Censorship on the ADN forum

[Pierconium]

I was challenged to provide proof that I knew more than a rudimentary knowledge of the ADN plan used to liberate The North Pacific.

I refrained from posting said plans and yet was subject once again to the constant flaming I endure when there.

I then posted the plans within the following statement. It was promptly deleted (or moved to an admin archives) by Ananke, Sect of State.

My post:

Ah, my mistake then. I was informed by a Mod that the plan was under review, but since the leader of Arda says it isn't then I guess it isn't.

Since it isn't and since I am not afraid to post what I have (unlike others) I will post the plans here so that The Realms of Knowledge will have the opportunity to read and review the plans for themselves.

This is what was sent to me, I verified it's authenticity but did not remove it from this forum myself:

Several plans to liberate The Pacific have been presented /tried before, all with their own strengths and limitations. The plan below addresses the major weaknesses of all prior plans. I am suggesting utilizing it to take back The North Pacific.

Note the following:
- A public attack requires a participation level of many hundreds of nations at update time.
- We do not have such an army. Not even close.
- While an army of 200 nations is possible to gather if we all work together, they will not all be available at update time.
- With hundreds of participants, spies are unavoidable.
- Any plan we make will eventually be known to the NPO or any other adversary, prior to its execution. This includes all information passed on to the nations executing the plan.
- Count on the other side to run an endorsement checking script at, for us, inconvenient moments.

Solution: a plan which allows anyone to participate, even in different timezones, yet keeps the invasion army inconspicuous until the very last minute.

Presenting:
The Puppet Master Attack

Key technical elements:
- The ability to pre-endorse a nation using a non-UN nation. Endorsement only appear when both nations are in the UN and are in the same region together.
- The ability to donate non-UN nations to others (the mods will priorly receive a list of all nations involved, to avoid erronous Multi accusations).

Steps involved:

1- Propaganda to get the target endorsement level down to a manageable level. This involves sending TMs and such. The more nations we get to participate, the higher the target level can be. IMHO, this level has been reached for The North Pacific! The unendorsement campaign should ofcourse continue, especially in case Francos Spain were to take the delegacy over from Great Bight.

2- Participants create, move, or otherwise make available at least one non-UN puppet nation located within The North Pacific by giving the name and password to a trusted Puppet Master. Multiple nations can be used as back-ups in case of mass ejections.

3- The Puppet Master(s) do their techy pre-endorsement magic. Only they know the name of the lead nation and the nations which actually participate. They file the complete list with the mods.

4- All the participants drop UN membership for their normal nations and file for UN membership with all their puppets. One of their NP-based puppets is actually placed into the UN. If they get banned they resign and join with a back-up.

5- The lead nation will have all endorsements. Details on manouvering with this nation is withheld from this publication for obvious reasons.


Items left to discuss:
- When?
- Identity of Puppet Master(s)
- Identity of Lead (though not the nation to be used).

Requirement for the last two is 100% trustworthyness, availability, high level of activity, and a solid technical knowledge of NS system functioning.

Free4All

I am rather surprised at the complexity, although I know it not to be wholly an original work. A method such as this was used in early 2003 and declared illegal by the Mods, guess it depends on who you know when you do it.

Step 1 includes what seems to be an unendorsement campaign (which I thought was illegal).

The following steps include joining the UN, resigning, giving your nation to the ADN "Puppetmasters", taking the nations back and reapplying to the UN. While technically no one nation controlled more than one UN nation at a time the whole process just seems dirty to me. But that is just my opinion.

Decide for yourselves.

Is it really that bad? Is it truly Earth shattering?

[Warrior Thorin]

Well, I find this rather appalling as a strategy. First, you give your nation to a puppetmaster. I thought that the mods suggested that you never give access to your nation. Second, that the mods were involved in permitting this means that any strategy that is questionable is okay as long as a mod or two agrees with it. This seems to be a slippery slope if you ask me. Last, I'm not so sure that this strategy is really in the spirit of the game. In fact, this is far from democratic. Perhaps the ADN does not wish for you to post this information because they are concerned that everyone will see that this is nothing more than an invasion. On a side note, if invader organizations were not savvy enough to figure out this method it could wreak havoc throughout the game.

[Black Adder]

I was under the impression that hole was to be written of existance by the admin. Guess not.

At the very least the last thing they want is to be publicly shown to be cheating.

[Tharain]

In the gaming world, to use a bug in the software to forward your own means is known as cheating.

This is a clear abuse of a bug in the NS system (being able to endorse before being shown as in the UN) and I would say clearly against the spirit of the game.

The current delegate of TNP would have had no idea whatsoever of exactly what was going on.

Just shows the lengths to which some of the fractured elements within the ADN will go to, eh?

One wonders how they would react if an invader did the same tactic against one of their regions?

[Sir Paul]

Let us not forget GB's greatest crime of all...Associating with the NPO. He deserved what he got, and I'm glad that the mods changed the rules to get him out, and then changed them back so no one can ever get him back in. Kudos to Free4All and the mods!

[Kandarin]

Warrior said:

Well, I find this rather appalling as a strategy. First, you give your nation to a puppetmaster. I thought that the mods suggested that you never give access to your nation. Second, that the mods were involved in permitting this means that any strategy that is questionable is okay as long as a mod or two agrees with it. This seems to be a slippery slope if you ask me. Last, I'm not so sure that this strategy is really in the spirit of the game. In fact, this is far from democratic. Perhaps the ADN does not wish for you to post this information because they are concerned that everyone will see that this is nothing more than an invasion. On a side note, if invader organizations were not savvy enough to figure out this method it could wreak havoc throughout the game.

I was under the impression that the Game Mod/Admin community as a whole was made aware of what was planned.

Banning everyone who disagrees with you isn't exactly democratic either. No organization that relies on the Nationstates UN for their power can both be genuinely democratic and survive.

[Black Adder]

Amen brudder. Dirty filthy NPO bastards always looking to take over and crush freedom loving Corporate Bordellos and Father knows best states in one party democratic regions.

I'm glad Moderation worked closely to make sure dose Warmongering Authoritarian Bastards in the NPO got it with a cheat. Huh? ALSO what? Probably NPO in Portugeuse. So what if Franco was Spanish.....wtf its Latino ok?

Whaddya mean we lost Northern Ireland to a preendorsement exploitation? That's cheating!Start a thread in Moderation!

[Tharain]

hehehe...... BA funny!

[General Melchett]

Black said:

I was under the impression that hole was to be written of existance by the admin. Guess not.

At the very least the last thing they want is to be publicly shown to be cheating.

It was. I think.

[Defaultia]

If i'm not mistaken, [violet] said it was okay, and it had nothing to do with the ADN.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, the mods let Francos Spain get to power *without opposition*.

[Doppelganger]

Defaultia said:

Also, if I'm not mistaken, the mods let Francos Spain get to power *without opposition*.

Um yes, that's because Francos Spain was legitimately elected as the Pacific delegate through the game mechanic of endorsements. He didn't use some shady "puppetmaster" technique to gain the delegacy. He did it the good ol fashioned FAIR way.

[Cortath]

Doppelganger said:

Um yes, that's because Francos Spain was legitimately elected as the Pacific delegate through the game mechanic of endorsements. He didn't use some shady "puppetmaster" technique to gain the delegacy. He did it the good ol fashioned FAIR way.

As I recall, on more than one time, the Francos Spain lost his Delegacy due to a glitch and it was the moderators who restored him and asked numerous defender organizations not to take advantage of the glitch, which they followed.

[Pierconium]

I fail to see your point. A game induced glitch isn't the same as the utilization of a gameplay loophole.

[Black Adder]

Correct. It was done because the Mods didn't do anything when Goddessness lost the SP delegacy due to a game generated glitch. It was a game fault which was dealt with the only way it could be. It would be nice if they at least admonished the use of a hole in the programming but then that would cast a light on this sordid mess.

[Mammothistan]

Cortath said:

As I recall, on more than one time, the Francos Spain lost his Delegacy due to a glitch and it was the moderators who restored him and asked numerous defender organizations not to take advantage of the glitch, which they followed.

Followed Crazygirl and Corinthe right into the Pacific.