The Rules of Ackanomic

Rule 1/18
The Game of Ackanomic

Ackanomic is a self-modifying game of rules. All players must always abide by all the rules then in effect, in the form in which they are then in effect, and interpreted in accordance with current game custom. The term "rules", as used in the rules, means the rules of Ackanomic.

The rules and the game state may only be changed as described in the rules. Actions described in the rules may only be performed, and shall only have those effects, as specified by the rules. Whatever is not explicitly prohibited or regulated by the rules, however, is permitted and unregulated. Game custom, spirit of the game, and linguistic interpretation are external concepts and are not regulated or part of the game state.

The game consists of a sequence of "Cycles". Cycles end when specified by the Rules. At most one Cycle is in progress at any one time. Cycles of Ackanomic may only be won as described in the rules, and may only be won by voting players. A player may not win the Game of Ackanomic. A player always has the option to leave the Game of Ackanomic.

No rule may generate any effect that applies retroactively to a time before the generation of the effect, except when the illegality or impossibility of a publicly knowable change to the game state goes unreported for at least 14 days, in which case the change is deemed to have occurred retroactively to the time of the attempt. The preceding does not apply to the case of events which occur automatically, but whose occurrence is not (or erroneously) reported.

This rule has precedence over all other rules.

Rule 1-1/11
Resolving Conflicts

If two or more rules other than this one conflict about a particular issue, and if the rules other than this one (and not restricted to the conflicting rules) specify a single, coherent, unambiguous method for resolving the conflict then that method is applied to determine which rule or rules take precedence with regard to that issue. Otherwise, wherever the rules conflict on a particular issue, the rule with the lowest number among those rules which conflict on that issue shall guide play with regard to that issue.

If two statements in the same rule conflict with each other, and the rule doesn't define a way to resolve the conflict, then the statement which appears later in the rule takes precedence.

Rule 1-1-1/2
Gravity, a reprise
Laa Laa (Tom Walmsley)

The Universe is a self-modifying game of rules. The Name of the Universe is "hunt a resonant fungus". All players must always abide by all the rules then in effect, in the form in which they are then in effect, and interpreted in accordance with current game custom.

The rules and the state of the Universe may only be changed as described in the rules. Actions described in the rules may only be performed, and shall only have those effects, as specified by the rules. Whatever is not explicitly prohibited or regulated by the rules, however, is permitted and unregulated.

Game custom, spirit of the game, and linguistic interpretation are external concepts and are not regulated or part of the game state.

A player may not win the Universe. A player always has the option to leave the Universe. The Universe recognizes the existence of Ackanomic, and all of its constituent entities, although they may only have an effect in the Universe as specified by the rules of the Universe. The only player in the Universe is the player known as two-star in Ackanomic. This player may change the rules of the Universe at his discretion.

Rule 1-2/21
Conventions
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

The following conventions apply to all Ackanomic text, except where a specific type of text (e.g. rules), is specified.

I. The meaning of a word which is unambiguously misspelled will be the same as if the word had been spelled correctly.

II. Numbers shall be considered misspelled words for the purposes of the rules when it can be determined beyond reasonable doubt that a particular number is in error, and what the intended number is. The intended number is considered the correct spelling in this case.

III. When text is specified as delimited, the end of the document in question serves as an ending delimiter if an ending delimiter is otherwise missing. Delimiters do not nest, except when the double quote character is used as a delimiter. Text delimited by double quotes is known as a string.

IV. Except in Public Messages, text delimited by square brackets [e.g. this] is a note. Notes have no semantic meaning.

V. Text delimited by double curly braces, e.g. {{this}} is self-deleting text, except in this sentence. Self-deleting text is applied once, in the order it appear in the document, then it is deleted. Rules whose text section consists of nothing but self-deleting text, whitespace, and furniture are called "Self-Deleting Rules", and such rules are repealed after their self-deleting text is applied.

VI. Alphabetical ordering shall be determined by a word-by-word comparison, each word compared letter-by-letter. For these purposes: A word is considered to be delimited by whitespace; an initial word 'The' or 'the' is ignored; a single string of digits is considered equivalent to a letter; digital 'letters' precede alphabetical letters; and non-alphanumeric characters are ignored (excluding whitespace used for the purpose of delimiting words, which counts only for this purpose); and case is ignored. All else failing, two words that are otherwise equivalent shall be sorted in ASCII collation order.

VII. When any Rule requires a public message contain a fixed piece of text in order to satisfy some condition, then, that Rule notwithstanding, any piece of text in a public message which is unambiguously a close approximation to the text in question, such that the intent of the text in the message is unambiguously to satisfy the condition laid down in the Rule, shall be considered, for the purposes of that Rule, to be equivalent to the fixed piece of text.

VIII. The following pairs of words are considered to be both semantically and lexically equivalent: "grey", "gray"; "honour", "honor"

IX. Whenever an average is refereed to within Ackanomic then it shall be taken to mean the unweighted arithmetic mean. [i.e., the sum of all the things to be averaged divided by the number of the things.]

X. Whenever it is necessary to determine whether or not words rhyme in Ackanomicon, the words "month", "silver", "orange", and "penguin" are considered to rhyme with each other.

XI. Acka shall operate in the same time zone as New York City, USA [EDT(-0400)/EST(-0500)]. All dates and times will be assumed to be in that time zone, unless specified otherwise. When an event is specified to occur on a particular day, it shall occur at noon (12:00) on that day, unless specified otherwise. A "calendar week" starts at the beginning of a Sunday and lasts 7 days.

Rule 1-2-1/3
The Ackanomic Lexicon
Veal Fan (Aaron Humphrey)

There exists a document called the Ackanomic Lexicon, which contains a list of words which are considered to be in the Official Dictionary, in addition to any other words that other Rules may specify to be there.

The Ackanomic Lexicon may only be modified by use of Proposals or CSRs. Any Player may author a CSR which modifies only the Ackanomic Lexicon. No player may be considered to "control" the Lexicon, although it may be the duty of one or more players to maintain an copy of it.

Rule 1-2-2/23
Spelling Bee
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

1) The Spelling Bee is an unownable entity. Its purpose is to fly through Stingable Entities and sting out misspelled or mistyped words. It may not fly through, or sting, any other entities.

2) Its flight may be initiated by a player privileged to do so, as a public action.

3) The Stingable Entities are:

a) The Rules and the Official Rules Document
b) The CFJ Archive

4) A player initiates its flight by posting a public message with either the word "Spelling" or the word "Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" in its subject line. Its flight consists of, in that post, a listing of all changes being made, clearly identified by title, number, or document as appropriate, old word, and replacement word. These changes are called "stingings" and must be made in accordance with the rules below. Words in titles and headers of Rules and CFJs may be stung. No one may initiate a flight which is illegal, or contains illegal stingings.

5a) Permissible Stingings:

a) Replacing a misspelled word with its correctly spelled equivalent.
b) Changing the capitalization of the first letter of a word.
c) Replacing correctly spelled words with the word that was intended. I.e., replacing "an" with "and" in the following example from R3-3: "A Judgement may be accompanied by reasons an arguments".
d) Replacing proper nouns with their proper spelling when the proper spelling is generally known and accepted.
e) Adding a period at the end of a sentence when it is missing.
f) Correcting the labels (numbers or letters) of a set of numbered or lettered sections when there are skipped or repeated labels, and at the same time, changing any reference in any rules to any of the relabeled sections so that they refer to the intended sections.

5b) Impermissible stingings. This list takes precedence over 5a) where there is conflict:

a) Replacing a creative or made up word, such as "Torkola".
b) Replacing British, American, or archaic spellings with their American, British, or non-archaic equivalent.
c) Replacing a foreign word with its Anglicized equivalent.
d) Replacing Spivak pronouns with other pronouns, or replacing non-gender neutral language with gender neutral language, or replacing any pronoun or phrase with a Spivak pronoun.
e) Replacing words in quotes or words followed by (sic).
f) Replacing slang or colloquial words, or spellings thereof.
g) Changing the word, such as replacing "superceeds" with "takes precedence over", or "computer" with "machine", even if the word being replaced is misspelled.
h) Fixing grammar errors, except what is allowed by 5a).
i) Replacing abbreviations and acronyms.
j) Making any change that violates the "spirit" of what was intended in the writing being edited.

6) Upon the flight being announced, the legal changes are applied to the document(s) stung.

7) Changes made by the Spelling Bee are not noted below the appropriate entity, as is customary for other changes.

8) Where there is doubt, correct spellings are adjudicated by the Official Dictionary.

Rule 1-2-3/2
Infinite Schminfinite
ThinMan (John Bollinger)

If the rules are modified so as to specify that an action occurs without specifying at what time or under what circumstances that action occurs, then the action occurs exactly once, an infinitesimal time after the rules are so modified.

Rule 1-2-4/2
Postal Code
breadbox (Brian Raiter)

The Postal Code is an official document maintained by the Postmaster.

The Postal Code must always define which mailing list is the official mailing list, and which is the official voting mailing list. The Postal Code shall also indicate which mailing lists are public fora, and what actions, if any, are restricted on each. For the purposes of this rule and the restrictions in the Postal Code, an action is a statement that the player is doing something regulated by the rules, or a public post required by the rules. [Only actions are regulated; discussion can take place anywhere, though players should try to post to appropriate lists.]

There may be multiple forms of a given mailing list (such as a regular list and a digest list).

Rule 1-2-4-1/11
No E-mail, No Game
/dev/joe (Joseph DeVincentis)

All persons participating in Ackanomic must have a valid e-mail address reachable from the official mailing list at the time they join, or else they may not join or participate.

An active player who is not subscribed to at least one form of the official mailing list is committing the Crime of Disinterest. A voting player who is not subscribed to at least one form of the official voting mailing list is committing the Crime of the Vermilion Stripe.

Any person subscribed to any public forum who is not a player is considered to be an observer.

If a message is sent to a mailing list named in the Postal Code, then it is a public message if and only if the Postal Code indicates that mailing list is a public forum, and any actions attempted in the message obey the restrictions outlined in the Postal Code for that list.

A message not sent via a mailing list named in the Postal Code is a public message if and only if it is sent to all active players.

[It is strongly encouraged that the subject line of public messages contain either "Ackanomic:" or "Acka:"; see Rule 6-4-12.]

A private message qualifies as being "from" a certain Player if and only if the recipient is satisfied that the sender of the message was in fact the Player in question. An officer who receives private messages in the course of his Duties may set a reasonable protocol in place for verifying the authorship of such messages.

All participants in Ackanomic should configure their e-mail software to correctly report the current time for the time zone specified.

Rule 1-2-5/4
Timing
ThinMan (John Bollinger)

Posts that are sent through any mailing list maintained by the Postmaster are deemed to have occurred at the time that they are received by the list server. Posts that are not sent through such a mailing list and for which the Speaker is one of the designated recipients are deemed to have occurred at the time that they are received by the Speaker's mail server. Other posts not sent through any of the Postmaster's mailing lists are deemed to have occurred at the earliest time that they are received by the mail server of any of the Players, other than the sender, designated as recipients. If a Player posts a message only to himself, then that post is deemed to have occurred at the time that it was sent.

(The term "mail server" is intentionally left open to some interpretation. It is intended to indicate the actual computer used for e-mail by the relevant player if that computer has a full-time internet -- or other form of e-mail -- connection; otherwise it is intended to mean that computer from which the relevant player downloads his mail.)

Players are encouraged to use an appropriate Postmaster-maintained mailing list if available. If the times of two posts are compared and
(i) only one of them went through one of the Postmaster's lists and
(ii) their times are otherwise within three minutes of each other, then the post sent through the Postmaster's list is deemed to have occurred first.

This rule defers to any rule which specifies an alternative method for determining the times or relative times of posts.

Rule 1-2-6/6
Public Actions
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

This rule defers to all other rules.

Each attempt to perform an action either succeeds or fails. To perform an action entails two things: first, to attempt the action; and second, for the attempt to succeed. Referring to information contained in other documents or data sources does not constitute including that information in the message.

The rules may specify that certain possible courses of play are public actions. Any Intelligent or Trading Entity may attempt any public action available to it simply by sending a public message specifying the action to be taken provided that the rules do not specify an alternate mechanism for the action. However, if any information that is necessary to specify the action fully and unambiguously is left out of that message, then the attempt fails. [An attempt may also fail for other reasons.]

If the rules specify that a certain course of play is available to a Intelligent or Trading Entity, but do not specify how that course of play is to be taken, then that course of play is a public action, and it is taken as described above.

Rule 1-2-8-1/4
Remembrance Day
else...if (Henry Towsner)

July 31st is an Ackanomic holiday known as Remembrance Day, commemorating the day the last unchanged rule from the original ruleset was repealed.

Rule 1-2-9/6
Colours
Alfvaen (Aaron Humphrey)

The following colours are defined by the Rules:

alabaster; amber; amethyst; aquamarine; auburn; azure; black; blue; bronze; brown; burgundy; carnelian; cerulean; chartreuse; coral; cream; crimson; cyan; emerald; fuchsia; gold; green; grey; harf; hazel; indigo; ivory; khaki; lavender; magenta; maroon; mauve; murrey; ochre; octarine; orange; peach; pink; puce; purple; red; ruby; salmon; scarlet; sienna; silver; tan; teal; topaz; turquoise; ultramarine; umber; vermilion; violet; viridian; white; yellow;

Rule 1-3/16
Crisis Resolution
The Governor (Dan Marsh)

1) The Speaker or the Acting Speaker, and no other players, may declare a State of Crisis at any time via public announcement, provided the game is not in a State of Crisis. Upon such declaration being legally made, the game is said to be in a State of Crisis until the State of Crisis is lifted as specified by the rules.

2) When, and only when, the game is in a State of Crisis the following officers have the following powers:

a) The Speaker may declare the State of Crisis lifted.
b) The President or Acting President may publicly issue a State of Crisis Resolution Document detailing a list of changes to be made in the ruleset. These changes will be applied three days after the issuance of that document, or at the end of a failed challenge (whichever is later) unless it has been challenged and defeated. The President may retract a State of Crisis Resolution Document before it is applied, if there is no challenge hearing pending.

3) Any voting player may publicly challenge the State of Crisis Resolution Document within three days of its issuance, provided that document has not been previously challenged. If such a challenge is lodged, a Hearing is called. The valid responses in this Hearing are "The President is scamming us", and "This will patch the crisis". If the verdict of the Hearing shows that the President is scamming us, the document is defeated, and an Impeachment Paper is immediately filed against the President. Otherwise, the challenge is said to have failed.

This rule takes precedence over any rule with which it conflicts.

Rule 1-4/17
When Score Changes Take Effect
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

Score changes take effect as specified below, depending on the category of the score change. If the category cannot be determined for some reason, the score change is deemed to take effect when it is publicly knowable.

1) Score Changes Managed by Officers

a) All score changes take effect when the officer in charge of managing or reporting on an activity which could produce a score change, announces the effect which results in the score change.

b) [For example, if a player fails to deliver judgement in a certain time, the penalty for that failure is not scored until the officer responsible for managing and reporting CFJs announces this fact. Another example is polls taken where the result of the poll dictates a scoring change. That change occurs when the results of the poll are publicly released.]

c) Officers must announce all score changes they are responsible for notification of in the order which they are made aware the occurrence. They must do so within 3 days.

d) The Scorekeeper is not considered an office for the purpose of this section (1).

2) Score Changes Triggered by Player Actions and Public Announcements

If a score change is due to some other effect, such as the result of a public posting, proposal retraction, or CFCJ penalty, etc, the score change is said to occur at the time of the public post.

3) Rule Based Triggered or Mandated Score Changes

a) If the score change is due to an event occurring (such as a player reaching a certain score, or the adoption of a proposal), this score change is said to occur an infinitesimal amount of time after it is possible for the public to be aware of the event occurring. All score changes due to a single event occur simultaneously.

4) Scoring Changes Based on the Content of an Adopted Proposal

If a Score change is called for based on the content of a Proposal, or an effect generated from that proposal, it is deemed to have occurred simultaneously with any score changes mandated by R2-2.

5) Scoring on Changes to Rules Which Cause Score Changes

If a Rule describes a score change that would normally come about as the result of the passage of a Proposal, then that score change is considered to occur an infinitesimal amount of time before any of the rule changes or effects listed in that Proposal occur.

6) Exceptions, Errors, and Omissions

a) No score changes can occur simultaneously for a given player, except where the rules explicitly say they can. If it appears that they do, they shall be categorized into the above categories, and occur in the order the above categories occur in this rule. If that still leaves any apparent simultaneous score changes, the score changes will occur in the order of largest absolute value first. If that still leaves a tie, however, the tied score changes shall occur at the same time.

Retroactive score changes are not permitted, but corrections to the scores are allowed when an error is discovered. This section (6) has precedence over sections 1 thru 5, where there is a conflict.

7) Rule Precedence

This rule has precedence over all other rules dealing with scoring, except that it defers precedence to R2-2, and except where specific clauses above defer precedence.

Rule 1-5/7
Random Things
ThinMan (John Bollinger)

I. Whenever the rules call for a random determination to be made among a finite number of possibilities, each of the alternatives shall be assigned the same probability. [I.e. use uniform weights.] This rule defers to any rule that specifies an alternative weighting scheme.

II. An event that depends on a random determination for its full specification shall not occur until the random determination is publicly knowable, unless it is a regular event whose time is specified by the Rules(i.e. the distribution of the Magic Potato).

III. Whenever the rules call for a unique entity to be given or transferred to a random player, the player who currently has that entity (if any), is excluded from the pool from which the random selection is made.

Rule 1-6/16
" "
mr cwm (Eric Murray)

[Web-Harfer's note: The name of this rule is a single space character.]

No two named entities may have names that match.

No named entity may have a name that matches a former name of any current or former player, except that a player may have a name e previously held.

An attempt to do anything that requires a name to be chosen [such as creating a Trinket] fails if the chosen name matches a name already in use.

Two names match if and only if their primitive forms are the same. The primitive form of a name is found by removing all articles ("a", "an", and "the") from the name, then removing all characters except letters and numbers, then converting all uppercase letters to lowercase. ["Bronze Torch" and "Bron, the Zet oRch" have the same primitive form: bronzetorch.]

If two names are found to match in conflict with the first paragraph of this rule, the Speaker shall change one or both of the names in such a way as to fix the problem. All Ackanomic business besides Rules that referred to such an entity by name shall be changed to indicate the new name, and all Rules which refer to the entity by its old name shall still refer to that entity, even though the name has changed. The Speaker should try to make such changes so that entities whose names appear in the Rules are not renamed, if possible.

Rule 1-6-1/26
Player Names
Wayne Sheppard

Every player has exactly one Ackanomic name. This name must be a string of name characters from two to twenty characters in length. Neither the first nor the last character in this string may be the space character, and there must be at least one character that is not a numeric digit. All official nomic business shall use this name to refer to that player.

A player may change eir Ackanomic name, so long as the new name complies with all applicable rules. If a player attempts to change eir name to something not in compliance with the Rules, that attempt fails. In addition, if the name change has not yet been accepted as described in the following paragraph, the Registrar may object to the name change if e feels that the new name is not within the spirit of the game. When the player changing eir name is the Registrar, the President can object to or ack the name change as if e were the Registrar. The Registrar may not ack eir own name change.

If the Registrar acknowledges a legal name change, or after three days have passed if the Registrar (or, in the case of an attempt by the Registrar to change eir name, the President) neither acknowledges the change nor objects to it (and the new name complies with all applicable rules), then the name change is accepted and occurs, at which time the player in question shall pay the Standard Harfer Fee.

The Registrar is required to record and announce any legal name changes, and is encouraged but not required to point out any failed name changes as well.

When a player changes eir Ackanomic name, all Ackanomic business besides Rules will be changed to follow their new name, and any Rules which refer to the player by their old name will still refer to that player even though their name has changed.

If a player changes eir Ackanomic name twice and the second change is acked by the Registrar while the first one has not been, then the first change will not occur.

Rule 1-6-1-2/4
Sanctity of Harf
Robert Sevin (Mitchell Harding)

No player may have the character string (delimited by the quotation marks) "harf", nor any variation wherein the only difference is capitalization, contained within their Ackanomic name.

Rule 1-6-2/15
Proposal and Rule Titles
Wayne (Wayne Sheppard)

Rules and Proposals are named, unownable entities. The names of Rules and Proposals are referred to as their titles.

The titles of Rules and Proposals are not required to be unique, with respect to each other or with respect to any other entity. (This paragraph takes precedence over Rule 1-6.)

The following characters:

" : ; ( )

[i.e., double-quote, backquote, colon, semicolon, and parentheses] are legal name characters when they appear in the titles of Proposals and Rules. Proposals and Rules may have titles of up to one hundred forty name characters.

When a Proposal is accepted that creates a new Rule, the new Rule shall have the title indicated by the Proposal, or, if no valid title is specified, the new Rule shall have the same title as the Proposal.

Rule 1-6-3/11
Entity Names
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

Each entity is either named (which means it has a name) or nameless. An entity is nameless unless the Rules specify otherwise.

When a named entity is created, it shall be given a name in accordance with the Rules.

A name is a sequence of no more than seventy name characters. The name characters are: 

! # $ % & * + - / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 = ? @ \ ^ _ |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
~ . , '
and the space character.

[Parentheses, double quotes, back quotes, square brackets, angle brackets, braces, colons, and non-ASCII characters are not name characters.]

If a named entity at any time ever does not have a name, or has a name which does not comply with the Rules, it shall immediately take the name "Nameless Thing #X", where X is the lowest positive integer creating a legal name for the entity. If this would result in multiple entities having the same name, one of them is chosen at random. If this method does not produce a legal name, the entity remains unnamed.

The Rules may specify a way in which an entities name is changed. Regardless of such rules, this fails if the new name would be illegal. A name is illegal if it includes a non-name character, is more than 70 characters long, or is already the name of an Entity.

Rule 1-8/6
Retractions
Vynd (John Frederick McCoy)

A player may retract his own proposal as a public action. This action will fail if the results of that proposal have already been announced at the time that the action is attempted. All votes cast on a retracted proposal shall be ignored. A player who retracts his own proposal in this manner loses 2 points.

A player may retract his own CFJ as a public action. This action will fail if a verdict other than Undecided has already been delivered on the CFJ. The player retracting the CFJ does not lose any points.

A player may retract his own Miscellaneous Submission as a public action. This action will fail if a decision on the acceptance or rejection of the submission is already publicly knowable. The player retracting the submission loses 1 point. This section takes precedence over any rule which would prevent retraction of these entities. Instances of following, and nothing else, are Miscellaneous Submissions

a) Impeachment Papers
b) Common Sense Reports
c) New Games and Contest submissions as described by Rule 12-1

Newbies shall not lose points as a result of this rule.

Rule 1-9/0
Harfer Protection
else...if (Henry Towsner)

No player shall be penalized in any way for sending a public message which e is required or expected to send; this shall include any harfing or other duties associated with officers e holds, as well as any refereeing or similar activities. This rule takes precedence over all other rules, especially "Gaol" and "Pomp and Circumstance".

Rule 1-10/29
Rule Numbers

I. All rules have an H number. An H number consists of a string of positive integers separated by hyphens. Each integer in that string is known as a locator.

The following relations are defined between rules: (Z means an indeterminate set of locators separated by hyphens, X means a single locator. Zn, where n is an integer, is another indeterminate set of locators, Xn is another single locator.) 

Rule 1          Rule 2         Rule 1 is a ____ of Rule 2
Z               Z-X            Parent
Z-X             Z              Child
Z1              Z1-Z2          Ancestor
Z1-Z2           Z1             Descendant
Z-X1            Z-X2           Sibling
An H number is larger than another H number if the first (from left to right) integer which differs between the two is larger; a rule is always larger than all its ancestors. When a rule Z1 is renumbered to become rule Z2, all its children Z1-X are renumbered to Z2-X

II. When a new rule is created it is numbered as follows:

1. If the creator (be it proposal, rule, or something else) assigned it a valid H number not already assigned to a rule than it receives that number.

2. Otherwise, if the creator assigned it a valid H number and that rule already exists and has a parent (hereafter called THEPARENT), or the creator specified that it be the child of an existing rule (hereafter called THEPARENT) without specifying an H number, then the rule receives the smallest H number not already assigned to a rule which would make it a child of THEPARENT.

3. Otherwise, it is given the smallest H number which would make a child of the Unassigned Rule Section.

Rule 1-10-1/2
Rule Suites
JT (JT Traub)

A rule is considered to be the head of a Rule Suite if the rule contains the text 'This is the head of the X Rule Suite.' where X is replaced by the name of the Rule Suite as the first sentence of the rule.

All descendants of the head of a Rule Suite are members of that Rule Suite. The head of a Rule Suite is also considered to be a member of that Rule Suite.

Rule 2/0
Proposals
else...if (Henry Towsner)

A Voting player may submit a proposal by sending its text to the Promoter, who shall then post it publicly to be voted on. If there is at least one Sphere of Influence in existence, the author (or the Promoter if the author fails to) shall specify a Sphere of Influence as the subcommittee of the proposal. However, if the number of proposals authored by that player currently in their authorised voting period is equal to or exceeds their Proposal characteristic, any attempt to submit a proposal will lead to that proposal being automatically retracted, and the player being put in Gaol with a sentence of 1 day.

Once a proposal has been properly distributed, none of its text may be altered; likewise, its authorship and time of distribution cannot be changed.

If two proposals currently in the proposal queue would have identical effects on the game state if passed, or a CFJ finds them to be substantially similar, then the later of the two to be submitted shall be deemed invalid and removed from voting consideration.

Rule 2-1/0
Voting
else...if (Henry Towsner)

All proposals shall be voted on, unless they are retracted or deemed invalid in accordance with the Rules. In these cases, they are removed from consideration, and are considered to be neither accepted or rejected.

The prescribed voting period on a proposal is seven days, starting from the moment that the proposal is publicly distributed as specified by the rules.

Entities may vote only as specified by the rules. Non-entities may not vote.

Voting Players may vote an integer with an absolute value less than or equal to 100 plus 20 times their Voting Characteristic on each proposal, by sending their vote to the Tabulator.

Players who vote less than zero on a proposal are said to have voted to reject it, while players who vote greater than zero are said to have voted to accept it.

Votes must be unambiguous and unconditional. A Voting Player may also choose not to vote on a proposal, which is called abstaining. Voting Players who do not vote within the prescribed voting period shall be deemed to have abstained. Voting Players may change their vote up until the end of the prescribed voting period, but in any case are limited to one vote per proposal.

A proposal's Acceptance Index is the sum of all positive votes, plus 1.5 times the sum of all negative votes. Only those votes legally cast within its prescribed voting period are considered. A proposal's Acceptance Threshold is 0, unless changed as described in the rules.

Rule 2-1-1/5
Fair Voting Practices
JT (JT Traub)

I. Voting Actions

The following are voting actions:

A. Casting a legal vote as defined by rule 2-1.

II. The Right to Fair Voting

A proposal is invalid if it calls for one or more effects that discriminate in any way between players based on their voting actions on that proposal, or any other specific proposal or proposals identified in the proposal. Effects that depend on the way players vote are allowed if they apply to all proposals, or to all proposals in one or more classes previously defined by the rules.

III. Effects Triggered on Changing the Triggering Rules

If a proposal adds, changes, or repeals rules that generate effects or cause some entity to generate effects (including but not limited to score changes) based on the way players vote, then those rules generate no effects based on the way players vote on that particular proposal. This section of this rule takes precedence over all other rules which generate effects based on the way players vote on proposals.

Rule 2-2/1
Results
else...if (Henry Towsner)

A proposal's Subcommittee Acceptance Index is the sum of all positive votes cast by members of the proposal's subcommittee, plus 1.5 times the sum of all negative votes cast by the same subcommittee. Only those votes legally cast within its prescribed voting period are considered. A proposal's Subcommittee Acceptance Threshold is 0, unless changed as described in the rules.

As soon as possible after a proposal's prescribed voting period ends, the votes on that proposal shall be posted publicly. If the Subcommittee Acceptance Index exceeds its Subcommittee Acceptance Threshold then the proposal is considered to have passed in subcommittee. Otherwise it is rejected in subcommittee. A proposal is rejected in subcommittee if its subcommittee is no longer a Sphere of Influence at the end of the proposal's voting period. If the proposal does not have a subcommittee than it is treated as automatically being passed in subcommittee. If the proposal passes in subcommittee and its Acceptance Index exceeds its Acceptance Threshold then it is accepted. Otherwise it is rejected.

If a proposal is accepted, then any one-time effects, such as changes to the rules, shall be applied, one at a time, in the order in which they appear in the proposal. (Ambiguous, retroactive, and/or meaningless effects are ignored.)

Rule 2-2-1/42
Scoring When A Proposal's Voting Results are Reported

I. Timing of these score changes

All the following scoring changes are applied at the time the Proposal's tabulated voting results are officially reported, prior to any of the proposals effects.

II. Timing when results are reported simultaneously

If more than one Proposal's tabulated voting results are officially reported at the same time, the scoring changes are applied in numerical order of the Proposals, with an infinitesimal amount of time separating each application.

III. Scoring on Proposals

The author's score is adjusted by the Proposal's Acceptance Index divided by 100. [A proposal with an acceptance index of 666 gains its author 7 points, the same proposal with an acceptance index of -666 loses its author 6 points.]

All players who voted on the Proposal receive the absolute value of its Acceptance index divided by 500 in points.

IV.

Each time a proposal passes in subcommittee, that Sphere of Influence's Generosity increases by one. Each time a proposal is rejected in subcommittee, that Sphere of Influence's Generosity decreases by one. Each time a proposal which has a subcommittee is accepted or rejected, if the subcommittee is a Sphere of Influence, all members of the Sphere receive 2 points. When a proposal with a subcommittee is accepted, the player who proposed it receives 3 points for each Sphere of Influence with a higher Generosity than the subcommittee on that proposal. When a proposal with a subcommittee is rejected, the player who proposed it loses 2 point for each Sphere of Influence with a lower Generosity than the subcommittee on that proposal.

V. Newbie Author Bonus/Soft Penalty

Newbies shall receive a two points whenever one of their proposals is accepted or rejected.

VI. Null Proposals

If an accepted proposal does not become a new rule or generate at least one valid effect under Rule 2, then it is a "Null Proposal". No points are scored by any player via the preceding provisions of this rule from the acceptance of a Null Proposal.

VII. Boring Proposals A proposal is Boring if and only if the majority of votes cast on it, ignoring votes of exactly 60 or -60, were between -59 and 59 inclusive. The above provisions notwithstanding, no points are scored by any player as a result of a Boring proposal being accepted or rejected.

Rule 2-2-2/0
Mannna Results
else...if (Henry Towsner)

When A Proposal's Voting Results are Reported, but prior to any effects generated by it (including any scoring changes), the following Mannna changes shall be applied to all players who did not abstain on the proposal:

a) Players who cast a vote with an absolute value greater than 100 loose 100 less than the absolute value of their vote in Mannna.
b) Players who cast a vote with an absolute value between 60 and 100, inclusive, gain 50 less half the absolute value of their vote, rounded down, in Mannna.
c) Players who cast a vote with an absolute value less than 60 gain 20 Mannna.
d) Players who cast a vote whose absolute value equals the absolute value of the Proposal's Acceptance Index receive that amount in Mannna in addition to any granted to or taken from them by the previous steps.

Rule 2-2-3/9
Ackanomic Unity
Wild Card (Jonathan David Amery)

Should it ever occur that every player eligible to do so should vote to accept the same proposal then the following shall happen:

1) The day of Ackanomic Unity shall be the date the proposal was accepted.

2) The player who proposed the proposal shall gain a Blue Cross Bonus if they do not already have one.

The day of Ackanomic Unity is an Ackanomic Holiday.

Rule 2-2-4/13
Parades
Brinjal (Simon Clarke)

When the Tabulator distributes the voting results for a proposal whose number ends with the digits "76", and the proposal was accepted, an Ackanomic Parade shall be held, with the player who made the proposal as the Guest of Honour.

The Guest of Honour has seven days from the distribution of the proposal's voting results to publish an interesting description of the parade. Failure to comply with this requirement, if and when proved, will result in ten points being deducted from the score of the Guest of Honour.

All players will take part in the Parade, and will receive one point for so doing. The Guest of Honour will receive an additional 10 points.

Any vacationing player will be represented by a cardboard cut-out on wheels, which will lower the whole tone of the occasion, so any points they would have received as a result of the Parade will be withheld.

Rule 2-2-5/9
Brass Monkey
Techno (Jerome Herrman)

The Brass Monkey is a very large, unique, unownable entity with a low, booming voice.

A Streak begins when a proposal is accepted and there is no Streak already underway. The Streak includes the proposal that started it and all the accepted proposals that follow, until the next time a proposal is rejected. The Streak is then broken.

The ordering of proposals, for the purpose of determining a Streak, shall depend only on the numerical ordering of the Proposals. A proposal is considered to immediately follow another proposal either if the first's number immediately follows the second, or the only proposals which were assigned numbers less than the first and greater than the second were retracted or otherwise removed from voting consideration.

If ten or more proposals are accepted during a single Streak, it is a Chrome Streak. Chrome Streaks are Strange. When a Chrome Streak is broken, the Brass Monkey shall climb to the top of the tallest building in Acka Land and proclaim:

"The makers of the Chrome Streak shall be awarded 5 bonus points!"

With that, each Player shall receive 5 points for each proposal he or she submitted that was accepted during the Streak (including those that were accepted before it was Chrome), up to a maximum of 15 points per Player.

Rule 2-2-6/12
Let there be Harf!
snowgod (Phil Ackley)

The Unique Title of Harfmeister exists. If, at any time, no one has the Title of Harfmeister, the Title is given to the Speaker.

The Harfmeister may designate a proposal currently under voting consideration as Harfy. This action fails if there are already three proposals designated Harfy or if the proposal specified is attributed to the Harfmeister. A proposal designated Harfy remains so designated as long as it is under voting consideration; it ceases to be designated Harfy as soon as it ceases to be under voting consideration.

If a Harfy proposal passes, its author gains 5 points (a score change based on proposal content) and the title of Harfmeister passes from the current Harfmeister to the author of the Harfy proposal. If two or more Harfy proposals are accepted simultaneously, the title of Harfmeister shall go to the author of the highest numbered one.

The Harfmeister should also be on the lookout for particularly harfy courses of action, things which might later be considered for a Silver Moon, or at least are worth a good laugh at the time. The Harfmeister has the privilege of designating a player other than emself to be "Funky and Stylish".

"Funky and Stylish" is a unique title. When a player is designated "Funky and Stylish", they gain 5 points. Only one player may be designated "Funky and Stylish" per calendar week.

This privilege of the Harfmeister should be used regularly, when it is justified. Failure to do so on a regular basis, without justification, may lead to accusations that the Harfmeister is hogging the harf, as described below.

The Harfmeister may use his or her discretion in determining what is to be considered Harfy for the purposes of this rule, but it is considered bad form to designate a proposal as Harfy that is not really Harfy, and other players are permitted to sneer.

If any voting player feels the Harfmeister is hogging the Harf [that is, sitting on the title of Harfmeister with no intent to designate any proposals as Harfy], they may start an Inquisition. An Inquisition is a Hearing. It is also Strange. The player who started the Inquisition is the Hearing Harfer and is called the Supreme Inquisitor while it is in session. The valid responses to an Inquisition are 'No! He's going to share the Harf!', or 'Yes! He is Hogging the Harf!' If the verdict is the latter, the Harfmeister is guilty of hogging the Harf and must immediately go to his or her home if he or she may legally do so. The person who called for the Inquisition then becomes the Harfmeister.

Rule 2-2-6-1/3
The Harfy Phrase
K 2 (Kelly Kelly)

The harfmeister may announce a new harfy phrase of less than four words, provided it does not appear in any proposals currently under consideration. The harfy phrase may only be changed once a month.

Each player who voted on an accepted proposal containing the harfy phrase gains 3 points.

Rule 2-2-8/1
A Minority of One
Slakko (Duncan Richer)

If a proposal is rejected, and exactly one player voted to reject the proposal, then that player shall receive the title of Tyrant, and any other player who possesses the title of Tyrant shall lose it. If the player in question was already the Tyrant, then their score shall be reset to 0, and the points gained or lost distributed equally amongst all other players (rounding away from 0).

Whenever a player is made Tyrant by application of this rule, their Voting Characteristic shall be increased by 1, and they shall receive 500 Mannna. However, votes sent to the Tabulator from a player who is the Tyrant are only valid if they lie between -100 and 100 inclusive.

Rule 3/27
Invoking Judgement

A Call for Judgement (CFJ), is an assertion about the rules, the facts, or their interpretation. A CFJ should include a single, clear, and clearly labeled statement that can be answered TRUE or FALSE. The remainder of the CFJ may consist of additional comments or reasoning, which the Judge is under no obligation to consider.

A CFJ may be made by any active player by sending it to the Clerk of the Court, who will select a judge as described in the rules, and then post it publicly, along with the identity of the selected Judge.

CFJs with no clear statement, or consisting of empty statements or inherently contradictory statements or multiple statements, in the judgement of the Judge, shall be judged "Invalid". A statement with multiple sentences is not necessarily disqualified; it is up to the judgement of the Judge as to whether such submission is Invalid, as per above.

[e.g. "SnafuMoose has the power to amend a rule" is valid, while "Can I amend a rule?" is not (cannot be answered true, false). "I think PlayerXXX is a butthead" is also not valid, since it also cannot be answered true/false ("PlayerXXX is a butthead" is valid)]

Any CFJ whose statement is substantially similar, or whose negative is substantially similar, to the statement of another CFJ submitted by the same player within the past week, in the judgement of the judge, shall be judged Invalid. This applies even in the case that the previously submitted CFJ was retracted by the player in question. However, the provisions of this paragraph shall not apply if the prior CFJ was declared Invalid by the Clerk of Court due to a lack of eligible judges, as provided in Rule 3-1.

Rule 3-1/21
Selecting A Judge

When a Player is to be selected to judge a CFJ the following steps are performed in order to determine those Players who are eligible to judge it:

i) All Voting Players are eligible.

ii) All Players on the CFJ Ineligibility List are excluded.

iii) The author of the CFJ is excluded.

iv) If the CFJ is also a CFCJ the Player or Players named in its statement are excluded.

v) All Justices are excluded.

vi) All Players who have declined to judge the CFJ are excluded.

vii) All Players who have already been assigned a CFJ and are yet decline or return a verdict on it are excluded, unless this would reduce the number of eligible Players to less than half the number of Active Players.

If any of the above steps would cause the number of eligible players to be reduced to zero or fewer, that step is not performed.

When a CFJ is received by the Clerk of the Court, if no Active Players are eligible to judge it, then the CFJ is deemed Invalid, and removed from consideration, and no judge is selected. Otherwise, the Clerk of the Court randomly selects a Player from those eligible to judge it.

The selected Judge may decline a particular appointment, as a public action or by mailing the Clerk of the Courts, within 3 days of being selected. In this case, a new Judge is selected as described above.

As a public action, an Active Player may remove their name from the CFJ Ineligibility List if it is on the List, or add their name to the List if it is not there already.

Players not on the CFJ ineligibility list who have a degree in Jurisprudence shall have twice the chance of being selected for a CFJ.

Rule 3-2/10
Delivering Judgement

Having been appointed and having not declined, a Judge has exactly one week from the time of eir appointment to post eir Judgment to the Clerk of the Court. A Judge who defaults is a deadbeat. This causes em to be penalized 10 points, eir name to be added to the CFJ Ineligibility List, and all CFJs to which e is appointed Judge to be reassigned to new judges as if e had declined judgment.

Any judge may change eir mind on a verdict that e has sent to the Clerk of the Court (CotC) but has not yet been distributed by the CotC by mailing the CotC informing em of this fact. At this point the initial judgement will be considered to have not been posted to the CotC.

Rule 3-3/8
Possible Judgements

The following are the only possible Judgements: (1) True; (2) False; (3) Undecided; (4) Invalid; or (5) Undecidable [CFJs should be judged invalid if they are not well formed and undecidable if they either rely on some information which is not publicly knowable, or a statement of indeterminate truth]. A Judgement may be accompanied by reasons and arguments, but any such reasons and arguments form no part of the official Judgement itself.

All Judgements must be in accordance with all the rules in effect at the time judgement was invoked, and with respect to the game state at that time. When the rules are silent, inconsistent, or unclear on the statement in question, however, then the Judge shall consider currently existing game custom and the spirit of the game in reaching a decision.

If the Judgement is Undecided then the CFJ shall be decided by the Supreme Court as if it had been appealed, except that the original Judge shall not be penalized for an overturned verdict on that CFJ.

Rule 3-4/37
Overturning Judgements

I. Sending CFJs to the Supreme Court

After any Judgement is returned, an active player may appeal the case to the Supreme Court for consideration. The time period for appeal shall be 4 days from the posting of the Judgement.

The player may include with his appeal any such material he deems relevant to the case. The Court is under no obligation to consider such material, and should use normal procedures to determine a verdict.

If a single judgement is appealed more than once, only the first one shall cause the process of determining a new judgement to begin, and the previous judge shall be penalized only once if the verdict is overturned, though all who appealed that judgement shall be penalized if the verdict is upheld, and all appealers' reasonings are added to the official record.

II. How the Supreme Court judges a CFJ

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 active Justices (returned within one week of the full Court receiving the CFJ) or the decision of a 2/3 supermajority of the active Justices (if the Court does not reach a unanimous decision within one week).

III. Effects upon a judgement of an appeal by the Supreme Court

If the court agrees with the previous verdict, the player who lodged the appeal shall be fined between 0 and 25 points for a frivolous appeal, with the penalty to be 25 points unless the Justices specify otherwise.

If the court disagrees with the previous verdict, then the verdict shall be overturned to the new verdict, and all players who decided the previous verdict [i.e. judge, or justice on a Cortex] shall be fined between 0 and 10 points, the penalty to be 1 unless the Justices specify otherwise.

Further, if the judgement (A) under appeal included a penalty for a frivolous appeal or a judgement overturn, and judgement A is itself overturned, then points shall be awarded to the parties penalised by judgement (A) as described above, to exactly balance the points lost from that judgement.

IV. Appeal limits

In the event that an active player opposes the appeal, they may appeal again to the Supreme Court, assuming they are not exceeding any appeal limits specified elsewhere in this, or other rules.

Supreme Court Justices or Acting Supreme Court Justices may not appeal Judgements or Supreme Court appellate decisions to the Supreme Court unless they also exercise their option under Section VI of this Rule to decline judgement on that CFJ.

A verdict returned by the Supreme Court as a whole (e.g. a second appeal verdict) may not be appealed. Only the most recent judgement on any CFJ may be appealed.

V. Delays

Supreme Cortices should make every effort to return verdicts assigned to them within a reasonable amount of time in order to keep the game moving along. A Justice may decline a CFJ assigned to them (as part of a cortex) as a public action.

In addition, if a Cortex has been considering a particular CFJ for more than 30 days, that Cortex (ie both members) shall automatically decline that CFJ upon this fact being pointed out publicly by any active player.

When a Justice declines a CFJ assigned to em, e shall be replaced according to the usual method for selecting cortex members.

Rule 3-4-1/8
Selecting a Cortex
Guy Fawkes (Robert Shimmin)

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 and select its two members, as outlines below. A Supreme Cortex exists only for the purpose of judging a single case, although there may be multiple Cortices with overlapping or identical memberships.

When the CotC is required to select one or more players to be part of a Supreme Cortex (hereafter Cortex) e shall do so based on the following guidelines:
1) All active members of the Supreme Court, other than those who are already part of the Cortex, are considered to be in the pool of candidates.
2) Any player who has declined the case is removed from the pool.
3) Any player who is named as a defendant is removed from the pool.
4) Any player who made the case initially is removed from the pool.
5) Any player who appealed the case is removed from the pool.

If steps 3,4 or 5 would result in fewer than the required number of players, it is not performed. If the pool does not contain sufficient players than the Clerk of the Courts may appoint enough players to the Supreme Court as Emergency Justices to judge that CFJ only; the Clerk may not appoint the initiator, the defendant, or a player who has declined that CFJ; e is encouraged to nominate players with bronze torches, players with degrees in Jurisprudence or Legislation, and players who have judged a large number of CFJs; it is a power of the President to veto any such appointment. Otherwise, sufficient players are selected and removed from the pool, starting with the players who are judging the least number of cases. Ties are broken randomly.

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).

Rule 3-5/8
Justices Are Keeper Of The Sacred Laws
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

Before the result of a CFJ is made public, a Justice or Bronze Torch owner can add their own reasoning to the official publication of the result by sending it either to the Clerk of the Court, or to the public forum. Prior to its official publication, this reasoning can be made public by no one other than the author of the reasoning.

Upon the Judge or Court reaching a verdict, the Clerk of the Court will also add any reasoning submitted under the auspices of this rule to the official publication of the CFJ, along with the judge's decision.

For one week following the Supreme Court returning a non-unanimous verdict on a CFJ appeal, dissenting Justices may publicly post an official Dissent to the Supreme Court's reasoning. This Dissent should be included along with the majority reasoning in any CFJ archives.

Rule 3-6/30
Criminal Justice
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

This rule defines the Call for Criminal Judgement (CFCJ) procedure. Except as detailed in this rule, it shall be like the Call for Judgement in all ways, including how it is submitted, how judges are selected, how it is appealed, etc. Any changes to the CFJ procedure will automatically be "inherited" by the CFCJ procedure when they do not contradict the exceptions detailed in this rule.

1) The player submitting the CFCJ shall pay the standard Harfer Fee.

2) A CFCJ will be clearly labelled as such, to distinguish it from an ordinary CFJ.

3) Its "statement" shall be "X committed the Crime of Y", where X is replaced with the name of a registered player and Y is replaced by the name of a Crime as defined in the current ruleset.

4) Its "reasoning" section shall show how Player X committed the Crime of Y. CFCJs shall only be judged TRUE if the Crime Y was committed by player X. CFCJs which do not detail exactly one Crime, in the judgement of the judge, shall be judged INVALID. CFCJs in which player X had not committed crime Y for more than 30 days prior to the time the CFCJ was first distributed, in the judgement of the judge, shall be judged INVALID.

5) It shall include a "suggested penalty" section, which is a recommended penalty to be imposed on Player X, should a verdict of TRUE be reached. More than one class of penalty may be recommended. The valid classes of penalties are: a) a PUBLIC APOLOGY of 1 or more lines by Player X.

b) the TRANSFERENCE of 0 or more entities or characteristics associated with Player X to either the Treasury or the initiator of the CFCJ.

c) a SENTENCE in the Gaol of 1 or more days for Player X.

d) the REMOVAL of Player X from one or more Institutions to which e currently belongs.

e) The IMPEACHMENT of Player X from a single specific office which e currently holds.

f) the EXPULSION of Player X from the game.

6) A Crime may, when defined by a rule, contain a Minimum Penalty. When a Crime contains a Minimum Penalty, a verdict of TRUE on the CFCJ must include at least that Minimum Penalty as party of the actual penalty.

7) Before the result of a CFCJ is made public the player who is alleged to have committed a crime may add their own reasoning and claims of mitigating circumstance to the official publication of the result by sending it either to the person in charge of CFCJs, or to the public forum.

8) Upon a verdict of FALSE on the CFCJ, no penalty shall be imposed upon Player X.

8a) Upon a verdict of TRUE, the judge may retain or alter the recommended penalty. The result will become the actual penalty. This will be imposed following a 3 day "grace period". If the Crime for which the CFCJ is submitted specifies a Minimum Penalty, and the actual penalty does not include at least the Minimum Penalty, then the actual penalty is changed to include the Minimum Penalty. Failure to include the Minimum Penalty in the actual penalty is the Crime of Excessive Leniency on the part of the judge.

9b) If the penalty was a SENTENCE in the Gaol, player X shall be moved from their current Location to the Gaol at the end of the grace period, at which time their sentence will start. If, however, player X was already in the Gaol at the end of the grace period, the sentence they are currently serving shall be increased by the length of the new sentence.

9c) If the penalty specifies a TRANSFERENCE of any entity which it is not permissible to transfer, that part of the penalty shall be void, but such shall not necessarily void other parts of the penalty.

9d) If the penalty includes a PUBLIC APOLOGY, Player X is required to post a public message of at least the court-required length apologizing for his criminal ways. This should be done within three days of the expiration of his grace period, and it should have "Acka: Public Apology" as its subject line. Failure to comply will result in the addition of three days to that player's Gaol sentence, if he is in Gaol, or the immediate transfer of that player to the Gaol for a three-day incarceration if he is not in Gaol. Self-abasement is especially encouraged in such a message.

10a) All other verdicts shall work as they would for a CFJ. Any verdict may be appealed as with a CFJ.

10b) If a TRUE verdict is not upheld on an appeal, any penalties, except SENTENCE, are reversed, effective the time of the appeal verdict. The amount of any penalty of SENTENCE is subtracted from player X's current sentence (if any, assume 0 if none), and the player is released from Gaol if their resultant sentence is non-positive. The player is also paid A$10 times the amount of the SENTENCE, up to a maximum of A$200.

10c) If a TRUE verdict is upheld on an appeal, the appellate court or judge may impose a penalty different from the previously imposed penalty. If such an appeal verdict is delivered during the grace period, the new penalty is imposed at the end of that grace period instead of the original one (i.e., the grace period is not adjusted). If the appeal verdict is delivered after the grace period ended (previous penalty already imposed), then the appropriate transactions are performed to adjust the penalty. In this case, if either penalty involved a SENTENCE in the Gaol, then the difference is tacked on or subtracted from player X's current sentence. If the result is non-positive, player X is released from the Gaol if they are there. If the result is positive, and player X is not in Gaol, they are placed there immediately.

11) No more than one CFCJ may be brought against a single player for a single instance of committing a given Crime. No one may be tried more than once for the same action even if it commits more than one Crime.

Rule 4/29
Players and Player States

I. Player States

All natural persons exist in exactly one of the following states:
Active
Vacationing
On Ice
Non-Player

Those natural persons, and only those natural persons, who are not Non-Players are Players. Players are named, tradeable entities. Non-Players may observe the game and participate in discussions, but their posts shall not affect the game state except as described in rule 4-1. Non-Players are not entities.

No natural person may be associated with more than one player concurrently. No matter how many times a person legally registers as a player in Ackanomic, that person is always considered the same player. [That is, if a player quits and later rejoins, e is considered the same player.]

Active Players are Intelligent, Trading Entities. Vacationing or On Ice players (collectively known as Inactive players), or Non-Players, are neither Intelligent nor Trading.

II. Player-related Definitions

a) Only Active players may be randomly selected for anything, except where the rules specifically allow Inactive players to be selected.
b) Inactive players may only leave the game, change their state, or send public messages; they may perform no other actions.
c) Where the rules refer to a "Vacationing" player, that specifically means a player whose state is "Vacationing".
d) A "Newbie" is a Player whose AckaAge is less than 21 days.
e) A Player's AckaAge is the length of time since they first registered as a Player of Ackanomic (or since when the game started, whichever is less).
f) A "pending" Player is a Voting Player who has not voted on a proposal since their most recent registration.

g) A Player who has changed eir state from On Ice less than 21 days ago having been On Ice continuously for at least 90 days prior to that, is also a newbie. At any time while e is still a newbie, e may request that the registrar select a mentor for em. III. Changing State

A Player may change eir state as a public action by announcing the new player state, provided e has not changed eir state as a public action during the past 3 days, and provided e follows all other restrictions placed on eir ability to change states. When a player voluntarily ceases to be Vacationing if e did not specify a new player state, e becomes Active. A player may never voluntarily change eir state to Non-Player, but may have eir state changed to Non-Player through the action of the rules. Whenever a player's state or level is changed, the appropriate following section applies to them

IV. Activity Levels

All Players are either Voting or Non-Voting. The activity level is latent while the player is Inactive, however when the player becomes Active again eir Voting/Non-Voting status is preserved.

V. Upon Becoming Non-Voting:
a) E is treated as having declined judgement on all CFJs that have been assigned to em, and treated as having failed to return a verdict on any e has accepted. This