Proposal for Citizenship

Since the flames have died down, and we are generally cooperating, I would like to propose 3 requirements for citzenship. Let the flaming begin.

1) Declaring that they are interested in joining the project
2) A formal agreement with the Constitution
3) Finding a job in the city.

1 & 2 have been discussed, using far more elegant words, and at least some of you are in agreement. So I'll focus on #3:

Not being a citizen does not preclude you for hanging out in Neualtenburg with your friends, attending Neualtenburg events, or anything else that involves not working.

What citizenship does grant you, is the ability to work with other Artisans to sell goods, some basic forms of protection for the merchant, the ability to use Neaultenburg for events, the ability to lease land and a cut of the overall city dwell.

If someone is not contributing to the city in any way, I don't see why they should reap the benefits of everyone elses hardwork.

You can't script, build or texture you say? No problem there are tons of jobs in the city. We need event hosts, marketing folks, financial analysts, forum monitors (as in notifying the group of interesting threads), Assistants to the Legislature, Assistants to the Philosophers, Bavarian Researchers (googlers), etc etc etc. Your imagination is the limit, if you can dream up a productive city job, then go for it. We have our first "Shock Jock" in Ace Cassidy and he's doing an incredible job.

What I fear is a city who's "free rider" proportion is much greater than it's productive citizens. This could lead to unfair demands on the Artisans, as the "free riders" will be vocal in what things should be created next and put pressure on the Artisans. Even if the Constitution protects the Artisans from this, there could still be social pressures.

This is a very complex problem. The problem is that in any population, productivity will always be distributed according to a power law. Stated simply, that means that 20% of the population will do 80% of the work. To exclude the unproductive members would mean that we would be engineering our society to optimize for productivity. I think we agree that the goal is to strive for eventual open membership.

What I had envisioned originally, is that we would have three types of contribution to the city. The most important is land-tier contribution (which comes with a dwelling in the city), the next is the revenue from the selling of goods (artisans receive the majority of the revenue), and the collection of rent from buildings that we will lease to citizens. What I think we should do is require that all members provide revenue in one of these three forms. For contributors that are only loosely involved, they could own a small room in the city for a very small fee (L$25 per week).

What say you to this?

~Ulrika~

I'm on board with this.

I think I can understand the reasoning behind that, Satchmo... a very good way to limit group membership to "really interested parties" that want to do some actual work. I like it a lot...

I agree with Ulrika's proposal as well. It seems a good way to compromise

I am not for putting a bunch of limits on citizenship but I will say that there should be some kind of requirements. Practically every civilized nation and perhaps uncivilized ones too… hehe… require something to qualify for citizenship.

Here is my suggestion:
1. Anyone can become a non-voting citizen but that there be a cooling off period where they can explore the opportunities for them to become a part of the city. I would not make that TOO long, maybe 1 month which comparing online time to RL time is probably kind of like a year in RL.

2. After the month has passed the person will come before a citizenship board consisting of 3 people. At this hearing they will describe the last months experience, why they want to become citizens and what their roll in the city will be. They will need 2 current citizens to vouch for their legitimate desire to become a citizen and for their actively taking part in the city over the last month.

3. They will agree to abide by all of the laws and the constitution and to submit to any disciplinary action that may occur due to their behavior.

4. After approval from this board their status will change to full citizenship with voting rights.

This satisfies that all are welcome to take part in the city and become citizens with a minimal amount of work and time for them to qualify. It also will help weed out those who are not really interested in being a part of the city because they will most likely not bother going trough with the farce of participating for a whole month and becoming a part of what is going on.

Anyway, that’s my 2 cents worth.

That proposal sounds good to me.

Hmm. How about we combine the two- they have the 'cooling off period' to find something to do in the city?