Proposal Archive (2751-2800)

Proposal 2751 - Thu 26 Feb 1998 19:45 EST
The Six of Sticks
Alfvaen (Aaron Humphrey)
Decision: accepted

This is a Modest proposal.

Amend Rule 516, "Auction", by appending the following text(delimited by PUNG):

PUNG
8) Any unowned entity that is being auctioned is not considered to be in the Treasury from the time the Auction is declared until its results are announced.
PUNG

{{[ After that, it will either be destroyed or in the possession of some player. Before that...well, that's a Hubert situation, I suppose. ]}}

Proposal 2752 - Thu 26 Feb 1998 19:47 EST
We're Not All Taking the Day Off
Slakko (Duncan Richer)
Decision: accepted

This is a Modest Proposal.

Amend Rule 843 by replacing all instances of "Ackanomic Holiday" with "Day of Remembrance".

{{All Ackanomic Holidays which were created by the entrance of a player into the Hall of Elders become Days of Remembrance, and are no longer Holidays of any description.}}

Proposal 2753 - Thu 26 Feb 1998 19:48 EST
Acka-Dot Trade Organisation.
Wild Card (Jonathan David Amery)
Decision: rejected

This is a Grandiose Proposal.

Create a new Rule, titled "Acka-Dot Trade Organisation.", which reads as follows:

{{This rule is a member of the Transnomicial Trade Pacts Rule Suite if such exists.}}

The Acka-Dot Trade Organisation is an organisation whose purpose is to conduct trade between Ackanomic and .nomic.

The Acka-Dot Trade Organisation owns a classy building which is nearer to the Wilds of Ackanomia than it is to the library. This is known as the Acka-Dot Trade Centre.

{{
The Acka-Dot Trade Organisation starts with a Trade License.

Initially the only rules of the Acka-Dot Trade Organisation are:

1) Anyone who is a player in both Ackanomic and .nomic or who has at any time been a player in both for a period of at least one week may be a member of the Acka-Dot Trade Organisation.

2) Any changes to these rules are permissable so long as all the members of the Acka-Dot Trade Organisation agree.
}}

Proposal 2754 - Sat 28 Feb 1998 02:28 EST
Lon Chaney Jr., Roll Over
Hubert (Eric Plumb)
Decision: rejected
Declared harfy by Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain) on Thu 5 Mar 1998 13:03 EST

Create a Rule numbered 999, with the title "Ah-ooooooo", and the following JAGGER-delimited text:

JAGGER
There exists a unique, unownable entity known as the Werewolf of London. The Werewolf of London (hereafter Werewolf for purposes of this Rule) is initially in his cave, which is located Somewhere Else.

If the Werewolf of London bites a player, that player becomes Lycanthropic in the animal of eir choice. If e has not chosen an animal within three days, an animal shall be assigned to em by the Mad Scientist. Players may only become Lycanthropic as defined by the Rules.

The Web-Harfer is encouraged, but not required, to provide an account of which players are Lycanthropic, and in which animal.

During a Full Moon, the Werewolf will leave his cave and stalk the streets of Ackanomic. "Hear 'im howling at your kitchen door; better not let 'im in." [ "Werewolves of London," Warren Zevon ] If any player attempts to change eir Location during a Full Moon, the Werewolf will bite em unless e owns Wolfbane. Trinkets have no effect on the behavior of the Werewolf. {{ [Take that, Annoyers.] }}
JAGGER

Amend Rule 593, "Ackanomic Research Guild," by appending the following VEGA-delimited text immediately before the section of that Rule beginning with Roman numberal II.

VEGA
D. Astronomer

The Office of Astronomer has one seat. It is a Duty of the Astronomer to declare a Full Moon lasting from one to six Acka days at least once per calendar month. Each time e declares a Full Moon, e must specify which Acka moon is Full. No Acka moon may be declared Full more than once per calendar month. If it is ever the case that there is no Acka moon, the last three sentences of this paragraph shall be repealed.

The Office of Astronomer can never be held by a player whose Ackanomic name is Fortunato, for Fortunato is the Astronomer's mortal enemy.
VEGA

{{ Repeal the last sentence of section I, subsection D of Rule 593. [ I just couldn't resist. ] }}

{{ Appoint Hubert to the Office of Astronomer. [If someone else wants it I'll step down, but people complained about the 'hold an election' wording in the previous version of this.] }}

Proposal 2755 - Sat 28 Feb 1998 02:30 EST
The Harf is B-Ack!
Hubert (Eric Plumb)
Decision: rejected
Declared harfy by Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain) on Thu 5 Mar 1998 13:03 EST

{{ [ Provide a way to recognize and reward those players who submit a significant proportion of harfy proposals. ] }}

Create a new Rule, numbered 1113, entitled "Six Degrees of Harf" with the following HAIRBALL-delimited text:

HAIRBALL
For each active voting player of Ackanomic, let the number of non-retracted harfy proposals authored by that player divided by the number of non-retracted non-harfy proposals authored by that player be known as that player's Ratio of Harf, or RH.

There exist six Degrees of harfiness a player may achieve based on eir Ratio of Harf. For the purposes of this rule, the word Title refers to one of these. They are, from lowest rank to highest, and exclusive of all parentheses and text contained therein:
Neophyte of Harf (.25)
Acolyte of Harf (.5)
Disciple of Harf (.75)
Master of Harf (1.0)
Connoissieur of Harf (1.5)
Grand Poobah of Harf (2.0)

A player may hold at most one of these Titles at any time. No player who has authored fewer than 10 non-retracted proposals may hold any of these titles. Players may only gain and lose these Titles as defined by the Rules.

Any player who has authored at least 10 non-retracted proposals gains the Title, if any, from the list above for which eir Ratio of Harf (calculated to eir most recently decided Proposal) is greater than the number in parentheses following that Title but lower than the number in parentheses following the next higher-ranked Title. It is the duty of each player to notify the Speaker if e thinks e has gained a Title from the list above. It is then the duty of the Speaker to verify this fact and, if true, announce it publicly, with much fanfare.

Each time a player gains a Title from the list above ranked higher than any e has held before, e gains a number of points equal to ten times eir Ratio of Harf, rounded down. E also loses any Titles from the list above lower than the one e just gained.

If a player's Ratio of Harf falls below the number needed to maintain eir Title, e loses that Title. The only exception to this is the Title of Grand Poobah of Harf, which can never be removed from a player so entitled; this sentence takes precedence over any Rule which states or implies that the Title of Grand Poobah of Harf could be removed from a player.
HAIRBALL

Proposal 2756 - Sat 28 Feb 1998 02:32 EST
Slightly Faster Spades
/dev/joe (Joseph DeVincentis)
Decision: accepted

This is a modest proposal.

Amend rule 1250.15, "Spades", by adding the following as a new paragraph after the existing paragraph in section 3:

Whenever there is no doubt who will win each of the remaining tricks, the referee may interrupt play, announcing this fact as well as the remaining plays which would have otherwise occurred, in order to speed the game along a little faster. [Certainly, he can at least do so for the last trick in each hand, and sometimes more, such as if one player has the top three spades remaining with three tricks left to play.] Those tricks are treated as if they were played as indicated by the referee. {{The current spades game(s) are changed to follow the new version of this rule.}}

Proposal 2757 - Sun 01 Mar 1998 15:48 EST
Literary Genius
The Gingham Wearer (Tom Walmsley)
Decision: accepted
Declared harfy by Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain) on Thu 5 Mar 1998 13:03 EST

Add all the following to the literature list.

Artist: Queen; the rock band
Artist: Bob Dylan
Work: Star Trek; the four TV shows and eight films.
Work: Red Dwarf; the seven TV series and four novels.
Artist: David Eddings
Artist: Dire Straits
Work: Casablanca
Artist: Karl Marx
Work: Blackadder; all four series
Artist: Isaac Asimov
Artist: REM
Artist: Iain Banks; writing either as that or Iain M. Banks.

Proposal 2758 - Sun 01 Mar 1998 15:51 EST
Yet Another Organizational Reform
Niccolo Flychuck (Uri Bruck)
Status: retracted

{{[This Organizational Reform attempt to address several issues in the Organizationl structure, but by no means all of them. In some ways it is a combination of the original Organizational structure, with the current one. There are types of Organizations, and each Organization must be of a type. Currently the types are Society (replaces Players-Sanctioned Organizations), Political Party (Big Tents are repealed, destryoed, and Parties are refunded for them), and Church, where no change is necessary, since Rule-Sanctioned Organizations are what used to be types before the Mohamedan Reforms.
There are also some special provisions for Unique Organizations. Organizations may change their type as an Organizational action. This retains the freedom players currently enjoy, and IMO, desire to keep, to change their Organizations.
Trade Licenses are repealed as well. Societies are the most restricted financially they can own A$, and can transfer them to the Treasury - which enables them to buy powers and transform. Parties can own A$ and Trinkets. Churches can own and trade everything.
All Organizations may own Powers. The proposal also makes Powers untradeable.
Also single players Organizations, a pet-peeve of mine, will be gone with if this passes.
I will be submitting a couple of other proposal to tweak some details in Church, and perhaps a couple of other rules.
]
}}

I. Create a new rule titled :"The Deconstruction of Very Small Organizations" which contains the following text:
"This rule takes precedence over all rules numbered 1001-1099.
Organizations with fewer than three members are not disbanded.
For each Organization that has fewer than three members, the following things take place exactly 7 days after this rule is enacted.
All Trinkets are converted to A$. For each Organizational Power an Organization owns, the Organization is given A$ in an amount equal to the cost of the Power, and then the ORganizational Power is destroyed.
All entities, except for A$ are transferred to the Treasury.
Then, all A$ are divided evenly between all the members of the Organization, and the Organization is disbanded.
{{[this gives enough time to small Organizations to dispose their possessions as they see fit. I think it's a fair way to deal with this]}}

II.Create a new rule titled "Societies" which contains the following text:
"
A Society is a type of Organization.
Society's may own A$, and Organization Powers. Societies may not own any other type of entity. Society's may receive A$ as a gift. If a Society receives a Trinket as a gift, then the trinket is deemed to have been destroyed for A$ just prior to the transfer. A Society may only transfer A$ to the Treasury. [ this enables a Society to purchase powers, or transform itself into another type of Organization]
{{All Player-Sanctioned Organization are transformed into Societies}}
"

III. Amend R1003 "Organizations" to read in full:

"
1. Forming an Organization

Any player may publically anounce eir intent to form an Organization, unless e is a pseudo-Founder.
When a player has done so e becomes a pseudo-Founder for a period of 7-days.
If during those 7 days at least two additional players publically anounce that they wish to join the Organization the pseudo-Founder intends to form, and the pseudo-Founder agrees, then the pseudo-Founder forms the Organization by anouncing the Oranization's name, its type,pays the standard Harfer's Fee, and anounces the name of its members.
The name must be a legal name, if a type of Organization is not specified than the Organization is of type Society.

Any player may request membership inan Organization. The Organization may then grant the request for membership as a public Action. When a request for membership is granted, the player becomes a member of the Organization.

An Organization may, as a public action, give a particular member the ability to grant any request for membership in that Organization, without waiting around for the consent of the rest of the members. An Organization may also, as a public action, establish an open admissions policy, which means that anyone can join that Organization at any time.

2. Organization Disbandment

The rules may call for the disbandment of an Organization. When an Organization is disbanded, everything owned by the Organization is transferred to the Treasury, and the Organization is then no more. An Organization is disbanded when its Size falls below three.

3. Organization Size

The Size of an Organization is the number of members it has. Terms such as 'larger' and 'smaller', when applied to Organizations, refer to the Sizes of the Organizations being compared. [For example, to say that one organization is larger than another is to say that it has more members.]

The Active Size of an Organization is the number of Active Players who are members of that Organization.

4. Organization Similarity

For any two Organizations X and Y, orgsim(X, Y) is defined as the percentage of members of X who are also members of Y, except for the case where X and Y are the same, in which case it is defined to be 0.

The H Similarity between two Organizations, A and B, is the greater of orgsim(A, B) and orgsim(B, A).

The L Similarity between two Organizations, A and B, is the lesser of orgsim(A, B) and orgsim(B, A).

The M Similarity between two Organizations, A and B, is the average of orgsim(A, B) and orgsim(B, A).

5. Player Liberty Clause

No player may become a member of an Organization without first expressing their consent to joining it. A player may leave an Organization of which he or she is a member at any time.

6. Organizational Voting
When an Organization is called on to vote, it has 7 days to conduct and publically report the results of the vote, and how each member voted, unless the rules call for a different amount of time. If everyone who is eligible to cast a vote in a given has done so, the results may be announced before the voting period ends. For the purposes of this rule, the composition of an Organization is taken to be its composition at the end of any voting or decision period. Acting members are considered to be members in place of the members they are acting for.

7. Unique Organizations
This section takes precedence over all rules concerning Unique Organizations, and all rules concerning Organizational Powers.
It is impermissible for Unique Organizations to use Organizational Powers.
If a Unique Organization comes to own an Organizational Power, by any means, then that Organizational Power has no effect on that Organization. Unique Organization membership is defined by the rules defining the Unique Organizations in question. If membership is not defined for a specific Unique Organization, then it has no members.

8. Types of Organizations
Other rules may define types of Organizations.
A rule defining an Organization may define other membership requirements and restrictions, provided that no rules allow for Organizations that have fewer than three Ackanomic Players as members.
Rules may define Unique Organizations. Such rules also implicitly define the type of Organization.
The rules may define ways for Organizations to transform from one type to another.
When an Organization transforms from one type to another, then all the procedures that occur as a result of the disbandment of an Organization of the type it transforms from, and which do not occur as a result of disbandment of an Organization of the type it transforms to, are executed. Unless specifically restricted by other rules, an Organization of any type may transform its type as an Organization Action by anouncing that it transforming, the type it is transforming to, and paying standard Harfer's Fee. Other rules may specify higher fees for specific transformations.

IV.Amend R1009 "Big Tents and Rewarding Party Unity" to read in full:
" A Political Party is a type of Organization. Being a member of more than one Political Party simultaneously is the Crime of Branch-Stacking. At the end of a proposal's voting period, but before votes on that proposal are counted, if every active non-vacationing player member of a given Political Party voted YES on that proposal, and no member of the Party is also a member of some other Party, then the Political Party itself shall cast an additional YES vote on that proposal for every three active non-vacationing player members it has.

Party membership and how players voted are determined based on the facts in force at the end of the voting period for each proposal.

A Political Party may own and Trade A$, Trinkets, and Organizational Powers. Theu may not own any other type of Entity.

The fee for transforming from a Society to a Party is A$300

{{Rename this rule - 'Political Parties and Rewarding Party Unity'. All Political Parties are given A$300. All Big Tents are destroyed.}}
"

V.Amend R1008 "Organiztional Powers" by deleting the word "tradeable"

VI. Create a new rule with the following text:
"{{Every ORganization which owns a Trade License receives A$50. All Trade Licenses are destoryed. Repeal R1011 "Trade Licenses"}}

VII.Amend R1013 "Secret Laboratories" by appending the following text: "An Organization may own at most one Secret Laboratory"

VIII.Amend section 1 of R1301 "Church" to read in full:"Church is a type of Organization"

Proposal 2759 - Wed 04 Mar 1998 21:19 EST
Only the good...
The Gingham Wearer (Tom Walmsley)
Status: retracted

Modify rule 950 by adding the following text at the end of section IV:

"If a rule defining an esoteric song is created and that song is currently being played as a mundane song then the song instantly ceases to be being played and instead the song Barbie Girl by Aqua is played [to encourage people to change it as quickly as possible]."

Create a new rule as a member of The Ackanomic Sound System Rule Suite titled "ASS song: Only the Good Die Young" reading as follows:

"Title: Only the Good Die Young

Artist: Queen

Trigger: Whenever a player is inducted into the hall of elders.

Duration: Three Acka days.

Effect: All players are so struck with sadness that they must remain in the same location, mourning, whilst the song is being played. This section of this rule defers to any rule that requires any player to change location as an involuntary action [e.g. Bracket Smiley Pedantry].

Explanation: "One by one, only the good die young." [Only the good die young, Queen]. Further honouring of the elders.

Proposal 2760 - Wed 04 Mar 1998 21:20 EST
We're Not All Taking the Day Off
Slakko (Duncan Richer)
Status: removed (invalid by Rule 309)

This is a Modest Proposal.

Amend Rule 843 by replacing all instances of "Ackanomic Holiday" with "Day of Remembrance".

{{All Ackanomic Holidays which were created by the entrance of a player into the Hall of Elders become Days of Remembrance, and are no longer Holidays of any description.}}

Proposal 2761 - Sat 07 Mar 1998 04:25 EST
"Isaiah had it right."
Wild Card (Jonathan David Amery)
Status: retracted

Create a new rule, entitled "Isaiah", reading as follows (delimited by Bible)

Bible
"Upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall" [The Bible, KJV, Is2:15] "there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from" [The Bible, KJV, Is4:6] "storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire. " [The Bible, KJV, Is29:6]
Bible

Proposal 2762 - Sat 07 Mar 1998 04:26 EST
Rule Suite Preferences Fix
Slakko (Duncan Richer)
Decision: accepted

This is a Modest Proposal.

{{[The point has been made that new rules, when added to a Rule Suite, are _forced_ to take the next available number, no matter what the person creating the rule actually wants. This will reverse that, so that we don't need to waste time with CSRs to renumber said rules. However, for simplicity rules created by other rules should default to being the next rule number anyway.
]}}

Amend Rule 303, "Proposal and Rule Numbering", as follows:

In Section II Subsection 2, replace "Otherwise, if" with "If".
In Section II Subsection 1, replace "If" with "Otherwise, if".
Swap the two above-mentioned subsections and re-number accordingly.

In Section III, replace all instances of "II.1" with "II.2".
{{[Pointer update.]}}

{{[There's no point making this foolish - I don't think I got penalised when it failed quorum the first time it was submitted.]}}

Proposal 2763 - Sat 07 Mar 1998 04:28 EST
We Have to Wait a Week for Mal & Bal - Never Again
Slakko (Duncan Richer)
Status: retracted

This is a Modest Proposal.

{{[Malenkai and Balsamic Dragon both left the game with CFJ decisions pending. We have to wait until a week is up before these CFJs can be reassigned. I don't see why we should.]}}

Amend Rule 256, "Leaving the Game", as follows:

a) Renumber section 5 to section 6.
b) Insert the following text immediately after section 4:
"5) All CFJs and CFCJs they have been assigned but which they have not returned a verdict on are reassigned to the player who is currently performing the duties of the Praetor (if eligible to judge them) or the Supreme Court (if the player performing the duties of the Praetor is ineligible to judge them). The preceding sentence does not apply to CFJs and CFCJs currently under consideration by the Supreme Court."

{{[If a Justice leaves, another Justice will probably come along quickly. But first-round judges should be replaced ASAP when they leave.]}}

Proposal 2764 - Sat 07 Mar 1998 04:30 EST
Six Degrees of Separation
Alfvaen (Aaron Humphrey)
Decision: rejected (failed to meet quorum)

{{[ Since the G&C Submission never got approved, I might as well see if it can get accepted another way. Remember, you drove me to this!]}}

Repeal Rule 1250.20.

Amend Rule 1250.3, "General Equipment", as follows:

Append the following text(delimited by FOOTLOOSE):

FOOTLOOSE
V. Movie Database

a) URL: http://www.imdb.com/
FOOTLOOSE

Create a new Rule in the Games & Contests rule suite, titled "Bacon", with text as follows(delimited by FLATLINER):

FLATLINER
[ Bacon is a game inspired by the book "Seven Steps To Kevin Bacon", or a game known as "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon", illustrating the ubiquity of the actor Kevin Bacon. Consider it an exercise in graph theory. ]

General Equipment: Movie Database, Gamepoints as needed

Number of Participants: 2; Referees: 1

Rules:

The game consists of a series of rounds. At the start of each round, each player must name an actor or actress(hereafter referred to as an actron), who has appeared in at least one movie as specified in the Movie Database. This naming period is over when both players have named an actron, or three days have passed since the referee announced the start of the round, whichever comes first; in the latter case, if one player named an actron and the other did not, then the first player wins the round, and if neither named an actron then the round is a draw.

After the actrons have been named for a round, each player must attempt to construct a "Bacon chain" between the two of them. A Bacon chain consists of a series of links; each link must consist of the name of a movie and the names of two actrons who were in the movie. For a chain to be valid, adjacent links must have at least one actron in common. [Thus, the link "Terminator: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton" followed by the link "Twins: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny De Vito" would be a valid chain; the first link above followed by the link "Wayne's World: Dana Carvey, Tia Carrere" would not.] (If there is ambiguity between two movies or actrons with identical names, it is up to the referee to determine which is meant in each case, and to make this information available to both players.)

Each player has three days from the time the naming period ends to send such a chain to the referee. After this period ends or Bacon chains are received from each player, the referee shall post both chains.

If one player thinks that the other player's chain is invalid, then e may challenge it up to three days after the chains are posted. The referee will check each link in the Movie Database, and determine whether the chain is valid. Otherwise, a chain will be assumed to valid if it goes unchallenged for the three days. (If a player did not submit a Bacon chain for that round, then eir chain is considered invalid.)

If one player's chain is valid and the other's is invalid, then the first player wins the round. If both chains are valid and one player's chain is shorter than the other(contains fewer links), then e wins the round. If neither chain is valid, or both chains are valid and of equal length, then neither player wins the round.

The winner of a round receives a Gamepoint.

Winning: The winner of the game shall be the first player to obtain 5 Gamepoints. The winner shall receive a standard Trophy. The referee shall receive A$8 from the Treasury upon conclusion of the game. If one player leaves the game, then the remaining player will win the game immediately by forfeit.

Cheating: Players may not consult the Movie Database themselves during the course of a round.
FLATLINER

Proposal 2765 - Sun 08 Mar 1998 19:20 EST
Impossibility is almost possible
The Gingham Wearer (Tom Walmsley)
Decision: accepted

Amend rule 701 (Crime) by replacing the final sentence of the second paragraph [Currently " However, an attempt to commit such an action is the Crime of Attempting the Impossible [even though the action itself does not occur]."] with the following:

"Although such an action does not occur it is not in itself a crime."

{{[I don't really see the need for this. All it leads to is lots of people beginning any sentence which describes an action with 'If it is possible...' which can get tiresome.]}}

Proposal 2766 - Sun 08 Mar 1998 19:21 EST
Only the good... (remember song titles)
The Gingham Wearer (Tom Walmsley)
Decision: accepted

Modify rule 950 by adding the following text at the end of section IV:

Create a new rule as a member of The Ackanomic Sound System Rule Suite titled "ASS song: No-one But You" reading as follows:

"Title: No-one But You (Only the Good Die Young)

Artist: Queen

Trigger: Whenever a player is inducted into the hall of elders.

Duration: Three Acka days.

Explanation: "One by one, only the good die young." [No-one But You (Only the Good Die Young), Queen]. Further honouring of the elders.

Proposal 2767 - Sun 08 Mar 1998 19:22 EST
"Isaiah had it right."
Wild Card (Jonathan David Amery)
Decision: rejected

Create a new rule, entitled "Isaiah", reading as follows (delimited by BIBLE)

BIBLE
"Upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall" [The Bible, KJV, Is2:15] "there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from" [The Bible, KJV, Is4:6] "storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire. " [The Bible, KJV, Is29:6]
BIBLE

Proposal 2768 - Sun 08 Mar 1998 19:23 EST
Klingon Honour in Party Chess
Slakko (Duncan Richer)
Decision: accepted

This is a Modest Proposal.

Amend Rule 1230.2 by replacing the text:

"7. Check
A Swinger is in Check when his King is attacked by one or more opposing pieces."

with

"7. Check
A Swinger is in Check when his King is attacked by one or more pieces owned by a Swinger whose King is on-board."

Append the following QAPLA-delimited text to the end of Section 8 of Rule 1230.2:

QAPLA
As "Only an enemy without honour refuses to show himself in battle" [Michael Dorn (Worf), Star Trek, The Next Generation: Evolution], a player may not capture another player's King unless the player performing the capture has their King on-board. The preceding sentence has precedence over all other parts of the Party Chess Suite which define how pieces may capture.
QAPLA

{{[Another incentive to keep your King on-board. Otherwise people off-board can earn Stabber's Knives without the risk that other people will grab Stabber's Knives back as an act of revenge.]}}

Proposal 2769 - Sun 08 Mar 1998 19:24 EST
I Still Think We Shouldn't Wait a Week
Slakko (Duncan Richer)
Decision: accepted

This is a Modest Proposal.

{{[Malenkai and Balsamic Dragon both left the game with CFJ decisions pending. We have to wait until a week is up before these CFJs can be reassigned. I don't see why we should.]}}

Amend Rule 256, "Leaving the Game", as follows:

a) Renumber section 5 to section 6.
b) Insert the following text immediately after section 4:
"5) All CFJs and CFCJs they have been assigned but which they have not returned a verdict on are reassigned randomly as if they had been declined, even if more than 3 days have passed since the assignment. The preceding sentence does not apply to CFJs and CFCJs currently under consideration by the Supreme Court."

{{[If a Justice leaves, another Justice will probably come along quickly. But first-round judges should be replaced ASAP when they leave.]}}

Proposal 2770 - Sun 08 Mar 1998 19:27 EST
Supreme Court Reform
Guy Fawkes (Robert Shimmin)
Decision: accepted

[ Changes since the RFC: (1) 2nd (and final) appeals go to the full Court instead of a Supreme Cortex. If the Court cannot reach unanimity within a week, a 2/3 supermajority will do. Justices in the minority may write Dissents to be placed in the CFJ archive. (2) When a Justice goes on vacation or declines Judgment, another Justice is the first choice for Acting Justice. (Basically, Justices can double for each other). (3) Senate given more time to remove a Presidentially appointed Justice. (4) Reference to the old Jury system removed from R217, and AOJ rules reworded to reflect new SC / Senate relationship. ]

[I. Reorganization of the Supreme Court]

Amend Rule 416's (The Supreme Court) full text to the following :) - delimited text.

:)
The Office of Justice has a variable number of Seats. {{The Office of Justice has two Seats. A player who occupied a Seat in the Office of Justice immediately before the most recent amendment to this Rule continues to hold a seat in the Office of Justice. If either or both of these Seats were empty immediately before the most recent amendment to this Rule, the empty seat(s) remain empty until filled.}} A player eligible to be a Justice may, as a public action, make themselves a Justice. Upon them doing so, they will either occupy a formerly empty Seat in the office of Justice (should any exist), or a new Seat in the Office of Justice shall be created and they shall occupy it (this happens only in the case where no Seats in the Office of Justice were empty at the time they made themselves Justice). When a Justice resigns or is otherwise removed from eir Office, the seat they vacated is destroyed. The previous sentence notwithstanding, no game events shall cause the Office of Justice to have fewer than two seats. The Justices are collectively known as the Supreme Court.

Only those players eligible to be Praetor are eligible to be Justices, except that a player holding a seat in the Office of Justice is always eligible to hold that seat. A player impeached from the Office of Justice during the last 90 days is ineligible for the Office of Justice.

Should a Seat in the Office of Justice remain vacant for three days, or should such a Seat be vacant for any length of time if there are no players eligible to fill it, it is the privelege of the President to appoint a willing player to fill that Office. The appointee fills the empty Justice seat, regardless of eir eligibility stated elsewhere in this Rule. Within the first two weeks of eir Justicehood, the Senate may, as an organizational action, remove the appointee from office. Players who held the office of Justice for less than two weeks are not considered former Justices for the pruposes of this or other Rules.

When a Justice goes on Vacation, a randomly selected Justice (not including any Justices that are on Vacation or owners of the same Supreme Cortex as the Vacationing one) shall fill that Justice's seat in the Supreme Court in an Acting capacity. The Clerk of the Courts shall make the random selection. This paragraph takes precedence over Rules that would prevent the same player being an Officer and an Acting Officer in the same Office. If there are no Justices eligible to double as Acting Justices, then the Praetor or Acting Praetor shall fill that Justice's seat as an Acting Justice. If the vacationing Justice is an owner of a Supreme Cortex, then the Acting Justice performing eir duties is treated by any other Rules dealing with Supreme Cortices to be an owner of that Suprme Cortex in place of the Vacationing Justice.

The Praetor or Acting Praetor shall be an Acting Justice whenever there is a vacancy in the Supreme Court.
:)

[II. Introducing the Supreme Cortex]

Amend the third paragraph of Rule 500.2 "Entity Ownership" to read in full, "If an entity is nontradeable or tradeable, then it is ownable. At any given time, each ownable entity is either owned by one or more named entities or Somewhere Else (unowned). If the Rule(s) defining an ownable entity do not explicitly state that it may have multiple owners, then it can have at most one owner."

Create a new Rule, entitled "The Supreme Cortex" and numbered 416.1, with the following ;) - delimited text.

;)
A Supreme Cortex (hereafter Cortex, plural Cortices) is a named, nontradeable entity. At any time it may have zero, one or two owners. A Cortex with two owers is Active. A Cortex with one owner is Undermanned. A Cortex with zero owners is instantly destroyed, except if it is the only one in existence. Such a Cortex is Vacant.

Only Justices may own a Supreme Cortex, and no Justice may own more than one Cortex. A Justice who owns a Cortex is Grafted; one who does not is Ungrafted.

If there are no Vacant or Undermanned Cortices, an Ungrafted Justice may create a new Cortex as a public action, by specifying its name ("The Supreme Court" or any name with the same primitive form is not a valid name for a Supreme Cortex). The new Cortex is initially Undermanned, its creator being its sole owner. At any time, an Ungrafted Justice or Acting Justice may, as a public action, become an owner of a Vacant or Undermanned Cortex. A player ceases to be an onwer of a Cortex if they either publically give up eir ownership of that Cortex, or cease to be a Justice or Acting Justice.

{{ Create a Supreme Cortex, named "The Entity Formerly Known as the Supreme Court" (TEFKatSC for short). All extant Justices are owners of TEFKatSC. All CFJ's that the Supreme Court is considering are assigned to TEFKatSC. }}
;)

[That last bit should provide continuity through the Supreme Court reorganization.]

[III. Appeal / Judgment Interface]

Create a new Rule, numbered 217.1 and entitled "Selecting a Cortex" with the following :p - delimited text.

:p
Whenever the Rules call for the Supreme Court to consider a CFJ for the first time, the Clerk of the Courts shall assign that CFJ to a Supreme Cortex.

E shall select a Supreme Cortex (hereafter Cortex) based on the following guidelines.
1. E shall assign the CFJ to the Active Cortex that is already considering the fewest CFJ's. If multiple Active Cortices are tied for this distinction, e shall choose randomly among them.
2. If there are no Active Cortices, e shall assign the CFJ to the Undermanned Cortex that is already considering the fewest CFJ's. If multiple Undermanned Cortices are tied for this distinction, e shall choose randomly among them.
3. If the only Cortex in existence is Vacant, e shall assign the CFJ to the Vacant Cortex.

When a Cortex is destroyed, all CFJ's assigned to it are reassigned to another Cortex as per the above guidelines.

If the Rules direct the Supreme Court to consider a given CFJ for a second time, the entire Court shall consider the matter (as opposed to a single Cortex).
:p

Amend the fourth paragraph of Rule 217 (Overturning Judgment) to read, "The Supreme Court shall then decide the case, and should return its verdict within one week. If this is the first time the Supreme Court has considered that CFJ, the unanimous decision of the owners of the Supreme Cortex that was assigned the CFJ shall be the verdict of the Court. If the Supreme Court has already returned a verdict on the CFJ in question, and this verdict was appealed, the Supreme Court's verdict shall be the unanimous decision of all non-Vacationing justices (returned within one week of the full Court receiving the CFJ) or the decision of a 2/3 supermajority of the non-Vacationing Justices (if the Court does not reach a unanimous decision within one week)."

In the last paragraph of Rule 217, replace, "After the fourth time a judgement has been returned on a single CFJ, it may not be appealed further. [The original judgement plus 3 appeals.]" with "A verdict returned by the Supreme Court as a whole (e.g. a second appeal verdict) may not be appealed."

Amend the last paragraph of Rule 417 (Justices Rock) to read, "When a CFJ is assigned to the Supreme Cortex that a Justice or Acting Justice owns, that Justice or Acting Justice may, as a public action, decline Judgment on that CFJ. In this case, an Acting Justice is selected to act as an owner of that Supreme Cortex with respect to that CFJ only, in the original Justice's or Acting Justice's stead; the procedure used to select the Acting Justice is in this case the same as if the original Justice or Acting Justice had gone on Vacation."

[IV. Finishing Touches ]

Remove the last sentence of the next-to-last paragraph of Rule 217. [A bit of archaic language from the ill-fated Jury system].

In Rule 417 (Justices Rock) change "2) An AOJ to nullify a Senatorial Decision to confirm a particular player to the Supreme Court." to "2) An AOJ to nullify a Senatorial Decision to remove a particular player from the Supreme Court."

Add the following 8$ - delimited text to the end of Rule 418.

8$
For one week following the Supreme Court returning a non-unanimous verdict on a CFJ appeal, dissenting Justices may publically post an official Dissent to the Supreme Court's reasoning. This Dissent should be included along with the majority reasoning in any CFJ archives. {{[ 'should' because the CFJ archives are presently unofficial. ]}}
8$

Proposal 2771 - Sun 08 Mar 1998 19:29 EST
My, That Rule's been revised often!
Guy Fawkes (Robert Shimmin)
Decision: accepted

This is a Modest Proposal. Add the following to the end of Duty b) in Rule 407.1 (Rule-Harfer)

If the length of a Rule's revision history becomes unwieldy (in the opinion of the Rule-Harfer), and if the format in which the Official Rules Document supports such, a Rule's revision history may be maintained in a separate document, with a link to this document at the bottom of the Rule text.

Proposal 2772 - Sun 08 Mar 1998 19:30 EST
Activity Index Freeze
Guy Fawkes (Robert Shimmin)
Decision: accepted

This is a Modest proposal. [This is meant only as a stopgap to prevent activity abuse from wreaking havoc on the Market while the players can agree on a more suitable index to replace it.]

Amend Rule 530, section c), to read in full, "The activity value is x." where x is replaced by the activity value the Stock Market had immediately prior to this amendment.

Proposal 2773 - Sun 08 Mar 1998 19:31 EST
Predatory Pricing
else...if (Henry Towsner)
Decision: rejected

Create a new rule named "The Price Wars" numbered 1299, with the following GO delimited text
GO
{{Each player recieves 10 pieces of lumber. Each player recieves 5 pieces or mortar.}}
Ackanomic is commisioning a major construction project, and needs 160 pieces of lumber and 100 pieces of mortar to do it. Consequently, as soon as this rule is created, it will accept bids from players to sell lumber and mortar. A player bids by publicly announcing the number of A$ they will offer each unit of lumber or mortar for, and how many they are offering at that price. Two weeks after this rule is created, bids will no longer be accepted. Initially all bids will be under consideration. At that point, the treasury will perform the following:
1) It will examine the bid for lumber with the lowest A$/unit which is under consideration. If there are multiple bids at this price, the one for which the smaller of the number of units offered and the number of units owned by the offering player is larger will be examined. If there are still multiple bids, one will be accepted at random. (In otherwords, the one which offers the most lumber at the smallest price will be accepted.)
2) It will transfer units of lumber from the player who made that bid to the treasury one at a time until the player has no more lumber, the treasury has 160 units of lumber, or the number of units of lumber specified in the bid have been transfered during this step. They player will then be given A$ equal to the number of units of lumber that were transfered from them times the number of A$ specified in their bid.
3) It will remove that bid from consideration.
4) It will repeat steps 1 through 4 until it has 160 units of lumber, or there are no more bids under consideration.
5) If the treasury does not have 160 units of lumber, then players who own lumber will be selected at random to transfer a single unit of lumber to the treasury until it does.
6) Steps 1-5 will be repeated with mortar and up to a maximum of 100 units.
7) Everything except the last paragraph of this rule will be repealed.

A unit or piece of lumber of mortar is a tradeable, unnamed entity.
GO

Proposal 2774 - Sun 08 Mar 1998 19:33 EST
Get Your Stinking Hands Off My Desert
Alfvaen (Aaron Humphrey)
Decision: accepted

This is a Modest proposal.

Amend Rule 1217, "Buried Treasure!", as follows:

In Section IV, replace the first sentence

{{[
If there currently exist Treasures which have not yet been "found", which were buried more than 90 days ago, and for which no map custodian or map writer is a current player, then the Archaeologist has the prerogative of organizing an Expedition.
]}}

with the following(delimited by DWEEZIL):

DWEEZIL
If there currently exist Treasures which have not yet been found, for which no map custodian or map writer is a current player, and for which both of the previous states have been true for more than 90 days, then the Archaeologist has the prerogative of organizing an Expedition.
DWEEZIL

{{[ This is intended to make long-buried treasures buried by recently- departed players ineligible for Historical Artefact status. ]}}

Append to the second paragraph of section IV the following text (delimited by VALINOR):

VALINOR
When the Archaeologist announces an Expedition, e may also specify a certain set of Treasures which are not to be considered Historical Artefacts for the purposes of this Expedition.
VALINOR

{{[ This way the Archaeologist can show some respect for Treasures whose buriers may still return. I leave this entirely up to em. ]}}

Proposal 2775 - Fri 13 Mar 1998 15:14 EST
Literature modification
The Gingham Wearer (Tom Walmsley)
Status: retracted

This is a modest proposal.

Modify rule 210 (Literature) by replacing the NOW delimited text below with the CHANGE delimited text and the following ONE delimited text with the following TWO delimited text below:

NOW
A) The proposal must contain in it's body [as opposed to title] one or more quotations from sources listed on the Literature list. This quotation must be an exact copy of words found in, written, uttered or otherwise communicated by the source, enclosed in quotation marks. It must be either a complete sentence of 7 words or more, or a contiguous phrase of at least 14 words in length. [This last bit is to try and stop people from trying to pass off "to be" as a quote from Hamlet, and the like.] NOW

CHANGE
A) The proposal must contain in it's body [as opposed to title] one or more quotations from sources listed on the Literature list. This quotation must be an exact copy of words found in, written, uttered or otherwise communicated by the source, enclosed in quotation marks. It must be either a complete sentence or series of consecutive sentences totaling 7 words or more, or a continuous phrase of at least 14 words in length. [This last bit is to try and stop people from trying to pass off "to be" as a quote from Hamlet, and the like.]
CHANGE

ONE
II. Whenever a proposal that is literature passes, it's author gains X points. X is either the number of sentences quoted according to section I of this rule, or the number the total number of words quoted according to section I divided by 14, whichever is smaller.
ONE

TWO
II. Whenever a proposal that is literature passes, it's author gains X points. X is either the number of sentences or series of sentences quoted according to section I of this rule, or the number the total number of words quoted according to section I divided by 14, whichever is smaller. [That is, for each sentence or phrase which is eligible to be literature the author scores one point, taking the lower total if there are more than two ways in which such a phrase is eligible, i.e. two complete sentences making a total of fourteen words would only score one point.]

{{[The change here means that if, for example, there is a proposal containing two consecutive sentences of six words each, it can now be counted as literature. It's only a small change, I know, but one I feel is necessary. Previously, scoring from literature was not fully described, but it is now. IMHO, of course. :-)]}}

Proposal 2776 - Fri 13 Mar 1998 15:14 EST
Lick The Pole
Alfvaen (Aaron Humphrey)
Decision: accepted

This is a Modest proposal.

Amend Rule 611, "La grande fromage", as follows:

Rename the rule "Le Grand Fromage" {{[ to satisfy French grammar and my own capitalization agenda ]}}.

Replace the sentence "A player receives a stilton if e the ten most recent proposals e authored were all accepted." with "A player receives a stilton if e the ten most recent proposals e authored, that are not in the voting queue, were all accepted." {{[ I just noticed that this would eliminate anyone from getting a stilton if e had a proposal in the queue, because it would not have been accepted. I'm not sure whether it will include retracted Proposals or not. ]}}

Replace the sentence "A player receives a brie if e has not had a CFCJ called against em with a final verdict of true, during the last two months." with the following(delimited by GILETTE):

GILETTE
A player receives a brie if no CFCJ called against em has returned a final verdict of TRUE in the last two months. If any CFCJ returns a TRUE verdict against a player, any brie they may have is destroyed.
GILETTE

Proposal 2777 - Fri 13 Mar 1998 15:16 EST
Flat as a pancake
else...if (Henry Towsner)
Decision: rejected
Declared harfy by The Gingham Wearer (Tom Walmsley) on Fri 13 Mar 1998 18:58 EST

Replace the phrase "the underside" in rule 1310 with "a side".

Repeal rule 1319 and 1319.1

Create the following rule, numbered 1319, entitled "The Shape of the World", reading as delimited by INSANITY
INSANITY
The world is a hexatetraflexagon. There a six sides, and Acka is on the second. Consequently, Acka is exposed to the outside, and therefore daylight,for one third of the day, from 8:00am to 4:00pm, EST, which will be considered daytime. The Ackanomic River is located at the folds, and runs through all six sides. Any contact with the rest of the universe during the night must be made by going through the water. During the night, the layer opposite Acka (which varies throughout the night,) is always one half-cat height above the highest location in Acka. Acka itself occupies one quarter of the second side, and is surrounded on two adjacent sides by the Ackanomic river, and on the other two by nothing. This rule takes precedence over the first paragraph of rule 1307.
INSANITY

Proposal 2778 - Fri 13 Mar 1998 15:17 EST
Plumbum
K 2 (Kelly Kelly)
Status: retracted

This is a Modest Proposal.

Warning Contains: complimentary

Replace the last paragraph of Rule 675 (Mercury Poisoning) with:

If the Mad Hatters have been in possession of a given Visible Agenda Hat for more than 7 days, and a player points this fact out, then that Visible Agenda Hat and its complimentary Nemisis Eggplant are destroyed.

{{ All Nemisis Eggplants, for which an agenda hat with the same condtion does not exist, are destroyed }}

{{[When TGW traded eir hat to TMH and it was subsequently destroyed the eggplant continued to exist. I suppose if someone submitted the exact same condition this time round things could become interesting.... ]}}

Proposal 2779 - Fri 13 Mar 1998 15:19 EST
Foil Wrapped with a Caramel Center
K 2 (Kelly Kelly)
Decision: rejected

Replace the following COCOA delimited sentence of rule 2682, 'The Chocolate Frog' :

COCOA
On the eleventh of each month, the Officer in Charge of Random Things will select an active player at random to receive the Chocolate Frog, and it will be transferred to that player.
COCOA

with the following BEAN delimited sentences:

BEAN
On the eleventh of each month, the player who gained the most points from the acceptance of proposals authored by em, in the previous 7 day period, shall have the Chocolate Frog transferred to em. In the case of a tie, amongst the tied players, the player who authored the proposal with the lowest number which was accepted, during the pervious week, shall have the Chocolate Frog transferred to em.
BEAN

{{[IMHO it seems more appropriate that the First Ackan, work for eir title, rather than be randomly assigned it. This could also make 4-11 of each month interesting... We already have the Magic Potato being randomly distributed]}}

Proposal 2780 - Fri 13 Mar 1998 15:21 EST
Organizational Reformation
Niccolo Flychuck (Uri Bruck)
Status: retracted

{{[this is very similar to the proposal I recently retracted. There are some differences. Organizations with fewer than three members are not destroyed, they are simply restricted, not unlike Cults. Trade Licenses are repealed. Parties become a type of Organization, Player-Sanctioned organizations become Societies. The amendment to the Party rule now comes topwise, as Slakko pointed out, this needs to be done before the covnersion to Socieities. The kind of soft-binding that is the hall-mark of the current system (aka the Mohamedan system) remains in the form of transformations. Powers are no longer tradable. This reform may not address all the problems with the Organizational framework. It addresses the problems that seemed the most significant problems to me. I think this is exactly the kind of structure that allows for growth and development.]}}

I.Amend R1009 "Big Tents and Rewarding Party Unity" to read in full:
" A Political Party is a type of Organization. Being a member of more than one Political Party simultaneously is the Crime of Branch-Stacking. At the end of a proposal's voting period, but before votes on that proposal are counted, if every active non-vacationing player member of a given Political Party voted YES on that proposal, and no member of the Party is also a member of some other Party, then the Political Party itself shall cast an additional YES vote on that proposal for every three active non-vacationing player members it has.

Party membership and how players voted are determined based on the facts in force at the end of the voting period for each proposal.

A Political Party may own and Trade A$, Trinkets, and Organizational Powers. Theu may not own any other type of Entity.

The fee for transforming from a Society to a Party is A$300

{{Rename this rule - 'Political Parties and Rewarding Party Unity'
Each Political Party receives A$300. All Big Tents are destroyed.}}
"

III. Amend R1003 "Organizations" to read in full:

" 1. Forming an Organization

2. Organization Disbandment

3. Very Small Organizations.
Organizations that have fewer than three members are known as Very Small Organizations - or VSO. a VSO can only perform the following Organizational Actions:
a. Accept new members
b. Change membership policy
c. Change its name
Any attmpet on the part of a VSO to perform any other kind of Orgnizational Action fails.

4. Organization Size

The Active Size of an Organization is the number of Active Players who are members of that Organization.

5. Organization Similarity

The H Similarity between two Organizations, A and B, is the greater of orgsim(A, B) and orgsim(B, A).

The L Similarity between two Organizations, A and B, is the lesser of orgsim(A, B) and orgsim(B, A).

The M Similarity between two Organizations, A and B, is the average of orgsim(A, B) and orgsim(B, A).

6. Player Liberty Clause

No player may become a member of an Organization without first expressing their consent to joining it. A player may leave an Organization of which he or she is a member at any time.

7. Organizational Voting
When an Organization is called on to vote, it has 7 days to conduct and publically report the results of the vote, and how each member voted, unless the rules call for a different amount of time. If everyone who is eligible to cast a vote in a given has done so, the results may be announced before the voting period ends. For the purposes of this rule, the composition of an Organization is taken to be its composition at the end of any voting or decision period.
Acting members are considered to be members in place of the members they are acting for.

8. Unique Organizations
This section takes precedence over all rules concerning Unique Organizations, and all rules concerning Organizational Powers. It is impermissible for Unique Organizations to use Organizational Powers. If a Unique Organization comes to own an Organizational Power, by any means, then that Organizational Power has no effect on that Organization. Unique Organization membership is defined by the rules defining the Unique Organizations in question. If membership is not defined for a specific Unique Organization, then it has no members.

9. Types of Organizations
Other rules may define types of Organizations.
A rule defining an Organization may define other membership requirements and restrictions. It is permissible for a ruel defining an Organization to add conditions under which an Organization may becoem a VSO, however, it not permissible for any other rule to allow an Organization with fewer than three members who are players to exist and not be a VSO.
Rules may define Unique Organizations. Such rules also implicitly define the type of Organization.
The rules may define ways for Organizations to transform from one type to another.
When an Organization transforms from one type to another, then all the procedures that occur as a result of the disbandment of an Organization of the type it transforms from, and which do not occur as a result of disbandment of an Organization of the type it transforms to, are executed. Unless specifically restricted by other rules, an Organization of any type may transform its type as an Organization Action by anouncing that it transforming, the type it is transforming to, and paying standard Harfer's Fee. Other rules may specify higher fees for specific transformations.

IV.Amend R1008 "Organiztional Powers" by deleting the word "tradeable"

V. Create a new rule with the following text:
"{{Every ORganization which owns a Trade License receives A$50. All Trade Licenses are destoryed. Repeal R1011 "Trade Licenses"}}

VI.Amend R1013 "Secret Laboratories" by appending the following text: "An Organization may own at most one Secret Laboratory"

VII.Amend section 1 of R1301 "Church" to read in full:"Church is a type of Organization"

Proposal 2781 - Mon 16 Mar 1998 12:55 EST
No. Swiss Bank Ac
K 2 (Kelly Kelly)
Decision: accepted

This is a Modest Proposal.

Amend section VI of rule 505 (Treasury and AckaDollars) to read:

The Total Wealth of a Player, Undead, or Organization is defined as the sum of the total number of A$ it possesses plus the combined values of all trinkets, Majiks and stocks in its possession.

Proposal 2782 - Mon 16 Mar 1998 12:56 EST
More Clearing Up
The Gingham Wearer (Tom Walmsley)
Decision: accepted

This is a modest proposal.

{{Destroy Rule 1 is repealed. #1 Headquarters.

[Depending on when breadbox distributes this it's possible that it might be gone in time for the tornado. Whether it is or not, we ought to be rid of it before the summer tornado. And even if the appeal of the CFJ determines that it won't shelter people then we probably ought to get rid of it just for aesthetic reasons (I mean, having two buildings in the same place is hardly intuitive, and I'm sure there must be a paradox just waiting to be found from it.]}}

Proposal 2783 - Mon 16 Mar 1998 12:59 EST
Otherwise There's No Point
Slakko (Duncan Richer)
Decision: accepted

{{[A Skeleton Key is designed to let people get people out of Gaol. But you can't currently use it to get yourself out of Gaol. This is a _Skeleton Key_ we're talking about - surely if you own one you should be able to use it to organise a breakout.]}}

Amend Rule 709, "Gaol", by appending the following GOOGF-delimited text immediately after the phrase "Puppet Head":

GOOGF
10) A player in Gaol may play a Skeleton Key Otzma Card.
GOOGF

Proposal 2784 - Mon 16 Mar 1998 13:00 EST
Statute of Limitations
Slakko (Duncan Richer)
Decision: accepted

This is a Modest Proposal.

{{[Currently nothing prohibits people from being tried for crimes which date back well over a year. Shouldn't something be done about this?]}}

Amend Rule 710, "Criminal Justice" by replacing
"earlier than the current date"
with
"between 1 and 30 days prior to the current date"

Proposal 2785 - Sat 21 Mar 1998 17:42 EST
The Great Sphere Probe
Illusion (Andrew Stefanski)
Decision: accepted
Declared harfy by The Gingham Wearer (Tom Walmsley) on Tue 24 Mar 1998 13:47

Create a new rule with the following EXPLORATION-delimited text:

EXPLORATION

A new project is underway - The Great Hollow Sphere probe. This probe is being constructed to determine the true source of light for Ackanomia.

Because of the strange physics of the area, if a probe had to travel toward the light source, it would never reach it, since no matter how far it traveled, it would always be at least two cat-heights away from the surface of the hollow sphere.

To get around this problem, the probe is being constructed in a large transportation device. If the probe and device are ever fully constructed, the probe will be instantly teleported to the surface of the hollow sphere, right by the source of all Ackanomian light. Since it is not travelling, but instantly appearing by the light source, it will reach it's goal.

The Probe project must be funded by donations from Ackanomia citizens. Any player may, as a public action, donate any amount of A$ to the Probe project fund.

When someone makes a donation which takes the total donations over A$5000, that person becomes Head of the Probe Project. That person must publicly declare the launch of the probe within 7 days of beoming Head of the Probe Project. They then have 7 days after the launch of the probe to publicly describe the probe's findings to all of Ackanomia.

After the findings of the Probe have been described, this rule will repeal itself.

EXPLORATION

Proposal 2786 - Sat 21 Mar 1998 17:44 EST
This Would be Quite Unfair
The Gingham Wearer (Tom Walmsley)
Decision: accepted

This is a modest proposal.

Warning Contains: encourage {{[Perhaps this is a bit of a cheat. "Encouraged" is in the rules several times over but not encourage. The rule for prolix doesn't mention derivations though (perhaps wisely considering the problem Hubert pointed out with my recent blueprint (There you go breadbox, you'd be out of Alfvaen's treasure now anyway)). Still, I never did particularly like Prolix. I'm not going turn down any points though (no matter how much I think we ought to get rid of them).]}}

Modify rule 850 (Museum) by adding the following SALVADOR delimited text to the end of section IX as a new paragraph:

SALVADOR
The security in the Private Collection Room is much greater than that in the rest of the museum so as to encourage players to allow their more valuable objects to be put on display. For this reason it is impossible to steal anything from the Private Collection Room and any attempt to use an Otzma Card of type Art Thief to steal an object there automatically fails. However, the card is still used and the player is deemed to have been caught stealing. This paragraph of this rule takes precedence over rule 1240.15
SALVADOR

{{[This stops people stealing things donated temporarily to the museum which is of course a good thing since it might encourage people to actually use this bit of rule. I might do myself if this proposal passes.]}}

Proposal 2787 - Sat 21 Mar 1998 17:45 EST
Alchemy And Academe
Alfvaen (Aaron Humphrey)
Decision: accepted

This is a Modest proposal.

Amend Rule 850, "Museum", as follows:

Replace the sentence "This will fail if the player attempting it is not at the Museum." with the following text(delimited by HELIX):

HELIX
If the player attempting it is not at the Museum, e first moves to the Museum, and then the donation occurs. If e is unable to move to the Museum, then the attempt fails.
HELIX

{{ Transfer the trinket known as "a fine work of art" to the Museum, and accredit its Benefactor Value to Bill the pirate king. }}

Proposal 2788 - Sat 21 Mar 1998 17:48 EST
I Thought We Only Ever Won Cycles
Slakko (Duncan Richer)
Decision: accepted

This is a Modest Proposal.

Amend Rule 611 by replacing the text:

"If anyone wins the game by this method then all cheeses are destroyed."
with
"If anyone wins a Cycle by this method then all cheeses are destroyed at the end of that Cycle."

Amend Rule 666 by replacing:
"[see Rules 593 and 670]" with "[see Rules 593, 611 and 670]"
{{[These are the rules which specify other events to happen at end of Cycle, besides those in the Rule 666 stuff.]}}

Proposal 2789 - Sat 21 Mar 1998 17:50 EST
Organizational Reformation
Niccolo Flychuck (Uri Bruck)
Decision: accepted

{{[this is very similar to the proposal I recently retracted. There are some differences. Organizations with fewer than three members are not destroyed, they are simply restricted, not unlike Cults. Trade Licenses are repealed. Parties become a type of Organization, Player-Sanctioned organizations become Societies. The amendment to the Party rule now comes topwise, as Slakko pointed out, this needs to be done before the covnersion to Socieities. The kind of soft-binding that is the hall-mark of the current system (aka the Mohamedan system) remains in the form of transformations. Powers are no longer tradable.
This reform may not address all the problems with the Organizational framework. It addresses the problems that seemed the most significant problems to me. I think this is exactly the kind of structure that allows for growth and development.]}}

Party membership and how players voted are determined based on the facts in force at the end of the voting period for each proposal.

A Political Party may own and Trade A$, Trinkets, and Organizational Powers. Theu may not own any other type of Entity.

The fee for transforming from a Society to a Party is A$300

{{Rename this rule - 'Political Parties and Rewarding Party Unity'. Every Organization which owns a Big Tent is transformed to a Political Party, for a special transformation fee of A$0.
Each Political Party receives A$300. All Big Tents are destroyed.}}
"

III. Amend R1003 "Organizations" to read in full:

"
1. Forming an Organization

2. Organization Disbandment

3. Very Small Organizations.
Organizations that have fewer than three members are known as Very Small
Organizations - or VSO. a VSO can only perform the following
Organizational Actions:
a. Accept new members
b. Change membership policy
c. Change its name
Any attmpet on the part of a VSO to perform any other kind of Orgnizational Action fails.

4. Organization Size

The Active Size of an Organization is the number of Active Players who are members of that Organization.

5. Organization Similarity

The H Similarity between two Organizations, A and B, is the greater of orgsim(A, B) and orgsim(B, A).

The L Similarity between two Organizations, A and B, is the lesser of orgsim(A, B) and orgsim(B, A).

The M Similarity between two Organizations, A and B, is the average of orgsim(A, B) and orgsim(B, A).

6. Player Liberty Clause

No player may become a member of an Organization without first expressing their consent to joining it. A player may leave an Organization of which he or she is a member at any time.

9. Types of Organizations
Other rules may define types of Organizations. A rule defining an Organization may define other membership requirements and restrictions. It is permissible for a ruel defining an Organization to add conditions under which an Organization may becoem a VSO, however, it not permissible for any other rule to allow an Organization with fewer than three members who are players to exist and not be a VSO. Rules may define Unique Organizations. Such rules also implicitly define the type of Organization.
The rules may define ways for Organizations to transform from one type to another.
When an Organization transforms from one type to another, then all the procedures that occur as a result of the disbandment of an Organization of the type it transforms from, and which do not occur as a result of disbandment of an Organization of the type it transforms to, are executed. Unless specifically restricted by other rules, an Organization of any type may transform its type as an Organization Action by anouncing that it transforming, the type it is transforming to, and paying standard Harfer's Fee. Other rules may specify higher fees for specific transformations.

IV.Amend R1008 "Organiztional Powers" by deleting the word "tradeable"

V. Create a new rule with the following text:
"{{Every ORganization which owns a Trade License receives A$50. All Trade Licenses are destoryed. Repeal R1011 "Trade Licenses"}}

VI.Amend R1013 "Secret Laboratories" by appending the following text: "An Organization may own at most one Secret Laboratory"

VII.Amend section 1 of R1301 "Church" to read in full:"Church is a type of Organization"

Proposal 2790 - Sat 21 Mar 1998 17:53 EST
No cigar
K 2 (Kelly Kelly)
Decision: rejected
Declared harfy by The Gingham Wearer (Tom Walmsley) on Tue 24 Mar 1998 13:47 EST

Create a rule numbered 920 Tiltled "No Cigar" with the following TRITE delimited text:

TRITE
[tell] If nine [ma ta] proposals [etna is] in a row [at] are [fool lid] accepted [ibis rid] and [on a] the [no] next [I ta] proposal [etna] is [in] not [fool lid] accepted [ibis a] the player [rum ah] who [a rat] authored [nob en] it [no] shall [ah no] be abducted [ibis to] by [of] Sinister [alcohol] Aliens [em rid] and [on] placed [oca] on [e] Kansas.

[so as ackee we no eh ta sign I rudder no it a col riever foy fido mim ton yam e for eve wo hi as ackee we no garret fa em oh riever foy bot den rut er ebon hall I we].

E will [ah no] be returned to [by of rev] eir home after [rag] one week, [casa I] however, [of] e may not [mi] modify [of rev] eir location [red] during [is a] the [one] week.

[casa ossa snake no a codec alp nod nadir mesne I la lo ho clarets in is foy bot si bidet cud ba ebon hallah son tine bonder oh tuatara oh wha murrey alp eh ta si bidet peccadillo of ton nisi an tela sop or pat it xenon eh ta nod nadir si bidet peccadillo of era taw or a nisi an tesla sop or pat amen in fillet ]
TRITE

{{[ For those of you who are champing at the bit to submit agenda hats, this proposal will speed up the process ;) ]}}

Proposal 2791 - Sat 21 Mar 1998 17:54 EST
Gabriel's Fire
Hubert (Eric Plumb)
Decision: rejected

Create a new Rule as a member of the Ackanomic Sound System Rule Suite with the title "ASS Song: Digging in the Dirt" and the following HEAL-delimited text:

HEAL
Title: Digging In The Dirt

Artist: Peter Gabriel

Trigger: Within the past two Acka days, at least five active or non-voting players have posted a message containing the text "Let's go digging in the dirt, to find the places we got hurt." to a public forum, and no Expedition has occurred within the past 60 Acka days.

Duration: Until the Expedition created is either over or has been disbanded.

Effect: An infinitesimal amount of time after this song begins to play, an Expedition as described in Rule 1217, "Buried Treasure!" is considered to have been announced. This Expedition must pertain to all the rules and regulations described in Rule 1217 section IV except as described in this Rule. The Archaeologist does not have to be a member of this Expedition, but should e choose to join, e need not pay the A$40 fee. Whether e joins or not, e may announce a set of Treasures which, although they fit the criteria for being Historical Artefacts, are not considered as such for purposes of this Expedition. The Expedition then commences as described in Rule 1217, section IV.

This rule has precedence over Rule 1217, "Buried Treasure," where there is a conflict.
HEAL

Proposal 2792 - Sat 21 Mar 1998 17:56 EST
Ackanomic Stoned Ages, Take II
Hubert (Eric Plumb)
Status: retracted

[ I tried to simplify this up a bit; hopefully it'll get more support this time 'round. ]

Create a new Rule numbered 1145 with the title "Rainy Day Women #12 & #35", and the following text, delimited by HOW DOES IT FEEL:

HOW DOES IT FEEL
A player shall become Stoned if e states publicly, "Man, I'm stoned." Other rules may define other ways in which players become Stoned.

While a player is Stoned, all public messages posted by them, except posts made as a Duty of an Office, must contain at least one line, sentence, paragraph or phrase of 7 words or more, cited as described in Rule 210 [Literature] that fulfils one or more of the following three conditions:

a) It contains one or more instances of some form of the word "stone."
b) It is from a work whose title contains one or more instances of some form of the word "stone."
c) The artist cited is the Rolling Stones.

If a player, while Stoned, posts a message which fails to fulfil these conditions, any other player may call a Stoning on em. A Stoning is a Hearing. It is also an Extremely Silly Matter. The valid responses to a Stoning are "No, I live in a glass house. Plus I'm not without sin." and "But e *did* say Jehovah."

If the verdict is "No, I live in a glass house. Plus I'm not without sin." the player upon whom the Stoning was called is no longer Stoned. In this case, the player who called the Stoning must publically post an apology of at least 15 lines to the player against whom the Stoning was called, and thereafter becomes Square.

If the verdict is "But e *did* say Jehovah." the player on whom the Stoning was called becomes Martyred. A new I Got Stoned For Your Sins And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt is created in eir possession, and e must, within 3 days, post to a public forum a rhyming poem of at least 20 lines in which e describes eir Stoning.

A Stoned player is also encouraged, but not required, to misspell words, slur eir speech, publicly request food (which should be referred to as "munchies"), and digress onto many irrelevant tangents dealing with inconsequential trivialities [e.g. "Do you realize that this post -- THIS POST -- consists of BILLIONS and BILLIONS of electrons?!??!! Hey, neat, I sound like Carl Sagan. Except he's dead..." etc.] in all public postings.

A Stoned player shall no longer be Stoned if any one of the following three conditions becomes true:

d) Exactly one Acka week has passed since e first became Stoned.
e) E publicly posts a message in which four consecutive paragraphs, of two or more sentences each, begin respectively with the words 'Everybody', 'Must', 'Get', and 'Stoned', exclusive of all quotation marks.
f) E frinks Goldenseal, should such a beverage exist.

Other rules may define other ways in which players may cease being Stoned.
HOW DOES IT FEEL

Create a new Rule numbered 935 and entitled "Souvenirs" with the following HANES-delimited text:

HANES
There exist nontradeable garments each known as an I Got Stoned For Your Sins And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt (hereafter T-Shirt). Any player wearing a T-Shirt can never have a Stoning called against em, and may ignore all effects of being Stoned if e so chooses. This paragraph of this Rule takes precedence over Rule 1145, "Rainy Day Women #12 & #35."
HANES

Proposal 2793 - Sat 21 Mar 1998 17:58 EST
Agenda Menda
Hubert (Eric Plumb)
Decision: accepted

[ I'm not quite sure if two-star and Alfvaen ever got around to collaborating on the Agenda Submissions, but if not, this should allow Alfvaen to call for a new set. ]

Replace the first sentence of the third paragraph of Rule 431, "Office of the Illuminatus," with the following FJORD-delimited text:

FJORD
The Illuminatus shall announce a call for Agenda Condition submissions if, for any reason, the player currently holding the office of Illuminatus has announced no such call during the current cycle.
FJORD

[ True, this could lead to players trying to impeach the Illuminatus in order to get a whole new batch of Agenda Hats, but I hope Ackans have more integrity than that. ]

Proposal 2794 - Tue 24 Mar 1998 19:13 EST
This Has Just Gone on Long Enough.
Slakko (Duncan Richer)
Decision: rejected

This is a Modest Proposal.

{{[Buildings floating in the air,
Never get you anywhere,
Time has come for things to change.
Put the home back on the range.
]}}

{{/dev/voyager0, norpan - Cell Block H, Mohammed's Autumn Hammock, Temple of the Damned, and VOYAGER I are all given emergency tethers, and connected to the kaas B4, K1, F9, D7 and I1 respectively. They are then reconnected to the ground properly via new Suction Cups and are no longer dangling.}}

{{All dangling buildings are no longer dangling and are given suction cups.}}

Delete the last three paragraphs of Rule 1313.
{{[the parts of the Tornado rule which deal with emergency tethers - as they will no longer be relevant.]}}

Delete the last two paragraphs of Rule 1309.
{{[Dealing with emergency tethers and loss of Suction Cups.]}}

Proposal 2795 - Tue 24 Mar 1998 19:15 EST
You Needn't be in a Tornado to be Sheltered
Slakko (Duncan Richer)
Decision: accepted

This is a Modest Proposal.

Amend Rule 841 by replacing the following OLD-delimited text:

OLD
9) Each building with an Ostentatious Tower also has a basement capable of holding one player for each 20 meters in the combined height of all towers on that building. When a Tornado strikes, if the total number of players in a building with a basement who are not otherwise sheltered is less than or equal to the capacity of the basement, then all those players manage to escape to the basement and are sheltered. If there are too many such players in a building, then while fighting to get into the basement, none of them manage to get in before the tornado hits.
OLD

with the following NOT-SO-OLD-delimited text:

NOT-SO-OLD
9) Each building with an Ostentatious Tower also has a basement capable of holding one player for each 20 meters in the combined height of all towers on that building. If the total number of players not otherwise Sheltered in a building with a basement is less than or equal to the capacity of that basement, then all those players are Sheltered.
NOT-SO-OLD

{{[This fixes up the situation where some people are sheltered all the time, but others only when a Tornado strikes.]}}

Proposal 2796 - Tue 24 Mar 1998 19:18 EST
Providing Meaning Where We Can
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)
Decision: accepted

{{[ I do not think we believe in Ackanomic as a harsh place where things must make or break. However, granting to all the players the ability to be lenient and bend certain rules is not practical. On the other hand, this type of discretionary leniency (with checks and balances of course) is exactly what the Senate can do, and was meant for. ]}}

The Senate and its membes are the guarantor of functional stability in Ackanomic. The following lists the Senatorial Calls which may be used to that effect. Only a Senator may make use of such a Call, and does so by making it publicly. No Call may be issued if one is already in progress. These powers are not actions of the Senate but of individual Senators. All Calls last until the end of the next day after they were issued, unless canceled by the President.

{{ Amend R415 to add a new power, "Oversight", to read "The president may invalidate a Senatorial Call currently in progress. This cancels it, nullifying its effects." }}

I. Quorum Call
The senator who issued the Quorum Call is deemed to have acknowledged it publicly. All players who have not acknowledged the Quorum Call publicly before it ends gain a puppet head. In the 24 hours following the end of the Quorum call, only players who do not have puppet heads are not counted for Quorum purposes.

{{[ If the tabulator warns of low voter turn out, the Senate can help ]}}

II. Committee Call
When a Committee Call is made, the Senator must also specify an office that is not the Senate. All deadlines pertaining to the duties of that office are now suspended and will be due 24 hours after the Committee Call finishes.

{{[ If a player has to leave abruptly for a short period of time, this is another option rather than the sledgehammer approach of removing them from office. It can also be a tool when an impeachment proceeding is in effect. ]}}

III. House Call
When a House Call is made, a senator's Call of the past week must be specified. The Senate has until the end of the following day to censure that Call. All senators who think that Call should not have been made vote against. If a majority is against, then the senator who made that call loses 10 points and may not issue a call for seven days.

Proposal 2797 - Wed 25 Mar 1998 09:21 EST
Six Degrees of Separation
Alfvaen (Aaron Humphrey)
Decision: accepted

I was young and foolish then, I feel old and foolish now.

{{[ Since the G&C Submission never got approved, I might as well see if it can get accepted another way. Remember, you drove me to this!]}}

Repeal Rule 1250.20.

Amend Rule 1250.3, "General Equipment", as follows:

Append the following text(delimited by FOOTLOOSE):

FOOTLOOSE
V. Movie Database

a) URL: http://www.imdb.com/
FOOTLOOSE

Create a new Rule in the Games & Contests rule suite, titled "Bacon", with text as follows(delimited by FLATLINER):

General Equipment: Movie Database, Gamepoints as needed

Number of Participants: 2; Referees: 1

Rules:

The winner of a round receives a Gamepoint.

Cheating: Players may not consult the Movie Database themselves during the course of a round.
FLATLINER

Proposal 2798 - Wed 25 Mar 1998 09:23 EST
He Drinks A Lager Drink
Alfvaen (Aaron Humphrey)
Decision: accepted

This is a Modest proposal.

Amend Rule 1250.18, "Ye Olde Rusty Lantern", as follows:

Replace the following text(delimited by AMNESIA):

AMNESIA
[This is just for fun. Originally I wanted to award the Bards points for their Ale at the end of the game, but I think it's all too open to abuse for that just yet. We'll see how it's played.]
AMNESIA

with the following(delimited by NANA):

NANA
Upon being awarded an Ale, a player also received a FairPlay Award.
NANA

{{[ Obviously, if this is done with Ales, then we don't need the little explicatory clause that states we don't know what do with them. And I think this should work out okay. I don't think this will run afoul of the one-per-referee-per-calendar week clause either, because the Barkeep does not award FairPlay Awards, merely Ales. ]}}

Proposal 2799 - Wed 25 Mar 1998 09:29 EST
What Price Action?
else...if (Henry Towsner)
Decision: accepted

replace section c of rule 530 with the following ACTIVE delimited text:

ACTIVE
If for any reason the activity value is unspecified, it will be set to 10. If the activity value is less than 0, then it will immediately become 0. Every three hours the activity value will decrease by 1/8 of a point. The normality factor will be one greater than the number of activities which occured on the previous day. Every time an activity occurs, the activity value increases by 1/the normality factor. Something is only an activity if it is specified as one by this rule. The following are activities: the distribution of a proposal, CFJ, CFCJ, or CSR. The announcement of the beginning or end of a hearing. The passage of a great work. The addition or removal of a player. Any action causing a player to pay the standard harfer fee. The beginning or end of an election. The creation of a gadget. The end of a cycle. The distribution of the magic potatom, oars, raft, trombone or the chocolate frog. The granting of a blue cross or any other award based on blue cross rank. The posting of Phoebe's wisdom. A *ping*. The winning of a game of GAD or party chess.
ACTIVE

Append the following GOTCHA delimited text to the end of rule 530
GOTCHA
A player who intentionally manipulates the stock market by any means will be guilty of the crime of insider trading.
GOTCHA

Proposal 2800 - Wed 25 Mar 1998 09:30 EST
To wake an Elder
K 2 (Kelly Kelly)
Decision: accepted

{{[ Balsamic Dragon's death was a shock to us all. One minute, cheerfully cavorting throughout the Ackan country side, the next, gasping eir last breath, struck down by RL. It seemed that during eir wake, and the ensuing nomination period for tHoE, that e was a shoo in.... but eventually e fell 2 votes short. It seems that since e came *that* close a 'recount' is in order. ]}}

This is a Modest Proposal

{{ If the number of players who voted yes on this proposal is greater than half the number of active players, then Balsamic Dragon is enshrined in the Hall of Elders. }}

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