“Disaster” survey may be last of its kind
FALL FROM THE TOP: This table shows how Sirocco has fared against other well-rating micronations through the four surveys it has partaken in.
Alston, NCD, Jul 16 – Siroccan Premier Daniel Anderson has criticised joke voters after the latest MicroWiki Influence Survey saw Sirocco plunge eight points in a matter of days.
Sirocco, which had previously been ranked 14th, 12th and 10th in the second, third and fourth surveys respectively, dropped an astounding eight points between the release of the midway and final tables for the fifth survey. This shock result has been just one of the number of peculiar drops and rises in the 5th MicroWiki Influence Survey, which recently dropped its “OAM” name to introduce more nations to the survey.
However, the future of the survey is in doubt after several nations switched places in leaps and bounds despite few or no real reasons between the fourth and fifth surveys, such as:
- Tiana, which rose from 12 in the fourth survey to 4 in the fifth.
- A1, which dropped from 7 in the fourth survey to 14 in the fifth.
- Yabloko, which dropped from 2 in the fourth survey to 7 in the fifth.
One of the main talking points, however, is how Sirocco dropped from 10, its position in both the fourth survey and the fifth survey’s midway table, to 18, falling below nations such as Sandus, Ultamiya and Senya.
Yablokon leader Aldrich Lucas noted Sirocco’s drop of eight points between July 8 and July 14, despite a major leap in Sirocco’s presence lately. Senyan leader Barnaby Hands also noted that “there is no way that Senya is more influencial [sic] than Sirocco.”
Fingers are being pointed at the lack of votes for Sirocco – many Influence Survey votes simply did not include Sirocco in them, which surprised the Premier:
“One thing I saw was that many people simply didn’t vote for Sirocco. Given our prominence in the community I would’ve thought Sirocco would have been […] mandatory voting?”
Influence Survey manager Tom Turner apologised for the catastrophic survey.
“I would like to apologize for the potentially offensive and deeply inaccurate table that has come to be. Next time, I’ll make sure ALL the sensible people vote (that’s the only reason tables weren’t like this before).”
Landashirn Premier James Puchowski commented:
“The credibility of the survey was ruined ages ago. […] Therefore, in my view there needs to be a new form of survey with a different form of voting to stop people from giving stupid votes out just to either be an a*** or continue to be blind to the fact that people don’t see them in the same light as they do.”
Premier Anderson has commented that Sirocco may join with Turner to produce a sixth survey, however with limitations on who is eligible to vote. It is not yet known at this stage what the views of the community are towards a ‘Survey 6’.
CORRECTION: The Times mistakenly stated in the table that Egtavia came first in the fourth survey. This is incorrect as it actually came third. We apologise for this error.
The Sirocco Times 
There are reasons for the changes in position for A1, Yabloko and Tiana. A1 has lost influence through the whole OAM thing, Yabloko has sort of “burnt out” its huge external affairs efforts, and Tiana is fast becoming a very respectable and well-known nation. You would not be calling this survey a “disaster” if you had not fallen eight points. I agree that it wasn’t fair, but these things happen.
King Quentin I of Wyvern here, interrupting a visit to Germany to respond to this article. Perhaps I will be around some more soon.
As the Austenasian Government said, there are some arguments to explain how some nations have risen drastically while other nations have fallen drastically. A1, for example, is hardly active in the MicroWiki community anymore. Adding to the perceived little internal activity that was an important characteristic of Yabloko, the nation has now drastically reduced its external affairs.
Tiana’s growth is somewhat remarkable, though. It seems to be run almost exclusively by Joseph Puglisi, who has also admitted to having hardly anything interesting inside the nation itself. Today, while listening to Dutch radio near the border with Germany, I heard an old politician speak of something called the ‘positive flow’ that seemed to apply to politics – if you’re charismatic and say what people want to hear, they’ll forgive almost anything – in macronational case, changing your political views right after elections, and in micronational case, being relatively inactive.
This survey, it seems, is based on trusting people for voting accurately and fairly. And seeing the ridiculous votes some people submitted – one of them basing his vote on edit counts and forum posts and another simply shuffling nations and putting his own on top, causing a silly trend – we simply can’t.