The Rules of Macronomic

Rule 0: Preliminaries


All players must obey the rules in effect at the time of their actions. No rule or gamestate change effected by a rule can have retroactive effect.

Any action external to the gamestate which is not prohibited by the rules is permissible. No changes to the gamestate occur except those prescribed by the rules.

Each rule has associated with it a Number which must be a non-negative rational number with a finite decimal representation. Two or more rules may not have the same number.

If two or more rules conflict, the one with the least number takes precedence, unless one or more of the conflicting rules consistently claim precedence over or deference to each other, in which case the explicit precedence or deference prevails. Thus, if two rules both claim precedence over each other, or both defer to each other, theirs are inconsistent claims of precedence or deference, respectively, and the numerical rule applies.

This rule takes precedence over all other rules. 

Created by Proposal 27, May 19 1998

Rule 0.5: Administration

There exists the class of Secretaries. A Secretary is always exactly one player. Rules may refer to Secretariatships being vacant, though this reference is to the hypothetical situation in which the Secretariatship is not immediately filled.

There exists the Secretary of the Central Committee. If a member of the Revolutionary Party has a higher loyalty than the Secretary of the Central Committee, if the Secretary of the Central Committee is not a member of the Revolutionary Party, or if there is no Secretary of the Central Committee, a new Secretary of the Central Committee shall be chosen in the following manner:

  1. If there is a player in the Revolutionary Party who has a Loyalty greater than all other players, that player shall become the Secretary of the Central Committee.
  2. Otherwise, if there is a player in the Revolutionary Party who has a Loyalty greater than all other players not in the Revolutionary Party, that player shall become the Secretary of the Central Committee.
  3. Otherwise, if there is a Secretary of the Central Committee, e will randomly select one player from the members of the Revolutionary Party tied for the greatest Loyalty, and the selected player shall become the Secretary of the Central Committee
  4. Otherwise, the member of the Revolutionary Party whose nickname is lexicographically first shall become the Secretary of the Central Committee.
If there is a Secretarial position other than the Secretary of the Central Committee without a Secretary to fill it, the Secretary of the Central Committee will fill it.

Any Secretary except for the Secretary of the Central Committee may step down from their position in favor of another consenting player. 

Renumbered to 42 by Proposal 27, May 19 1998
Renumbered to 0.5 by Proposal 27, May 19 1998

Rule 1: The Revolutionary Party

The old order having been overthrown, Macronomic will now be guided by the Revolutionary Party. At all times there will be three members of the Revolutionary Party unless there are fewer than three players. Should there be fewer than three members of the Revolutionary Party and there be a Proletarian Secretary of the Proletariat, the Secretary of the Proletariat shall become a member of the Revolutionary Party

If a player who is not a member of the Revolutionary Party is at least twice as loyal as a member of the Revolutionarty Party, then they may replace that member of the Revolutionary Party by notifying the Secretary of the Membership of such a change. 

Amended by Proposal 15, May 12 1998

Rule 2: Loyalty

All players will have a loyalty, tracked by the Secretary of Friendship. Any player with a loyalty lower than 0 will have eir loyalty set to 0. Any member of the Revolutionary Party with a loyalty lower than 100 will have eir loyalty set to 100.

A Proletarian (or just 'Prole') is defined as a player of Macronomic who is not a member of the Revolutionary Party.

There exists the Secretary of the Proletariat. If there are Proles, and one of the following conditions exist -- if a Prole has a higher loyalty than the Secretary of the Proletariat, if the Secretary of the Proletariat is a member of the Revolutionary Party, or if there is no Secretary of the Proletariat -- a new Secretary of the Proletariat shall be chosen in the following manner:

  1. If there is a Prole who has a Loyalty greater than all other Proles', that player shall become the Secretary of the Proletariat.
  2. Otherwise, if there is a Secretary of the Central Committee, e will randomly select one of the Proles tied for the greatest Loyalty, and the selected player shall become the Secretary of the Proletariat
  3. Otherwise, the Prole whose nickname is lexicographically first shall become the Secretary of the Proletariat.
Otherwise, if there are no Proles, then the Secretary of the Proletariat is the same Player as the Secretary of the Central Committee. 
Amended by Proposal 15, May 12 1998
Amended by Proposal 30, May 19 1998

Rule 3: Proposals

Proposals are a subclass of Referenda. The subclass of Proposals has the default properties of a subclass of Referenda, and Proposals have the default properties of Referenda, with the following exceptions: The Accountant of Proposals is the Secretary of Truth. The text of a proposal must explicitly and unambiguously describe one or more changes to the gamestate. When a proposal becomes inactive, the Secretary of Truth announces all votes and the following steps will be performed by the appropriate officers:

1) If the proposal's author is, when the proposal ceases to be Active, a member of the revolutionary party, each player who voted LOYAL on that proposal will receive three loyalty points and have eir vote changed to the vote made by a majority (a majority is defined for the remainder of the ruleset as strictly greater than one half of a group with the same vote or opinion) of the Revolutionary Party. If no vote was made by a majority of party members, then the players who voted LOYAL will have eir vote changed to what the Secretary of the Central Committee voted.
2) The total number of FOR and AGAINST votes on that proposal will be summed.
3) If more of the votes cast on that proposal were FOR than AGAINST and the members of the Revolutionary Party did not all vote AGAINST, then the person who made the proposal will receive fifteen loyalty points if e is not a member of the Revolutionary Party, or ten loyalty points if e is. The game state will then be changed as specified in the proposal. (Whenever a proposal specifies the creation of a rule without specifying a number for it, the rule receives the least positive integer not previously assigned to a rule.) If the votes do not meet the stated condition, the person who made the proposal will lose ten loyalty points.
4) All players who voted NONE on that proposal will lose ten loyalty points.

If a player has submitted a proposal and the Secretary of Truth has not yet distributed it, that player may retract that proposal. The Secretary of Truth shall not distribute a retracted proposal, and it will not become Active. 

Amended by Proposal A, April 19 1998
Amended by Proposal 8, May 5 1998
Amended by Proposal 9, May 5 1998
Amended by Proposal 17, May 12 1998
Amended by Proposal 21, May 12 1998
Amended by Proposal 28, May 19 1998
Amended by Proposal 30, May 19 1998
Amended by Proposal 33, May 26 1998

Rule 4: Voting

The set of legal votes on a Proposal is FOR, AGAINST, LOYAL, and NONE. A vote of LOYAL may not be cast on a proposal that is made by a Prole. If it is, it will be changed to NONE. A member of the Revolutionary Party may not vote LOYAL; if eir vote is LOYAL, eir vote is changed to NONE. When a proposal is created, the vote of the player who made it is initially FOR; the vote of every other player is initially NONE. 
Amended by Proposal 7, May 5 1998
Amended by Proposal 28, May 19 1998
Amended by Proposal 44, June 2 1998

Rule 5: Players

The Secretary of Membership is responsible for tracking who the players are, and which are members of the Revolutionary Party. A person may become a player by notifying the Secretary of Membership of eir intent to join, eir name, a nickname, (eir nickname is identical to eir true name by default) and an e-mail address. The Secretary of Membership will then inform all other players of this intent. A player leaves the game by announcing to all players that they intend to do so. 
Amended by Proposal B, April 20 1998

Rule 6: Internomic

The Secretary of Love will be Macronomic's Liaison to Internomic. Voting on Internomic proposals will be determined by a majority of the Revolutionary Party, if a majority opinion exists. Any player may make a proposal to Internomic by submitting it to the Secretary of Love and clearly indicating that it is to be sent to Internomic.

If MacroNomic is selected to judge an Internomic CFJ then it should be submitted to the Revolutionary Party. The Revolutionary Party will determine the verdict by a majority vote, and the Secretary of Love will be responsible for writing reasoning for the verdict and submitting it to Internomic. 

Amended by Proposal 20, May 12 1998

Rule 6.5: Trade

The Secretary of Trade is MacroNomic's Customs Officer. If MacroNomic is not a member of the ITA, the Secretary of Love should request entrance unless MacroNomic's request was previously denied. The State owns all things imported from other nomics. The Secretary of Trade should reject all conditional trade offers and accept all nonconditional trade offers unless the offering nomic is a rougue nomic or condemned by MacroNomic, in which case all offers from it are rejected. The Secretary of Trade may support request to join the ITA as they wish. A nomic may be condemned by unanimous decision of the RP, and the condmenation may be withdrawn by a majority vote of the RP. 
Created by Proposal 48, June 2 1998

Rule 7: Spelling

If a word is used in a proposal or rule and although spelled incorrectly the intended word is clear than the mispelled word will be replaced with the correct spelling by the Secretary of Truth.

If a player sends a message which contains a mispelled word and the intended word is clear than the message will be treated by all rules except this one as if the word was correctly spelled. 

Created by Proposal D, April 20 1998

Rule 9: Justice

MacroNomic has a court system. There are three types of issues that may be brought to the court. They are civil, criminal, and natural. The Secretary of Justice is responsible for administrating the court system.

If a player questions the proper interpretation of a rule, the proper action is to file a Call for Judgement with the Secretary of Justice. The CfJ should contain a statement and reasoning to explain the statement. The Secretary of Justice will then randomly select a player who did not file the CfJ to judge it. The possible judgements are that the statement was TRUE or FALSE. The judge should inform the Secretary of Justice within one week of their judgement and their reasoning to support it. The Secretary of Justice will then inform the populace of MacroNomic of this decision. The decision should be based on, in order of priority, the text of the rules, the spirit of the rules, and game custom.

If a player believes that another player has done something defined by the rules to be a civil crime, and they are specified to be the victim, then they (the plaintiff) may file a civil suit against that person (the defendant) with the Secretary of Justice, along with an explanation to support their case. The Secretary of Justice will then select one member of the Revolutionary Party and two players who are not, none of whom are involved in the suit, and announce all three judges and the content of the suit. The defendant then has one week to publicly defend themself. The three judges will have one week to deliberate and announce a decision agreed to by at least two of the judges. That decision may be either PLAINTIFF or DEFENDANT. If the decision is PLAINTIFF then it should include a penalty for the defendant. If the decision is DEFENDANT then it should include a penalty for the plaintiff. The appropriate Secretaries should carry out the penalty. The decision should be based on, in no specific order, the text of the rules and the interests of the state.

If a member of the Revolutionary Party believes that a player has committed a criminal offense then that member may initiate criminal proceedings against them. A member of the Revolutionary Party may never commit a criminal offense. A member of the Revolutionary Party initiates criminal proceedings by informing the Secretary of Justice of the crime and reasoning to support the case. The Secretary of Justice selects one random player who is neither a member of the Revolutionary Party nor the person accused, as well as both members of the Revolutionary Party who did not initiate the proceedings to be judges, and announce the judges and the content of the proceedings publicly. The accused has one week to publicly defend themself, and the three judges will then have one week to decide the case. At least two of the judges must agree to the judgement, which must be either GUILTY or INNOCENT. If the judgement is GUILTY then the judges should include a penalty. The decision should be based on, in no specific order, the text of the rules and the interests of the state. Any specific action may have at most one criminal proceeding called against it. Should two be called (through timing conflicts) only the first shall be considered.

The penalty assessed in a civil or criminal trial may be one or more of the following:

The penalties assessed may be assessed even if they conflict with other rules. This rule takes priority over all rules necessary to enfore penalties unless those rules specifically over ride this rule. 
Created by Proposal 14, May 12 1998
Amended by Proposal 41, June 9 1998

Rule 10: Consequences of Insufficient Revolutionary Fervor

If a player has not voted or otherwise taken any game action or made any statement to the Macronomic public for fourteen consecutive 24-hour periods, and a player other than that player notes this to the Macronomic public, the former player shall cease to be a player of Macronomic. 
Created by Proposal 16, May 12 1998

Rule 11: Calendars

Everyone knows that the October Revolution actualy happened in November. Accordingly, Macronomic is still one month behind the rest of the world. Any refence to a calendar date by a proposal, rule, vote or other official game business must reflect this incosistency. 
Created by Proposal 22, May 19 1998

Rule 12: Viva La Revolution

If the Loyalty score of exactly one player is greater than 1000, e is said to have won the current round of Macronomic and is considered to be the Winning Player. 
Created by Proposal 24, May 19 1998
Amended by Proposal 30, June 2 1998

Rule 13: Round Robin

When a player is considered to be the Winning Player, the following steps occur in order. It is not possible to be a member of the new Revolution except as defined in this rule.
This rule takes precedence over any rule with which it conflicts. 
Created by Proposal 24, May 19 1998
Amended by Proposal 36, May 19 1998

Rule 14: The University

The University of MacroNomic is a branch of the Government which is dedicated to educating citizens of MacroNomic and other nomics of the glory of MacroNomic, as well as enlarging the size of MacroNomic. The Secretary of Education is responsible for the University.

When a player joins MacroNomic the Secretary of Education assignes them a random, non-teaching professor, unless there are no non-teaching professors or the player requested a specific professor. If the entering player requested a specific professor, and that professor is non-teaching, then that professor will be assigned to the student. When a player is assigned a professor then that professor becomes a teaching professor, and that player becomes eir student. The professor is expected to help the student learn about MacroNomic and how to play until the professor publicly declares that the student has graduated. Any player who has been a student for a whole month graduates immediately. When a student graduates, e ceases to be a student and eir professor becomes a non-teaching professor.

Papers are a subclass of Referenda. The subclass of Papers has the default properties of a subclass of Referenda, and Papers have the default properties of Referenda, with the following exceptions: The Accountant of Papers is the Secretary of Education. A Paper can be in one of four states: Preactive, Active, Active2, and Inactive.

While a Paper is Active, only members of the Revolutionary Party may change eir votes on it. They are encouraged to vote based on whether the text of the Paper "glorifies and enhances the image and reputation of MacroNomic". If, 7 days after a Paper becomes Active, there are more FOR votes than AGAINST votes on it, it becomes Active2; otherwise, it becomes Inactive.

While a Paper is Active2, all players may change eir votes on it. They are encouraged to vote based on whether the text of the Paper successfully "enhances the understanding of MacroNomic or nomic as a whole". If, 7 days after a Paper becomes Active2, there are more FOR votes than AGAINST votes on it, the Paper is said to have been accepted, the player who made it becomes a Professor, and it becomes Inactive; otherwise, it merely becomes Inactive. Papers which become Inactive without being accepted are said to have been rejected. Whenever a Paper is accepted the Secretary of Education may grant the professor whose paper was accepted a specialty. Specialties are cumulative, and a player can be a professor in several fields.

If three consecutive Papers of a single professor are rejected, that professor ceases to be a professor. If 60 days pass without a Paper from a single professor being submitted, that professor ceases to be a professor.

If at any time there are no professors, teaching or otherwise then the members of the ruling party shall be Acting Professors. An Acting professor is treated in all ways as a professor. If a player becomes a professor and there are any acting professors, the following occurs. All non-teaching acting professors lose their acting professorship. All teaching Acting professors lose their acting professorship when their current student graduates. 

Created by Proposal 25, May 19 1998
Amended by Proposal 34, May 26 1998
Amended by Proposal 38, June 2 1998
Amended by Proposal 43, June 2 1998

Rule 15: Referenda

There exists the class of Referenda (singular: Referendum). All referenda which exist must belong to a subclass of referenda, which are defined elsewhere. Rules that define subclasses of referenda may modify any or all of the default properties of subclasses of referenda and referenda themselves, which are as follows:

The Accountant of a subclass of referenda is the Secretary of the Central Committee. A Referendum is created when any player sends a body of text clearly labelled as a particular subclass of referendum to the Accountant of that subclass. When a Referendum is created, it receives the least positive integer not previously assigned to an referendum of its subclass.

A Referendum may only be in one of three States: Preactive, Active or Inactive. When created, a Referendum is Preactive. Within 7 days of its creation, the Accountant of the Subclass of a Referendum must distribute the Referendum to all players, and when this occurs, it becomes Active. Exactly 7 days after a Referendum becomes Active, it becomes Inactive.

Each player has a Vote on each Referendum. Valid votes are FOR, AGAINST, and NONE. When a Referendum is created, every players' vote on that referendum is NONE. A player may change eir vote on an Active proposal by notifying the Accountant of the Subclass of that Referendum of such a change. 

Created by Proposal 28, May 19 1998


---Philo
(Back)