Quote from: Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be on Yesterday at 10:49:44 PM

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on Yesterday at 04:42:48 PMI think it should also be viewed with an eye towards activity on Wittenberg and a holistic sense about how things are going.  I'm not quite sure how to quantify the latter, though.  It might just be impossible, unless we do regular surveys (which I still think would be a good idea, just maybe a little much right now).

One would think the de facto Minister of Public Records might recall the "Wittenberg Usage" tab on Infotecă? That seems a good a place as any to gauge activity, at least in terms of the nation overall. It would be a good first step.

I mean, yes, I do think it's useful to track Wittenberg usage.  That's why I built Infotecă.

When I was talking about stuff that's hard to track, I meant the holistic sense of how things are going :)

Quote from: Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be on Yesterday at 10:49:44 PMIt is interesting to see the Seneschal reverse his "low immigration = house on fire = Government's fault" stance from the previous term. One wonders what caused him to change his mind.

Immigration levels increased!  That's a good thing!

But don't forget: from April through July, there were zero immigrants!  That's very alarming, and it makes sense to be alarmed when alarming things are happening.

Quote from: Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be on Yesterday at 10:49:44 PMa chart

I wrote a whole reply, but then I remembered that no one is interested in this fight (least of all me).  I'm sorry, I'm just not interested in like a big argument about credit or whatever. 

I am trying to build some stuff and get things done.  To improve things for the people, building stuff like Infotecă that will help folks.

If neither URL leader wants to be in a promotional video, that's fine.  I hope you change your mind, since I think you both are an amazing part of Talossa and it would be good to help put our best foot forward.  Just let me know if you're interested.

Also let me know if you have any better suggestions for a reasonable target for naturalization, even if you don't think it's particularly important.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on Yesterday at 04:22:47 PMI am of the opinion that a target immigration rate makes as much sense as a target fertility rate would in a larger country. It is a disturbing misdirection of resources which doesn't deal with *why* we want immigration.

The Seneschal has talked in the past about maintaining levels of activity - fine, but new citizens <> active citizens. Given this, surely citizen activity is what we should be targeting. Of course, that's harder to quantify in a number. But targeting something because it's easier to quantify, even though it's not the right target, is like the old story of a drunk looking for his keys under a streetlight because it's easier to see, even though he dropped them somewhere else. I have suggested in the past that the Seneschal has a fascination with metrics out of keeping with their actual relevance.

Just because a statistic doesn't reveal the entire picture doesn't mean it's useless.  Clearly, it's a relevant number, it's just not the only number that matters.  I think it should also be viewed with an eye towards activity on Wittenberg and a holistic sense about how things are going.  I'm not quite sure how to quantify the latter, though.  It might just be impossible, unless we do regular surveys (which I still think would be a good idea, just maybe a little much right now).

Really, as I've said many times, I don't think you can ever sum up the health of a country or group this size with any set of numbers at all. That doesn't mean they're meaningless, it just means that things are a lot more complex than that.

Our immigration rate is a pretty important thing to keep an eye on, and I do think that policy can affect it. I don't think it's an easy nut to crack, or like there's only one way to do it. But I do think that our choices matter. You have expressed the same thing many times in the past!

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on Yesterday at 04:22:47 PMI am also of the opinion that the Seneschal's artificial carve-up of the immigration stats of my last Government because "it doesn't count because of external factors" is deeply politically dishonest. The Seneschal cannot be shaken from his belief that immigration rates are a function of Government policy; that if immigration is low it's because the Government doesn't care about immigration, and that when he's in power, he can make immigration flick up with his policy choices. But this is simply proven wrong, if he has to falsify the immigration stats from the previous government, to eliminate the impact of something out of the Government's control (without doing the same to all previous governments).

I guess you can seek out offense if you want, but not only did I not say that those two months "don't count," I actually went to some pains to say the opposite!  "This isn't intended to be negative in any way, and all credit is due to them for those numbers," to quote myself.  But if we're thinking about targets, I think it's helpful to break out those extreme outliers.  If there are other outlier months, we should also do that when we're thinking about a baseline.  This is a pretty common way to approach things like this: looking at the general trend.

In case it needs repetition: I think you absolutely deserve credit for creating an environment that took some advantage of the viral moments. Being willing to do things like update the form definitely made a difference. I just don't think that considering those months is helpful when we're thinking about setting a goal, unless we're also looking at the bigger picture.

Okay.  Well, your suggested language doesn't quite work.  But how about

"2. The King may appoint a Cunstaval (or Constable) for any Province to exercise these powers on his behalf.  A province may pass laws setting a term of office for its Cunstaval, specifying who is disqualified from the role, and assigning the Cunstaval a role in their government.  Unless otherwise fixed by national or provincial statute, the term of office shall be three years.  No person shall be at the same time Cunstaval of one province and the leader of the provincial government of that same province."

I'm looking for public comment about two things:

First of all, we're going to do a promotional video.  It'll be short-form, probably two different versions of different lengths but both under a minute.  Is there anyone who'd like to be featured in such a video?

Second of all, do folks have any opinions on what a target immigration rate might look like?  I was thinking that keeping it simple with one immigrant per month would be a good goal, but I'm open to suggestion.  For context, here's recent government terms:

Seneschal	Cosa	Months	Nats	Nats/Mo
T. Davinescu	56th	10	6	0.60
Plätschisch	57th	9	4	0.44
Tzaracomprada	58th	8	11	1.38
Excelsio/Sant-Enogat	59th	9	9	1.00
Schivă	60th	9	6	0.67
Schivă	61st	8	13	1.62
Schivă 61st (excl. Oct-Nov)	61st	6	4	0.67

"Excl. Oct-Nov" removes October–November 2025, when we had two viral Tiktoks about us.  This isn't intended to be negative in any way, and all credit is due to them for those numbers, but I wanted to highlight that this was crazily out of the norm so it might not be relevant to setting a target.

Päçen per bäbätsilor.

For a lot of Talossans, it's too hard to figure out government policies, government offices, and contact information.  They don't know where to look for this information -- in fact, they may not even know that these things exist.  They end up messaging someone and asking, "Hey, how do I reach the person in charge of this?"  Sometimes they look around on the wiki.  Or sometimes they don't even bother doing those things... they just give up.

Highly active Talossans don't have this problem, of course.  They quickly learn about the different offices and past policies, or they have a friend they can ask without fear of embarrassment.  There's nothing wrong with this advantage, and it's earned through attention and effort. But it is an advantage, and it is a barrier to entry for the inactive or new.

Today, however, we're officially unveiling a new version of the Seneschal's List -- now known as El List del Seneschal.  The people deserve to know what's going on with their government, and El List will help make that easier.



Longtime Talossans might already be aware of El List, the legally-required page which makes available all government offices and their office-holders.  Recent observers have probably also noticed how our new government policy of full public disclosure of all policies has also began using the page.  But the new version is a completely revamped approach.

Obviously, the page is no longer a complicated nesting of headers.  Instead, concise and consistent tables are used to present the list of office-holders.  Icons are used, as well, to make things easier to find.

But the actual information is the real treat.  Major government policies are now included on the page with expandable labels.  This serves as not only public disclosure and accountability, but also a way to familiarize viewers with the duties of a given office.  We're also including contact information here for all government officials that have an email address, so that no one will have to go hunting for that.  Information should be accessible and accurate.  The people deserve nothing less.

Another new feature is that, in a show of our commitment to el glheþ, we're providing the Talossan-language names for offices.  Being familiar with basic patterns like how del/dal work will build a greater sense of cognitive ease around these concepts for Talossans, so we want broad exposure to them.  We want el glheþ to feel normal, not exceptional.  (And in the future, we want to shift over to a glheþ-first approach!)

In the future, we'd like to make further improvements:

• There are several offices which need iconography.
• Some offices still need translation.
• It would be even better to have this as part of Infotecă, the information portal on our website.
• Both El List and Infotecă need to be made more visually appealing, using modern ideas on wayfinding to make navigation through the information more intuitive.

In the near future, we will be sending out a public service announcement to all Talossans to make them aware of this new version of El List, under the authority of Lexh.C.1.2.2.5.  Please also ask any questions here, and please feel free to suggest improvements.

I'm saving my amended version of @Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP 's bill here, for future reference and possible return.  Currently, the effects here are split up into two bills, and it would be fairly disastrous if the referendum portion didn't pass.  So this version is designed to avoid that problem.

---

THEREFORE, be it enacted that the following provision be added to el Lexhatx as subsubsection H.4.1.1:

QuoteThe total number of party seats is twenty.

FURTHERMORE, Org.IV.4, which currently reads:

Quote1. In addition to the seats apportioned between parties after a General Election, the Secretary of State shall assign one Cosa seat to any citizen who becomes eligible to vote after the most recent Election Deadline but before the dissolution of the Cosa, upon the request of such citizen, up to a maximum number as this Organic Law might provide. Any additional seat so assigned shall cease to exist should its holder vacate or be removed from the seat and shall not be subject to the procedures for filling vacancies in the Cosa, and shall also cease to exist upon the dissolution of the Cosa.. (sic)
2. The maximum number of seats that may be assigned to new citizens between general elections shall be 7.5% of the seats apportioned between parties, rounded up to a whole number of seats.

shall be struck from the law.

FURTHERMORE, Section 5 of Article IV, which currently reads:

QuoteEach person holding one or more seats is a representative known as a "Member of the Cosa" (MC). MCs may not be removed from office except by a two-thirds vote by the Cosa and approval by the King. An MC vacates his seats if he fails to vote on two consecutive Clarks, or if he resigns from office or dies. The seats of any MC who is removed or vacates shall be reassigned according to Section 4, above.

shall be renumbered as Section 4 and altered to instead read:

QuoteEach person holding one or more seats is a representative known as a "Member of the Cosa" (MC). MCs may not be removed from office except by a two-thirds vote by the Cosa and approval by the King. An MC vacates his seats if he fails to vote on two consecutive Clarks, or if he resigns from office or dies. The seats of any MC who is removed or vacates shall be reassigned according to Section 3, above.

FURTHERMORE, Section 6 of Article IV shall be renumbered as Section 5,

FURTHERMORE, Section 7 of Article IV shall be renumbered as Section 6,

FURTHERMORE, Section 8 of Article IV shall be renumbered as Section 7,

FURTHERMORE, Section 9 of Article IV shall be renumbered as Section 8,

FURTHERMORE, Section 10 of Article IV shall be renumbered as Section 9,

FURTHERMORE, Section 12 of Article IV shall be renumbered as Section 10,

FURTHERMORE, all the changes described in this bill shall only take effect after ratification by referendum and after a full calendar year has passed, and will otherwise be considered to be null and void.

Sir Iason, you are entitled to add to your achievement a belt, a helm, and a motto.  You may choose your own motto, yes.  Do you have one in mind?

--SVA

Quote from: Antaglha Xhenerös Somelieir on January 17, 2026, 08:48:42 PM" No person shall be at the same time Cunstaval of one province and the leader of the provincial government of another province"
Is what the law current says, but it doesn't say that if the Cunstaval is from the same province (which is an idea you support) that they can also become head of government in the province they are Cunstaval in.

Yes, it doesn't say that right now.  But the law doesn't have to give that permission and say, "You can make your cunstaval the head of government if you want."  Unless the law says they can't, provinces are allowed to do it.  So right now, it's permitted.  You're asking for a new restriction.

Quote from: Antaglha Xhenerös Somelieir on January 17, 2026, 08:48:42 PMhaving it in law, to say that
"A Cunstaval also, cannot be Cunstaval and head of government of the same province"
Is basically all I'm wanting to add to this for the moment.

So if I add this new restriction, I've got your vote for the bill?

I note that this bill would make the first sentence of the modified clause a lie.  "The Senäts shall have equal powers with the Cosa in respect of all proposed laws" will no longer be true.  There will only be two categories of bills for which the Senäts will be equal to the Cosa.  That might be something you want to fix.

Quote from: M:sr Pôl dal Nordselvă, D.Div, M.Ed on June 23, 2025, 05:47:21 AMCan you explain to me why having an upper house that has the authority to reject bills or send them back down is a bad thing? I can perhaps understand the ability of the Cosa to override but do we need to strip them of power in order to accomplish the same purpose?

I thought this was still a good question that didn't actually quite get answered.  The explanation went into the nature of the change in detail, but without saying why it was desirable.  Why would we want to do this?

There's a lot of double redirects that a patriot could fix: https://wiki.talossa.com/index.php?title=Special:DoubleRedirects&limit=500&offset=0

I need to offer some incentive, so I'll be reintroducing the days of observance thing again.

Quote from: þerxh Sant-Enogat on January 17, 2026, 10:35:51 AMOf course, happy to give us all a bit more time to define a good legal framework for the administration and the moderation of our Wiki, which I think deserves a special status

Thank you!  Sorry about the bother.

https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?board=54.0

You're kind of talking past me a bit, here.

Unless I'm mistaken, currently provinces are permitted to arrange their governments mostly how they please, including making the Cunstaval the head of any branch, right?  You're asking for these additional restrictions to be added on the provinces.

Quote from: Mximo Malt on January 16, 2026, 03:59:02 PM

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on January 16, 2026, 03:13:41 PMI guess you could sue yourself maybe.  If you also get yourself appointed as a judge, you could sue yourself, hear your own case, move to have yourself removed from the case, overrule your own motion, issue an injunction against yourself, and then implode into a ball of self-referential micronationalism.

Am I to understand that my question was stupid?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No, I'm just being silly.

Fun moments from the past: on 15 Jun 2012, this is what the front page looked like!

Then this was my first attempt at a real front page.  It looked incredibly bad.

Like a hundred edits later, it started to take shape and I had the basic idea set.  Hooligan moved around the tables to make them flow better here.  Istefan picked better colors here.

By 1 Jul, it looked basically the way it does now, here.  Since then, it's just been tweaking.

Stuff like this is why it's so rewarding to be a Talossan.  You can make stuff that can really make a difference for years.

I guess you could sue yourself maybe.  If you also get yourself appointed as a judge, you could sue yourself, hear your own case, move to have yourself removed from the case, overrule your own motion, issue an injunction against yourself, and then implode into a ball of self-referential micronationalism.

TalossaWiki has been a project of the Government from the first day.  It says so explicitly on the "TalossaWiki: About" linked at the bottom of every page, and it has since June of 2012, when we got it set up.

I'm not sure I'm entirely sold on the bill, generally.  But I think we can definitely do something along these lines.  And since it's become so important to us, we probably want to put some protection on it, generally.  þerxh, would you be willing to wait on sending it to the CRL?  Sorry, I know you were ready to go with it, and I should have said something earlier, but there's been a lot going on.

Yes, and you can access our private forum now, like on that welcome thread for you.  You can post in our internal discussions, start new topics if there's something you want to talk about, and so on.  This board is just for public announcements about our party, mostly.

Certainly.  Thank you for sending the chain.