Subject: ackanomic digest V2 #482
From: [email-masked] (ackanomic digest)
To: [email-masked]

ackanomic digest       Friday, January 23 1998       Volume 02 : Number 482

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

Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 13:32:27 -0500
From: "Vivian Norwood" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Clerk of the Court's page

Thanks, I appreciate it.  BTW, has anyone _seen_ the error page from
muppetlabs?  It is very funny.

Balsamic Dragon

- ----------
> 
> Argh. I forgot to record that information....
> 
> Malenkai appealed it just before he left (or attempted to leave). I'll
> update the page right now.
> 
> breadbox
> 

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

Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 10:43:23 -0800 (PST)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Speech! Speech!

Well, my fellow Ackazens, welcome to the beginning of Ackanomic's
third year. It's been quite a journey.

I'm fairly certain that none of the players in the first few months of
the game would have guessed that Ackanomic would still be around in
1998.

Certainly Ackers had nothing like this in mind when he decided to
launch his own game of email Nomic. (Speaking of whom, isn't it about
time for him to make another surprise appearance?)

And during the summer of 1996, when most of the old players were off
on extended vacations and the game was lurching from crisis to crisis,
and it seemed almost certain more than once that the game must have
crashed - I doubt many of those people would have bet that Ackanomic
would still be alive and well today.

Or last spring, when the doomsayers were at their most vocal, claiming
that the game was moribund, spiralling into quiescence ... I imagine
that even by then, some of them believed that Ackanomic wasn't going
to survive much longer.

And even I myself have, at times, feared that the game was suffering
under one too many blows, and thought that, surely, Ackanomic can't
continue after {insert crisis du jour here}. This is too much to deal
with; no one will want to try to keep playing after this. So far, I've
been wrong every time.

And so, to Ackanomic I wish: long life, good health, interesting
crises, and, above all, harfiness. Let the harf flow everlasting.

Thank you, and may everyone enjoy themselves on this day our second
anniversary.

Okay: end of speech; beginning of plug.

At the risk of making it traditional, I have (gasp) created a new
Historian's page. I've completely revamped the original one, filling
in many details that were at the time unknown to me, and continued the
story for another full year, bringing it all the way up to last July.
It's still a little rough around the edges, perhaps, but the important
stuff is there. Eighteen months of Ackanomic history, awaiting your
perusal.

The URL is: <http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/acka/hist/hist.html>.

At the risk of blowing my own horn, I encourage all of you to take
some time during our birthday celebration and read about the stories
of our past, for there are some tangled tales in there. And as always,
I welcome corrections and clarifications.

Share and Enjoy,

breadbox
your proud Historian

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

Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 14:49:22 -0500
From: "Vivian Norwood" <[email-masked]>
Subject: CFCJ 146 Appeal (Invalid)

Clerk of the Courts
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Call For Criminal Judgement 148 - Tue 6 Jan 1998 15:40
Subject: As interesting as CFCJ 146
Initiator: else..if
Judge: The Gingham Wearer (declined) (selected 98-01-06 21:35)
2nd Judge: Fortunato (selected 98-01-07 22:33)
Appealed by: Malenkai
Judgement: INVALID

Statement: 

CnH has commited a crime. 

Initiator's Comments: 

As seen on the main mailing list, CnH went off vacation and then attempted
to return from vacation in less than two days, which is forbidden by Rule
255. 

Suggested Penalty: 

I recommend a sentence of 100 days in the Gaol, to remind him not to return
over quickly, as well as a 100 point penalty and a 100 line apology. Evil
doers must be punished harshly to teach them a lesson. (However if the
judge is a feel-good wimpy liberal judge, perhaps a sentence of 2 days, the
minimum vacation time, would also be appropriate.) 

Original Judge's Comments: 

[none] 

As a punishment, I sentence Calvin N Hobbes to 1 day in Gaol. 

Appellants Comments: 

The CFCJ should probably have been judged INVALID, if it ever existed at
all. Failing that, FALSE is the correct verdict. See rule 710, section 3,
and rule 251. 

If the verdict is upheld, however, see CFCJ 146 for a more appropriate
penalty for an honest mistake. 

I certainly do not understand how this new stand on crime is "harfy", and
why players need to go to Gaol for making honest mistakes. 

Supreme Court's Reasoning:

Rule 710, "Criminal Justice" states:

> 3) Its "statement" shall be "X has committed a Crime", where X is
> replaced with the name of a registered player.

This CFCJ's statement does not conform to this requirement, so the
Court is returning a verdict of INVALID. This is admittedly somewhat
pedantic, but Rule 710 is very precise in its requirements.

Penalty to the original judge: 1 point.

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

Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 14:57:22 -0500
From: "Vivian Norwood" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Fw: Acka: CFJ 514 (K 2)

This seems to be one of those, kill them all and let god sort them out type
of things.  

Here is another distribution of what may be but probably is not, a CFJ
verdict.
Balsamic Dragon

- ----------
> From: K 2 <[email-masked]>
> To: Vivian Norwood <[email-masked]>
> Subject: Re: Acka: CFJ 514 (K 2)
> Date: Friday, January 23, 1998 6:13 AM
> 
> CFJ 515 would indicate that this is not a CFJ
> The verdict is late, so I am Deadbeat on a non-CFJ.. again
> 
> Do with this as you wish, being a non-CFJ document distributed by a
> player who
> was no CotC at the time it is not a CFJ so you are not legally required
> to
> distribute the verdict, I would, however, request that you do...
> 
> K2 :)
> 
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Call For Judgment 514
> >   Subject: cfj 513 cfj
> > Initiator: rufus
> > Submitted: 98-01-13 19:57
> >     Judge: K 2 (selected 98-01-13 20:31)
> > Judgement: FALSE
> >
> > This is a paradox win CFJ.
> >
> > It was both illegal and legal for alfvaen to assign CFJ 513 to Red
Barn.
> >
> > Reasoning:
> >
> > If CFJ 513 was ruled false, then the CFJ was perfectly legal, as
Alfvaen
> > is Acting Clerk of the Courts.  However, if the CFJ was ruled true,
then
> > Malenkai is still a player, and still the holder of office of Clerk of
the
> > Court, and thus required to distribute it.  Alfvaen's actions were not
> > legal.
> 
> Judges Reasoning:
> 
> Firstly:
> 
> It was either the case, that Malenkai left *or* e failed to leave, until
> a CFJ
> is submitted and ruled upon in a legal manner, we as players are unsure
> which
> event *has* occurred. The rules, however, are quite clear on what has
> occurred. The purpose, then, of a CFJ is to enlighten the players of
> Ackanomic
> as to what has in fact occurred.
> Although during a thread split it may appear that there are multiple
> realities, this is not the case. Actions, which fall on the boarder of a
> thread split (appearing legal in one and illegal in the other) are
> either
> wholly legal or wholly illegal.
> 
> This would already indicate a FALSE verdict....
> 
> Secondly:
> 
> As has been pointed out by Crackfoo/Vynd in CFJ 515, when Malenkai
> attempted
> to leave the game e was removed from all offices prior to rule 1
> allegedly
> preventing im from becoming a non-player. Thus on Sat, 10 Jan 1998
> 00:37:01
> -0500 Malenkai was no longer the CotC, and did not express a desire to
> resume
> that office until Tue., 13 Jan 1998 20:57:19 -0500 nor reclaim it until
> Wed,
> 14 Jan 1998 20:02:42 -0500, both are after this CFJ-like document had
> been
> (illegally) distributed.
> Since Alfvaen was Acting Speaker/CotC at the time this CFJ-like document
> was
> submitted, it was wholly legal for Alfvaen to distribute CFJ and wholly
> illegal for Malenkai to do so.
> 
> Since Malenkai was not the CotC at the time this was distributed it is
> not a
> CFJ.
> 
> This CFJ-like document is ruled FALSE.
> 

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

Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 15:09:03 -0500
From: "Vivian Norwood" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka CFJ 499 (False)

Here is the return on CFJ 499.  Interestingly enough, this was already in
the CFJ Archive before I distributed it. . . . ;)

Balsamic Dragon

Clerk of the Courts
_____________________________
Call For Judgement 499
Subject: Chrome streaks
Initiator: Alfvaen
Judge: two-star (selected 97-12-20 15:23) (deadbeat)
2nd Judge: Malenkai (assigned 97-12-31 23:58) (declined)
3rd Judge: Supreme Court (assigned 98-01-03 12:33)
Judgement: FALSE

Statement: 

Malenkai received 15 points for the Chrome Streak which included Proposal
2388. 

Initiator's Statement: 

As originally harfed, the Chrome Streak stretched from 2379 to 2390.
Malenkai had three Proposals in the Streak: 2380, 2381, and 2390, and thus
received 15 bonus points upon the announcement of the Streak. 

Slakko's allegation is that since Proposal 2389 was Null, that Malenkai
could not have received bonus points from Proposal 2390. His argument goes
something like this(apologies for any misconstrual): 

Rule 207, Section VII, states: 

VII. Null Proposals 

The above provisions notwithstanding, if an accepted proposal does not
become a new rule or generate at least one valid effect under Rule 103, no
points are scored by any player as a result of that proposal being
accepted, the preceding provisions of this rule notwithstanding. Such
proposals, and only such proposals, are "Null Proposals". 

Proposal 2390 is only in the Chrome Streak as a result of Proposal 2389
being accepted. Therefore, Malenkai should not get any bonus points from
Proposal 2390's presence in the Streak. 

I hold that this reasoning is absurd, and could be carried to ridiculous
lengths if _any_ points from _any_ result of a Null Proposal being accepted
were nullified. Of course, absurdity is not necessary a compelling
counterargument... 

Judge's Comments: 

Rule 207 concerns itself almost entirely with score changes that occur as a
direct result of a proposal's voting results being reported. After four
sections that describe such score changes, section VII states that, in the
case of a Null Proposal, "no points are scored by any player as a result of
that proposal being accepted, the preceding provisions of this rule
notwithstanding". 

The Court agrees that a natural interpretation of this sentence would be
that it refers only to the score changes that are outlined in the
"preceding provisions". This would indicate a verdict of True. 

An alternate interpretation would have to be that this sentence prevents
all score changes from occuring that any rule describes as resulting from
"that proposal being accepted". This would indicate a verdict of False. 

The alternate interpretation is certainly more difficult to adhere to;
however, both interpretations are perfectly valid readings of the sentence,
taken on their own. Therefore the Court must look, first to game custom,
and then to the spirit of the game, to determine which is actually more
appropriate. 

The only prior instance of a Null Proposal is Proposal 1641, authored by
Niccolo Flychuck. If we examine the game state, it will be seen that
Niccolo Flychuck happened to possess the Great Tuba at that time. And,
despite this fact, Niccolo Flychuck was awarded no points from the
acceptance of Proposal 1641. 

The Court agrees with the initiator that this is not the preferable
interpretation, and that spirit of the game would likely deny it on the
grounds that it could put an excessive burden on the Scorekeeper. However,
game custom cannot be flouted without due process, and so the Court must
return a verdict of False. 

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

Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 15:36:01 -0500
From: "Vivian Norwood" <[email-masked]>
Subject: CFCJ 149 (Bill the pirate king)

Bill the pirate king has been selected.

Clerk of the Courts
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Call For Criminal Judgement 149 - January 23, 1998
Subject: no one else gets the boot
Initiator: else..if
Judge: Bill the pirate king (selected January 23, 1998, 3:35 p.m.)
Judgement:

Statement: 

Vynd has commited a crime

Reasoning:

	Vynd announced that he was ejecting The Gingham Wearer (then known
as no one else) from Vulcan headquarters.  However according to Rule 1,
while an Evil Overlord of Ackanomic (retired) may eject a member of Vulcan
from Vulcan headquarters, Vulcan must eject a non-member from the
headquarters.  The only reasonable interpretation of this is that it is an
organizational action.  Therefore Vynd is not permitted to eject any one
not in Vulcan from Vulcan Headquarters.

Suggested Penalty:

	Since this was an honest mistake, I'd be inclined to recommend a
lessened penalty, however I feel some token penalty is still appropriate.
I suggest an apology of 5 lines.

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

Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 12:46:51 -0800 (PST)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka CFJ 499 (False)

> Here is the return on CFJ 499.  Interestingly enough, this was
> already in the CFJ Archive before I distributed it. . . . ;)

Malenkai distributed it last week in the thread where he was still
CotC. Since the CFJ has nothing to do with the thread split, I didn't
bother indicating that it had only been returned in one thread.

breadbox
does not normally attempt to anticipate the CotC

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

Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 16:57:34 -0500
From: "Vivian Norwood" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Fw: INP 360

Voting lasts one week.

> 
> Title: Gone Dotty
> Proposal: Amend Rule 215 by replacing the text "Ackanomic," with the
> text "Ackanomic, .Nomic,"

Ambassador's Note:  Slakko wishes Ackanomic to be the proud sponser of
Nomic, a new game being played on usenet

Balsamic Dragon

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

Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 22:23:49 +0000 ()
From: Duncan Richer <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Fw: INP 360

On Fri, 23 Jan 1998, Vivian Norwood wrote:

> Voting lasts one week.
> 
> > 
> > Title: Gone Dotty
> > Proposal: Amend Rule 215 by replacing the text "Ackanomic," with the
> > text "Ackanomic, .Nomic,"
> 
> Ambassador's Note:  Slakko wishes Ackanomic to be the proud sponser of
> Nomic, a new game being played on usenet

You forgot the dot.  It's name is .Nomic, as in DotNomic (because it
is being played on alt.games.nomic) - The Gingham Wearer is also playing
.Nomic now.

Yours,
Slakko
- -- 
Duncan C. "" Richer aka
Slakko the Really Lost Warner Brother - http://dcr24.quns.cam.ac.uk/
Queens' College -- PhD, Pure Maths, Graph Theory -- Cambridge University
Ackanomic - RuneMaker - Chess-Umpire - Map-Harfer - Senator - Swinger

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

Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 15:32:50 -0700 (MST)
From: [email-masked] (Aaron V. Humphrey)
Subject: Acka: Hear! Hear!

As Speaker and President, it is incumbent upon me, though not technically
required by Rule 1102, I note with some relief, to make a speech.

In some ways I feel myself inadequate to the need of making a speech on
such a momentous occasion.  After all, I wasn't here for Ackanomic's
first Birthday, let alone its inception.  I've just been on an upwardly
mobile course for the past nine months or so.

I remember when I first arrived, as breadbox said, there were some that
complained of moribundity, especially when such things as the Aliens
rule were repealed, that added, as some said, the only variety to an
otherwise dull game(not an exact quote).  I, my eyes filled with the
freshness of a newbie, wondered what all the fuss was about.  I have yet
retained this ability to appreciate the quiet intervals in the game as much
as the bits when, as some say, we are "playing real Nomic".

But then, I have always thought that there was room in this great realm of
Ackanomic for all types, the pursuer of harf and the compulsive
ruleset-tidier(I stray towards the latter course myself, on the whole), the
subgame-fancier and the aficionado of Calls For Justice.  Sometimes one
player or the other will have more fun, but Ackanomic has never been
uniformly dull to all.

As I look out onto the upturned faces of today's crop of Ackanomians, I see
that there are some whose third year of Ackanomic will begin not longer
after the game's itself, and some who are not even into their second month.
This is why Ackanomic has persisted, because there are always those who are
drawn to it, and while all do not stay, some do.

Of course, these waves of immigration ebb and flow, and I must say that
this past fall there was a fair number of new arrivals who have gone on to
be stalwart Ackanomians.  Or at least fill out the player list.  It seems
sometimes that a group of players who arrive around the same time seem to
congregate together against the perceived indifference or malice of the
oldbies.  Even their own mentors can't do much to get through to them.
They form their own political parties, their own Churches, second each
other in Duels, vote for each other's Proposals, and just generally get
into this impenetrable clique.

This trend has been most evident recently, with the SPAM party(and the 
Razor Boomerangs), the Church of banna, and the group of newbies that I
still can't keep straight, while...do and Calico Man and Yukko and all
that.  I'll tell you, in my day we knew how to pick good names for
ourselves, too, that weren't spelled weird or interminably long or full of
weird punctuation symbols.  And the lunatic Proposals that get passed!  I
mean, harf is one thing, but white water rafting?  Caped Crusaders???
Free-For-Alls!?!?!?!?!?

I wouldn't be at all surprised if in the Codex of Kra is an account of how
these are signs of a great Apocalypse, like the one that destroyed the
Ancients!  When that comes, we'll just see who has the Great Raft of
Ackanomic then, won't we?  You miserable bunch of pathetic...

[murmur from offstage]  What's that?  Speak up!  Oh, I see.  I guess my
speech has almost gone on too long for _some_ people out there, so I'll cut
it short now.  But just remember, I'm watching you.  And...oh, all right.
Happy harfin' Birthday.

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.telusplanet.net/public/alfvaen/ )
Current Album--Tchaikovsky:Symphony No. 6 "Pathetique"
Current Book--Tanith Lee:Dark Dance
Have fun doing whatever it is you don't plan to do!

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

Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 16:47:09 -0600 (CST)
From: "Joseph W. DeVincentis" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Hear! Hear!

> This trend has been most evident recently, with the SPAM party(and the 
> Razor Boomerangs), the Church of banna, and the group of newbies that I
> still can't keep straight, while...do and Calico Man

Sorry, when I read this I just couldn't get this song out of my head:
"Calico Man, Calico Man, doing the things a Calico can..."

That's one of the other things that Acka lost over time.  Many of the
newcomers don't even like They Might Be Giants.  Why, the other day, I saw
a parade of the some of the new kids carrying "We Hate They Might Be Giants"
banners through the streets of Ackanomia (or maybe I was just staring at
the cover of John Henry too long?)

/dev/joe

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

Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 23:03:59 +0000 ()
From: Duncan Richer <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Hear! Hear!

On Fri, 23 Jan 1998, Joseph W. DeVincentis wrote:

> Sorry, when I read this I just couldn't get this song out of my head:
> "Calico Man, Calico Man, doing the things a Calico can..."

Everyone knows about Quadrilateral Man written by We're Certainly Dwarfs.

I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet.
- -- 
Duncan C. "Apologies to PTerry" Richer aka
Slakko the Really Lost Warner Brother - http://dcr24.quns.cam.ac.uk/
Queens' College -- PhD, Pure Maths, Graph Theory -- Cambridge University
Ackanomic - RuneMaker - Chess-Umpire - Map-Harfer - Senator - Swinger

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

Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 16:19:41 -0700 (MST)
From: [email-masked] (Aaron V. Humphrey)
Subject: Acka: The Machine

I thought I'd posted this, but it might have gotten lost in the Mail(or
accidentally sent as a private reply), so to backstop, I repeat:

The Machine that goes *ping* has teleported to Crackfoo's house, The
Temple of the Damned.  Which is floating, but I don't think this will
prove an impediment...

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.telusplanet.net/public/alfvaen/ )
Current Album--Moll Flanders Soundtrack
Current Book--Tanith Lee:Dark Dance
You must serve the goddess of Trivia before you deserve to serve any others.

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

Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 18:30:00 -0500
From: Malenkai <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Treasure

> E is only sitting on the hats longer than the rules permit because no-one
> is (a) trying to impeach him, or (b) trying to put him in Gaol.
> If you want to impeach him, why not do it yourself?  I don't want to
> re-open the thread split myself.

I don't impeach him because I don't really care if the hats are ever
distributed.  I'm not competing for a win.  My comments were meant
to be more abstract than they appeared; if you want tolerate eir 
disregard for the rules and put yourself at a relative disadvantage,
feel free.  I left the game (in spirit), because 60% of the voters
didn't seem to think these sorts of principles were important enough
to fix.

Malenkai

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

Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 15:01:30 -0700 (MST)
From: [email-masked] (Aaron V. Humphrey)
Subject: Re: Acka: Trade

> I am hereby offering to trade an otzma card map shard plus A$15 of mine for
> a foul fowl otzma card.

I accept this offer.  Transfer occurs.  (But not today, it's Ackanomic's
Birthday!)

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.telusplanet.net/public/alfvaen/ )
Current Album--Tchaikovsky:Symphony No. 6 "Pathetique"
Current Book--Tanith Lee:Dark Dance
For only $49, jolly housewives made "inexpensive" meals using quick-frozen vegetables.

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

Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 15:07:31 -0700 (MST)
From: [email-masked] (Aaron V. Humphrey)
Subject: Re: Acka: GW vs. Alfvaen duel

> > Although if it hadn't, then I would've felt bad and offered a rematch
> > anyway, but as it is I acknowledge that I choked, and shake else...if's
> > hand as a public action.  I'm sorry for the things I said about banna.
> > Whatever it was, now, I forgot.  (And I swear that I really meant to type
> > "banana", but somehow mistyped.)

> Do you desire a rematch anyhow? As I mentioned, I feel a bit uncomfortable
> about the manner in which I won. I also thank Alfvaen for his apology,
> shake em by the hand, and ask for what reason e thought it necessary to
> shake else..if's hand.

Because I am a goof who keeps getting some players confused with others
simply because they joined around the same time.  Also, there were two
duels going on at once, and I believe that else...if was in the other 
one.

So we _definitely_ need a rematch now...:-)

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.telusplanet.net/public/alfvaen/ )
Current Album--Tchaikovsky:Symphony No. 6 "Pathetique"
Current Book--Tanith Lee:Dark Dance
My cat is fat, so now I'll dine and eat all up this cat of mine...

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

Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 15:06:06 -0700 (MST)
From: [email-masked] (Aaron V. Humphrey)
Subject: Acka: The Machine

Now that I am satisfied that The Machine has randomly teleported(sorry,
TGW, if you had already accomplished this, but I'd rather be safe than
sorry), I find that it has landed in Crackfoo's house, The Temple of 
the Damned.

Which, actually, happens to be floating.  Interesting.  I'm presuming
that this would have no effect on the Machine's *ping*ing.  Maybe
Ursula is a ventriloquist.

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.telusplanet.net/public/alfvaen/ )
Current Album--Tchaikovsky:Symphony No. 6 "Pathetique"
Current Book--Tanith Lee:Dark Dance
I'm drowning in a bowl of Cheerios

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

Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 15:49:35 -0800 (PST)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Days Past

Uh ... thank you, Mr. Speaker, for that ... um ... memorable speech.

<breadbox squints nervously out into the audience trying to gauge the mood>

Well, I guess it's time for me to deliver on my other non-duty.  All
told, seven players sent me dates to go scrutinize, and here's what I
found....
________________

The first date I have on my list is October 14th. Now, October 14th of
1996 was an unusual day, because during the previous evening three
long-term players all quit the game, more or less independently of
each other. We lost Techno, this is not a name, and Wayne all in one
fell swoop. So a great deal of the mail that day were players
seconding their nominations to the Hall of Elders.

Wayne had offered his remaining A$ to the first player who publicly
stated that the Earth was round. Robert Sevin came back from vacation
just in time to be that person, earning him not only the money from
Wayne, but a Witchhunt from Malenkai and a Duel Challenge from Guy
Fawkes.

Malenkai, by default, took on the jobs of Acting Promoter and
Tabulator until a suitable replacement could be found.

Also on that day, mr cwm attempted to start up a Newspaper named
"the". The idea, of course, was to be able to slap a CFCJ on anyone
who used the word "the" in a public message (for the crime of
attempting to publish in a Newspaper they did not own). However, the
primitive form of the name "the" is identical to " ", and so Malenkai
submitted CFJ 307 to prove that the name was illegal. (And, to hedge
his bets, he managed to avoid using the word "the" anywhere in the
statement or reasoning of his CFJ.) mr cwm thus changed the name of
his newspaper to "is", but ThinMan's submitted CFJ 308, which killed
any hopes mr cwm may have had for bilking the populace.

The player Uncle Sam also quit that day. He had had a CFJ assigned to
him, which then went to breadbox, who judged it True a few days later.
This was none other than Mohammed's CFJ 305, the last successful
Paradox Win to date.

Okay, now what about October 14th of 1997? Well, not a great deal.
Actually, October 1997 was a month of hibernation for the game. Email
volume was the lowest it had ever been. (The second quietest month in
Ackanomic history had over twice as much email.)  Much of the
discussion of the day was focused on revamping the structure of
Organizations. Oh, and also Alfvaen's recently success in finding
Treasure 106.

Malenkai submitted Proposal 2331, in order to destroy the Sinister
Aliens. Niccolo Flychuck earned a Silver Stripe. And ... Fortunato
joined us that day.
________________

The next date on my list here is December 27th. Hm. I want to
apologize to whoever it was who sent me this date, but there was a
whole lotta nothing going on in Ackanomic on December 27th in both
years. A lot of players were on vacations or simply away, due to the
holidays and such, I'm afraid, and the game was just kind of quiet.

On December 27th, 1996, in fact, Ackanomic was actually in the middle
of an Ackanomic holiday, called by President Niccolo Flychuck on the
24th.

CFJ 325 was still being discussed in the public forum, since if
it were to be judged True (which it was), then Trinket creation and
destruction didn't change the number of A$ in existence, since the
rule that defined the total number of A$ didn't take the relatively
new Trinkets into account. (This debate was also linked to the
discussion of transferring entities between nomics, which had been a
hot topic that winter.)

Other than that, there were several subgames in progress, including
Ghost, the first game of Fictionary, and Malenkai's only stint as the
Scholar of *ping*.

December 27th of 1997 was even quieter. (This was also less than a
month ago, so probably many of us can still remember it.) The whole
CFJ 484 mess was at its most snarled, with CFJ 494 still undecided.
And, the Synod was repealed with Proposal 2537.

Sorry that one was so lame.
________________

Okay, I'm looking at the five dates I have left, and I'm realizing
that they're all kinda close together. In fact, three of them are in
July. There's going to be some overlapping events between these five,
so I think I should probably do these in chronological order. Okay,
then in that case let's skip over to July 9th.

On July 9th of 1996, /dev/joe was President, and the game was
knee-deep in a couple of crises. Probably the most noticeable one at
the time was the Multiple-Wins Crisis. If CFJ 214 were judged True,
then every single player would have won a Cycle at least once, most of
them simultaneously. (This was actually a rather bad thing, because
twenty-odd applications of the Rule 666 tax would mean that everyone
was flat broke.)

Malenkai, the only candidate, was officially re-elected as Speaker.
(He had lost the position due to his leaving the game for fifteen
hours.)

mr cwm's confirmation to the position of Supreme Court Justice was
confirmed by the Senate, although due to a few CFJs, he was only a
Justice in a couple of threads (including what turned out to be the
real one, though).

Ambassador snowgod (aka Mr. Lunatic Fringe) announced that he had
registered Ackanomic as a member of Internomic (although the actual
game did not start until much later).

And ... snowgod's Proposal 987 was accepted, creating Silly Vacation
Hats.

In July 9th of 1997, Mohammed was our President, and was trying to
find someone to fill an empty Justice seat: mr cwm had just resigned,
after almost exactly one year of service.

Alfvaen, the Ackaphysicist, was attempting use a Gravitational
Monopole to rescue ThinMan's dangling house just before going on
vacation. Apparently he went on vacation first, though, so ThinMan was
left up in the air. Alfvaen was also the Mad Scientist, and Vynd wound
up being appointed Acting Mad Scientist, which led to some confusion
since he didn't have the half-finished Blueprint, which (eventually)
led to CFJ 432.

Malenkai's Proposal 2220 was distributed, which would repeal the Synod
rule if accepted (it wasn't). This started up another facet in the
long-running debate about the what direction the game should be
taking.

The scam that had led to the creation of twenty-eight bonus votes was
still in full swing, as /dev/joe unburied another four of them and
handed out a few to his accomplices.

Karma, after running afoul of the Forgery rule two or three times in a
row (he was trying to create a memento for Bascule, who had recently
left), created the trinket "TOBASCULES SAUCE", which I have to say is
probably one of the worst collection of puns in one place that
Ackanomic has ever seen.
________________

Okay. Onward to July 14th, where in 1996 the game was starting to
reach the the tail end of several of the aforementioned crises. CFJ
214 was returned in the wee hours, showing that the multiple-win
attempt was not in fact successful. (One down.)

There was also the Dormancy Scare. (It's kinda hard to call it a
crisis, because it if actually happened, the game had crashed
immediately, and if didn't actually happen, then everything was fine.)
CFJ 234 had determined the day before that it had not actually
happend, but ThinMan appealed the verdict, so that one had to wait a
while before being laid to rest.

Several CFJs that had been rattling around finally came back early in
the morning, and a few threads were collapsed that day. This still
left several more threads dangling, but the threads that were
collapsed at least answered the important question of which players
were on the Supreme Court. (At one point almost every possible player
was a Justice or Acting Justice in one thread or another.) This was an
important question to answer, as the Supreme Court had six appeals
awaiting decisions by the end of the day.

snowgod called for Impeachment of ThinMan from the Office of
Financier. ThinMan had been waiting for the results of CFJ 214 (among
others) before trying to calculate everyone's balances and PF Bonds.

Habeous Corpus (aka Voting Gnome) first joined the game.

And ... Robert Sevin, having just returned from his lengthy vacation,
became the first player to admire his Silly Vacation Hat.  And admire
it he did.

During July 14th of 1997, the Synod was in session for the first time,
and a seat was added for the Organization RexBank. Meanwhile, Malenkai
and Niccolo Flychuck were still heatedly debating the Synod's merits.

Chaos (aka Mohammed) was President. He had just appointed Guy Fawkes
to the Supreme Court, pending confirmation by the Senate.

Chaos and Guy Fawkes were attempting to rob /dev/joe of some of his
possessions (including some valuable tax-shelter trinkets), through
the use of Chaos's Orbital Mind Control Laser. /dev/joe was Sheltered,
however, having been in the Ackanomic Afterlife for several weeks, and
their plot failed. Malenkai added insult to injury by slapping Chaos
with CFCJ 139, accusing him of Zuriti'ili.

And mr cwm resigned from and then rejoined the Church of Odo on the
Wormhole (yes, all in the same day).
________________

Our next stop is July 24th.

By July 24th in 1996, all but the unlikeliest of the thread splits had
been laid to rest by then, so things were relatively calm. ThinMan,
after many delays, reported everyone's balances and PF Bond earnings
for what was believed to be the true game thread.

The rules defining Party Chess had just recently been accepted,
although they still had enough bugs to prevent the game from starting.
Malenkai had a Paradox Win CFJ based on a bug in the Party Chess
rules, which was judged False and then appealed that day. At the same
time, /dev/joe submitted another Party Chess Paradox Win CFJ. (Both
were ultimately unsuccessful.)

/dev/joe was appointed Scorekeeper that day, an Office which he held
for the next year. this is not a name called a Witchhunt down on
Wayne, which soon turned into Ackanomic's first Witchhunt craze. And
Bascule created Ackanomic's second newspaper, The Day Today.

July 24th, 1997, however, is another story. The game was in one of its
tumultuous transitions. /dev/joe (Scorekeeper, Web-Harfer, Postmaster,
Bond-Harfer, Map-Harfer, Undead-Harfer, and Senator) and Chaos
(Promoter, Tabulator, Financier, Inventor, and President) were both in
the process of resigning from their offices. Chaos' in particular was
the most bothersome, as he was actually leaving the game in a matter
of days. (/dev/joe had at least given a month's warning.)

CFJ 439 was returned, ruling that non-players could not hold the
Office of Ambassador, much to Voting Gnome's disappointment, and
Malenkai became the Ackanomic Ambassador and Liaison. Alfvaen received
his first Silver Stripe.

And ... Malenkai completed construction of the BWG Laser, whereupon he
began auctioning it off.
________________

Okay, that takes care of July. Now on to August - August 28th.

For 1996, August 28th appears to be another relatively quiet day in
Ackanomia. There was quite a bit of activity just around the corner,
what with Malenkai's Paradox Win CFJ 269 having just been submitted,
but for the time being things were still quiet.

snowgod was President, having begun his first of three terms.

Malenkai had been making a cheap attempt to become dictator with
Proposals 1141, 1142, 1143, 1144, 1145, 1146, 1147, 1148, 1149, and
1150. There was, at that time, a rule that prevented a player from
voting No more than seven times in a row. However, several players
pointed out that the rule could be dodged by voting Present once or
twice, so Malenkai retracted several of them.

The extremely silly CFCJ 112 was currently being decided upon, which
would put snowgod in Gaol for putting the Ackanomic Gumball in his
armpit. This was partly motivated because snowgod had included being
"tough on Crime" as one of his campaign promises. And indeed, snowgod
lobbied heavily for a stiff penalty. I'm afraid that discussion of
this burning issue constituted most of the discussion that took place
on August 28th, 1996.

August 28th, 1997 is, again, a different story. This was in the heart
of the Vulcan Takeover, and their original Rule 1 (not the current
Rule 1, but the one that gave Vulcan complete control over the game
state) had been put into place not two days ago.

This was the day that all of the Rebellion's attempts to unseat the
Vulcans were launched. The very first event of the day, in fact, was
Alfvaen's creation of an Organization called "The organization
Vulcan", through which he attempted to wrest control of Rule 1 from
the real Vulcan. Then, Balsamic Dragon's Proposal 2283 was
distributed. And *then*, in the afternoon, Guy Fawkes' series of
Zuriti'ili CFCJs were distributed.

The only one of these attacks that had a chance, of course, was
Alfvaen's Organization, and the sticky CFJ 452 was also distributed
that day to consider the success of his attempt.

Other than that ... Malenkai received another one of his Silver
Stripes. And breadbox was elected Poet Laureate.
________________

My last date is September 9th.

September 9th, 1996: Wayne was starting up his last Gnome hunt in an
attempt to expand Underworld's power, and so was in the process of
appealing CFJs left and right, including the aforementioned CFCJ 112
against snowgod. (By the way, the term "Gnome hunt" referred to the
strategy of rapidly accruing point penalties so as to get the lowest
score, and thus have control of the Voting Gnome. For those of you who
are unfamiliar with the Voting Gnome, check out Proposal 355.)

The odd thing about Wayne's appeals is that the Supreme Court actually
overturned the verdicts on a surprising number of them. This included
CFJ 269, Malenkai's Paradox Win CFJ, which came back that day with a
verdict of True. (It had yet another appeal coming, though, so
Malenkai had to wait a while longer for his win.)

Guy Fawkes' first draft of the Machine that goes *ping* was, after an
initially warm reaction, starting to undergo scrutiny, as ThinMan
pointed out numerous bugs. Guy Fawkes was defensive at first (even to
the point of calling a Politeness Moon on ThinMan), but he later
retracted it and submitted a better draft, which was accepted.

IdiotBoy joined the Underworld Party that day. And snowgod, Inventor
as well as President, went to work building the first Vending Machine.

And what about September 9th in 1997? Well, it had been a pretty quiet
month at first. Vulcan had recently abdicated, and so players were
settling down and waiting for the CFJs to determine which thread the
game was in before doing much of anything. But things picked up on
September 9th.

CFJ 452 came back judged True, indicating that Alfvaen's attempt to
use Malenkai's Loophole against Vulcan had not worked. Alfvaen and
Niccolo Flychuck both appealed it.

Guy Fawkes, after scrutinizing Vulcan's new Rule 1, submitted CFJ 461,
his last Paradox Win CFJ, and which probably came closest of all of
his to being judged True. (Vynd also submitted the similar CFJ 464,
but quickly thought better of it and retracted it.)

Every single house had been dislodged by the flood that month, so
Alfvaen the Ackaphysicist was going all around Ackanomia and
reattaching large numbers of player's houses with the Gravitational
Monopole, which certainly kept Malenkai busy as the OiCoRT.

Malenkai resigned as Trinket-Harfer. Archie Leach returned a
thread-dependent verdict on CFJ 458.

And finally, Malenkai created the trinket "rules of Ackanomic" (with
the description "it is green"), over which Rex Mundi called an Ad Hoc
Committee to determine the trinket's inanity.
________________

Well, that's it, folks! Hope you enjoyed your whirlwind tour of
Ackanomic days past. I look forward to seeing what these, and other,
dates will bring us in 1998....

breadbox
your Historian

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

End of ackanomic digest V2 #482
*******************************