Update to Endorsement Caps

[Ark]

Hello everyone. As many of you are aware given our discussions recently, we are facing a security concern in the form of our endorsement caps. Presently, the caps are as follows:

General (Resident, not endorsing Regional Officers) - 20

Resident Contributor (Resident, endorsing Regional Officers) - 40

Citizen (expected to be a Contributor) - 70

While efforts are underway to work on our overall WA endorsement situation (thanks to everyone participating in that, especially Guhrayen), this cap is simply far too lenient and presents a risk of compromising Osiran security. As such, I will be adjusting the caps to account for the current endorsement situation. The new caps are effective immediately and will be as follows:

General (Resident, not endorsing Regional Officers) - 20

Resident Contributor (Resident, endorsing Regional Officers) - 30

Citizen (expected to be a Contributor) - 50

The Golden Book of Ma'at has already been updated to reflect these new numbers. Below are some preemptive answers to questions that I expect to see from people.

I am now above the cap. What do I do?

If you suddenly find yourself in violation due to this policy change, don't fret. The Council of Guardians and I will continue to monitor endorsements and give instructions as needed. You can expect to have a sort of grace period where we will let your endorsements naturally decay. That said, a couple valuable steps you can take are:

1. Stop swapping endorsements with people. Your endorsements should naturally decline over time if you aren't accruing new ones.

2. Ask your fellow citizens to withdraw their endorsements. This a good step for when you want your count to drop by a predictable amount in a fairly short amount of time.

3. If you have tried both of these and are still above the cap, you can always reach out to a Guardian or to myself and we can work out solutions that don't completely erase your progress. This is, of course, provided that we don't reach out to you first.

Will the caps ever be raised or lowered again?

Yes, the caps will most likely change again, but not for some time. Endorsement cap policy is intentionally easy to change as it must adapt to the needs of the current situation. It is my hope that they won't be going down any time soon. If we are able to successfully improve our WA numbers, I am very much open to the possibility of raising the caps again.

What other steps are being taken to improve security?

For starters, as most of you are aware, we recently updated our Guardian roster. We now have a Pharoah, Heir Apparent, and four guardians, all of whom are easily reachable in a time of need. Additionally, citizen Guhrayen has taken a very proactive approach to evaluating our WA numbers and crafting a WA program that is tailored to Osiris' specific needs. It is my full intention to support that project and treat it as a top priority going forward. Strong WA participation and an active gameside populus will pay dividends in the long term for the health of the region as a whole.