On Goldshire's vote distribution

[Erik Mortis]

Whether an exception or a totality, it's still a diminishment, a removal. Semantically quantify it as you want. The fact remains.

"I've never killed anyone... except that one guy.. but it's an 'except' so it doesn't count. "

You still kill the guy.

[Malliki Tosha]

But I didn't say that. I said "I've never killed anyone, except one guy."

[Harvey Steffke]

The point Erik is trying to make is that the except part of the statement totally destroys the strength of the first statement despite the fact that you're trying to show the first statement is strong. I don't like this example, but using "I've never killed anyone, except one guy," if you told this to someone, they would focus on the one guy part rather than the never killed anyone part, because it's the one guy part that's strong and turns the first half of the statement into an outright lie.

But enough wacky English language issues. The main thing here is that both your diagrams support my cause. You have the "Restructure" block as looking like part of a normally flat line, but I think it's a bit of a stretch to claim that it did not actively influence (if not outright cause) the continual increase in PPD instead of the Nov 1 data merely being another spike. You admit this is possible, I am willing to leave it as a compromise; let's move on.

The second graph, your Landsraad pie chart, seems to support me more than it supports you. Of those names on the list, the ONLY one that is a duke right now is Daniel Llai. Some people stopped being dukes at some point, like Leo and yourself, but that's in essence part of the point; that we could stop being dukes without losing our seats in the Landsraad, so it was okay. The Malliki-Aryeztur conflict came about because I could retire from dukedom without losing my voice, so Aryeztur got a chance to do stuff. The Erik-Kaiser conflict is only a major conflict because Erik isn't duke; were he duke, he could just tell everyone to STFU instead of having to complain about troops on a bridge that his duke won't remove. See, many of the PPD didn't happen in the Landsraad per se, but they came about because a lot of duke positions swapped quickly because being a duke was less of an ultimate trump card, and that caused controversy, and that was awesome.

Personally, out of my entire Shireroth experience, I just want to have a vote. That's it. I didn't want to stay Duke of Goldshire because I can't stomach the thought of having to deal with more conculture, especially since Shireroth grips it with iron jaws. It's not for me. But I do like to vote, and to debate law, and to do what I'm doing right now. With political power, I'm helping further the Shirerithian cause by applying my power to help our future; without it, I'm just whining. It's nice not being whining for a change. I could have it both ways - I could keep my voice in the Landsraad and still not be duke. It sounded like a great situation, and I like it greatly, and I'm sad that it seems to be ended.

Nevertheless, I strongly applaud your willingness to apply actual data to an opinion and hope that others will follow suit when making important decisions. The country has grown to the point where mere whim is not enough; we need some sort of actual basis to justify major decisions we make.

[Malliki Tosha]

With my amendment, people that are Lesser Nobles and up would still be able to participate, but would only lose the vote.

[Harvey Steffke]

Voting is key. Nobody really changes their opinions or listens to others in these topics - the big speeches are mostly just to vent about how we feel on an issue. Without political power to back up their opinions, the vast majority of the nation would feel alienated and simply stop bothering to comment.

[Erik Mortis]

I don't really plan to participate once you strip me of my vote. Why bother?