State of the Nation: Natopia in January

Shireroth's DiploCorps report that Natopia continues to have a "flood of new citizens", while plans for the marriage of the Emperor have run into a few problems.

In other news, Natopia's laws have been enshrined in a new Bovic Code.

State of the Nation: Novatainia in January

Shireroth's DiploCorps reports that, while Novatainia has an Office of the Joker, it has also a Government Knows Best Act under which an External State of Emergency has been declared.

In other news, Novatainia has signed the Small Treaty of Non-Aggression, issued tenders for an advanced defense system, allows its citizens to own land, and has an apparently "thriving" business district.

State of the Nation: Ashkenatza in January

Shireroth's DiploCorps has reported that Ashkenatza's elections for its second Nohsi were won by Max Rosenthal, who is also the Baron of K'Tzuni in Shireroth.

In other news, Ashkenatza entered into border dispute with neighbouring Tellia, and initiated a claim for territorial waters around Shireroth's own Naudia'Diva islands and Benacia.

State of the Nation: Stormark in January

Shireroth's DiploCorps reports that the Viking Empire of Stormark is working on a national wiki, StorWiki, which will also include information about its autonomous state of Hurmu.

Its parliament, the Althing, in which all Stormarkians are permitted to vote, has opened.

Stormark also a has a new Empress Consort, Sigrid, following the recent official death of the previous holder of that title, Asa, widow of the late Robert Davis.

Finally, the Empire has successfully applied to join the Small Commonwealth.

7 Years of MNN

We thought you might like to know that today sees the 7th anniversary of Micronations.Net, which started out life in a slightly different form back in January 2002 as the Micronational News Network. You can read all about its early years in this article of ours.

It has to be said that last year saw what was probably the most significant one-off change in its history, when the majority of its management decided to retire and take it down with them. Happily, a new site was established within a week of that happening, while a replacement forum was swiftly established by others. Although the previous site only survives in part via the Internet Archive, the forum did at least eventually reappear as an archive, while the original sites and forum have remained continously in the same original ownership.

The new setup has brought its own advantages, with the site using Wordpress, allowing better integration of the continuing MNN news service, and inspiring new peripheral services such as a radio station and a forthcoming store.

So here's to another seven years of Micronations.Net.

Deconstructing RIMA's 2008: The Inconvenient Truth

In which we analyze RIMA's analysis of 2008 and find it to be somewhat economical with the truth.

The Evolution of News

2008 was indeed a year of change, but the changes were not quite as profound as the RIMA article imagines. Of the dubbed "old guard" of micronational journalists of Scott Alexander and Liam Sinclair, who were out of the "picture" by 2008, it was Scott Alexander who had mostly retired from journalism in June 2003, before making an all too brief return in 2006. Liam Sinclair had at least three blogs, but curiously, despite his claims of them being "often the main source of news for the community", those that our investigative journalists have found and been able to attribute to him have all been unaccountably deleted.

In the meantime, the acclaimed "new guard" of 2008, while heralding the welcome mainstream return of group blogging, was not much more than the latest evolution of the micronational blogosphere which had been popularised by Jack Santucci's Microblog group since May 2004 and capitalized on with the launch of the MNN news aggregator shortly afterwards, which led to an immediate proliferation of individual blogs which has continued, with a few notable interruptions, to this day. To imply otherwise, as the RIMA article has apparently done, is at the very least disingenuous.

The Handover That Wasn't

With regards to the other notable change of 2008, the article has completed ignored the fact the Micronations.net hub, which was removed in a very rapid and underhand fashion, actually returned in albeit a somewhat reduced form about a week later, an event that was not exactly unreported.

While the article rightly praises the "younger generation" for taking up the challenge of immediately providing a replacement hub (i.e. a forum), it glosses over the fact that the "handover" was actually a rather desperate rescue effort, as a direct result of the majority of the MNN management refusing to consider handing over MNN as going concern to the very generation now being praised.

A genuine handover would not only have allowed the services provided by MNN to have continued without unnecessary interruption and inconvenience, but would also have meant the management majority could have retired on a high, rather than fleeing from a community that was understandably full of instant animosity and ill-will.

By completely failing to see the bigger picture, the older generation only showed the younger generation how not to do it, but these days that seems to be a globally recurring theme, doesn't it?

FNORDs 1, Norton Awards 0

It's Emperor Norton Day once again, and, as usual on Emperor Norton Day, there are one or two commemorative award ceremonies to look forward to.

There should ideally, be two, but the original Norton Awards seem to have sadly run out of steam, despite a poll showing overwhelming public demand for them.

Happily, the alternative FNORD Awards, back this year in the capable hands of its erstwhile founder Scott Alexander, has triumphed yet again with a wide variety of worthy winners carefully chosen by judging panel comprising such well-known and respected names as Ryan Caruso, Liam Sinclair, Chris Mules, Ari Rahikkala, and Ardashir Khan.

As is traditional, the award winners are listed as follows:

• Tony Au Award for Economics: Andreas Mayer
• Liam Sinclair Award for Micronational History: Jonas Windsor
• Jeremy Bellamy Award for Recwar and Storytelling: Antony Montague
• Liam con Toketi Award for Best New Micronationalist: Peter Ulsnes
• Best Original Idea: Dr Spangle
• Bill Dusch Award For Cultural Development: Troy Thompson
• Best Graphic Artwork: Scott Alexander
• Iain Jacobson Award for Micronational Journalism: Will Tomsett
• Shane Odlum Award for Overall Achievement: Hesam Jayatar

Our congratulations to all.