I'm not a math whiz, so I might be wrong.  But this means the first two new citizens can claim seats, and those seats will be equivalent in voting power to 5% of the vote, instead of the current 0.5%... something like six votes in the most recent election, for example?  Is that right?

So this proposal would reduce the size of the Cosa from 200 to 20, but would still permit new citizens to claim seats?

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on Today at 06:58:29 PM

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on Today at 05:59:41 PMThe Progs do not have the same political differences from the UR

I would have thought not; which is why it is such a surprise that you told Mic'haglh that the Progs were not interested in a formal coalition with the URL (153/8 seats), but it turns out you are keen on one with the Absolute Monarchists (102/4 seats).

The terms on which we are engaged with the IDT are very similar to what I just mentioned for the URL, as you will note.  We did not have an appetite for the scale of collaboration that was initially proposed.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on Today at 06:58:29 PMIMHO discussion can continue about specific items of legislation, including the Budget; but there can be no more talk of a confidence agreement while the Government already holds an absolute majority of seats.

Well yes, a confidence and supply situation would be suitable to support a minority Government, so that doesn't make sense definitionally, I would think?  But I take your meaning.

If you guys change your mind and are interested in being a part of the Government, we're still happy to discuss how to advance the interests of your constituents in achieving your party policy goals, since a lot of them seem great.  I respect your decision if you're just taking that off the table, but the door is open if you guys change your mind.  And of course, we'll be happy to discuss other items such as cooperation in the Senate, as well.

Quote from: Max Maltezos on Today at 05:52:40 PM

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on Today at 05:47:57 PMOkay, so he wasn't literally a tyrant, since for the latter part of Talossan history, he followed the forms of democracy and divided powers, and he never wielded authoritarian power with force.  We're using the term like many people do, to refer to someone who acts as a strongman and subverts the process of democracy in order to trample on the rights of others.

Well, heaven isn't a democracy...

If we had a state religion (theoretically), I would think that the Archbishop of Abbavilla would have the right to suspend or depose the King/Queen based upon his actions, but that would seem too theocratic...

And since Robert is a Christian now, I don't think he'd mind my philosophy. This is just my personal opinion.


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We don't have the same religion, but from what I understand of Christian heaven, it's full of angels.  And there's a famous quote by an American politician, James Madison, that addresses the distinction:

If Men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and the next place, oblige it to control itself.

Listen, Max is a theocrat who supports absolute monarchy through the divine right of kings.  I disagree with the vast majority of his politics, and I think he knows that.  But he seems to be a decent person who genuinely loves Talossa, and we have some common areas, and so we found a way to work together with a sharply circumscribed agreement.

The Progs do not have the same political differences from the URL, since we're much more aligned on our basic values.  If we entered into an agreement together, then I would expect that you would withdraw from such an agreement or begin blocking legislation if you felt that the actual things that happened were beyond bounds.  However, I suspect we'd actually be united at such a time.

I do not think it's beyond the pale to let the most enthusiastic user of our language in years work on promoting the language.  I think it makes obvious sense.  But if you're in doubt, then I urge you to hold us accountable, whether you're looking from the outside or part of the conversation in Cabinet.

We're still ready and willing to talk, if you guys are up for it.  I think you'll find that I'm open to just about any approach, even if we have to work out the fine details: some support contingent on specific policy promises, representation in the Government so you can be a voice in the room and help guide Talossa, or whatever else.

We really did mean it when we said we wanted to work with everybody.*

*still not Breneir tho, dude's gotta apologize for real

Okay, so he wasn't literally a tyrant, since for the latter part of Talossan history, he followed the forms of democracy and divided powers, and he never wielded authoritarian power with force.  We're using the term like many people do, to refer to someone who acts as a strongman and subverts the process of democracy in order to trample on the rights of others.

As an example: for many years, he controlled a personal bloc of votes from citizens only he knew.  He would announce how they'd voted, and use this power to swing elections.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on Today at 04:13:02 PMLet me explain something. The idea of a confidence/supply deal is based on the idea that the smaller party has leverage to withdraw confidence/supply if the deal is broken.

The new Conservative Coalition has 102 seats. Therefore, a guaranteed majority. Therefore, there is no point in a confidence/supply deal since the Government can win a majority in any case. I should note that the URL can still deny supply in the Senäts, but frankly, the amount of spending Talossa's government does means that's not going to bite very hard.

If we knew you were going to form a majority coalition (as opposed to some other deal) with the Absolute Monarchists, we would have never approached you. In fact, the reason we approached you on day 1 about confidence/supply was precisely so you wouldn't do that.

And you announced this arrangement, making our own arrangement pointless, while Mic'haglh was literally on the Discord waiting to talk to you, so don't claim that we were sandbagging here.

A very, very poor start to the 62nd Cosa government.

If we could not reach an accord with the IDT, then we would have needed a confidence and supply deal.  So yes, obviously that's no longer on the table, lol... just by pure definition.

However, we're still very open to a deal with the URL along the terms of our proposal, and we hope you guys are also open to that on some scale.  Certainly, it's your prerogative to break off negotiations, but I hope that you will not.

A broad-spectrum Government would benefit the country in a lot of ways, and it would allow the URL some representation in the Cabinet to work on issues where our priorities overlap.  There are some things we very much agree on!  And while we hope to hear from you regardless, it would also be good to get the wisdom and perspective of URL leaders as we make decisions about where Talossa will be headed.  There are some things you guys were anxious about, and this would give you input into those decisions and allay your concerns.

Quote from: Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP on Today at 03:51:44 PMAre there any concrete plans on what those "activities that promote el Glheþ" that the Minister of Culture will be restricted to are?

Also, are there any plans to replace me as Ladintsch Naziunal?

I think I'd really like to see much more Talossan used in the Government, so the first project I was hoping to see was a systematic translation project of all government posts, with legislation to solemnify it once that's done.

It would be just plain stupid to replace you, so no, there's no plans to do that.

You knew about this, since an announcement the two parties would be working together was made about this a month ago and you commented on it at the time.

I let Mic'halgh know several days ago that we were ready to move forward, and haven't heard back from him.  We're still interested in working together, and the IDT leader is also aware.  Nothing at all has changed from the expected underlying situation, and our same proposal is still on offer.

After a majority vote of approval by the Progressive Alliance membership and approval by the leader of In Defensa Traditionis, we are pleased to announce the formation of a coalition for the purposes of government in the upcoming 62^nd Cosa.  This coalition will control a majority of seats in the Cosa.

The terms of this coalition are designed to find common ground between two parties that are very different in political terms.  We expect that in matters of legislation and policy, the two parties will continue to have different approaches.  However, there is mutual agreement on the importance of promoting, supporting, and furthering the appreciation of el Glheþ.  Accordingly, IDT will select a candidate to serve as Minister of Culture with the primary focus of el Glheþ, and all other initiatives will be subject to approval by the Seneschal.  This restriction is unusual, but we feel that it is warranted given our divergent cultural values and the fact that the IDT is new to Talossan politics.

We are currently in other negotiations, which we hope will also be fruitful.  But more importantly, no one should let things like this stop them from getting involved in some capacity.  Whatever your politics and whatever your background and whatever your activity level, we can find a way for you to contribute.

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1.  Both parties shall endorse the Baron Alexandreu Davinescu as their choice for Seneschal, and to rank him first in any election for Seneschal.

2.  Members of Cosa from both parties will vote in favour of all Votes of Confidence.

3.  A representative from In Defensa Traditionis will be afforded a Cabinet position as Minister of Culture.  This position will be primarily focused on activities that promote el Glheþ.  Other initiatives will be subject to approval by the Seneschal, although every effort will be made to respect the Minister's preferences.

4.  Cabinet Ministers will agree upon a code of conduct for Government officials, and will then be expected to abide by it.  This will include courteous behavior to the public and the Ziu, as well as active engagement with their responsibilities.

5.  No amendment to this coalition agreement shall be made without the endorsement of both parties, up to and including the addition of further coalition partners.

Ok, sent you his email address.  I wish you luck!

I think that even people who are angry with him or that he treated badly still respect him, broadly speaking. It takes a special kind of something to found a nation in your bedroom and then keep it up, adding on language and culture, all the way through to middle age.

I think you are unlikely to get the votes to restore his citizenship without some kind of process happening first. Maybe a good first step would be to pass a bill to establish a truth and reconciliation commission, and invite him to it, so that we can talk it out as a nation and as a founder. Would you be interested in something like that, or reaching out to him privately first, or something similar? I have his email address.

I think probably a first step would be re-opening a conversation with the former king, and asking if this is something he's still interested in.  When he broached the subject a couple of years ago, people were mostly only open to his return if he was willing to take some accountability for his behavior.  But he might be ready to do that to some degree, and re-enter our community as a citizen.  He's 60 years old and still alive, so he's already defied the prophecy that said he would die at 59.  Maybe that's when he'll be ready to talk about it.

Over the years, a lot of people have accepted responsibility for their role in past events.  For example, His Grace, Duke John, made a speech about how the Kingdom should have reached out more to the Republic in the time of schism and worked to close that breach earlier, and apologizing on behalf of the country for how former King Robert treated them while they were citizens.  And Marti-Pair and Ieremiah apologized for taking control of the Talossan webspaces when founding the Republic.  The Seneschal has publicly apologized for her attitude and treatment of others prior to her election as senator.  I have apologized for my treatment of a former citizen.

Former King Robert did everything possible to try to usurp control from the people when they started to drift away from him.  When he lost, he tried to bring Talossa to the ground.  Maybe he's ready to talk about that.

1.  First the election has to be certified.

2.  Then the Secretary of State will issue a call for parties to assign their seats to Members of Cosa to represent those seats.  Party leaders will assign their seats.

3.  Then a majority of Members might present a letter of majority to His Majesty, choosing a Seneschal and thereby forming a Government.

4.  Then the Secretary of State will issue a call for bills for the first Clark, which he will then assemble for voting if they've been properly submitted and vetted through the Hopper and CRL.

5.  Then voting will start on the Clark, including any bills that have been submitted, and including a Ranked Choice Vote for Seneschal if there was no majority before now.  The allotted time to vote runs until the twenty-first, at which point the results are published (including who the Seneschal will be, if that was in the Clark), and the second Clark opens for submissions.

I sent in the Progressive Party's fee, plus my own.

I agree -- Tafi, I think you're good.

I'd be fine with a direct democracy of sorts.  The original idea was to allow people to designate others as their proxies, but I don't think that's ever happened in the ten years or whatever we've had these rules.  The only thing I want to avoid is a scenario where people only suddenly become members of the Assembly when there's something they want to vote on.  I think the Assembly should be constituted at the start of the term.  At the very least, though, we should simplify the rules.

That's a cool idea, but we can't give an AI a Witt account for technical reasons and privacy reasons, I'd think.  And I think Tafi is right about the quality of their writing... it hallucinates, and it usually ends up sounding like the same slop.

But I do think it might be interesting to try pointing an instance of Claude at the wiki and directing it to browse and look for things that seem like they should be updated.  It shouldn't do the updating itself, but such a list would be useful.  (Assuming it can actually competently do this, which... I don't know.)

I was actually thinking about this last night, and I think, whoever the next Seneschal is, they should reinstitute the bounty system offered by Sir Ian, years ago.  Improve the wiki a certain amount and you get to request a day of observance with photo/video proof of the Seneschal celebrating it.

This is a list of things that need doing.  Please feel free to add to it with your own suggestions. Some of these are just for people in charge of various things, and others anyone can do. If you feel like you want to contribute, please do so!

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* Update the wiki Citizen's Portal, which hasn't been edited or updated for more than a decade.
* Update the wiki Manual of Style, which is also more than a decade old.
* Get TalossaWare available again by updating Printify vendors.  (Do we want a new service, or keep the easy one?)
* Update the main menu and government templates, since the government's been rearranged a bit.
* Post a reminder on the wiki and on the website interface about how it's illegal to delete any item public record, but also figure out if that law needs to be updated since it seems crazy.
* Figure out what to do about l'Chronica -- what versions get read and how much?
* Get a report on social media use... do we still need Twitter even now?  How can we simplify?
* Create a policy for the wiki about political campaigning.
* New citizen's guide shouldn't be a PDF at this point.
* Specific site problems:
    * ID Cards link is broken
    * Coins & Stamps are not being issued currently.
    * Contacts Page is outdated.
    * Blog posts widget is broken
    * Replace graphics
    * Replace photo
    * Redesign with one sidebar.
* Specific wiki problems:
    * Add padding to nav menus like The Court
    * For that matter, no one ever refers to The Court in any context ever, so why is this a category?
    * Organic Law history page
    * Organic Law description page
    * Statutory Law page
    * No one has touched Uc's projects in two years - current Scribe should address
    * Also highlighting on orglaw needs to be useful or eliminated (or just in a mirrored copy)
    * Census page
    * Senators pages.
    * We need a "what to update" page for new admins as part of transition packages.
    * Luc's Tripolarism page and similar need to be incorporated into the History page and maybe linked with a "party systems" navbar.
    * History needs to be made into a prose page based on the timeline.

Quote from: King Txec on December 03, 2025, 10:47:06 AMPardon my intrusion Baron into your party forum. As I was watching the election unfold it was apparent that some voters who voted on Witt copy/pasted and might have spoiled at least a portion of their ballots. I wonder if in the future we could work with Sir Luc on some way to avoid this while still making sure anyone who wishes can vote publicly on Witt. I'd hate for voters to be disenfranchised. I'm not sure how this could be worked out, but we have time until the next GE. What do you think?

-Txec R

I think that's a good idea!  And it's smart to start thinking about it now.  I will consult with Sir Luc and see what we can do... maybe including a "sample Wittenberg vote" template for people to use in the initial post, or as a follow-up post to which we can link directly?  We don't want to do anything that will target a legal practice in order to affect the outcome, but it's also really unfortunate when ballots get spoiled.

Thank you for the thought, Your Majesty!