In the NationStates - especially in Europeia - so much emphasis has been placed on getting nations to transition to their off-site forums and become active there. Of course, getting nations to look at the forums can be a challenge - especially since nations that are new to NS are probably still quite entertained with the minimal offerings NS-proper has to offer. (Issues and the like are still fun and new features for a week or two, at least!)
There's likely a fine line to walk between keeping nations engaged with RMB messages, dispatches, and telegrams - and engaging in all-out spam of these nations with unwanted and unsolicited messages that may end up driving nations to leave Europeia and join a different region instead. (and we certainly don't want that!)
With that balancing act in mind, the Ministry of Communications - in coordination with the WA Ministry - put together a poll to try to better understand what sort of information these nations want from us. Additionally, we sought to determine at what frequency these messages should be sent.
The results follow, along with my own interpretation of these results and how I would encourage the winners of the upcoming election to use this information in the coming term.
As of this moment, we have 82 nations that have responded to the poll - one of whom decided to pretend to be me, interestingly enough.
Results were pouring in quite frequently over the first 24 hours or so, but that has since tapered off. The poll was first posted approximately 72 hours ago, and results are now coming in every few hours rather than seeing multiple results per hour. However, even if another 5-10 nations respond, the sample size is largely enough that a slight bit of variance among future results is unlikely to affect the conclusions that can be drawn.
1. Would you be interested in receiving updates regarding upcoming elections on the forums?
Yes - please telegram me a week or so before each election - 67 (82%)
Yes - but only before the Presidential election- 2 (2%)
Yes - but only before the Senate election - 0 (0%)
Yes - but only for the CA Chair election - 0 (0%)
Yes - but only for the WA Delegate election - 2 (2%)
No. - 11 (13%)
Clearly, there is an interest among individual in Europeia about the regional elections. Only 11 individuals were not interested at all about any of the election updates, which puts them clearly in the minority.
There were two or three respondents who commented that they picked the first answer, but they didn't personally care to be notified of the CA Chair elections. I understand that sentiment - especially for active Europeians who are already on the forums - but given my own history as CA Chair, I can see those elections as being a way to engage with new players and encourage them to get involved in questioning the next (or continuing) leader of the CA.
Mouse's recommendation: Send out notices to the region - perhaps by "official" Regional Telegram (if HEM's available) - about a week or so before each of these elections. Since non-voting members are still able to follow the discussion in the Oval Room (even if they obviously can't vote), they can still follow along with the debate and discussion and use the election as a jumping off point to greater activity as a Europeian citizen.
2. Would you be interested in receiving updates regarding WA votes?
Yes - for each vote - 26 (32%)
Yes - about once a week - 14 (17%)
Yes - maybe twice a month - 12 (15%)
Yes - and my WA nation isn't in Europeia - 3 (4%)
No. -25 (30%)
No - but my WA nation isn't in Europeia - 2 (2%)
I fully acknowledge that this is the question that I - as WA Delegate - care most about in all of this. I obviously don't want to annoy or spam the various WA nations in Europeia; however, the more I can get WA nations gameside to vote according to the forum vote, the more effective our WA voting power will be.
Interesting fact about the 3 nations who said that they want these telegrams but don't have a WA nation in Europeia - 2 of them are citizens (who should just be able to check the forum vote themselves), and the third didn't give their nation name, so I have no idea who they are. *sigh* :wink:
Mouse's recommendation: This category is why they have the "Campaign filter." Once I get my WA office up and running (probably next week, hopefully, I'll get things started), I'm hoping to send out brief telegrams on each vote to all WA nations. I'll label each as a WA campaign and encourage nations to adjust their filters, according to how often they want to receive these telegrams. (And, naturally, I'll include a link to the forum thread to encourage them to join the forum and participate in those discussions. ^_^)
3. Would you be interested in receiving news updates?
Yes - about once a week - 29 (35%)
Yes - about twice a month - 17 (21%)
Yes - about once a month - 8 (10%)
Yes - but only for major news - 21 (26%)
No. - 7 (9%)
This one isn't nearly as easy to interpret as the first two since there seems to be a pretty stark divide between those wanting updates about "once a week" versus those only wanting updates for "major news." There's obviously some players in between there - and others who don't have any interest in this sort of news at all - but I think there is definitely a desire for some contact from communications department for gameside nations.
Mouse's recommendation: Well, what do you consider "major news," for starters? Election results would certainly fall under that category, I'd expect, and I would encourage such an announcement to be made via telegram sometime after polls close. Additionally, it may be worth sending out a telegram announcing when the Cabinet is confirmed - and who those Ministers are, to provide additional points of contact for nations should they have questions.
Otherwise, I would recommend that each Ministry consider getting a Ministry-specific nation (like I have Interior Ministry & Europeian WA Headquarters). Using these to send news updates would allow nations to block messages from Ministry-X that they have no interest in, while still allowing them to receive frequent messages from Ministry-Y that they're really excited about. (And it keeps them from blocking the nation of one Minister who may be serving in a different role in an upcoming term of office.) Of course, such an avenue would require the nation to be checked semi-occasionally (every day or so) in case of questions that are sent to that nation in response to news updates.
4. Would you be interested in receiving notices of Cultural events?
Yes - a few days in advance of each such Cultural event - 31 (38%)
Yes - but no more than once a week - 15 (18%)
Yes - but no more than twice a month - 7 (9%)
Yes - but no more than once a month - 9 (11%)
No - leave such updates for the RMB - 10 (12%)
No - 10 (12%)
Most nations want to be updated of Cultural events, so I would think that notifying nations of upcoming Cultural events by telegram is appropriate. Not much analysis here needed, I don't think.
Writinglegend (or whatever his name is now) has been sending out region-wide telegrams both this week and last for the Friday night CAH event. We got one new citizen last week, and I hope that trend continues with at least one more this week. ^_^
Mouse's recommendation: It seems unnecessary to announce every little cultural activity on the forums (because we've got a lot of them!), but it may be worth sending out a telegram sometime next week about the new Gaming center, to see if there are any active Steam players gameside that would want to join in with the other gaming Europeians.
Additionally, if CAH continues to be a weekly (every Friday!) event, it may make more sense to move that telegramming to a once-monthly variant while continuing the RMB notices. I would expect to see diminishing returns (and possibly frustration/TG blocking) from nations that aren't interested in CAH but continue to see a variation of the same telegram every week.
5. What information would you be interested in seeing announced on the RMB?
Regional WA Votes - 36/82 (44%)
Information about upcoming regional cultural events - 39/82 (48%)
Europeian news, including upcoming elections - 50/82 (61%)
Any content that Europeia decides to broadcast in region-wide dispatches - 49/82 (60%)
Nothing - the RMB should be only for regional chat and not announcements - 12/82 (15%)
This question is a bit different since these were check boxes, versus a "pick one" option. As such, the percentages are calculated to determine what percent of respondents selected a given option. The same 10-ish number of nations weighs in here, to declare that the RMB should only be for regional chat and not announcements. However, as with the aforementioned questions, they are in the minority here.
Mouse's recommendation: Next term's administration should work to provide RMB updates (links to dispatches, non-TG news announcements, non-TG cultural events, etc.) AND should also try to encourage more regional chat and engagement. Letting the Bralia's of the region dictate the tone of our RMB is not something I'd recommend - regardless of what the poll results had said.
6. Do you know how to block particular telegrams?
I know how to filter telegrams (i.e. WA Campaign telegrams, recruitment telegrams, etc.) - 33 (40%)
I know how to block specific senders from sending me more telegrams - 6 (7%)
I know both of the above blocking methods. - 21 (26%)
I don't know how to block telegrams. - 22 (27%)
I'll admit that the answers to this poll surprised me. Granted, I know I've been playing NS for forever and a day, but I always thought that the TG system was fairly intuitive when it came to knowing how to block other (specific) nations from sending you telegrams and how to filter (specific categories of) mass telegrams. It's possible that some nations may be able to figure out how to do those things but simply haven't felt the need as of yet.
However, these results made me think that there's a clear need for instructions on how to do these things. So I've drafted 2 dispatches - one on How to Block Telegrams by Category & one on How to Block Telegrams from a Specific Nation. Calvin has been drafting a telegram to send out to all nations - probably later tonight - with the links to these dispatches to inform all Europeians on how to block and filter telegrams, going forward.
Mouse's recommendation: Anyone who knows my passions and interests in Europeia know that education and the sharing of information are right up there near the top. So my recommendation is largely to make sure that nations know about these dispatches, so they can add the information to their knowledge base if they are things they don't already know how to do.
Perhaps the next administration should look at adding the information to the Newcomer's Handbook. Maybe the information should be added to some of the new recruiting telegrams, or welcoming telegrams, or maybe a new telegram should be created on the subject. (Although that latter idea might be taking things a bit too far. :wink: )
7. Are you currently a citizen on the Europeian forum?
Yes - 46 (56%)
I used to be - 9 (11%)
Not yet - 27 (33%)
This poll was taken by a greater number of forum-goers than I expected - in part because it doesn't seem like we have 46 active citizens posting most days. (Then again, maybe I'm having trouble counting - or reading - again. :wink: ) Of course, I haven't checked that each of these players that claim to have citizenship .... actually have active accounts, but that's something I'll probably pass along for the next administration to sort through.
Same goes for those that "used to be citizens" and those that "aren't citizens yet." (Yes, I didn't give them a "No, never!" option - and that was intentional.) Both of those are groups that should perhaps be courted by the next administration since they have clearly shown interest in forum-side events simply through answering this poll.
Mouse's recommendation: I'll pass along the detailed responses by nation name to the next administration - be it the next Pres/VP/Minister of XYZ, depending on what the administration prefers. I'd suggest that they contact the "previous citizens" to figure out why they stopped visiting the forums - and to see if they can become re-engaged. Additionally, it seems worthwhile to contact some of the "not citizens yet" to figure out why they haven't joined the forums yet, and if there's anything we currently offer here that they would want to get involved with.
8. Any final comments you'd like to share?
Here's a quick sampling - outside of those that I already referenced with the first question's answers:
WHAT'S NEXT: In light of some recent changes to the non-citizens mask (i.e. increasing the visibility of certain forums), I'm curious to know if non-registered users are "incentive-ized" to join the forum when they reach a "you do not have permission to view this page" error message ... or if they're discouraged by getting such a message instead.
Alternatively, would there be any benefit (or encouragement to create an account - even if they user doesn't immediately apply for citizenship) simply to be able to lurk with the non-citizens mask, if we made it clear that certain links provided in TGs/RMB messages/etc., require an account (but not citizenship) to view the details?
All things worth exploring, and you'll get that - and more! - with the next MousePoll.
There's likely a fine line to walk between keeping nations engaged with RMB messages, dispatches, and telegrams - and engaging in all-out spam of these nations with unwanted and unsolicited messages that may end up driving nations to leave Europeia and join a different region instead. (and we certainly don't want that!)
With that balancing act in mind, the Ministry of Communications - in coordination with the WA Ministry - put together a poll to try to better understand what sort of information these nations want from us. Additionally, we sought to determine at what frequency these messages should be sent.
The results follow, along with my own interpretation of these results and how I would encourage the winners of the upcoming election to use this information in the coming term.
As of this moment, we have 82 nations that have responded to the poll - one of whom decided to pretend to be me, interestingly enough.
Results were pouring in quite frequently over the first 24 hours or so, but that has since tapered off. The poll was first posted approximately 72 hours ago, and results are now coming in every few hours rather than seeing multiple results per hour. However, even if another 5-10 nations respond, the sample size is largely enough that a slight bit of variance among future results is unlikely to affect the conclusions that can be drawn.
1. Would you be interested in receiving updates regarding upcoming elections on the forums?
Yes - please telegram me a week or so before each election - 67 (82%)
Yes - but only before the Presidential election- 2 (2%)
Yes - but only before the Senate election - 0 (0%)
Yes - but only for the CA Chair election - 0 (0%)
Yes - but only for the WA Delegate election - 2 (2%)
No. - 11 (13%)
Clearly, there is an interest among individual in Europeia about the regional elections. Only 11 individuals were not interested at all about any of the election updates, which puts them clearly in the minority.
There were two or three respondents who commented that they picked the first answer, but they didn't personally care to be notified of the CA Chair elections. I understand that sentiment - especially for active Europeians who are already on the forums - but given my own history as CA Chair, I can see those elections as being a way to engage with new players and encourage them to get involved in questioning the next (or continuing) leader of the CA.
Mouse's recommendation: Send out notices to the region - perhaps by "official" Regional Telegram (if HEM's available) - about a week or so before each of these elections. Since non-voting members are still able to follow the discussion in the Oval Room (even if they obviously can't vote), they can still follow along with the debate and discussion and use the election as a jumping off point to greater activity as a Europeian citizen.
2. Would you be interested in receiving updates regarding WA votes?
Yes - for each vote - 26 (32%)
Yes - about once a week - 14 (17%)
Yes - maybe twice a month - 12 (15%)
Yes - and my WA nation isn't in Europeia - 3 (4%)
No. -25 (30%)
No - but my WA nation isn't in Europeia - 2 (2%)
I fully acknowledge that this is the question that I - as WA Delegate - care most about in all of this. I obviously don't want to annoy or spam the various WA nations in Europeia; however, the more I can get WA nations gameside to vote according to the forum vote, the more effective our WA voting power will be.
Interesting fact about the 3 nations who said that they want these telegrams but don't have a WA nation in Europeia - 2 of them are citizens (who should just be able to check the forum vote themselves
), and the third didn't give their nation name, so I have no idea who they are. *sigh* :wink:Mouse's recommendation: This category is why they have the "Campaign filter." Once I get my WA office up and running (probably next week, hopefully, I'll get things started), I'm hoping to send out brief telegrams on each vote to all WA nations. I'll label each as a WA campaign and encourage nations to adjust their filters, according to how often they want to receive these telegrams. (And, naturally, I'll include a link to the forum thread to encourage them to join the forum and participate in those discussions. ^_^)
3. Would you be interested in receiving news updates?
Yes - about once a week - 29 (35%)
Yes - about twice a month - 17 (21%)
Yes - about once a month - 8 (10%)
Yes - but only for major news - 21 (26%)
No. - 7 (9%)
This one isn't nearly as easy to interpret as the first two since there seems to be a pretty stark divide between those wanting updates about "once a week" versus those only wanting updates for "major news." There's obviously some players in between there - and others who don't have any interest in this sort of news at all - but I think there is definitely a desire for some contact from communications department for gameside nations.
Mouse's recommendation: Well, what do you consider "major news," for starters? Election results would certainly fall under that category, I'd expect, and I would encourage such an announcement to be made via telegram sometime after polls close. Additionally, it may be worth sending out a telegram announcing when the Cabinet is confirmed - and who those Ministers are, to provide additional points of contact for nations should they have questions.
Otherwise, I would recommend that each Ministry consider getting a Ministry-specific nation (like I have Interior Ministry & Europeian WA Headquarters). Using these to send news updates would allow nations to block messages from Ministry-X that they have no interest in, while still allowing them to receive frequent messages from Ministry-Y that they're really excited about. (And it keeps them from blocking the nation of one Minister who may be serving in a different role in an upcoming term of office.) Of course, such an avenue would require the nation to be checked semi-occasionally (every day or so) in case of questions that are sent to that nation in response to news updates.
4. Would you be interested in receiving notices of Cultural events?
Yes - a few days in advance of each such Cultural event - 31 (38%)
Yes - but no more than once a week - 15 (18%)
Yes - but no more than twice a month - 7 (9%)
Yes - but no more than once a month - 9 (11%)
No - leave such updates for the RMB - 10 (12%)
No - 10 (12%)
Most nations want to be updated of Cultural events, so I would think that notifying nations of upcoming Cultural events by telegram is appropriate. Not much analysis here needed, I don't think.
Writinglegend (or whatever his name is now
) has been sending out region-wide telegrams both this week and last for the Friday night CAH event. We got one new citizen last week, and I hope that trend continues with at least one more this week. ^_^Mouse's recommendation: It seems unnecessary to announce every little cultural activity on the forums (because we've got a lot of them!), but it may be worth sending out a telegram sometime next week about the new Gaming center, to see if there are any active Steam players gameside that would want to join in with the other gaming Europeians.
Additionally, if CAH continues to be a weekly (every Friday!) event, it may make more sense to move that telegramming to a once-monthly variant while continuing the RMB notices. I would expect to see diminishing returns (and possibly frustration/TG blocking) from nations that aren't interested in CAH but continue to see a variation of the same telegram every week.
5. What information would you be interested in seeing announced on the RMB?
Regional WA Votes - 36/82 (44%)
Information about upcoming regional cultural events - 39/82 (48%)
Europeian news, including upcoming elections - 50/82 (61%)
Any content that Europeia decides to broadcast in region-wide dispatches - 49/82 (60%)
Nothing - the RMB should be only for regional chat and not announcements - 12/82 (15%)
This question is a bit different since these were check boxes, versus a "pick one" option. As such, the percentages are calculated to determine what percent of respondents selected a given option. The same 10-ish number of nations weighs in here, to declare that the RMB should only be for regional chat and not announcements. However, as with the aforementioned questions, they are in the minority here.
Mouse's recommendation: Next term's administration should work to provide RMB updates (links to dispatches, non-TG news announcements, non-TG cultural events, etc.) AND should also try to encourage more regional chat and engagement. Letting the Bralia's of the region dictate the tone of our RMB is not something I'd recommend - regardless of what the poll results had said.
6. Do you know how to block particular telegrams?
I know how to filter telegrams (i.e. WA Campaign telegrams, recruitment telegrams, etc.) - 33 (40%)
I know how to block specific senders from sending me more telegrams - 6 (7%)
I know both of the above blocking methods. - 21 (26%)
I don't know how to block telegrams. - 22 (27%)
I'll admit that the answers to this poll surprised me. Granted, I know I've been playing NS for forever and a day, but I always thought that the TG system was fairly intuitive when it came to knowing how to block other (specific) nations from sending you telegrams and how to filter (specific categories of) mass telegrams. It's possible that some nations may be able to figure out how to do those things but simply haven't felt the need as of yet.
However, these results made me think that there's a clear need for instructions on how to do these things. So I've drafted 2 dispatches - one on How to Block Telegrams by Category & one on How to Block Telegrams from a Specific Nation. Calvin has been drafting a telegram to send out to all nations - probably later tonight - with the links to these dispatches to inform all Europeians on how to block and filter telegrams, going forward.
Mouse's recommendation: Anyone who knows my passions and interests in Europeia know that education and the sharing of information are right up there near the top. So my recommendation is largely to make sure that nations know about these dispatches, so they can add the information to their knowledge base if they are things they don't already know how to do.
Perhaps the next administration should look at adding the information to the Newcomer's Handbook. Maybe the information should be added to some of the new recruiting telegrams, or welcoming telegrams, or maybe a new telegram should be created on the subject. (Although that latter idea might be taking things a bit too far. :wink: )
7. Are you currently a citizen on the Europeian forum?
Yes - 46 (56%)
I used to be - 9 (11%)
Not yet - 27 (33%)
This poll was taken by a greater number of forum-goers than I expected - in part because it doesn't seem like we have 46 active citizens posting most days. (Then again, maybe I'm having trouble counting - or reading - again. :wink: ) Of course, I haven't checked that each of these players that claim to have citizenship .... actually have active accounts, but that's something I'll probably pass along for the next administration to sort through.
Same goes for those that "used to be citizens" and those that "aren't citizens yet." (Yes, I didn't give them a "No, never!" option - and that was intentional.
) Both of those are groups that should perhaps be courted by the next administration since they have clearly shown interest in forum-side events simply through answering this poll.Mouse's recommendation: I'll pass along the detailed responses by nation name to the next administration - be it the next Pres/VP/Minister of XYZ, depending on what the administration prefers. I'd suggest that they contact the "previous citizens" to figure out why they stopped visiting the forums - and to see if they can become re-engaged. Additionally, it seems worthwhile to contact some of the "not citizens yet" to figure out why they haven't joined the forums yet, and if there's anything we currently offer here that they would want to get involved with.
8. Any final comments you'd like to share?
Here's a quick sampling - outside of those that I already referenced with the first question's answers:
- Good survey ^_^ - Complimenting the pollster is generally a good way to get your comment quoted. :wink:
- Yay! POLLS! Ps.: Polls. - Apparently there's at least one citizen who isn't polled out from all the election polling ....
- Moar Mouse dancing! - Maybe in my next poll we'll do a referendum on dancing. Or on the talents of other Europeians, perhaps?
- good for you guys! FINALLY people under stand the power of census! - This one from a former citizen.
- Hi. I like poptarts and perogies. - This non-cit is making it clear that offering those things forumside might be enough to entice him to join us.
- TURTLES! GIVE ME TURTLES OR PERISH! - And I wonder if anyone can guess who might have left this comment .... :wink:
WHAT'S NEXT: In light of some recent changes to the non-citizens mask (i.e. increasing the visibility of certain forums), I'm curious to know if non-registered users are "incentive-ized" to join the forum when they reach a "you do not have permission to view this page" error message ... or if they're discouraged by getting such a message instead.
Alternatively, would there be any benefit (or encouragement to create an account - even if they user doesn't immediately apply for citizenship) simply to be able to lurk with the non-citizens mask, if we made it clear that certain links provided in TGs/RMB messages/etc., require an account (but not citizenship) to view the details?
All things worth exploring, and you'll get that - and more! - with the next MousePoll.
