COURT GAZETTE (Arbitor's weekly report)
Disclaimer: Informational only. No actions are contained in this report.
Information in this report is not self-ratifying.
Open cases (CFJs)
-----------------
3638 called by Cuddle Beam 23 May 2018, assigned to Corona 8 July 2018:
"The above is a notice of honor."
3643 called by ais523 18 June 2018, assigned to V.J. Rada 22 July 2018:
"In the above-quoted message, Corona published a self-ratifying report."
3645 called by Aris 20 June 2018, assigned to PSS 24 June 2018: "G. has
satisfied eir weekly obligation with regard to the FLR and SLR."
3648 called by G. 24 June 2018, assigned to ATMunn 24 June 2018: "The
fine levied on Corona for late Herald Tournament Regulations is
unforgivable for the purposes of R2559."
3652 called by G. 20 July 2018, assigned to PSS 22 July 2018: "If a
person pays the (nonzero) upkeep cost for eir Rank 1 facility and then
upgrades it to Rank 2 in the same month, e must pay the full Rank 2
upkeep cost to prevent its end-of-the-month destruction."
3653 called by G. 20 July 2018, assigned to PSS 22 July 2018: "If a
facility has an upkeep cost of 0 (i.e. null), the owner must announce an
attempt to pay 0 in a month (or otherwise publicly note) the upkeep cost
of 0 to prevent its end-of-the-month destruction."
Highest numbered case: 3653
Context/arguments/evidence are included at the bottom of this report.
Recently-delivered verdicts and implications
--------------------------------------------
3650 called by Aris 5 July 2018, judged TRUE by G. 16 July 2018: "The
Herald may amend the tournament regulations without objection."
3651 called by Aris 5 July 2018, judged TRUE by G. 16 July 2018: "At
least one Agoran regulation exists."
Day Court Judge Recent
------------------------------
Corona 3627, 3628, 3641, 3638
[02/14 02/14 06/17 07/08]
Murphy 3626, 3627, 3628, 3633
[03/01 03/01 03/01 07/08]
V.J. Rada 3640, 3646, 3649, 3643
[06/17 06/24 07/01 07/22]
PSS 3645, 3647, 3652, 3653
[06/24 06/24 07/22 07/22]
Weekend Court Judge Recent (generally gets half as many cases)
------------------------------
ATMunn 3633, 3648
[04/29 06/24]
(These are informal designations. Requests to join/leave a given court
will be noted. Individual requests to be assigned a specific case will
generally be honored, even for non-court judges.)
Context/arguments/evidence
--------------------------
*** 3638 content of "the above":
This is a notice of honor
-1 Agora
+1 Agora
*** 3638 caller Cuddle Beam's arguments:
- It's not a notice of honor because it causes Agora's Honor to go further
away from 0 and only an individual action happens per instant as per CFJ
2086, so the -1 would need to happen first, but since it would make Agora's
Honor go further than 0, it doesn't happen.
- It's a notice of honor because the notice of honor as a single unit is
the action, not the individual movements it's composed of.
- It's a notice of honor because the above doesn't matter and the player
requirement implicitly only applies when a player is targeted.
- It's not a notice of honor because it doesn't "provide a reason for
specifying that Player" (and I never can, because Agora isn't a player). And
the implicit rule mentioned above doesn't exist.
*** 3643 caller ais523's evidence, quoting Corona:
This report is intentionally false, with the sole deviation from
reality being re-ratifying the items generated
in facilities on June 4, which have been accidentaly ratified out of
existence by the last report.
*** 3643 caller ais523's arguments:
Precedent says that a disclaimer stating that the content of
a message is false is enough to prevent it taking actions by
announcement. Is the same true of self-ratifying reports?
See CFJs 1971 (particularly relevant), 2069, 2830, 3000 for more
information. (Information about these CFJs is available at
<https://faculty.washington.edu/kerim/nomic/cases/>).
*** 3645 caller Aris's evidence, quoting G.:
The FLR and SLR are up to date (up to Proposal 8052, and including
revision for the recent CoE on the Treasuror Rule):
https://agoranomic.org/ruleset/slr.txt
https://agoranomic.org/ruleset/flr.txt
I'm not publishing them, because there is (or was) a message size-
limit on BUS that was specifically removed in OFF for the purpose of
ruleset publication. I don't want to add to any confusion in case
the rulesets bounce from BUS.
*** 3645 caller Aris's arguments, responding to ais523:
> Are you sure this isn't publishing them? People have been able to
> publish things as attachements, hidden in headers, etc. with a
> reference to them in the main message, so I don't see why posting a URL
> that has consistent, known information would necessarily be different.
>
> This may satisfy a requirement to post the rulesets, and if it doesn't
> it's probably because of your disclaimer.
I'm inclined to think that the disclaimer is ineffective for that purpose.
A report occurs when an officer publishes certain information, whether they
want it to or not. Posting the links may count for that purpose, as long as
the text on the other end is labeled as a report, and has all required
information.
*** 3645 G.'s gratuitous arguments:
Well considering I've still got a terminal window open, I could change the
link contents instantly to anything before most people will have seen
it. Definitely not out of my TDOC if the content of those links is the
only evidence.
I suppose (now that those links are tied to a github repo) one could
cross-reference my message timing to commit timing.
Overall though, I'm pretty sure we've been strong on "publishing X" means
actually publishing the full contents of X, otherwise it's ISID. The cases
that allowed outside references are generally by-announcement actions,
where outside references work because the specification is like this:
"clearly specifying the action and announcing that e performs it"
for this, "announcing e performs it" must be included in the actual
announcement, but the "clearly specifying" part can lead to a link that
has a clear specification.
So this would work: "I do as in link X" -> [link X] "I support" because
e announces "I do...", but just providing the same link without an
announced verb/context doesn't do the trick.
There are currently several people who can push to those links (via GitHub)
without the push/overwrite being visible or evident to someone following the
link. However, the underlying github repo (not findable from those links)
would show the commit history that can be cross-referenced link publication
timestamps (e.g. as CFJ evidence).
The judge should consider whether it's "beyond a reasonable effort" for a
typical player to check the underlying evidence (including comparing message
and github date stamps) when verifying whether a document is the correct
one.
(this is a "if the rules are silent...for the good of the game" argument if
the matter is otherwise unclear).
I'm thinking of this in terms of trying out github as a public forum,
I'm not
opposed in principle, but the default interface of github focuses on the
Now,
and requires more digging to go through history as opposed to say the mail
archives (e.g. if an officer is ordering transactions in a log or needs to
know if A happened before B). Not sure if there's some tools that I don't
know about that would make it easier.
*** 3648 caller G.'s evidence:
Published by G. on 20 Jun 2018 09:39:27 -0700 (PDT):
> I impose summary judgement as follows: I levy a fine of 2 Blots on
> Corona for failure to propose a set of Birthday Regulations in a timely
> fashion after June 1 (R2495).
*** 3648 caller G.'s arguments:
R2559 reads in part:
> 2. For each office, if a single player held that office for 16 or
> more days in the previous month and no unforgivable fines were
> levied on em for eir conduct in that office during that time,
> the following assets are created in the possession of that
> player:
"Unforgivable" isn't directly defined in the Ruleset. The definition
is by inference in R2557:
> Optionally, in the same message in which e imposes justice, the
> investigator CAN specify that the violation is forgivable,
> specifying up to 10 words to be included in an apology.
which implies that violations that aren't forgivable are unforgivable.
However, R2557 defines "forgivable" in the context of imposing justice
as per an investigation of a finger-pointing. The fine in question
was levied using R2479:
> The Referee CAN, subject to the provisions of this rule, impose
> Summary Judgment on a person who plays the game by levying a fine
> of up to 2 blots on em.
which does not mention any notion of forgiveness.
There are two reasonable readings, I'm not sure which is correct:
1. Since the fine isn't defined as forgivable, it's unforgivable.
2. Since the rule under which the fine was levied do not mention the
concept, the fine is neither forgivable nor unforgivable.
FWIW, I didn't think about it one way or the other when I imposed the
fine, if I'd thought about it I would have (tried to) specify it as
forgivable.
After reading Rules a few more times, I think this is answered by this
clause in R2479:
> Summary Judgement is imposed on the
> Referee's own initiative, and not in response to any official
> proceeding.
I think the Finger -> Investigation -> Forgiveness is an "official
proceeding", and since summary judgement is explicitly stated to be
outside of that, any resulting penalties are neither forgivable or
unforgivable.
*** 3650-51 judge G.'s arguments:
Rule 2495 (The Birthday Tournament) contains the following text:
After adequate time for discussion of the Birthday Tournament's
regulations, the Herald (or delegate) CAN initiate a sanctioned
tournament with a specified, finalized set of regulations,
Without 3 Objections. By doing so e promulgates those regulations
as a special temporary title of the ACORN.
The Herald met these preconditions (time for discussion following a set
of proposed regulations, and w/o 3 objections for the final set of
regulations). However, following the passage of Proposal 8056, "special
temporary title of the ACORN" was no longer defined.
CFJ 1500 set a long-standing precedent that, when a rules-definition is
repealed, any instances of that word still in the ruleset revert to
their common definition. In the case of CFJ 1500, the term "politician"
was defined as a specific game-role. When the definition was repealed,
but a use of the term was left in the ruleset, it reverted to the common
definition of "anyone who plays the game politically (runs for offices,
votes, etc.) is a politician". Furthermore, CFJ 3580 found that even in
obscure, hypothetical situations (like "destroy the universe") we use
common definitions.
However, "special temporary title of the ACORN", if given this standard,
produces nonsense - (the temporary title of an oak tree seed?). But -
the capitalization is clearly significant in ACORN, and the use of the
definite article ('the ACORN') tells us this is a proper noun - a named
thing. And named things are governed by a different set of precedents.
In particular, CFJs 1519-1520 found that named things generally keep
being "that thing" even when the definition is lost, unless later
explicitly overridden. And that "thing" is a document containing
regulations, both before the repeal, and implicitly in the current
rules: if you assume "title of the ACORN" is a document or part of one,
the rules text makes perfect sense.
Before repeal, ACORN was a particular document. In the context in the
current Rules, "title of the ACORN" refers to a part of a document. We
don't really have to delve into whether we're talking about the "old"
ACORN or whether the tournament created an entirely new document called
"special temporary title of the ACORN". What matters is that there is a
document or part of a document, that contains the regulations (they
exist), and the regulations can be amended as per R2495.
*** 3652 caller G.'s arguments:
Rule 2560 (Facilities) reads in part:
If an entity other than Agora owns any facilities with upkeep
costs, e must pay them before the first day of the next Agoran
month. Failing to do this destroys the facility. In the second to
last Eastman week of the Agoran Month, the Cartographor SHOULD
issue a humiliating public reminder to all those who have not paid
upkeep fees on any of eir facilities.
There's a few ways of interpreting this clause:
1. At the end of the month, the facility is Rank 2 and has a Rank 2 Upkeep
cost. Has the Rank 2 Upkeep cost been paid? If not, the facility is
destroyed. (argument for TRUE).
2. At the end of the month, has e paid an appropriate upkeep cost for that
facility at any point in the month? If so, e has met the conditions, even
if the upkeep cost later changes, and the facility is not destroyed
(argument
for FALSE).
3. Upkeep costs are additive - if e payed the Rank 1 fee, e can later pay
the difference after e upgrades (FALSE with different implications - I don't
think this one holds up under precedent of single payment for fees, but
including for completeness).
In interpreting, note the new Rules definition of costs/fees in EVIDENCE,
below.
*** 3653 caller G.'s arguments:
Rule 2560 (Facilities) reads in part:
If an entity other than Agora owns any facilities with upkeep
costs, e must pay them before the first day of the next Agoran
month. Failing to do this destroys the facility. In the second to
last Eastman week of the Agoran Month, the Cartographor SHOULD
issue a humiliating public reminder to all those who have not paid
upkeep fees on any of eir facilities.
Prior to the adoption of Proposal 8055, it was unclear whether a facility
with a defined upkeep cost of 0 (as opposed to no upkeep cost) needed some
kind of announcement to prevent its destruction, but the Cartographer and
the rest of us had assumed it meant "no action necessary" (and all records
have self-ratified with this assumption).
Proposal 8055 created the power-3 "Fee-based Actions" Rule, which includes:
If the Rules associate payment of a set of assets (hereafter
the fee for the action; syns: cost, price, charge) with performing an
action, that action is a fee-based action.
and also:
If the Rules define a fee-based action but the specified
set of assets is the empty set, then the action can be performed by
announcement, but the announcement must include that there
is an (empty or 0) fee for the action.
This implies some kind of announcement is now necessary. However, it's far
from clear. In particular, the "associated action" for Upkeep Costs is not
a direct action, but something like paying the fee itself, or "preventing
end-of-the-month destruction" or something.
*** 3652-53 caller G.'s evidence:
Full text of Fee-based Actions (power-3):
If the Rules associate payment of a set of assets (hereafter
the fee for the action; syns: cost, price, charge) with performing an
action, that action is a fee-based action.
If the fee is a non-integer quantity of a fungible asset, the actual
fee is the next highest integer amount of that asset.
To perform a fee-based action, an entity (the Actor) who is
otherwise permitted to perform the action must announce that e
is performing the action; the announcement must specify the
correct set of assets for the fee and indicate intent
to pay that fee for the sole purpose of performing the action.
Upon such an announcement:
- If the Rules specify a recipient for the fee, and the Actor
CAN transfer that specified fee from emself to the recipient,
then that fee is transferred from the Actor to the recipient
and the action is performed simultaneously;
- If the Rules do not specify a recipient, and the Actor CAN
destroy the specified fee in eir possession, then that fee
in eir possession is destroyed and the action is
performed simultaneously.
- Otherwise, no changes are made to asset holdings and the
action is not performed.
If the Rules define a fee-based action but the specified
set of assets is the empty set, then the action can be performed by
announcement, but the announcement must include that there
is an (empty or 0) fee for the action.
*** 3652 Aris's gratuituous quasi-arguments:
No argument on CFJ 1 yet, although I agree that interpretation 3 seems
rather unlikely. I favor interpretation 2, but haven't come up with a
non-trivial argument for it.
*** 3653 Aris's gratuituous arguments:
Argument for FALSE on CFJ 2:
The relevant portion of R2560 only applies to facilities "with upkeep
costs". It is my contention that this implies that the upkeep cost must be
non-null, or the fee is inapplicable in the first place. Our common sense
assumption is that a fee of 0 is no fee. Fee-based Actions changes the
assumption, but only once a fee is actually imposed. There would be no need
for a conditional imposition in R2560 if that rule meant to impose the null
fee.
