CFJ, barring ais523: A rule reading "Anyone CAN cause this rule to amend
itself by announcement." was created on or about Sat, 25 Apr 2026
13:13:08 -0400.
I petition the Arbitor to not assign this case to Janet either.
Caller's arguments:
[tl;dr: ais523 and Janet's recent dictatorship scam may have failed
because the past proposal was previously set to Power 0, so reviving
it didn't actually make any rule changes.]
On or about the date in question, Proposal 9328 (Revival) was adopted,
creating a Power 2 rule with this text:
For the purpose of this rule, a proposal or former proposal is an
"adopted proposal" if any past referendum on that proposal or
former proposal had an outcome oF ADOPTED.
A player CAN revive an adopted proposal by paying a fee of 25
Spendies. When a player does so, this rule performs the same rules
changes that that adopted proposal would perform if it took effect
right now.
Then Janet attempted to use it to revive Proposal 6069, which originally
created a Power 1 rule with this text:
Anyone CAN cause this rule to amend itself by announcement.
However, as noted by whats.a.throwaway on Discord: while the rule
created by P9328 is generally able to perform rule changes up to the
limit of its own Power, it only attempts to perform "the ... rules
changes that that adopted proposal would perform if *it* took effect
right now" (emphasis added), which depends on the current Power of the
proposal being revived.
Proposal 6069 was originally adopted on or about 2 Feb 2009. At that
time, the relevant paragraph of Rule 106 (Adopting Proposals) read:
If the option selected by Agora on this decision is ADOPTED,
then the proposal is adopted, and unless other rules prevent it
from taking effect, its power is set to the minimum of four and
its adoption index, and then it takes effect. It does not
otherwise take effect.
which did not remove the proposal's power afterward. In Nov 2017, Rule
106 was amended by Proposal 7940 (High Power Cleanup) to include:
Except insofar as the actions performed by a proposal happen one
after another, rather than simultaneously, a proposal's effect is
instantaneous. A proposal can neither delay nor extend its own
effect. Once a proposal finishes taking effect, its power is set
to 0.
but this did not clearly affect proposals that had already finished
taking effect before that amendment. Then, on or about 11 Mar 2026, it
was amended by Proposal 9302 (No Lingering Instruments) to include:
Except insofar as the actions performed by a proposal happen one
after another, rather than simultaneously, a proposal's effect is
instantaneous. A proposal can neither delay nor extend its own
effect. If, at any time, a proposal has finished taking effect,
its power is set to 0.
I argue that "has finished" should be interpreted as referring to the
past, in which case Proposal 6069 was set to Power 0 when Proposal 9302
was adopted. ais523 argues that it should be interpreted as referring to
the present (i.e. the same moment as "at any time"), but the former
interpretation was the explicit intent of Proposal 9302:
"[To see the difference, consider a proposal that took effect
before the to-be-replaced language was in place.]"
and also the more natural reading, and thus it's in the best interests
of the game to favor it.
If Proposal 6069 had Power 0 when the scam was attempted, then "the ...
rules changes that [the] proposal would perform if it took effect right
now" was an empty set: the proposal would /attempt/ to perform a rule
change, but would fail due to lack of Power.
Caller's evidence:
Proposal 9328 adopted, scam attempted
https://mailman.agoranomic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/private/agora-official/2026-April/019200.html
Proposal 6069 originally adopted
https://mailman.agoranomic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/private/agora-official/2009-February/005749.html
Ruleset in effect when Proposal 6069 was originally adopted
https://mailman.agoranomic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/private/agora-official/2009-January/005739.html
Rule 106 amended by Proposal 7940
https://mailman.agoranomic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/private/agora-official/2017-November/012015.html
Rule 106 amended by Rule 9302
https://mailman.agoranomic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/private/agora-official/2026-March/019066.html
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[ANSC H:GE]
