Observation

[jomey]

After the recent elections I have observed as a watcher that there was a distinct lack of poeple running for office and hence a number of positions as deputies remains open.

Maybe the underlying problem is that 50 original members is not enough and that we could consider letting more people into the game.

What do people think

 

[Cunobelin Of Hippo]

The noble Diplomacy Deity would like to voice a likewise conern. We don't have enough citizens. There are people who signed up, heck, people that were deputies/leaders the first time around that haven't showed up in ages. Naturally, this is unacceptable. I suggest a strong recruitment drive aimed at bringing in 100 members. Intellectual discourse over the many activities of our great empire is non-existant. We vote, we leave. Not acceptable.

 

[CornMaster]

I get 1 to 2 requests per day....however...some of those people NEVER report in afterward.

And hence...I don't update the registry everytime someone asks about joining.

 

[Apollo]

I don't think recruitment is such a good idea. All it will lead to is more names on a long list of mystery people that don't actually participate. This is a big project we've started, and I think the best thing to do is just wait. Eventually enough of these 1 to 2 people that ask Cornmaster to let them in each day will actually take part in the forum on a consistent basis, and we will develop a large core of participants.

 

[Pellaken]

CMaster has agreed that you can serve in the cabinet and as a deputy, but not as 2 chief positions.

 

[TheDuckOfFlanders]

I think the problem of having not enough nominees for leader/deputy position's is the fact that The actual possition's are not always considerd that interresting.the very fact that most leader's at this point only get the work ,but no actual power or influence is the reason why people hold bac a bit to aim for a leadership position.
There is a diference afcourse between the actual departments though ,as some department's (like the science department) get to post very specific and fixed poll's while the Millitary leader's must more hold poll's on strategy's ,wich only he can propose. (if he doesn't include an "other" option)

Therefore ,i like to suggest to redefine the power of an leader in a way that he has more to say.
Therefore ,we should define the structure of a poll itself.We need cleary structurized poll's with a rule system for it,so that leader's are clealry limitid to choose option's ,and takes a part of that decission for himself.

an example: the cityplanning department
if a city Cp lofficial hold's a new poll ,he must only post 6 options:
1: to improve it's production (eg. factory's ,power plant ,...
2: to imrove on millitary (unit ,barack's ,...)
3: to improve on trade (caravan ,marketplace)
4: to improve on growth (granery ,supermarket)
5: to improve on expansion (settler ,explorer ,..)
6: to improve on happiness (temple ,cathedral,..)
And then the Cp official decide's wich actual improvement to take.
That way ,the public vote's on general direction's ,but the leader's cut the decission. The public can still give it's oppinion though to refine their vote by adding a reply to the thread.

It's just an example ,and this should be different for every department ,so if we addopt such an decentralized system ,we must refine it for every department.
I'm open to every suggestion on this ,and maybe we can vote on this later.
Such a system would make the leadership position's more interresting.Less work would be needed.
Besided ,do you know a democracy where leaderr have nothing to say?

 

[duke o' york]

Apart from the creation of units, that system doesn't really leave that much option for the leader once the initial decision has been reached. For example, you can only build a university once you have a library, bank once you have a marketplace, etc. Once the kind of improvement has been decided upon, there is often only one of that kind of choice to be built. Apart from temple or colosseum or a kind of wonder, you will only get the choice of a temple for a new city, and a cathedral for an older city that already has a temple. It'd be interesting if these polls were only advisory and the CP leader had a decision to make on the basis of the results, potentially costing them their job if it proved to be an enormous blunder, or gaining more respect if the choice of another defensive unit rather than a temple proved wise when the Mongols turn up some turns later with a big army.

I do think that more active members would be a good thing, as long as they are prepared to post in the polls. They don't necessarily have to post their opinions, but voting would be important. I just went through the election threads and voted in all the polls, but didn't bother to post as there was very little to say in most of them. This is fine, as far as I'm concerned, but new proles must understand that they are expected to play a part in the running of the state along with everyone else. They may consider it an honour to be allowed into our democracy, but there's no point if they're not prepared to exercise the rights they have been allowed.

 

[jomey]

I get 1 to 2 requests per day....however...some of those people NEVER report in afterward.

And hence...I don't update the registry everytime someone asks about joining.

CM, Does that mean that these people can post ,start new threads and vote like all good citizens of the nation. In that case how many people do we have currently(officially registered and unofficially)

I agree that trying to keep it up to date will be a drag so maybe this can be taken care of by a member of the society(like the offical history thread by Jumbo) Sort of like a population co-ordinator.

On the issue of people never actually posting, this isn't really fair as some people may vote but not have the time to post replies.

Maybe we should put it to the vote whether we start actively recruiting more citizens to our ever growing empire but before we do that can we get the opinion of the Mods as I don;t know how feasable this would be to maintain.

 

[gonzo_for_civ]

Maybe the recruitment will pick up better if someone from the United Fanatica Empire who had that in their name would go to the civ2 forums and post around. People's curiosity might soon drive them here. That might be considered spam unless the members intentions were unknown.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Originally posted by gonzo_for_civ
Maybe the recruitment will pick up better if someone from the United Fanatica Empire who had that in their name would go to the civ2 forums and post around. People's curiosity might soon drive them here. That might be considered spam unless the members intentions were unknown.

I have it in my sig. So when I post around the forums, I'm also a mobile ad for our almighty nation. Maybe we all shld do this....

 

[Sixchan]

On the issue of people never actually posting, this isn't really fair as some people may vote but not have the time to post replies.

To find out who is voting, do a check-in test. We don't know who votes, right? Open a poll in which you just vote (there is one option) and then you have to post to say you voted. If we leave it open for 5-10 days, then anyone who doesn't check in then needs a GOOD excuse to be allowed to stay in the game.

 

[Dell19]

Except that will not stop people from posting once and then not participating later...

 

[Sixchan]

But if we do this regularly, then we will see who is here consistantly.

 

[Apollo]

Originally posted by Sixchan
To find out who is voting, do a check-in test. We don't know who votes, right? Open a poll in which you just vote (there is one option) and then you have to post to say you voted. If we leave it open for 5-10 days, then anyone who doesn't check in then needs a GOOD excuse to be allowed to stay in the game.

This seems a little harsh to me. I don't see any good coming from kicking people out for a lack of participation. The only thing that really requires a person to participate is if they want to run for an office, and only those who participate will be able to say they want to run for a position, so it's self correcting. Even if someone only comes through a few times a month, their two or three votes will still help the democratic process and should be allowed.

 

[jomey]

My intention of this thread was never to throw people out of the game but to have the right number of poeple for it.. Maybe in the intiial stages 50 was thought to be enough but as it's grown then so does the participation...hence the need for more poeple to join in.

Personally I think that its growing rapidly ,I mean nearly 2000 replies in 2 months of play and we haven't even let loose Hippo yet cos we haven't had any contact..

I think once warfare starts then things and ideas will get interesting