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This is probably one of the more relevant times y'all could be talking about this, given that I've got an ethical hacking midterm tomorrow, and IP address stuff is important for that.

So, IP addresses. The general point is that computers need a way to refer to other computers located on a network. A name is nice for humans but rather useless for network people, because there's basically no correlation between how similar two names are and how to get to them. So, everyone on the public Internet gets a number to identify them so they can talk and be talked to called an IP address. Every computer keeps some notion of how to reach any other IP address (your machine knows that it can get to anywhere from your router, your router knows that either your ISP can do it or you're looking for another device on the network, and your ISP has a big routing table of IP address ranges and who it has to go through to reach them)

There's two versions of the Internet Protocol (IP), and I'll discuss IPv4 first. With IPv4, your number is 32 bits long, and usually written aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd, where the individual fields are 8 bits long (because four numbers between 0 and 255 are easier to remember than one really big number.

When folks were first designing the Internet, they sure weren't expecting there to be 2^32 (minus a bit) computers on it. Problems were beginning to arise a while back, so a "solution" was devised. Your ISP only gives you one IPv4 address. "But, Tomash!" you object, "I have a computer and a phone and a smart microwave all on the same connection." This is where the nasty evil hack comes in. Your router only gives you a private IP address, usually of the form 192.168.X.Y. When your computer sends out data labeled "From: 192.168.1.5, port [high number], To: 45.56.119.192, port 80" (that'll hit the Board's server), your router secretly rewrites that to say "From: [your public IP address], port [other high number], To: 45.56.119.192, port 80". Then, when the Board sends back its reply labeled "From: 45.56.119.192, port 80, To: [your public IP address], port [other high number]", your router remembers that [other high number] corresponds to [high number] on 192.168.1.5 (that'd be your computer), and so it re-writes the packet back so your computer never notices the deception. This has the drawback (and, if you're a person who writes terrible insecure code I'm looking at you device manufacturers, feature) that your computer can't have a conversation initiated with it, which is a bit annoying for, among other things, multiplayer games and voice calling. For practical purposes, this means that sharing an IPv4 address with someone means you're in the same house or coffeeshop (unless you count, say, all the mobile phones in Qatar, which all share an IP)

Mostly, people didn't mind this packet re-writing business, even though it causes annoying problems. But the Internet kept growing. Several other things were done to save on IPv4 addresses (a big one is that, when you connect to a website, you have to tell the website its own name, so that the same server/IP can serve multiple domain names). However, we're still running out of IPv4 addresses, and in fact, we're more or less out at this point.

Because 32 bits wasn't enough, we moved to 128 bits. Sort of. An IPv6 address, unless it's abbreviated, is aaaa:bbbb:cccc:dddd:eeee:ffff:gggg:hhhh, where each of the alphabet groups is written in base 16. This is more than enough addresses, we swear. This is even expected to be true once it gets mentioned that, right now, you don't get one IPv6 address from your ISP, you get 2^64 of them! (like, you, personally, if your ISP is with the program, can hand out an IPv4 Internet's worth of IPv4 Internets). There's a nice fiddly mechanism for how the eeee through hhhh bits get determined, but suffice to say, if it has an IPv6 address, it's directly on the Internet again. No more connection rewriting. Yay!

For practical purposes, two IPv6 address are in the same house/coffeeshop/... if the first four groups of numbers (and A through F are numbers, whoever told you otherwise?) match.

I'm sorry to see you go. I'll miss you grumping into the chat to grumble about philosophy and Japanese.

That said, though, I have to ask, what more would you have us do that we aren't already doing? I know what happened to JulyFlame was horrible, at least as much as I can know without being directly involved, but the PPC is essentially a direct democracy. The only real response we have to things like this is community consensus. Given that almost all of us probably have different ideas on what "strong action" is and when and how to apply it, and with the waters further muddied by even July saying Tomash doesn't need to be banned (not saying that's the only issue, just the most prominent one) how can we move any faster or more strongly than we already are?

I don't mean to sound accusatory or put you on the spot to try to fix the community's problems, I just want to understand. If there really is something wrong with the way we do things that's driven two respected members of the community away, I'd like to at least get some idea of what it is. I haven't seen it in six years here, so if there's something to see I'm not likely to see it on my own, and with July gone and you leaving, this is basically my last chance to ask about it.

Whether you choose to respond or not, or even read this post, I hope you do well wherever you wind up in life.
Good luck.

Especially since they seem to be doing fine economically at the moment. It would help if we know what they were angry about.

If we have the resources, we could try and help out farmers some. That'd help the economy, I think, and get us more votes.

Having only one mod would be a recipe for disaster. Sure, Nameless Admin could step in if need be, but it's still huge potential for abuse.

I'll specify that the term for Tomash should be 1 year. I think that sufficiently demonstrates the severity of the situation.

As for Board Moderation, I am in favor of either a moderator or moderators.

...Then there's throwing every single person who even happened to be present for the discussion out on their ear, regardless of what they actually said or did.

I feel we should concentrate our efforts on groups who don't already hate us. Courting the middle may isolate some of our supporters and would be more difficult than getting indifferent groups to support us.

I just want to say that your leaving has been noticed.

I also want to say that your impact on this community will not be forgotten.

Thank you. That is all.

Behold! I have created a new NationStates Region: Plort! Feel free to join! Password is JayandAcacia, case sensitive.

Also, darn you, hS. You got me hooked on Democracy 3, too. There goes all my time.

-Alleb

I seemed to remember a lot of discussions about things like, yes, changing the board, but also moderator positions, Permission, Constitution stuff etc. I thought I remembered a lot of opposition to changing things in general. If I misrecall, sorry. When I'm free, I'll do some research on this.

In class, have shedload of work to do. Update on this later.

To increase funding to the school system. More knowledgeable persons could easily lead to a better economy.

We should do ... something to help middle-income types. They seem to be in a bad place right now (or at least angry at us).

Something should be done about debt collectors. It's a problem .

Since we need cash, luxury good tax?

On the economy, well, I'm not quite sure how to deal with it. I'll consider it, and if anything occurs to me, I'll mention it. I vote we should limit the power of debt collection agencies. I think it will get the poor, who may already be tempted to come to our party, to throw themselves behind our cause. It will also give us that warm, glowy feeling that comes from being decent people. Also, on the unemployment levels, I believe that increasing state schooling decreases those levels, so we might consider investing in that. We may also consider courting the socialist and liberal votes to increase our popularity, given that they seem to have a lot of influence.

1) I vote no mods.
2) I vote for a ban of 1 month at most for Tomash
3)I support the notion of keeping the Discord.

Mind telling us who the new Discord owner is? Because now we're down to a whopping one mod and have no way to appoint new ones.

Rough estimates:

1 PPC AU
1+ Shipfics
The Purim RP opener and opening post (getting close!)
5ish missions? Not counting ones I haven't touched in a looong time and not counting one recent cowritten one?
At least one interlude, probably? Not counting 1 cowritten one?
The Blackout Interlude. SOMEDAY IT SHALL BE COMPLETED. REALLY.
Some non-PPC stuff.

Yeah. Stuff. Things.

And one great big important interesting essay due on Fridaaaay!

~Zing

PS: Is that enough? Shall I add more? Believe me, I have plans. Someday soon, I hope you'll get to see some of them in action.

I'm leaving.
The way the community treated July is appalling. This is supposedly a place that has space for all sorts of different people. People on psychiatric medication? Easy. People who keep mouthing off in uncontrollable rage every time someone farts in their direction? Can do. Manipulative bastards? Easy. But it couldn't handle one person with a sharp tongue. That was too much for people here. So July became a scapegoat, and it became OK to treat her like crap, and now it looks like nobody thinks her being doxxed as well as being harassed to the point of leaving with her nose to the ground and her tail between her legs is something that's worthy of condemnation or of strong action. This community can't even give justice to someone who's been wronged by most people in it, and it's disgusting how flaccid the community's response is.
I am not removing anything from continuity; I'm giving Zingenmir custody of my characters, and I trust her to retire them in a befitting manner. I don't want anyone else to use anything I created, or reference my stories and characters.
I'm also giving Zingenmir my PG hat, should she want it.
I'd like to use this post to say that I regret not understanding what was going on sooner; if I would've, I could've stopped it in its tracks by deleting Tomash's post and kicking people out of the server till their heads cooled.
I hope that everybody that was involved in the witch hunt would suffer as much as July did because of them, so that they might understand the immorality of their deeds; I hope that this misdeed will haunt them forevermore.

I strongly urge you to limit the activities of debt collection agencies. Letting them be is simply not an option; they are a blight on the good name of our nation and their activities must be strictly regulated.

I also believe that the stimulation of small businesses will lead to long-term growth in a variety of economic sectors, thus benefiting the poorer in our society, allowing them to become profitable and provide vital services. Not only that, but the growth generated will be able to fuel our economy, allowing for further revenue streams and the improvement of our economy back to AAA standard. Possibly. I mean, it's worth a shot, right?

Well, folks, I was always taught to lead with the bad news, and in this case, it's pretty bad. Our economy is... not an economy, as such. It's more of a black hole.



It's been a rough year. Our credit rating has been downgraded, which I'm afraid means more interest on our debt.

And... there's no easy way to put this, but halfway through the year, a General Strike was announced. The strikers - Socialists and Trade Unionists - placed the blame on high unemployment levels.

But don't let that get you down! We're only a year in, and any attempt to bring about true change will have a temporary impact.

And we have made a change, trusty ministers. At the combined urging of Non-Propaganda Communications, Silly Hats, and Ice Cream Affairs, we've focussed on the environment of our beloved nation; at Surprisingly Important Things' suggestion, we've done so primarily through the Transport sector, building bus lanes and subsidising the railways (with some clean energy subsidies thrown in for good measure). And we have had an effect!



It's a small effect, but this is early days. We're not up for election for another three years, we have time to do this right.

On Technological Advancement's advice, we've raised science funding, implemented technology grants, and then raised them later in the year. And it's paying off, folks, it's paying off:



We've followed Non-Propaganda Communications' lead in taxes, raising Capital Gains and Inheritance taxes. We've also implemented a strong program of funding the arts, and provided winter fuel allowances - gotta take care of the elderly!

So there have been changes. And I think a lot of them have been good changes:



And, I gotta say, the poll results have been heartening.



We're not exactly popular yet... but we will be!

So now we need to set our priorities for the coming year. Should we stay the course on our environmentalist-technologist path? Who should we tax (everyone, obviously, but how should we split it?)? What demographics do we want on side, and who can we ignore? (The so-called cabinet are offering pretty much the same new policies as before, minus the ones we implemented!)



And one more question... I've had a bunch of lobbyists pestering me about some sort of debt collection thing. Wanna give me your opinions on that? I could use the help.



((More ministers are always welcome!))

Prime Minister Huinesoron

As somebody who is currently playing as America, some of these icons are unfamiliar to me. However, I would advocate playing to the Environmentalists. They already favor our party, so we might as well keep that strong, and most policies that increase their favor benefit the environment, which in turn benefits tourism and the health of the general population.

I propose we focus on Transport, because that'll probably help with the whole "terrible economy" thing.

We also might want to help out the Socialists, because I like them and they seem to be rather influential besides.

Non-Propaganda Communications wants to tax the rich and placate the greens. Technological Advances wants, uh, technological advances. And Silly Hats wants arts funding and green-ness, and no tax evasion. Gentlefolk, I believe we have an action plan; I will reconvene the cabinet at the end of the year to discuss our progess and update our objectives.

Prime Minister Huinesoron (for my sins)

I do like the idea of more Art stuff

~Mattman, Head of the Department of Technological Advancement