La S'chinteia Volume XVII

[Sir Ian Plätschisch]

Volume XVII is out!

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[Eðo Grischun]

Ya dancer! I've finally made it to the levels of being noteworthy enough to be satarised in a comical meme. Yaldi!

More seriously, though.  Your analysis of the Activity Survey was good to read.

It might interest you to know that video conferencing is just around the corner.  A lot of work has been happening in the background to build a new social site for Talossa, and last night Zoom conference rooms integration was fully achieved. The new site also features an abundance of new and exciting tools for Talossa. I will be releasing more details on this project in a very short time. 

But, your analysis... yeah, sometimes in Talossa the old affirmation of "if you build it they will come" just doesn't hold true.  There's always hope though.


edit/addition:  Of course, Video Conferencing being built into a Talossan site on it's own won't work.  There already exists a million ways for people to communicate.  The idea of this site is that the Zoom integration will work alongside the other tools available, like social groups, activity streams and newsfeeds, live notifications, email notifications... in other words, the ability for a citizen to set up a Zoom meeting and then go through the Citizen list and directly invite people to join it, or to set the meeting schedule and then share and promote it via the multiple other communication tools being put in place. 

(plus the ability for a cultural sub community to use video conferencing within the same site that they use for other comms.  Let's say for example the D&D group.  They could have a page on this new site where they band together, keep their own membership list, have their own activity stream and news feed so they can keep in touch with each other on that niche topic a lot easier.  Each member can get live notifications and, if they choose, email notifications of what is happening in that D&D group... PLUS the ability to open a Zoom channel and hold a video chat session without having to leave the group pages within the site.   Just as a rough example as a teaser of what is getting built).

[Sir Ian Plätschisch]

Posted

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

If the Government is serious about desiring the return of the people making this complaint (and I am not sure that they are), they willhave to put in some serious effort.

To do what? You don't give any examples, because you're too honest to pretend that there is anything that I personally, or my government, could actually do for those people.

I think you are unbelievably naive to think that, for the kind of people who say that they would come on Wittenberg specifically to warn prospective citizens away, and complain about how Talossan discourse is now entirely ruled by the "far Left" (something that will come as a surprise to GV, among others), there is anything that I or my Government could do, apart from "commit Talossan suicide", that would encourage these people back.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

I have to agree with the Seneschal, at least in part.  There's so much past pain, and Talossa has been shaved down to a new shape with numerous big changes over recent years; it's hard to imagine a ton of disaffected people becoming interested again.  And history seems to show that this isn't actually that unusual.  A large swathe of PP folks became disaffected in the past and almost none have returned to activity, and there are other examples of the same.  And even though it would probably be helpful if (EDIT 2) the Seneschal "resigned and became inactive," to quote her signature, even that probably wouldn't bring back more than a handful of folks.  It's never happened before, after all, so why should we expect it to happen in the future?

The scarier issue is what that might mean for our prospects in the future.  I remember when the RUMP dominated political discourse, with relatively little danger at any election.  It was pretty boring in political terms!  (Even though we also had a ton of creative and amazing people who still did awesome stuff like Talossapolia and the wiki.)  But when you're the face of Talossa, that's the face that potential immigrants see.  So like attracted like for a long time.  The Seneschal has mentioned how much easier it has been to continue to grow her party; that's not an accident.  Reunision helped change that by providing new energy and a diverse appearance to our politics, so people could see multiple active and vibrant camps.  That doesn't really exist, now.  I had hoped that an active opposition would help, but Ian isn't a party unto himself -- that's too much pressure for anyone.  The ongoing changes aren't going to help, either... we already see pressures like the micromega rule at play, with smaller legislative bodies being proposed.

In the last days of the Republic, its ranks consisted of a small number of people who mostly agreed with each other.  Ideological differences often appeared either unimportant or literally cosmetic, at least to an outsider.  I fear that this could be our future, too.

These dire prospects aren't at all certain, of course!  Much hope remains.  Real dissent might become public; a large new group of enthusiasts might immigrate, perhaps from a single recruiter (as with the Coloradan contingent); a new element like a successful advertising campaign could compensate for a reduced retention rate.  But we shouldn't turn a blind eye to the possibility of a very harmonious and very dead Talossa.  I know no one wants that, so we must work together to avoid it in good faith and with good will.

[King Txec]

I think it is wildly inappropriate for the Regent to suggest the sitting Seneschal should resign. You need to retract that statement.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

I don't see how it can be inappropriate, when she has it in her signature on every post. And she literally was just talking about it and how it would appeal to some people; I'm sure there must be people out there who feel the same way about me! AND my point was that it wouldn't be sufficient to really change the trajectory of things. But I will certainly obfuscate the point if it helps preserve decorum. No offense was meant.

Edit: okay, sorted

[Sir Ian Plätschisch]

If the Government is serious about desiring the return of the people making this complaint (and I am not sure that they are), they willhave to put in some serious effort.

To do what? You don't give any examples, because you're too honest to pretend that there is anything that I personally, or my government, could actually do for those people.

I think you are unbelievably naive to think that, for the kind of people who say that they would come on Wittenberg specifically to warn prospective citizens away, and complain about how Talossan discourse is now entirely ruled by the "far Left" (something that will come as a surprise to GV, among others), there is anything that I or my Government could do, apart from "commit Talossan suicide", that would encourage these people back.

Well, I did give two examples of things that I don't think are very helpful. But it's true that those alone, and perhaps nothing, will incent these people to return. But given that the Government is using this survey to promote activity, and never said anything about not wanting to appeal to these people, I am not out of line for suggesting the only thing that even could work.