Archived at
https://github.com/AgoraNomic/Reportor/tree/master/weekly_summaries
Below is the report for the week of 2020-06-29..07-05.
# Summary
Welcome, Fred! And congratulations to Trigon and P.S.S. for their 12-
and 3-month service awards.
Fred joins us on the week of Agora's Birthday. It's an exciting week,
with the start of the Birthday Tournament immenent, and unexpected new
life for last week's exile scam keeping us thoroughly entertained in the
meantime. This latest twist centred on a hidden vote, and was put to
rest by a new judgement (CFJ 3860) finding that hidden ballots are
invalid because they are not "clear". The scam generated many other
interesting CFJs this week and last.
Last week's mystery of the anonymous voter is resolved, but G. creates a
new mystery by publishing a hash. Is another scam afoot?
We continue to ask silly questions. Is 2+2=5 true if we believe hard
enough? More under "Other rules questions". We also ask questions about
Agora's history, and learn of the Annabel Crises and Quantum Crises in
the thread "[CotC] CFJ 3854 Judged DISMISS by Murphy".
Plenty of proposals were adopted this week. The Sets economy new has a
new subgame involving, appropriately, sets of cards, and we have a new
regular auction: a Victory Card together with some stuff from Lost and
Found. On the political/legislative side, officers can now make
limited regulations, with public approval.
Agorans' contract fun continues to keep our Notary busy, but not too
busy to announce some new (informal) Contract Awards. Let's hope this
becomes a tradition.
Plenty of new proposals were drafted or submitted this week, including
competing re-workings of the karma system, and some plain old proposal
bribery.
# Exile scam
A scam that started last week got unexpected new life this week. The
scam was thought to be dead because CFJ 3858 found that players could
delay the exile step 24 hours at a time by withdrawing objections,
leaving enough time for the fix proposal to be adopted. However, G. hid
a vote for that proposal, possibly rendering the message resolving the
decision to adopt the proposal INEFFECTIVE. In the end, the judgement of
CFJ 3860 found that G.'s hidden vote was not a valid ballot, based on an
analysis of the meaning of the word "clear".
In the end, this scam and the counter-efforts generated many CFJs: at
least CFJs 3856, 3858, 3860, 3864; possibly others.
Timeline continues from last week (UTC):
* 2020-06-29 05:58 and 06:04: Aris objects to the intents to deregister
R. Lee then withdraws eir objections, exploiting the bug that this
prevents the with-notice action from being performed for the next 24
hours (CFJ 3858). Threads: "Perfectly Normal Gameplay Nothing to See
Move Along", "In Case I Missed Any..."
* 2020-06-30 01:52: G. hides a vote for the fix proposal by putting in
the middle of a long quoted part of an email. Subject line "[Herald]
Weekly Report".
It's later determined (CFJ 3860) that this wasn't a valid ballot, but
for now, play proceeds as G. successfully hid a vote.
* 2020-06-30 01:11: The Assessor purports to resolve the decision to
adopt Proposal 8458, which closes the scam loophole. Thread:
"[Assessor] Resolution of Proposal 8458"
* 2020-06-30 13:15: The Assessor said the previous resolution was too
early, and again announces the resolution of the decision.
It's pointed out that the Assessor's accidental incorrect announcement
opened up a window for the scam to be exploited which wasn't taken
advantage of. R. Lee says that G. and em were in favour of taking
advantage of it, but nch was not available to enable it. This is
probably referring to the fact that the effect of Aris's withdrawn
objections expired at 05:58. Thread: "Notice of Honour"
* 2020-06-30 14:26: R. Lee purportedly performs the scam after calling a
CoE identifying an alleged error in the resolution: the Assessor
missed G.'s hidden vote. Claiming the assessment was invalid, R. Lee
purportedly goes ahead and performs the scam. Thread: "@Notary
@Treasuror, I do the scam anyway"
* The scam includes repeatedly being de-registered, registering,
claiming a Welcome Package, and giving it to nch.
* The effect is that R. Lee and nch win. R. Lee pledges to give G.
enough victory points to win as well, after using Blot-B-Gones from
the scam to wipe away any penalty from the indictments against
emself.
* Later in the thread, P.S.S. calls this last part an overreach, and
there's discussion of how many blots R. Lee will end up with.
* Later, with the judgement of CFJ 3860, it's determined the scam
didn't work after all, and 2020-0703 at 21:02 the Assessor denies R.
Lee's CoE so that the second resolution of Proposal 8458 will
eventually self-ratify.
* 2020-06-30 14:27: Jason objects to all intents to deregister R. Lee,
then withdraws those intents, again attempting to exploit the bug
identified with CFJ 3858. Eir message is just barely too late to
prevent R. Lee's scam message from working. Thread: "Objections"
(Falsifian posted a brief analysis of the timestamps.)
* 2020-06-30 15:09: R. Lee announces intent to ratify without objection
a document restoring the state of the economy as if eir scam hadn't
happened, except R. Lee and G. have some additional assets. Thread:
"Ratification Scam Fix Proposal"
Players object to this intent later in the thread, for different
reasons. Falsifian objects to leaving R. Lee with assets to give G. a
win, but withdraws after P.S.S. says this was an understanding
previously discussed. Aris objects saying the document doesn't achieve
what it's supposed to. omd objects after arguing that the scam didn't
work (CFJ 3860).
* 2020-06-30 15:36: Jason again announces the resolution of the decision
to adopt Proposal 8458, this time accounting for G.'s vote. Thread:
"[Assessor] Resolution of Proposal 8458 (Third time's the charm)"
* 2020-07-02 01:00, 02:52: R. Lee purports to give G. 60 Victory Points
and G. purports to win. Thread: "Giving G. a win"
* 2020-07-02 02:57: omd claims G.'s vote on Proposal 8458 was invalid,
which would mean the second attempt at assessing it (2020-06-30 at
13:15) succeeded and so the scam failed. Eir argument is that G.'s
vote doesn't meet the standard of "clarity". E calls CFJ 3860 soon
after. Thread: "[Assessor] Resolution of Proposal 8458 (Third time's
the charm)"
* 2020-07-02 04:44: omd calls CFJ 3861 saying a card-to-product
conversion in R. Lee's message wasn't specified precisely enough,
leading to much discussion. Still on the thread "@Notary @Treasuror, I
do the scam anyway"
* 2020-07-02 17:41 .. 2020-07-03 20:45: ATMunn judges CFJ 3860 FALSE,
after e first publishes a draft judgement, followed by discussion of
some past precedents and some history of hidden actions. Threads:
"Draft Judgement of CFJ 3860", "CFJ 3860 judged FALSE"
The FALSE judgement means the scam failed (but R. Lee still
deregistered and registered a bunch of times and granted emself a
bunch of blots).
* 2020-07-03 00:39: Murphy takes back the office of ADoP from R. Lee by
deputisation. R. Lee lost the office when e was deregistered during
the attempted scam. Thread: "[ADoP] Metareport (attempted, also attn
Treasuror)"
Other activity:
* There's discussion (starting with a proposal) about the best long-term
fix for the bug being exploited, and more generally whether exiled
players
should be welcomed back and how exile should work. Thread: "Welcoming
Back Outlaws"
* Aris proposes a fix in the thread "Welcoming Back Outlaws".
* CFJ 3856 is judged FALSE, meaning omd's attempt to block the scam
using a counter-scam involving a contract that threatens to amend
itself with secret text didn't work.
* Cuddlebeam mentions e was conspiring with two other players to pull
off the same scam but nch did it first. Thread: "[Herald] Weekly
Report"
* Aris drafts a fix to the kind of "hidden action" G. used to cast eir
secret vote. Thread: "Hidden Action Fixes"
* On the thread it's mentioned that the same loophole was fixed for
apathy attempts a long time ago.
* G. judges CFJ 3864 TRUE, finding that the loophole being exploited is
not a
"bug", and so the Treasuror broke the rules last week when e certified
Proposal 8458 as a bugfix. This leads to some discussion on what a
bug is,
continuing from the judge's arguments. Thread: "CFJ 3864 Assigned to G."
# Birthday
* The Herald enacts an updated version of the Birthday Tournament
Regulations with some fixes. Thread: "Birthday Tournament Regulations
v1.1"
* P.S.S. identifies a problem with the birthday tournament regulations
and a possible way to fix them in the thread "I'm stupid, and we've
got a problem." then proposes fixes in the threds "Birthday Tournament
Fix" and "Birthday Tournament Fix Fix".
* Now that we have regulations (the birthday tournament) the Rulekeepor
publishes a new document, the Agora Nomic Code of Regulations. Thread:
"[Rulekeepor] ACORN - 4 Jul 2020"
* Players wish Agora a happy birthday in the thread "[Glitter] Happy
Birthday!"
# Voting
* Voting begins on Proposals 8459-8472.
* Handle zombies with assets ("Talismans") instead of switches. (8459,
8467)
* Don't let players immediately reclaim an Ultraviolet Ribbon after
Raising a Banner. (8460)
* Re-try a proposal that was adopted but failed to apply. (8461)
* Fixes and future-proofing. (8462, 8463, 8468, 8472)
* The FALSE judgement of CFJ 3859 means the problem patched by
Proposal 8468 wasn't an exploitable bug.
* 8472 is a fix related to the exile scam.
* Power escalations in 8462 and in the rule text it replaces are
identified in the voting thread.
* Proposed changes to certification. (8464, 8466, 8470)
* There's some discussion about Proposal 8470 on the voting thread.
(It uses a dependent action, so would slow down the process of
submitting a proposal quickly.)
* Make it not a crime to attempt actions harmful to Agora on
non-public fora. (8465)
* Amend the new rule about officer regulations by letting an officer
repeal existing regulations after being elected. (The proposal would
also create that new rule if Proposal 8448 failed.) (8469)
* Remove the Referee's power to arbitrarily impose fines. (8471)
* The decisions on whether to adopt Proposals 8442-8457 are resolved.
Adopted:
* A subgame involving Cards. (8442)
* With the adoption of this proposal, an election begins for the new
office of Cooper. R. Lee and G. nominate emselves.
* Make it easier to change rule titles. (8445)
* Auction off Victory Cards. (8446)
* Another pass at officer-approved administrative regulations with an
application for the Herald (8448, 8449)
* The difference from the previous attempt is that now all players,
not just officers, are eligible to support or object to
regulations.
* Grant extensions on CFJ deadlines. (8450)
* Fixes and other small changes. (8452, 8453, 8454, 8455)
# Awards and academics
* Past Rulekeepor Trigon is awarded the patent title of Long Service,
class 12 months, for past service, after a petition to the Herald.
Threads: "Justice for Trigon", "Long Service Awards".
* P.S.S. also gets the 3-month title as Referee.
* The possibility of awarding Trigon the 12-month title had been
mentioned before, but initially rejected because others missed out
on long service awards too in the past and we didn't want to go find
all of them. This time, we decided to make an exception for Trigon
(R. Lee: "But as this is relatively recent, an exceptionally long
and difficult period, and a current player, I wouldn't mind making
an exception.")
* Aris requests the re-processing of eir thesis "The Very Worst Thing
That Could Possibly Happen", citing previous uncertainty about the
requirements for degrees followed by the adoption of eir legislation
to remove that uncertainty. Thread: Thesis Reprocessing Request [attn.
Herald]"
* The Herald starts a new peer review process. Thread: "Peer Review
for Aris"
* ATMunn asks some questions about what's expected in a thesis. G. posts
a link to some past theses:
https://github.com/AgoraNomic/Herald/tree/master/Theses
Thread: "On Theses"
* G. starts a discussion about a possible second process for art
degrees, different from the usual degree process. Thread: "art
degrees"
# Contracts and the economy
* The Notary asks players to summarize their contracts, and offers 3
coins per summary. Thread: "[Pledge] Contract Summaries"
* omd creates a new contract for people to convert Cards to Products
efficiently, and includes a comparison to similar contracts. Players
join. Thread: "Contract: SNOCS (Simple, No-Opportunity-Cost Sets)"
* Dragon Corporation:
* Falsifian creates a contract allowing an officer with card-granting
power to cooperate with another party to give eir card to the Dragon
Corporation. Thread: "[Contract] [Dragon] Political outreach"
* It gets used in the thread "[Dragon] Political Involvement [attn.
Treasuror, Notary]"
* R. Lee tries out the Dragon QuickExchange contract. E accidentally
gives things to it getting nothing in exchange, but that gets fixed.
Thread: "Quickexchange use"
* Falsifian sells four shares of DRGN to P.S.S. for 40 Coins and 2
Justice cards, and P.S.S. joins the contract. Thread: "DRGN sale"
* omd identifies a bug in a recent amendment to the Dragon
Corporation, and it is quickly patched. Thread: "[Contract
amendment] BUS: [Dragon] Faster Ordinary Proposals"
* The Notary announces informal "Contract Awards" for participating in
contracts, creating popular contracts, and creating wealthy contracts.
Thread: "[Notary] Informal Contract Awards"
* With the approval of other Pirates, R. Lee amends the Plundership to
make em the recordkeepor for the contract's currency of "doubloons",
and destroy any existing doubloons to remove uncertainty. Threads:
"[ATTENTION PIRATES: IMPORTANT]: Recordkeeping Parley", "[attn
Treasuror] arrrr"
# Other Proposals
* There are proposals about redoing the Karma system.
* omd proposes to eliminate negative karma and allow players to
transfer karma at will in addition to being able to create one new
Karma per week. E lists detailed reasoning behind eir proposal.
Thread: "Proposal: Upvotes"
* G. proposes a different change: keep everything the same, except
players can take karma from or give it to Agora, and all karma
decays quarterly. Thread: "Agora the karma bank"
* R. Lee proposes to take away the Referee's ability to arbitrarily give
players blots. Thread: "Easy Summary Judgement Repeal"
* Aris pends a new version of eir Administrative State proposal. Eir
proposal allows officers to, with approval from others, manage
regulations related to their offices. This version adds a provision
that an officer can repeal existing regulations upon being elected.
Thread: "Beaurocratic Reengineering"
* nch submits a version of a Competitive Finger Pointing idea e had
talked about earlier.
* Jason submits a proposal to award a Black Ribbon to everyone who votes
unconditionally FOR it. Thread: "With apologies to G."
* R. Lee submits a proposal to award Black Ribbons to everyone who
votes unconditionally AGAINST Jason's proposal.
* There's discussion of whether players who already have Black Ribbons
would earn glitter.
* There's discussion on extending the definition of "person" so a person
continues to be so after death, after CFJ 3854 asks what happens when
a person dies. Such a change was previously attempted in February.
Thread: "is this too morbid?"
# Other rules questions
* If the speaker posts a second objection, does that count as objecting
for the purpose of R2124's "if the Speaker has objected to it in the
last 48 hours"? Thread: "MOTION OF NO CONFIDENCE"
* There's also discussion about how withdrawing objections works more
generally, which touches on the recent finding in CFJ 3858 that
every dependent action depends on objections, and can therefore be
delayed by withdrawing objections.
* The CFJ is withdrawn because in the circumstance in question it
turns out the Speaker wasn't able to object a second time.
* What happens if all rules below power 3 are replaced with "meep"s? A
motion to reconsider CFJ 3851 is filed so that the judgement can
consider this question. Thread: "CFJ 3851 judged TRUE"
* It is judged TRUE again, finding that although it would likely be
possible to recover from such a situation, the situation nonetheless
is the kind that Rule 1698 is designed to prevent. Thread: "CFJ 3851
judged TRUE on Reconsideration"
* Is it possible to resolve an Agoran decision by announcement if
conditions 1-4 in R208 aren't satisfied? No: CFJ 3859 is judged FALSE.
Threads: "[CFJ] Agoran Announcements", "CFJ 3859 Judgement"
* Related: Proposal 8468 would patch the problem that CFJ 3859 found
not to be a problem.
* What happens if you try to amend a specific rule revision (rather than
a rule)? Discussion in the thread "Easy Summary Judgement Repeal".
* Is 2+2=5 if Agorans believe it? Thread: "humble agoran farmer is
curious"
* If a contract defines a switch and what it means to "flip" that
switch, can that definition override Rule 2162's definition of
flipping a switch? Thread: "[Contract, CFJ] Amusing Test Case"
* When a player submits a CFJ to the Referee, is the Referee required to
publish a weekly report like the Arbitor's that includes that case?
Thread: "[@nobody this subject line was too long] referee CFJs"
# The anonymous voter
Context: last week, an anonymous player sent a message using an unknown
email address casting a vote on Proposal 8442.
* The first judge assigned to the case recuses emself. (Note that
players disfavoured the case last week. Maybe they consider this a
hard case.) R. Lee quickly favours it and is re-assigned within
minutes of the recusal. Threads: "CFJ 3857 recusal", "CFJ 3857
assigned to R. Lee"
* CFJ 3857 is judged DISMISS: the judge cannot determine whether the
anonymous voter cast a vote in eir message, even assuming they are
a player. The reason is unexpected: eir vote could only have succeeded
if e did not already have a valid ballot in the decision, and eir
attempt to withdraw any previous votes in the message would not
satisfy the conditions required for the "by announcement" action of
withdrawing a ballot. Thread: "CFJ 3857 Judgement: This is a weird
one."
* After CFJ 3857 is judged, Jason reveals that e was the anonymous
voter. Thread: "CFJ 3857 Judgement: This is a weird one."
# Miscellaneous
* New player Fred registers, and is given some advice about starting
out. Thread: "Registration - Fred"
* The Arbitor asks players to include CFJ ID numbers in any official
business related to them. Thread: "[Arbitor] Signalling request"
* There's some discussion about backdated Promotor reports, related to
G.'s proposal to make it official, in the thread "[Promotor] Draft"
* grok publishes a pledge to "do your will" for 24 hours. A silly dance
or song is requested. Thread: "A Pledge"
* The Promotor is forgivably fined for lateness, and G. writes a bit
about appropriate fines for lateness of reports vs. other duties, in
the thread "[Promotor] Tardiness".
* G. publishes a mysterious hash. Thread: "preparatory"
* P.S.S. asks why Assessor and ADoP are listed as incompatible under
R2472. It turns out it's because the Assessor used to be the vote
collector for ADoP elections. Should we bring that back? Thread:
"R2472 Question: Incompatibility between Assessor and Associate
Director of Personnel"
* There's a history lesson about the Annabel Crises and the Quantum
Crisis, both about propagation of mistakes, in the thread "[CotC] CFJ
3854 Judged DISMISS by Murphy"
* There's discussion on the best way to signal officers in the thread
"[Treasuror] Reward Re: BUS: CFJ 3860 judged FALSE".
* ATMunn is surprised to learn that e was Prime Minister for a while
while e was a zombie. Thread: "wait what now?"
* The Registrar announces that there will be no July zombie auction, and
that e has stopped hunting for inactive players, leaving it up to
others to turn them into zombies. Thread: "No July zombie auction"
* The Notary publishes an example of the new web report e is thinking of
using at https://atmunn.gitlab.io/notary/template.html . Thread:
"Notary Web Report Progress"
--
Falsifian
