Post

Region: Forest

that's definitely something I've thought about trying to expand. It isn't so simple as just asking, though. The power of border control is very specifically defined in the very first article of our Constitution as belonging solely to the Founder except in exceptional times of crisis. This goes hand in hand with our firmly held belief in being open to all. In my mind, a person doing something severe enough to warrant being banned from Forest probably is doing something severe enough to warrant being banned from the game, which means filing a GHR rather than just booting them out and making some other region deal with them. That's not to say I don't wish we could selectively withdraw RMB-posting privileges from individual nations residing in our allied regions, but the mechanic doesn't exist to do that. We could limit it to only the officers of embassy regions, but that both cuts off many good friends, and doesn't eliminate all of the actual problems we've been seeing. Those who recall any of the last 8 months know that I am not at all averse to amending the Constitution, but when I looked at the options, expanding our ability to crack down on people felt like a lower priority to me than some of our other amendment needs. Again, I wouldn't be averse to expanding it if that is generally desired... but to whom? Certainly I wouldn't mind our Delegate having it, but that begins to create the danger that a non-executive delegate prevents. The Forest Keeper? Beware granting an elected official the power to remove those they don't like. For my own short time in office I can say I would use it sparingly and "when needed" but would you all agree with my decisions? I've been an admin in enough games for enough time to know that there will always be disagreement. I feel like we have enough people with a suppress button to get our message across right now, without the permanence and pain causing by banjections. Only during special game events do I feel like we should ban freely.

A few thoughts on that. Assuming you're still planning to ask the founder to confer executive powers on the delegate that would already let the genie out the bottle since an executive delegate could grant the banhammer to other people. I remember Errinundera specifically refusing a request to give the government border control before, but in those days we'd only have to wait 24 hours max before he logged in and took an interest in what was happening so the situation wasn't the same. Nonetheless, executive delegacy might be easier to sell to him if strict constitutional controls on the banhammer were proposed, and this links in turn to the question of whether or not future constitutional changes should require the founder's active consent.

In terms of game mechanics, I once asked a moderator about the situation where someone got their nation deleted and then came back with a new puppet and carried on where they left off. I was told that since the deleted nation hadn't been banned from Forest no rules were broken by the player behind it continuing to post, but if there had been a ban then posting around it would be illegal. As Mount Seymour said, context is everything and behaviour that's anathema to Forest is welcome and encouraged in many regions. We can't therefore expect the mods to keep house for us. I believe their view, not unreasonably, is that the banhammer mechanic exists to allow regions to do that for themselves.

That said, I think the way things have gone in the last couple of hammer-free days has been good. The quality of the RMB has improved dramatically, multiple posters have upped their game considerably and we can suppress and ignore the assorted manifestations of Elmo. I was personally quite cross at one point and I'm glad I didn't have banjection powers I might have been tempted to deploy in haste. This way seems more befitting of the region.

Oh, and speaking of hammer time, check this out, it's hilarious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI87PRgIKks

Murmuria, Verdant Haven, Octopus islands, Mount Seymour, and 4 othersAtsvea, Lord Dominator, Turbeaux, and Middle Barael

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