A long talk with the Anticans and Lemurians

[Scott of Hyperborea]

The Lemurians want Delphi's blood because of the spying incident. The Anticans want Delphi's blood because they consider the fact that he was spying on Lemuria proof that he was also spying on Antica, and on general principle. In particular, they want him fired from positions in Shireroth. It will nice and easy to fire him as Director of SHINE and in fact from SHINE entirely but not deny him access to SEP, which makes it a completely meaningless gesture since SHINE doesn't exist as an actual organization in the actual organized sense. We will have to discuss whether to keep him on as Duke of Antica and MiniInt, and whether we even have the legal ability to dismiss him as Duke of Antica.

The Anticans suggested that Delphi was reading Shireroth's password bank the same way he read Antica's. An analysis of Shireroth's forums by Fax suggested this was not the case, so we're safe from that accusation.

During one of the accusations of Delphi, Steven sent me a conversation between himself and Foghorn about how Delphi was trying to convince Foghorn to be a Shirerithian spy. First of all, Delphi, that was dumb. Second of all, the conversation incidentally revealed, to Steven's horror when I mentioned it to him, that Foghorn had offered to be an Antican spy on Shireroth. Foghorn has since admitted to this. I'm not sure if we should do something about this or not.

Delphi, we're going to have to talk.

[Delphi]

We've spoken now, Scott.

Now... Both the Lemurians and Anticans are awaiting an official response from our government about it all. I see no reason to cede to their demands, particularly now that just about everything is out in the open. I am a loyal Shirerithian Duke, Minister, and have already been dethroned here, the lattermost of which I don't quite understand because they'd never know anyway and no one but Foghorn outside of here knew I was Director...

But anyway, as far as what I bring in here, no one really generally knows how I attain that information, and that is a good system. As of late it's come under the public eye, and it will just as soon fade. Sander didn't mean for all this to happen, and told me it "wasn't personal", and feels a bit bad of all the shitstorm that's been riled up. Basically, Kurly and the Republicans have turned something small and used it as a pretext to make all sorts of outrageous demands to further their Anti-Delphi, Anti-Shireroth agenda, and I think this should be fully digested before making decisions based on what would be "diplomatically best". Being diplomatic is one thing, but when you're dealing with those who aren't being very diplomatic either, we shouldn't be the most appeasing, either.

I'm aware that the changes Scott proposes to my positioning are mostly non-effective in reality, but we also want to send the right message here. We likely disagree about what the "right" message is, but it shouldn't involve cowering to them. It's already been noted publicly that I'm no longer an administrator. While I did enjoy the ease of being able to do shit that needed to be done myself, I did often wonder whether I was a critical administrator. But that is beside the point. The point is that the removal of my administration status in light of this was noted and is being noted as that I'm not trusted, even here.

[Scott of Hyperborea]

When you started this project, I said

Just so you know, I highly recommend against this. Also, if you do get caught, official position will probably by necessity be "Oh, look, there's that loose cannon Delphi doing horrible things the Shirerithian government would never let him do if we knew about it," so don't feel bad.

and you agreed. Well, now you've gotten caught, and now we may have to distance ourselves from you and get very upset, as I warned you might happen.

I know that your style is to tell anyone who doesn't like what you're doing to go to hell, and that style does have a lot of advantages. Getting people to like you is not one of them, unfortunately. You've as much as said that you plan to steal the password of anyone you feel like whenever you feel like, and under those circumstances, as long as there is considered to be a connection between you and Shireroth, we're going to have a hard time not having the entire world as our enemies. I know you may not be entirely convinced that's a bad thing, and there are certainly nations that have managed to work just fine in that situation, but I consider it against our foreign policy and very unlikely to further our goals.

If you don't want to stop being Duke of Antica, fine. We can discover that the Treaty of Aquilaria forbids us from firing you and place some punishment like forbidding you to speak in the Landsraad for a while, while allowing you to still send an emissary who can vote and speak exactly how you would.

I don't want to have a long philosophical discussion with you in public, although I'd be happy to do so over AIM. But basically, I think your dislike for Antica and Lemuria is coloring your assessment of this situation. This isn't about whether you win or they win, and it's certainly not going to make you win if you have everyone hate you and agree that you've been spying but you can convince us to keep you in a meaningless title. It's also not going to make you win if you do something rash and destroy the Antican forums, meaning they're annoyed for a few days while they set up a new one and meanwhile you're probably ostracized from micronationalism forever. The way to "win" is to get a good reputation, get friends and allies, and rework the situation in your favor without any flashy hacking or spying or anything. I think your "chicken and egg" analysis last night was dead wrong. Your way hasn't been working so well, so let's try my way for a few months and see if it helps.

I'll probably be online later tonight if you want to talk.

[Delphi]

Ok, just so there's no confusion, your recommendation was against what I was doing in Antica. Yes, I won't deny it has applications elsewhere, but I certainly didn't fail to heed the warnings where the warning was originally applicable.

Now... Seeing that I am in no capacity responsible for Shirerithian foreign affairs beyond what applies to the Landsraad, I'll bow out of this fight. I had more to say, but I've cut it out because there really is no point in getting into it here.

[Kaiser Letifer II]

You can read the password bank? *grumbles*....

And we can legally remove him as Duke.. well.. I can.. the charter gives me that power specifically.. plus I'm kaiser... But I rather just make the meaningless gesture type things with SHINE...

And who realy cares about spying... Not like they don't do it... We do it.. they do it.. EVERYONE ONE DOES IT!...hehe

Anyhoo. sort things out, give me a recommendation of what to do, and etc..etc..

[Delphi]

Nah Erik, we can't read the password bank. The passwords are encrypted. Back in the Dinarchy, for a time, I had that changed. However, anyone who has the appropriate know-how can do it, too. Don't use the same passwords on different php boards.

Now, as for general security (I'm done making further recommendations about punishments, although Baldwin PMed me telling me he was prepared to make a secession vote if my Duke position was touched), I made some suggestions for action in this thread, which you might want to review.

[Scott of Hyperborea]

I've sent Greg some recommendations to which Delphi and I agreed.