[Time4Change]The Dish on Domestics

Day 1,502, 20:10 • Published in United Kingdom United Kingdom • by Dishmcds
Cut the Fluff



There's no easy way to say this. The UK is in deep poo. We've been wiped for the first time in our history. Our Military is in a pretty sorry state of affairs. Our domestic programs aren't working. Our country is divided between those who feel like they're part of the inner circle, and those who feel left out. Our Presidents don't do in game updates any more. Our Ministries release articles aimed at new players that get no more than 50 votes.

We've declined into a state of apathetic, unwanted nobodies. If you sit here and don't have a problem with this, then unfortunately you're part of the cancer that has plagued this country for the last six months, and you need to figure out what exactly you're doing here. If you don't want to play, don't. If you want to enjoy success, then hop on board. It's that simple.

Home Affairs

Over the last few months, we've actually had a decently active Home Affairs team, with some new up and coming Ministers. Alice has done great, as has Veruvia and the other bits and pieces of the team, however, we're still not reaching as many people as we should be. Our "give stuff away" mentality hasn't shown the effectiveness that it should. We're still relying too heavily on forum based ideas, and not moving more towards in game programs. I'd look to make the following (albeit small) changes to the programs:

1. The gun and weapons giveaways will be moved to in game articles, combined with the current forum threads. The idea is simple. You can post either in the forum thread, or the article, and as long as you're a part of an in game MU, and a UK citizen (foregoing Military citizenship elsewhere, obviously, as those people will still be supplied), you'll get weapons. We'll add bonuses to those who vote the article, shout it, and sub.

2. Friend a Day keeps the wipe away: When I was CP the last time, I did something quite simple. I sent one new person each day a PM. Out of those 30 days, I managed to see at least 20 of those people sign up to the forums, and contribute. Now, this wasn't because one guy sent them messages. In most cases, there were probably at least 3-4 of us sending messages to the same group of people. I can say at least once Iain and I managed to send the same person a message the same day within a half hour of each other. This person went on the become the TUP Party President just last month, and has been active (not counting the months she went all lazy on us). I want everyone to add at least 1 new person every single day for the entire month. If you aren't doing your part for new players, then start. It's that simple.

3. I don't care if we spend money. I want to be effective. I've never been called a frugal President. I do spend money, on things such as weapons giveaways, domestic programs, recruitment, and things that will actually make a difference not only to our community, but our in game standings. We'll do things such as bonuses to people who recruit to people in game (gold and GBP), as well as the forums, weapons handouts to the general population, and so on. These ideas are tried, tested, and proven methods. They work, and no matter how fancy we want to be, we're not at a point where we can be fancy. We need to be basic and functional, as we already have to fight to get our regions back to begin with.

4. The Ministry of Home Affairs will advertise in every single article who is in the team, and what they do. Too often, people feel unrecognised, even if they get paid for their work. In a Social Strategy Game, it doesn't help your reputation if you do and get paid for work, but no one knows you do it. If you have ambitions, you want people to know your name. If the Ministry doesn't promote that, then no one knows the hard work you put in. The ending of every MoHA, MoFA, and MoD article will have a small tidbit on every single player involved in them.



Cabinet

I'm going to say this as simple as possible. We need to be inclusive to everyone, not exclusive. I intend to keep the same idea I ran on last month, where the Cabinet channel will remain open to anyone UK based. This means if you're a UK citizen, you can join the Cabinet. If you have an idea, you can join, speak to anyone in Cabinet, and we'll see the merit of your idea. If you want to try and hatch baby chickens and need a little GBP, if it benefits the UK, then so be it. We'll do it, regardless if it is Goku proposing it.

There will also be zero guaranteed positions in Cabinet, or Military Command. We need active people who actually care enough to do their jobs. There will be an Open Cabinet, Open Applications for Ministers, and a functional Command team that actually puts the work in to keep their jobs.

Economic/Tax Changes

Once again, we need to accomodate for being occupied and our loss of production, as well as the new player programs we currently have. We'll continue the Town Hall upgrades which I started some time ago, we'll continue to give new players Iron companies (and probably increase it for a short while to include FRM companies), and continue land grants. We'll also do these programs in game as well, and include Military membership as a requirement for some of them.

We'll also look to drop the import taxes on some things, such as Food and Weapons, which are necessities during a time in which our production has been cut almost half of what it normally is. There is no magic scheme on how to improve the economy. Plato has already removed anything we can possibly do, that we don't already. There is only the things that we can do to help new players feel welcome, and get them involved. We'll push towards improving attendance in our Military, and our activity on IRC.

So, domestically, the push will be for involvement, and transparency. Activity is the only way out of this hole. Efficiency is the manner we're going to do it in. Transparency is the vehicle that we're going to use.

To sum things up:

-Making the MoHA more useful in game than just a few articles
-Economic changes once we have Congress again to drop weapons prices
-Spending money on new players to keep them active and make them more successful
-More recognition to those who help out
-More transparency in Government
-Being more inclusive than ever

I'm not begging for your vote. I'm asking you to take a look at the manifestos, and see who will do the best for the UK, regardless of party affiliation.

Regards
Dishmcds
Presidential Candidate