Announcement of Candidacy

[Tomn]

Ladies and gentlemen, it's probably about time for the new gubernatorial elections, and I am announcing that I would like to run for the office, whenever the elections happen to start!  Of course, you may be wondering what my platform is.  This is difficult, as Durham doesn't really have any policies to change.  So my platform is to create policies for Durham!

For instance, the cornerstone of my policies is the institution of the Citizens of Durham program.  For a monthly tax of ten gold, citizens will gain the following rights:

The right to vote,
The right to hold office,
Diplomatic protection (That is, clans who attack a citizen without due cause will be required by the Governor to apologize and pay due compensation, or else)
The right to press charges (That is, if the citizen is killed by any non-aligned persons anywhere, he can call upon the Governor of Durham to declare him a criminal)

Naturally, these policies will only be put into effect after I have become Governor; before then, we'll be voting with the same system that got Commodore Jacobi into office.

But that's not all.  We also have the Licensed Traders of Durham policy.  Are you a foreign, non-Durham trader?  Are you annoyed at the constant killings of your person, so detrimental to trade?  Well, we can't promise to give you a suit of invincibility, but for a modest, negotiable monthly fee, you CAN become a Licensed Trader of Durham, gaining the same diplomatic protection and the right to press charges as the citizens of Durham will enjoy! 

Of course, the Libertarians amongst you lot are going to say, "Hey now!  You're charging honest, hard-working people money for doing nothing!  Where's all that money going?"  Good question!  Most of it will be going to the Durham Pistoleer Compensation Plan: Not quite solidified yet, I'll be in discussion with Dennis to work out a favorable method of paying our boys in blue without breaking the bank.  After all, they must stand in boring, low-intensity Travel Inns, make patrols, and put their lives on the line, without any benefit to themselves; it is only fair that they be compensated for this somehow, is it not?

If there's any money left over, we'll also be hiring contractors to keep Durham tidy and maintained, along with the Durham-York highway.  And, naturally, we'll be paying our resident shaman to retain his anti-spirit services.

There are, however, more policies to be put into place!  For instance, there is the question of Durham jurisdiction; how far the Pistoleers can exert their legal influence.  This is something I intend to set in stone, for reference.  I am proposing that we draw a distinct border along the Durham Peninsula; within these borders, Durham lawmen can punish criminals at will.  However, only within Durham proper and the Travel Inns will non-citizen crimes be counted.  And, of course, Fort Creedy remains inviolate.

I will also be trying to revise the Durham legal system.  At the moment, we have only one level of severity: Harsh.  It is proposed that a new legal system be set in place with different punishments for different crimes, using some combination of the following:
Fines
Apologies
One-time executions (possibly by the wronged party)
Temporary banishments
Permanent banishments (KOS)
If you have wronged the honest men and women of Durham before, it will now be possible to atone for your sins, provided you haven't gained a name as a ruthless mass, mass murderer.

This isn't all I intend to do.  The following are either side projects or undetermined decisions that need making:
Whether or not assault is a crime, with or without healing afterwards.
A public declaration of our stance on racism (bad).
The formation of the Durham Foreign Legion, an army where criminals of all sorts may serve in to rehabilitate themselves through fire and discipline.
The possible appointment of a Judge and a Treasurer
Clarifying diplomatic stances on all major political clans
Deciding how to handle Pistoleers who take a leave of absence of act in a fashion that the Durham Government isn't willing to commit to (attacking York, for instance)

Now, some of the old guard Durhamites will be shaking your head now and saying "Why do we need all this stuff?  Durham was fine the way it was.  Why complicate it with all this useless trash?"  In this, they are correct: Durham DID live without government, and it can live without.  However, I believe that this will be a positive step for community development in Durham, if not Shartak.  Most of the forum-goers, and those who currently play Shartak are self-motivated; they are people who, when confronted with a desert and supplied with food and water, would be perfectly content to create castles and worlds out of the sand.  The majority of people and players, however, are NOT.  They see the desert as merely an obstacle to cross and escape.  Shartak is not a game, gentlemen.  In its absolute sense, it is a boring grind, and if people wanted to grind they would play World of Warcraft.  What Shartak is, in fact, is a platform for the imagination, for the community.  Thus, to stretch the analogy, I am trying to build a larger sand castle so that those who pass by will see it, and upon seeing it, be inspired to join in.  They may build, or they may destroy.  They may go against us, or for us.  But whatever they do, the community will grow, and that, in the end, is what drives Shartak.  The community.  Not the gameplay.

One final note: As some Pistoleers already know, I do intend to eventually try and make Durham a monarchy.  This is mostly for reasons of flavor, I assure you; royalty and all its trappings make an interestingly irrational counterpoint to, say, American bureaucracy.  Besides, as a governor, I would already have as much power as any king: That is to say, as much as the Pistoleers are willing to allow me to handle.  I say all this in order to be upfront and hide nothing.

So, then, gentlemen of Durham, might I have your votes for the election, whenever it is?

[Roman Totale]

Your signature is very apt for me at the moment 

[FirstAmongstDaves]

I didn't know Governor Jacobi's term has expired.

The Bank, as ever, remains neutral in such things and wishes all candidates the best of luck. If you need an incorruptible election official, please feel free to call upon Hideo Inakajimita

[Tomn]

Eh, I don't know when his term expires, but it's been a few months, hasn't it?  Besides, I'm merely saying that I'm open as a candidate, whenever the elections are, much like how certain Presidential candidates begin their campaign immediately after the election.  Up to Dennis or Jacobi as to when the actual elections are.

And yeah, I picked that signature for a reason.  Did you ever see my first posts on this forum?

[0000FF Beard]

I'm really excited that someone has made this kind of proposals
This might actually be a breaktrough in Shartak politics.
Also, have you thought about a casino for additional income

[Euphenics]

Would your government be interested in contracting Durham Utility? Our Durham Expressway (toll road going directly to the shipwreck and Derby) project needs capital for labour.

[Jhelai]

At first thought I saw "the right to live" after the tax-part, but that would have been pushing it a little too much.

[Tomn]

Nah, not registering as a citizen simply means you get the status quo: You get killed in Durham or the rest stops, the killer is a criminal.  If you've registered as a citizen and failed to pay your taxes, though, you're stripped of your rights and a ten gold fine is added for whenever you want to go back into the citizenry.  Simple as that.

And yes, once we've figured out budgeting concerns for the Pistoleers, we can decide how to allocate the remaining money, and Durham Utility is likely the best (and only) contractor to work with.  At the moment, though, we'd probably be paying you only for keeping up the York highway, maintaining Durham itself, and keeping up a few public service signposts.

And as for a casino...hurm.  Explain more.

[Mark D. Stroyer]

So that means it's completely legal to kill any Durhamite who has not paid 10 coins. Yep, uh-huh. Great police policy right there. Also, does this mean that people from other camps are also perfectly legal to kill, or do they get protection, or do they also have to pay 10 coins and become a Citizen of Durham? And what if the person was intending to pay and become a citizen, but the person they have to pay is gone, and they can't, and then they get killed before they can pay? Is that killing legal or illegal?

[Tomn]

I believe you might have misread what I said.  The standard laws apply: No killing in Durham or the rest stops of anyone, as is standard Pistoleer policy.  As a citizen, crimes outside of the standard jurisdiction areas will also apply.  It is an addition to the existing rights that everyone in Durham enjoys, not a rewriting of the basic laws. 

[0000FF Beard]

And as for a casino...hurm.  Explain more.

Well, a place where people los- win money
Both Derby and York clans thought about starting one, but it never happened, AFAIK.

Anyway, in a Shartak casino there could be gambling activities such as:

1. Betting on an event.
For example, if two clans are fighting, a player would be able to bet on one clan.
The recent Raktam-pirate fight could've been used.

2. Lottery.
A player gives you money and in return gets a number.
Later, you use a random number generator to select the winner and give all the gold to them.

3. Coin toss.
Two players give you the same amount money and select heads or tails.
You toss a coin (ingame) and give the money of both players to the winner.
There's a game like this in KoL, and I really like it.

4. Fight to death.
Two or more players give you the same amount of money and fight until only one is left alive.
Last one standing gets the gold.

To gain money, you'd just have to keep a part of the prize for yourself.
Of course, starting a casino can be dangerous, because someone might kill you if they lose, for example.
That's the reason why I never started a casino myself

[FirstAmongstDaves]

Gitboy had the idea of a casino as something for the bank to do with all its money. Coin toss makes it easy to play "two-up" - toss two coins, if you choose both heads or both tails or the mix then you get a share in the winnings, and the house keeps half if its the mix.

If someone wants to start the idea of a casino then the bank is willing to back it.

[Mill Wilkinson]

I follow Tomn. Paying taxes might be a hard for my level of "activity", but I like the idea of supporting Durham. But would the fines be used for Durham?

[Tomn]

Mmm...set up a casino if you want, but the first time there's a whiff of the house rigging things, you're getting closed down, fined, and temporarily banished.  Just so's you know.  But on the other hand, we'll also offer you protection from disgruntled and unlucky players.  Be fair, and we'll let you go along, see what I'm saying?

Now, about the taxing.  By my calculations, one day of FAK gathering and one day of FAK selling should net you at least ten gold, to say nothing of the various, more profitable places to sell FAKs.  Ten gold per head per month seems to me quite reasonable.  The money taxed will likely go mainly to paying the Pistoleers; I'd also like to talk with Dennis a bit about training the Pistoleers in proper police methods, so that we can claim a higher standard of police work than "Any berk with the badge can club anyone who looks suspicious."  We would, therefore, have a professional and motivated police force.  The rest of the money will go to the hiring of shamans, for anti-spirit work, and also to various public utilities, such as putting up public notices, maintaining the roads, and keep Durham well-mowed.  If possible, we'll try to maintain a small surplus to sit in the treasury, in case of emergencies.

On a side note, I'll be making the budget public, so that everyone can see how much money is coming in from where, and how much is going where.  I'd also like to mention that citizens will be able to pay their tax for the month any time in the month, with the deadline being the end of the month (which would also be the point at which the government pays whoever needs paying).  They will not, however, be able to pay their taxes for the next month, mainly because of the paperwork headache that would cause.

Now, can a higher-ranking member of the Pistoleers please come along to decide when the election is?

[oktavius]

Creedy Republic does not normally interfere with the internal affairs of other settlements. However some of the proposals of Tomn directly affect the well-being of our citizens and even our existence as an independent state and I am forced to make clear that we will not remain silent observers if any of them are to materialize.

We cannot accept the hundred-fold expansion of Durham's jurisdiction that will cover the whole peninsula. Such expansion will completely encompass Fort Creedy and place it under the sphere of influence of Durham, undermining our independence. We will not accept the patrols of armed foreign forces around our borders, making our citizens feel threatened and our Republic vulnerable. We will not allow Durham to restrict our access to vital resources, effectively controlling our future.

I hope that the new government of Durham, whoever and whenever it may be, will not continue this path of escalation and negotiate with us. We wish our relations with Durham to remain amicable, as they have been so far. It is up to Durham to make this happen.

Eptavian,
President of the Independent Republic of Fort Creedy