Subject: Nomic: draft ruleset suggestions

From: Benjamin Bradley <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 16:05:20 -0500 (CDT)

I'd like to add the followwing:
under [Players, Playerlike Entities]
* A player is a playerlike entity capable of independent action. Each 
player must be exactly one real-world sentient being. No real-world 
sentient being may be more than one player. Each player must have a 
uniquely identifying name, which may be specified initially and changed 
only by the player emself. 
{{***}} Each player's uniquely identifying name must 
be composed solely of letters, numbers, punctuation, and spaces; must be
finite in length [[less than 50 characters?]] and must contain more
non-space characters than spaces.

and

* A new player is created whenever a Motion to Add is passed. A Motion 
to Add must include the prospective player's name. It may be made by any 
player at any time, and requires a two-thirds majority vote or unanimous
consent.
{{***}} On the first turn, the Administrator will create
the initial players by publishing a list of their names in a public forum.

under Rules I'd like to add:
* Rule changes go into effect in the turn immediately following the turn 
they are voted on.

- You have received mail from Benjamin Bradley. C'est ne pas un e-mail.
- http://lostpoet.tripod.com/
- whee life what a rush

---

From: Wbfu Xbegorva <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 16:18:43 CDT

>non-space characters than spaces.

Yo, what if my real name is "I M       Pei"?

-- 
josh blog: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~kortbein/blog/

---

From: Benjamin Bradley <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 19:45:35 -0500 (CDT)

> Yo, what if my real name is "I M       Pei"?

It's really an arbitrary distinction. We could say that names must have at
least one non-space character.

In one nomic I looked at, a player's name was " " - a space. I think that
could get very confusing.

How do you catch a unique rabbit?
unique up on him!

How do you catch a tame rabbit?
tame way, unique up on him!

---

From: Wbfu Xbegorva <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 21:31:14 CDT

>least one non-space character.

Why even bother? Who cares about the spaces in a person's name?

J o  s   h

---

From: Joel Uckelman <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 23:34:18 -0500

> could get very confusing.

Would this be an acceptable compromise?

"Names of game entities may contain alpha-numeric, punctuation, and 
whitespace characters only. Names must be at least one but no more than 255 
characters in length."

I think this allows for creative use of spaces and things as I'm sure Josh 
will avail himself, but still keeps things semi-sane since it imposes a 
maximum length and ensures that all names can be typed with everyone's 
keyboards.

I can foresee a situation in which "foo bar" is directed to do something, 
but then protests that the whitespace in his name is a tab instead of a 
space, so that e wasn't really named. Possibly we'd want some sort of 
similarity test by which we can say "close enough" when handling names. 
That would be something to devise once we're playing, though.
 
-- 
J. Uckelman
[email-masked]
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~uckelman/

---

From: Wbfu Xbegorva <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 23:54:32 CDT

>That would be something to devise once we're playing, though.

You know, if people wouldn't bring these things up then I would
not be inclined to put them to the test.

:)

Josh

---

From: Joel Uckelman <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 00:02:29 -0500

> not be inclined to put them to the test.

Actually, the reason I mentioned this at all is my interest in seeing someone try it.