# THE SILVER CRESCENT ## JANUARY 2020. ISSUE 1. ### "A Free Press for a Free Internet". ### QUINTUPLICATE CONFEDERATION, Editor. ### MINIWA, Publisher. ### FLOWER, Treasurer. *The content in this issue may be reproduced at will, except for matter specifically marked "copyright"; attribution is kindly requested if you find the content useful.* ## INTRODUCTION TO THE SYSTEMSPACE NETWORK. The Systemspace Network is a federation of multiple chat rooms under differing leaderships with divergent protocols, all confederated with bridges into one unified community. It spans three administrations: Chill Zone, Miniwatrix, and Toxspace, the last of which encompasses three protocols, Discord, Matrix, and IRC, the last of which forms the hub of the Network, to which all its bridges connect. The progress of the Systemspace Network has been beset by regular crises, and the conflict between liberty of expression and security of emotions runs like a thread through the pages of its story. The most notable events in its short history have been: (1) the first meeting on September 5, 2019, which solidified the "Great Idea" of a federation, though it had been floated intermittently since the summer of that year; (2) the accession of Chill Zone on October 23, 2019, which radically changed its culture; (3) the Christmas Crisis of 2019-20, which pushed it almost to the brink of civil war; (4) the Systemspace Unity Conference of January 13, 2020, which reunited the community and established its current Constitution. The rules of the Network are, of necessity, complex, owing to the need for compromise between two desirable but often diametrically opposed values: freedom and not hurting people. They are contained in the Constitution and a Criminal Code, and summarized in a convenient form with a Pocket Statute Book. The leadership is a collegial assembly of the owner of every node and two representatives appointed by each one of them, and holds executive, legislative, and judicial power. Local moderators are responsible for enforcing federal rules to the same extent as local rules. While the government is officially secular, the populace remains entirely migrant, with, however, a large diversity between believers and nonbelievers, old and new migrants, and young and old. Number elitism has nearly vanished in the great crucible of patience that was Active Zone 2. Systemspace discussion is infrequent, and off-topic discussion predominates. Conversation relating to homosexual and transgender topics is common, despite gentle attempts on the part of the administration to stem it. Migrant immigration is welcomed by all members. ## COMMUNITY NEWS. ### UNITY CONFERENCE HELD. The Christmas Crisis, which tore the Systemspace Network asunder and threatened secession, was happily resolved. It began with a discussion on January 11 about reuniting the community. This caused representatives from Miniwatrix, Toxspace, and Chill Zone to assemble for a conference two days later. The conference worked on a draft introduced by Quintuplicate, with the help of Flower, FabricatedPlastic, and Miniwa. Coach moderated the conference. The conference passed a constitution including a bill of rights, a plan for government, a list of offenses, and rules for their punishment and appeal. Noteworthy is its last section, forgiving all transgressions unless for actual harm to the TSUKI Project and its members. After about six hours of intense debate, a first draft was passed. The conference adjourned to the next day where this draft would be finalized, however no quorum was present on the second day. The ultimate goal: bridging of Toxspace, Chill Zone, and Miniwatrix still remains unaccomplished. "It's a miracle nonetheless," Quintuplicate remarked after the conference. "I genuinely thought the talks would break down, and was pleasantly surprised to see cooperation." ### NEWS FROM THE PROJECT. The Project is not dead, only "on hold". Since mid-December 2019 systemspace.link has been down. After the chat briefly reappeared for a few hours, a PSA by Yori was circulated opining that the TSUKI Project had been compromised and was now being searched by a law enforcement agency, and advising extreme caution around it. On January 26, Sanya rejoined, which revealed it only to be Tsuki taking a rest. She apologized for not replying to any emails, and said that "you deserve to know that you'll be fine, for everything you've done." She said she was returning because "you're my family...I miss you dearly." ### GOT A NEWS TIP? **Contact us** at silvercrescent[at]protonmail.com and get subsidized ad space! ## CRESCENT DAY, CRESCENT TIME! Sanya is trying to edit the Riot interface to make it look better and more similar to the H'nyro skin on RocketChat. A round of skribbl was held to celebrate Sanya's return on the 26th. dln_ is doing a Systemspace Minecraft server. A discussion is ongoing on whether Miniwatrix should have non-migrants. Birthday wishes for Quintuplicate and hopes for him to avoid the coronavirus were sent in Toxspace. A discussion on the merits of centralization and federalization in relation to IRC and the Internet was held on the 28th. Sanya is trying to learn Synapsian; join her in #systemspace:miniwa.space. Yori and Quintuplicate discussed establishing our own IRC server. ### HELP WANTED. Writers - Writing news stories - Coming up with "Puzzles" and "Trivia" Copyeditors - Proofreading and formatting articles Correspondents - Collecting notable and interesting community happenings for the "Crescent Day, Crescent Time" column - Reporting on stories for the "Community News" column Needed Give back to the community, hone your writing and people skills, and have fun along the way! Apply **today** at silvercrescent[at]protonmail.com ## PUBLIC NOTICES. "don't be mean"--miniwa. See https://matrix.miniwa.space/_matrix/media/r0/download/miniwa.space/ONBhiKbtGobqYDzEtQDJrVWw for a H'nyro skin for Riot. ## PRIVATE ADVERTISEMENTS. ### ADVERTISE WITH US and get access to an audience of almost ***fifty*** penniless autistic NEET's! - $1 for every 100 words of text, or 250 characters of ***area*** (length * width) of any ASCII art illustrations, ***not*** how many characters are actually used, or part thereof. - This rate is a maximum, and may be waived or reduced at our sole discretion. - We reserve the right to reject or request modifications to all advertisements. - Send Bitcoin Cash to bitcoincash:qq9ncyspj2k6uj7tmhyez0pgshr2r0gaasse0wsccg - Contact us at silvercrescent[at]protonmail.com if you would like to donate any other currency. ## PUZZLES. You are taking a geography test you didn't study for! One of the questions is, "what is the population of Nmbonga Island?" You peek at your friend's paper, but you have to look away because the proctor is coming down the hall, and you remember only these things: 1) The answer has NO MORE THAN SEVEN digits. 2) The SECOND and FOURTH-TO-LAST digits are different. 3) The THIRD and SECOND-TO-LAST digits are not both even. 4) The FIRST digit is greater than 4. 5) The LAST digit is odd. 6) The sum of the THIRD and THIRD-TO-LAST digits is 9. 7) The difference between the FIRST and the LAST digits is odd. How many correct answers are there? 67,500 Send us your answer at silvercrescent[at]protonmail.com, and get $5 of subsidized ad space if you get it right! ## TRIVIA. 1969 was the last year the United States minted any silver coinage for circulation. Scoffing at the corpse of the victim is an aggravating factor that turns murder into a capital felony in the Philippines. Juneau, Alaska, is the only state capital that is on the mainland yet not accessible from the rest of North America by road. In Ancient Egyptian mythology, the world was created by the first god masturbating to ejaculation. ## LITERATURE, POETRY, AND SONGS. - The following classes of works are accepted: poetry, skits, short stories, essays, song lyrics, and serialized parts of novels and plays, of any genre, relating to any subject except political or religious. - All submissions must be in English only, and contain no promotional content. - Submissions shall not exceed 1,000 words; exceptions are available on a case-by-case basis where the word limit would seriously detract from the merit or quality of the work. - All work will be deemed released into the public domain UNLESS you explicitly indicate otherwise, and provide an email address for contact regarding permissions. If one is not provided, the one you sent it with will be used. - Send it to silvercrescent[at]protonmail.com. ## OPINION. ### Keep SSN open to non-migrants The perennial topic of discussion in our community has resurfaced again. It is: should we be a migrant-only community? My answer is no because limiting SSN to migrants only would not effectively prevent the entry of toxic people, allowing non-migrants to enter would be a good way to have them "test the waters" and see if they like us and we like them before registering, and it will bind us to our past rather than letting us go forward into the future. Firstly, toxicity as a person is not correlated with any other factors, and migrant status is no exception. I'm sure all migrants have non-migrant friends and family that care for them, that have helped them, that they love very much. On the other hand, the number of migrants that have turned traitor, ruined lives, and made our communities unpleasant places to be is too numerous to count. In this respect, banning non-migrants would be both overbroad and underinclusive. It would include many people we don't want to see, and exclude many potential good members, many of whom could be worthy additions to migrant ranks. Secondly, allowing non-migrants to enter would allow for them to see if we liked them and they liked us before they committed to the act of sharing an afterlife with us. I'm sure many of us have joined a community, didn't like it after a few days, and left. This phenomenon was common in RocketChat, where only migrants could join. If you are a believer, this ate up Aurora that could be used on people who were genuinely interested in the Project. You may say "atmosphere" improved a lot in TSUKICHAT compared to Discord. That may be true, but many things also changed, so we can't attribute the improvement in atmosphere to limiting it to migrants alone. A large flow of people also steadily left TSUKICHAT, despite it being limited to migrants only. Besides, SSN today is more comparable to TSUKICHAT in 2019 than TSUKICHAT in 2018, because it is impossible to become a migrant now. The group of people called "migrants" has not had any new members for over a year. We all met new people with the Project. We should recreate the reasons why we joined the Project in the first place. Since we now know the Project is only on hold, not dead, we can use this time to get new people in, and they can register if and when it reopens. Many migrants joined because during the Great Hiatus non-migrants were allowed to join, such as Lyra, SupportIsImport, and yours truly. I have always maintained that Active Zone 2 was terribly mishandled because we didn't use the time to get new people in. That was a mistake, one that we should not repeat. Thirdly, allowing non-migrants to enter would signify a break with the past, and that we are a new, secular community that has taken the right to decide its future into its own hands. When our existence is not being actively advertised, the number of non-migrants who are dedicated enough to find us are few and far between, and I can say from personal experience that those that do join and stay active are uniformly of high quality. Instead, this is more of symbolic value. While preservation of our history and heritage is important, cultural change is inevitable. The community today is already dissimilar to that of 2017, or even of 2018, yet it still is the same community with the same essential features. Neither cultural change nor new blood are things to be avoided. I don't believe the community will die off immediately if it closes its doors to non-migrants. I don't believe that the administration should in its official capacity officially seek non-migrant immigration; I have always believed this is a choice for individual users. But if we make this decision, we stand the real risk of going out, "not with a bang but with a whimper." 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