Utari Mosir cultural background

[jamescfm]

Below is the current description of Utari Mosir, according to the "Forum-Based Countries Information" thread.

Previously a colony of Greater Hulstria, Mosir's population was previously thought to be largely Utari (Ainu) who speak Kunikata (Japanese), but a groundbreaking nation-wide census and research showed that the nation once housed a prominent Trigunia colony on the nations eastern coast. Following the census in January, 5323 it was discovered that the primary ethnic group are the Belanarodni (Belarussians), the largest and includes the Kezbeler (Kazakh), Akimiz (Uzbek) and Selsayak (Kyrgyz) while the Utari (Ainu) and Hulstrian
(Austrian) remain a small but notable ethnic component. The most common language is spoken is Belanarodni (Belarussian) with Hulstrian (Austrian) being a close second due to lingering colonial influences. In previous centuries the ethnic Hulstrians in the country's military would continually overthrow the nations government but this has become less prominent in the modern era.

At some point in the past few months, this has changed. In the past, there was no history of Belarussian [sic], Kazakh, Uzbek or Kyrgyz being spoken in the country and the largest ethnic group was the Ainu people. Auditorii does not appear to have consulted anybody about this change, nor did he publicly notify the community, or the Role-Play Committee. I would like to ask Auditorii to explain when this change was made, the reason why it was made, and the reason why he decided to make this change without consulting or notifying the community.

[Auditorii]

The decision to change Utari Mosir was discussed several days prior to its overall change on Discord and my post, a discussion which you yourself was included in and stated “ yeah and having it just be Ainu is way too niche to be accessible, it sounds like you have given it some decent thought” (Discord, 6/23/2023 at 3:19PM). I saw no serious protest from you nor others regarding the change and I believed that it would provide a major cultural group that’s been relatively neglected. I felt from that discussion that it would be positively received.

In addition, the RP Committee didn’t come into being until 6/28 and even then, the RP Committee doesn’t possess any formal authority. I’ve made that abundantly clear, it’s an advisory body for myself and other players to ping ideas off and whatnot and potentially help resolve some of the RP-related issues.

[jamescfm]

I would like to request again that you tell us when these changes were made. In your comments, it is implied the change was made before the appointment of the Role-Play Committee on 28 June but it would be useful to be given the specific date. If they were made over two months ago, I would like to ask if you ever planned to inform the community of these changes, or if you were waiting for somebody to notice them before addressing the issue.

I remember a brief discussion on the ideas you had about changing the cultural background of Utari Mosir. Nowhere in this discussion is there any indication that you planned to unilaterally change it without consulting the community. If you had indicated this, I would certainly have objected.

Since the culture of the forum-based countries was defined several years ago, there have been a number of changes to various countries. Whenever these changes have happened, there has been a period of consultation and feedback. Here are some examples of this: numerous countries (December 2018), numerous countries (December 2019), Ntoto and Hanzen (September 2020) and Statrica (December 2020). With this in mind, why did you decide to skip this process and make the change without informing or consulting the community?

[Auditorii]

You can read about the RP regarding the cultural changes here: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=7316&start=40#p184766

That was posted the 23rd of June, before the appointment of the RP Committee, which again serves as an advisory body.

I’m content with the changes and the manner in which they were done.

[jamescfm]

In your response, you say that the post was made on 23 June. The post that you link entitled "Ground-breaking report tears the veil on Utari dominance in nation" is actually dated 27 June. I am going to assume this was a mistake and that you meant to write 27 June. Either way, I agree that this was posted before the Role-Play Committee was appointed. Could you confirm that you made the change to the Forum-Based Countries Information thread at the same time?

A few things remain unclear to me. Why did you make this on the basis of a single role-play post? Section 9.5 of the Game Rules says, "cultural affairs are restricted to the national descriptions provided by the Forum-Based Countries Information thread located HERE." According to my own understanding of this quote, players are not permitted to change the cultural background of a forum-based country and they must adhere to the cultural background specified in the thread. As the controller of Dalibor, for example, I cannot make a post entitled "Ground-breaking report tears the veil on Daliborian dominance in nation" in which I explain that the largest ethnic group in the country is actually Dutch people. Could you confirm that this is correct?

If I am correct that you were not entitled to make these changes as the controller of Utari Mosir, I must assume that you made them in your capacity as a Moderator. If so, why did you not make any announcement about this change? Players should be notified when the history and culture of a country is radically changed. Speaking on a personal note, the changes you made without warning have effectively retconned role-play that I wrote while I was the controller of Utari Mosir. In an ideal world, you would have consulted the community about this, so that we could raise these concerns. At the very least, you should have told us it was happening.