Subject: Ackanomic Voting Digest V2 #96
From: [email-masked] (Ackanomic Voting Digest)
To: acka-voting-digest

Ackanomic Voting Digest     Sunday, June 22 1997     Volume 02 : Number 096

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sun, 22 Jun 1997 02:43:54 -0500
From: Acrobot <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka:  Proposal 2149

Proposal 2149
Atheism
Malenkai

This is a Modest proposal.

Repeal the rule created by proposal 2059, (called "Amung Gods" at the time
this was submitted).

Create this rule: "{{All players with title of GOD lose that title}}".

[I think the implementation is unsalvageable, and I do not want any
tomotoes thrown at me for scamming it ;-).  If we want to do something
like this, we should probably start from scratch.]

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 22 Jun 1997 02:43:55 -0500
From: Acrobot <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka:  Proposal 2150

Proposal 2150
Good thing Malenkai didn't pick Spades
/dev/joe

This is a modest proposal.

Amend rule 1215, "Duels", as follows:

In the fourth paragraph of section 2, change the first occurrence of
"a player" to "another player".

Add the following to the end of the fifth paragraph of section 2:

  If the Challenging player, the Challenged player, and the two Seconds
  are not four different players, then the team option is not available
  and the contest chosen must be playable by exactly two players.

{{[ For those who failed to notice, Alfvaen is the second for both sides
of a current duel.  This proposal does not prevent this relationship, nor
does it prevent one player from being the other player's second, but it
ensures you can't be your own second, and disallows team games if the
duelists and seconds are not all different.

The rule already ensures that a player can't challenge himself to a duel,
or be both the challenging player and his own second.]}}

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 22 Jun 1997 02:43:55 -0500
From: Acrobot <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka:  Proposal 2151

Proposal 2151
Advanced Topics in Literature
Vynd

Ammend Rule 210 Literature in the following manner.

Delete the following phrase, enclosed in quotation marks, from the first
sentence of section A). "found below in section IV"

Add the following text, contained within the $$$ signs, between part B)
and part II.

$$$

C) Even if the quotation meets the above requirements, it is invalid if it
is does not actually become part of a Rule, or a Rule in and of itself.
Quotations are invalid if they are contained within double curly braces as
described in Rule 346, unless the entire text of the proposal is in double
curly braces.  [In other words, the quote has to actually go into the
ruleset, as opposed to being Self Deleting text.]

$$$

Delete section III and replace it with the following text, enclosed within
the !!! signs.

!!!

III.  A proposal is a Great Work if it meets the following requirements:

a)  All of the text that is ammended to a Rule, or becomes part of a new
rule, consists entirely of quotations and citations as described in
section I.

b) It creates at least one new rule, or makes at least one ammendment to
existing rules, and these ammendments and new rules must include a total 
of at least 42 words quoted as described in section I.

c) It is not Modest.

If a proposal that is a Great Work passes, then the player who authored
the Great Work will gain A$200 in royalties, in addition to any other
bonus or penalties caused by the passage of the proposal.  All players who
voted against a Great Work that was accepted will lose 7 points, for their
poor taste, in addition to any other bonuses or penalties caused by the
passage of the proposal.  Great Works that do not pass have no special
effects.

!!!

Delete section IV and replace it with the text enclosed within %%% below.

%%%

IV.  The Literature list is not a Rule, nor part of a Rule, but rather
a document on which is kept the list of sources that can be quoted as
Literature by following the procedures described in this rule.  Entries on
the Literature list can be either Artists of Works.  They must follow the
format of: Artist (or Work): name of Artist ; descriptive information.
Artists can be any individual, or any group of people who collaborated to
produce quotable material [For example, The Police].  Works are some type
of recording of words.  Collections of connected works [such as the Star
Wars trilogy] are permissible as a single entry, but not collections of
unconnected works [such as an anthology of work by several authors].
Descriptive information is information that helps to clarify exactly who
or what a given entry on the list refers to [Artist: The Police ; band
with Sting as lead singer.  ;  or Artist: George Washington ; First
President of the USA].  Any entries on the Literature list which do not
abide by this rule, and follow the format described above, are invalid and
cannot be quoted from.  Inclusion of descriptive information is, however,
optional.  The Literature list may only be altered through the use of
Proposals or the Spelling Bee.

It is a duty of the Web-Harfer to maintain a publicly available copy of
the Literature list, and to link it with this Rule.  He is encouraged, but
by no means required, to maintain links to sites about the various sources
on the list.

%%%

When this proposal passes, the text of the Literature list will contain
all of the sources listed in Rule 210.  These sources, as well as the line
"The Literature list:" immediately preceeding them, will then be deleted
from Rule 210.

Place the following paragrpah at the end of the Rule (after all other
paragraphs).

This Rule takes precedence over all other Rules dealing with Literature,
the Literature list, and Great Works.

{{[OK.  Here is the much hyped additions to the list that I offered to
lump together.  As before, I urge you not to vote this proposal down just
because you don't like one or two of the people on this list, or because I
didn't include your suggestions.  Plenty of time for that after the other
stuff gets fixed.  Of course, if you don't like my fixes, that's a whole
other problem.  I, of course, urge you to vote for it anyway.]}}

Add the following sources to the Literature list:

Artist: Monty Python's Flying Circus
Artist: Dr. Seuss ; children's author
Artist: Douglas Adams
Artist: Terry Pratchett
Artist: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Artist: Albert Camus
Artist: Leo Tolstoy
Artist: Descartes
Artist: Chaucer
Artist: Charles Dickens
Artist: Plato
Artist: Aristotle
Artist: Sophocles
Artist: Ayn Rand
Artist: Jean-Paul Sartre
Artist: Hermann Hesse
Artist: T.S. Elliot
Artist: William Butler Yeats
Artist: Paul Simon ; with or without Garfunkel
Artist: Friedrich Nietzsche
Work: The Prince ; by Machiavelli
Work: The Decameron ; by Boccacio
Artist: George Orwell
Artist: Aldous Huxley
Artist: Oscar Wilde
Artist: Winston Churchill
Work: The Art of War ; by Sun-Tzu
Work: the Star Wars trilogy ; original three films
Artist: Dante Alighieri ; you know, The Inferno guy
Work: The Aeneid
Artist: W.H. Auden
Work: It's a Wonderful Life ; film
Work: the Magna Carta

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 22 Jun 1997 02:43:53 -0500
From: Acrobot <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka:  Proposal 2148

Proposal 2148
A random walk through the rules.
Malenkai

This is a Long proposal.
This is a Modest proposal.

{{[just some minor loophole repair, bugfixes, and standardizations.
Sorry Alfvaen ;-), but at least they are all in one proposal.]}}

- --------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 254, "Player States", as follows:

I. Replace "two days of having" with "three days of having" where it
appears [standardize most everything on 3 days].

II. Append the following to the end of the rule:

"
{{Amend the Blueprint for the "Whamiol" to add the following sentence
at the end of the Blueprint:

"'Active', for the purposes of the above, only applies to the first 
time a particular player became active."

[admittedly an "argument loophole", but there nonetheless.]
}}
"

- -----------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 255, "Vacationing", as follows:

I. Replace "609" with "401" where it appears [bad pointer reference].

II.  Replace

"
The only thing a player on vacation may legally do is take himself
off vacation.
"

with:

"
The only thing a player on vacation may legally do is take himself
off vacation and send public messages.
"

[CFJ 336 probably makes sending messages while on vacation illegal, but
we do it anyway.]

- -----------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 256, "Leaving the Game" to replace

"Active" with "Active or Non-Voting" all places that it appears.

[This is a tough one.  I think if a player is aware enough to join as
a Non-Voting player, they seem less likely to be a "Tim" situation.
Also, you can build up a pretty decent character as an NVP.  I'd rather
handle the "Tim" situation on a case by case basis then when someone
loses their character.]

- --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 257, "No Dead Players Allowed" to replace:

"communicate publicly with all of the voting players"

with

"send a public message"

[voting players on vacation are permitted to not be on the mailing list,
and functionally, we look for 'send a public message' anyway.]

- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Renumber rule 260, "Public Actions", to 373 

[the 300s is more geared towards public messages, etc.]

- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amend rule 330, "Retractions", to replace "1201" with "1250.1".

[bad pointer]

- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 342, "Spelling Bee", to replace

"
      6) Once the flight has been announced, it has been considered to
be made, and the changes may be physically made by the officer. If a
player objects to a stinging or stinging(s), they must Call for Judgement
on the matter that the change violated this, or other rules. If the CFJ
finds for the player's position, the change(s) must be undone. (Note
that the officer will be liable for CFCJ as well, for initiating an
illegal flight of the Spelling Bee). If the CFJ does not find for the
player, their only recourse is a Proposal to change the language back. 
"

with

"
       6) Upon the flight being announced, the legal changes are applied
to the rules.
"

- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 370, "No E-mail, No Game", to add the following sentence
after the first sentence of the third paragraph:

"This applies to players on non-voluntary activated vacation".

[I don't think rule 370 can do what it claims, due to rule 255's godlike
precedence]

- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 407, "Web-Harfer", to remove its last sentence.

[By the time this rule change is applied, the aliens will have added
that sentence to the end of the rule.  See my comments on the alien rule
itself about this.]

- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amend rule 409, "Registrar", to replace

"
      (e) asking new players how they found out about the game, and
making this information public. if the player provides the information.
"

with:

"
      (e) asking new players how they found out about the game, and
making any answer they provide public.
"

- -------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 413, "Clerk of the Court", to read:

"
      The Office of the Clerk of the Court is a Functional Office. 
The Duties of the Clerk of the Court are: 

            (a) to receive Calls for Judgement (CFJs),
            (b) to select Judges for CFJs, distribute them publically,
and to otherwise administer CFJs as necessary
            (c) to receive verdicts from Judges and other judicial
entities, and to distribute the verdicts publically, at which time they
become official.
            (d) maintaining and making public upon request the CFJ
Ineligibility List. 

     The Clerk of the Court shall be Acting Speaker when there is no 
Speaker, and is the default Acting Speaker when the Speaker is on vacation.
"

- --

[Current text:

      The Office of the Clerk of the Court is a Functional Office. 
The Duties of the Clerk of the Court are: 

            (a) receiving a request for judgement on a statement and
making it an official Call for Judgement (hereafter referred to as CFJ),
in accordance with the rules.
            (b) selecting judges for CFJs in accordance with the rules.
            (c) reporting the results of CFJs publicly, and making
certain that the Web-Harfer has up-to-date information concerning CFJs.
            (d) any administration of CFJs as defined by the rules.
            (e) the Duties of the Speaker when there is no Speaker or
the Speaker is on vacation.
            (f) maintaining and making public upon request the CFJ
Ineligibility List. 

]

- --------------------------------------------------------------------------

[format harfing of the Internomic interface rule, making consistent
use of the term Liaison, and providing more of a format to add new
sections as new things go on in Internomic.  We also know our name
is "Ackamomic", at least for now :)]

Amend rule 419.2, "Ackanomic/Internomic Interface" so that its title
is "Internomic Interface", and so that its text is:

"
      I. Liaison

      The Ambassador (or, in the absence of an Ambassador, the Speaker)
is Ackanomic's Liaison to InterNomic. The Liaison shall keep the Players
of Ackanomic apprised in a timely fashion of events in InterNomic of
interest to Ackanomic. 

      II. InterNomic Proposals

      Any Voting Player may request the Liaison to make an InterNomic
Proposal by sending the Proposal to the Liaison. If said Proposal is
adopted by InterNomic, the player who requested it receives 7 points
upon the Liaison reporting the fact of its adoption to Ackanomic. 

      III. InterNomic Voting

      Whenever Ackanomic is permitted to vote upon any matter in
Internomic, the Liaison shall initiate a binding vote in the Senate to
determine how e should cast Ackanomic's vote in Internomic. 

      In the event that the Senate does not reach a decision, the
President shall determine how e casts Ackanomic's vote.

      IV. InterNomic Judgements (ISFJs)

      Whenever Ackanomic is required to serve as a judge in Internomic,
the Liaison shall publically post the statement for judgement along with
the initiator's reasoning, if any. During the three days following this
post, players may respond to the statement for judgment with whatever
comments and reasoning they may have on the judgement. Three days after
the Liaison's posting of the statement for judgement, a Hearing will
commence. The valid responses for this Hearing will be the allowed 
verdicts Ackanomic may deliver in response to the ISFJ. For the 
purposes of determining a verdict in this Hearing, each response from
a Bronze Torch holder counts as two player responses, and non-player
responses do not count. The verdict of this hearing shall be the
verdict delivered on the statement for judgement. In the event of a tie
or a verdict of "Never Mind", the Liaison shall determine which verdict
to deliver. This section has precedence over rules governing Hearings.
When reporting the verdict to Internomic, the Liaison shall use
whatever player comments he feels are appropriate, including dissenting
ones, and shall annote these comments with their author's Ackanomic name. 

      V.  Internomic Attitude

      In order to change the Attitude of Ackanomic toward any other
member nomic of InterNomic, a vote must be held.  Each Senator has one
vote, and the Liaison has one vote (if the Liaison is also a 
Senator, e only gets one vote total).  These votes are duties of the
respective offices.  If 60% or more of these eligible voters vote in 
favor of changing the Attitude of Ackanomic, then the Liaison shall
take whatever steps are necessary and possible to carry out this 
decision in InterNomic.

- --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 421, "Office of Common Sense, Redundancy, and Redundancy"
to replace:

"
      (c) A privilege of the CSRR is publishing Common Sense Reports.
A common sense report (CSR) is a suggested change to the rules. A CSR
is not a proposal. The changes suggested in a CSR may only consist of
amending, renumbering and repealing rules. 
"

with:

"
      (c) A privilege of the CSRR is to issue Common Sense Reports (CSRs).
A CSR is a list of suggested changes to the rules, but it is not a proposal.
"

[This gets rid of that annoying provision that CSRs cannot create new
rules, leading to appending self-deleting fragments to the end of 
other rules to achieve the same effect]

- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 424, "Poet Laureate", to remove the following text:

"(any of the Public Gatherings listed in Rule 1115 are appropriate)"

[rule 1115 is long gone]

- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 500.3, "Entity Uniqueness", to remove the following text:

"
[Mimsy entities cannot be owned by Undead. See Rule 962.2 .]
"

[rule 962.2 is long gone, or at least rearranged, and mimsy is
defined elsewhere]

- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 505, "Treasury and AckaDollars", to replace

"combined value of all extant Trinkets (including those Trinkets"

with:

"combined value of all extant Trinkets and Majiks (including those
Trinkets and Majiks"

[it should balance if we are going to cling to this hard currency
thing that has been around since the beginning of time in this game.]

- -----------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 506, "Trinkets", to replace "discovered" with "publically
knowable".  [This will only take effect if proposal 2147 is accepted.]

- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 511, "Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die" to replace

"
      Once a Majik becomes a trinket again, it is automatically
destroyed, following the rules for trinkets.
"

with:

"
      Once a Majik becomes a trinket again, it is transformed into its
value in A$.
"

[The statement is ambiguous.  Is it transformed or donated (the only two
primitive actions really available to the trinket subclass).  In the
latter, case, the owner loses the A$ value.  I do not know what was
intended, but I figured the less harsh interpretation was preferrable]

- ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 517 so that its title is "Contracts";
replace "restrictions" with "provisions" where it appears in the 3rd
  paragraph;
replace "recognized" with "knowable" where it appears in the paragraph
labelled as "2)"

- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Amend rule 594, "Blueprints" to replace "260" with "373".  [Bad
pointer caused by this proposal.] 

- -------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 595, "Gadgets" to remove section (i), then reletter all
sections with the corresponding lowercase roman numeral one lower
than its current label; then change "Gadgets, Creatures, and Artifacts"
to "Gadgets" in section (iv).

[For Mohammed :)]

- --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 597, "The Frankenstein Monster(s)", to replace:

"
provided that Player has not already done so since the prior Thursday.
"

with

"
once per calendar week.
"

[more standardization]

- -----------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 666, "End of Cycle", to replace "extant Trinkets" in section
e) with "extant Trinkets and Majiks". [tax section]

[When I wrote the Trinkets rule, I had a pile of money, and specifically
left that tax loophole in.  I'll leave it to someone else to fix it if
they want, but we should be consistent with Trinkets/Majiks.  There
really should be a class above Trinkets and Majiks, or better yet,
Majiks are Trinkets in all ways except ... I will leave that to someone
else too]

- -----------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 710, "Criminal Justice", to replace "artifacts" with
"tinkets" where it appears in the suggested penalty section.

- -----------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 844, "Land Baroncy", to replace:

"
      Any active player may purchase a kaa of empty, common land by
paying the current Price of Land (rounded down to the nearest whole 
number of A$) to the treasury.
"

with:

"
      A player may purchase a kaa of empty, common land for A$50.
"

and also remove:

"
      At the time officer's salaries are paid, the Officer in Charge
of Random Things shall choose one of the following five possible events 
to occur at random, with equal probabilities: 

            A. The Price of Land increases by five percent (5%)
            B. The Price of Land increases by 1%
            C. The Price of Land does not change
            D. The Price of Land decreases by 1%
            E. The Price of Land decreases by 5%

      If this results in the Price of Land having more than 3 digits to the 
right of the decimal point, those beyond the third are truncated. 
"

[Its just one more thing for me to forget, and the price flucuations are
so trivial anyway.  Also lets NVPs own land]

- -------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 1040, "Party Hall" to replace "more than 6 days" with
"more than 7 days".

- -------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 1044, "Swingpoints", to replace "Tuesday" with 
"Monday {{the Chess Umpire will use his descretion to declare which
upcoming monday is the appropriate one to make this transition on.}}";

and also replace "2a" with "4a" where it appears in section 5d.

[more standardization.  Everything is moving to mondays]

- -------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 1131, "The Sinister Alien Abduction Act" to remove:

"
      When returned, the rule is amended in the following way: 

      A) If the Rule does not already contain the sentence "This rule
defers to all other Rules which do not contain this sentence outside
of quotation marks.", then that sentence is appended to the Rule. 

      B)If the Rule already contains the sentence, then the sentence
is deleted from the Rule. 

      [Popular Theory maintains that the Sinister Aliens are are 
amending our rules as some sort of sick practical joke.] 
"

[I do not think the virus is incredibly harfy or fun, it can only serve
to make the game more confusing for newbies, more of a hassle for the
officers, and more points for Malenkai to write proposals to remove it.
It is also a bit of a clutter in the rules.  While I have nothing
phisosophical against rule viruses, the fun and creativity of the virus
should exceed the work and hassle, as is true for all things.]

- ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 1215, "Duels", to replace:

"
accepted for listing (or listed) on the Games & Contests web page
"

with:

"
in the Games and Contests Rule Suite
"

[I thought I fixed this.  Did you guys vote it down?  In any case, its
sort of difficult to do duels now]

- -----------------------------------------------------------------------

Amend rule 1301, "Church", to remove:

"
      This rule defers to all other Rules which do not contain this
sentence outside of quotation marks.
"

- -----------------------------------------------------------------------

Create a new rule entitled "Definitely Finno-Uralic", numbered 17, with
the following text:

"
{{
	This rule has precedence over all rules.

	First, take all Runestone of Jukkasjarvi Fragments that are not
owned by currently active players or vacationing players, and disperse
them randomly amongst the currently active non-vacationing players.

        Then transfer the trinkets that were transferred by rule 2079
to Niccolo Flychuck, if there is such a player, and there are such
trinkets.

         [this seems to be what was intended by rule 2079]
}}
"

[end]
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 22 Jun 1997 09:36:18 -0500
From: Acrobot <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka:  Proposal 2152

Proposal 2152
Orgs want dividends too
Niccolo Flychuck

This is a Modest proposal.
In R508 "Bond Yields" 
a. Replace the string "paid to the player" with the
string "paid to the entity"
b. Replace the string "transferred from the player" with the string
"transferred from the entity"

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 22 Jun 1997 09:36:21 -0500
From: Acrobot <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka:  P2096 accepted (Wibble Revisited (or viva McSpong))

Proposal 2096
Wibble Revisited (or viva McSpong)
Robert Sevin

Votes cast by active players:  19 / 20 = 95.000000%
Yes:  13    No:  6     Present:  0   ...Proposal accepted.

YES votes:
	Atilla the Pun
	Bascule
	Robert Sevin
	You can call me Al
	Calvin N Hobbes
	Rex Mundi
	Karma
	Malenkai
	Guy Fawkes
	Mohammed
	Vynd
	Techno
	Mr. Lunatic Fringe

NO votes:
	two-star
	breadbox
	Alfvaen
	fnord
	/dev/joe
	ThinMan

PRESENT votes:

Active players who did not vote:
	Antimatter was here
	CarsesraC
	Red Barn
	Niccolo Flychuck

Text of accepted proposal:

Proposal 2096
Wibble Revisited (or viva McSpong)
Robert Sevin
Distributed at 03:00:10 on Sunday, 15 June 1997

All proposals which are made by the Harfmeister must include an approved
silly word. The approved list of silly words is as follows: spong, wibble,
ni!, pheeeeew, zopzop, boing, banana, squawk, thatcher,
yeenewkleorrrrmeeesseilllllee. 

[Original Author: Julian Richardson aka Dr McSpong, Proposal 357]

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 22 Jun 1997 09:36:20 -0500
From: Acrobot <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka:  P2095 accepted (Work (or reducing a little bit of it))

Proposal 2095
Work (or reducing a little bit of it)
Malenkai

Votes cast by active players:  19 / 20 = 95.000000%
Yes:  18    No:  0     Present:  3   ...Proposal accepted.

#award Malenkai: 2 A$ : elec. potato P2095, June 22

YES votes:
	Atilla the Pun
	Bascule
	Robert Sevin
	You can call me Al
	breadbox
	Calvin N Hobbes
	Alfvaen
	fnord
	/dev/joe
	Karma
	Malenkai
	ThinMan
	Guy Fawkes
	Mohammed
	Vynd
	Techno
	Vulcan Unity vote
	Harf Unity vote

NO votes:

PRESENT votes:
	two-star
	Rex Mundi
	Mr. Lunatic Fringe

Active players who did not vote:
	Antimatter was here
	CarsesraC
	Red Barn
	Niccolo Flychuck

Text of accepted proposal:

Proposal 2095
Work (or reducing a little bit of it)
Malenkai
Distributed at 03:00:08 on Sunday, 15 June 1997

{{[Gist:  this proposal replacess the existing Ad Hoc committee
selection criteria with a simple random selection.  I ask the voters,
any of which may be in the position to do this work someday, to list
all the valid players for each criteria.  Sure, someone could sift
through the ftp archives, and the rules to see which entities are
unique, etc, but that just isn't fun.  It is also not possible for 
someone who has e-mail only access to the 'net, and one of the 3 premises
of Acka is that it is playable by such a person.  As Mohammed has said,
lets reduce the tedious bookkeeping in this game.  Moreover, a simple
random selection over our population size will adhere to the *intent*
of the rule as written now, by providing players with diverse backgrounds,
interests, and styles of play.

I realise it takes some of the color out of the rule, but we all have 
limited time, and these are the tradeoffs that have to be sought out 
sometimes.  There is a limited capacity for work from the people in
the game who are willing to do it, so this capacity has to be taken from
this rule, and used on something more interesting than player selections.
I'd much rather develop some fun stuff than do this sort of stuff,
quite frankly.

People sometimes ask me why I vote NO so much.  The first thing I look at
in a proposal is 'how much more work does this create?', and has its
author considered this, provided for it, and does the work pay off at
least 1 to 1 in fun.  

Sorry for the length of this, but it has been on my mind as people keep
proposing stuff that creates more work, and at the same time proposes 
reductions in the privileges of the offices that are doing this work.

I'm happy that proposal 2008 ("Salary Cap") was rejected, and would
appreciate it if Acka rejected proposal 2085 ("Modifying the Senate")
for the same reasons, as discussed previously in public.  It makes
sense that the offices that do work are *desirable*.  I hope people
are lining up to do some harfer jobs when /dev/joe leaves.  I cannot do
any of them.]}}

- -------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a Modest proposal.

Amend rule 1080, "Ad Hoc Committees", to read:

"
      1. An Ad Hoc Committee (Committee) can be called in any of the
following ways:
      
      a. By other rules.
      b. By any player, as a public action, posting a call for one, 
provided at least 5 additional players publically endorse this call within 3
days.
      c. This section defers to any rule which empower a Committee
with regards to the procedures that are considered to valid calls only for 
the specific type of Committee which is empowered by that rule.
      d. The decision of any Committee has no effect on the game state
except where the rules say it does. 

      2. The call must specify the matter on which the Committee is to
be called, and the specific case this matter pertains to.  If a call
to a Committee specifies a matter, and no rule empowers a Committee for
such a matter, or another Committee has already been called on the same
specific case in the same calendar month, then the call is void (except
when this occurs as a result of section 5 of this rule).

      3. When an Committee has been legally called it shall initially
be composed of 7 different randomly selected, active, voting players.
If that is not possible, the Committee call is voided.

      4. Players may, as a public action, resign from a Committee within
3 days of being selected to one.  If such resignation occurs within 3 days
of the formation of the Committee, and the Committee is still in 
session, then another active, voting player who has not been on this
particular Committee is randomly selected to take their place, if such
a player exists.  

      5. Once a Committee has been formed it has 7 days to post its
decision on the matter in question.  It is a Crime for a player to 
falsely represent the decision of a Committee.  If a Committee fails 
to reach a decision in 7 days, or reaches 0 members before it reaches
a decision, all of its members are held in Contempt, it is dissolved,
and another one is called on the specific matter in question.  
{{[the problem with the majority vote method of the old 
version is it severly limits what a Committee can do, ie choose amongst
2 a priori specified alternatives (well, its possible for one of a set
of many to receive a majority, but not a good idea to force it to be
that way).  For example, proposal 2087 will break Commission d'Arts
without this change, because the procedural guidelines layed out for
Committes by the current rule 1080 do not give them the flexibility
that proposal 2087 would demand]}}.

      6. Once a Committee has posted its decision, it dissolves.

      7. The decision of the Committee is binding to the specific case on 
which it has decided.  A decision made by a Committee can be overturned 
as described in the rules.
"

- ------------------------------------------------------------------------

{{[existing text:

      1. An ad hoc committee can be called in one of the following ways:
      a. By a rule
      b. By any Institution which is session provided the President approves 
within three days of the
      Institution's anouncement that it is calling for an ad hoc committee.
      c. By any player posting a public message to that effect, provided at 
least 5 additional players
      publically support this call within three days. d. This section defers 
to any rule which empower
      an Ad Hoc Comittee with regards to the procedures that are considered 
to valid calls only for the
      specific type of comittee which is empowered by that rule. 

      2. Regardless of who makes the original call, the call must specify the 
matter on which the
      committee is to be called, and the specific case this matter pertains 
to. If a call to an ad hoc calls
      specifies a matter, and there exists no rules that empowers an ad hoc 
committee for such a matter,
      then the call is void and is ignored. If a comittee is called on a 
specific case on which another
      comittee has already been called in the same calnder month, then the 
call is void and is ignored. 

      3. When an ad hoc committee has been legally called for it shall be 
constructed according to the
      following criteria: 

      a. One player shall be randomly selected from among active players who 
are or have been
      Presidents. 
      b. One player shall be selected randomly from among the Swingers, 
excluding Capital Swingers. 
      c. One player shall be selected randomly from among the active players 
who are Bronze Torch
      holders.
      d. One player shall be selected randomly from among the players who won 
past cycles of
      Ackanomic.
      e. One player shall be selected randomly from among the players who own 
or posses unique
      entities.
      f. One player shall be selected randomly from the players who have less 
than A$100 or a
      non-positive number of points.
      g. If the specified matter deals with extra nomic relations or 
entities, then one player shall be
      appointed by the Ambassador.
      h. One player shall be selected randomly from among the active players, 
who fit none of the
      above criteria, if such players exist.
      i. Up to two additional players may be selected according to criteria 
defined by the rule
      empowering the specific ad hoc committee. 

      Once a player has been selected for a given comitte according to two of 
the above criteria e is no
      longer eligible to be selected to the same committee by other criteria. 
Players may decline to be
      on an ad hoc committee. If at the end of this process there are fewer 
than five members in the
      committee, then additional players are appointed to replace the ones 
that have declined until the
      committee has been filled. If possible, they should be selected 
according to criteria that are not
      filled by the members of the ad hoc committee. If the committee still 
has fewer than five members,
      than Senators and President are added to the committee by alphabetical 
order of their Ackanomic
      names, until the committee has five members. 

      4. Once a committee has been appointed it has seven days in which to 
post its decision. In its
      consideration it must follow the rules which empower that specific 
committee. All ad hoc
      committee decision are voted on by all members of the committee the 
outcome is determined
      according to a simple majority rule. If any members go on Vacation 
before he committee posted
      its decisions, they are not replaced by other players. If they voted 
before they went on Vacation,
      then their votes are counted, otherwise, they are considered to have 
abstained. In case of a tie,
      the President breaks the tie. 

      5. Once a committee has posted its decision, it dissolves. Each member 
of the committee receives
      A$25 from the Treasury, as compensation for eir trouble, unless they 
indicate a favorite charity,
      in which case the money is transferred to that charity instead. 

      6. If a comittee has been called on a matter, and there already exists 
a comittee that has been
      called on the same matter, then the Speaker has the privilege to decide 
that the existing comittee
      will decide on the new case as well. In such a case the Comittee 
dissolves when it has posted its
      decisions on all cases assigned to it. Members of the Comittee have the 
option to decline the
      new case. If the number of members left on the Comittee from below 
five, then the Speaker shall
      appoint new members according to the procedure described in section 3 
of this rule. 

      In any case the decision of the Comittee is binding to the specific 
case on which it has decided.
      A decision made by an Ad Hoc Comittee can be overturned according to 
the rule which
      empower the that Ad Hoc Comittee. 
]}}

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 22 Jun 1997 09:36:21 -0500
From: Acrobot <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka:  P2097 accepted (Munchkin Haven all over again)

Proposal 2097
Munchkin Haven all over again
Robert Sevin

Votes cast by active players:  19 / 20 = 95.000000%
Yes:  12    No:  6     Present:  1   ...Proposal accepted.

YES votes:
	Atilla the Pun
	Bascule
	two-star
	Robert Sevin
	You can call me Al
	Calvin N Hobbes
	Karma
	Malenkai
	Guy Fawkes
	Vynd
	Techno
	Mr. Lunatic Fringe

NO votes:
	breadbox
	Alfvaen
	fnord
	/dev/joe
	ThinMan
	Mohammed

PRESENT votes:
	Rex Mundi

Active players who did not vote:
	Antimatter was here
	CarsesraC
	Red Barn
	Niccolo Flychuck

Text of accepted proposal:

Proposal 2097
Munchkin Haven all over again
Robert Sevin
Distributed at 03:00:10 on Sunday, 15 June 1997

Upon the passing of this proposal, any party whose name (delimited by ") is
"(None Yet)" will automatically have its party name  changed to (delimited
by ") "Munchkin Haven". This name may not be changed.

[Original Author: Julian Richardson aka Dr McSpong, Proposal 538]

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 22 Jun 1997 09:36:21 -0500
From: Acrobot <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka:  P2098 accepted (Revenge of Life, the Universe, and Everything)

Proposal 2098
Revenge of Life, the Universe, and Everything
Robert Sevin

Votes cast by active players:  19 / 20 = 95.000000%
Yes:  11    No:  7     Present:  2   ...Proposal accepted.

YES votes:
	Atilla the Pun
	Bascule
	Robert Sevin
	You can call me Al
	Calvin N Hobbes
	Alfvaen
	Guy Fawkes
	Vynd
	Techno
	Mr. Lunatic Fringe
	Harf Unity vote

NO votes:
	two-star
	breadbox
	fnord
	/dev/joe
	Malenkai
	ThinMan
	Mohammed

PRESENT votes:
	Rex Mundi
	Karma

Active players who did not vote:
	Antimatter was here
	CarsesraC
	Red Barn
	Niccolo Flychuck

Text of accepted proposal:

Proposal 2098
Revenge of Life, the Universe, and Everything
Robert Sevin
Distributed at 03:00:11 on Sunday, 15 June 1997

If at any time this rule's number is not 42, this rule changes its number to
42. This rule takes precedence over any other rule which would try to set or
change this rule's number. 

[Original Author: Joseph DeVincentis aka devjoe, Proposal 582]
{{Add 5 points to /dev/joe's score}}

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 22 Jun 1997 09:36:23 -0500
From: Acrobot <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka:  P2101 accepted (Robin Hood Strikes Again! (and Again!))

Proposal 2101
Robin Hood Strikes Again! (and Again!)
Robert Sevin

Votes cast by active players:  19 / 20 = 95.000000%
Yes:  13    No:  6     Present:  1   ...Proposal accepted.

YES votes:
	Atilla the Pun
	Bascule
	Robert Sevin
	You can call me Al
	Calvin N Hobbes
	Alfvaen
	Rex Mundi
	fnord
	Guy Fawkes
	Vynd
	Techno
	Mr. Lunatic Fringe
	Harf Unity vote

NO votes:
	two-star
	breadbox
	/dev/joe
	Malenkai
	ThinMan
	Mohammed

PRESENT votes:
	Karma

Active players who did not vote:
	Antimatter was here
	CarsesraC
	Red Barn
	Niccolo Flychuck

Text of accepted proposal:

Proposal 2101
Robin Hood Strikes Again! (and Again!)
Robert Sevin
Distributed at 03:00:13 on Sunday, 15 June 1997

On Monday each week 2% of the richest (possessing the most Ackanomic
currency) player's Ackanomic currency will be given to the player with the
least Ackanomic currency (or the most in debt, if anyone is in debt). 

[Original Author: Mitchell Harding aka Robert Sevin, Proposal 645]

------------------------------

End of Ackanomic Voting Digest V2 #96
*************************************