... but I have a gut feeling anyway, a feeling that says that when you're immigrating into a micronation, it should feel like you're immigrating into a nation, except without having to fill out paperwork or generally do unfun things. I think I would like to see that there was a process behind it, that my application for immigration set gears spinning around the nation and brought attention to me. I doubt I'd have much of an idea of what the difference between, say, the MiniInfo and MiniInt is in the Shirithian bureaucracy, or just what the MiniTrade precisely does... but if I personally got a message from the MiniInt saying I've been registered as a resident of the duchy I chose for myself, and one from the MiniTrade saying they're giving me money, and maybe one from the MiniInfo pointing out reliable information sources and interesting stuff to read, I think I'd appreciate it a good bit.
And besides those three ministries.. we could have the Kaiser or Steward, whichever is active, issue a formal welcome... maybe invitations to participate if there's stuff going on at the University, or at the Temples or such... and that's just the imperial level. The duchies could add their own stuff on top of it. Think programs to involve new citizens in imperial affairs to fast-track the ones who show interest and capability into the nobility, introductions to duchal cultures, etc..
I could, at some time, handle the practical technical bits which include just so much scripting: Extend the user registration form with a "Do you want to immigrate into Shireroth as a citizen?" checkbox and the questions in the immigration form (obviously separating them so that you can just register without immigrating, but keeping them on one page so you can also do both at the same time). Maybe add bank account registration in the same. Auto-post a thread in the MiniImNat with that information, plus auto-PM the appropriate ministers (I'm pretty sure you can send private messages to groups, so this can be done with little maintenance needed). Thanks to natural procrastination and LOAs and such, as the ministers and such responded the immigrant would see a trickle of private message notifications enter their email inbox over the next days and weeks, keeping zir coming back for what might be a critical early period to see how they're getting added to the Shirithian system.
Uh, it's going to be a while before I have the time to properly put in place something like that (I'd prefer it to be a little less fragile and ugly overall and code-wise than the various hacks I've put in the forum over time), though. Certainly it's not coming before I've got the Small Commonwealth looking neat and have got template inheritance working... but! That doesn't mean that the ministers couldn't already start being proactive about welcoming new immigrants by arranging bureaucratic stuff for them without involving paperwork. For instance filling out the current Census at the time you're immigrating could be optional (uh, even more optional than filling it out in general is, I suppose), the MiniTrade could keep track of new immigrants and bountify them without being requested by the immigrant (uh, I guess this applies to me... I'm going to get to it tomorrow, just have to find out how much Andreas bountified the last guys), the other ministers could try and see if they can come up with interesting stuff wrt. their job that they could notify the immigrant about. For instance the MiniInfo could make sure zir's seen the Guide for the Perplexed... the MiniEx and MoMA probably don't have that much to do with immigrants, but if you have ideas, hey, out with them
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