SO 2017-29 Forum Posting Rights Act

WHEREAS the Union forum is established by the Constitution as the space for all government-related activities;
BELIEVING that as only residents of the Union’s region in NationStates have the right to participate in such Union-related activities that are conducted on the Union forum, they should have exclusive posting rights on that forum;
BE IT ENACTED by the President of the Union, by and with the advice and consent of the Senators of the Union, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

Article 1
All nations residing in the Parliamentary Union’s region in NationStates have the right to an account on the Union forum, and may either create one themselves, or ask the Founder to create one for them.

Article 2
While a nation is residing in the Union’s region in NationStates, they have the right to post messages and create topics on the forum, within the bounds defined by the Constitution, by other Acts of Parliament, and by extensive precedent.

Article 3
When a nation with a forum account leaves the Union’s region, they lose their posting rights as outlined in Article 2 of this Act, but their forum account may not be administratively prevented from posting unless the Founder or President collectively judge that not doing so would pose serious problems for the Union’s wellbeing and administration, in which case the Founder will ban the account in question with administrative powers.

Article 4
If a nation with a forum account created as per Article 1 of this Act that has lost their posting rights as per Article 2 of this Act re-enters the Union’s region, they regain those posting rights, and if their account has been banned as per Article 3 of this Act the Founder will remove that ban.

Article 5
If the President believes that allowing one specific nation not currently residing in the Union’s region to create an account and post messages on the Union forum is necessary for the proper conduct of some government-related activity, and would not pose serious problems for the Union’s wellbeing and administration, they may issue an executive order granting the said nation various posting rights on the forum, stating the reasons for which those rights have been granted and setting a date of expiry on which the executive order will become invalid. Once that expiry date has been reached, the said nation’s forum account will be subject to the same treatment as outlined in Article 3 of this Act, unless that nation has entered the Union’s region in NationStates and is eligible for a forum account as per Article 1 of this Act.

Article 6
This Act may be cited as “[The] Forum Posting Rights Act 2017”.

April 23, 2017
The Hon. Abdoa, MP (Speaker p.t.) LSM GSM

I do like the idea of this bill, however, I strongly disagree with the ending of Article 3. I find it wrong to delete a nation's account after they leave the region. If that account was blocked from posting or otherwise disabled, I would be okay with that, but account deletion is not appropriate.

I would like to point out that that power, that can only be invoked by the Founder and President together, is only justified in exceptional circumstances; however, I would be willing to compromise for some other kind of deactivation.

I mean, I think what you are looking for is a permanent ban. Permanent bans can be lifted by the moderators. Once an account is deleted, all of the records associated with that account are deleted along with it.

Um, right good catch. Will modify the bill to that effect later today.

Article 3: "but their forum account may not be stripped of posting rights "

Perhaps you meant "But their forum account may not be administratively prevented from posting."

Also, for Article 5, we should change "decree" to "executive order", but that's just semantics.

All in all, I do co-sponsor this bill.

Bill in line for debate.