While taking his usual walk around the streets, Chalk spots a somewhat new member of the community giving his two cents on a topic on a street corner. "Good for him" Chalk thinks to himself. He smiles slightly, and continues walking, turning the next corner. Upon looking up, he sees what looks like the same person, talking about a different topic. "Deja vu" Chalk mutters to himself, slightly shaking his head, maybe he was going crazy. He takes a look around, and carries on with his walk.

Almost immediately, he hears what is now the familiar sound of the same person, this time on another street corner, talking about a completely unrelated topic. "What is happening to me!?" He says to himself, being careful to not let passers-by hear him. Is this some sort of sorcery? How can this man be on every street corner, talking about various topics, all at once!? It's unnatural!

After checking nobody was starting to look at him funny, he straightens his jacket, gives himself a soft slap in the face to attempt to compose himself, and proceeds with his evening walk. Sure enough though, the next person he sees attempting to gather a crowd, is the very same man, this time putting up some sort of poster advertising a competition.

"That's enough!" Chalk says out loud, noticing a couple of people pull confused faces at him. He stops in his tracks, and turns to the few people that have no gathered.

"Fellow street walkers. Please, can you help me?

"What is better? Quantity, or quality? I have been walking these streets for the last ten minutes, and I have seen the same person, on four or five different street corners, taking part in several conversations, started by himself, all at once! Of course, he could just love the sound of his own voice, but I think this opens up a bigger question.

"Is it better to have a lot of speeches on these streets, of which many people have no interest in, or is it better to have fewer speeches, that more people will be more willing to take part in?

"I attempted to visit the many speeches that have been happening in the last few days, just to listen to what was going on. Honestly? It was hard to see a lot of what was being said, without committing large parts of my day to strolling around here. I, like many of you, will have other commitments to fulfil, and therefore are unable to even visit, never mind take part.

"There are definitely a couple that are worth visiting and giving your opinion on, however many of them are not worth giving the time of day to, never mind spending your precious time contributing to.

"Are our streets in danger of becoming flooded with nonsense, with people speaking for the sake of it, without actually contributing anything worthwhile? I fear this may be the way we are going.

"I feel the only way to discourage this behaviour, is not to attend these speeches, and go about your day as usual. Only contributing to the topics that genuinely interest you, rather than, dare I say it, 'feeding' those others."

Barf takes a second and third pull on his bottle of morphine. His ears were ringing and his cheeks felt hot. The cacophony of people shouting in the streets turned into an electric buzz.

"what is this polluted watering hole" Barf mutters to himself.

The buildings around him loomed overhead, seeming on the verge of toppling. Barf pulls a leather sap out of his pocket preparing to fight his way out of this madness.

"excuse me sir" a clear voice behind him says.

Barf whirls around, swinging the sap high in the air. It connects square into the temple of the monster behind him. The streets go silent as the banshee shrieked and fell into a heap on the streets.

Barf blinks, and a little old lady comes into focus, covered in blood, groceries strewn around her.

Mirko had put a large sum of money into the most important investment of his short life of crime so far.....earplugs. Unfortunately these earplugs were sold by somebody who must have been related to Kuku and therefore they didn't work properly. He threw them in the trash and continued on trying to just ignore the constant yammering by the insane man that kept showing up on every street corner. As he kept going on about was how much he regretted his fathers crimes, but also kept seeming to refer to them as his own crimes. Not only was the man insane, but he must have caught that OOCitis that was going around. 

Yet, the man also kept going around talking about how impressive his father and his fathers comrades were. This all seemed so contradictory to Mirko, but you can't expect much when listening to a crazy person on the streets. He'd rather go hear about anything other than the nonsense and utter shit that spewed from his mouth. At least those who spoke of mystical beings actually seemed to put some effort into the time they spent on the streets.

Then there was something that cut through all the bullshit....what....it....huh? Somebody speaking without sounding like a complete asshat? Were people still around that could do that? Perhaps there was hope for the streets after all. Mirko listened to this wonderful person as they used common sense and sounded like they actually wanted to hear his opinion. 

How odd to see that in recent days when all it seemed we had was one crazy man who 'wanted' your opinion....but only if it was agreeable with his own. This was the time to finally join in...

"Chalk, you took so many of the words right out of my mouth. I had wanted to do something of this sort after seeing so much shit being shared in the streets without any pause to even breath. Quality is definitely more important than quantity. Those who tend to go for quantity....especially the quantity with lack of quality we have seen these past few days are usually just trying to cheat the system put in place by city hall to promote us coming out here." He paused to breath....which was a good way to know you were going for quality rather than just quantity. 

"I do not want to repeat too much of what you've already said as I don't know I can truly add anything to improve upon it. So I will try to be brief if my wandering mind allows me. You hit the nail on the head when you posed the idea that our streets may be flooding with nonsense. They are. The nonsense of one man. A man who wants nothing more than to bother people and profit off of their continued engagement with his bullshit." Mirko took a moment to paint something on a sign and then hammer it into the ground.

DON'T FEED THE TROLLS

Example:

FraudulentKuku

"So I do commend you on coming out here and starting this discussion Chalk. I will keep this sign here on the streets as a hopeful reminder to everyone to stop engaging with the trolls. Do not feed them. They tend to be worse than the werewolves and vampires he keeps complaining about. Honestly, everyone just stop engaging with him. All you are doing is feeding his ego and feeding his VIP Credit wallet. Don't partake in his idiotic contests as he will most likely earn more than he pays out if enough people participate. Just read the sign and abide by the sign."

With that Mirko nodded at Chalk making sure to keep six feet away during this crazy Spanish flu pandemic and went about his business...

Chalk listens to Mirko's opinion, and gives him a slight nod as he finishes up, chuckling a little when he hammers his sign into the ground.

"MirkoFritzinger, good to see you here, thanks for offering up your opinion, and I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that can't stand what is currently happening to our streets.

"It seems as if, a bloodline that was exiled from our shores for a good chunk of time, seems to have sneaked back in early, and is now covering himself in plaudits, as well as heralding his disgraced father's actions and 'accomplishments', I have never seen one man under an impression that could not be further from the actual truth. I digress, back to the original point.

"I must say I appreciate the sign you have planted in the ground here. I have seen old, almost completely rotted away signs which displayed the same message, from years past. Maybe this is what we need back here now, maybe people have forgotten this important message.

"I agree that there seems to be some fraud in terms of what is happening regarding the initiative from city hall. I also see many speeches, where the only person that replies to these speeches, that actually look to be strange stories, is the original speaker themselves. It's almost as if they start telling the story, pause for a long while, and then continue, without anybody having the chance to contribute.

"I fully appreciate the efforts people go to to share their stories with the rest of us, however replying to yourself multiple times within the same few minutes, is both completely insane, and fraudulent. Please, if you have a story to share with us, tell us in one sitting, it is much easier to follow."

Chalk walks over to Mirko's sign and gives it a slight shake, making sure it's firmly planted in the ground and people can notice it properly.

There is a lot of less than scrupulous behaviour going on in terms of VIP credit rewards. This is also nothing new and City Hall feel this to be an issue we should regulate ourselves. I am happy to propose something to the other bosses, if someone has a suggestion.

I myself had thought a tax levied on excessive reward earners, to be used to fund public initiatives like contests and Durdens spawns might have merit. 

With regards to the Commissar specifically, the broader advice seems to be "if you don't like it, don't listen" and people are reaping handsome benefits as a result. Not a huge fan of that personally and would rather raise the quality overall, but equally not going to stop one of my men from taking his share of the pie whilst there are people prepared to engage with him.

Grin-07, I do agree that there needs to be some sort of control put in place to stop the amount of trash that currently plagues our street, however I don't think you can only target the 'stories' that are solo enterprises, but you must have the same standards for regular speeches that are only posted to either antagonise, or the old fashioned 'troll'. To critique one and not the other would be disingenuous.

A tax could perhaps work, but of course it would need all leaders to follow through with it, and the trouble would be determining what is deemed as unacceptable. Maybe a group of people, one from each city, could be assigned to decide, with a majority vote ruling as 'not street worthy'?

Commissar, I'm aware City Hall authorised your return, the reasons why are what escapes me, and that's what seems sneaky. As for the actions of your father, the fraudulent cheating actions he partook in, erased any 'good' he may have done. Although that he did any good is also debatable.

I believe a tax would more likely be aimed at putting a ceiling on the amount a single person can earn per day, with the amount exceeding that limit going towards community-wide benefits, than a council determining anything subjectively. It would apply to everyone. 

Will we also be capping the amount of credits and money that individuals can win at the dicing tables?  To me this has done more to hurt these shores than the storytelling and reporting that occurs on the streets.

I think that is both a very different conversation and something that is impossible to police in any meaningful way. I am also curious as to how reporting has been lumped in as something that has been damaging to the streets. Do you not appreciate a good newspaper, Raffi? 

Oh, we're all "close down the press" now, Raffi?  Listen up, and listen good, fascism has no place on these shores.  

So instead of policing those who win thousands because it is hard, we would propose to crack down on those who, at best, make three hundred of these extra 'credits' on a single lifetime in this world? Sounds a lot like some communist mumbo jumbo to me, and I thought we red, white, and blue blooded Americans got away from that with the fall of Mikhail?

Slowly begins to chant the pledge of allegiance and waits for the rest of his kinfolk to join in on this peaceful street protest.

I agree it is a different conversation and perhaps one that should be taken up on a different street corner.  For now I would just say that it would be just as easy at policing as policing a cap on the street rewards would be.  They are both published in log form that can easily enough be obtained.

As for the lumping of reporting and storytelling together... I have seen "good" reporting and "harmful" reporting just as I have seen "good" storytelling and "harmful" storytelling.  On a more personal level, I tend to appreciate a good telling of a story over that of a boring newspaper.  That, however, is just a personal taste of mine.  I recognize that both have their place on the streets and that both can add value to them. 

Ladies (and Men), I hope you all find you someone that loves you the way that CommissarKuku loves CommissarKuku!

Those of us who are skilled enough to create conversations that involve other people should be much better recompensed than those who talk, literally, to themselves.

The fantasists should be shot, summarily executed, for disgracing their crews.

Sisyphus, 300 is a massive underestimation of the upper limits of the most egregious VIP con men. It is not even half of what certain individuals have pulled in over the course of a single lifetime. 

I feel this debate has gotten a little bit off topic.

I am not advocating limiting the amount of prizes that can be won via the initiative from City Hall, nor am I saying all stories should be banned. If what you are suggesting is that rewards should be limited, this is completely counter productive to what we want to achieve.

All good street presence should be encouraged. It is a long standing desirable trait in this thing of ours for people to be interacting in these streets. The only thing that should be monitored is quality, and interaction.

If people are not coming out here to encourage interaction, and instead just share a story, then in my opinion, that's not what these streets are here for.

Genuine attempts at any type of speech, whether it be a newspaper, story, or debate, should not be looked down on. Only if the quality of the posts drops should it be discouraged. Also, as I've said, one or two people talking to themselves about their lives is not promoting interaction, and should be saved for the back alleys.

Any attempts to tell stories about mythical creatures or that of outer space, should also not be out here. Again, this does not promote interaction, it does not engage the personnel of a MAFIA community, and therefore, can be done in private.

If anyone is legitimately coming out to these streets and longing out their fifteen minutes in order to acquire more rewards, their own crew leaders should have a word with them, and the individuals in question should be ashamed of themselves.

TheMeTooMovement, are you referring to what I said?

I don't believe anything should be 'taxed', I believe poor reporting, lazy speeches, or down right ridiculous stories, including ANY that do not promote interaction, should be monitored, and the relevant crew leader discourage it from happening again.