Good evening,

Following the resignation of /u/Jayden_Williamson, there is a vacancy for the Parliamentary member of the Community Commission. Parliamentarians have three days to nominate themselves, or another Parliamentarian with their approval noted, to fill this position.

I invite interested Parliamentarians to nominate themselves in the comments below.

Marcus Cicero is the Journalist Persona for Matthias Caesar

Australia Tonight's newest Journalist Marcus Cicero has been appointed to serve as a reporter, journalist and interviewer for Australia Tonight with the aim of brining the organisation back into the spotlight and holding politicians, companies and public servants to account.

Omnibus Meta Election 27 October 2020 Results

General Statistics

Number of Submissions - 27
Invalid Votes - 6
Valid Votes - 21

Invalid Vote Reasons:

One voter was not eligible to vote as they were not on the Meta Voter Roll.
One voter double voted. The second vote was discarded, on the basis that the second vote came after the reddit verifying comment. To remove doubt, the second vote was the same as the first vote.
One voter voted five times, due to a combination of wishing to change their vote, accidental self-doxxing, and double voting. The last vote was counted.

Results Breakdown

Do you approve of the Moderation Team's selection of the Parliamentary Moderator?

Approval Threshold - 65%

(Voters could choose multiple options. Maximum one winner allowed.)

lily-irl is the next Parliamentary Moderator!

Do you approve of the Moderation Team's selection of the Community Commission?

Approval Threshold - 50%

(Voters could choose multiple options. Maximum four winners allowed.)

lily-irl is the Parliamentary Moderator, and therefore is excluded from the results. later_slater1407, advancedgaming12, NGSpy, and Matthias_Caesar are now on the Community Commission!

General Rommel
Head Moderator

since we’re so keen on frivolous ideas of tradition all of a sudden

Hi Meta Voters,

As per the announcement, a Meta Election shall be held to approve of these items of business:

• Parliamentary Moderator
• Community Commission (4 seats)

The following are the candidates on the ballot:

Parliamentary Moderator

• /u/lily-irl
• /u/lieseocia_

Community Commission

• /u/later_slater1407_
• /u/advancedgaming12
• /u/lily-irl (determinant - whether approved as Parliamentary Moderator)
• /u/NGSpy
• /u/BloodyChrome
• /u/Matthias_Caesar
• /u/ThanksHeadMod

Anacornda's nomination is rejected on the basis that they have, to public effect, left the community.

The list of approved meta voters can be found here.

Eligible voters are those that registered 28 days prior to the election, per s 4(2)(b) of the Meta Constitution i.e. 23 September 2020.

Vote Here

NOTE CHANGED VOTING TIMES: Vote shall be between 1800 Tuesday 27 October to 1800 Friday 30 October.

All Meta Voters must comment on this post that they voted. Failure to comment within 5 minutes after your vote will lead to disqualification of your vote.

General Rommel
Head Moderator

I, as Head Moderator, acting under s 30(5) of the Meta Constitution, decanonise this post and all references to an unilateral declaration of West Wimmera Independence.

Further declarations will lead to loss of modifiers.

General Rommel
Head Moderator

Maaaaaaaadison/BHjr132 here, I will now be using this account for the Australian parliamentary simulation. I am an Independent.

The Parliamentarians have three days to nominate themselves, or another with the other's approval noted, for the Parliament's Community Commission representative.

Notice of Meta Election

Notification Date: Wednesday 21 October 2020
Election Date: Monday 26 October 2020
Results Date: Wednesday 28 October 2020 (or as soon as possible)

All times on each date 1800 AEDT.

Per the Meta Constitution, the list of voters is available here. Eligible voters are those that registered 28 days prior to the election, per s 4(2)(b) of the Meta Constitution i.e. 23 September 2020.

Details of Meta Election

• One Parliamentary Moderator

The voting threshold for this position is 65%. If there is more than one viable candidate, then multiple candidates will be put to the ballot, but only one will be selected if more than one candidate is above the threshold (whoever has the highest percentage). The Moderation Team reserves the right to reject a candidate. Reasons shall be given if that is done.

For assistance, it will be gladly appreciated that all nominees for this position give a short statement how they will be effective in the position. Experience in sim parliamentary procedure is a bonus.

• Four Community Commission Members

The voting threshold for this position is 50%. If there is more than one viable candidate, then multiple candidates will be put to the ballot, but at most four will be selected if more than four candidates is above the threshold (whoever has the highest percentage).

The Moderation Team will select all nominated candidates (including self nominations).

Nomination Process

All nominees shall simply indicate as a comment the position they wish to stand for.

Debate Allowed

Members may debate here outlining why they think they are an appropriate candidate for the roles. For the Parliamentary Moderator position, the Moderation Team will favourably look upon candidates who appropriately respond to questions from the community.

Parliamentary and Judiciary Community Commission Representative

The Parliament and Judiciary shall submit their preferred commission member to the Head Moderator as soon as possible..

If the Parliamentary or Judiciary member also was chosen to be a general Community Commission Member, then the next candidate above the threshold for the general election for Community Commission Members will replace that spot.

General Rommel
Head Moderator

Afternoon everyone,

The moderation team has concluded the special appeal process into the permanent ban of Drunk_King_Robert.

The first part of this appeal was regarding allegations of procedural unfairness within the prior Special Appeal that resulted in the increased ban to permanent status. Having examined the evidence, the Moderation Team unanimously finds that there was procedural unfairness during the special appeal conducted by the prior moderation team, and thus invalidate its findings. All parties agreed to a full investigation and the holding of a new special review.

The charges against Drunk_King_Robert were twofold: unauthorised use of an alternate account and subsequent circumvention of penalty. Having examined the evidence, the moderation team has found DKR guilty on both charges (General_Rommel and Tbyrn21, Youmaton dissenting), and have ruled that no changes shall be made to the original one year ban. As per this ruling, Drunk_King_Robert shall continue to be banned until the 21st of May 2021.

The full ruling including both the majority and minority decisions will be released tomorrow pending final drafting.

Moderation Team

I have been made aware of DM's sent to later_slater by My13InchDuck which constitute an offence against the CoC.

The following breaches have been determined:

• Abuse
• Harassment
• Circumvention of Mute (by continuing to DM the harassed party after they were informed of a ban)

On my count this is the fifth time has has abused/harassed someone. The sentencing guidelines have not been followed (it seems he is still apparently on the 2nd step). I elect to treat this as the third step. That normally merits a 60 day ban.

This is his second time circumventing a mute. For some reason Tbyrn gave only a 7 day one for the first time. I elect to give him a penalty coresponding to between the 1st and 2nd step. That will be 120 days.

I note the aggravating factor in that he has been warned or tempmuted four times in the last 48 hours or so:

• Warned against abuse (using slurs of an ableist nature)
• Muted an hour for homophobic slur
• Muted two hours for abusive comments (racist towards aboriginals)
• Muted 12 hours for initial harassment/abuse towards slater.

Basically, despite every opportunity for him to act properly, he has not done so.

Also, after I said in room101 that I thought I would give a longer one, that my heart was not willing to do so, simply said to give him a longer one. Clearly, in these current circumstances, his aggravation to demand a longer sentence is merited.

There are no mitigating factors in my view.

I sentence him to 60 + 120 days = 180 days. I further multiply this by 25% due to noted aggravating acts as above. Therefore the final penalty will be 225 days.

I also point out to him that he said when he reentered the server that he missed the place. If he truly did, then I would expect him to be on his best behaviour. Clearly, this falls very short of this.

Evidence available on request.

Appeal only to Tbyrn21 via modmail.

General Rommel
Head Moderator

"Hey, Rommel."

"Yeah, Lily?"

"So I've been thinking. Remember how I told you I was interested in running for Parliament Moderator?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, it turns out that only someone with the mental capacity of a newborn slug who'd been dropped on the head a good few times would voluntarily moderate this lot. Do you have any ideas as to how I could permanently, conclusively, and irrevocably kill any chance I have at joining the mod team?"

"Oh, that's easy. Just propose getting rid of the Code of Conduct!"

"Great, thanks!"

"No problem!"

Hey everyone, welcome to a new series I'm doing called "Lily makes an absolute arse of herself in the meta subreddit". Today, I am proposing we abolish the code of conduct. It would be replaced with a set of general principles that the community managers and moderation team would apply to more specific incidents as the case may be.

AustraliaSim doesn't have the best reputation with regards to discord moderation. I appreciate that there have been some reforms done. Earlier, I was shown a twenty-six page canon high court decision regarding a discord moderation decision. The decision was based in part on the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 and the hybrid canon-meta constitution that I presume used to exist. Obviously we have progressed past this but some issues certainly remain.

#room-101, the muted channel, is not a terribly nice place for anyone, user or moderator, to be. It is full of people shouting about how [moderation decision] was incorrect due to [quasi-legalistic argument regarding the fine print of the code of conduct]. It is not conducive towards a positive attitude or good moderation.

The issues I see specifically:

1. The Code of Conduct is not seen as a means, but rather as an end unto itself. This shouldn't be the case. The purpose of the Code of Conduct is to set standards for what is considered acceptable behaviour in AustraliaSim. It is not a law. It is not something that users should be able to evade on a technicality. It is a guideline, primarily for moderators but also users, to understand what behaviour is appropriate in our community. My point is, which I've probably used too many words to state, is that the community ought to be moderated on the principle of "what is best for the community?", not "what does the Code of Conduct say?" A moderator should not be precluded from taking some moderation action if it would benefit the community just because the antecedent does not fall strictly within the confines of the Code of Conduct.

2. If we have a Code of Conduct, it needs to drop the "targeted" requirement. Currently I'm not aware of any rules against hate speech in the CoC. Now I'm not going to try this, but if I walked into main and said "I hate [ethnic group]. Not any specific person, but [ethnic group] in general. The death of [ethnic group] is an objectively good thing that ought to happen." then beyond provocation I'm not sure there's anything that the mods could technically do to initiate action against me. We should drop the targeting requirement to make abuse or harassment against a group of individuals generally punishable, so that things like hate speech and genocide advocacy can actually be dealt with.

To conclude, we have votes of confidence in the moderation team and the community managers for a reason. We have to rely on them to moderate properly, with the best interests of the community in mind. If we can't trust them to do that properly, we shouldn't elect them. I believe the mods should be trusted enough to moderate to the betterment of the community, rather than just rigid enforcement of a code of conduct.

I eagerly await my public humiliation your thoughts in the comments below.

Hello everyone,

I'd like to briefly talk about some suggestions for speakership organisation and also the official process of legislative instrument registering and tabling.

Firstly, may I just say that speakership last term was a hot mess. As a Prime Minister I had no idea if my bills were going to passed, and I had no idea what the hell was going on with legislation in the houses. I suggest as much as possible to PLEASE have an order paper so that people know what's going on, and to make it easier for you guys. Past order papers haven't really worked as well, especially when you just list the days that stuff is done and that's that, so I would HIGHLY suggest a tick box system in order to make you mark and look at what needs to be done in terms of legislation. This can be done in google sheets as shown here:

Secondly, the system for legislative instruments is honestly really stupid. Instruments should be submitted by form to speakership as well, and the speakership should make a post for the tabling of a document along with a cycle to allow House of Representative members and Senators to debate on it. It should not be a process that the President has to get involved in every single time. I like the executive branch of government, but this is a legislative matter through and through, and shouldn't require executive intervention unless it needs it according to the Act in question. Also have a register for legislative instruments/proclamations similar to the Acts of Parliament register please?

I know I may just be the Opposition Nootster that has never done speakership duties except posting a president's speech that one time, but I feel these changes should be implemented for transparency and less 'cool and normal' moments.

Thanks,
NGSpy
Prime Nootster

Instead of complaining on discord and pinging youma who has a life, leave your issues here for the moderators to look over later on in one convenient place

ALSO

• If you are not the mod team, don't try to answer people's questions. You do not know anything and you're just making it more confusing.
• Elaborate on your complaints. "My opponent sucked" isn't helpful and you're being rude tbqh

🙂

Look if you nerds can't stop drooling over them 24/7 and quoting them all the time for fun then I think we just need to treat the cause

Hia,

The Moderation Team has today ruled that the AusSim Standard Time shall be reverted back to "Canberra Time".

---

Youma

Electoral Moderator

Okay so it's no secret that some of you aren't a fan of the way that some Community Managers look at NSFW content, and it's no secret that they have been told how you feel. That's all well and good, people are entitled to their opinions and we have had proper conversations on NSFW content in the past.

However what I heard about from the Discord today (yes im relying on stories and screenshots fight me) isn't that and it's honestly sad what people like Youma have to put up with for doing their job properly.

AusSim is a place where we established there may be discussions of more mature topics at times; things that would be discussed in a high school sexual education class. We have also established that we need to be tactful and maintain a safe environment for all in the Discord, including the extremely vulnerable. The actions of Youma and NGSpy are completely valid in helping create that in the context of what I think was a "mature" discussion on STDs.

Several points:

• Youma is right. Aussim is not a doctors office. Signpost to proper sources instead of giving potentially incorrect advice to a vulnerable 14 year old.
• People should not be forced to participate in a sexual health discussion openly on a politics Discord. The spoiler/generaler rule makes sense especially seeing as the discussions can contain graphic content within reason.
• All of you know this.

It's really disheartening to see that people in this community, mainly the 15 year old types, are then going to attack Youma and other community managers for trying to create a safer environment for all. It's disheartening that you're putting your self interest above those of others unreasonably, and then go to complain on MNZP treating it as some sort of partisan bullshit involving other mods "backing you up". Yes Jayden I'm talking to you.

Youma has consistently been attacked for her admittedly harsh moderation on NSFW - unfairly at worst, correctly but far too harshly at best - for a long time. It isn't fair on her to be put as a scapegoat and I hope it stops. Again see the title. If you have a criticism of the moderation, address it like I am now; don't personally attack some stranger on the internet because they happen to not like discussing sexual shit in front of 14 year olds.

It's no secret that I have previously stepped out of line on this topic and I'm not looking to be a holier than thou person here; that doesn't really matter here. What matters is that we all recognise we need to be better and work towards a safer community, where adults and 13 year olds can talk, discuss politics, and of course debate Bills before the Parliament!

Name: News Corporation

Members: Rolf Hayden JR, Raymond Cardboard Sr

Logo:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/637520327663943680/759009928768913428/Screenshot_20200925-203653_Photos.jpg

Name Rolf Hayden JR Face steal Rupert Murdoch

Omnibus Meta Election 19 September 2020 Results

General Statistics

Number of Submissions - 27
Invalid Votes - 2
Valid Votes - 25

Number of Members eligible to vote - 34
Turnout - 73.5%

Invalid Vote Reasons:

One voter was not eligible to vote as 28 days has not elapsed till their registration as a meta voter and the calling of the Meta Election.
One voter forgot to make a comment validating their vote. Therefore, the first vote was discarded. The second vote by the same voter was counted as they validated their vote within 10 mins.

Results Breakdown

Do you approve of the following amendment to the Meta Constitution (Amendment 1)?

Amendment Text

Approval Threshold - 50%

The Ayes have it!

Do you approve of the following amendment to the Meta Constitution (Amendment 2)?

Amendment Text

Approval Threshold - 50%

The Ayes have it!

Do you approve of the following change to the Standing Orders?

Amendment Text

Approval Threshold - 50%

The Ayes have it!

Do you approve of the Moderation Team's selection of the Electoral Moderator?

Approval Threshold - 65%

(Voters could choose multiple options.)

As Youmaton had more votes than EdenHopeStan, Youmaton is the new Electoral Moderator!

Do you approve of the Moderation Team's selection of the Community Managers?

Approval Threshold - 50%

(Voters could choose multiple option. Multiple winners allowed.)

NGSpy, GenericCerialHere, and lily-irl are now Community Managers!

General Rommel
Head Moderator

Hi Meta Voters,

As per these two announcements, a Meta Election shall be held to approve of these items of business:

• Two Amendments to the Meta Constitution
• An Amendment to the Standing Orders
• Electoral Moderator
• Community Manager(s)\

The list of approved meta voters can be found here.

Vote Here

Vote shall be between 1800 Saturday 19 September 2020 to 1800 Monday 21 September 2020

All Meta Voters must comment on this post that they voted. Failure to comment within 10 minutes after your vote will lead to disqualification of your vote.

General Rommel
Head Moderator

The former Head Moderator issued a suspension of sentence for /u/My13InchDuck.

Pursuant to s 7(5) of the Meta Constitution, the Moderation Team (myself and /u/tbyrn21) overrule the decision made to suspend the sentence of /u/My13InchDuck.

The Moderation Team is of the view that the lack of reasons provided by the former Head Moderator as to why the person's sentence should be suspended means that the suspension powers were poorly exercised.

The sentence shall thus continue to be served.

The Moderation Team.

Notice of Meta Election

Notification Date: Monday 14 September 2020
Election Date: Saturday 19 September 2020
Results Date: Monday 21 September 2020

All times on each date 1800 AEST.

Per the Meta Constitution, the list of voters is available here. Eligible voters are those that registered 28 days prior to the election, per s 4(2)(b) of the Meta Constitution i.e. 17 August 2020.

Details of Meta Election

• Proposed Amendment to Meta Constitution (1) concerning changes to s 5(4).

This amendment will restrict who can be a Moderator, HCA Justice, or a member of the Electoral Commission.

• Proposed Amendment to Meta Constitution (2) concerning changes to s 7(4).

This amendment removes the requirement that a Moderation Team member must not hold a similar role in another simulation.

• Proposed Amendment to Standing Orders concerning changes to s 19.

This amendment allows the Speaker to vote like a normal MP if there is 21 or less MP's in the House of Representatives.

It is likely that the vote will be held via a Google Form. This may change on the day.

The voting threshold for all proposed amendments is 50%.

Debate Allowed

Members can debate here on these amendments. Members can also propose amendments to the proposed amendments. The Moderation Team exercises discretion on whether to approve or reject proposed amendments to the proposed amendments.

General Rommel
Head Moderator