Hi there! I’d like to welcome you to the return of Resident Spotlights, an old tradition in our fair region that has sadly fallen by the wayside in recent years. You can find the archives of previous spotlights here.
Today, I’m delighted to be joined by @Pronoun, one of our most active legislators and roleplayers. He’s served in a variety of Minister roles in the past as well, and currently serves as a General in the SPSF.
What made you decide to join NationStates, and/or the South Pacific?
I was 9 years old and searching for cool plane pictures or something like that, when I found someone’s roleplay storefront on the NationStates forums. I can’t remember where my first couple nations were founded, but my current main was founded in the South Pacific, and I’ve stuck around ever since!
I guess that would answer my next question, haha. Man. Half of your life has been spent, in one way or another, on NationStates.
It was on and off for a long time. I think my current stint has been since coming back for N-Day in 2020, though, and that’s the longest I’ve really stayed active for.
What do you like the most about it, the game or the region?
Hm, I think I would say the flexibility. There’s a lot of room to play the game the way you like — here in TSP, for example, I can participate in our democracy as a legislator, roleplay as an authoritarian government, and serve in the military, all in the same day.
If you were in charge for a day, what would you do?
Get rid of the cake vs. pie debate, because ice cream is the right answer anyway. But honestly, I don’t know if I’d last a day with those kinds of leadership policies…
With the psychic powers you have, I’d be surprised if you couldn’t see ice cream reign supreme. You’ve been knocking half my question out of the park before I can even ask. 
What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?
All of them. But between the two of us, my favorite favorite is [REDACTED]. Just don’t tell the others.
Favorite song, book, game, or movie?
Heh, you’re really asking some tough questions! I’m afraid it’s time to show my boring side: my favorite song is usually just whatever Spotify thinks I’ll like, and my favorite game is, uh, NationStates I guess. But I did find The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis to be quite a good read.
What’s at the top of your On Repeat playlist?
“Riptide” by grandson, apparently. (Not “Riptide” by Vance Joy, which I think may also be in there somewhere…)
I’ll throw a few links when this gets published, (Editor’s note: See here for YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music) but I’m curious to know if anyone else knows/likes the song. It’s new to me!
What’s the significance behind Esfalsa?
Alas, nothing. I just mashed my keyboard, and turned the gibberish into something that I could actually pronounce.
Ah yes, one of the secrets to R/D puppet foundation.
Speaking of R/D, what got you interested in coding for NS? You’ve made a lot of programs, but not everyone that codes and plays NS, codes for NS.
It just seemed like a nice way to combine my interests; there are always more things to code! Looking back, it was also a good way to learn more about coding myself, and there just happened to be some NationStates-related projects that let me try out new things and practice my own skills.
I think a neat thing as well is that it isn’t just R/D that has room for coding! My first NationStates-related project was actually a government website for roleplay, for instance.
What other non-R/D projects have you made?
The ones that come to mind are a dispatch management tool and an interactive map of TSP’s modern tech roleplay canon — both in varying stages of being incomplete, admittedly. Oh, and there was an extension I made to block the word “Ohio” (err, sorry, “****”) on NationStates, for which the release date around April Fools’ Day was definitely just a coincidence 
.
Ohio shall be blocked!! 
Well, thanks for taking some time!
My pleasure! Thanks for having me.
Stay tuned for the next Resident Spotlight. . .