Our Chancellor, Rosie Gray, has sent out a survey to citizens about the future of the CDS. I thought I would start a thread here to discuss this in public as I think the debate might be helpful. I also see that some of the 'white walkers' on Jerry's laughable 'free folk' forum are looking to get hold of the survey and muddy the results so we may need to hold this discussion in the forums and inworld to really get a handle on what real CDS citizens think. (Though, judging by their posts, the 'white walkers' should be easy to identify. Just look for incoherent, vitriolic nonsense and you have them pegged).
My view is that we should sell off two of our regions - my money would be on Colonia Nova and Locus Amoenus - and consolidate the estate on the remaining four regions.
We are currently losing money because we don't have sufficient occupancy across the whole Estate to pay tier. Now, we have healthy reserves which will keep us afloat for some considerable time but my basic view is that if we can't raise the money to pay for the regions we have, we should cut back until we can.
The RA took the decision to open up a new region and it was hoped that this would generate enthusiasm and bring in new people. The Chancellor had a marketing plan to help too. None of that is wrong or foolish but it hasn't turned out the way we had hoped. We need to face up to that and take some hard decisions.
Now, you could argue about whether we need to sell off only one or two regions. Maybe we should just sell off one, see how we go and then consider a second. But I think it's always better to just rip the band-aid off in one go rather than peel it off slowly and rip the hairs out one by one. I also think the regions to go should be Colonia Nova and Locus Amoenus. The time when 'Roman' sold as a theme is now long gone and we all bear scars from trying to make a go of LA over the years. Time to let them go, concentrate on the medieval, Alpine and Bavarian themes that have worked well for us and make a go of that. It would be a shame, for example, to have to close Friedsee (rather than one of the other regions) when it's only just been opened!
How about a referendum to decide? Two questions: "do we sell off one region or two?" And, "which region(s) should go?" We could add that to the ballot for the May elections and debate the issue over the next month and a bit.