Administration: Updating the Cultural Protocol Index

[jamescfm]

I appreciate that Moderation has a few issues to balance at the moment but I was wondering whether we might be able to receive an update on the position of the Cultural Protocol Index. At the end of last month Moderation asked players to re-submit cultural protocols for approval and it seems at least twenty-three countries affirmed their current cultural protocols or made small changes (I think perhaps a couple further countries did so after Auditorii's previous post). According to the Index, these countries have "approved" cultural protocols.

Nonetheless there are around two dozen countries that do not have approved cultural protocols but are not culturally open. According to the Index, these countries have "recognised" cultural protocols that are enforced by Moderation despite not having Moderation approval. I think it would be useful if Moderation could explain a little bit about what the plan is for these countries. Is this a temporary status and if so, how long will it last? If it is a permanent status then why does it exist? It seems strange to me that Moderation would enforce cultural protocols that have not been approved.

[Auditorii]

As I've stated you in the past and I have discussed with Vesica, we're going to continue the process of trying to get nations/players to approve their CPs. When we discussed this "adventure" we realized that it wouldn't be immediate and we set no time period for it "end" per se. I intend on sending out another round of notices to countries that have not received administrative approval for their CPs, and going from there. That being said, there is certainly no current intention to remove or not enforce the CPs that are in place for nations that have them without our approval. While Vesica and I certainly would like to receive all CPs, I think that it might be unrealistic. We'll continue to discuss the future of how we want to handle situations where we might not get "approval" but for now, the process remains on-going.

[jamescfm]

I don't think it's a problem that the process is ongoing but that doesn't really address my primary concerns. The implication from what you're saying is that even if these countries never have approved cultural protocols, you will continue to enforce the documents linked in the thread. I don't understand how this can be a fair- or even coherent- approach.

For the one part, it seems that there is no purpose to seeking approval for a cultural protocol if Moderation is going to enforce the document regardless. On top of that you have cases like Beiteynu where Moderation is currently enforcing a cultural protocol that is not only unapproved, but was never even voted on by players. The bill linked to in that case is still in the debate section and this means that the player who created it could easily change the contents of Beiteynu's cultural protocol to something totally unrelated to the country's role-played cultural background and Moderation would presumably have to enforce this.

As far as I can tell, Moderation needs to set a "deadline" of sorts at which point they will make a decision about how to deal with the remaining countries. For obvious reasons I do not feel that the best approach in these cases would be simply to make all the country's culturally open. From my perspective the most sensible approach would be to open a community discussion about the remaining countries to determine whether it would be valuable to retain the currently enforced documents. If this is not going to happen then the very least you can do is unilaterally approve these cultural protocols and ensure they are codified properly.

[Auditorii]

I don't think it's a problem that the process is ongoing but that doesn't really address my primary concerns. The implication from what you're saying is that even if these countries never have approved cultural protocols, you will continue to enforce the documents linked in the thread. I don't understand how this can be a fair- or even coherent- approach.

For the one part, it seems that there is no purpose to seeking approval for a cultural protocol if Moderation is going to enforce the document regardless. On top of that you have cases like Beiteynu where Moderation is currently enforcing a cultural protocol that is not only unapproved, but was never even voted on by players. The bill linked to in that case is still in the debate section and this means that the player who created it could easily change the contents of Beiteynu's cultural protocol to something totally unrelated to the country's role-played cultural background and Moderation would presumably have to enforce this.

As far as I can tell, Moderation needs to set a "deadline" of sorts at which point they will make a decision about how to deal with the remaining countries. For obvious reasons I do not feel that the best approach in these cases would be simply to make all the country's culturally open. From my perspective the most sensible approach would be to open a community discussion about the remaining countries to determine whether it would be valuable to retain the currently enforced documents. If this is not going to happen then the very least you can do is unilaterally approve these cultural protocols and ensure they are codified properly.

I highlighted what is likely to happen, albeit with some input from the community and players. This hasn't been finalized yet and I am sure that we come from a similar school of thought in that just setting them to "Culturally Open" would do far more harm than good.

[jamescfm]

Okay, thanks for the clarification. Do you have any thoughts yet on how long until you will begin this process? I don't mean to the date obviously, just a broad timescale (e.g. in the next couple of weeks, by the end of the year).

[Auditorii]

Okay, thanks for the clarification. Do you have any thoughts yet on how long until you will begin this process? I don't mean to the date obviously, just a broad timescale (e.g. in the next couple of weeks, by the end of the year).

We'd originally planned for a couple of weeks worth of "waiting" so to speak, continuing forward? Probably a couple of more. To be entirely honest I am surprised with the response that we got and I am sure that with a little more pushing we can get some more.

[jamescfm]

Providing an update on the process of updating the Cultural Protocol Index. At present there are twenty-six countries that have affirmed their cultural protocols and had them approved by Moderation six culturally open countries and twenty-six countries that have not had their cultural protocols approved.

All of the players in the latter group of countries will receive a reminder asking them to affirm their cultural protocol this evening and notifying them that the deadline to do so is 11 July. If countries have still not had their cultural protocols approved by this point then Moderation will make a decision regarding their position in public consultation with players. For this reason any player who wishes to ensure that their country retains its cultural protocols needs to ensure they submit an affirmation for Moderation approval before this deadline.

Please let us know if there are any questions and we'll do our best to offer some clarity.

[Aquinas]

Providing an update on the process of updating the Cultural Protocol Index. At present there are twenty-six countries that have affirmed their cultural protocols and had them approved by Moderation six culturally open countries and twenty-six countries that have not had their cultural protocols approved.

All of the players in the latter group of countries will receive a reminder asking them to affirm their cultural protocol this evening and notifying them that the deadline to do so is 11 July. If countries have still not had their cultural protocols approved by this point then Moderation will make a decision regarding their position in public consultation with players. For this reason any player who wishes to ensure that their country retains its cultural protocols needs to ensure they submit an affirmation for Moderation approval before this deadline.

Please let us know if there are any questions and we'll do our best to offer some clarity.

Okay...so this whole exercise, and indeed this thread, began a month ago with a gentle request from Moderation asking players to pass new Cultural Protocol bills in order to assist with some administrative issues.

Now, with James’s last post, it seems this has now morphed in to a Cultural Protocol affirmation exercise. To explain the terminology for those less familiar with the history of the game, we used to have a system where players were invited to periodically “affirm” their nation’s Cultural Protocol, and if there was no affirmation, there would be a consultation as to whether it would continue.

Some questions...

(1) Could you please provide a full list of which Cultural Protocols are considered by Moderation to be “affirmed” and which ones to be “not affirmed”?

(2) Would you be willing to reconsider the length of the affirmation deadline? Before, players were just being gently encouraged to update their Cultural Protocols, now they are suddenly being told “affirm within 2 weeks or the future of your Cultural Protocol could be in danger”... Is two weeks an unreasonably short period of time for an affirmation deadline? Previously, under the Cultural Eras system, I recall the deadline was more like 3 to 5 months. I would suggest a 1 month deadline would be more reasonable in this situation than a 2 week one. Especially given I’m not sure every player is going to easily understand what they are being expected to do here...

(3) Under the old system, it was possible to simply pass a CP affirmation bill just stating the intention to affirm the CP, rather than including the full CP details in the bill itself. Will this be allowed this time?

[Auditorii]

To clarify, we are not bringing back the old system of requiring players to "affirm" their Cultural Protocols every so often. This process started when myself and several other players, including James, noticed that the CP Index was woefully maintained. It was something that was discussed between Vesica and I and we initiated the attempt to fix it, James, whose been involved since the beginning is just providing an update on whats going to happen in the near future.

(1) You can see the CP Index, those which have "Moderation Approval" means that they are passed and recognized by Moderation.

(2) As I stated in the opening of the topic, this not a "new Cultural Era" discussion nor will it become that or will we re-introduce that. We're attempting to rectify a neglected Cultural Protocol Index that has been failed to be updated throughout the course of several Moderation teams. As you noted this process started over 1 month ago and every player in-game was notified about this, they'll be provided 2 more weeks pending notification which I believe James said he was going to send out later today.

(3) As stated in the PM to members you can simply copy-paste the current CP and pass the CP, post it and Moderation will review it. For some we're doing expedited approvals, for some were querying changes and the like.

Following that roughly 2 week period we'll have a discussion on what we're going to do with those that are not Moderation approved and we'll handle that when it comes.

[Aquinas]

To clarify, we are not bringing back the old system of requiring players to "affirm" their Cultural Protocols every so often. This process started when myself and several other players, including James, noticed that the CP Index was woefully maintained. It was something that was discussed between Vesica and I and we initiated the attempt to fix it, James, whose been involved since the beginning is just providing an update on whats going to happen in the near future.

(1) You can see the CP Index, those which have "Moderation Approval" means that they are passed and recognized by Moderation.

(2) As I stated in the opening of the topic, this not a "new Cultural Era" discussion nor will it become that or will we re-introduce that. We're attempting to rectify a neglected Cultural Protocol Index that has been failed to be updated throughout the course of several Moderation teams. As you noted this process started over 1 month ago and every player in-game was notified about this, they'll be provided 2 more weeks pending notification which I believe James said he was going to send out later today.

(3) As stated in the PM to members you can simply copy-paste the current CP and pass the CP, post it and Moderation will review it. For some we're doing expedited approvals, for some were querying changes and the like.

Following that roughly 2 week period we'll have a discussion on what we're going to do with those that are not Moderation approved and we'll handle that when it comes.

Thanks for your swift response. I hope my suggestion of extending the 2 week deadline will be considered.

For further clarity, could you please outline the formula by which it is determined whether a Cultural Protocol gets to have "Moderation Approval" inscribed next to it in the Cultural Protocols Index? I ask this because in some of these cases, the Cultural Protocol was approved before 26th May, when you first requested players to start doing Cultural Protocol updates (see the OP of this thread).

Also, I have noticed Keymon's Cultural Protocol update request on 8th May appears to have been overlooked (ie. no response on the thread as to whether it has been accepted or rejected, not entered in to the CP Index either...).