Guide to Public Nuisances, and how to avoid them

If you've been on Nationstates for any period of time, you've probably heard of or seen the R/D "game" where people speedrun taking over a region and destroying it or mutilating it for extended periods of time. This guide aims to help your region avoid becoming a trophy or being irreparably crippled.

I. How It Works
Raiders or "defenders" can capture your region in three different ways: refounding, forward invasion, or espionage.

First, let's talk about refounding. Refounding is usually initiated by the region, where everyone moves out of a password-protected region and waits for it to cease to exist(CTE).When it CTEs, the original region-makers attempt to found a new region under the same name(refound). However, both raiders and "defenders" can snipe the refound and refound it themselves, capturing it.

Second is forward invasion. This is when raiders or "defenders" move into a Frontier, a regional type where governorship is decided by whoever has the most WA endorsements. Then, they all endorse one person, who becomes the WA delegate, giving them free access to wipe out your regional history and all your hard work.

Third is espionage. This usually happens if the initial raid fails, in which case a nation secretly operated by a raider or "defender"(puppet nation) infiltrates your region and slowly gains permissions. If your governor nation CTEs, is away for long enough or the puppet gains enough power, they will ban and eject(banject) all your resident nations, and then claim the region as a trophy.

II. Defending Against It
So, how do you prevent your region from being invaded? You can't ever fully mitigate the risks, but there's three ways to make it much less likely.

Number one, just remove permissions from the WA delegate using the Admin tab in your region(provided you are the governor/have executive permission). This only works for non-Frontiers. No, don't let them have a single permission. Just remove it all. If you want to give someone permissions, you can also do it under the Admin tab, but be careful of espionage.

Number two, password-protect the region. This, again, can be done under the Admin tab. However, this isn't a great solution, as it both removes any magnetism you have if you're a Frontier(preventing you from attracting new nations) and makes it impossible for anyone to enter without the password. If you hand out the password, it might be discovered by raiders or defenders, and your region subsequently raided.

Number three, have a stable delegate. A good amount of endorsements for a delegate to have is around 30. To endorse a delegate, you first need to join the WA(World Assembly tab) and then view the page of another WA nation who is in the same region as you. Scroll down and click on "Endorse". Do note that this will allow a WA delegate to vote for you.

III. What NOT To Do
Although there are good ways to defend against invasion, there are also three good ways to screw over your region and/or get it invaded, and/or get banned by a moderator.

Number one, be annoying. Most army-leading nations have very fragile egos and will invade you on the basis of even something as small as an insult. Being nice and well-liked is a good way to make less regions want to wipe you from history.

Number two, lashing out after being invaded. Do NOT do this. The only thing this will do is give the invaders free ammunition to get you banned by the moderators. This includes things like spamming the invading region's RMB, spamming the invaders with telegrams, or calling them slurs.

Number three, be overly trusting. While it's sad you might not be able to trust members of your region, it's much safer to only allow very trusted people to have limited permissions. Do NOT trust someone if they ask for executive or appearance permissions to "make some changes". Banjecting them is usually the smartest choice.

IV: Extra Advice
This mainly exists for things that are still useful, but didn't fit in a category. Although these are useful, they won't come up too much.

-Don't forget that even if the invaders are cowards who aren't invadable through refounds or forward invasion, you can still use espionage to take them down.

-The SC(Security Council, a branch of the WA) is completely obsolete unless the invaders are using it, in which case they can use the force of nepotism to spread interregional "peace". It's so completely useless that condemned regions, the worst of the worst according to them, actually gain MORE nations after condemnation.

-If you decide to invade a region through espionage, change your personality so you're less recognizable. Maybe it's making more spelling mistakes, talking differently, or acting more friendly.

-Don't get impatient while invading. Espionage takes a while.

-Don't trust "defender" regions. Although they will, once in a blue moon, actually defend a region, most of the time they just raid fascist regions that did nothing except possibly having an ideology.