From ford@jps.net Mon Jun 5 01:17:06 2000 Date: Sat, 03 Jun 2000 13:51:01 -0700 From: Ed Murphy Reply-To: agora-discussion@gecko.serc.rmit.edu.au To: agora-business@gecko.serc.rmit.edu.au Subject: BUS: Agoran Weekly Journal THE AGORAN WEEKLY JOURNAL VOLUME 46, ISSUE 18 June 3, 2000 ADOPTED PROPOSALS ----------------- "Mistakes Happen 2" by Taral - Proposal 4012 adopted 6/1 Misappropriation is a Class 15 (not 20) Crime, and only occurs when the Executor of a Bank Currency executes (not submits) an improper Transfer Order. "New Terminology" by Wes - Proposal 4011 adopted 6/1 "Fees" are defined. Any communication required to be made "publicly" shall be sent to the Public Forum. However, "post" and "distribute" are no longer explicitly defined as PF-equivalent. REJECTED PROPOSALS ------------------ "Kinder Blot Penalties" by Taral - Proposal 4013 rejected 6/1 Players must have more than 10 (not 5) Blots to be Mute, and more than 10 (not 3) Blots to be Denied. "Speaker Delegation" by Taral - Proposal 4009 failed quorum 5/22 The Speaker may Delegate Offices that e holds temporarily, without the usual two-week maximum on the period of Delegation. Delegated Offices are not actually held by the Delegating Player. "Work for All" by Taral - Proposal 4010 failed quorum 5/22 Players may Nominate for Office, regardless of eir Blots. PENDING PROPOSALS ----------------- "Agoran Time" by t Agora uses GMT generally, with no daylight savings time. Days, weeks, months, quarters, and years are generally defined, as are periodic requirements and relative periods of time. "Appeal fix 2" by Taral The dismissal of a CFJ is explicitly allowed to be Appealed. "Extreme Measures" by Taral A Legislator may, Without Objection and With 2 Senate Supporters, cause a Proposal in the Proposal Queue to be adopted. "Fix Scores" by t Gaining a Patent Title no longer causes a Score increase. Passing a Disinterested Proposal no longer causes a Score increase. Passing an Interested Proposal used to cause a Score increase of (2 * number of AGAINST votes). It now causes (2 * number of AGAINST votes) or (4 * number of AGAINST voters), whichever is greater; but any AGAINST votes cast by the submitter of the Proposal are ignored for this purpose. "Fix Wins" by t An announcement of a Win must identify all Players eligible to Win at that time. "More Fully Baked Oligarchy" by Kelly Any Oligarchy vacancies are Auctioned by the Speaker. All such winners start out as Low Oligarchs. When selecting a new High Oligarch, the previous High Oligarch is ineligible. Selections occur immediately and automatically if there is only one candidate, or when a majority of selectors is established. Oligardiness is committed only by individuals who fail to make an individual recommendation. If the Speaker must make a selection, e has seven days to do so, or else e becomes Tainted. If the Speakership changes before a selection is made, then the new Speaker has seven days to select. "More Score balancing" by Taral Being the sole person to Vote either FOR or AGAINST someone else's Proposal causes a Score increase of 2 (not 10). "Oh, what a tangled web..." by Kelly To grant or revoke PF status to a medium of communication, the Registrar must send eir announcement via a single medium that is a PF both before and after the change. Sending it via one medium that is a PF before but not after, and another medium that is a PF after but not before, is no longer sufficient. The Registrar may, Without Objection, grant or revoke Discussion Forum status to a medium. Any medium that becomes a PF ceases to be a DF. Sending a message to a DF is not sending it to the PF, even if each Active Player is reasonably certain to receive it via that DF; and is not sending it to a given Player, unless the Player explicitly or implicitly confirms receipt. "Property and Democracy" by Kelly Property is a generalization of Currency. Units of non-Currency Property are distinguishable. Transfer Orders are replaced with Notices of Transfer. Payment Orders are replaced with Debts. Debts may be satisfied or forgiven. If a Notice of Transfer claims to be for debt payment, but does not correspond to any current debt, then it shall either be retained as payment against future debt, or returned (voluntarily or on demand). One may Order the payment of a debt. Then Persistent Indebtedness occurs every seven days till the debt is paid. Such an Order shall be stayed if the debt is disputed (this can also be done by the CotC or a Judge), or vacated if the debt is satisfied by another entity (this can also be done by a Judge). Property owned by an Executor-less entity is Abandoned. The Notary is a Limited Executor of such an entity, and may use its Property to pay its debts; forgive debts owed to it; and (Without Objection) transfer its Property to the Bank. The Bank is a single entity. The Treasuror is Executor of the Bank. Each Bank Currency's Recordkeepor is a Limited Executor of the Bank, and may access only that Currency. The Treasuror may forgive debts owed to the Bank when Ordered to do so, or Without Objection. Ideal Indulgence Circulation Level (IICL) = # Players + # Player Blots. Actual Indulgence Circulation Level (AICL) = # Indulgences not owned by Bank + # Indulgences auctioned but bids not yet paid. Monthly Indulgence Auction for (IICL - AiCL) Indulgences. Proposals are Democratic if distributed while there are less than three Oligarchs. Voting on Ordinary Proposals is free. A Player may vote on a Proposal once, plus once per Voting Entitlement (a new Currency), minus once per five Blots; minimum 0, maximum 5. A non-Player may vote on a Proposal once per Voting Entitlement, maximum 3. However, the Bank may not vote on any Proposal. Ideal VE Circulation Level (IVECL) = # Players. Actual VE Circulation Level (AVECL) = # VEs not owned by Bank + # VEs auctioned but bids not yet paid. VE Auction for (IVECL - AVECL) VEs whenever this is positive. Bids in VTs. A High Oligarch may retain no VEs, a Middle Oligarch one, and a Low Oligarch two. Possessing more VEs than this for 5 days continuously causes loss of Oligarch position. "Ratification" by Taral The most recent version of each of the Promotor's Reports is ratified. "Say Something" by Taral When a Proposal's Voting Period ends, any Active Player who was eligible to Vote on it, but who didn't Vote or declare Presence on any Proposals in the past month, commits the Class 0.5 Infraction of Failure to Vote. "Speaker Delegation" by Taral The Speaker may Delegate Offices that e holds temporarily, without the usual two-week maximum on the period of Delegation. Delegated Offices are not actually held by the Delegating Player. "Taral's Work for All, Again" by Elysion Players may Nominate for Office, regardless of eir Blots. "Whitespace in Rules" by Kelly Certain types of change in whitespace are required/allowed without being a Rule Change. All other types of change in whitespace are explicitly defined as Rule Changes. "Work for All" by Taral Players may Nominate for Office, regardless of eir Blots. PROTO-PROPOSALS --------------- "Das Kapital" by Elysion The Priest may Auction any number of Indulgences per month, up to the number e is currently required to Auction. After each Indulgence Auction, the Priest receives a percentage commission on the total IAT bill for winning bids. This commission ranges from 0% to 20% (initially 5%), and is part of the Budget. The Priest may not bid in an Indulgence Auction. "Definition of Noisy, Quiet, and Silent" by harvel Rule 1042 (Zombification Due to Silence) is re-Titled and streamlined. A Player is always exactly one of Noisy, Quiet, or Silent. "Dependent Action tweaks" by Murphy An action performed Dependently is explicitly defined as a Dependent Action. A Dependent Action is explicitly allowed to require both non-Objection and Support. "Without N Objections" and "With N Supporters" allow shorthand restriction on whose Objection or Support is effective. "" may be "Officer", "Oligarch", "Senator", etc. "Dismissals May Be Appealed" by Murphy The dismissal of a CFJ is explicitly allowed to be Appealed. CALLS FOR JUDGEMENT ------------------- CFJ 1212 "Wes became the High Oligarch on Wed, 3 May 2000 12:48:35 +0300." [TRUE] 5/4 Called by t 5/4-7 Assigned to Peekee, who Judges TRUE 5/7-8 Appealed by Steve, Taral, and Elysion 5/9 Appeal assigned to lee, Blob, and harvel 5/13 harvel and lee move to overturn and reassign 5/18 Blob is replaced by Crito on the Board of Appeals 5/19 Crito moves to overturn and assign 5/20 Assigned to Elysion 5/24 Elysion Judges TRUE Caller's argument (summary): Rule 1937 (Filling Vacancies in the Oligarchy) specifies that the Low Oligarchs select a Middle Oligarch to become High Oligarch, but does not specify when the selection takes effect. Reasonable possibilities are: #1) Wed, 3 May 2000 09:49:12 +0100 - Majority established #2) Wed, 3 May 2000 12:48:35 +0300 - All three votes cast #3) Thu, 4 May 2000 00:00:00 GMT - Three-day deadline expires Judge Peekee's argument (summary): #2 is correct. Judge Elysion's argument (summary): #1 is incorrect; the selection is not done yet. #2 is correct; in the absence of explicit specification, the most reasonable interpretation is that the selection causes the Middle Oligarch to become High Oligarch immediately after it is completed. CFJ 1214 "If we post to a Public Forum a message in the form "If and only [TRUE] if we have not transferred VTs to t in the last 2 days, we transfer 10 VTs to t.", and we have indeed made no transfers to t in the 2 days previous to sending this message, and if there are no general conditions preventing any transfer of 10 VTs (such as a lack of funds), then 10 VTs are transferred from us to t. If, however, we had transferred VTs to t 4 hours before this message reached the Public Forum, then no VTs would be transferred as a direct result of this posting." 5/14 Called by Wes 5/15-19 Assigned to Taral, who Judges TRUE Caller's argument (summary): A statement "Iff X, I do Y" is equivalent to exactly one of ("I do Y", ""). Which one depends on whether or not X is true. Judge's commentary (summary): It is in the best interest of the game to allow conditions that can be fully resolved by consulting information publically available at the time the condition is stated. CFJ 1215 "If we post to a Public Forum a message in the form "If and only [FALSE] if t is standing up at the time we wrote this message, we transfer 10 VTs to t.", and t is indeed standing up at the time we wrote the message, and if there are no general conditions preventing any transfer of 10 VTs (such as a lack of funds), then 10 VTs are transferred from us to t." 5/14 Called by Wes 5/15-19 Assigned to lee, who recuses emself 5/27 Chuck Judges FALSE Caller's argument (summary): A statement "Iff X, I do Y" is equivalent to exactly one of ("I do Y", ""). Which one depends on whether or not X is true. Judge's refutation (summary): This condition is practically impossible to decide, and it is thus in the best interests of the game to disallow the Gamestate from hinging on it. CFJ 1216 "A Player who holds a wage-earning Office at the time Salaries [FALSE] are paid out is paid the Salary for that Office, regardless of the amount of time e has held that Office." 5/16 Called by Taral 5/17-18 Assigned to Murphy, who Judges FALSE Caller's argument (summary): Rule 1940 requires each (periodic compensation required to be paid out) to be paid out by the appropriate Officer at the beginning of the month. Judge's refutation (summary): If an Office was held by a Player for less than 12 days of the previous month, then that Office's salary - despite being a periodic compensation - is not required to be paid out. CFJ 1217 "TYHJÄ is not an obvious synonym of one of FOR, AGAINST or [DISMISS] ABSTAIN, as specified in Rule 683, and therefore is not a vote upon a Proposal." 5/21 Kelly attempts to dismiss (but may fail; see CFJ 1219) Judge's argument (summary): The truth of the statement depends on whether the Assessor understands TYHJÄ as an obvious synonym, which may change when the Assessorship changes. CFJ 1218 "The insertion of a blank line in a Rule is a Rule change" [FALSE] 5/18 Called by Palnatoke 5/18-25 Assigned to t, who Judges FALSE Judge's argument (summary): Rule changes must be written down, and changes in whitespace are necessarily different between handwritten and printed/electronic media, so it is game custom and in the best interests of the game that Rule 1339's view of whitespace be given general application. CFJ 1219 "CFJ 1217 was not Dismissed." [FALSE] 5/22 Called by Wes Appealed 5/22 Assigned to Steve, who Judges FALSE 5/23-24 Appealed by Wes and lee 6/2 Appealed by Murphy 6/2 Appeal assigned to Sherlock, Crito, and Peekee Caller's argument (summary): Kelly attempted to dismiss CFJ 1217 under Rule 1565 vi), but vi) is not actually true. Rule 1565 says that the dismissal is thus not legal, and does not occur (because the CotC was not notified of a legal dismissal). Why 1565 vi) is not true: Kelly stated that the truth of CFJ 1217's statement changes over time, but Rule 451 gives import only to the truth at the time the CFJ was called. A reasonable effort to determine this for CFJ 1217 would consist simply of getting the current Assessor's answer to "do you understand TYHJÄ as an obvious synonym for one of FOR, AGAINST or ABSTAIN?". Judge's refutation (summary): A Judgement not in accordance with the Rules is still a Judgement. Counterargument: Dismissal is not a Judgement. Rule 1565 may place a technical requirement on dismissal that has no analogue applying to Judgements. Does Kelly's belief in the truth of 1565 vi) count toward dismissing it "for the reasons listed in this Rule [1565]"? CFJ 1220 "Blob is currently eligible to Judge CFJs concerning conditional statements." 5/22 Called by Palnatoke 5/22 Assigned to harvel, who Judges FALSE Judge's argument (summary): Blob became ineligible to Judge *any* CFJs until further notice (via private message to CotC harvel) before this CFJ was called. CFJ 1221 "There are no Payment Orders in Stems naming Peekee as the Payor" [FALSE] 5/24 Called by Peekee 5/28 Wes Judges FALSE Judge's refutation (summary): Payment Orders still exist, even if they are satisfied. See CFJ 1226. CFJ 1222 "The message sent to the Business List by Elysion containing the text [FALSE] 'The Bank pays all its outstanding IAT POs' did not cause any Transfer Orders to be executed." 5/24 Called by Kelly 5/25-31 Assigned to Crito, who Judges FALSE Judge's refutation (summary): Elysion's message unambiguously specified a set of Payment Orders, each of which e implicitly paid with a Transfer Order. This set has been confirmed as non-empty. CFJ 1223 "lee started eir current occupation of the Office of Notary prior to [TRUE] midnight GMT on May 23, 2000." 5/25 Called by lee 5/28-6/2 Assigned to Peekee, who Judges TRUE Caller's argument (summary): Blob resigned as Notary on 5/15 without naming a successor. This caused em to be removed from the Office and replaced by Speaker lee. CFJ 1224 "Elysion's message of 11 April 2000, reading in part, 'The Bank pays all its outstanding IAT POs (50 to Michael and 75 to Chuck)', did not have the effect of executing a Transfer Order which would satisfy the Payment Order executed by lee in eir message dated 11 March 2000, reading in part, 'I order the Bank to pay Murphy 130 IATs.'" 5/26 Called by Kelly 5/29 Assigned to Sherlock Caller's argument (summary): Due to a mail server glitch, lee's message was not generally distributed till May 23. The falsity of this CFJ would imply that Elysion paid a Transfer Order without knowing that it existed. CFJ 1225 "The Transfer Orders which Peekee issued in the email identified by [TRUE] Message-ID: <20000524113533.52162.qmail@hotmail.com> were improperly or invalidly executed." 5/28 Called by Wes 5/28 Wes submits a Motion to vacate any or all of the Transfer Orders in question; see Rule 1809 5/29-30 Assigned to Palnatoke, who Judges TRUE and grants the Motion 6/2 Appealed by Peekee Judge's argument (summary): The first and third of the Orders in question would result in Peekee possessing negative Currency, so their attempts to satisfy a Payment Order are unsuccessful, and Rule 1598 thus invalidates them. The second of the Orders attempts to require the transfer of a negative number of entities. CFJ 1226 "The Transfer Orders which Peekee issued in the email identified by Message-ID: <20000524113533.52162.qmail@hotmail.com> satisfied the Stem Payment Orders as mentioned in the same email." 5/29 Called by Peekee. CFJ 1227 "A Low Oligarch who is entitled to cast any vote at all upon a given Ordinary Proposal may cast a vote of ABSTAIN upon that Proposal." 5/29 Called by Kelly 5/30 Assigned to Murphy OFFICES ------- Elysion loses eir Middle Oligarch position due to Blots. 5/24 Chuck is Elected Speaker-Elect. Voting begins for Justiciar. Nominees are Chuck and Taral. Notary Election ends with no Nominees. Nominations begin for a new Notary Election. Blob attempts to resign as Notary again. See CFJ 1223?. Taral Nominates for Notary. 5/28 Chuck stands down in the Justiciar Election, transferring eir Votes to Taral. 5/31 Taral is Elected Justiciar and Notary. Nominations begin for Clerk of the Courts. Speaker lee selects Kelly as the new Middle Oligarch. 6/5 Monthly Oligarchy rotation will occur. OTHER ----- 5/18 t wins the Auction for the Novalis Zombie, bidding 4.7 Indulgences. 5/19 The Novalis Zombie comes Off Hold. lee makes emself ineligible to Judge CFJs concerning conditional statements. 5/21 else...if deregisters. Notary lee attempts to place else...if into Probate. This fails if e is not yet Notary; see CFJ 1223?. 5/22 Blob states "If and only if t is standing up at the time I wrote this message, I make myself ineliglbe to judge CFJs's concerning conditional statements." See CFJ 1220. Treasuror lee suggests a new Budget: Office Current Suggested ---------------------------------------- Accountor 1.6 0.9 Assessor 1.4 1.0 Clerk of the Courts 1.0 1.2 Herald 0.8 1.7 Justiciar 0.2 0.2 Notary 0.8 0.4 Payroll Clerk 1.6 2.4 Priest 1.0 1.5 Promotor 1.4 1.8 Registrar 1.4 0.9 Rulekeepor 1.6 1.4 Scorekeepor 1.0 0.4 Speaker-Elect 0.0 0.0 Treasuror 0.2 0.2 5/23 Promotor Taral announces eir intent to Ratify eir most recent P-Note and Proposal Queue Reports. Kelly Objects. 5/25 Notary lee places else...if into Probate (if e has not already done so; see CFJ 1223?), and disposes of eir assets. 5/30 Elysion conducts a reverse auction: e will buy four Indulgences from the bidder(s) selling them for the least amount of VTs. Bids start at 80 VTs per Indulgence. The auction ends in four days. Treasuror lee announces eir intention to change the Budget as follows: Office Current New ------------------------------------- Accountor 1.6 1.4 Assessor 1.4 1.2 Clerk of the Courts 1.0 1.2 Herald 0.8 1.2 Justiciar 0.2 0.2 Notary 0.8 0.6 Payroll Clerk 1.6 2.2 Priest 1.0 1.2 Promotor 1.4 1.5 Registrar 1.4 1.1 Rulekeepor 1.6 1.3 Scorekeepor 1.0 0.7 Speaker-Elect 0.0 0.0 Treasuror 0.2 0.2 harvel supports this change. 5/31 Michael attempts (in a-d) to support the Budget change. Treasuror lee changes the Budget as described above. 6/1 Auction begins for 14 Indulgences. 6/3 Taral's Grace Period ends. TRADE OFFERS ------------ Ongoing offers: Player Date Will sell In return for ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Carnival 9/16 +0.01 VT 1 Denaria Carnival 9/16 10 Denaria On a Player's birthday, sing "Happy Birthday" to em in a key with at least four sharps OotEE 9/13 1 Iris 1 VT; non-members subject to 9% Tariff Wes 4/5 1 Twig Commenting on and changing a proto Wes 4/5 ad space 1 Twig per 30 days Recent one-time offers: Player Date Will sell In return for ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Kelly 5/4 Any Basic Negotiable; e has 170 Stems, no ABC Currency Murphy 5/6 VTs, P-Notes IATs; one-to-one basis Murphy 5/6 33 P-Notes 0.9 Indulgences; directed to t, if Peekee turns down eir offer Peekee 5/2 50 VTs or 1 Indulgence P-Notes t 5/2 0.9 Indulgences 33 P-Notes from Peekee; will not sell at any price to an Immaculate Player Taral 5/20 P-Notes VTs or IATs ERRATA ------ -- Ed Murphy http://rivendell.fortunecity.com/meridian/309/ "Most of the time, it seemed sublimely unaware of its limbs, though it was beginning to suspect it had hands."