I know this sounds odd, but we ought to go help out the new nations and people
Not odd at all. Noble, in fact
To be honest, whilst I'd support this fullheartedly, as a former MCS administrator I can say that the reason so many MCS council members appear rude is because of the way they're treated by the micronational community. People disrespect the community's rules, are often downright rude to admins when they refuse a claim, and many nations simply refuse to conform to the standards the MCS lays down, and still expect to be allowed on.
Nations see MCS membership as a necessity rather than a privilege, which hurts its image somewhat. I myself in former years considered founding new micronations and the first thing I did was to draw an MCS map of where I wanted them to be. That's problematic for me if my nation doesn't get on there and difficult for admins if it's not acceptable.
The MCS has also become very, very sorely sought after. It gets so many applications every month its admins don't need to work hard or advertise to make their mapping organisation look special at all- I'm not saying the MCS isn't a good organisation, it just forgets that it's a service and not an elites-only micronational club.
That's why the term 'n00b' in MCS admin speak means 'rejected nation' or 'nation whose appearance on the map looks unprofessional'. Of course an organisation has rules and standards, but there's no give and take with the MCS anymore. Either that, or the two are very badly unbalanced.
The ideal should be thus- conform to
enough of our [MCS membership] standards to be allowed on the map, not- 'conform to every single minute one or you're out'.
In this, the MCS has begun to use its pearly gates of entry as an underhand way for writing the do's and don'ts of micronationalism. Leaving many nations who don't get in utterly lost. We need to remind these nations above all that being in the MCS isn't everything- I'll gladly found a nation tomorrow which exists on its own map- that doesn't mean being isolationist or founding another mapping society- it just means being self-sufficient.
Either way, we should mentor newer micronations. But often there are simply so many that only around two out of ten will ever survive past three months, even with our help. To be honest, many people simply don't have the free time to help all these younger nations develop. It's essentially gambling their time away, even if for a friendly cause.
Which brings me on to the fact that there is no such thing as a free meal in politics- macronational or indeed micronational for that matter. If we help newer nations we'll end up with them being our satellite states or at least poaching their citizens. Even if that's not our intent, others could pick up on that and see it as such.
As for the MCS- Spangle is a good chap but personally I think he's let it become a bit too dictatorial for my liking. At least whilst I was there, the rules were often ignored by many admin members (admittedly, myself included
) but in retrospect the administrator himself wasn't tough enough on them. Remember the rule that no non-English scripts would be allowed on the map? Well, what do we see in the Central Micras Seas?
The
16htv0zp].
If Spangle can stop the MCS becoming the inactive and functionless wreck which is the CIS today, I'll take my hat off to him.