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Willemstan Salt Mine

This article was last updated on: January 22nd 2022

Image at the top of the screen.

A propaganda about the Willemstan Salt Mine made by Ian in January of 2021.

"Be civil or be dead. There will be a zero tolerance policy for insurgents."

- The "Sean Kavanagh is Dictator" video, 01/01/2021.

"Well basically, in [1984], the three super states are constantly at war in order to destroy excess material goods. So that the governments have an excuse to keep the citizens poor and uneducated. The salt mine in Willemstan serves a similar purpose. Deviant citizens are forced to "mine" salt, which is as worthless as an NFT. The good serves no purpose but to provide a punishment system in Willemstan. Something to keep the deviants occupied, but ultimately does nothing for the benefit of the people."

- Ian Hampton on the Willemstan Salt Mine after a citizen asked what the salt was used for, 12/25/2021.

Lore

The Willemstan Salt Mine was first brought up by the candidate Lucy the Goose in the Winter 2019 Election. It was based off the Salt Mine in the Antarctica Discord Server and was meant to create profit for Willemstan. However, the goose did not win the election, and so the idea faded away until June of 2020, when the Willemstan Coup occured. This coup lead to the Construction Crew, who debated several ideas on how to best reform Willemstan following much controversy. The crew considered a Willemstan Salt Mine, with Ian Hampton and Eli Payton supporting it. However, a decisive agreement was not made, and so the Salt Mine was not implemented. After Sean Kavanagh was re-elected in January of 2021, he and his administration decided to implement a Willemstan Salt Mine as a punishment system, which is how it worked in Antarctica.

Mechanics

According to the New Articles of Willemstan, a member of Willemstan can be sent to the Willemstan Salt Mine by Sean and his administration for violating the law or speaking out against the government in any form. By February of 2021, the Salt Mine had become the standarded method of punishment for any "major" offense.

Upon being exiled to the mines, the person in question is assigned a random quota from 1-100 by SuS. The Salt Miner in question has to send that many salt shakers in a channel called #salt-mining. The catch is that they can only send one shaker per message, with a 30 minute slowmode. This means the maximum sentence in the Willemstan Salt Mine is 50 hours, or just over two full days of continuous mining. If a Salt Miner isn't very active in Willemstan, or values their sleep, this sentence can take a while to pay off. SuS suppresses all messages by Salt Miners outside of the salt mine, so those in the Willemstan Salt Mine have very little rights until their quota is fulfilled. Refusing to mine salt results in further punishment, such as loss of citizenship.

Majority Vote Sentencing

On rare occasions, the Dictator will create a poll in Willemstan, ask the citizens to send someone of their choosing to the salt mine. These polls are often manipulated by citizens who use a VPN to change their IP address, and thus vote multiple times. This behavior is not discouraged by the state, in fact, quite the opposite.

1st Salt Mine Poll

The first salt mine poll started on January 22nd of 2021 and ended the next day. Despite it being open for only 24 hours, over 150 votes were cast because bots were used by several citizens. Natalie Nolan attempted to get the most votes on Joey Badra using bots, which sparked a reaction from several members of the server. Many threw extra votes onto Malcolm Hollingworth, who at the time was second to Joey in number of votes, in an attempt to save Joey by sending him instead. Joey used bots to get dozens of extra votes onto Natalie, which skyrocketed her total votes to first place. Natalie, with a total of 78 votes, was declared the loser of the competition on January 23rd of 2021, and was sent to the salt mines. However, she refused to mine salt (and eventually got Charlie to bail her out), so Joey and Malcolm were sent in her place in order to get Willemstan to 200 salt.

2nd Salt Mine Poll

The second Willemstan Salt Mine poll was declared on November 29th of 2021, and ended on December 1st of 2021. No members of the administration could be sent to the salt mine. If there was a tie, all citizens in the tie would be sent to the salt mine. Many of Kendal Hampton's friends put their votes together and voted for Kendal, in an effort to send him to the salt mine. At the same time, Michael also received many votes, and was clearly the second choice favorite. Interestingly, almost every single person in the poll got at least one vote against them.

When it came time to reveal the results, there was a twist. Those who got the least amount of votes were sent to the Willemstan Salt Mine, instead of the citizens with the most votes. Four citizens on the poll got zero votes, so they were all sent to the salt mine. These citizens were Hunter Peters, Jesse, Aidan Stubblebine, and Owen.

Ian Hampton's announcement of the 2nd salt mine poll in #notifications.

Controversy

Favoritism

People sent to the Salt Mine typically have to serve their full sentence, although there have been instances of blatant favoritism by the administration, in which a miner is set free before they finish their sentence. For example, Jacob was freed on one occasion by asking the Dictator nicely. Natalie was set free after being stuck in the mines for several weeks, because she annoyed Charlie until her freedom was gained instead of mining salt. This circumventing of the system was not well received by the public, and so the system had lost some popularity for a time.

Prolonged Exile

On February 16th of 2021, Devin S. refused to mine any salt and was openly criticizing the administration at the time. This result in further punishment, in which he was freed from the mines, but lost citizenship and was exiled to Wee Willemstan. This was the first time the government put their foot down regarding salt mining deviancy, and was also the first time a Citizen was demoted to Little Willemstani. While many citizens have praised the administration for actually enforcing salt mine sentences, the prolonged exile of Devin S. was unpopular to some. He was released on April 21st of 2021, after almost five weeks of exile.

Sean's Imprisonment

On January 3rd of 2022, Sean Kavanagh was sent to the salt mine for civil disobedience. His imprisonment caused great controversy in Willemstan. He was eventually released after spending around a week in the mines.

Social Credit Abuse

Under the Willemstan Social Credit System, if your score falls to zero, you will be sent to the salt mines. This has caused enormus controversy due to the sheer number of people that were sent to the salt mines in January 2022. The system is currently very buggy as well, with citizens that hit zero social score often being spammed by SuS in both Willemstan and dms before being shipped off to the salt mines. A revolution even broke out over the situation.

Salt Miners

Milestones