White Chocolate

I can certainly see that being something nations who are declared on by another for tech would WANT to do. I sure would have liked to do so with some aggressors during the early days of US. However, every single one of my mentors said that all it would do is bring the attacking nation's alliance down on me and (being that I'm a leader of an alliance) most likely the alliance as a whole. These are people who have much more experience than I. Of course, this was prior to the Karma War. Things may be different now (although I'm skeptical, but open to the possibility.) Feel free to test the theory yourself as a non-aligned or even a member of a much smaller alliance if you wish.

You may want to double check what does and does not constitute "stealing."

A war for resources is still a war. I don't understand why people want to claim otherwise.

Steal for tech = War of Resources Regardless if it's "right" or "wrong", it's still an undeclared war. You can declare war with the intent to destroy, you can declare war with the intent to steal resource or you can declare war just because you feel like it. Whatever the reason - it's still declaring war.

1. I suggested this thread (at least enough to get the basic arguments back and forth) as great reading material for our members who want to know more about CN politics. Saves me a lot of time 2. Hail The International! (our Protector) and big "thank you's" to our other treaty partners. 3. Bad Athens, etc.

I love your announcements, BN Congrats.

Cool idea. Planning on dressing up for other holidays too? Orange might go well with Thanksgiving.

Congrats. Best of luck to both friends of ours.

As am I. Best of luck in the Dark Templar.

Congrats. Very nicely done. Best DoE I've seen yet. Love the comic idea.

Looks like Grey Council has it under control well enough. Good.

I was expecting to see that as well. Nice to be wrong. There is hope for Planet Bob after all

Agreed, on these two points especially. I'm far from bored. It's just that all the action is happening off the world forum. If anything, the question to ask is why that is the case.

Let me apologize to all my anti-tech raiding friends. I'm sorry, but this made me laugh. A lot. It's just the right kind of humor.

"We apologize in advance, we didn't want to post such a small alliance matter on the OWF, but you can thank Slonq for that.." So, small alliances shouldn't be allowed to post on the OWF in these situations? The court of public opinion is only in session for large groups? I think not. Your piece is otherwise well written. Brengstklau still should not have backed the attacker here. I get that new people make mistakes. We've had our fair share of new people violating our policy (which is "do not attack ANYONE without permission from White Chocolate or Necroseer"- you'd think that would be simple enough to follow). However, if you really do not want to look the "evil oppressor" here, you need to fix this (even if it means paying reps) and fast. If you don't care - happy hunting...

In theory, I love the idea. Good show for wanting to help. From experience, be prepared for some...complications. The primary one I see is this: New nation A is attacking new nation B. New nation B accepts your offer for help after you send him/her a PM offering the help. New nation A offers peace. - Good, nation A has learned a lesson, right? New nation B joins you and gets the money - maybe even stays a few weeks. Working out great... New nation B leaves DOC. Well, he/she has that right...you're sorry to see him or her go, but such is the price for keeping to your high ethical values. Complication One: New nation B attacks new nation A. New nation B is larger now and well, he/she figures that new nation A deserves it anyway. You may or may not agree. Possible Complication Two: New nation A has joined alliance (fill in the blank) and now new nation B is (as far as the rest of Planet Bob is concerned) unfairly attacking nation A of alliance (fill in the blank). And this is assuming new nation B thought to leave your alliance first. Unintended consequences. You can and should put some restrictions on your help from the start. However, some people will say they will follow them and then will not. But at least you tried to avoid the situation. Alliance (fill in the blank) may or may not care, however.

In terms of CN alliance policy stances, to my surprise I find myself more often agreeing with people who in RL politics lean to the right. In real life, I'm politically rather liberal. I think it's because as an alliance, United under Scorn (US) is more idealistic than pragmatic and an uncomplicated "no shade of grey" stance is something that appeals to people who also happen to personally be along the right wing of the RL U.S. politics. In real life politics, I'm closer to liberal BECAUSE I can see exceptions in most "rules." Abortion is wrong - okay , but what about... CN is much more simple. As long as we agree on what CN ideals we have, it works and we get along great. I'm also personally rather conservative when it comes to my personal finances too and, as pointed out, here that is not very complicated. Thus, unless a particular alliance makes it a point to specifically recruit members of a particular political belief system AND advertises that fact, I don't think RL politics have anything to do with CN. INT (who also is our protector) is a good example. Many of them may hold personally very leftist ideals but when it comes to CN politics and their alliance policies, they (at least the leadership) are very pragmatic. LOL - thus we're the protected and they are the protectors. No big surprise there

Regarding the statement, "15 members + no protector = not an alliance" Sometimes the lack of skill I see in the area of diplomacy on Planet Bob totally amazes me.

If it is an individual member who is doing something on his or her own, then the individual is responsible - not the entire alliance. In that case, I'd try (and have in the past - we all have our naughty and/or clueless members) working with the alliance government in coming up with a solution. The solution would depend on a lot of factors. I'd include a single government official doing something without the knowledge of anyone else in the "it's an individual's fault." What complicates matters when dealing with someone in government is that I might question if it is actually something that was only planned by that one individual. I'd be less likely to believe "oh, that was just me" from a government official, especially one who has been around for a while. Also, I'd be harder and demand more from a government official who does something wrong than a regular member. It's part of what we get paid the big bucks for

I'm not doubting that you are sincere. I'm also not suggesting that you are trying to advertise. And even if you were, I'm not necessarily saying that it's wrong regardless. Perhaps I'm too skeptical but whenever a national leader posts something on the international forum, he or she is trying to convince someone else of something IMO (I'm trying to convince you of my point, am I not?) Add names of alliance(s) in the post and to me it looks like advertising regardless if it is intentional or not. (and thus my reaction is to ask myself "what is the author trying to gain out of this for him/herself and/or alliance?) Look at it this way, if your readers really want to know which alliance you are praising, all you have to say is "my current alliance" and they can look at which one you are in at the left of your post. As far as making negative comments regarding a particular alliance, there are only two times where I could imagine myself doing that on this public forum and naming the alliance - 1) To defend my alliance or an ally alliance against posts made by someone else or 2) in a DOW otherwise, in my personal opinion, it just should not be done on this forum. I'm not saying you can't do it. I am saying that after over a year of being a national leader on Planet Bob, IMO - I've never seen it done well (including any good coming from it) in any situation except one of the two I've mentioned above.

Interesting advertising for the World Federation. Anyway, you can't clump all alliances together regardless if they offer starting money or not. Also it depends on what you are looking for. It's a good idea to do some research first, however. Or ask lots of questions of your recruiter at least. And from what I've seen of most alliances, as long as the alliance isn't in a middle of a war (and in some cases, after you paid back money the alliance gave you), you can always leave. I'm glad to hear you've found a group that you like.

updated trade circle. still have some possible openings. Color is blue.

Those of us in US don't care about the color - so blue will probably work. Just depends if the two "pending" people care.

Now we only need Iron and lumber. Probably going to go pink team.

Bonus resources: Steel, Auto, Beer, Construction, Microchips, Radiation Cleanup, Asphalt, Scholars Switch to blue team, free up your resources (it is considered polite to give your current trade partners some warning that you will be dropping them) Aluminum: justin101 of Justin101 Coal: Fish: alex mcbride of SpeedMaster Gold: Thud III of Thudsylvania http://www.cybernations.net/nation_drill_d...ation_ID=281387 Iron: Zetal Lead: Lumber: Zetal Marble: justin101 of Justin101 Oil: Rubber: Thud III of Thudsylvania Water: Wheat: alex mcbride of SpeedMaster Links: Thud III of Thudsylvania: http://www.cybernations.net/nation_drill_d...ation_ID=281387 Zental: http://www.cybernations.net/nation_drill_d...ation_ID=323211 alex mcbride: http://www.cybernations.net/nation_drill_d...ation_ID=342337 justin101: http://www.cybernations.net/nation_drill_d...ation_ID=344751 So we may need: 1) Lead and oil combo (have asked a person but have not heard back yet) 2) Coal and water combo (have asked a person but have not heard back yet) 3) Aluminum and marble combo (justin101 hasn't been on-line for some time - don't know if he's continuing) Blue Team - so switch to blue if you are not already - please. White Chocolate of Lander Clan http://www.cybernations.net/nation_drill_d...ation_ID=240223Zetal