Subject: Ackanomic Digest V1 #518
From: [email-masked] (Ackanomic Digest)
To: ackanomic-digest

Ackanomic Digest       Friday, February 14 1997       Volume 01 : Number 518

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

Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 16:14:55 -0800
From: [email-masked]
Subject: acka: (None Yet)

Good Day Mate
I have decided to apply to the (None Yet) party because if I am accepted, I will 
have been accepted.  If I would have been accepted without writing this message, 
it never actually got sent.  I am glad to be or not to be part of the (None Yet) 
party as the case may or may not be.
Ludwig

P.S.  Any Message containing the phrase "Good Day Mate" is to be considered to 
be spoken with an Australian Accent to the World.  It is not to be ignored, but 
this last sentence is.

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

Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 19:54:48 -0500
From: Malenkai <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Returning Player

Welcome back.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.

IdiotBoy wrote:

> [...] as soon as I know how much Acka$ I have, we're
> going to break that A$20 barrier.

Your possessions are:

   Has two Prosthetic Foreheads   but is wearing neither
   Has pointy ears

   Cash : 442 A$
   Bonds: 10 PFsnowgod
          25 PBPGuy
          40 PBPUncle
         100 PBPWayne

You lost the Hot Tips Newsletter when a rule required all newspapers to
publish once a month.  As for the A$20 barrier, some PFsnowgod actually
traded at A$20.

- -------------------------------------------
only RoJ info for IdiotBoy below this point
- -------------------------------------------

Also, there is a treasure hunt in process (treasure 122) you can
participate in by meeting one of these conditions, if you are
interested.  There are other treasure hunts in progress as well, that
are of a less participatory nature:

I will be distributing the remaining runestone fragments as follows.
If there are still some at the end of the month, I will auction them,
or, as the month progresses, think of other ways to get rid of them.
I will only give one out per player per condition, and in all cases
you must indicate that you want one, if you want one, and the condition
must be met after the time of this post.

1) Did not get one as a result of P 1688, and voted on a proposal
with number greater than 1688 (this was already published in a different
form).  So far Narf has indicated e wants one based on this condition.

2) Has frinked from the Onyx Vase (coke will do, qv treasure 107).

3) Has won a subgame involving 3 or more players (no teams, and not
the current game of Fictionary of YORL).

4) Has won a duel.

Malenkai

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

Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 16:02:29 -0900
From: Phil Ackley <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Runestone Fragments 

>I will be distributing the remaining runestone fragments as follows.
>If there are still some at the end of the month, I will auction them,
>or, as the month progresses, think of other ways to get rid of them.
>I will only give one out per player per condition, and in all cases
>you must indicate that you want one, if you want one:>

4) Has won a duel.

I would like one as I qualify by condidtion 4

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

Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 20:11:04 -0500
From: Malenkai <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Runestone Fragments

Phil Ackley wrote:

> 4) Has won a duel.
> 
> I would like one as I qualify by condidtion 4

Sorry, I announced last night that it must be after the date of
the post :(  All you have to do is vote on a proposal, though :)

Malenkai

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

Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 16:17:11 -0900
From: Phil Ackley <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka:  Little Bags O' Chips J-Y 

>> I hereby call a witchhunt against Ludwig for this public implication that
>> the earth is round.
>
>Give me a break. Donations to the Society imply that the earth is FLAT
>- otherwise, why would you be giving them money?

But e called it the ROUND EARTH society.  He left out all mentions of
restoration :)

snowgod

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

Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 20:59:59 -0500 (EST)
From: Matt Miller <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Returning Player

Malenkai wrote:

> Welcome back.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.
>
Can I ask you if I just feel like arguing?  Awww, com'n!

<SNIP of Possessions Stuff> 
> You lost the Hot Tips Newsletter when a rule required all newspapers to
> publish once a month.  As for the A$20 barrier, some PFsnowgod actually
> traded at A$20.
> 

As far as I can tell, that newspaper was nothing but trouble anyway.  I saw
that those PFsnowgod were trading that high.. That's the barrier I am trying
to break.  I even saw a suggestion in a certain monthly newspaper that
PFMalenkai and PFThinman might be worth A$50!  I wish I had held on to mine,
now.

IB

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

Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 20:52:55 -0600
From: Jason Orendorff <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka:  Proposal 1726

Proposal 1726
The Widget of Yendor
breadbox

The Widget of Yendor exists. It is a unique, Tradeable entity.

The Widget of Yendor (hereinafter referred to as simply "the Widget")
is in one of two states at any time: the "frobbed" state, or the
"tweaked" state. When the Widget is unowned, it is always in the
tweaked state.

A player who owns the Widget may change it to the frobbed state by
publically stating that they are "frobbing the Widget". They may
change it back to the tweaked state by publically stating that they
are "tweaking the Widget". (Frobbing the Widget when it is already in
the frobbed state has no effect. Likewise, tweaking the Widget when it
is already in the tweaked state also has no effect.)

When the Widget is in the frobbed state, any scoring changes that
would normally occur to the owner's score fail to have an effect. [In
essence, the score of the player who owns the Widget does not change
while the Widget is frobbed.]

The Widget will automatically change its state to tweaked if it is in
the frobbed state when any of the following are true:

1) the Widget is unowned;

2) the Widget's current state was set by a player other than the
   current owner [as opposed to an automatic state change];

3) the Widget has been in the frobbed state continuously for seven
   days;

4) the score of any player is within thirty points of the amount
   necessary to win.

Furthermore, any attempt to frob the Widget when any of the above
conditions are true will have no effect.

{{The Widget of Yendor is currently unowned and is residing in the
Treasury. An auction is hereby initiated for the Widget of Yendor.}}

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

Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 20:52:57 -0600
From: Jason Orendorff <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka:  Proposal 1727

Proposal 1727
Newspapers Must be Public to be Newspapers
breadbox

This is a Modest Proposal.

Make the following two changes to Rule 925 "The Press": 1) Delete the
fourth and fifth paragraphs. 2) Replace the first paragraph with
the following text:

Any player may start a newspaper, by publically declaring that they
are doing so. Newspapers must be given names, which must be announced
at the same time that the newspaper is created. A small fee of A$20
must be paid to the treasury to cover start-up costs.

A player who owns a newspaper is allowed to post messages to an
official mailing list with an indication that the message is an
article of that newspaper. Such an article is then said to have been
published in that newspaper.

A posting that is not sent to one of the official mailing lists is
never considered to be a newspaper publication. In addition, no player
may publish an article in a newspaper she does not own without the
express permission of the newspaper's owner.

{{[ With one exception, this doesn't really change the rule. For the
most part it organizes the language, replaces a few occurences of
"paper" with the word "newspaper", and makes use of our new concept of
"official mailing lists". The exception is that this change will
specifically exempt private mail from being able to be a newspaper
publication. Please note that it does not prevent someone from calling
their private mail a newspaper publication; what it does is prevent
such an action from actually having any weight. In other words, a CFCJ
can't be called on you because you claimed some private message was a
newspaper article when you haven't paid the A$20 startup cost.

I've been wanting to do this for a long time, ever since CFCJ 115 and
CFJ 301, when this exact situation happened to IdiotBoy. I don't think
that we should be trying to extend the rules to regulate our private
mail. While it is true that the rules do impose requirements that some
things happen in private mail - such as private auctions, Tammany
bribes, etc. - it shouldn't go beyond what is necessary to properly
conduct game business. To my mind, this comes dangerously close to
bringing a form of protection to our private messages.

I hope people don't think I'm overreacting; IdiotBoy went to Gaol over
this, after all. I personally do not want to see some future CFCJ
called on me - or on anyone else, for that matter - for the crime of
"manipulating a protected entity", because I sent a joking email to
the Scorekeeper that happend to contain the words "[admittedly this is
a stupid example] set breadbox's score to the Magic Number. " ]}}

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

Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 21:00:38 -0600 (CST)
From: Jason Orendorff <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka:  update

Odin is back up.

Odin went down last night; mail to me may or may not have bounced for 
some hours (from late last night to within the past few hours).

My apologies to /dev/joe for all the bounced messages.  :o(

I tried to send a message saying I was going on vacation via Netscape 
from one of the PCs around here, and had some trouble.  I have *never* 
successfully sent mail via Netscape.  Now I sincerely hope that this 
attempt didn't get through, either.  Did it?

- --Mohammed

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

Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 21:05:40 -0600 (CST)
From: Jason Orendorff <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Sunday brunch

> Getting warmer.... warmer.... but nope.  Aint no teasure under my floorboards.
	I am creating a Trinket called "Rosebud".  It is a little black 
sled worth A$ 1.
	I am returning to snowgod's house with Rosebud.
	I am sledding back and forth across his floor.

- --Mohammed
pointedly not offering to pay for the damages  =)

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

Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 21:31:04 -0600 (CST)
From: Jason Orendorff <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka:  RFC eliminating the voting bonus

Please let me know what you think.

RFC Eliminating the Voting Bonus

Rule 207 (Scoring When A Proposal's Voting Results are Reported) is
amended by changing:

- ---
III.  Scoring on Accepted Proposals
If a non-Modest proposal is accepted, the player who proposed it
receives 10 points, and every player who voted NO on it receives 3
points. If a Modest proposal is accepted, the player who proposed it
receives half as many points as he or she would have received
otherwise, and no points are awarded for voting NO.

IV.  Scoring on Rejected Proposals
If a proposal is rejected, but meets quorum, the player who proposed
it loses 7 points and every player who voted YES on it receives 3
points.
- ---

to:

- ---
III.  Scoring on Accepted Proposals
If a non-Modest proposal is accepted, the player who proposed it
receives 10 points.  If a Modest proposal is accepted, the player who
proposed it receives half as many points as he or she would have
received otherwise.

IV.  Scoring on Rejected Proposals
If a proposal is rejected, but meets quorum, the player who proposed
it loses 7 points.
- ---

- --Mohammed

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

Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 21:48:58 -0600 (CST)
From: Jason Orendorff <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka:  poll

1.  Out of curiousity, would anyone be opposed to replacing all
occurrances of "Organization" in the ruleset with "Racket"? 

I find Racket to sound pleasantly disorganized.  It also takes up less
space and takes less time to say (and for folks like me who move their
lips when they read this can mean a significant savings.) (Okay, maybe
it's insignificant...)  Also, since I'm writing a proposal that would make
Organizations a bit more capitalistic, Racket seems appropriate.  (What it
does is force Orgz to *pay* for their powers, such as the Bonus Vote and
enforceable Dogma.)

2.  Currently the rules say that no one can be joined to an Organization
against his or her will.  I don't think they say that anyone can *leave* 
an Organization at any time.  Exactly what do we want here?  "against eir 
will" is somewhat vague, but it's worked so far.

Does "against eir will" mean "without consent" or "without public 
consent"...?  Can someone join a church, then suddenly decide e 
didn't want to do that in the first place-- and make the case that e 
*never joined* because joining was against eir will?

- --Mohammed

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

Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1997 00:17:08 -0500
From: Malenkai <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Sunday brunch

Mohammed wrote:

>         I am creating a Trinket called "Rosebud".  It is a little black
> sled worth A$ 1.

The Arts and Antiquities community is officially sneering at all 
trinkets worth less than A$5.

Malenkai

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

Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 23:23:58 -0600 (CST)
From: "Joseph W. DeVincentis" <devjoe>
Subject: Re: Acka:  update

> Odin is back up.
> 
> Odin went down last night; mail to me may or may not have bounced for 
> some hours (from late last night to within the past few hours).
> 
> My apologies to /dev/joe for all the bounced messages.  :o(

Nothing bounced; wilma found your DNS, and the messages were "deferred"
when wilma couldn't connect to send the e-mail.  You should have received
all the queued messages by now.

> I tried to send a message saying I was going on vacation via Netscape 
> from one of the PCs around here, and had some trouble.  I have *never* 
> successfully sent mail via Netscape.  Now I sincerely hope that this 
> attempt didn't get through, either.  Did it?

It did not get through.

/dev/joe

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

Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1997 00:23:00 -0500
From: Malenkai <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Hearing 107 Result

Hearing 107: Witchhunt against Mohammed

Voting was 4-2 in favor of BURN THE WITCH!
However, because Mohammed did the altar thing, the result has no
effect, and Mohammed remains un-Enlightened.

Malenkai

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

Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 23:28:11 -0600 (CST)
From: Jason Orendorff <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: update

On Thu, 13 Feb 1997, Joseph W. DeVincentis wrote:
> Nothing bounced; wilma found your DNS, and the messages were "deferred"
> when wilma couldn't connect to send the e-mail.  You should have received
> all the queued messages by now.
	Wow.  That's quite nice.  (I did receive them; although they
seemed to be in reverse order.  *odd look*)

> It did not get through.
	Excellent.

- --Mohammed
crafting something

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

Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 23:30:57 -0600 (CST)
From: Jason Orendorff <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka:  Pre-RFC  org reorg

231 lines of tripe for your perusal.  Comments will be appreciated.

Pre-RFC:  Organization Reorganization

1.  Rule 721/10 ("Organizations") is amended to read:
- ---
Organizations are unownable, named entities.

[1.  Forming an Organization]

Any Player may form a new Organization by announcing its name
publicly.  (Its name must be a legal name.)  When this happens, that
Player becomes the Founder of the new Organization and its only
member.  Organizations formed in this way are known as
Player-sanctioned Organizations.

Alternatively, an Organization may be created and defined by other
Rules.  Such Organizations are called Rule-sanctioned Organizations.
A Rule-sanctioned Organization does not necessarily have a Founder.

[2.  Organization Disbandment]

The rules may call for the disbandment of an Organization.  When an
Organization is disbanded, everything owned by the Organization is
transferred to the Treasury, and the Organization is then no more.

[3.  Organization Size]

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

The Active Size of an Organization is the number of Players who are
members of that Organization and are not on vacation.

[4.  Organization Similarity]

The H Similarity between two Organizations is the percentage of
members of one of the two (the smaller, if they are of different
sizes) that are also members of the other.

The L Similarity between two Organizations is the percentage of
members of one of the two (the larger, if they are of different sizes)
that are also members of the smaller one.

The M Similarity between two Organizations is the average of the H
Similarity and the L Similarity between those two Organizations.

[5.  Player Liberty Clause]

No Player may be forced to become a member of an Organization
against their will.
- ---

[Current text:

     1. Organizations are unownable, named entities.
     When an Organization is formed its type and name must be declared.
     The Organization type must be a type defined by the rules.
     The name must be a legal Ackanomic name.

     2. For any two given Organizations A and B the following quantities
     can be deteremined:

     a) S(A->B) is defined as the percentage of the members of
     Organization A who are also members of Organization B

     b) S(B->A) is defined as the percentage of the members of
     Organization B who are also members of Organization A

     c) Organization H Similarity is defined as the greater of S(A->B),
     S(B->A)

     d) Orgnization L Similarity is defined as the smaller of S(A->B),
     S(B->A)

     e) Orgnaization M Similarity is defined as the average between
     S(A->B), S(B->A).

     3.
     a The Size of an Organization is defined as the number of members of
     that Organization.

     b. If a given Organization x, has more members than given
     Organization y, then Organization x is said to be larger than
     Organization y. If two Organiztions have the same number of members,
     then they are of equal size.

     c. The Active Size of an Organization is defined as the number of
     non-vactioning members of that Organization.

     4.
     No Player may be forced to become a member of an Organization
     against their will.
]

2.  Rule 722 ("Political Parties") is hereby renumbered to 17.

3.  A new Rule is created, numbered 722, titled "Organizational
Action", and reading:
- ---
This Rule defers to all other rules.  [Although all Organizations can
attempt actions as described in this rule, not all those actions will
succeed, and other methods by which Organizations may take action may
be defined.  The Rules may also define other ways Organizations can
act.]

An Organization can attempt actions.  However, the process for an
Organization to attempt an action is somewhat more complex than the
same process for players.  First, some member of the Organization must
send a public message suggesting an action for the Organization to
take.  Then the other members may approve of the suggestion or
denounce it.  If any member denounces the suggestion, it is voided,
and the Organization as a whole does not take or attempt to take the
suggested action.

If, after a suggestion is made, all members of the Organization have
approved it and none denounced it, the Organization attempts the
action as described in the original message.
- ---

4.  A new Rule is created, numbered 723, titled "Organizational
Powers", and reading:
- ---
Powers are tradeable entities.  All Organizations can own Powers.

Where this rule says that Organizations may buy Powers, what is meant
is that an Organization may, as an action, contribute an amount of
currency to the Treasury in exchange for a new Power of the type
specified, which is then created in that Organization's possession.

[1.  Big Tents]

An Organization may buy a Big Tent for A$300.

An Organization that has a Big Tent is called a Political Party.  No
player may be a member of more than one Political Party at a time.

At the end of a proposal's voting period, but before votes on that
proposal are counted, if every player member of a given Political
Party voted YES on that proposal, then the Political Party itself
shall cast an additional YES vote on that proposal for every three
player members the Party has.

[2.  Safety Deposit Boxes]

An Organization may buy a Safety Deposit Box for A$50.

If an Organization has a Safety Deposit Box, that Organization may
offer, accept, and retract trades on the Free Market, and give gifts.
The procedure for each of these actions is the same as for players
[see Rule 515], except that where those procedures call for a public
message, any member of the Organization may send that message on
behalf of the Organization-- assuming the actions described therein
have already been approved as specified by Rule 722 or some other Rule.

[3.  Heavy Cannon]

An Organization may buy a Heavy Cannon for A$500.  An Organization
that has a Heavy Cannon is known as an Army.

[An Army can use its cannon to blast other Organizations to
smithereens.  This is generally taken as an act of war and is insanely
illegal.  It should probably be reserved for times when one cares
enough to send the very best.]

An Army may, as an action, fire their cannon, if the Army has at least
A$500.  In doing so the Army must specify at what other Organization
the cannon is/are being fired; it may also name a specific Building
owned by the targeted Organization or by one of its members, as long
as it isn't someone's home.

When an Army fires its cannon, A$500 is transferred from that Army to
the Treasury.  Then, there is a loud noise, like a thunderclap, and a
puff of smoke.  If a Building was named, that Building is obliterated
(unless it is defined by name in the rules, in which case it is only
hideously damaged).  The Organization at which the cannon was/were
fired is immediately disbanded!  However: all trinkets and Gadgets
owned by the Army that fired the cannon, or by any of that Army's
members, are destroyed by the concussion.  [If you see the members of
an Army start to bury their most prized possessions, duck.]  Being a
member of an Army that has fired its cannon is a Crime.

[4.  Printing Presses]

An Organization may buy a Printing Press for A$200.

An Organization that has a Printing Press may, as an action, submit a
proposal.  If that proposal is then accepted, each player member of
the Organization gains 10 points.   [???This needs work; I want to
specify that such proposals *cannot* be modest... or perhaps are
*always* grandiose; also that no processing chips, etc. are awarded
for Organizational proposals.]

[5.  Secret Laboratories]

An Organization may buy a Secret Laboratory for A$1000.

An Organization that has a Secret Laboratory may, as an action, build
a Gadget from any existing non-lonely Blueprint once per calendar
month.  This new Gadget is created in the Organization's possession.

[Secret Laboratories are said to be buried deep underground.]

- ---

5.  Rule 17 ("Political Parties") is amended to read, in full:
- ---
{{
	The Organizations that were Political Parties just before the
	proposal that created this rule was accepted are no longer
	Political Parties; they are simply Organizations.

	[It's not fair to give the existing Parties a free start on
	future groups.  You must all cough up the dough if you want
	your hats back in the ring.]
}}
- ---

- --Mohammed

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

End of Ackanomic Digest V1 #518
*******************************