From ford@jps.net Tue Sep 26 22:18:43 2000 Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 23:52:00 -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 47, ISSUE 5 September 25, 2000 ADOPTED PROPOSALS ----------------- "Fix Rule 1936" by Elysion - Proposal 4073 (first one) adopted 9/19 Change "Payment Order" to "debt" in Rule 1936 (Auctioning Positions in the Oligarchy). "Improved Officer Rules" by Steve - Proposal 4071 adopted 9/13 An Office ceases to be delegated if it ceases to have an Electee. Maximum length of delegation is increased from two to three weeks. All mention of holding an Office "in the normal fashion" or "temporarily" is reworded. "Urgent Proposal clean-up" by Steve - Proposal 4072 adopted 9/16 Instead of Proposal Batches, each Proposal must simply be distributed in the week after it becomes Distributable. The Promotor must announce the abortion of a Proposal distributed while still Undistributable. Rule 1770 (Distributing Proposals) is otherwise rearranged for clarity. Urgent Proposals must become Distributable before being distributed, but then can and must be distributed within five days. REJECTED PROPOSALS ------------------ "Fix Rule 1614" by harvel - Proposal 4064 failed quorum 9/4 - Proposal 4068 failed quorum 9/11 Remove a spurious "either" from the Rule. "One-shot rule cleanup" by Taral - Proposal 4065 failed quorum 9/4 - Proposal 4069 failed quorum 9/11 Repeal Rules 1943 (Continuity of the Bank) and 1949 (Continuity of Debt), left over from the conversion from Payment Orders to Debts. "Respect for the dead" by Peekee - Proposal 4055 failed quorum 8/20 Wills are re-defined, and the Notary may carry them out as e sees fit when handling Abandoned Property. "Rule cleanup" by Taral - Proposal 4063 failed quorum 9/4 - Proposal 4070 failed quorum 9/11 Repeal Rule 1927 (Bank Currency Creation). "The Court of Equity" by Taral - Proposal 4067 failed quorum 9/10 Debts found invalid by CFJ are cancelled. Reporting a known-invalid debt is the Class 10 Crime of Extortion. Rule 1742 (Agreements Between Players) is updated from Payment Order style language to Debt style language. Fees are changed from up-front costs to debts. Private Orders are explicitly made valid unless specified otherwise, but are prohibited from requiring or restricting Property transfer except to satisfy debts of the entity being Ordered. "What is Public?" by Wes - Proposal 4066 rejected 9/4 Any communication sent to a PF is deemed to have been sent to all Players. Any communication sent to a DF (Discussion Forum) is deemed not to have been sent to all Players. Any communication sent to all Players is deemed to have been made Publicly. This collects all PF timing requirements into a single place. Throughout the rest of the Ruleset, requirements to send something to the PF are replaced with requirements to do them Publicly. Oh, and "ProSiRuP is Marvy" is hidden in the middle of the dreary part of the Proposal. (Agora's first known instance of scam by obscurity occurred in early 1997: "Murphy Wins" was embedded in a Proposal assigning names to then-nameless Crimes/Infractions, to avoid ambiguity of Double Jeopardy.) PENDING PROPOSALS ----------------- "Clean Up R408" by Steve Infraction of Judging Late occurs only if no Judgement was delivered within fourteen days. "Electees become Office-holders" by Murphy Rule 1558 (Defaults for Elections for Offices) clarifies that Election Winners start to hold Office. "Expand Presence" by Blob Oligarchs may declare Presence on Ordinary Proposals. "Fix of Problem in Rule 1644 Discovered by Taral" by Elysion The Grand Warden, not the Payroll Clerk, reports Dereliction of Duty. "GWotO Runs Oligarch Auctions" by Elysion - Proposal 4073 (third one) The Grand Warden of the Oligarchy (not the High Oligarch or Speaker) conducts Auctions to fill Oligarch vacancies. "Minor fix" by Peekee Remove an extra "the" from Rule 1948 (Zombie Transfer Tax). "Pragmatic Auctions" by Elysion - Proposal 4074 When the Priest determines how many Indulgences should be auctioned, errors made in good faith are allowed to stand. "Remove some anomalous references" by Steve Amend Rule 1664 (Rebellion) as intended by "Improved Officer Rules" (which had insufficient Power to do so). "Stable Oligarchy" by t - Proposal 4073 (second one) The High Oligarch is not rotated out if there were any vacancies in the Oligarchy during the past week. "Votes over Points" by Taral Reduce the award for the only FOR/AGAINST Proposal Vote from 10 to 2 Points. PROTO-PROPOSALS --------------- "Budgeted Stipends" by Elysion The Winners' Stipend is part of the Treasuror's Budget, rather than being fixed at half the Basic Officer Salary. "Entitlement Factors" by Peekee For a Currency with an Entitlement Factor: Entitlement Factor is a positive amount of Currency per Player. Ideal Circulation Level = number of Players * Entitlement Factor, rounded up to nearest MUQ. Actual Circulation Level = non-Bank holdings, plus Bank holdings won in Auction but not yet paid for. Circulation Level Surplus = max(0, ICL - ACL). This amount shall be Auctioned at the beginning of each month, in the Bidding Currency for that Currency. For Indulgences: ICL = number of Players + number of Player Blots. Bidding Currency = IATs. For Papyri: Entitlement Factor = 0.25 to 4, contained in Promotor's Budget. Bidding Currency = P-Notes. Promotor's Budget also contains Quorum Repayment (0 to 1 Papyri, paid out to the author of a Proposal that fails Quorum). For VEs: Entitlement Factor = 1. Bidding Currency = VTs. "Fix Kudos and Remove a Rule" by Elysion Kudos are no longer Property. Definition of Shogun is moved to Rule 1923 (Defined Unique Patent Titles). "Forced-Ordinary/Democratic Proposals" by Peekee A Forced-Ordinary Proposal must be Ordinary and have AI=1. It has Distribution Cost +1. It can never be made Democratic. A Forced-Democratic Proposal has Priority Cost +1. It is Democratic, regardless of AI. "Groups as Legislators" by Peekee Each Group with at least three Members is a Legislator. "Judicial Cleanup" by Peekee A matter (not a "dispute") may be resolved by CFJ. CotC may withdraw a CFJ without a single clearly identifiable statement. Caller's ability to Bar Players merged into Rule 991 (Invoking Judgement). Definitions of Open/Closed moved to Rule 991 (Invoking Judgement). CotC may withdraw a trivial Open CFJ at the caller's request. CFJs may be submitted to (not "filed with") the Justiciar. CotC may withdraw (not "dismiss") an Excess CFJ. Entities with the same Executor as a CFJ's Caller are barred with the same severity as the Caller emself. Rule 698 (Always an Eligible Judge) works by restoring eligiblity, rather than changing the entire general definition of who is eligible. Players Barred by the Caller are restored eligibility at the same time as Inactive Players, rather than afterward. CotC may recuse a Judge who goes On Hold. Rule 1756 ("Delinquent Judges", requiring the CotC to recuse a delinquent Judge upon the request of two Players) is repealed, on the assumption that Rule 408 ("Requirement to Judge or Dismiss", requiring the CotC to recuse a Judge who is a week late) is sufficient. Judges who Judge a Bit Late still get paid. Judges may only dismiss CFJs to which they are assigned. The general category "lacks standing" is repealed. When a Judgement or Dismissal is overturned, the Judge is billed the current Judicial Salary (which may have changed since e was paid). CotC may withdraw a CFJ alleging that a Judge has failed to perform a judicial duty. A Justice may not appoint a replacement after submitting a determination. Dismissal and withdrawal may be Appealed. The Board of Appeal's decision is final as soon as two Justices make the same determination. The Board are explicitly allowed to overturn an incompletely considered Judgement, even if unsure that the final result is incorrect. On reassignment, the new Judge is not prohibited from making the same Judgement for the same reasons. "Quarterly Auction of Voting Entitlements" by Steve At the beginning of each quarter, all VEs are destroyed, and the Assessor shall mint and Auction as many VEs as there are Players. "Respect for the dead" by Peekee Wills are re-defined, and the Notary may carry them out as e sees fit when handling Abandoned Property. However, before transferring a type of Property according to an entity's Will, all the entity's debts for that type of Property at the time of Abandoning must first be satisfied. "Say Something" by Taral When the Voting Period of a Proposal ends, any Active Player eligible to Vote on it commits the Infraction of Failure to Vote if e did not Vote or declare Presence on any Proposal for the past four weeks. For Oligarchs, the Infraction is Oligarch Lethargy, the required action is to Vote FOR or AGAINST an Ordinary Proposal, and the limit is two weeks. "Secret, Unknown and Hidden Proposals" by Peekee A Secret Proposal has Distribution Cost +0.5. It may be made Distributable by private request to the Promotor. When it leaves the Pool, Distribution Cost is billed to the first Player to request it become Distributable. If it re-enters the Pool, that debt is forgiven. An Unknown Proposal has Distribution Cost +0.5. It may be submitted by private message to the Promotor, and its text is Secret while in the Pool. A Hidden Proposal has Distribution Cost +1. All information about a Hidden Proposal is Secret while it is in the Pool, but the Promotor may reveal how many Hidden Proposals are in the Pool. Each of these things must be explicitly stated in the message in which the Proposal is submitted. "Urgent Distribution" by Taral A Proposal may be declared Urgent for free. Urgent Proposals may be distributed immediately. With Support, one may order the Promotor to distribute an Urgent Proposal within five days. CALLS FOR JUDGEMENT ------------------- CFJ 1237 "The Order issued by Chuck on Sun, 23 Jul 2000 17:17:02 -0500 [TRUE] was valid." 7/25 Called by Taral 7/26-27 Assigned to Oerjan, who Judges FALSE 7/30 Taral moves that Chuck be Ordered to pay the Bank 24 P-Notes, the amount that Chuck received as a result of the Order in question. 7/30 Oerjan grants the motion 7/30-8/19 Appealed by Murphy, Chuck, Steve, and Oerjan 8/20 Appeal assigned to Chuck, Taral, and Wes 8/20 Taral (ineligible because e is the Caller) replaced by Steve 8/20 Wes moves to overturn and reassign 8/21 Chuck (allegedly ineligible because e made emself ineligible to Judge this CFJ on 8/1; see CFJ xxxx) allegedly replaced by Murphy 8/24 Steve moves to overturn and reverse 8/24 Improperly reassigned to Elysion (Wes's and Steve's motions were noted, but Taral's attempted motion on 8/20 should have been ignored) 8/30 Murphy recused and replaced by Kelly 9/2 Kelly moves to overturn and reassign 9/2-9/9 Reassigned to Elysion, who Judges TRUE Caller's argument for FALSE (summary): Chuck transferred some P-Notes for the purpose of paying a Fee. The P-Note payment succeeded, but the Fee payment failed. The Rules do not require that Players be reimbursed for failed Fee payments. Rule 1796 permits the validity of Chuck's Order to be proven by CFJ only if its execution is required by the Rules. Counterargument: Rule 1796 also permits the validity of the Order to be proven by CFJ if its execution is "permitted in" the circumstances existing when it was executed; and the Rules do not prohibit or regulate the creation of a Private Order, thus such creation is permitted by Rule 101. Justice Steve's argument (summary): Rule 101's permission is not turned off by the regulation of Orders generally. It *is* turned off by the regulation of Private Orders specifically, by Rule 1808. But the execution of Private Orders is permitted by Rules 1794 and 1808 directly, without involving Rule 101. Concurring opinion (summary): Rule 1808 does not regulate any aspect of Private Orders, except to state that an attempt to execute one is ineffectual unless sent to the Player at whom the Order is directed. CFJ 1240 "Kelly is not the Judge of CFJ 1234." [TRUE] 8/8 Called by Kelly 8/9-14 Assigned to t, who Judges FALSE 8/14-17 Appealed by Steve, Palnatoke, Kelly, Taral, Wes, and Peekee 8/15 Appeal assigned to Chuck, Taral, and Wes 8/18 Chuck makes emself ineligible 8/20 Taral moves to overturn and reassign 8/20 Wes moves to overturn and reassign 8/30 Chuck recused and replaced by Blob 8/30 Blob moves to overturn and reassign 9/7 Andre Judges TRUE 9/10 Appealed by Steve 9/14 Steve seeks co-Sponsor for Dissenting Opinion Caller's argument (summary): Rule 408 says that Judge become ineligible seven days after the end of the Deliberation Period, and does not explicitly restrict that clause to cases in which the Judge fails to deliver Judgement by that time. Counterargument (summary): But it may implicitly restrict that clause to such cases. CFJ 1243 "Chuck is ineligible to serve as a Justice in the Appeal of CFJ [TRUE] 1237." Appealed 8/21 Called by Steve 8/22-24 Assigned to Wes, who Judges TRUE 8/25-26 Appealed by Andre, Crito, harvel, Oerjan, and Kelly 8/25 Andre creates and signs an Application to Submit an Opinion, to force the official recording of eir Dissenting Opinion 8/25 Crito signs Andre's Application 8/27 harvel and Steve sign Andre's Application 8/28 Andre submits and executes eir Application 8/30 Appeal assigned to Chuck, Taral, and Andre 9/22 Chuck, Taral, and Andre dismissed from Board; t, Kelly, and Blob assigned to Board Caller's argument (summary): Chuck made emself ineligible to Judge CFJ 1237 on August 1. When CFJ was called, Chuck was ineligible only due to Rule 1871, which does not affect the Board. However, there may be some Rules that use "Judge" to include Justices too. Counterargument (summary): No, there aren't. The Rules restrict the correctness of Judges and Judgements; they restrict Justices only to decide whether the Judge did what e should have. Judge's concurring opinion (summary): The object of "it" in Rule 911's "when it was called" is "the Appeal". Counterargument (summary): No, the object is "the CFJ". The time that an Appeal is called is undefined anyway, though it would presumably be the earliest time at which there exist sufficient insistences on Appeal. Rule 541 iii) and iv) use "the matter the Board is to consider" - a phrase similar to one in Rule 911 - in apparently inconsistent ways, but this is resolved if the phrase is interpreted as "the Judicial process regarding a given CFJ". Transferring that interpretation to the context of Rule 911, the only sensible interpretation of "when a Judicial process was called" is "when the original CFJ was called". CFJ 1245 "The Speaker has failed to initiate an Election for the Office of [FALSE] Grand Warden of the Oligarchy as required by the Rules." 8/24 Called by Taral 8/24-9/1 Assigned to Chuck, who Judges FALSE Caller's argument (summary): GWotO has no Electee, so the Rule "The Order of Temporary Succession" applies. Judge's counterargument (summary): This requirement has no implicit time limit. If it has an implicit time limit, then that limit ought to be no stricter than ASAP's one week, whereas the CFJ was called less than four days after the requirement began to exist. CFJ 1246 "Peekee has paid a Fee of 10 Stems since the 15th of September this year." 9/19 Called by Peekee 9/19 Blob makes emself ineligible 9/20 Peekee bars Crito 9/21 Taral makes emself ineligible CFJ 1247 "t's Order dated Wed, 20 Sep 2000 22:50:26 +0300 was improperly executed." 9/20 Called by Taral Circumstances: t's first version of "Stable Oligarchy" lacked sufficient Power, due to an error in the Ruleset. t re-submitted it with appropriate Power, and ordered (Rulekeepor and Promotor) Chuck to make it Distributable. OFFICES/OLIGARCHS ----------------- 9/1 lee delegates Payroll Clerk and Treasuror to Taral for the rest of September. Election begins for Grand Warden of the Oligarchy. This causes the Rule "The Order of Temporary Succession" to self-Repeal: lee remains Grand Warden till e resigns, deregisters, or the Election has a winner. 9/2 lee resigns as Grand Warden of the Oligarchy. Speaker Chuck becomes Grand Warden. lee deregisters. 9/4 Michael ceases to be High Oligarch. 9/5 Michael Nominates for Grand Warden of the Oligarchy. 9/7 t, Taral, and Blob select Elysion as High Oligarch. 9/8 Elysion selects Blob and t as Middle Oligarchs, and initiates an auction to fill the two Low Oligarch positions thus vacated. 9/11 Michael is Elected Grand Warden of the Oligarchy. 9/13 Nominations begin for Clerk of the Courts. Kelly and Peekee Nominate for Clerk of the Courts. 9/14 Nominations begin for Payroll Clerk, Treasuror, Assessor, Herald, and Priest. Elysion Nominates for Herald and Priest. Steve and Michael win the Low Oligarch positions by placing the only Bids (of 50 and 10 VTs, respectively). Steve pays 10 VTs and takes eir position. 9/15 Michael pays 10 VTs and takes eir position as Low Oligarch. 9/18 Nominations begin for Accountor. Elysion Nominates for Treasuror. t Nominates for Assessor and Treasuror. Blob Nominates for Accountor. 9/21 Voting begins for Treasuror. Candidates are Elysion and t. Voting begins for Clerk of the Courts. Candidates are Kelly and Peekee. t is Elected Assessor by acclamation. Elysion is Elected Priest and Herald by acclamation. No Nominees for Payroll Clerk. Nominations open in a new Election. Andre Nominates for Payroll Clerk. Peekee Nominates for Payroll Clerk, but states that e will withdraw if e is Elected Clerk of the Courts. 9/22 Taral is Blotted out of eir position as Low Oligarch for failing to process the Appeal of CFJ 1243. 9/23 Oerjan Nominates for Accountor. 9/25 Grand Warden Michael attempts to initiate an Auction to fill the vacant Low Oligarch position. However, this responsibility still rests with High Oligarch Elysion. OTHER ----- 9/1 Auction begins for 7 Indulgences. Chuck returns from an approximately four-week absence (due to a combination of several external circumstances) and becomes Noisy. Rulekeepor Chuck admits Kelly's COE to the effect that Rule 1051 (The Rulekeepor) still requires the weekly posting of the Short Logical Ruleset, and the monthly posting of the Full Logical Ruleset. Rulekeepor Chuck admits Taral's COEs on the Amendment Numbers of three Rules in the Full Logical Ruleset. 9/2 Peekee comes Off Hold. 9/4 Steve attempts to make the Zombies Silent. This fails because they were Silent all along. 9/9 Wes goes On Hold. 9/12 Promotor Taral announces unofficial intent to Auction 9 or 11 Papyri. 9/14 Herald Elysion announces eir intent to remove Historical Significance from the Patent Titles of "" (a null Patent Title held by Andre) and Zeitgeist. Wes comes Off Hold. 9/15 Oerjan and Palnatoke object to the removal of Historical Significance. 9/16 Peekee transfers 10 Stems to the Bank for the purpose of "Paying a Fee of 10 Stems", then states sixty times "I would like to inform the relevant Offices that I wish to obtain 10 IATs". It is generally agreed that each of these wishes creates a separate Fee, only one of which may be paid by the transfer. (Rules 1941, 1912) See CFJ 1246. Kelly retorts in a-d: "I would like to inform the relevant Officers that I have repealed the entire Ruleset. New Rules will follow shortly." Wes replies: "If and only if the entire Ruleset was recently Repealed, we hereby create the following Rules: (1) These Rules may only be removed, changed or added to as described in these Rules. No other modifications to these Rules are allowed by any means. Only these Rules will guide play. (2) A person with the legal surname (according to the United States of America's Social Security Administration) of Contreras may alter these Rules in any way they see fit, with or without any notification of any other party. Such changes may be retroactive. (3) Kelly shall be considered to have a blue fish, which shall be considered to be wet. Said blue fish shall exist only within the context of this game. Kelly, and only Kelly, may announce that e cooks and eats said blue fish by sending a message declaring such to the agora-business mailing list." 9/17 Indulgence Auction ends. Wes pays for eir Indulgences. 9/18 Elysion, t, and Steve pay for eir Indulgences. Wes makes emself ineligible to Judge future CFJs till future notice. Rulekeepor Chuck admits COEs on: * Text of Rule 478 (The Public Forum). Proposal 4011 misquoted text (omitting a comma) and thus failed to amend it. * Text of Rule 1042 (Zombification Due to Silence). Proposal 4002 misquoted text ("Noisty" instead of "Noisy") and thus failed to amend it. Proposal 4011 misquoted text ("by stating in a Public Forum" instead of "by stating in the Public Forum") and thus failed to amend it. * Text of Rule 1664 (Rebellion). Proposal 4011 had insufficient Power and thus failed to amend it. Proposal 4071 had insufficient Power and thus failed to amend it. * Power of Rule 1938 (Monthly Rotation in the Oligarchy) is 2. * Amendment Number of Rule 1758 is 5. 9/19 Crito makes emself eligible to Judge CFJs. Palnatoke goes On Hold. Auction begins for 20 Papyri. Promotor Taral announces eir intent to ratify the P-Note Report of 9/16. Steve objects. 9/21 pTang registers. 9/22 Fearing that e may be Elected Accountor while on holiday, Blob offers eir Power of Attorney to Crito for one week, starting midnight 9/25. Auction for 7 Indulgences - Final results ---------- 500 Wes 240 Steve 120 Steve 106 t 100 Elysion 80 Steve 75 Wes ---------- 65 Wes 56 Wes 53 t 47 Wes 34 Wes 33 Wes Auction for 20 Papyri ---------- 350 harvel - cancelled 300 Elysion 276 harvel 200 harvel 150 Elysion 117 harvel - cancelled 103 harvel - cancelled 100 Wes 100 Wes 100 Elysion 90 harvel 78 harvel - cancelled 75 Elysion 62 t 60 Elysion 55 Wes 55 Wes 53 harvel - cancelled 51 t 51 t 51 t 51 t 50 t 50 Wes 50 Wes ---------- 50 Elysion 46 harvel 45 Wes 45 Wes 45 Wes 45 Wes 43 harvel - cancelled 42 Elysion 41 t 40 Oerjan - cancelled 37 Elysion 35 t 33 Elysion 31 t 30 Elysion 28 Oerjan - cancelled 27 t 27 Elysion 26 Steve 25 t 25 Elysion 22 t 21 t 20 t 20 Wes 20 Wes 19 t 18 Wes 18 Oerjan - cancelled 17 t 16 Wes 16 Wes 15 Wes 15 Wes 14 Wes 13 t 13 Wes 13 Wes 13 Steve 12 Wes 11 t 10 Wes 10 Wes 10 Wes 10 Wes 7 t 5 t 3 t 2 t 2 Wes 1 t TRADE OFFERS ------------ Ongoing offers: Player Date Will sell In return for ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Blob 6/19/00 Vote on Ordinary Highest bidder; minimum 10 of any Proposals Basic Currency, or equivalent Elysion 7/23/00 Herald's Privilege Negotiable Carnival 9/16/99 0.01 VT 1 Denaria Carnival 9/16/99 10 Denaria On a Player's birthday, sing "Happy Birthday" to em in a key with at least four sharps Elysion 9/7/00 Proposal Votes Denaria; during first four days of Voting Period; unaccepted bribes returned within five days OotEE 9/13/99 1 Iris 1 VT; non-members subject to 9% Tariff Peekee 7/25/00 VTs P-Notes Wes 4/5/00 1 Twig Commenting on and changing a proto Wes 4/5/00 ad space 1 Twig per 30 days Recent one-time offers: Player Date Will sell In return for ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Crito 7/6 Negotiable IATs Kelly 7/1 1 VE Negotiable Murphy 5/6 VTs, P-Notes IATs; one-to-one basis Steve 8/16 26 P-Notes Negotiable Taral 7/1 P-Notes VTs Wes 7/7 IATs VTs (directed to Crito) TIPJAR CONCEPTS --------------- Can be made 100% usable via e-mail. TipJar would deem Currency to be created or destroyed in the possession of only one entity (call it the Sink). Everything else is transfers; creation is a transfer from the Sink, destruction is a transfer to the Sink. Liaison can be allowed to execute third-party transfers (e.g. Power of Attorney, Zombies). Can produce transaction detail reports. Must not allow any account to go negative. Allows installation of new Liaison (by TipJar's operators) if old one disappears. Should allow e-mail addresses to be changed. Should allow multiple accounts per e-mail addresses (e.g. Organizations, Bank). Workaround: There are many ways to pick up an extra address. ERRATA ------ Taral did not make any Zombies Quiet on 8/20, as they have all been Silent since becoming Zombies (and only a Noisy Player may become Quiet). -- 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."