Immigration
This article was last updated on: December 29th of 2021
The Wee Willemstan detention center, as of May 22nd of 2021.
"What if we made a voice channel for them and called it the "haram pit" or something?"
- Ian Hampton proposing very limited rights for the undesirables, 11/19/20.
"The Wee Willemstan channels are a section of the server dedicated to the containment and observation of young people. While you can normally watch them go about their day, the @Zookeeper role allows for interaction with them. This announcement is being made in Chat in order to prevent the information that they are living in a bubble from being leaked out. Naturally, the current administration would like to ask you to not reveal this to the middle schoolers."
- Sean Kavanagh announcing the new Wee Willemstan facility, 01/01/21.
Lore
The immigration policy in Willemstan has changed throughout Willemstan's history several times. There have been periods of total isolationism, all the way to completely open borders, and somewhere in between. The immigration policy depends on the consensus of the citizens at the time. Currently, Willemstan has an open invite policy, but detains unwanted immigrants in a channel of the Willemstan Discord Server known as #the-can. There undesirables are known as "Willemstan Deviants", and over half a dozen of them were previously detained in Wee Willemstan. The reason for this oppression is that the Willemstan Deviants are mostly immature siblings or other young people, and thus, we do not want to share the same cyberspace as them, nor do we want them to snitch on our questionable activities.
Google Classroom Era
The Silly School for Cosmic Children was founded in early 2018. During its early months, friends of Charlie Nolan were recruited during school hours with ease. However, by February of 2018, the first rules for Willemstan were in effect. One of these rules was "Don’t tell others about this classroom unless we are planning on inviting them." In all, this policy meant that new members required the recommendation and approval of at least a few existing members. This was the first restriction on immigration, and it would last for the entire Google Classroom Era and carry into the Discord Era.
Closed Invite Policy
From the foundation of the Willemstan Discord Server all the way until February of 2019, Willemstan maintained the closed invite policy established in the classroom. This was built on by Eli Payton and Joey Badra in November of 2018, in which they established further regulations. New members had to be from Williamston and approved by over half of the Willemstan community.
However, the first steps towards a more open immigration system occurred during the Willemstan - Wolfenstan War. During this conflict, Acting Dictator Charlie Nolan called for "mass recruitment" to the server, which resulted in the addition of many new members in spite of the regulations. Further progress was made in February of 2019, when a vote was called on the longstanding ban on outside members. In a close 8-7 vote, it was decided that people outside of Willemstan are allowed into the server.
Eli and Joey announcing the invite regulations, November 10th of 2018.
Open Invite Policy
With the passing of the February 2019 vote, all restrictions on sever invites were dropped. While it wasn't implied in the original vote, the whole policy of voting on the admission of new members was disbanded as well. Anyone was welcome into Willemstan by this point, and the Willemstan Discord Server's member count steadily grew throughout 2019 and 2020. Despite a government change in May of 2020, this policy was still intact. That is, until Eli's Second Dictatorship. In the initial months of his Dictatorship, certain unwanted individuals joined the sever. His administration modified the permissions of the sever to prevent anyone without citizenship from viewing the server's channels. These undesirables sat in the server without any permissions for months, and could only see the welcome channel. They finally got the attention of the administration by filling out a form for a server event they couldn't even participate in.
Willemstan Deviants
The Haram Pit
After a brief discussion, Eli's administration founded the text channel "#haram-pit" on November 19th of 2020. This channel finally gave limited rights to the undesirables, who were quickly nicknamed the "Willemstan Deviants". They were allowed to talk to each other, and occasionally members of the administration would talk to them (or torment them). Anyone who sent an excessive amount of anime images lost media positing rights. During November and December of 2020, more and more deviants were added to the #haram-pit, mostly thanks to an immigration boom during the Winter 2020 Election.
Wee Willemstan
Following the election and a change of leadership, "Wee Willemstan" was established on January 1st of 2021 by Sean's administration. Intended to be an upgrade to the #haram-pit, it featured more usable channels and even a fake announcements channel. However, these new privileges came at a cost. Deviants were no longer allowed to see any channels outside of Wee Willemstan, including #notifications and other key administrative channels. The Willemstan Deviants were relocated there on January 3rd of 2021. However, the most important twist is that the deviants were expected to believe that Wee Willemstan was actually the real Willemstan. Furthermore, all new Willemstan members were immediately sent to Wee Willemstan, unless if they were bailed out by the administration. Wee Willemstan served as both a detention center and trial period, and was quickly given nicknames such as "The Truman Show" and "The Simulation" by Willemstan citizens. The catagory was originally called "Wee Willemstan" but was renamed to just "Willemstan" to avoid suspicion. Willemstan citizens were allowed to interact with the deviants if they wished as well. However, after about half way through Sean's Second Dictatorship, Wee Willemstan began to decline. Membership declined and immigration to the server slowed. Many deviants just outright left the server. Activity largely ceased in the community by April of 2021.
The Can
On July 3rd of 2021, the Willemstan Deviants were relocated to #the-can, as promised by Ian Hampton in his run for Dictator. This change was made in order to move the undesirables into a lesser space, as Wee Willemstan was dead and taking up too much space in the server. While located in The Can, the Willemstan Deviants have minimal rights (nothing new), and are under the supervision of the Enforcers, who report directly to the Dictator and General. These Enforcers are currently Andrew Meyer and Sean Kavanagh. Following the relocation, Wee Willemstan was dismantled.
Recruitment of Underclassmen Initiative
Main Article: Willemstan Discord Server
The results of the Future of Willemstan Vote in August of 2021 indicated that most active members of Willemstan wanted to recruit younger people en-mass in order to prevent the server from dying as a result of the upcoming graduation of the class of 2022 from Williamston High School. So while The Can remained in use, anyone who joined the server after this vote was given citizenship by Ian Hampton's administration because of this new recruitment initiative. Recruting of new members is being mostly done by Andrew, Thomas, and Kendal, although anyone is allowed to invite new members to the server. The Can was often used as a checkpoint for these new members, in which Enforcer Andrew Meyer would usually get the identity of new members before they were allowed into the server.
The initative has been met with a mixed response by members of Willemstan. While many are pleased to see the server growing and being spread to younger people in the school district, some older citizens view the new members as "cringe". The mass arrival of underclassmen to Willemstan was a major topic for the Winter 2021 Election. During his run for Dictator, Joey Badra called for a review of all members in the server. Collin Key declared that "equality would be given to everyone", unless if you are a freshmen. Other candidates did not give their opinion on this issue. Feeling unrepresented by the existing candidates, the freshmen encouraged Kendal Hampton to run for Dictator, and he received an overwhelming share of the freshmen vote.