Quote from: Munditenens Tresplet on June 04, 2025, 07:47:30 PMI desire the codification of Witt rules in El Lex

Someone oughta draft this up, but I've done 3 different drafts today and my drafting finger is tired

Estimat Túischac'h, since you wrote these suggestions and I'm merely codifying them, perhaps you would be better placed to enlighten the member rather than me.

I can only say for myself that I am perfectly willing for the Túischac'h to smack me down for decorum if necessary, if that will keep all members in line. I am not in favour of unilateral verbal disarmament.

Right, so I'm thinking:

Quote2.1 The Minister of Immigration shall ascertain to his own satisfaction, through correspondence or conversation, correspondence, conversation, or a simple comprehension test of material on the front pages of the Kingdom's online presence, that the prospective immigrant is a real human being with genuine interest in becoming a citizen of the Kingdom of Talossa. The Minister shall be free to inquire of the applicant on any and every subject, and shall be required to collect the legal name or name used in daily life, postal address (optional if the applicant is under 18 years of age, except for information needed to assign the applicant to a province), telephone number, and e-mail address(es) of the candidate, which information the Minister shall communicate to the Secretary of State. The applicant shall affirm or swear, under penalty of perjury and under the provisions of Lexh.A.16.1.[r 11], that this information is accurate, and shall provide documentary evidence of the same if the Minister thinks it appropriate.[399]

    2.2 Additionally, the Immigration Minister shall be required to collect an essay, written by the applicant, entitled "Why I am Interested in Becoming a Talossan." If the Immigration Minister considers that this essay misunderstands the nature of Talossa or the rights and duties of Talossan citizenship, or gives insufficient information to enable citizens to ask meaningful questions of the prospective, they may require the applicant to submit a rewritten essay before proceeding to the next stage. When doing so, the Immigration Minister shall provide the applicant with sufficient information to do so successfully, or indicate where to find such information.[400]

2.2. All Immigration applications shall be written in one of the national languages.

    2.3 The Immigration Minister shall also allow every applicant to indicate, whether in the essay described elsewhere in this section or otherwise, what part or parts of Talossan life are the Special Interests of the applicant. These may include Politics, Language, Culture, Heraldry, or any other categories as the Minister may see fit or that may be suggested by the applicant.[401]

    2.4 The Immigration Minister shall make a monthly report to the Ziu reporting the number of any immigration applications received in that month which did not proceed because failing to fulfil the requirements of this section. For each failed application the Minister shall note which part or part of the requirements of this section were lacking in the application.[402][402]

And delete the following:

Quote7. The Secretary of State shall, on a date of his choosing, but within a period of ten days after receiving a petition from at least two citizens, neither of whom shall be the Minister of Immigration or anyone to whom they have delegated their powers, to issue a Grant of Citizenship as described in clause 4, and upon certification from the Ministry of Immigration that the prospective citizen has sufficient understanding of Talossan life and culture for full participation[412] determine the provincial assignment of the prospective immigrant and issue a Royal Grant of Citizenship to the immigrant. This Grant shall be issued under the Royal Seal, either as applied by the Chancery, or, should the Majesty request, by the Sovereign under his or her own hand. If requested by the Government, the Grant may also bear the signatures of the Seneschal[413] and/or Immigration Minister. The Royal Grant shall be promptly issued coincident with the candidate affirming his fealty to the Royal House and his allegiance to the Kingdom by taking any Oath of Talossan Citizenship specified by law. At the time this Royal Grant is issued, and from that point forward, the applicant shall be a full citizen of the Kingdom of Talossa. The fact of the issuance of this Grant shall be posted on Wittenberg by the Secretary of State, that the new citizen may be welcomed by his compatriots. Any and all objections raised to the immigration made after this Royal Grant will be moot.

... because it's pointless, I've never used it, and in retrospect is too prone to abuse.

Right. So here's how the Tripartite Division might work, if we go back to the "expanding the Civil Service" ideology.

So add to Title C:

QuoteC.1.8. The Directorate of STUFF, headed by the Director of STUFF, responsible for the production of "physical embodiments of Talossanity", whether for distribution to citizens, to publicise the Kingdom to outsiders, or to sell for profit, at the direction of and in collaboration with the King or the Government.

QUESTION: right now the Royal Bank and Post is in charge of making stamps and coins. Should we move the *manufacture* of these to the Directorate of STUFF, leading RB&P in charge of design?

Amend Title D section 2.10 as follows:

Quote2.10 The Minister of STUFF Propaganda, heading the Ministry of STUFF (Ministrà del Sanavar da Talossa al Ultra-Fiôvân Folâs) Propaganda, which shall be responsible for the internal and external promotion of the Kingdom, all events therein and all things Talossan through public relations, and shall dutifully ensure that the Kingdom and its events are regularly publicised and may use any means and media available to them to achieve this. [331]

    2.10.1 The Minister of STUFF Propaganda shall be directly responsible for the content of one or more websites and/or social media accounts named as the 'official' website(s) and social media account(s) of the Kingdom. [332]
    2.10.2. The Ministry of STUFF shall be in charge of TalossaWare, that is, the production of "physical embodiments of Talossanity", whether for distribution to citizens, to publicise the Kingdom to outsiders, or to sell for profit. [333]
    2.10.3 The Ministry of STUFF shall be responsible for ensuring the availability, for all Talossans, of the following:

        a) the records of the Scribery as described in C.1.2[r 8] ;
        b) up-to-date information on the personnel of all Government, Royal Household, Civil Service and Chancery office-holders.

New subsection 2.11:

Quote2.11 The Minister of Information, heading the Minister of Information, which shall be responsible for ensuring the availability, for all Talossans, of the following:

        a) the records of the Scribery as described in C.1.2[r 8] ;
        b) up-to-date information on the personnel of all Government, Royal Household, Civil Service and Chancery office-holders;
c) any other information necessary for or useful to citizens, including but not limited to reports and data about Talossan life and Government activity.

Here is El Lexh H.1.2 rewritten in accordance with the Túischac'h's suggestions. I don't necessarily endorse every amendment, but here they are for debate.

Quote1.2 A Terpelaziun is a written enquiry to a named Member of the Government (henceforth, "the questioned Minister") relating to Public Affairs connected with their Ministry or on matters of administration for which they are officially responsible.[718]

    1.2.1 Any Member of the Cosă or Senator may pose a Terpelaziun at any time between the first Clark of a term and the subsequent publishing of a Writ of Dissolution.

        1.2.1.1 Terpelaziuns are posed by opening a new thread containing the questions on Wittenberg, in a single board jointly designated by the Túischac'h and Mençei.
        1.2.1.2 Terpelaziuns shall be politely phrased in the third person and addressed to the presiding officer of the questioner's House (e.g. "esteemed Túischac'h/Mençei") - or, if the Terpelaziun is being posed by a presiding officer, to the whole House ("esteemed Members of the Cosă/Senators").
        1.2.1.3 The presiding officer of the questioner's House - or, if the Terpelaziun is being posed by a presiding officer, the presiding officer of the other House - shall ensure compliance with the provisions of this article and oversee the question-and answering process. Henceforth in this article, the person so identified shall be termed "the presiding officer".
        1.2.1.4 There is no limit to the number of Terpelaziuns a Member of the Cosă or Senator the Leader of the Opposition may submit in any given Clark. Any other Member of the Cosă or Senator may submit a maximum of three (3), or such other maximum as the presiding officer of the questioner's House may explicitly permit for that Clark.
        1.2.1.5 There is no hard limit to the number of questions a single Terpelaziun may contain, except that the presiding officer may refuse Terpelaziuns that are unreasonably long, or that span overly different topics.
        1.2.1.6 Terpelaziuns may not be posed during Months of Recess, except by leave of the presiding officer and consent of the questioned Minister.

            1.2.1.6.1 Terpelaziuns still pending (at any stage) at the beginning of a Month of Recess, or at the Dissolution of the Cosă, shall be answered as normal.

    1.2.2 Once a Terpelaziun is submitted by a Member of the Cosă or Senator in accordance with the provisions of this article, it shall be answered by the questioned Minister within seven days, except for provisions extending the deadline as described below.

        1.2.2.1 Junior members of the questioned Minister's ministry may ask leave to reply to the Terpelaziun in the questioned Minister's stead, due to unavailability or due to the question falling under the junior member's purview.
        1.2.2.2 The questioned Minister, a junior member of the questioned Minister's ministry, or the Seneschal, may negotiate with the questioner any extensions to the deadline, as long as the total additional negotiated time does not exceed seven days. The presiding officer shall grant any such extensions upon ascertaining the questioner's consent.
        1.2.2.3 Should the questioned Minister be unavailable to answer the Terpelaziun within the initial or extended deadline, the question shall be redirected to the Seneschal, or to a junior member of the questioned Minister's ministry, who shall be granted a further seven days to answer the Terpelaziun.

            1.2.2.3.1 "Unavailable" shall be taken to mean an inability to access Wittenberg for an acceptable and reasonable reason. Having logged into, or visited Witt, or its equivalent, during the seven day period, and having not seen, or ignored the PQ or Terp, shall not constitute being unavailable.

    1.2.3 The questioned Minister, or other applicable official as described above, must answer the Terpelaziun in the same thread as the original question, and the questioner may ask a reasonable number of supplementary questions, as determined by the presiding officer.

        1.2.3.1 All provisions described in the previous section shall apply to the first (round of) supplementary question(s) as if they were a new Terpelaziun.
        1.2.3.2 Once the first (round of) supplementary question(s) have been answered, the floor shall be considered open to contributions from other Members of the Cosă and Senators. Any questions posed in this stage shall not be bound by any formal time constraints.

    1.2.4 Failure to answer a Terpelaziun or a supplementary question within the deadlines described in this article may be declared by the presiding officer to constitute Contempt of the Ziu, except in the cases outlined below.

        1.2.4.1 The questioner shall engage with the questioned Minister in answering the Terpelaziun, by providing any required clarifications within a reasonable timeframe.
        1.2.4.2 The questioned Minister is excused from answering Terpelaziuns that, as judged by the presiding officer: do not fall under the purview of their portfolio, or are not clearly labelled as a Terpelaziun; or are ambiguous, unclear, or poorly formatted; or do not otherwise comply with the provisions of this article.
        1.2.4.3 Terpelaziuns which refer to matters of Security or Defence of His Majesty's Realm and/or any project(s), correspondence, or activities, in which the Government has deemed, and classified as confidential, or which in its release may damage the Kingdom in any shape or form, may not be answered by any Minister.

1.2.5. The presiding officer of the questioner's House shall enforce decorum in both Terpelaziuns and answers to Terpelaziuns. The presiding Officer may require questioners to rephrase Terpelaziuns, or Ministers or their substitutes to rephrase answers to Terpelaziuns, to maintain decorum. In cases of continued violations, the presiding Officer may instruct the questioner or the Minister or their substitute to withdraw or apologise for a statement or comment, and remove any such statement or comment from the record in the absence of such withdrawal or apology.

Ideally I would love the Túischac'h/Mençéi to be able to ban a MC/Senator from voting on a Clark for being a real fora da ciol, but I don't think that'd be Organic.

It strikes me that, if OrgLaw XII.4 means what it seems to on its face, that the provincially-elected Senäts is the MOST entrenched part of the Organic Law. Like, it's more entrenched than the monarchy, or than the Covenant of Rights and Freedoms.

Any other nation would be summoning the US Ambassador to yell at them. We don't have one of those right now; so, in accordance with Talossan tradition dating back decades, I call on the King to name a Talossan as the US Ambassador to Talossa so they can be yelled at.

Quote from: King Txec on June 06, 2025, 09:47:57 AMWell we can hardly fault them for assumed names as we all use them also.

With respect your Majesty, no we don't. Most of us (not all) use Talossan-language translations of our real names. Proinsias de Rossa, whose name on his birth certificate was Frank Ross, was *not* using an assumed name.

This is kind of a point of honour for me, as I consider it one of the distinguishing features of Talossa from an RPG.

Quote from: carcosa on June 11, 2025, 04:09:17 AM

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on June 10, 2025, 04:48:13 PMI must say, your last few posts, in which you talk like a real human being rather than a character from a metafictional play by Robert Chambers, have made me more kindly disposed to you :D

Thank you, that's reassuring to hear

I should go into more detail. The thing about Talossa is that we're proud that we're an actual community of real people who "operate like a small nation state", rather than an RPG. I've been worried that Carcosa is more an RPG than anything else and therefore relations would not benefit either side. Your participation here is helping with that.

Quote from: carcosa on June 10, 2025, 04:21:06 PMWe're sorry for the lack of communication, our discord server may be a lost cause, but please don't cease your interest based on this. We'd be happy to reach out with any information if you're still interested?

I must say, your last few posts, in which you talk like a real human being rather than a character from a metafictional play by Robert Chambers, have made me more kindly disposed to you :D

Quote from: King Txec on June 09, 2025, 10:22:33 AMThere are many in the Christian religions who would consider a protestant as NOT a Christian and many who would consider a Catholic as NOT a Christian. I'm unsure if the same thing applies to Suni and Shia in Islam or not.

Only the "takfiris" (ISIS types) would say that Shi'a Muslims were infidels, rather than "believers who've got it a bit wrong". That said, other branches of Islam are often considered beyond the pale, eg. the Ahmadiyya in Pakistan.

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on June 09, 2025, 01:56:46 PMRight now, in my other country of the United States of America, government officials are killing data collection programs of all kinds because they don't see any immediate use for them. It is foolish behavior.

Well, they are establishing OTHER types of data collection. Like, registers of autistic people, or trans people. For later elimination. Which is precisely why France doesn't collect that material - a list of Jewish citizens was of great interest to the occupation/collaborationist authorities in WW2.

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on June 09, 2025, 03:31:10 PMIf I'm going to move forward with this, I'm going to need some buy-in or interest from other folks.  If someone else wants to take the lead and write something else, fine.

I'm happy with your draft as a basis

I'm not a fan of the French Republic's official blindness to ethnicity (though I understand the historical reasons for it), but I honestly don't see what the Chancery needs to know people's religious affiliations for, and in my case that's an essay question anyway

I have been in discussion with the Túischac'h, @Munditenens Tresplet , who - in light of recent events - has asked for more clarification of his role in administering Terps.

Here are the Túischac'h's comments:

QuoteI don't want to put any limits on what can be asked... What if we allow the Leader of the Opposition to ask unlimited questions per month, but limited backbenchers to just 3 max?

Next, I want to remove the section on MCs and Senators being able to "chime in" and ask their own follow-ups after the original submitter has completed supplementary questions. This to my mind hasn't ever happened, or when it did it happened on a more informal basis. I'm fine with threads continuing, but we don't need to make other party's questions their own semi enforceable Terps.

Removing that section allows for easier enforcement and makes it easier to excuse the Minister. As it stands, I think my locking the threads is on somewhat shaky ground, albeit one that may not be challenged.

Finally, the only reference to decorum is that questions should be asked "politely" and there is no reference to enforcement really, other than the presiding officer can suggest Contempt if a minister doesn't answer a proper question, for which an "impolite" question wouldn't be proper. I'm fine keeping the word polite, but decorum references should be throughout, and enforcement of decorum up to, say, ending further discussion should be clearer.

Our trusty and well-beloved Defence and STUFF Minister @Bråneu Excelsio, UrN is currently overloaded with other responsibilities, and apparently struggles with Mexican internet utilities, and has asked for his workload to be lightened somewhat.

Thus, I have requested @King Txec to appoint @Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be to the portfolio of Minister of STUFF. Cxhn. Excelsio will continue to serve, not only in Cabinet as Defence Minister, but as Deputy Minister of STUFF in the Propaganda sub-portfolio, with oversight of the National Website, our social media accounts, and publication of La C'hronică. All this is of course provisional in view of a proposed top-to-bottom legislative reorganisation of the frankly bloated STUFF portfolio.

tHaNk YoU fOr ThIs AtTeNtIoN tO tHiS mAtTeR!!!