it was someone else (Terlibe?) who first brought a nation into the DSA and asked us to guess the password. All I did was take that idea and make it more complex and challenging. The final project, written in my last hours in office, a was an advice thread for the next MDA. When I first took office the previous MDA was inactive and I had no source of information regarding my duties other than the brief list in the Charter. This had made my early days quite dificult and I wanted the next person to hold that office to have an easier time than I did. I also wanted to make sure that the lessons I had learned while MDA would not be lost to future generations, even I were to leave the game for some reason.

Of all the other Cabinet members, the most important contribution by far was that of Gervase, then MIRP. From the very beginning they worked to ensure the smooth running of the recruitment program. First they organized the manual recruitment team so well that they sent out more recruitment TGs than any previous MIRP. Once mass automatic recruitment became an option they quickly moved to implement it and it has been a huge success. I will confess that I was skeptical of this system since I believed that it would lead to a drop in the quality of our membership. In hindsight I see now that this was not the case and I can state with certainty that Gervase's recruitment program was absolutely essential in the current growth and success of the DSA. It was probably the most important single contribution of the 5th Cabinet.

New Andureo was also active as MoC and did two very important things. First he updated the map format so that the sort of deterioration in its visual quality as had been experienced up to that point would not happen again. The second was doubling the size of the map to its current level. I'm not sure if he anticipated the sort of growth we would experience in the following months, but it certainty proved to be a wise decision.

The work of Ratateague and Trelibe, MoJ and SG respectively, while not as visible, was certainly important in the smooth running of the region. Terlibe kept all the records of the DSA up to date and kept things running well, all while also acting as ambassador to the UPFS and negotiator with TI. Ratateague worked to notify and help those nations who were in violation of the Charter to get back up to the needed CR and PF levels. His work likely helped us keep some members that would of otherwise had to be ejected. Since I was responsible with greeting new nations at the time I also cooperated with Ratateague by notifying him of any new Charter violators.

Finally, Haltari probably had one of the hardest jobs. From the very beginning of his first term he had to deal with the thorny issue of our relations with TI. He did his best, but at the time there was nothing he could really do to solve the problem. There just weren't the right conditions for peace. One of the key projects he had to work one, one that started during his first term and took another two to complete, was the overhaul of the Charter. Because we were mostly a very proactive Cabinet Haltari was able to take a hands-off approach. He would set the agenda for the Cabinet and then just watch as things we slowly ticked things off the list. :) There may be more things to say about Haltari's work, but for some reason my memory is a bit fuzzy on that topic.
The United Socialist States of Grobladonia
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Terlibe
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I don't believe it was me to brought the nation in and had everyone guess the password. I can't remember who it was. I want to say Lemur Isles, or New Andureo, but don't quote me on that.
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Haltari
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From what I remember, I think it was New Andureo who came up with the idea, but I don't think it matters too much because we all soon joined in.

Regarding Grobladonia's response, I first have to say that it is incredibly in-depth, but I know very well that his responses always tend to be this long. :) Anyway, Grobladonia is definitely right about my role in the 5th Cabinet that it mainly involved assigning tasks and somewhat just making the major decisions while the rest of the cabinet made it happen, although I still had to do a lot of work to just administer the forum and coordinate everything. I only took a much more active approach in the 6th Cabinet once Gullud left her duties to me, and this continued on into the 7th cabinet as well.
International Affairs Office of The Constitutional Monarchy of HaltariFormer Secretary-General of the Democratic Socialist Assembly for the 9th Cabinet
Former President and World Assembly Delegate of the Democratic Socialist Assembly for the 5th, 6th, and 7th Cabinets
Former Minister of Immigration and Regional Promotion of the Democratic Socialist Assembly for the 3rd and 4th Cabinets

"National Unity and Liberty"

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Grobladonia
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Some extra minor details I remembered about what else the 5th Cabinet did:

1. An amendment to move the task of greeting new nations from the MIRP to the MDA was approved (now obsolete due to the automatic greeting system)

2. The Charter of the LRA, a defensive pact with the SLU was defeated. The document contained numerous errors that were pointed out by Gervase.

3. An amendment to deal with potential conflicts of interest of members holding offices in multiple regions was approved. Soon after work on the Charter Overhaul started to deal with numerous issues that had come up in the mean time.

4. An opinion poll about the performance of the various members of the 5th Cabinet was held at the middle of its term.
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