Is NSToday Open?

Monkey

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Is NSToday Open?
Written by Monkey

Published 7 November 2021


NationStatesToday (NSToday) boasts that it is “premier news organisation of NationStates, delivering high-quality updates on the most important gameplay, roleplay, and culture news, as well as opinion pieces from a broad array of players”, right on the world factbook entry of their region. Founded in 2019 by a group of NationStates players with an interest in advancing journalism throughout the game -- it indeed might have filled that niche at a certain point. After all, they won the News Operation of the Year category in the Gameplay awards in 2019, but the EBC managed to overtake them the next year. NSToday carries a variety of columns, ranging from Gameplay to Culture, so there is no shortage of material for them to potentially cover. They publish articles such as the Shift (tracking changes across regions over time), and the Power20, a bi-yearly series that ranks the most influential gameplayers in Nationstates. Many Europeians have gone through the revolving doors of this organization, former Presidents and Minister of Communications.

Our official relationship with this organization begins in April of 2020, under Chief of State Pichtonia. It was ratified unanimously by the Senate, and our relationship with the ambitious journalistic start-up began in earnest. We currently have a cross-promotional agreement with this entity, essentially stating that we agree to share each other’s content. This has become a sticking point in recent elections, with many Presidents often talking about how they would leverage this opportunity to further promote the EBC. One of these initiatives occurred under Chief of State Malashaan’s terms, through a writer exchange, which led to us exchanging a writer between our departments. I personally had the pleasure of working with them, and that positive experience is what led to myself applying to NSToday.

My journey with NSToday started in September of 2020, when I applied for a role in their public relations (foreign affairs) department. I started out as a staff member, but quickly became the deputy leader in that department, and I have served the bulk of my time in NSToday in this position. In May of this year, Lime offered me the position of the public relations director of NSToday, after he was elected Chairperson of the Board. I was reluctant to accept this position, as I had already seen some of the warning signs of a failing organization. However, Lime convinced me by painting a once-again bold ambition of reforms and changes, aimed to build back the professionalism of NSToday. Unfortunately, Lime’s last message in the NSToday server speaking as the Chairperson of the organization (based on the areas that I can see), was in August, also the last time that they published an article. I shortly stepped down as PR director into a deputy position, as an ‘on-needed basis’, and that is where NSToday has sat for the last three months, dormant. It’s also helpful to note that recently, NSToday released a statement, in which they acknowledged the shortcomings of their organizations. Interestingly, they only guaranteed the continuation of the Power20 series (a bi-yearly publication, every six months), and a plea for more writers to join their organization. So, how did they get to this point? I have a few thoughts based off of my time in the organization --

  1. NSToday has a complicated and unwieldy bureaucracy. NSToday is made up of two branches, of sorts, a board of governors to oversee the directors, and the directors who actually carry out the day to day functioning of the organization, similar to our cabinet. In a highly active organization, some level of oversight might be necessary -- but it certainly isn’t needed at the scale that they currently have. Board meetings are often delayed, and can slow the agendas of the board of directors. Both of these branches have leaders too, which often makes it difficult to determine who’s really in charge. And the cherry on top is that the individual directors are actually appointed by the leader of the Governor’s board -- not who would actually be working with them on a regular basis.
  2. NSToday requires too much of their staff. Writing is a highly intensive task, and there aren’t many people who are willing to do it. However, NSToday continues with strict restrictions on who they allow to join -- anyone who lacks immediate professionalism is rejected, even in sight of dwindling activity among their current writers. Additionally, writers are terminated after a set amount of days with no articles, a policy that was only discontinued recently. But organizations that are struggling can’t be picky with who they choose to accept, especially when it comes to shedding capable writers.
  3. There is no incentive to write. To me, this is the biggest factor. Many of us play this game because we see an opportunity for upward political advancement, or to have fun with our fellow players. NationStates, on the other hand, is an odd mix of writers without a solid social community, ruling out the former. Writing articles in this organization seemingly gives the authors no benefit other than putting their names on this publication -- and there is limited opportunity for upward mobility if you began as a writer. One might argue that being a part of a collective organization might be a motivating factor, but this leads me to my next point --
  4. NSToday is too dependent on certain individuals. Throughout NSToday’s history, it has been most effective when one person is there to take charge and lead, also often taking on most of the tasks themselves, whether it’s Wym, Llo, or Somy. When these people leave however, it leaves a vacuum of activity. Because they were the ones doing the bulk of the work, someone new needs to step into that responsibility, or else the organization fails. As such, this builds a culture that is very reliable and dependent on a central figure to do most of the work, leading to burnout and collapse when they inevitably leave.

I think these are four immense factors that are holding NSToday back, and unfortunately, I’ve brought up some of them before. Whether they were resistant to the change, or they were already too far gone to make these changes is anyone’s guess, but the fact of the matter is, I think NSToday has deep, structural problems holding them back from being effective, and I think it’s time we revisit our agreement with them. Is there any coming back from this point for them? Maybe, but it’s going to take time, and I’m not convinced that we should wait around until they do. It may be a tough reality to face given our current President, but I have felt for a while now that we don’t gain anything from NSToday. Our ‘shared media’ is seldom interacted with, a byproduct of no interaction in their discord server. In fact, I’m not confident that there’s even someone really keeping the lights on.
 
Very unfortunate, I always though this was an exciting project, but the struggle has been evident for a while. What always fascinated me was their PR outreach (FA), too - I actually feel like it contributed a lot to their success.
 
I don't feel as if I am massively surprised by the lack in activity from NST. When I was there during my very short stint as a writer, I felt, as you said, that there weren't very many incentives to write, and when there were, the task of writing was much harder than it had to be. There were strict rules you had to follow. Your article had to be 100% perfect with no flaws whatsoever. Being told that I had to write my article again because it was too short, didn't go into enough detail was painful and a task that became boring quickly especially when I joined because I enjoyed writing articles.

NST, again as you said, also maintains strict professionalism, which applies outside of NST also. You have to ensure that you are on your best behaviour at all times, and my inability to control my impulses in Europeia resulted in my termination from NST, something which I am glad that occurred in the long run.

I think this is a good article. I think it provides a good overview of why the organisation has fallen into this slump.
 
I do agree entirely with the 4 points you brought up as holding NST back and as Chairman I have been arguing in favour of major reform in an attempt to tackle those issues. What I will say is there are ongoing discussions to radically change how NST operates, and if implemented I believe they would make NST not only a better organisation but a far more sustainable one as well. It would also provide significantly more benefits to Europeia if this new model is taken up. There are also ongoing discussions to simplify the bureaucracy and make things a lot more streamline.
 
Maintaining quality news content is difficult to do in this game. Many international publications -- including some Europeia based projects -- have failed. It sucks, but is not surprising, to see another large news organization struggling in a geopolitical and conflict-focused game where time-intensive writing isn't highly valued or incentivized. It sounds like stripping back some of the bureaucratic layers is a step in the right direction for the project's health.
 
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