Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on January 19, 2026, 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 January 19, 2026, 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.

I 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.

I am also of the opinion that Campbell's Law applies to Talossan immigration stats. Any policy which aims to "up the immigration rate" will render the immigration rate even less of an indicator of the actual health of Talossan society.

I 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).

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.

Quote from: xpb on January 14, 2026, 10:39:55 AMThus far, I have received two applications for the PermSec.  The application period will remain open until the end of the current Clark on 21 Jan 2026.

Reminder if anyone else wishes to put their hat in the ring to please do so in the next couple of days.

Päçen per bäbätsilor.

Glheþ-first, and then, perhaps, el Glheþ solămint, Vossençiă?

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.

Here are the week 15 results.

Gordon Hiatus Support Team def. Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis 292.60-248.00
Banqeu da Cézembre Zambonis def. Cézembrean Amateurs on Ice 339.20-217.20
Tigreux dal Belacostă def. Manager-less Team 1 403.80-200.10
Cjovani Squilats def. Els Talossaes Rexhitais 427.20-334.40
Vuode Villains def. Maricopa Havana Hijinks 349.70-305.90

Here are the standings after week 15.

1. Tigreux dal Belacostă (11-3-0) 4,512.00
2. Vuode Villains (10-4-0) 4,590.80
3. Els Talossaes Rexhitais (9-5-0) 4,101.20
4. Manager-less Team 1 (9-5-0) 4,007.90
5. Maricopa Havana Hijinks (7-7-0) 3,621.50
6. Cjovani Squilats (6-8-0) 3,996.50
7. Banqeu da Cézembre Zambonis (6-8-0) 3,908.00
8. Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (5-9-0) 3,461.50
9. Gordon Hiatus Support Team (4-10-0) 3,743.10
10. Cézembrean Amateurs on Ice (3-11-0) 3,265.80

Here is the week 16 schedule.

Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis v. Manager-less Team 1
Cézembrean Amateurs on Ice v. Els Talossaes Rexhitais
Cjovani Squilats v. Gordon Hiatus Support Team
Maricopa Havana Hijinks v. Tigreux dal Belacostă
Vuode Villains v. Banqeu da Cézembre Zambonis

The top 6 remain the same though in a slightly different order with Els Talossaes Rexhitais moving past Manager-less Team 1 for 3rd place. Banqeu da Cézembre Zambonis is still tied with Cjovani Squilats for the final playoff spot with Cjovani Squilats currently advancing based upon points scored, Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis are in 8th place only 1 win out of a playoff spot. Everyone is still in reach of a playoff spot with 8 weeks remaining in the regular season. Good luck this week everyone!

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on January 18, 2026, 06:52:36 AM

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?

The law doesn't say this yes but it is established convention. But yes, I would support the bill is this amendment was made.