Bye-Bye Recruitment Scripts

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An NS Debate
From the Europeian Broadcasting Corporation, one of Europeia’s premier Media groups.
Keeping Europeians and the world informed since 2009.

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Bye-Bye Recruitment Scripts
More Flip-Flops Than A Magikarp Fighting On Land


[Violet] Banishes Scripters From Her Classroom[/centre]

Point #2: There is an ideal level of TG recruiting. (I'm thinking it's somewhere in the vicinity of four recruitment TGs for a new nation

FYI, nations being created now are receiving about 15 recruitment messages. That's only going to increase with the script that Auralia has just posted. You can't claim that has ended the debate here.

Is this comment made by long-term Game Moderator Sedgistan the catalyst that has seen another rule change to the use of Scripted TGs? The debate never died down, it never stopped and opponents of the change in rules of scripting finally heard what they wanted from day one:

So this is a heads-up that we are likely to have to ban auto-TG scripts again.

About six months ago the rules changed and allowed scripts to send 3 telegrams per minute leading to their wide-spread use for recruitment-type messages and to convince people to join their regions. Numerous pages on NationStates have been written arguing both sides of their use - and the issue has seen previous opponents come in agreement over their future. Originally the use of auto-TGs was opened up to allowed the new Telegram system NationStates has been designing to be tested. However, with further set-backs to the implementation to it, the rules have been changed yet-again and this trial period of Recruitment Scripts stopped.

So, what does this mean for Europeia and the wider NationStates world? Well Europeia has, and always will have, a strong team of people who are devoted to recruiting manually and with the software. So expect to see an announcement soon with changes to the MSA to reflect the need for manual recruiting again. For the wider NationStates world? Well the fair-play field of scripting will come to an end and smaller regions, without a team of devoted recruiters, will start to haemorrhage members.

However, this debate is far from over.

Written By Vinage

 

[Cormac]

Notice : "Coming soon..."

Well yes, but "soon" wasn't exactly the kind of specificity I was looking for. I had only read Violet's OP earlier today before freaking out and heading to Exshaw to get to work on manual recruitment, but delving deeper into the thread I see that the ban will be reintroduced "later this week." Less than a week to make this adjustment? How generous of them.

 

[hyanygo]

Erm, it's not rocket science.

 

[Cormac]

Erm, it's not rocket science.

Well I'm sure we can figure it out, but it would be nice to not have to get a plan in place in less than a week's time. Europeia has a plan it can just re-implement by executive order. Other regions have no plan at all. That's kind of my point; I don't think any consideration of newer regions or newer players even factored into this decision. The NS admins and moderators have consistently demonstrated that they really couldn't care less how newer players feel about any changes that are made so long as those changes please older players. I hope they're prepared for the massive wave of CTEs that result from people who decide they have better things to do with their time than send recruitment TGs all day.

 

[George Cromartie]

Well they can use all their lovely new members to recruit manually then.

It's not that I'm saying this change should never happen, I'm saying it would have been nice to have some notice -- or if this was the notice, it would be nice if Violet would tell us exactly when the ban will be enacted. Believe it or not, introducing manual recruitment into a region that has never manually recruited and to a bunch of newbies who don't know how to do it isn't easy. We haven't all been around for five years. A little notice would be nice.

And introducing automatic recruitment into regions without a script monkey is just as difficult.

At least this way these nice big regions can prove automatic scripts provide more than unstable, empty growth like it has here.

 

[Abbey]

They're not being made illegal because of what I've said, really (I've just kept the voice there).

They're being made illegal again because we're perilously close to the point where new players inboxes are filled. Admin said when they were legalised (and have said in the meantime, too) that if that happened, then the rules would have to be re-evaluated. The warning was there, everyone just chose to ignore it.

 

[Cormac]

They're not being made illegal because of what I've said, really (I've just kept the voice there).

They're being made illegal again because we're perilously close to the point where new players inboxes are filled. Admin said when they were legalised (and have said in the meantime, too) that if that happened, then the rules would have to be re-evaluated. The warning was there, everyone just chose to ignore it.

I know. I apologize for biting your head off. It was an abrupt change, I'm stressed, and I feel like a lot of people just don't get it. But not a good excuse for taking out my stress on others and, again, I apologize. If I'm going to take out my stress on anyone it should be the NS admins as this is all entirely their fault; it was obvious this was going to be the end result and so they shouldn't have allowed auto-recruitment in the first place.

 

[Abbey]

I can see why they did - they wanted to see what the end result -would- be, and given that they plan on include something similar in the fabled new system, they wanted some way of seeing what was going to happen, and the impact it would have.

They had planned to get the new system up and running before this point, but I think that 2 things happen: 1. This point happened earlier than expected and 2. The TG system took longer than expected.

 

[Skizzy Grey]

Abbey, could you say a bit about the "fabled new system" please? I do not follow NS-side discussions closely (or really, at all).

 

[Abbey]

NS admins have been alluding to a total revamp of the TG system for probably at least a year now. It's supposed to be including a sentbox, more capacity (I think), and a much better system for recruitment. Quite what form it all takes is yet to be seen, but the idea is that current manual recruiting will be obsolete afterwards, is the basic impression
I'm stuck on my phone, so hard to link, but there was some discussion around halfway through my thread on the NS forums.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

They act as though there is something wrong with Inboxes being filled.

There isn't.

 

[Henry]

They act as though there is something wrong with Inboxes being filled.

There isn't.

the problem isn't solely with the inboxes being filled, though; the problem lays with what they're being filled WITH, and many people view recruitment messages to be adspam, which may conflict with actual messages that these people may receive and have pushed to deletion before they get the chance to read them.

 

[Sopo]

They act as though there is something wrong with Inboxes being filled.

There isn't.

the problem isn't solely with the inboxes being filled, though; the problem lays with what they're being filled WITH, and many people view recruitment messages to be adspam, which may conflict with actual messages that these people may receive and have pushed to deletion before they get the chance to read them.

^

Henry's right.

 

[Malashaan]

If the inboxes blocked new tgs when full out would be fine, but they don't, they delete older ones. I've list things I was saving more than once due to an influx of unexpected tgs.

 

[Common-Sense Politics]

Well the good news for Exshaw, Cormac, is that Europeia is more than willing to help them develop and maintain a manual recruitment system.

 

[Vinage Vinage]

They act as though there is something wrong with Inboxes being filled.

There isn't.

the problem isn't solely with the inboxes being filled, though; the problem lays with what they're being filled WITH, and many people view recruitment messages to be adspam, which may conflict with actual messages that these people may receive and have pushed to deletion before they get the chance to read them.

^

Henry's right.

Also, with 15 recruitment messages, if our script means we are one of the first TGs in their inbox. New nations aren't even going to be able to read our before it pushed out of that inbox.

If anything the changes benefit Europeia as the playing field is, again, uneven

 

[Henry]

We'll still have the manual scripts available to us and we'll still have the upper hand compared to many other regions.

I wish someone would go through and make the manual script we have available to us available to other regions, too, but then the mods would take that away as well, as nations would be too over-loaded with adspam yet again.

 

[Common-Sense Politics]

I'm more excited to see the debate between MRA supporters and detractors finally come to a head. With no MSA or MRA, we have an opportunity to decide whether or not fully voluntary recruitment efforts are sustainable.

 

[Sopo]

I'm more excited to see the debate between MRA supporters and detractors finally come to a head. With no MSA or MRA, we have an opportunity to decide whether or not fully voluntary recruitment efforts are sustainable.

I hope there is no immediate effort to restore the MRA. I'd like to see how things progress. I, for one, don't think the MRA is necessary. The bulk of recruitment has always been done by an ambitious few citizens.

 

[HEM]

Honestly, I'd prefer to go back to Mandatory Service of which recruitment can be a part of.

 

[PASD]

Honestly, I'd prefer to go back to Mandatory Service of which recruitment can be a part of.

But Mandatory Service is bad :evil: