We are fast approaching the 10th anniversary of our community and over the years there have been many discussions about a canon reset - especially recently. Given that a decade of history is a lot - we should all be proud of the part we’ve played in our communities' story - and given that there has been quite the slowdown recently, I feel like it’s finally time to have a Quad endorsed discussion about a canon reset. To this end, I have developed a plan with input from my fellow quad members so that we have something to start with. I just want to reiterate that this is NOT THE FINAL PLAN and is just the foundation on which we build up a plan that can work for the community as a whole.

Firstly, why we feel a Reset is Needed:

As mentioned prior, 10 years is a lot of history. In that time in real life we have had five Prime Ministers, two monarchs, three elections, two referendums, and countless other amounts of different metrics. The reality of real life versus that of the Model House of Commons is vastly different to one another. We need to recognise and accept the fact that people join a simulation like ours to fix the problems with real life - at this point there is not much we can fix. We have no COVID to deal with the ramifications of, the EU is a done and dusted deal, transportation has probably received trillions of pounds of investment over the years. To put it shortly: there isn’t much incentive to do anything these days and I believe this is due to the lack of things to fundamentally do - everything has been done before a dozen different ways.

Therefore, I present the Reset Plan:

1) The Reset should coincide with the Anniversary:

Pretty self explanatory, but once it reaches the 28th of May we would enter into a new canon. This doesn’t mean the past ten years have been erased, but instead think of it as us entering into an alternative reality (MCU couldn’t possibly compete). Your achievements and accomplishments, your favourite moments and even your lowest lows will all still have happened, and nothing will change that. What is changed is your ability to reference them in canon. It’s time to make new favourite moments, achieve new things, and suffer new lows.

2) It should be respectful of the Sims History:

As touched on prior, this is an absolute priority. I know a major argument in the No Reset Camp is deletion of everyone's contributions to the sim - this is a feeling I want to absolutely avoid. To this end, I will be updating the History Document (a spoiler for what I have planned for the Anniversary) and will be ensuring our contributions remain remembered. There is absolutely nothing that says you can’t talk about the good old days in main after a reset. This community and the bonds that have formed over 10 years are far, far stronger than the canon we have created.

3) It should keep Meta Honours:

Meta Honours are handed out to those who have helped the sim out in some capacity, be it through being an active Prime Minister or a long term member of Speakership. We should keep those honours in place, whilst removing Prime Minister and First Minister resignation honours. As a person that is very fond of my limited post-noms I feel like this is a fair compromise.

4) Parties should stay as they are:

If we were to reset the parties it would, in reality, only punish Solidarity whilst rewarding the traditional three parties. Party structures and leadership are things I would want to see stay in place, with an option for smaller parties to fold into another if they should so wish. However, party branding ownership should be reset meaning a person could, in the new canon, establish a Classical Liberal Party or The People’s Movement without seeking the permission of the Conservatives or Solidarity respectively.

Things that need Developing:

We are still four months away from the anniversary which gives us plenty of time to develop some particularly difficult parts of the sim. For example:

• What happens to Parliament? My current thoughts is to keep it as is from the 21st election and have another election as scheduled in August. This would mean that whoever is Prime Minister next term will be the last Prime Minister of the previous canon and will be the first Prime Minister of the new canon - technically succeeding Rishi Sunak.
• What happens to the Devolved Legislatures - would we reset them too, or close them for the time being to focus on the Houses of Parliament? I would very much prefer to not close Holyrood or the Senedd, so this is something we would need to work on together to get a better idea of where we want to go with devolution. The timings of the devolved elections also complicates this.
• What sort of restrictions on legislation would we implement? A flood of repeat bills from the past ten years would absolutely defeat the point of a reset. My current idea is a moratorium on repeat bills - major topics, for example nationalisation, would require entirely new bills to be submitted - which would mean the focus following the reset would be legislating reform based on modern Britain.

Other Things to Consider:

This isn’t the only part of the plan I have been developing since taking over as Headmod. A reset alone will not work, which is why I have been developing the following ideas:

1) Events Team:

In the next week or so there will be a thread on what should happen with the events team. I would very much like to have an Events Team ready to go for a reset, working from day one to make sure dynamic feedback is occurring.

2) Press Reform:

The IPO system has fallen off which is almost entirely my fault. This said, the system itself is a little underwhelming. I want it to be integrated more closely with whatever Events Team is implemented, so that press can report on the events and receive incentive to do so in the form of IPO reports.

3) Discord Integration:

The House of Lords Discord Test has been, in my opinion, a moderate success. Where it has been utilised it has not taken much activity away from Reddit but instead supplemented it. I would like to continue this test and expand it to the House of Commons following the election, which I will be working closely with the Commons Speaker to do. I will say this clearly right now: if the test isn’t deemed a certain success, then the Discord Integration will be stopped. That said, I am confident that we can find a balance that works.

The Timeline:

May is fast approaching, but we still have plenty of time to develop this and the other reforms I want to see implemented. By the very latest the vote should be taking place late March/early April to be implemented in time for the anniversary. The Events Team Reform and Press Reform proposals will be released over the next few weeks in a similar style of this - a foundation to build on.

Also, as part of increasing the activity of discussion there will be a channel in the MHoC Discord dedicated to this topic - #reset-plan.

We look forward to hearing your opinions and proposals.

Thanks,

The Quadrumvirate