I'd like to open a dialogue regarding the immigration situation in Mt. Augusta.

The way I see it, there are currently two problems created by the hands-off approach we take to newfriends.

1. Excessive Urban Sprawl

While I personally like the organic feel of the city, and would not support the centralized city planning that happens in a lot of other places on the server, I think it's getting a little out of control. Building houses several hundred blocks from the center of the city is economically inefficient, and in the case of a serious external threat, would make a coordinated defense more difficult than it otherwise might be. I think this is happening, not because people really want to build on the outskirts of the city, but because it has somehow become the default place to send newfriends looking for a plot, regardless of whether there would be suitable places within the city proper.

2. Uninformed Newfriends

Right now, they can easily go for days without getting a handle on what the city has to offer, like the public farms, XP exchange, shops, etc. This is bad for them, and bad for those of us who could profit from paying them for XP materials or selling them tools and building supplies.

To be clear, I don't mean this as an indictment of Dan or anyone else. Everyone's in-game time is limited, and sometimes it can be hard to keep track of who is brand new, and who has been around for a little while, but just keeping to themselves. I was fortunate enough to arrive in town while Dan and Zaphod were both around and got a great orientation between the two of them. Had this not been the case, I think it's quite possible that I would have logged off that night and never come back, like I did with so many other servers before.

Of course, no solution will be perfect. No one is in-game all of the time, and depending on time of day, there may even be no one in chat range at all, but I think what I'm proposing would be a good step towards ensuring that potential citizens get the help they need, while streamlining the process so no one wastes more time than they have to. As we all know, the majority of newfriends don't end up sticking around anyway, so I think minimizing the time spent on them, while still presenting a welcoming atmosphere and providing all the information they need to get started, is a worthy goal.

Here's my proposal.

Create a new governmental position, filled by mayoral appointment (unless these duties could be easily integrated into the new diplomat office?), with the responsibility to maintain transitional housing for newfriends and assist them in integrating into the city. A simple room with a bed and a couple of chests should be sufficient in most cases. I can think of quite a few buildings that could easily be repurposed for this. The person chosen for this position, at their personal discretion, could add trusted citizens as mods on the door and chest groups to increase the likelihood of newfriends being able to get an apartment immediately upon arriving in town, with instructions to contact the immigration official for an orientation as soon as convenient.

This would hopefully incentivise them to shift focus from building cobble heaps that far too often have to be torn down later, to farming, mining, and generally finding their place on the server.

If they're still active after a week or so, they could be encouraged to either claim a new plot or (preferably) derelict an abandoned one.

Of course, settling on unclaimed land on day one would still be perfectly legal; just informally discouraged, with the understanding that we avoid teaching them to use Citadel until they've been around for a few days.

Anyway, let me know what you all think about this and how you would improve on it. If there's enough support, I'll draft a bill.

Tl;dr Can we have someone officially in charge of assisting newfriends and other immigrants in integrating into the city?

Edit: Some formatting and words.