That's exactly right. I suggested this amendment to the former bill and I was simply ignored. So I thought, what the hell.

I should also point out that - if present political positions hold - the former bill will not pass, while mine has a good chance to.

Can I please submit for the CRL's appraisal the Let's Make This Official Compromise Bill

Can't imagine why that would be, I dig a lot of VF songs, so go for it.

Frankly, I am so pleased that someone wants to keep Fiova alive that you can pretty much do what you want! The Trabbie thing was I think Jim Morgan's idea more than Dieter's - Deet is no GDR nostalgist.

I think this is an excellent list and I have no suggested amendments.

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on June 25, 2022, 05:27:06 PM

Quote from: Ian Plätschisch on June 11, 2022, 04:42:54 PM

[li$i] Webhosting costs: 86¤42 ($130.05)[/li][/list]

Could you break this down, please?  It seems very high.

The Seneschál has asked me to field this question. A yearly renewal for our webhosting on GoDaddy is due in July, which is $US64.20. The Government also decided to renew the domain names talossa.com ($15.95) and talossa.net ($18.95). We were originally going to let the other domain names expire, but firstly we were told that talossan.com would be updated, so that's another $15.95. Plus, a check of El Lexhatx D.2.9.2. suggests that we are legally required to hold onto kingdomoftalossa.net ($15.95).

The domain names, which I seem to recall the opposition were opposed to the Government relinquishing, all add up. And this is without renewing kingdomoftalossa.com and *.org.

... I hesitate to step on the Seneschal's toes, but in fact social media posting resumed two days ago. It's thought provoking that neither the Seneschál nor the Opposition noticed!

I thank the Senator for his question.

1.   As Minister of STUFF, I am responsible (among other things) for the content of the national website, Talossa.com, and the content of our national social media channels. As Minister of Technology, I am responsible for the administration of our national webspace, including TalossaWiki.

2.   When the 57th Cosa government was formed, I became Minister of STUFF as well as Minister of Technology, for the very good reason that there were absolutely no volunteers for either of those roles. I have only the barest minimum of tech skills. I have reached out in desperation on occasions to citizens with more technology savvy than I have, like B. Higgs or L. da Schir. Unfortunately, neither of these citizens are available to carry out the kind of real, bottom-to-top, clean-up and re-organisation of our National Website that I believe is desperately necessary.

3.   I see the following main challenges that need to be overcome if Talossa's STUFF/Technology apparatus is to be of maximum value to the Kingdom:
a.   Information on Talossa.com. In general, this goes out of date quite quickly, and there is a question as to whether it is a confusing "double-up" with the content of TalossaWiki. My predecessor in this role, Senator E. Grischün, apparently set up some system whereby certain content on TalossaWiki would be automatically mirrored on Talossa.com. I have no idea what the details of this are.
b.   Completely out of my depth re: administration. My tech skills are limited almost entirely to being able to add or edit content on a WordPress installation (such as Talossa.com currently runs on), and to raise "support tickets" with our hosting provider. I have absolutely no idea how to do anything more complicated. The back-end of Talossa.com is running maybe 28 plugins which I neither know how to operate, or what they do, or whether it's safe to get rid of. This back-end is also clogged with the "detritus" of abortive previous STUFF ventures, such as the Jobs Board or the Talossa.net social network.
c.   Security. I am aware of and am able to control who has access to the web hosting setup. But I am very worried about who might have access to the WordPress backend of Talossa.com and to the rest of our national website. I am very worried that, as Minister of STUFF/Tech, I do not have a single list of who has access to the National Internet Presence, with what privileges and what limitations. It doesn't help that, due to a flaw in the old Jobs Board, literally hundreds of spambots have made accounts of Talossa.com. Though thankfully they don't have any real access, it makes it hard to find out who does have access.
d.   Social media. Our national social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) are almost completely unused. Because of overwork on my part I delegated these to the Chancery – but the Secretary of State is, surprise surprise, also too busy to do anything with them.

4.   Although TalossaWiki's content is not in my technical purview as STUFF minister. It is also a source of worry for me. It is more up-to-date than the information on Talossa.com, but it is still out of date. For example, there is a lot of what I consider to be irrelevant stuff linked on the front page – eg. biographies of members of the Royal Family who are no longer active, or the Magistrate's Court which hasn't existed for years – but I don't have the skills with fancy wiki markup that would be needed for a thorough overhaul. (Ideally, the front page would be a one-click link to everything a new citizen might be interested in – which would in turn make the Civics Quiz more useful!)

5.   If I were able to wave a magic wand, this is what I would want to happen in the rest of this Cosa term:
a.   A new "fulltime tech nerd" to step up as Minister of Technology, Deputy Minister or Permanent Secretary.
b.   The backend of Talossa.com to be stripped of all unnecessary plugins.
c.   Talossa.com's "About the Kingdom" page to be massively downsized to something which only needs very infrequent updates, and/or mirrored from TalossaWiki.
d.   A complete security refresh of Talossa.com and our web hosting, to restrict access to the Minister of STUFF and the Minister of Technology (respectively) and those specifically delegated responsibility by them. In future, when Governments change, all previous login access should be by default disabled (except for a Permanent Secretary – and perhaps the King?)
e.   Active maintenance of our social media to promote the Kingdom, and to automatically mirror updates to Talossa.com (including La C'hronica updates).
f.   A complete refresh of the front page of TalossaWiki along the lines mentioned above.
g.   Assistance to be given to the Chancery in updating the current Wittenberg platform to a more modern version of SMF. (The Secretary of State has previously announced that he doesn't have the necessary technological confidence.)

6.   The bottom line is that Talossa's national webspace is outdated; impossible to properly administer without high-level tech skills; and possibly insecure. I can't fix most of these problems, but I can identify them. I only hope patriotic Talossans will step up to help.

The Let's Make This Official Compromise Bill

WHEREAS the Kingdom recognizes the importance of celebrating important dates and events in Talossan history, and

WHEREAS the Republican schism of June 1 2004, as the act of defiance that sparked the movement leading to the abdication of a tyrannical King and the restoration of democracy in the Kingdom, was an incredibly important moment in the history of Talossa; and

WHEREAS Reunision as the re-uniting of our nation's monarchist and republican traditions also marks an incredibly important moment in the history of Talossa;


Therefore be it resolved that two new subsections are placed at El Lexhatx F 2.4, with any necessary renumbering of following subsections, to read:

Quote20 April. Reunision Day. Commemorating the royal proclamation of Reunision and the end of the National Schism.

1 June. Republic Day. Commemorating the foundation of the Talossan Republic as a day to honour democracy and the popular will, for both Republican and Monarchist traditions.

The Let's Make This Official As Well Bill

WHEREAS the Kingdom recognizes the importance of celebrating important dates and events in Talossan history, and

WHEREAS the Republican schism of June 1 2004, as the act of defiance that sparked the movement leading to the abdication of a tyrannical King and the restoration of democracy in the Kingdom, was an incredibly important moment in the history of Talossa; and

WHEREAS parity of esteem for the Republican tradition in Talossa requires that this day deserves equal honour to the day of Reunision, and an acknowledgement that the history of the Talossan Republic should a matter of pride for all Talossans;


Therefore be it resolved that a new subsection is placed at El Lexhatx F 2.4, with any necessary renumbering of following subsections, to read:

Quote1 June. Democracy Day. Commemorating the foundation of the Talossan Republic as a day to honour democracy and the popular will, for both Republican and Monarchist traditions.

A history lesson, then: if there were no Republican schism on June 1, 2004, there would be no sudden "180-degree" turn by King Robert to open the immigration floodgates, after years of very tight control. KR1 would have not felt the urgent need to prevail on Fritz von Buchholtz to immigrate, and to bring all his friends with him. Without the Republican schism, then, no Fritz; no John Woolley; no Manus Hand. And no new opposition that finally politically defeated KR1 in August 2005. No Talossa, as we know it today.

That's what we need to celebrate, as well as Reunision. This is a simple "parity of esteem" issue for the other Talossan cultural tradition. But I have my answer.

Quote from: Carlüs Éovart Vilaçafat on June 08, 2022, 04:51:59 PM
From a "fresh" perspective, I personally view Reunison a day for celebration just like the father of the prodigal son celebrated when his son returned to him.

The prodigal son admitted he had screwed up badly and was begging his father's forgiveness, which was freely given. That is... not what happened with Reunision, and anyone who tells you it is is massively biased to a Monarchist point of view.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on June 08, 2022, 03:27:11 PM
Honestly, for many of us of Republican heritage, Reunision was more a defeat than a victory; or, probably more accurate, a day of somber reflection rather than one of celebration, like Armistice Day.

Let's put Calonda Gün (1 June, the date of the founding of the Talossan Republic) on the celebration list as well as the date of its dissolution.

If the author of the bill isn't going to take on my suggestion, I should put it in a separate bill

Ah, so what you want is the Convocation model but not the time-limiting model. That's an interesting start, and perhaps a bit surprising - I would have expected you to want the hereditary model back?

an official announcement from the Ministry of STUFF

Talossan ID cards, based on the designs below, are now available for all citizens who can pass a 20-question Civics Test on Talossan history, culture and other law. All the answers to this question can be found no more than 1 click away from the front page of TalossaWiki.




To take the Civics Test:

Here's how it works:
1) volunteers send to the Minister of STUFF (i.e. me) an email address by PM (or via Facebook if you know me there);
2) I "enrol" you on the quizglobal.com website;
3) you go to quizglobal.com, log in, and you should be taken right to the test.

Once you pass the test (defined as 16/20 correct answers), the Deputy Minister of STUFF will contact you to get all the details needed to print your ID card.

Honestly, for many of us of Republican heritage, Reunision was more a defeat than a victory; or, probably more accurate, a day of somber reflection rather than one of celebration, like Armistice Day.

Let's put Calonda Gün (1 June, the date of the founding of the Talossan Republic) on the celebration list as well as the date of its dissolution.