It's got to start somewhere....

[The Only Angry Neutral]

[[Don't know if this thread is OOC or not, so until otherwise, I will treat it as though it is.]]

Okay, so. If the NDI is to get off the ground, we've got to have some basic, fundamental concrete things on which to build it. ...I think I just mixed some metaphors there, but but You know what I mean.

The NDI would ideally be a coalition of Neutral organizations to represent Neutral interests. There would be 2-3 representatives from each org, with each org getting one vote. Also, we would ideally have some sort of coordinator... preferably an NPC we can vote on. The power of the green name is useful, and in our case, critical.

As for creating a Neutral security force, this issue can be decided on ONCE the NDI is up and running. If we can't present a solid, unified front first, we can't expect that FC will take us seriously, let alone other players. If we can get our S together, and show them we're not a bunch of squabbling and/or apathetic "fence-stters", we have a chance of finally making the neutral community COUNT.

And yes, I'm quite aware few to none of you know who I am, or why I'm babbling away here. Well, this is Ninnyhammer, and I'm here because I believe we have to come together and create the NDI _now,_ because if we continue to ignore it and let it slide, we're going to keep being run over or ignored, and we shouldn't have to suffer that crap.

Now, I'm asking you: what else can we all agree on? We need to form a solid basis for the NDI so we have something to present to FC/ARKs. Once we have the backing --or at least the INVOLVEMENT-- of them, we can truly begin to flesh out the NDI. But we need to come up with and agree on the basic stuff, first.

Thanks for listening.

[Quill]

I have commented on the NDI elsewhere, but I'll try to recapture some of it in short here, for those who don't have access to those forums.

The NDI is, as it was originally proposed, about three things.

1. Diplomatic Neutral Forum - a sort of CoT/BoD lookalike. This is something most RP orgs, and some militant orgs might be interested in.

2. Better guards - this is either an ad-hoc initiative to equip the neutral guards, or it is a matter for the City Councils. Some orgs will be behind this, others not.

3. Research - if this is pure RP it'd be interesting to some RP orgs, if it is a preparation for LE, some militant orgs will probably be interested.

As I see it these things cater to different types of players, and would benefit from being separated into it's different parts. A Neutral Forum, in the spirit of CoT/BoD, would have one goal, and one goal only - to be a place where neutral orgs could voice their opinion, and count on the Forum to attempt to make changes accordingly. Points 2 and 3 of NDI would as such be points to be brought up on this Forum's agenda, not as a part of it's founding manifest. Another possibility is to separate the preparation for LE as a separate initiative, due to it's game-mechanic nature, and the possible interest from orgs who otherwise don't care for RP and chatting beyond "stfu RPer".

As for cooperating with FC/ARK it is important that such a Forum don't forget ARK's initiative towards the Neutral community. I'm thinking about the City Councils. A Neutral Forum would include representatives from interested orgs, _and_ representatives from the City Councils. Also it might be worth considering to be careful to not vacuum all things to be discussed into this Forum, leaving the City Councils with nothing on their agenda. I would for example think that equipping the guards in Newland City with better guns would be a matter for the Newland City Council, and not such a Forum. Instead of trying to put it's nose in city affairs such a Forum might try to open trade with the sideds, so we can access mission terminals and shops in both Clan and Omni territory.

I would hope that in the continuation in this effort to strengthen the Neutrel position we are able to put aside our own agendas, and contact Neutral leaders with one simple message  - the creation of a council of sorts, where everyone will get to voice their opinion. Some leg-work will have to be done, contacting the leaders of Neutral orgs, and have them discuss it with their org. Next I would think it is vital that we have one simple rule as our starting-point: Respect different people's playstyle. With the diversity within the Neutral community, with powerplayers, Omni-lap-dogs, Clan-lap-dogs, RPers, and so on, the Forum's challenge is to juggle everyone's interest, and keep meetings from degenerating into a discusion over what's more important - fixing the Neutral tab-problem, getting a Miir shop in Hope, suck up to Clan to get into Clan raidbots, or how we best can aid Omni in crushing Clans, getting Neutral T3, and so on and so forth.

Right - so much for "in short". I'll zip it now.. 

[Jen]

We need to find a way to get everyone's ideas on board and start editing them together to a workable framework. Until we know what each and every interested party expects, we are going to have people who disagree with every idea put forward. Once we know what everyone expects we can finally move on to the means by which we'll organise and prioritise those expectations.

[Quill]

I'm with Jen. 

There should be a forum, a new one, here, or wherever. Then Neutral leaders need to be contacted, and given a short intro, and asked if their org would be interested in making this happen. I'm all for the idea behind NDI, it was just packaged a little too specific, in my view. And maybe it didn't choose a perfect name for itself. Council of Truth and Board of Directors are names vague enough to work. If we want to create a place where Neutrals can find together on certain topics we need to have that as our goal, and not create an initiative to get better guards. From this meetingplace we can hope that concerns will emerge, that the majority of the Neutral community wants to see changed. If this is to encompass Neutrals as a whole it is 100% certain that people in this meetingplace will be disappointed by the outcomes. We're have different concerns. I think the main focus needs to be that we are asking Neutrals to help build this boat, instead of asking htem to join a boat that already has a destination.

*sigh* - I hope downtime is over soon, or I will be banned from several forums, for overposting..   

[Distraction]

I'll try to post a link to this forum in presidentbot, or at least the URL if I can't figure out how to link it.

[Jen]

It would be useful to turn this place into the hub for all NDI discussion. It's neutral ground to most organisations.

[Trousers]

I just want to toss my 2 cents in here.

It seems the NDI will likely fall in one of two directions..

1)  You can stand as a unified people, perhaps under an elected LTC, and act as a whole.  This type of a founding is likely to give + points with Omni-Tek since it shows dedication and bureaucracy and - point with the CoT since it may make the NDI look more like OT in its organization.

2) You form a council of Organizations that come together to hash out ideas in an open forum.  This idea will likely give + point with the CoT since it would mimic its organization and - points with OT because it shows a lack of rigid construction.

In either case, I think the NDI needs to be a political body long before it develops any kind of physical defense.  Folding the Newland Militia into the NDI and hiring police officers may be acceptable, but a standing army is 100% guaranteed to draw Omni-Armed Force's attention and may provoke another Borealis situation.

Remember, Neuts occupy OT land, so rising a Military too quickly may make a peaceful occupation into a military occupation and then there will be trouble for all of us =\