After
the Slinky revolution, it seemed that Kyng Fyrst (the "kyng" of the
original Slinky Empyre) would be gone forever. However, His Majesty has
approached the Heron, asking to be referred to as "Solomon", and
asking for an interview to answer the many unanswered questions about the
history of the Slins. The interview is as follows:
Heron: Greetings, Solomon. Many over the years have
inquired as to your occupation after your resignation. Often, they came to me
as I was close to you. It would indeed benefit us all in the Microwiki
community for such an interview to occur - much about the past of Microwiki
will be revealed.
Fyrst: Greetings, Your Majesty. It is quite a treat
to hear from you again. Hopefully this will clear up historical questions for
those seeking answers, although I do not necessarily defend nor condemn any of
these past actions. I apologize if I put you in a difficult position last year
by my sudden absence.
What basically
happened, if I remember it correctly, was that two difficult events were
happening at once: the Slinky Empyre's dissolution and the Wikia-related
controversies. Being the cause of both of these likely didn't bring either
solution any nearer. I think I came to the conclusion that the Empyre was
doomed. As for the Wikia site, I'm not quite sure what happened, but I chose
the path of leaving the micronational world for a while.
A while felt good.
Life continued, and I didn't look back on the micronational websites for a long
time. Then, on April 21, I just checked out the forums, the wikis, Twitter, and
other websites. The time capsule experience was very entertaining, and I
learned much of what happened to the Slinky Empyre and such. Anyway, pointing
out that I'm not officially planning to return to the same micronational
community, here goes. I hope the information here's correct, but I am human.
Thank you for the
questions and correspondence; hopefully this will help fill in some gaps.
Heron: Why did you dissolve the Slinky Empyre after
the revolution? Many in the Republyc (myself and Parker I included) had offered
you to either join the Republyc as a citizen equal to all others or stay in the
Empyre (so that both states could co-exist).
Fyrst: To my knowledge, I didn't really "dissolve" the Slinky Empyre
myself. As certain citizens left, most particularly Vyceroy Johnson, it seemed
to be quickly fading into insignificance. I left the Empyre (no longer a
citizen), and resigned from the Kyngship. When exactly this took place, I'm not
sure of.
Heron: Why did you
have an election system in which those that do not vote (often inactive
citizens) automatically have their vote given to the incumbent Kyng? Why didn't
you change it after Puchowski left?
Fyrst: Ah,
the Slinky electoral system: one of my worst ideas. It was partly to avoid the situation of
changing Kyngs and Queens too quickly, but honestly I wasn't comfortable giving
over the metaphorical keys to someone in the event that they were popular among
only a few. Having the current monarch receive all the uncast votes was my
defense against that situation, but I think it was a terrible idea because it
was an unreasonable "solution" of a symptom of a bigger problem: the
Slinky Empyre was an organizational mess.
Heron: Were you
pleased with the fact that your nation mostly comprised of foreigners near its
end?
Fyrst: Well, technically, no Slins were foreigners to the
Empyre. The number of extreme opinions and personalities (including myself) in
the population probably did make me uncomfortable, though.
Heron: Why did you
hold on to the Wikia wiki?
Fyrst: Again, I'm not officially defending nor condemning my
actions here. I was tired of the community that often seemed unkind and
over-competitive, and its move from Wikia seemed an excellent opportunity to
provide a friendlier area, a nice little micronational wiki. The nomadic
community is moving on, I thought. The rest is history.
Heron: What is your
opinion on the Slinky Republyc and its successor, the Republic of Slyndonia
(run by Hayden)?
Fyrst: I don't know much about either, actually. According to
Mr. Sammut, the Slinky Republyc wanted to secede from the Empyre, and it
"died" shortly afterward, but I'm not quite certain of the details. I
think this was the original group of departments whose people wanted to secede.
When I heard that Hayland Dept. (the treasure of the Empyre, in my opinion)
had joined in this movement, I was disappointed. I don't blame those who left,
though. It was good to learn from the faults of the original Empyre's system.
Slyndonia is quite a pretty name, though its history I'm quite unsure about.
Heron: There are many
claims to your throne these days. What is your opinion of them?
Fyrst: The throne claims were entertaining to read, and I don't
even think I've found them all. One thing is certain: it's not my throne.
According to the Succession Law of the Ten Laws, if I remember correctly, the order of succession
applies in the event of resignation. So, going by the Slinky Document and the
Three Other Documents, Kuri I would be Kyng Second. However, not many seem to
still use these documents, so it looks like a political anomaly. However,
nothing seems to be stopping the others from starting a Second Slinky Empyre (à la the French Republics).
Heron: Now that you
have returned, is a new Slinky Empyre a genuine possibility? If not, will you
just observe us or leave as quickly as you appeared?
Fyrst: I'm not planning to return to the same community I left.
I still enjoy micronationalism, but intermicronationalism not so much. I've
gotten many inquiries about restarting the Empyre, and it's interesting what
could happen there, but I'm not planning to be a Slinky monarch under the
original system again. Howveer [sic], there may be some who could pull it off
better than I.
Heron: You mentioned that you still enjoy micronationalism, but
not intermicronationalism. Did you participate in micronationalism after
leaving the Slinky Empyre?
Fyrst: No, I
didn't actively participate in any micronation for the past year to my
knowledge. I thought about it a lot, though, and still do fairly often.
Heron: What is your
opinion of the many "dialects" of Slin-Englysh?
Fyrst: Slin-Englysh seems to be the only remaining element of
Slin, which is quite amusing. I read a forum discussion about the multiple
variants. The "Vulgar" version seems to be what people thought the
"Classical" was. It could be partly due to the YouTube instructional video on Classical Slin-Englysh being
incorrect (the video failed to mention the "i after l" rule). I'm quite entertained by the new
Slin-Englysh rules people have added, although the original is probably still
my favorite.
Heron: What did you do
between your resignation and today?
Fyrst: Not much, micronation-wise. Trying to work things out in
life, and trying to obey God better. Neither seems to be very successful,
though.
Heron: Did you observe
our community before re-entering? If so, what is your opinion of it?
Fyrst: I tried to avoid learning about the community over the
past year or so, but I did notice that Google search includes "microwiki.org.uk" results quite early now. In April 2012, I
looked at what had happened, for the first time in quite a while. I saw the
forums, the MicroWikis, YouTube announcements and such. As for my opinion,
that's not what I'm here to share, so I'd better not.
Heron: Are you still
"fryendly"?
Fyrst: I'm sorry, what language is that?
Heron: It's "Joke Slin-Englysh". The question asks
whether you are still the friendly, nice person you were before, in both
micronational and macronational affairs.
Fyrst: I would like to say and think that I'm friendly and kind,
though that's probably not for me to judge. I try to be often, though.
Heron: Why were you so
secretive?
Fyrst: If you're referring to my refusal to share personal
information, it was mainly for privacy, but it could also come in handy if an identity needed to be abandoned. Again,
not officially defending or condemning that.
Heron: Is Solomon your
real first name?
Fyrst: Probably not.
Thank you very much
for the information. I'm not sure about Skype, but I have been going through my
emails here at <1slinkyempyre@gmail.com>,
so folks are free to send me stuff there. Just to be clear, I'm not planning on
returning to the same micronational community at all, and I'm not
"back" by everyone's definition. I'm trying to clear things up for
historical purposes, but we'll see about other stuff.
Please let me know if
you could use any further clarification about anything, or if you have further
questions or thoughts. I hope this has contributed to removing the confusion
over what happened. Thanks again.
Posted by gishabrun.