status: https://faculty.washington.edu/kerim/nomic/cases/#3864
(This document is informational only and contains no game actions).
=============================== CFJ 3864 ===============================
Welcome Package Patch's sole function is not to minimally rectify
a bug.
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Caller: nch
Judge: G.
Judgement: TRUE
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History:
Called by nch: 23 Jun 2020 13:49:11
Assigned to G.: 05 Jul 2020 18:23:49
Judged TRUE by G.: 05 Jul 2020 19:40:04
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Caller's Arguments:
It does rectify a bug (although, again, it introduces a new one). But it
was forced through to prevent a scam. R2626 says "A player SHALL NOT
certify a proposal unless its sole function isto minimally rectify a bug,
error, or ambiguity". This has two functions: rectifying the bug, and
preventing a scam. Sole means only, as in "the only function".
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Judge G.'s Arguments:
The Caller's argument presupposes that the proposal in question fixes "a
bug, error, or ambiguity (a problem)".
However, let's zoom out and look at the context. R. Lee (along with some
others) was trying to use 4 independent features in the ruleset:
- The ability to create blots in eir possession;
- The ability to deregister someone with blots, with 7 days notice;
- The ability to reregister right after registering, if deregistered due
to blots;
- The ability to gain a welcome package after so re-registering.
Each of these separate parts of the "scam" was a legitimate feature, fully
functional, that was voted into the ruleset with clear legislative intent.
Each one has valid uses. In particular, for the text that the Proposal
in question "fixes", the recent discussion of Indictments makes it clear
a person might be deregistered unjustly after gaining a bunch of blots
(e.g. if a crime is divided into multiple crimes), and it would be
legitimate to give em a welcome package when e re-registers.
Further, there is no evidence or consensus that the proposal was a minimal
fix for "the bug", as it was not clear what "the bug" was. Wearing my
legislative hat, it is much more of a bug to me that a person could
re-register an infinite number of times in a message, so the "true" fix
would be disallowing registration within 30 days of a previous
registration. Also wearing by legislator's hat, I remember saying that
the ability to create blots for oneself might cause trouble!
The point, though, is not to argue that there was a slightly better way to
make the fix, but to make it clear that there's no platonic definition of
"bug" to be had in this situation. Because this wasn't a bug. It's
collective legislative regret at a particular feature set, but the regret
was neither platonic nor universal among legislators, and each piece of
the scam was using functionality exactly as the legislature intended it.
So it does NOT meet the test in Rule 2626(1) on legislative intent (nor do
any of the other tests apply). It would be presumptuous, in this case, for
any judge or referee to overrule the legislature and find otherwise, when
every element of the overall "bug" was clearly functional and instituted
with legislative intent, and being used as intended.
Therefore, we should take this proposal for exactly what it was: the
primary purpose of the proposal in question was a blatant and egregious
conspiracy between players to stop a set of legitimate moves, by removing
a functioning feature that had been instituted *with* full legislative
intent. Stopping a scam with all legal means is fair play - except this
Court finds TRUE: these people broke Rule 2626 to do so.
Now, the above arguments make it seem like there's absolutely no such
thing as a "bug" wherever text was voted on by the legislature. In that
respect, it is quite reasonable to apply the "bug" designation to clearly
malfunctioning text, if the malfunction is direct and limited in scope.
For example, if a CAN is missing a "by announcement", and the context of
surrounding text makes it clear that the text can only work if an explicit
method is put in, there's a bug (such an omission is not a R2626(2)
"error" in that it might still have some functionality and meaning, so the
mistake is functional not textual, which makes it a "bug" not an "error"
by R2626). The bug itself must be very limited and minimal in scope to be
considered a bug, and mere legislative regret doesn't cut it.
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