Proto: I Am Wearing A Unicorn Horn (AI=3, PF=100)
aka Unnecessary Nebulous Intricacies & Complexities Oblige Repeal Now
Amend Rule 101 (The Rights of Agorans) by removing item i., and
renumbering the following items accordingly. [Meaningless.]
Repeal Rule 2125 (Regulation Regulations).
Amend Rule 1504 (Criminal Cases) by prepending:
Please do not violate the rules.
[For ais523, replace the last clause of 2125.]
Amend Rule 1586 (Definition and Continuity of Entities) by removing:
A rule referring to an entity by name refers to the entity that
had that name when the rule first came to include that
reference, even if the entity's name has since changed.
[Not necessary to state explicitly.]
[Simplify Power and make it only persistent for rules, as it's
annoying to have what's effectively an untracked switch.]
Repeal Rule 1688 (Power).
Change the title of Rule 2140 (Power Controls Mutability) to Security,
and amend it to read:
A Rule that secures a change, action, or value (hereafter the
securing Rule) thereby makes it IMPOSSIBLE to perform that
change or action, or to set or modify that value, except as
allowed by an entity with Power greater than or equal to the
change's Power Threshold. This Threshold defaults to the
minimum of the securing Rule's Power and 3, but CAN be lowered
as allowed by that Rule (including by the Rule itself).
Setting an entity's Power to a value is secured with a Power
Threshold of that value.
[One side effect is that a rule can now authorize someone to
personally amend a rule, rather than making it amend itself or
whatever. Not much advantage in requiring that.]
Amend Rule 2141 (Role and Attributes of Rules) to read:
A rule is a type of document with the capacity to govern the
game generally. Each rule has a Power between one and four
inclusive.
Each rule should have an ID number and title to aid in
identification and conflict resolution. When a rule does not
have either of these, the Rulekeepor CAN assign one by
announcement, and SHALL do so in a timely fashion; new rule ID
numbers must be greater than the ID numbers of all existing
rules.
Setting or modifying any aspect of a rule is secured with a
Power Threshold of that rule's Power. A preexisting entity
cannot be made into a rule.
[Moving on.]
Amend Rule 1030 (Precedence between Rules) by removing:
- If all of the Rules in conflict explicitly say that their
precedence relations are determined by some other Rule for
determining precedence relations, then the determinations of
the precedence-determining Rule shall be used to resolve the
conflicts; otherwise,
[Can add it back if needed.]
Change the title of Rule 105 (Rule Changes) to read "Unambiguity of
Rule Changes", and amend it to read:
Rule changes always occur sequentially, never simultaneously.
Any ambiguity in the specification of a rule change causes that
change to be void and without effect. An inconsequential
variation in the quotation of an existing rule does not
constitute ambiguity for the purposes of this rule, but any
other variation does.
[The rest of the rule is meaningless.]
[This proposal also removes second-class persons. Sorry, it's been
too long... and Parties really don't need to be persons.]
Amend Rule 869 (How to Join and Leave Agora) by replacing "Citizenship
is an entity switch" with "Citizenship is a person switch", by
replacing "first-class person" with "person", and by replacing:
A non-person CANNOT be registered (or created in a Registered
state), rules to the contrary notwithstanding.
A player CAN deregister by announcement. A person CANNOT
register within thirty days after being deregistered, unless
rules define the method of deregistration as passive.
A player who is not a person and has never been a first-class
person CAN be deregistered by any player by announcement.
with:
A non-person CANNOT be registered (or created in a Registered
state), rules to the contrary notwithstanding.
A player CAN deregister by announcement. A person CANNOT
register within thirty days after deregistering this way.
Amend Rule 2170 (Who Am I?) by removing:
A player SHALL NOT select a confusing nickname.
and:
The Executor of a public message is the first-class person who
sends it, or who most directly and immediately causes it to be
sent. (Upon a judicial finding that the Executor of a public
message cannot otherwise be determined within reasonable effort,
the judge SHOULD attempt to ratify a document specifying eir
identity.) The executor of an action performed by announcement
is the executor of the announcement.
Amend Rule 2150 (Personhood) to read:
A person is a biological organism that is generally capable of
communicating by email in English (including via a translation
service).
Repeal Rule 2328 (Public Agreements).
Amend Rule 2139 by replacing "unless the switch is defined as
untracked" with "except for switches defined as untracked". [grammar]
Amend Rule 2130 (Activity) by replacing "non-Active" with "Inactive",
and by removing "This is a passive method of deregistration.".
[Simplify foreign relations - especially the platonic auto-switch of
Recognition to Protected.]
Amend Rule 2368 (Nomic Definitions) by removing:
A protectorate is a foreign nomic which specifies in its ruleset
that it is a Protectorate Of Agora and which allows Agora to
make arbitrary amendments to it.
Amend Rule 2369 (Foreign Relations) by replacing "SHOULD not" with
"SHOULD NOT", and by replacing the last three paragraphs with:
The Ambassador-At-Large CAN, with Agoran Consent, or without 2
objections, flip a foreign nomic's Recognition to any value. E
SHALL make a reasonable attempt to inform that nomic of such a
change in a timely fashion.
Amend Rule 2370 (The Ambassador-At-Large) by removing the second
paragraph [scammable and useless], and by replacing "ILLEGAL" with
"illegal".
Repeal Rule 2372 (Ambassadors Extraordinary And Plenipotentiary).
Repeal Rule 2397 (The Envoy).
Amend Rule 2166 (Assets) by replacing the first paragraph with:
An asset is a type of entity.
and by replacing paragraphs 4-8 with:
The Rules may define an office or other position as the
recordkeepor of a class of assets. That position's report
includes a list of all instances of that class and their owners;
this portion of a public document purporting to be its report is
self-ratifying.
By default, the owner of an asset CAN destroy it or transfer it
to another entity by announcement. A fixed asset is one that
CANNOT be transferred; any other asset is liquid.
A class of assets may be defined as a currency. In general,
instances of a currency with the same owner are fungible.
Amend Rule 2337 (Promises) by removing ", judicial panels,".
Amend Rule 2338 (Cashing Promises) by replacing "MUST" with "must".
Amend Rule 2152 (Mother, May I?) to read:
In the rules, the term "CAN" refers to possibility, "SHALL"
refers to requirement (violation of which is a violation of the
rule in question), and "SHOULD" refers to suggestion (which has
no effect). These definitions are always used when a rule
includes a term in all caps, and provide guidance in determining
the ordinary-language meaning of a term when a rule includes a
term otherwise.
Amend Rule 2398 (Yaks) by replacing "MAY once do so" with "may legally
once do so". [Literally the only use of MAY that isn't being
repealed.]
Amend Rule 1023 (Common Definitions) to read:
The following terms are defined:
(a) The phrase "in a timely fashion" means "within 7 days".
(b) By default, references to time are in UTC. Agoran quarters
begin when the months of January, April, July, and October
begin.
(c) If a value CANNOT be reasonably determined (without
circularity or paradox) from information reasonably
available, or if it alternates instantaneously and
indefinitely between values, then it is considered to be
Indeterminate, otherwise it is Determinate.
[Speed also really needs to go.]
Repeal Rule 2347 (Speed).
Amend Rule 1728 (Dependent Actions) to read:
A rule which purports to allow a person (the performer) to
perform an action by a set of one or more of the following
methods:
1) Without N objections, where N is a positive integer no
greater than 8. ("Without objection" means "without 1
objection.")
2) With N support, where N is a positive integer. ("With
support" means "with 1 support".)
3) With N Agoran consent, where N is an integer multiple of 0.1
with a minimum of 1. ("With Agoran consent" means "with 1
Agoran consent".)
4) With notice.
thereby allows em to perform the action by announcement if all
of the following are true:
a) A person (the initiator) announced intent to perform the
action, unambiguously and clearly specifying the action and
method(s) (including the value of N for each method), at most
fourteen days earlier, and (if the methods include "without N
objections" and/or "with notice") at least four days earlier.
b) The performer is the initiator, or the method is "with N
Supporters" (in which case the Nth supporter is encouraged to
go ahead and perform the action).
c) The intent is satisfied:
1) If the methods include "without N objections", then there
are fewer than N objectors.
2) If the methods include "With N support", then there are at
least N supporters.
3) If the methods include "with N Agoran consent", then the
ratio of supporters to objectors is at least N, and greater
than 1 (or there is at least one supporter and no
objectors).
d) No player has become withdrawn on the intent in the past 24
hours (to avoid timing scams).
Each player is either a supporter, an objector, neutral
(default), or withdrawn on an intent. A non-withdrawn player
CAN support (become a supporter), object (become an objector),
or withdraw from (become withdrawn on) an intent by
announcement.
[Simplify and add some explanatory text.]
Repeal Rule 2288 (Induction).
Repeal Rule 2124 (Agoran Satisfaction).
Amend Rule 2202 (Ratification Without Objection) by replacing:
Any player CAN, without objection, ratify a public document,
specifying its scope. If that document is an official report or
a substantial portion thereof, until such a time as that report
or portion is again ratified, the date and scope of the
ratification become a part of the report.
with:
Any player CAN ratify a public document without objection.
Amend Rule 2402 (Office Salary) by replacing "they fail to do so
before the end of the nomination period, their proposed salary", with
"e fails to do so before the end of the nomination period, eir
proposed salary".
Amend Rule 2410 (Parties) by replacing the first paragraph with:
A party is a type of entity. The Returning Officer is an
office; eir report includes a list of all parties.
Repeal Rule 693 (Agoran Decisions).
Amend Rule 107 (Initiating Agoran Decisions) by replacing "An Agoran
decision is initiated" with "The voting period of an Agoran decision
is initiated",
and by removing item (b) and renumbering the following items
accordingly [no need to have different eligible voters for different
decisions, except Gerontocratic perhaps],
and by replacing:
The publication of such a valid notice initiates the voting
period for the decision. Where {X, Y} is a given Speed followed
by a number of days, the voting period lasts for Y days when the
Speed is X at the time of initiation: {Slow, 14}, {Normal, 7},
{Fast, 5}. The minimum voting period for a decision with at
least two options is five days. The vote collector for a
decision with less than two options CAN and SHALL end the voting
period by announcement, if it has not ended already, and
provided that e resolves the decision in the same message.
with:
The voting period initially lasts for 7 days if there are at
least two options, or ends instantly otherwise. The minimum
voting period for a decision with at least two options is five
days.
Amend Rule 683 (Voting on Agoran Decisions) by replacing:
An eligible voter on a particular Agoran decision submits
with:
The eligible voters on an Agoran decision are those entities
that were active players at the time its voting period was
initiated.
An eligible voter submits
and removing ", and the submitter is an eligible voter at the time of
submission." [taken care of by non-eligible voters having a voting
limit of 0],
and by replacing:
(c) The ballot clearly identifies the option selected by the
voter.
with:
(c) The ballot clearly identifies the option selected by the
voter, or the ballot is for PRESENT. (PRESENT votes only
affect quorum.)
and by removing:
Other rules may place further constraints on the validity of
ballots. This rule takes precedence over any rule that would
loosen the constraints specified by this rule.
[Old scambait and unnecessary.]
Amend Rule 1367 (Degrees) by removing:
- The eligible voters are each active player at the time the
decision is initiated.
Amend Rule 2154 (Election Procedure) by removing:
2) The eligible voters are the active first-class players.
and renumbering the following items accordingly.
Amend Rule 2413 (General Elections) by removing:
2) The eligible voters are the active players other than the
Speaker, and
and renumbering the following item accordingly.
Change the title of Rule 2168 (Extending the voting period) to
Extending Voting Periods, and amend it by replacing the second
paragraph with:
Upon such an occurrence, the vote collector for the decision
SHALL issue a humiliating public reminder to the slackers who
have not yet cast any votes on it despite being eligible.
Amend Rule 208 (Resolving Agoran decisions) by replacing "If it was
required to be initiated, then e" with "E", by removing ", if there
was more than one valid option,", by replacing:
(a) It is published after the voting period has ended.
with:
(a) It is published after the voting period has ended, or the
voting period has been extended.
and by replacing:
Each Agoran decision has exactly one vote collector, defaulting
to the initiator of the decision. If the vote collector is
defined by reference to a position (or, in the default case, if
the initiator was so defined), then the vote collector is the
current holder of that position.
This rule takes precedence over any rule that would provide
another mechanism by which an Agoran decision may be resolved.
In general, changes to the gamestate due to the outcome of an
Agoran decision take effect when the decision is resolved.
with:
Resolving an Agoran decision is secured.
Amend Rule 2034 (Vote Protection and Cutoff for Challenges) by removing:
Any proposal that would otherwise change the validity of any
existing vote on any specific unresolved Agoran decision is
wholly without effect, rules to the contrary notwithstanding.
This does not prevent amendment of the rules governing the
validity of votes on Agoran decisions in general.
Once an Agoran decision has been resolved, votes on it CANNOT be
validly submitted or retracted, and its outcome CANNOT be
changed in any way, rules to the contrary notwithstanding. This
does not prevent correcting errors in reporting its resolution.
[I already have a proposal to do this, but it might fail (haven't
checked yet). Seriously, it's useless.]
Repeal Rule 2406 (Veto and Rubberstamp). [Don't need two.]
[Make proposals a subclass of Agoran decisions instead of the current
confusing duality between proposals and decisions to adopt proposals,
which everyone ignores.]
Amend Rule 2350 (Proposals) to read:
A proposal is a type of entity consisting of a body of text and
other attributes. A player CAN create a proposal by
announcement, specifying its text and optionally specifying any
of the following attributes:
* An associated title.
* A list of co-authors (which must be persons other than the
author).
* An adoption index.
* A Chamber.
Adoption index is an untracked proposal switch, whose value is
an integral multiple of 0.1 from 1.0 to 9.9.
Chamber is a switch possessed by proposals, whose value is any
Voting Chamber, by default Ordinary.
Once a proposal is created, its text cannot be changed. The
author (syn. proposer) of a proposal is the person who submitted
it.
The author of a proposal in the Proposal Pool CAN retract
(destroy) it by announcement.
Amend Rule 106 (Adopting Proposals) to read:
For a proposal:
1) The valid options are FOR and AGAINST.
2) The vote collector is the Assessor.
3) The following are essential parameters:
a) The text of the proposal.
b) Its author
b) Its adoption index.
c) Its Chamber.
When a proposal is resolved as ADOPTED, then it takes effect
with a Power equal to its adoption index. Proposals do not
otherwise have Power. If a proposal cannot make some changes it
specifies, this does not preclude the other changes from taking
place.
Amend Rule 1607 (Distribution) by replacing:
Determining whether to adopt a proposal is an Agoran decision.
For this decision, the vote collector is the Assessor, the
adoption index and Chamber are initially the same as the
corresponding values from the proposal, and the text of the
proposal is an essential parameter. Initiating such a decision
is known as distribution, and removes the proposal from the
Proposal Pool.
A proposal that was in the Proposal Pool at the beginning of a
given week is a pending proposal.
The Promotor CAN distribute a proposal which is in the Proposal
Pool at any time.
with:
Initiating the voting period of a proposal is known as
distribution. The Promotor CAN distribute an undistributed
proposal at any time.
An old proposal is an undistributed proposal that existed at the
beginning of the current week.
by replacing "pending proposals" with "old proposals", and by replacing:
If there is a Proposal in the Pool that it would otherwise be
IMPOSSIBLE for any active player to distribute, then any player
CAN distribute that Proposal Without 3 Objections.
The Promotor's report includes a list of all proposals in the
Proposal Pool. This portion of a public message purporting to
be a Promotor's report is self-ratifying.
with:
The Promotor's report includes a list of all undistributed
proposals. This portion of a public message purporting to be a
Promotor's report is self-ratifying.
Amend Rule 2404 (Proposal Fees) by replacing "proposals in the
Proposal Pool" with "undistributed proposals".
Amend Rule 2405 (Distributability) by replacing "proposals in the
Proposal Pool" with "undistributed proposals".
Amend Rule 2411 (Whipping) by replacing "proposal in the Proposal
Pool" with "undistributed proposal".
Amend Rule 2373 (Voting Chambers) to read:
Voting Chambers are a class of entity. Defining Voting Chambers
is secured with power threshold 2.
Amend Rule 2374 (Democratic Chamber) by replacing both "entity" and
"decision" with "proposal".
Amend Rule 2409 (Star Chamber) by replacing "decision" with "proposal".
Amend Rule 2414 (Terrible Stars) by replacing "decision" with "proposal".
Repeal Rule 1950 (Decisions with Adoption Indices).
Amend Rule 2412 by replacing "ordinary decision" with "ordinary
proposal", and "proposal in the Proposal Pool" with "undistributed
proposal".
Amend Rule 2381 (Win by Clout) by replacing "Agoran Decision that has
a Chamber" with "proposal", "decision" with "proposal", and
"Decisions" (if present) with "proposals".
Amend Rule 991 (Judicial Cases Generally) by replacing:
A judicial case, also known as a call for judgement (CFJ), is a
procedure to settle a matter of controversy.
Each judicial case has exactly one subclass, with particular
features as defined by other rules. Subclasses of judicial case
exist only as defined by the rules. Defining a subclass of
judicial case is secured, with a power threshold of 1.7. A
judicial case's subclass CAN be specified by its initiator, or
otherwise defaults to inquiry.
with:
A judicial case, also known as a call for judgement (CFJ), is a
procedure to settle a matter of controversy. Each judicial case
has exactly one subclass, with particular features as defined by
other rules.
Amend Rule 591 (Inquiry Cases) by removing:
(Including a yes/no question is equivalent to including a
statement that the answer to that question is yes, and for such
a case, YES and NO are synonymous with the judgements TRUE and
FALSE respectively.)
[useless.]
Repeal Rule 2277 (Appeals of Criminal Cases). [moving this to where
it'll be more noticeable]
Repeal Rule 2205 (Judicial Arguments and Evidence).
Repeal Rule 2157 (Judicial Panels).
Amend Rule 2341 (Judgements by Judicial Panels) by removing:
If an open case is assigned to a judicial panel, and one of its
members previously published an opinion for that case as part of
the same or a different judicial panel, then that opinion stands
for the newly-assigned panel unless the case was judged and
reopened in the meanwhile.
and by appending:
If the time period for judging an appeals case ends with no
majority opinion among members of the panel assigned to it, then
the CotC CAN by announcement cause the panel to judge REMAND or
REMIT, whichever e feels is most appropriate, and SHALL do so in
a timely fashion.
Amend Rule 911 (Appeal Cases) by replacing:
An appeal concerning any assignment of judgement in a non-appeal
case within the past two weeks CAN be initiated by any player
with 2 support. However, rules to the contrary notwithstanding,
an appeal CANNOT be initiated concerning an assignment caused by
a judgement in an appeal case, nor an assignment for which an
appeal has already been initiated.
The entities qualified to be assigned as judge of an appeal case
are the judicial panels consisting of three members, where each
of the members is qualified to be assigned as judge of the prior
case and none is the prior judge. If possible, the CotC SHALL
assign a panel where each of the members is well qualified to be
assigned as judge of the prior case.
The valid judgements for an appeal case are of the form
"<action> with prejudice" or "<action> without prejudice". Such
a judgement is generally appropriate if and only if
(1) the action is appropriate, and
(2) the judgement is with prejudice if and only if the prior
judge made an error in eir judgement which could have been
reasonably avoided, or generally inappropriately discharged
eir duties in the case.
The valid values of <action> and their associated effects are as
follows:
with:
A player CAN initiate an appeal concerning a non-appeal case
with 2 support, or by announcement if it is a criminal case and
e is its defendant, unless there is already an appeal of that
case that does not have a judgement of REMAND or REMIT.
The entities qualified to be assigned as the judge of an appeal
case are judicial panels of three members, each of which is
qualified to be assigned as the judge of the prior case and none
of which is the prior judge.
The valid judgements for an appeal case are as follows:
Amend Rule 1868 (Judge Assignment Generally) to read:
A judicial case either has no judge or exactly one judge. When
an open judicial case is open has no judge assigned, the CotC
CAN assign a qualified entity to be its judge by announcement,
and SHALL do so in a timely fashion.
By default, the entities qualified to be assigned as the judge
of a judicial case are the active players who have not
previously been assigned to it, subject to modification by other
rules.
The judge of a judicial case CAN recuse emself by announcement.
If the judge of a judicial case is no longer qualified to be
assigned as its judge, the CotC CAN recuse em by announcement.
A player CAN favor or disfavor a judicial case by announcement.
When assigning a judge to a judicial case, the CotC, if
possible, SHALL assign a player who has favored it and SHALL NOT
assign a player who has disfavored it. For appeals cases, if
possible, e SHALL assign a panel maximizing the number of
members who have favored it and minimizing the number who have
disfavored it.
Amend Rule 1871 (The Standing Court) by replacing "poorly qualified"
with "unqualified" and "well-"Agora Nomic switch" with "singleton
switch", by removing "with cause", and and by replacing:
The CotC CAN rotate the bench (change all sitting players to
standing) by announcement, but SHALL NOT do so unless, of the
judicial cases requiring assignment:
a) no entity is well-qualified to be assigned to any of them;
b) e immediately afterwards (in the same announcement) assigns
a judge to at least one of them.
with:
The CotC CAN rotate the bench (change all sitting players to
standing) by announcement, but SHALL NOT do so unless no entity
is qualified to be assigned to any non-appeal case.
Repeal Rule 2164 (Judicial Self-Recusal and Case Transfer).
Repeal Rule 2394 (Crime by Proxy).
Amend Rule 649 (Patent Titles) by replacing:
A person specifically authorized by the rules to award (revoke)
a Patent Title SHALL do so in a timely fashion after the
conditions authorizing em to do so are announced, unless there
is an open judicial case contesting the validity of those
conditions. Awarding or revoking a Patent Title by any other
method is secured.
with:
Awarding or revoking Patent Titles is secured.
and by removing:
When a patent title is used as a noun to refer to bearers of the
patent title, it is assumed to refer only to persons who Bear
that patent title unless context clearly indicates otherwise.
