He pledged to conduct a lottery according to the rules which contain a provision for being changed. That's absolutely acceptable.
On Fri, Jun 16, 2017 at 2:43 PM, Owen Jacobson <o...@grimoire.ca> wrote: > On Jun 15, 2017, at 5:40 PM, CuddleBeam <cuddleb...@googlemail.com> wrote: > > > With an emulation of 2 Agoran Support, I'm going to add to the "rules" > of the lottery the following: > > > > - Purchasers of a HAFL Ticket must also choose a 5-number string for > their ticket, which is that "ticket's number" (which defaults to being > 00000). > > I considered CFJing this, but I think it’s better off being a writing > prompt: do the rules presently allow someone to modify a pledge after the > fact? If so, are there any constraints on that modification? > > What CuddleBeam is attempting here is clearly being done in good faith, > and addresses some defects in eir original plan for eir lotto program. > However, pledging is, at least to some degree, regulated (r. 2450); it’s > not clear to me that the rules allow someone to modify a pledge after it > has been made. > > The term “pledge” is, in fact, totally undefined in the rules, so common > definitions apply. A pledge is generally a binding promise to do (or to > avoid doing) a thing; modifying it after the fact could well be equivalent > to breaking the pledge outright. > > I have no intention of punishing CuddleBeam if I can avoid it, and if I’m > forced, I’m going to pick the least punitive card I can get away with, but > I think some care might be merited. To avoid the issue as far as is > possible, I plan to treat CuddleBeam’s two consecutive messages as a single > action containing a single pledge, unless the support requirement is not > met, in which case I intend to treat the second message as a nullity. > Obviously, this is a one-time thing; given the recent reliance on pledges, > it might be worth codifying them a bit more thoroughly. > > Note that a pledge is not a contract. A pledge is a unilateral promise, > which is binding even in the absence of consideration in return. > > -o > >