Woo, I'm a citizen again!
Now that I can again claim citizenship in our glorious country, is there anything I can do to help out?
While it used to be an option to start participating in national politics in a substantive way, currently you have to wait for party leadership to put you on their list for next election. But if you're interested in that sort of thing, I think you should jump right in in your new province. I'm not currently sure whether or not you can get a seat in the assembly, but if you can't, then I will work on changing a lot so that you can (EDIT: see the M-M board -- working on it now)! and you can still join a political party if you're so inclined on the national level. There are currently three active ones, although I will let the various politicians who represent them speak for themselves.
Beyond that, there is a media organization, a news magazine published by Ian P. You can read some of those back issues and even write for it yourself, since he's very glad to print submissions.
If you wanted to request a coat of arms for yourself, that's also an option and something interesting a lot of new citizens like to do.
There has previously been a branch of the military devoted to cultural service that could have guided you, but it is not active right now. That might change soon though, hopefully.
There is also the national wiki, where you can request an account and start contributing. If you're not sure about how to edit a wiki, there is a tutorial that I made available specific to our own.
EDIT: Made this less Debbie Downer.
Quote from: Sir Alexandreu Davinescu on September 12, 2020, 03:20:39 PM
There has previously been a branch of the military devoted to cultural service that could have guided you, but it is not active right now.
You know that's not true, Alex. The Zuav (http://wiki.talossa.com/Zu%C3%A1vs_da_l%27Altah%C3%A1l_Rexhit%C3%A1l)s are active under Acting* Capitán
@E. S. Börnatfiglheu. I explained this to you when you mailed me your graphics.
* Acting in that he's informed me of his intention to seek a replacement once he becomes a Cabinet Minister.
Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on September 12, 2020, 04:15:06 PM
Quote from: Sir Alexandreu Davinescu on September 12, 2020, 03:20:39 PM
There has previously been a branch of the military devoted to cultural service that could have guided you, but it is not active right now.
You know that's not true, Alex. The Zuav (http://wiki.talossa.com/Zu%C3%A1vs_da_l%27Altah%C3%A1l_Rexhit%C3%A1l)s are active under Acting* Capitán @E. S. Börnatfiglheu. I explained this to you when you mailed me your graphics.
* Acting in that he's informed me of his intention to seek a replacement once he becomes a Cabinet Minister.
I know you're just doing it to needle me, since I've told you this many times over the years, but I don't go by that name.
I'm glad to hear they are active. I didn't know that, but I must have just missed what they've been up to.
I'm embarrassed to admit that I still don't see whatever has been going on with them. Is there a new forum or something that I should be following? The last thing I see with reference to them is ESB's appointment. I am still very interested in the organization that I created, even if I don't have the time to lead it these days.
^^^ And THIS, Teagan, is why you should take any of AD's "helpful advice" with a grain of salt. He's got an agenda and doesn't like being called on it.
In any case, the Free Democrats of Talossa (http://wiki.talossa.com/Free_Democrats_of_Talossa) is the political party to which I belong. Check it out.
Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on September 12, 2020, 04:55:48 PM
^^^ And THIS, Teagan, is why you should take any of AD's "helpful advice" with a grain of salt. He's got an agenda and doesn't like being called on it.
In any case, the Free Democrats of Talossa (http://wiki.talossa.com/Free_Democrats_of_Talossa) is the political party to which I belong. Check it out.
?
Honestly no idea why you're picking a fight here or even what this fight is about. I'm trying to list things that a new citizen can get involved with immediately. If the Zuavs are active, great and that's an opportunity, if not, no big deal because that's the way they've been throughout almost all of our history. Chill.
Arms, the media, the Zuavs, provincial politics... I'm sure I missed something but that's all that comes to mind right now.
EDIT: I'm sure some of the royal household offices probably also need help. The royal archivist is always looking for reliable people to help him, and whoever the new scribe is will also need help. If you are, by any chance, a lawyer, then you could also get recognized by the bar and start a practice.
No, I'll admit it. Under my time as Capitan, the Zuavs have not been as active as I would like. I am hoping to remedy this until a permanent replacement is found... but since the Zuavs is about activity... it should reflect that.
Quote from: Sir Alexandreu Davinescu on September 12, 2020, 03:20:39 PM
Unfortunately, while it used to be an option to start participating in national politics in a substantive way, currently you have to wait for party leadership to put you on their list for next election. </quote>
Huh? Anyone could start a one-man party straightaway.
<quote>But if you're interested in that sort of thing, I think you should jump right in in your new province. </quote>
Or even on a national level. The Free Democrats are happily recruiting. ;-)
<quote>I'm not currently sure whether or not you can get a seat in the assembly, but if you can't, then I will work on changing a lot so that you can! and you can still join a political party if you're so inclined on the national level. There are currently three active ones, although I will let the various politicians who represent them speak for themselves.
Beyond that, there is I think only one media organization currently in existence, a news magazine published by Ian P. You can read some of those back issues and even write for it yourself, since he's very glad to print submissions.
I believe there is only one member of the College of Arms these days, but if you wanted to request a coat of arms for yourself, that's also still an option and something interesting a lot of new citizens like to do.
There has previously been a branch of the military devoted to cultural service that could have guided you, but it is not active right now. That might change soon though, hopefully.
There is also the national wiki, where you can request an account and start contributing. If you're not sure about how to edit a wiki, there is a tutorial that I made available specific to our own.
More than any other political party in the past five-to-ten years, the Free Democrats are actually
doing something. We have revolutionized governance and put into action an agenda for the future. For more information: https://freedemstalossa.wordpress.com/
I would be glad to talk to you about it. Direct-message me.
Alexandreu, you paint a picture of a Kingdom in which no-one does anything. I beg to differ.
Perhaps if you got to it and started things up in regard to the language again, you could get things revved up, here, if things are as moribound as you think they are.
Everyone gets busy from time to time, and certainly someone who has been in active presence in our country for so long deserves a little leeway now and then! I wasn't trying to make a dig at you, man, I was just trying to run down the list of stuff that an enthusiastic new citizen might be able to participate in. I really do think that there's kind of a short window to get people actively involved in civic life. Like our website famously says, Talossa can be habit forming... But you have to get started in something before it can become a habit!
Quote from: GV on September 12, 2020, 05:47:10 PM
Quote from: Sir Alexandreu Davinescu on September 12, 2020, 03:20:39 PM
Unfortunately, while it used to be an option to start participating in national politics in a substantive way, currently you have to wait for party leadership to put you on their list for next election. </quote>
Huh? Anyone could start a one-man party straightaway.
<quote>But if you're interested in that sort of thing, I think you should jump right in in your new province. </quote>
Or even on a national level. The Free Democrats are happily recruiting. ;-)
<quote>I'm not currently sure whether or not you can get a seat in the assembly, but if you can't, then I will work on changing a lot so that you can! and you can still join a political party if you're so inclined on the national level. There are currently three active ones, although I will let the various politicians who represent them speak for themselves.
Beyond that, there is I think only one media organization currently in existence, a news magazine published by Ian P. You can read some of those back issues and even write for it yourself, since he's very glad to print submissions.
I believe there is only one member of the College of Arms these days, but if you wanted to request a coat of arms for yourself, that's also still an option and something interesting a lot of new citizens like to do.
There has previously been a branch of the military devoted to cultural service that could have guided you, but it is not active right now. That might change soon though, hopefully.
There is also the national wiki, where you can request an account and start contributing. If you're not sure about how to edit a wiki, there is a tutorial that I made available specific to our own.
More than any other political party in the past five-to-ten years, the Free Democrats are actually doing something. We have revolutionized governance and put into action an agenda for the future. For more information: https://freedemstalossa.wordpress.com/
I would be glad to talk to you about it. Direct-message me.
Alexandreu, you paint a picture of a Kingdom in which no-one does anything. I beg to differ.
Perhaps if you got to it and started things up in regard to the language again, you could get things revved up, here, if things are as moribound as you think they are.
I think you might be thinking of someone else, since I have never been much of a hand for the language, try as I might. I give it a go every couple of years, and I think it's one of the best things about our country, but it's just hard for me. My aptitudes lie in other areas. Speaking of the language, though, that is another good one for a new person to get involved in.
I didn't blame any political party and I think you would have to work pretty hard to conjure a partisan attack out of a relatively straightforward list of stuff for someone to do. If your complaint is that I didn't name enough things, then please add them to my list! It wasn't meant to be exhaustive, just a list of stuff that occurred to me off the top of my head when I was casually replying to someone's unanswered request for stuff to do.
EDIT: Reading my list again, it does seem a little negative, actually, so that's fair enough. No surprise to anyone how I feel about the current state of affairs. Let's get more available for people to do around here, though! Joining a political party doesn't actually give you much to do, since you can't do anything substantive with that for the most part until the next election.
Quote from: GV on September 12, 2020, 05:47:10 PM
More than any other political party in the past five-to-ten years, the Free Democrats are actually doing something. We have revolutionized governance and put into action an agenda for the future. For more information: https://freedemstalossa.wordpress.com/
That's mostly just empty phrasing. Last ten years? I doubt it. A lot of things happened 5-10 years ago, the creation of the wiki, creation of Talossa.com codifying of our law. More recently? Probably true, but then there
aren't many large or active parties left these days.
True, a lot of energy has been spent on legislation and institutional reforms, but how much of that has translated into actual activity? (Other than the efforts made to implement it all, often by people outside the FreeDems, and to fix the various holes and problems already arising from flawed bills that were passed with not enough discussion).
Edit: forgot to add the word now in bold, which changes the meaning...
Quote from: Sir Alexandreu Davinescu on September 12, 2020, 05:48:54 PM
Everyone gets busy from time to time, and certainly someone who has been in active presence in our country for so long deserves a little leeway now and then! I wasn't trying to make a dig at you, man, I was just trying to run down the list of stuff that an enthusiastic new citizen might be able to participate in. I really do think that there's kind of a short window to get people actively involved in civic life. Like our website famously says, Talossa can be habit forming... But you have to get started in something before it can become a habit!
I'm with you on this completely. And it would be nice if there was a nonpartisan route to habit-forming.
Fwiw, we do have a non-partisan, non-political, cultural event going on, which has now become a tradition that has lasted for 11 years and now almost 9 editions.
It happens to involve two things that imho are most enjoyable: listening to music and making lists. I'll admit that not everyone might get as excited about these things, but for those that are:
https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=381.msg3485#new
[/shameless plug]
Quote from: Eiric S. Bornatfiglheu on September 12, 2020, 06:23:27 PM
Quote from: Sir Alexandreu Davinescu on September 12, 2020, 05:48:54 PM
Everyone gets busy from time to time, and certainly someone who has been in active presence in our country for so long deserves a little leeway now and then! I wasn't trying to make a dig at you, man, I was just trying to run down the list of stuff that an enthusiastic new citizen might be able to participate in. I really do think that there's kind of a short window to get people actively involved in civic life. Like our website famously says, Talossa can be habit forming... But you have to get started in something before it can become a habit!
I'm with you on this completely. And it would be nice if there was a nonpartisan route to habit-forming.
That was a lot of the reasoning behind the Zuavs -- a way to harness a lot of what is cool about Talossa as incentive for getting things done, with the hope that it would be a virtuous cycle. I wish I still had the time to do it, and don't begrudge anyone who doesn't feel like they can take it on -- kudos to you for the attempt, in fact! I wish I could get back to it, but I have two toddlers and a four-year-old and a full-time teaching job mid-pandemic and I'm also rather in the middle of a good run in American politics, so I just can't take on any additional position of responsibility. I hope there's someone else with the gumption and the time, but times are tough all 'round!
Also, we're looking for one more person to make a 10+ question kahoot for our quiznight (+tmt20 broadcast) saturday!
https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=466.0
Quote from: Glüc da Dhi S.H. on September 12, 2020, 06:38:41 PM
Also, we're looking for one more person to make a 10+ question kahoot for our quiznight (+tmt20 broadcast) next saturday!
I'm excited for this! I have mine mostly done -- trying to find a glheþ question that isn't dependent on knowledge level.
Quote from: Glüc da Dhi S.H. on September 12, 2020, 06:21:17 PM
Quote from: GV on September 12, 2020, 05:47:10 PM
More than any other political party in the past five-to-ten years, the Free Democrats are actually doing something. We have revolutionized governance and put into action an agenda for the future. For more information: https://freedemstalossa.wordpress.com/
That's mostly just empty phrasing. Last ten years? I doubt it. A lot of things happened 5-10 years ago, the creation of the wiki, creation of Talossa.com codifying of our law. More recently? Probably true, but then there many large or active parties left these days.
True, a lot of energy has been spent on legislation and institutional reforms, but how much of that has translated into actual activity? (Other than the efforts made to implement it all, often by people outside the FreeDems, and to fix the various holes and problems already arising from flawed bills that were passed with not enough discussion).
Fair enough, actually, especially as my period of real inactivity was...2009 to sometime in 2011.
Quote from: Sir Alexandreu Davinescu on September 12, 2020, 05:02:00 PM
Honestly no idea why you're picking a fight here or even what this fight is about. I'm trying to list things that a new citizen can get involved with immediately
And you just happen to be doing so while whispering things in the new citizens' ear that happen to be your political hobby horses. In this case in particular, being oh-so-sad that new citizens have to win an election to get a legislative seat, meaning that clever political leaders can't "farm" newbies into their political party, a practice which kept your old party in power for 9 straight terms.
It leaves the rest of us with a pretty sad choice. Either we ignore you, and your politically tendentious whisperings become established as "truth" for new citizens, or we turn the thread into a political debate, which may just scare off the new citizen. How about we avoid that, and when listing things for new citizens,
you don't push your extremely minority political positions. Imagine if US immigration staff were allowed to promote Scientology.
More importantly, the following is in the Coalition Agreement for the incoming government:
QuoteUsing the New Citizens' Information Packet being developed by STUFF, and other online resources such as the New Talossan History Project, to make sure prospective and new citizens have all the information they need to fully participate in Talossan life.
Use all other means to engage new citizens and inactive citizens returning to Talossan life, including the New Citizens' Council (if this continues) and using the Job Centre to find appropriate tasks for enthusiastic new citizens.
Examine naming a new Permanent Secretary of Immigration.
Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on September 12, 2020, 08:52:57 PM
More importantly, the following is in the Coalition Agreement for the incoming government:
QuoteUsing the New Citizens' Information Packet being developed by STUFF, and other online resources such as the New Talossan History Project, to make sure prospective and new citizens have all the information they need to fully participate in Talossan life.
Use all other means to engage new citizens and inactive citizens returning to Talossan life, including the New Citizens' Council (if this continues) and using the Job Centre to find appropriate tasks for enthusiastic new citizens.
Examine naming a new Permanent Secretary of Immigration.
Thanks. All of which will be live by the start of the new Cosa in just a couple of weeks. (Except the history project. I'm not involved in that, so don't know it's timescales).
The job site is ready and awaiting population by the incoming ministers when the new Cabinet forms and the info packet is in in the final stage of editing (A couple of preview snippets have already been take from it and put in a "read here" thread in the immigration sub-forum).
Just to add to the list of things to do for new citizens... the most recent reforms to the civil service allow for the creation of any perm-sec for any niche area of interest on an ad-hoc basis.
I was wondering what the job board was for, honestly. I guess now I get to wait and see what gets posted.
One of the things I've noticed that I'd be interested in is updating the wiki. It might sound boring, but research (legal and otherwise) is something I enjoy. I've been doing some reading, and there's some things I probably could work on but I'm not 100% sure what can and can't be edited and all that, or even who I should contact.
I gotta say, at the very least, Talossan legal documents are infinitely more interesting than US ones. The US has depressingly few laws that refer to a squirrel space program or holidays about penguins.
Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on September 12, 2020, 08:49:10 PM
Quote from: Sir Alexandreu Davinescu on September 12, 2020, 05:02:00 PM
Honestly no idea why you're picking a fight here or even what this fight is about. I'm trying to list things that a new citizen can get involved with immediately
And you just happen to be doing so while whispering things in the new citizens' ear that happen to be your political hobby horses. In this case in particular, being oh-so-sad that new citizens have to win an election to get a legislative seat, meaning that clever political leaders can't "farm" newbies into their political party, a practice which kept your old party in power for 9 straight terms.
It leaves the rest of us with a pretty sad choice. Either we ignore you, and your politically tendentious whisperings become established as "truth" for new citizens, or we turn the thread into a political debate, which may just scare off the new citizen. How about we avoid that, and when listing things for new citizens, you don't push your extremely minority political positions. Imagine if US immigration staff were allowed to promote Scientology.
Not even sure what to do with this. Intellectually, I know that you must think this is reasonable. I know that. But it's hard to understand. Literally started and deleted a reply three times because I know you think you're on the level but it's just so weird.
You are the sitting Seneschal, in the post for years. You and your senior Ministreu are explicitly promoting your party to someone interested in finding something to do, including mentioning the jobs on offer in your Government. But you are also upset that I just mentioned one of my opinions -- unpopular they may be, o perish the thought for I am weak and cannot stand alone -- to Adam? What sort of strange soft-cheese brain would be corrupted to holding an unpopular opinion by an offhand mention by a stranger, yet unaffected by the country's leader personally recruiting them and mentioning open positions in Government? And you're doing this while also expressing your outrage that a former Government used to recruit new citizens?
I can understand thinking it's fine to go hard on recruiting like that. I can understanding thinking it's better to let someone find their feet first. But I cannot understand the most powerful person in the country simultaneously pitching someone on the benefits of their party while also scolding a private citizen for mentioning an unpopular political opinion. Just does not compute.
Adam, I'm sorry. You can honestly just mostly tune this stuff out as the noise that it is. Hopefully you have found some good suggestions about things you can do to get involved: get arms, get involved with political governance, join a national political party, learn the language, and so on. I'm sorry this whole thing derailed -- I felt bad seeing that no one had bothered to answer you after a whole day, but I'm not sure how helpful this has been! Definitely get involved with the wiki and the law if that interests you!
Quote from: Adam Grigoriu on September 12, 2020, 11:12:26 PM
I was wondering what the job board was for, honestly. I guess now I get to wait and see what gets posted.
One of the things I've noticed that I'd be interested in is updating the wiki. It might sound boring, but research (legal and otherwise) is something I enjoy. I've been doing some reading, and there's some things I probably could work on but I'm not 100% sure what can and can't be edited and all that, or even who I should contact.
I gotta say, at the very least, Talossan legal documents are infinitely more interesting than US ones. The US has depressingly few laws that refer to a squirrel space program or holidays about penguins.
Etho (posted in this thread above) or Miestra (also posted) can both approve your account on the wiki if you make one. Almost all pages can be edited and most can be improved. Do you have a lot of experience on wikis?
Quote from: Adam Grigoriu on September 11, 2020, 02:54:57 PM
Woo, I'm a citizen again!
Now that I can again claim citizenship in our glorious country, is there anything I can do to help out?
I was at a virtual officers retreat for my teachers union most of the day and then slept a little to recharge So I didn't get the chance to respond.
I do have some thoughts on how you can get involved in non-political work but I need a little time to formulate my thoughts more fully after a particularly long day. Don't get discouraged. I'll get back to this topic shortly.
Not wiki experience like Wikipedia, per se, though I'm very familiar with Markup and the like.
I've been a fairly seriously IT hobbyist for a long time, and in the open source world a lot of the relevant documentation and such is hosted via MediaWiki, so I've been absorbing it all for a while, and like I said I enjoy boring research (you haven't lived until you've read through the kernel.org mailing lists to get that last ounce of performance out of a Gentoo install, but I digress), so there you go
As to the other conversation happening concurrent in this thread, I'll admit I'm too lost to understand exactly what the arguments are, but it appears a lot has happened in the last decade or so. I'm sure I'll form my own opinions as time goes on.
Quote from: Dr. Txec Róibeard dal Nordselvă, Esq., O.SPM, SMM on September 12, 2020, 11:38:27 PM
Quote from: Adam Grigoriu on September 11, 2020, 02:54:57 PM
Woo, I'm a citizen again!
Now that I can again claim citizenship in our glorious country, is there anything I can do to help out?
I was at a virtual officers retreat for my teachers union most of the day and then slept a little to recharge So I didn't get the chance to respond.
I do have some thoughts on how you can get involved in non-political work but I need a little time to formulate my thoughts more fully after a particularly long day. Don't get discouraged. I'll get back to this topic shortly.
It's much appreciated, and there's no rush.
Quote from: Adam Grigoriu on September 12, 2020, 11:48:13 PM
Not wiki experience like Wikipedia, per se, though I'm very familiar with Markup and the like.
I've been a fairly seriously IT hobbyist for a long time, and in the open source world a lot of the relevant documentation and such is hosted via MediaWiki, so I've been absorbing it all for a while, and like I said I enjoy boring research (you haven't lived until you've read through the kernel.org mailing lists to get that last ounce of performance out of a Gentoo install, but I digress), so there you go
As to the other conversation happening concurrent in this thread, I'll admit I'm too lost to understand exactly what the arguments are, but it appears a lot has happened in the last decade or so. I'm sure I'll form my own opinions as time goes on.
The wiki is here: http://wiki.talossa.com/ and you can register a new account immediately. You are entitled to be a Citizen on there with full edit rights. Feel free to edit any normal page, although until you get more wiki experience it might be best to stay away from editing most template pages. Any changes or mistakes you make can just be rolled back if necessary, so go nuts. You might find my course helpful as a refresher: http://wiki.talossa.com/Class The Citizen's Portal might also be helpful, although it's been a while since it was updated: http://wiki.talossa.com/TalossaWiki:Citizens_portal
If you have any questions about anything and want to ask someone with a lot of info, a good memory, a level head, and no partisan affiliations, I recommend Gluc da Dhi, who posted earlier. He's pretty universally respected and just stepped down from arguably the most important job in the country (Secretary of State).
Quote from: Sir Alexandreu Davinescu on September 12, 2020, 11:54:03 PM
If you have any questions about anything and want to ask someone with a lot of info, a good memory, a level head, and no partisan affiliations, I recommend Gluc da Dhi, who posted earlier. He's pretty universally respected and just stepped down from arguably the most important job in the country (Secretary of State).
Eeh, thanks, but I'm not without political biases myself, even if I'm not affiliated with any party. These probably will show more too, now that I'm no longer SoS.
(Not trying to discourage anyone from asking questions obviously, just a disclaimer...)
Quote from: GV on September 12, 2020, 05:47:10 PM
Perhaps if you got to it and started things up in regard to the language again, you could get things revved up, here, if things are as moribound as you think they are.
...
Quote from: Sir Alexandreu Davinescu on September 12, 2020, 11:31:15 PM
Not even sure what to do with this.
How about just remember:
we can all see you when you try to "spin" the facts to newbies to get them in your political camp, and we'll call you out when we do so. You forget that some of us have decades of experience with KR1 doing the same thing, and you're a neophyte in comparison.
Well, you're right, I never had any experience with Robert I trying to suppress unpopular opinions. It's new to me. I'll bear your warning in mind.
I've seen sufficient answers made elsewhere by others, but I did want to offer: If you'd like to get involved with politics, please reach out to me. I can get you in touch with the right party leader, depending on your personal political inclinations.
Cheers.