Thistledown

I would like to thank Ivan Moldavi and Starcraftmazter for both personally apologizing to me for having all this madness around Christmas.

I have a few questions still- you say that you post for the "community within the community", and that Francoism is a philosophy and a methodology which is very practical. Yet there is, again, a commonly held belief that Francoism does not guide the Order's actions but rather is a reaction to the Order's actions, a justification for whatever the Order stands for at that point in time. This does not appear to be without some merit- many of your essays discuss Francoism in context of certain stances the Order has already taken- for instance, disparaging Vox Populi in Despotic Primitivism, when it is clear that the Order's stance against Vox was probably not because of guiding Francoist principles but rather the fact that Vox was out to destroy you. In other words, you attacked their political ideology because of their political actions, not the other way around. Other essays come to mind- The Morality of War can be seen as an attempt to justify the Order's actions in the WotC/noCB war, The Great Patriotic War and You seems to most to be an attempt to keep the Order "undefeated", and The Slavery of International Rights mentions that a global military hegemony would be terrible- yet later the Order became a hegemonic power. If your pieces are meant as justification and propoganda in the name of Francoism, wouldn't that make them for the community as a whole? Certainly, there are many who hate anything you write because of their political side- it is the nature of this world. But you seem to attribute this blind judgement to the "other side", when it can of course be found in your own Francoist alliance. Look at TWiP vs. Tabloid Tribune, or even this very thread- the pro- NPO forces come out in defense of the Tabloid Tribune/Francoism en masse, while the anti- NPO members automatically attack it. It is hard to complain when blind allegiance makes up many of your supporters as well as detractors.

Since you made this thread *after* you had been removed by power, and the current government no longer recognized you, I would say that's not quite the way it works. And even if that was legal, they could just re-sign them all immediately. So.

[OOC] As part of the unwashed masses with only cursory knowledge of Hobbes, Nazism, or communism, I'd love it if you would explain your contempt instead of merely bashing others. Help further my knowledge, good sir.[/OOC] I do have a quick question for Vladimir- I'm sure it's been asked, but I've never personally seen it. Presumably- and please, correct me if I'm wrong here- you write essays on Francoism and publish them on the OWF in order to spread knowledge of Francoism among the general CN community, and to gain adherants to it. You are aware, of course, that your essays are known for being extremely long and using language so thick you could chip a tooth on it. In fact, they are prohibitively so- considering that Francoism does not actually affect interactions of leaders directly, it is unlikely that many will simply put in the effort to slog through what reads like a textbook. Your use of language, while using a wonderful vocabulary, also unfortunately makes the essays much harder to comprehend. You complain that we, the general public, do not seem to comprehend your masterpieces. If your target audience either remains largely apathetic to Francoism or have the commonly held belief that Francoism is simply justification for whatever they wish to do, is it the failings of the community, or your own failings in reaching the community? Are the essays on Francoism truly informing, or are they simply exercises in vanity?

If you've been removed from power, I'm pretty sure you can't resign from that position, nor can you disband the alliance you no longer lead. Just gonna say.

True, I'm not going to pretend to know a ton about Hobbes except mostly the basics. But I would say NPO gets certainly gets some of its influences from Stalinism and fascism, as I and others pointed out previously.

Really, both Stalin and Hitler followed Hobbes' Leviathan as autocratic rulers, not subject to the will of the people. However, the Stalin and Hitler relations do have more commonalities with NPO because they are RL, such as the "comrade" situation, quasi-social mobility, the "comrades", desire to consolidate and centralize power, and creation of "satellite nations" (Q, 1v). They aren't the same, of course, and NPO's not terribly interested in genocide. Really, you can make a case that most historical autocratic governments are like NPO.

This basically summarizes the thread. Saying that you were "responsible" for mistakes but putting the real blame on everyone else. You give lip service to saying that you were responsible for what BLEU became, but then paint yourselves as not as bad for trying to free themselves of a monster- which implies that you weren't condoning the really bad things. You say you weren't ready to turn tail and flee at the merest whispers of problems with NpO without even confirming the evidence, you were victims of misinformation. Man up. You screwed up big time. I don't think they do that anymore.

True. I agree that fully mentioning the bloc makeup, etc was probably excessive. I was just thinking of things that might be helpful to new players. I would say that at least knowing what the abbreviations of the major blocs stand for is important, though, since that's what the game revolves around right now.

Thistledown: Comes from a book, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. The villain is never mentioned by the name in the book, but is only referred to as "the gentleman with thistledown hair." I liked the word, liked the character (I suppose that says something about me), I chose the name. Nation Name: Lost Hope. In the book, it's the land that the gentleman with thistledown hair rules. It also doesn't help that I was feeling distinctly uncheery at the time. Capital City: Pity Me. In conjunction with the book again, it's another land mentioned, and it fits with the Lost Hope idea.

Major bloc abbreviations- FB, CnG/C&G, Cit, SF, CDT, perhaps some old ones that are still referred to like 1V, Q, UJP. Perhaps explain who these blocs are as well, that'd be useful. A bloc index at the end? Wars- GWI-III, UJW, WotC/noCB. Perhaps mention how the Great Patriotic War is used sometimes (is GPW used? I can't remember) Also, put that banned member is what the forum replaces the name of any member that's been banned with. When I was a nubbins I though that someone actually chose banned member as their ruler name and asked about it. I felt dumb.

I was responding to the post I quoted. My mistake. I'll remember how evil you are in the future.

I have my doubts about this. If you look at the raw numbers instead of percentages, Citadel is still gaining in total number or running about even with the rest of the blocs. It's just that the percentages are lower because for the top stats, Citadel would have to gain about seven nations for each one the lower blocs gain, and about one for every three in the lower stats. It's not a problem with topping out on high NS from where I see things, but rather the way the numbers are presented.

This made the whole story worth reading. Nice gov and whatnot as well.

Survivor: Death Island Day Twenty One Rules for Death Island are as follows: All alliances with a daily score change less than 0.00 will be eliminated from competition. All alliances with a daily score change greater than or equal to 0.00 will remain in the competition. These rules may be modified should no alliance be eliminated for four consecutive days by the method above. (+0.28) Independent Republic Of Orange Nations (49.14) (+0.06) Federation Of Armed Nations (15.36) (+0.02) NATO (13.86) ----------------- 4. Asgaard 5. We Are Perth Army 6. The Dark Templar 7. The Order Of The Black Rose 8. New Sith Order 9. New Pacific Order 10. Commonwealth Of Sovereign Nations 11. World Task Force 12. The Phoenix Federation 13. Athens 14. United Purple Nations 15. Global Alliance And Treaty Organization 16. Green Protection Agency 17. The Grand Lodge Of Freemasons 18. The Circle Of Icarus 19. iFOK 20. Federation Of Buccaneers 21. M*A*S*H 22. AGW Overlords 23. The Order Of Light 24. The United Front 25. Multicolored Cross-X Alliance 26. Vanguard 27. Ragnarok 28. Imperial Assault Alliance 29. Ronin 30. Wolfpack 31. Kronos 32. New Polar Order

November 29, 2009 1 [212] (-2) The Order Of The Paradox : 56.76 --> 56.74 (-0.02) 2 [609] (+2) Mostly Harmless Alliance : 53.17 --> 53.28 (+0.11) 3 [429] (+0) New Polar Order : 53.02 --> 53.09 (+0.07) 4 [525] (-1) Sparta : 52.10 --> 52.17 (+0.07) 5 [529] (+2) Independent Republic Of Orange Nations : 48.86 --> 49.14 (+0.28) 6 [347] (+1) Orange Defense Network : 37.58 --> 37.64 (+0.06) 7 [313] (+1) Fark : 36.64 --> 36.73 (+0.09) 8 [676] (+1) New Pacific Order : 34.92 --> 35.05 (+0.13) 9 [278] (-1) Green Protection Agency : 34.45 --> 34.37 (-0.08) 10 [236] (-1) FOK : 30.83 --> 30.71 (-0.12) 11 [237] (+1) World Task Force : 29.68 --> 29.73 (+0.05) 12 [249] (-1) The Order Of Light : 29.53 --> 29.58 (+0.05) --------------- {170} (+0) Mushroom Kingdom : 29.40 --> 29.46 (+0.06) 13 [290] (+0) Viridian Entente : 28.72 --> 28.79 (+0.07) 14 [399] (+1) The Democratic Order : 27.89 --> 28.01 (+0.12) 15 [307] (-1) Ragnarok : 25.32 --> 25.33 (+0.01) 16 [383] (-2) The Legion : 24.60 --> 24.61 (+0.01) ---------- Tier Barrier 1 : 24.53 --> 24.58 (+0.05) [329] (+1) Global Alliance And Treaty Organization : 24.02 --> 24.37 (+0.35) {191} (-2) Commonwealth Of Sovereign Nations : 21.45 --> 21.20 (-0.25) {70} (-1) The Grämlins : 20.41 --> 20.37 (-0.04) {170} (+0) Athens : 20.17 --> 20.20 (+0.03) [282] (+2) United Purple Nations : 20.07 --> 20.14 (+0.07) [223] (+2) Multicolored Cross-X Alliance : 19.70 --> 19.78 (+0.08) ---------- Tier Barrier 2 : 19.53 --> 19.58 (+0.05) [226] (+1) Random Insanity Alliance : 18.61 --> 18.65 (+0.04) {177} (+0) Siberian Tiger Alliance : 18.27 --> 18.27 (+0.00) [229] (+1) New Sith Order : 16.34 --> 16.37 (+0.03) {172} (+0) Invicta : 16.31 --> 16.31 (+0.00) {126} (+0) M*A*S*H : 16.21 --> 16.24 (+0.03) {153} (+0) North Atlantic Defense Coalition : 16.19 --> 16.23 (+0.04) {154} (+0) We Are Perth Army : 15.82 --> 15.83 (+0.01) {198} (+1) RnR : 15.45 --> 15.81 (+0.36) {121} (+0) Nueva Vida : 15.75 --> 15.76 (+0.01) {199} (+1) Federation of Armed Nations : 15.30 --> 15.36 (+0.06) ---------- Add Line : 14.76 --> 14.79 (+0.03) ---------- Drop Line : 14.46 --> 14.49 (+0.03) Biggest Gainer RnR (+0.36) Biggest Loser Commonwealth Of Sovereign Nations (-0.25) Passes of the Day RnR passes Nueva Vida Commentary Today was a good day for sanction race alliances, as only 5 out of the 33 racing alliances lost score. At the top of the race, the Mostly Harmless Alliance posts a nice gain of over a tenth of a point to pull away slightly from the New Polar Order and Sparta just beneath. A hefty gain of over a quarter of a point puts the Independent Republic Of Orange Nations closer to joining in the battle for their old spot in second place. The New Pacific Order makes the next biggest gain of the the sanctioned alliances with over a tenth of a point, allowing them to pull away from the neutral menace the Green Protection Agency. Lower down, Ragnarok sees their streak of big gains end, earning only a hundredth of a point. A similarly small gain from The Legion puts them in danger of being pushed back down into the second tier. Meanwhile, a huge gain of over a third of a point puts the Global Alliance And Treaty Organization within striking distance of Tier Barrier 1 and The Legion and only a hundredth of a point away from the Biggest Gainer award. Just beneath, the Commonwealth Of Sovereign Nations gets hit hard as they lose a quarter of a point to take home the Biggest Loser award. There are tight races throughout the bottom tier, as the New Sith Order, Invicta, M*A*S*H and the North Atlantic Defense Coalition all lie within just over a tenth of a point of each other, making for some interesting racing ahead. Beneath them, RnR has a huge day, making the only pass of the day over Nueva Vida. With Nueva Vida, RnR and the We Are Perth Army within a tenth of a point of each other and the ever-growing Federation of Armed Nations just beneath, look for passes in the days ahead. ---------- Related Links: Stats By Unspeakable Evil Tournament Edition Sanction Race How To Update the Amazing Sanction Race Sanction Race Update Creator spreadsheet: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pFd...rmXWQ&hl=en

Update looms.

What? I used the stats from clicking on the live, updated stats. Clicking on each alliance individually and whatnot. EDIT: You NPO hooligans, gaining score after I've already taken your stats. It'll be on next update, mkay?

Survivor: Death Island Day Twenty Rules for Death Island are as follows: All alliances with a daily score change less than 0.00 will be eliminated from competition. All alliances with a daily score change greater than or equal to 0.00 will remain in the competition. These rules may be modified should no alliance be eliminated for four consecutive days by the method above. (+0.06) Independent Republic Of Orange Nations (48.86) (+0.03) Federation Of Armed Nations (15.30) (+0.01) NATO (13.84) ----------------- 4. (-0.12) Asgaard (5.45) 5. We Are Perth Army 6. The Dark Templar 7. The Order Of The Black Rose 8. New Sith Order 9. New Pacific Order 10. Commonwealth Of Sovereign Nations 11. World Task Force 12. The Phoenix Federation 13. Athens 14. United Purple Nations 15. Global Alliance And Treaty Organization 16. Green Protection Agency 17. The Grand Lodge Of Freemasons 18. The Circle Of Icarus 19. iFOK 20. Federation Of Buccaneers 21. M*A*S*H 22. AGW Overlords 23. The Order Of Light 24. The United Front 25. Multicolored Cross-X Alliance 26. Vanguard 27. Ragnarok 28. Imperial Assault Alliance 29. Ronin 30. Wolfpack 31. Kronos 32. New Polar Order

November 28, 2009 1 [214] (+0) The Order Of The Paradox : 57.11 --> 56.76 (-0.35) 2 [607] (-5) Mostly Harmless Alliance : 53.18 --> 53.17 (-0.01) 3 [429] (-2) New Polar Order : 53.34 --> 53.02 (-0.32) 4 [526] (-1) Sparta : 51.79 --> 52.10 (+0.31) 5 [527] (-2) Independent Republic Of Orange Nations : 48.80 --> 48.86 (+0.06) 6 [346] (-2) Orange Defense Network : 37.60 --> 37.58 (-0.02) 7 [312] (+0) Fark : 36.62 --> 36.64 (+0.02) 8 [675] (-2) New Pacific Order : 34.88 --> 34.92 (+0.04) 9 [279] (+2) Green Protection Agency : 34.38 --> 34.45 (+0.07) 10 [237] (+1) FOK : 30.76 --> 30.83 (+0.07) 11 [236] (-1) World Task Force : 29.67 --> 29.68 (+0.01) 12 [250] (+2) The Order Of Light : 29.48 --> 29.53 (+0.05) --------------- {170} (-2) Mushroom Kingdom : 29.40 --> 29.40 (+0.00) 13 [290] (-4) Viridian Entente : 28.83 --> 28.72 (-0.11) 14 [398] (-2) The Democratic Order : 27.87 --> 27.89 (+0.02) 15 [308] (+2) Ragnarok : 25.20 --> 25.32 (+0.12) 16 [385] (+0) The Legion : 24.58 --> 24.60 (+0.02) ---------- Tier Barrier 1 : 24.48 --> 24.53 (+0.05) [328] (+2) Global Alliance And Treaty Organization : 23.93 --> 24.02 (+0.09) {193} (+0) Commonwealth Of Sovereign Nations : 21.41 --> 21.45 (+0.04) {71} (+0) The Grämlins : 20.40 --> 20.41 (+0.01) {170} (+0) Athens : 20.15 --> 20.17 (+0.02) [280] (+10) United Purple Nations : 19.95 --> 20.07 (+0.12) [221] (+0) Multicolored Cross-X Alliance : 19.67 --> 19.70 (+0.03) ---------- Tier Barrier 2 : 19.48 --> 19.53 (+0.05) [225] (+0) Random Insanity Alliance : 18.58 --> 18.61 (+0.03) {177} (-1) Siberian Tiger Alliance : 18.26 --> 18.27 (+0.01) [228] (+1) New Sith Order : 16.32 --> 16.34 (+0.02) {172} (-1) Invicta : 16.31 --> 16.31 (+0.00) {126} (+0) M*A*S*H : 16.20 --> 16.21 (+0.01) {153} (+1) North Atlantic Defense Coalition : 16.07 --> 16.19 (+0.12) {154} (-2) We Are Perth Army : 15.87 --> 15.82 (-0.05) {121} (-1) Nueva Vida : 15.85 --> 15.75 (-0.10) {197} (+1) RnR : 15.43 --> 15.45 (+0.02) {198} (+1) Federation of Armed Nations : 15.27 --> 15.30 (+0.03) ---------- Add Line : 14.74 --> 14.76 (+0.02) ---------- Drop Line : 14.44 --> 14.46 (+0.02) Biggest Gainer Sparta (+0.31) Biggest Loser The Order Of The Paradox (-0.35) Passes of the Day Mostly Harmless Alliance passes New Polar Order Commentary The main action took place at the top of the sanction race today, as both The Order Of The Paradox and the New Polar Order continued their slides, with each posting a loss of about a third of a point. The New Polar Order's slide allows the Mostly Harmless Alliance to regain second place, and Sparta's gain of about a third of a point creates a spread of only just over a point between the second and fourth place alliances. Things look both tamer and more positive outside of the sanctioned alliances, as only three other alliances lose score. Today's shoutout goes to United Purple Nations's recruiters, as they match the far larger New Pacific Order's achievement of ten new members today, posting a nice gain of over a tenth of a point in the process. Again, if I screwed anything up, lemmeknow. ---------- Related Links: Stats By Unspeakable Evil Tournament Edition Sanction Race How To Update the Amazing Sanction Race Sanction Race Update Creator spreadsheet: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pFd...rmXWQ&hl=en

All fixed. I think. I'll do this again if no one else wants it, after reading the instructions on how to do it I found in those links I never look at in the bottom last night. Hopefully this means less time and formatting shenanigans.

Survivor: Death Island Day Nineteen Rules for Death Island are as follows: All alliances with a daily score change less than 0.00 will be eliminated from competition. All alliances with a daily score change greater than or equal to 0.00 will remain in the competition. These rules may be modified should no alliance be eliminated for four consecutive days by the method above. (+0.13) Independent Republic Of Orange Nations (48.80) (+0.08) NATO (13.83) (+0.02) Federation Of Armed Nations (15.27) (+0.01) Asgaard (5.57) --------------- -- 5. We Are Perth Army 6. The Dark Templar 7. The Order Of The Black Rose 8. New Sith Order 9. New Pacific Order 10. Commonwealth Of Sovereign Nations 11. World Task Force 12. The Phoenix Federation 13. Athens 14. United Purple Nations 15. Global Alliance And Treaty Organization 16. Green Protection Agency 17. The Grand Lodge Of Freemasons 18. The Circle Of Icarus 19. iFOK 20. Federation Of Buccaneers 21. M*A*S*H 22. AGW Overlords 23. The Order Of Light 24. The United Front 25. Multicolored Cross-X Alliance 26. Vanguard 27. Ragnarok 28. Imperial Assault Alliance 29. Ronin 30. Wolfpack 31. Kronos 32. New Polar Order

November 27, 2009 1 [214] (+0) The Order Of The Paradox : 57.24 --> 57.11 (-0.13) 2 [431] (-2) New Polar Order : 53.59 --> 53.34 (-0.25) 3 [612] (+2) Mostly Harmless Alliance : 53.11 --> 53.18 (+0.07) 4 [527] (-2) Sparta : 51.65 --> 51.79 (+0.14) 5 [529] (+2) Independent Republic Of Orange Nations : 48.67 --> 48.80 (+0.13) 6 [348] (-1) Orange Defense Network : 37.62 --> 37.60 (-0.02) 7 [312] (+1) Fark : 36.52 --> 36.62 (+0.10) 8 [677] (+10) New Pacific Order : 34.66 --> 34.88 (+0.22) 9 [277] (-4) Green Protection Agency : 34.39 --> 34.38 (-0.01) 10 [236] (+3) FOK : 30.69 --> 30.76 (+0.07) 11 [237] (-2) World Task Force : 29.67 --> 29.67 (+0.00) 12 [248] (-3) The Order Of Light : 29.64 --> 29.48 (-0.16) --------------- {172} (+1) Mushroom Kingdom : 29.13 --> 29.40 (+0.27) 13 [294] (-1) Viridian Entente : 28.80 --> 28.83 (+0.03) 14 [400] (-4) The Democratic Order :27.98 --> 27.87 (-0.11) 15 [306] (-1) Ragnarok : 24.98 --> 25.20 (+0.22) 16 [385] (-3) The Legion : 24.64 --> 24.58 (-0.06) ---------- Tier Barrier 1 : 24.64 --> 24.48 (-0.16) [326] (-3) Global Alliance And Treaty Organization : 23.92 --> 23.93 (+0.01) {193} (-2) Commonwealth Of Sovereign Nations : 21.44 --> 21.41 (-0.03) {71} (+0) The Grämlins : 20.39 --> 20.40 (+0.01) {170} (+0) Athens : 20.13 --> 20.15 (+0.02) [270] (+8) United Purple Nations : 19.82 --> 19.95 (+0.13) [221] (-2) Multicolored Cross-X Alliance : 19.73 --> 19.67 (-0.06) ---------- Tier Barrier 2 : 19.64 -->19.48 (-0.16) [225] (+0) Random Insanity Alliance : 18.50 --> 18.58 (+0.08) {178} (+0) Siberian Tiger Alliance : 18.23 --> 18.26 (+0.03) [227] (-3) New Sith Order : 16.74 --> 16.32 (-0.42) {173} (-1) Invicta : 16.21 --> 16.31 (+0.10) {126} (-1) M*A*S*H : 16.21 --> 16.20 (-0.01) {152} (+0) North Atlantic Defense Coalition : 16.04 --> 16.07 (+0.03) {156} (-1) We Are Perth Army : 15.87 --> 15.87 (+0.00) {122} (+0) Nueva Vida : 15.81 --> 15.85 (+0.04) {196} (+2) RnR : 15.38 --> 15.43 (+0.05) {197} (-1) Federation of Armed Nations : 15.25 --> 15.27 (+0.02) ---------- Add Line : 14.82 --> 14.74 (-0.08) ---------- Drop Line : 14.52 --> 14.44 (-0.08) Biggest Gainer Mushroom Kingdom (+0.27) Biggest Loser New Sith Order (-0.42) Passes of the Day The Legion passes Tier Barrier 1 Commentary It was an uneven day in the sanction race today, as there are several large gains and losses but no true passes. In the sanctioned alliances, The Order Of The Paradox takes a large hit, but the second place challenger the New Polar Order takes a massive quarter point hit to extend the gap between the top two and move the New Polar Order close to being passed by the Mostly Harmless Alliance. Further down, kudos go out to the New Pacific Order's recruiting corps, picking up a whopping ten members to counterbalance their one-time brother's loss with a gain nearly a quarter of a point. In the sanctioned-alliances-in-waiting, the Mushroom Kingdom picks up the biggest gainer prize with a gain of over a quarter of a point, nearly moving them into a would-be sanction spot once again. The Legion also makes the sole pass of the day as they move past the Tier 1 barrier thanks to a large loss by The Order Of Light, joining the near-aquarium above. Lower down there's little action, though it's a good day for purple as both Invicta and United Purple Nations both post gains of a tenth of a point or higher. The real story down here, however, is the New Sith Order, who drop nearly half a point after losing only three members to beat out their Frostbite friends the New Polar Order for the Biggest Loser prize and move Invicta within a hair's breadth of passing. If there are any problems with it, let me know. I'll adjust a few colors tomorrow.

I suppose if no one else is doing this I can. Wait. Who am I?

I feel like I should be seeing something in those Boggle letters but I'm just not. Even if there's nothing there, it's going to drive me crazy/crazier. Also we're awesome, yeah that