The NS Draftroom
The NS Draftroom is a forum created by Sarzonia to facilitate the sharing of ideas and gaining feedback on custom designs for NS vehicles, generally military vehicles. It once merged with Lineartinc to cover discussion of lineart and off-topic issues previously not allowed. Although it now has separated again, and is on the verge of complete inactivity due to the exodus of a large portion of its members to Lineartinc, and a new draftroom operated by The Macabees.
Contents
Introduction
Created when the player behind Sarzonia saw a need to create an off-site forum for discussion of developing designs by NationStates players, the NS Draftroom is a location where several fora exist for players to post their initial design concepts for weapons, ships, and systems to be used in roleplays. Unlike the previously created Lineart Inc boards, which promote a more casual atmosphere, the NS Draftroom is designed as a more structured forum for discussion of technology, tactics, and other matters as they relate to NationStates.
To join the NS Draftroom, you must register at the offsite forum with your unalterable NS name (for example, the Excessively Armed Empire of Automagfreek would register as Automagfreek) to make it easier for the administration to recognise the player registering for the board.
Beyond the message board, the Draftroom maintains an IRC channel on esper.net, which is widely regarded as a place for teenagers to meet and exchange racial slurs.
History
Origins
Before the Lineart forum was created, there was only one widely used off site forum open to roleplayers from all different RP backgrounds, the International Mall. While there were some research and development-type threads, the intent of the International Mall was to present final products for sale, promote roleplaying, particularly when the Jolt forums used to run NationStates are offline, and provide an outlet for players to interact in a relaxed, casual atmosphere. When Hogsweat created the Lineart forum, he intended its primary mission to be a place where players who draw pictures of their NS designs could receive feedback or instruction. As a secondary mission, it would allow players who do not draw their own designs to commission another player to draw their designs.
When the management style seemed to be too informal for him, Sarzonia established the NS Draftroom as a more structured environment with the intent to draw as its primary audience players whose primary specialty is the conceptualising of new designs rather than the actual lineart. At the very beginning, some in the Lineart board questioned Sarzonia about the intent, saying they were similar in purpose, but the boards eventually evolved in different directions with different management styles and different primary focuses. Both boards claim very similar clienteles, as they share many of the same user base.
Merger with Lineartinc
In May 2006, Praetonia and Hogsweat (now Questers) approached Sarzonia with an agreement to merge Lineartinc into The NS Draftroom, they claimed to increase usage of the lineart discussion aspects of lineartinc, which had by then fallen almost completely silent. Sarzonia accepted the offer, creating Lineart and General Discussion sections on The NS Draftroom and making Questers and Praetonia administrators.
Mekugi, another of the former Lineartinc administrators was made a global moderator of The NS Draftroom almost immediately afterwards and Zepplin Manufacturers already held such a position. Kriegorgrad had since fallen almost completely inactive.
After the merger, the lineart section of The NS Draftroom has proved much more active than Lineartinc towards the end of its life, and the positioning of the section gave the lineart posted there considerably greater exposure amongst non-linearters. Although initial skepticism was shown by some of the old Lineartinc members, who were upset by the perceived desturction of their forum and some of the old Draftroom members who believed that a merger would introduce perceived Lineartinc anarchism into their board, the merger was widely considered to have been successful. However...
Partition with Lineartinc
On October, 27th, 2006, two pictures, the first, created by Hogsweat, proclaiming "And on the seventh day, god created the line tool", with a new logo featuring the paint bucket from MSPaint and MS Paint's line tool, ala Hammer and Sickle- , which was seen by several board members. A second picture, created by Willink, featured a representation of the famous picture of Che Guevara, with the newly revealed Lineartinc logo featured on his hat. The next day LineartInc was reformed and Hogsweat resigned as Draftroom Administrator. Willink was also appointed as part of the LineartInc administration team.
Exodus
Sarzonia practiced a rather strong kind of moderation, called "un-democratic and dictatorial" by some. After The Macabees "Posted past lock" on an IRC thread in order to help a fellow Draftroomer out. The Macabees was warned, and after he pointed out that he was merely triying to help and not subvert anyones authority (although his exact words were much more sarcastic), he was suspended for two weeks. After protests, Whyatica was banned for calling for the resignation of Sarzonia, and any threads regarding the incident were deleted.
These actions were not taken well by the members of TND. There was protest, and The Macabees was restored, although "Whyatica's account will not be restored. Ever". This displeased the TND community even further, some of whom publically resigned their membership at TND, and more who simply left.
These ex-TND members moved to LINC and to The Macabees new draftroom ([1]).
Military
The first intent of the NS Draftroom was to create a forum where players could post their designs of products such as main battle tanks, superdreadnoughts, aircraft, and space designs and other players could help by providing constructive feedback on the feasibility of the design or about tweaking the product to make it more believeable. Some of the features of the board include specific fora devoted to naval, air force, or army designs, future tech fora, and Concepts Inc., which is intended for players who have a general concept of a design but need suggestions on how to bring the design into fruition.
A recent addition to the NS Draftroom board is a Tactics section where players can discuss or debate tactics for ground, naval, aerial, or future tech combat. Players can either debate combat doctrine or provide instruction to other players on areas of roleplayed expertise.
Civilian
While most players pay attention to military technology for RP purposes, the occasional use and development of civilian technology provides the NS Draftroom with an opportunity to provide a place for players to design for NationStates without warfighting in mind.
Debating
The NS Draftroom is not intended as a debating board, but inevitably, disagreements occur between players. Recognising this, one of the newest additions to the Draftroom board is the inclusion of two fora devoted to debate. The Draftroom's rules on civility are particularly enforced in the debating fora. The NS Draftroom is designed to be an OOC board so that posts are not made with IC alliances or enmities in mind. If someone posts comments about a design, he or she is expected to post as the player, not as the country or its characters. The NS Draftroom contains people on all sides of various foreign and domestic policy spectra and from different backgrounds on the socio-political spectrum.
Administration
The original NS Draftroom is administered by Sarzonia (also founder), and Praetonia, with Mekugi, Hogsweat, GMC Military Arms, DontPissUsOff, ZMI, Space Union, The Macabees and The Silver Sky serving as Global Moderators. However, a second NS Draftroom is administered by The Macabees and Hogsweat.
