ForUp - Election Edition

Below is the first half of the update for the election, this is a rough draft and by no means near completion. I just wanted to get it posted for discussion as I'm currently waiting to hear back from Anumia with his list of things he would like covered.

Also, Kraken, what would you like to see in this update? It seems the last two weeks were kind slow with the elections occupying most people's time.

It's election time again here in Europeia, and this time around we find three term president Anumia deciding not to run. Two challengers stood for election to the office of president. Kraketopia with Pope Lexus X as his VP, and Drecq, with Elias Greyjoy as his VP. After several days of campaigning and an interesting debate. Forty-one Europeians turned out to vote in what started as a very close race. Initial polls showed an almost even divide between the two candidates, and early opinions were split on who would actually take the Goldenblock this term.

However, after several hours of voting it became clear that Kraketopia would become the next president of the Republic, and with a final tally of twenty-five votes to sixteen. Kraken managed to secure his first term as president after only seven months of residence in Europeia. Following his election his ministerial cabinet was confirmed Sunday, the 25th. Except for position of GA, with his appointee facing scrutiny, but expecting to be confirmed following a by election to fill the Senate seat vacated by the election of President Kraketopia.

President Kraketopia's new cabinet is as follows.

Foreign Cultivation – Lethen
Foreign Affairs – Anumia
Culture – Zenny
Interior – Dreqc
Communications – Yuri Razhtigr
Grand Admiral – Seven Deaths
Attorney General - Hyanjo

As it stands now, only Common-Sense Politics has stood for election to Senate, though several other names have been mentioned as possible contenders. It remains to be seen who will be standing when the polls open tomorrow.

In other news, long time Chief Justice, and newly elected VP Pope Lexus X reached the end of his term and CJ and resigned his post to focus on his new job as VP. After his many efforts to bring Europeian law to newcomers, his work has greatly increased interest in the judiciary and the abilities of those who aspire to practice law within. Including running the judicial training center where several lectures and workshops have been maintained by him.

Malashaaan has been nominated as a new associate justice to fill the set on the bench vacated by PLX's move to the Goldenblock. Malashaan is very qualified to serve in this role having previously held several high ranking positions, most recently as VP under president Anumia. His past experience includes, but is not limited to two terms as AG, eight terms as senator, with seven as the speaker, and a previous term as associate justice.

 
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Some editing needs to be done, and of course all the flashy titles and whatnot need to be added, but the content looks good. I'd add a short little write up on PLX's efforts to educate newcomers on the legal system, as well as Mal's past judicial record.
 
I disagree with r3n, images make it look professional and interesting, provided they aren't too distracting.
 
If the President desires images in the update, at the least we should keep them small and rare, probably not for every article, just perhaps the one or two we really want to draw attention towards.
 
Dr. Yuri Razhtigr said:
Grand Admiral – Seven Deaths
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*cough*

Images in updates can look well done. I've seen quite a few regions use them well, but it's all up to personal taste really.
 
Kraketopia said:
I disagree with r3n, images make it look professional and interesting, provided they aren't too distracting.
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We have usually been targeting a length of 3-4 paragraphs for each article. For articles of that size, any image which is not of icon size is distracting, given how asymmetrically large it is relative to the size of the article. The result is that, invariably, people will look at the images and captions only, perhaps also the titltes in the best case scenario, and ignore the actual content.

I am not sure they make the update look professional either. Most updates use images, and the general impression people tend to have of them is "incoherent string of inappropriately sized images". Most of them do not contribute to the actual content either, as most of the time images are used to insert jokes for comedic effect.

What does make the update look professional is a consistent, well structured, and visually appealing format. A well formatted header and good use of color, font size and decoration, horizontal lines, and white space, all contribute to a professional looking update. Judicious use of small visual elements, e.g. in the form of icons at the beginning or end of articles, can also do wonders for the format. But regular images as we and everyone else have been using them invariably ruin any such format and disrupt the flow of the update. Part of the reason for this is that we are very limited in terms of how such images can be placed inside the update, e.g., we cannot have text wrap around them as usually done in newspapers to avoid the disruption.

As Anumia said, if we do insist on having content images, at least we should make sure to scale them appropriately (no more than 300 pixels in height), and make them very rare. Perhaps a single image at the end of the update, separate from the articles themselves.
 
In terms of content:

1) We never reported the Europeia-Osiris treaty. It is a bit old now, but we can combine it with the upcoming (I believe it is?) Euro-Osiris festival. The festival gives the opportunity of bringing topical relevance to the article.
2) We have elections of course. I would be incline to downplay, even skip, the Senate by-election, given that it's generally uninteresting to the eyes of an outsider and that its execution was not very satisfactory in the eyes of many. Instead, the exciting presidential election, with the intensive campaigning, good media coverage, debates, polling, and (expected to be) close result should be the highlight.
3) We need a feature on the GAP. The GAP received a lot of attention interregionally, and the lack of follow-up reports on its status from Europeia will either make it fade away in everyone's memory, or even worse give the false impression that it was a failure we want forgotten. Given the good progress made in the project during the last couple of terms, the update should include an article to dispel that impression and draw attention to the project's successes.
 
I agree with all of r3n's ideas for content, although I'm not sure reporting on the upcoming Euro-Osiris Festival is a good idea at this point. I know there have been some serious delays on planning.
 
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