Jim Bob the Glorious

You are both right and wrong, Hal. It most definitely took the threat of violence to get movement from the violators (again, the least active of IRON). If interested, message me in IRC (randomly) and we can go into greater discussion on it. Communication was at times difficult but we (IRON and Karma) spoke daily. The timeline was clear and present throughout the negotiations. As for the breakdown, I'll let IRON explain what happened as it's their story and not mine. PrideAssassin, grab a knife and fork. The treaty was viewable, as written, in advance of the signing of terms. I've posted more today on the OWF then I have in over two years. Before I retreat to the safety of Farkistani forums, I'll leave with this. The task of managing terms is a difficult one for both sides. It is thankless work. Iron was faced with the logistical task of reps, decomming military, updating its rosters, ghost busting, defending against pirates, repairing its nations and growing its alliance at the same time. Bumps in the road are going to happen and balls are going to get dropped. Fark and its allies were faced (for many outside reasons) with many of the same responsibilities as IRON. We had to track the reps, the decomming of military, watch the rosters of IRON, ghostbust both Fark and IRON, defend both Fark and IRON against pirates, repair its nations, and grow itself. Bumps in the road are going to happen and balls are going to get dropped. Through this monumental assignment, we both strived to do what needed to be done. It wasn't always easy and tempers did flare. Mistakes were made and enforcement was not steady. Communication broke down at times. But in the end, it came together and worked out. I do not harbor a grudge towards IRON because Fark has been on the other side (See the Holy War of Farkistan) and have suffered through viceroys and reps. While I can't begin to speak for IRON, we left our terms a better alliance which a greater understanding of ourselves and our abilities. I can say that while IRON and FARK may not be friends, we also are not enemies. I truly wish them well and hope that they move into the future with a greater sense of what amazing things IRON is capable of.

Which proves my point that you were not interested in complying with terms unless you were facing immediate re-engagement.

As the guy who got stuck doing a good portion of the ToS enforcement and the required communication that comes with it, I believe I know more than most about IRON and its TOS.. IRON is just like every other large alliance. It has a small yet solid core group of active players that strive to improve and better the alliance. Those players held to the terms and when needed, did the heavy work of sending out reps and fines. To those players, I offer my thanks and send a salute. The issues we had were with the remaining less-active members that make up the bulk of any large alliance. The semi-active and inactive created the vast majority of the violations and therefor issues during peace. Despite IRON gov's best efforts, violations piled up daily for weeks on end. It was not just the Beer terms (article 10), it was the outside aid terms (article 5), the limits on military (article 7) and even the required draw down of forces (article 11) that proved to troublesome for these semi-active players. From these violations a definite patten, intentional or not, of non-compliance was seen from the outset. Ill give examples. The inactive IRON failed to decom in the 72 hours despite numerous PM's from gov and posts in the IRON forums. Even 10 days after the ceasefire (and 7 days after the deadline), IRON had 40 nations that were out of compliance with over 120 violations between them. It took the re-engagement of violators to see the draw down that was expected earlier. From the beginning till the very end, the inactive members of IRON frequently exchanged aid with outsiders, a violation of term 5. So much so that the number of violations on that term crossed over into triple digits and proved to be the biggest headache. Originally, we just complained to IRON and to the offending parties but the number of violations accelerated. We created a penalty system and that was ignored 'without a firm deadline'. Having reached the end of patience on those type of violations, we gave a firm deadline to pay the agreed to penalties and notice that failure would result in those players being re-engaged. Payment came immediately and the number of violations slowed, but did not stop. Article 7 was never fully complied with at all during the 90 day period. Inactive members or ghosts always managed to have a plane, a nuke, a ship, a tank or a cruise missile that it shouldn't have had. IRON gov claimed to be doing its best to get these players in check but said that they often found themselves ignored. These players would then be declared ghosts and be reengaged. Amazingly, those inactive players would suddenly become active, respond to messages and comply. Which brings us to article 10, the beer review term. That term had a deadline of 30 days and 75 days into the peace, only 3 (of the most active) gov had complied. At this point, patience was thin because of the 100's and 100's of other violations. While the excuse could be made that those violations were the result of inactive players, the violations of article 10 were the direct result of IRON gov. What did IRON gov say when approached in back channels about article 10? Session Start: Fri Jul 31 09:08:05 2009 Notice the date and the bold. It was before any public shaming. Finister summed it up well, IRON didn't care about that term. So while 95% of the violations of terms could be blamed on the inactive and semi-active, IRON Gov showed thru many statements (logs if needed) that they didn't intend to comply or to follow terms unless forced. We had agreed not to attack over Article 10 so we mocked. As per the pattern, when forced, they complied. To leave this on a happy note, IRON does have some tremendous people in Gov. Friffon, Matt Miller, Shan, Theo, and many others proved to be great people. I can see how IRON grew so large under their example. I do look forward to working with you guys again someday under happier circumstances. Congrats guys. /goes on vacation