donsig
Low level intermediary
Welcome to the first issue The Informer a periodical deisgned to keep you the demogame citizen informed about what our government is doing!
As publisher / editor / writer I should introduce myself first and give you some idea of my demogame background. I'm donsig and I've been around since the first term of DG1. My first demogame *job* was as chat rep for the trade department in DG1T1. (Anyone remember who my boss was? No fair looking it up in the archives!) In DG1T2 I ran against eyrei for the domestic leader spot and ended up as his deputy. Ever since then I've been against the concept of the election runner up being second in command of a department.) Eyrei was also VP that term and succeeded to the presidency upon the resignation of Grey Fox. I finished term two as Domestic leader and ran for president in term three. I won that election and almost immediately came under fire for using a newly implemented presidential veto. A bit later I defied a chat vote to continue playing and thus begun my multi-game crusade to bring the focus of the demogames back to the forums. Can't remember what other offices I held in DG1 but was VP in the last term and had the honor of playing the victory session. (There was a little unplanned war with Babylon but I was never prosecuted for it.
)
My initial focus in DG2 was the publication of Die Fanatischen Zeiten a rag similar in design to this one. I also was appointed governor of the Southwest Province and recall many happy days in Tlaxcala with my deputy Donovan Zoi.
I believe I was also Deputy Science Minister after a hotly contested election with Strider. It took two run-off elections to decide that one! May have also served on the judiciary back then.
I was elected president in DG3T3 and was immediately villified for standing up to Montezuma who had the audacity to build a city in our territory and then demand that we leave his territory! I'm not sure I held office in DG3 after that...
I was placed on the judiciary in DG4T2 though don't know if I was elected or appointed.
Served as governor of a very corrupt province near the end of the game.
In between games I've been an active participant in the debates surrounding the creation of our constitutions and lower books.
So, I've been around for awhile and feel qualified to write on topics regarding our government.
This first issue I'd like to comment on two things, the impending passage of our constitution and the upcoming elections.
There are currently fifteen polls posted regarding the ratification of various constitutional articles. They appear to all be of a 96 hour duration and approximatly half of this has passed at the time of this writing. There seems to be no specification for what is required to ratify each amendment. I assume a simple majority of voters voting *yes* will ratify an amendment. If this is true then each amendment will assuredly be ratified. Each poll seems to have about 25 to 30 votes at this time, all with strong *yes* majorities. With 68 registered citizens this is a poor turn out of less than fifty percent.
I urge all citizens to vote in these polls and make their voices heard! The majority of the article polls have at least 25 votes logged but two have only 16 and 18. Only one has more than two *no* votes. Here is the current voting as of this writing:
Article G, which gained the most *no* votes is about term length and deputies. I personally voted against the article because it fixes terms at one month. (I am a long proponent of turn based rather than calender based terms.) The is a mis-spelling or two in the article and this may have prompted a no vote or two. The article also defines an office as being *vacent* if left *in absentia for two weeks*. The article also names the runner up in the election as deputy - another reason I'd have voted against it if I'd have read it that far before voting.
We are about to elect our first government: a president, 6 ministers, a governor and three justices. Even though our constitution will most likely restrict citizens to one office per term there seems to be no restrictions on running for offices. There are fifty five candidates for the eleven offices, an average of five contestants per election. Each election has no less than four candidates running and eight are vying for the prestigious Culural Minister position. At first glance this would seem to indicate a tremendous urge among our citizens to participate in our electoral process. 55 out of 68 citizens running for office is over 80%. But let's take a look at how many different citizens are running...
Fifteen citizens are running for one office only; 9 are running for two; 4 are running for three; 1 is running for four and one is running for six! That's a total of 30 different citizens running for office. Still not bad, since that's 44% of our registered citizens. BUT placed against the fact that we have no more than 29 votes in any given constitutional article ratification poll something seems amiss. I would hope that anyone running for office would vote on such an important thing as our constitution but it seems this is not so.
All five candidates running for Domestic Leader (arguably the most powerful position) have hedged and are running for at least one other office. Only three of the eight candidates for Cultural Minister are not running elsewhere. Well, only one of the four presidential candidates is running in another election.
I am also concerned about our judicial elections. Four candidates are running for all three spots on the bench! Everyone running the the JA spot is also running for the other two judicial seats. There is only one citizen running for CJ that isn't running for any other office.
So ends the first issue of The Informer. I hope you all enjoyed it.
As publisher / editor / writer I should introduce myself first and give you some idea of my demogame background. I'm donsig and I've been around since the first term of DG1. My first demogame *job* was as chat rep for the trade department in DG1T1. (Anyone remember who my boss was? No fair looking it up in the archives!) In DG1T2 I ran against eyrei for the domestic leader spot and ended up as his deputy. Ever since then I've been against the concept of the election runner up being second in command of a department.) Eyrei was also VP that term and succeeded to the presidency upon the resignation of Grey Fox. I finished term two as Domestic leader and ran for president in term three. I won that election and almost immediately came under fire for using a newly implemented presidential veto. A bit later I defied a chat vote to continue playing and thus begun my multi-game crusade to bring the focus of the demogames back to the forums. Can't remember what other offices I held in DG1 but was VP in the last term and had the honor of playing the victory session. (There was a little unplanned war with Babylon but I was never prosecuted for it.
)My initial focus in DG2 was the publication of Die Fanatischen Zeiten a rag similar in design to this one. I also was appointed governor of the Southwest Province and recall many happy days in Tlaxcala with my deputy Donovan Zoi.
I believe I was also Deputy Science Minister after a hotly contested election with Strider. It took two run-off elections to decide that one! May have also served on the judiciary back then.I was elected president in DG3T3 and was immediately villified for standing up to Montezuma who had the audacity to build a city in our territory and then demand that we leave his territory! I'm not sure I held office in DG3 after that...
I was placed on the judiciary in DG4T2 though don't know if I was elected or appointed.
Served as governor of a very corrupt province near the end of the game.In between games I've been an active participant in the debates surrounding the creation of our constitutions and lower books.
So, I've been around for awhile and feel qualified to write on topics regarding our government.
This first issue I'd like to comment on two things, the impending passage of our constitution and the upcoming elections.
There are currently fifteen polls posted regarding the ratification of various constitutional articles. They appear to all be of a 96 hour duration and approximatly half of this has passed at the time of this writing. There seems to be no specification for what is required to ratify each amendment. I assume a simple majority of voters voting *yes* will ratify an amendment. If this is true then each amendment will assuredly be ratified. Each poll seems to have about 25 to 30 votes at this time, all with strong *yes* majorities. With 68 registered citizens this is a poor turn out of less than fifty percent.
I urge all citizens to vote in these polls and make their voices heard! The majority of the article polls have at least 25 votes logged but two have only 16 and 18. Only one has more than two *no* votes. Here is the current voting as of this writing:
Code:
Article Y/N/Abstain
A 29/0/0
B 26/1/0
C 26/1/2
D 15/2/1
E 18/2/5
F 24/1/3
G 17/7/4
H 26/2/0
I 23/1/2
J 23/2/0
K 24/2/0
L 25/0/1
M 27/0/0
N 26/0/0
O 14/1/1Article G, which gained the most *no* votes is about term length and deputies. I personally voted against the article because it fixes terms at one month. (I am a long proponent of turn based rather than calender based terms.) The is a mis-spelling or two in the article and this may have prompted a no vote or two. The article also defines an office as being *vacent* if left *in absentia for two weeks*. The article also names the runner up in the election as deputy - another reason I'd have voted against it if I'd have read it that far before voting.
We are about to elect our first government: a president, 6 ministers, a governor and three justices. Even though our constitution will most likely restrict citizens to one office per term there seems to be no restrictions on running for offices. There are fifty five candidates for the eleven offices, an average of five contestants per election. Each election has no less than four candidates running and eight are vying for the prestigious Culural Minister position. At first glance this would seem to indicate a tremendous urge among our citizens to participate in our electoral process. 55 out of 68 citizens running for office is over 80%. But let's take a look at how many different citizens are running...
Fifteen citizens are running for one office only; 9 are running for two; 4 are running for three; 1 is running for four and one is running for six! That's a total of 30 different citizens running for office. Still not bad, since that's 44% of our registered citizens. BUT placed against the fact that we have no more than 29 votes in any given constitutional article ratification poll something seems amiss. I would hope that anyone running for office would vote on such an important thing as our constitution but it seems this is not so.
All five candidates running for Domestic Leader (arguably the most powerful position) have hedged and are running for at least one other office. Only three of the eight candidates for Cultural Minister are not running elsewhere. Well, only one of the four presidential candidates is running in another election.
I am also concerned about our judicial elections. Four candidates are running for all three spots on the bench! Everyone running the the JA spot is also running for the other two judicial seats. There is only one citizen running for CJ that isn't running for any other office.
So ends the first issue of The Informer. I hope you all enjoyed it.
