From ford@jps.net Thu May 18 17:20:37 2000 Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 06:09:50 -0700 From: Ed Murphy Reply-To: agora-discussion@gecko.serc.rmit.edu.au To: agora-business@gecko.serc.rmit.edu.au Subject: BUS: Agoran Weekly Journal THE AGORAN WEEKLY JOURNAL VOLUME 46, ISSUE 17 May 17, 2000 ADOPTED PROPOSALS ----------------- "Blots Hurt" by t - Proposal 4003 adopted 5/7 Being Blotted is a Win-Preventing Condition. "Consistent Batch Sizes" by Steve - Proposal 4006 adopted 5/15 The Batch Size may be from 1 to 4. (Rule 1839 says 2 to 6 at one point, and 1 to 3 at another.) "Free Oligarchy Votes" by Elysion (Steve?) - Proposal 4001 adopted 5/7 Votes on Ordinary Proposals have no VT cost. "Mistakes Happen" by Taral - Proposal 4005 adopted 5/6 Promotor Misrepresentation is a Class 2 (not 1) Crime, but only occurs when the Promotor deliberately distributes a Proposal not in the Current Batch. "Officer Reform" by harvel - Proposal 4002 adopted 5/7 If an Office's duties include being the Recordkeepor of a Currency, then records for that Currency are part of that Office's Report. Monthly Reports are defined. Various reporting duties are merged into the Rules defining the Offices. "Simplify 'ASAP'" by Steve - Proposal 4004 adopted 5/7 ASAP means "within a week". Tardiness is a Class 1 (not 2) Infraction. Following clauses are deleted from Rule 1023 (now "Definition of 'as soon as possible'"): * Precedence claim over Rules defining a later cutoff time * Explicit allowance for Rules to define an earlier cutoff time * Explicit allowance for Rules to define different cutoff times for Official Duties and Inactive Players; however, explicit allowance is made for Rules to define later cutoff times for Inactive Players "Transfer Orders May Not Be Vacated" by Taral - Proposal 4008 adopted 5/15 Repeal Rule 1818 (Vacation of Transfer Orders). REJECTED PROPOSALS ------------------ "Milder Blot Penalties" by t - Proposal 4007 failed quorum 5/15 Players with more than 7 (not 5) Blots are Mute. Players with more than 6 (not 3) Blots are Denied. Players with more than 4 (not 0) Blots cannot Nominate for Office. PENDING PROPOSALS ----------------- "Conversion fix fixed" by Taral When converting Stems to one's ABC, the amount of the ABC paid out is rounded down to an integer multiple of the ABC's MUQ. "Kinder Blot Penalties" by Taral Players must have more than 10 (not 5) Blots to be Mute, and more than 10 (not 3) Blots to be Denied. "Mistakes Happen 2" by Taral Misappropriation is a Class 15 (not 20) Crime, and only occurs when the Executor of a Bank Currency executes (not submits) an improper Transfer Order. "Speaker Delegation" by Taral The Speaker may Delegate Offices that e holds temporarily, without the usual two-week maximum on the period of Delegation. Delegated Offices are not actually held by the Delegating Player. "Work for All" by Taral - Proposal 4010 Players may Nominate for Office, regardless of eir Blots. PROTO-PROPOSALS --------------- "Agora Reform I: Quarter Indulgence Business Reform" by Elysion Quarterly reward to Immaculate Players is 0.5 (not 1) Indulgence. Quarterly Zombie upkeep is billed by Registrar (not Herald). "Bank Currency Minting fix" by Taral Rule 1927 (Bank Currency Creation) is amended to explicitly restrict the Mintor of a Bank Currency's ability to Mint that Currency. "Debugging Oligarchy Selection" by Steve Oligardiness is committed only by individual Selectors who fail to announce eir individual selection. A Selectee fills a vacancy as soon as e receives an undefeatable plurality of selections, at which time the remaining Selectors are no longer required to announce an individual selection. "Definition of Noisy, Quiet, and Silent" by harvel Rule 1042 (Zombification Due to Silence) is re-Titled and streamlined. A Player is always exactly one of Noisy, Quiet, or Silent. "More Fully Baked Oligarchy" by Kelly Any Oligarchy vacancies are Auctioned by the Speaker. All such winners start out as Low Oligarchs. When selecting a new High Oligarch, the previous High Oligarch is ineligible. Selections occur immediately and automatically if there is only one candidate, or when a majority of selectors is established. Oligardiness is committed only by individuals who fail to make an individual recommendation. If the Speaker must make a selection, e has seven days to do so, or else e becomes Tainted. If the Speakership changes before a selection is made, then the new Speaker has seven days to select. "Oh, what a tangled web..." by Kelly To grant or revoke PF status to a medium of communication, the Registrar must send eir announcement via a single medium that is a PF both before and after the change. Sending it via one medium that is a PF before but not after, and another medium that is a PF after but not before, is no longer sufficient. The Registrar may, Without Objection, grant or revoke Discussion Forum status to a medium. Any medium that becomes a PF ceases to be a DF. Sending a message to a DF is not sending it to the PF, even if each Active Player is reasonably certain to receive it via that DF; and is not sending it to a given Player, unless the Player explicitly or implicitly confirms receipt. "Property and Democracy" by Kelly Property is a generalization of Currency. Units of non-Currency Property are distinguishable. Transfer Orders are replaced with Notices of Transfer. Payment Orders are replaced with Debts. Debts may be satisfied or forgiven. If a Notice of Transfer claims to be for debt payment, but does not correspond to any current debt, then it shall either be retained as payment against future debt, or returned (voluntarily or on demand). One may Order the payment of a debt. Then Persistent Indebtedness occurs every seven days till the debt is paid. Such an Order shall be stayed if the debt is disputed (this can also be done by the CotC or a Judge), or vacated if the debt is satisfied by another entity (this can also be done by a Judge). Property owned by an Executor-less entity is Abandoned. The Notary is a Limited Executor of such an entity, and may use its Property to pay its debts; forgive debts owed to it; and (Without Objection) transfer its Property to the Bank. The Bank is a single entity. The Treasuror is Executor of the Bank. Each Bank Currency's Recordkeepor is a Limited Executor of the Bank, and may access only that Currency. The Treasuror may forgive debts owed to the Bank when Ordered to do so, or Without Objection. Ideal Indulgence Circulation Level (IICL) = # Players + # Player Blots. Actual Indulgence Circulation Level (AICL) = # Indulgences not owned by Bank + # Indulgences auctioned but bids not yet paid. Monthly Indulgence Auction for (IICL - AiCL) Indulgences. Proposals are Democratic if distributed while there are less than three Oligarchs. Voting on Ordinary Proposals is free. A Player may vote on a Proposal once, plus once per Voting Entitlement (a new Currency), minus once per five Blots; minimum 0, maximum 5. A non-Player may vote on a Proposal once per Voting Entitlement, maximum 3. However, the Bank may not vote on any Proposal. Ideal VE Circulation Level (IVECL) = # Players. Actual VE Circulation Level (AVECL) = # VEs not owned by Bank + # VEs auctioned but bids not yet paid. VE Auction for (IVECL - AVECL) VEs whenever this is positive. Bids in VTs. A High Oligarch may retain no VEs, a Middle Oligarch one, and a Low Oligarch two. Possessing more VEs than this for 5 days continuously causes loss of Oligarch position. "Redefinition of Index" by harvel Rule 1271 (Definition of Indices) is re-titled "Definition of Index". Indices are values, not Nomic Properties possessing values. "Terminology" by Wes "Fees" are defined. Any communication required to be made "publicly" shall be sent to the Public Forum. However, "post" and "distribute" are no longer explicitly defined as PF-equivalent. CALLS FOR JUDGEMENT ------------------- CFJ 1210 "Kelly is not the nickname of a Player" [TRUE] 5/1 Called by Palnatoke 5/1-6 Assigned to Murphy, who Judges TRUE Judge's argument (summary): If "Kelly" was Kelly's nickname in the past, then e revoked it upon eir most recent registration (which is in no way prevented by the Rules). E did not implicitly choose it as a nickname at any time since then, since e has not intended to do so. CFJ 1212 "Wes became the High Oligarch on Wed, 3 May 2000 12:48:35 +0300." [TRUE] 5/4 Called by t Appealed 5/4-7 Assigned to Peekee, who Judges TRUE 5/7-8 Appealed by Steve, Taral, and Elysion 5/9 Appeal assigned to lee, Blob, and harvel 5/13 harvel and lee move to overturn and reassign Caller's argument (summary): Rule 1937 (Filling Vacancies in the Oligarchy) specifies that the Low Oligarchs select a Middle Oligarch to become High Oligarch, but does not specify when the selection takes effect. Reasonable possibilities are: #1) Wed, 3 May 2000 09:49:12 +0100 - Majority established #2) Wed, 3 May 2000 12:48:35 +0300 - All three votes cast #3) Thu, 4 May 2000 00:00:00 GMT - Three-day deadline expires Judge's argument (summary): #2 is correct. CFJ 1213 "Rule 1927 prevents the Executor of (the Mintor of) a Bank [DISMISS] Currency from Minting a number of units of that Currency, unless e makes an announcement as described in clause a) and specifying that e intends to Mint that number of units of that Currency." 5/6 Called by Murphy 5/x-9 Assigned to Palnatoke, who dismisses the CFJ Judge's argument (summary): If the action is Dependent, then Rule 1728 (Dependent Actions) requires the action to be described unambiguously. If the action is not Dependent, then Rule 1728 imposes no such restriction. Whether the action is Dependent depends on whether the Executor is a Cabinet member; the Statement doesn't specify this, so it is undecidable. CFJ 1214 "If we post to a Public Forum a message in the form "If and only if we have not transferred VTs to t in the last 2 days, we transfer 10 VTs to t.", and we have indeed made no transfers to t in the 2 days previous to sending this message, and if there are no general conditions preventing any transfer of 10 VTs (such as a lack of funds), then 10 VTs are transferred from us to t. If, however, we had transferred VTs to t 4 hours before this message reached the Public Forum, then no VTs would be transferred as a direct result of this posting." 5/14 Called by Wes 5/15 Assigned to Taral Caller's argument (summary): A statement "Iff X, I do Y" is equivalent to exactly one of ("I do Y", ""). Which one depends on whether or not X is true. CFJ 1215 "If we post to a Public Forum a message in the form "If and only if t is standing up at the time we wrote this message, we transfer 10 VTs to t.", and t is indeed standing up at the time we wrote the message, and if there are no general conditions preventing any transfer of 10 VTs (such as a lack of funds), then 10 VTs are transferred from us to t." 5/14 Called by Wes 5/15 Assigned to lee Caller's argument (summary): A statement "Iff X, I do Y" is equivalent to exactly one of ("I do Y", ""). Which one depends on whether or not X is true. CFJ 1216 "A Player who holds a wage-earning Office at the time Salaries are paid out is paid the Salary for that Office, regardless of the amount of time e has held that Office." 5/16 Called by Taral 5/17 Assigned to Murphy Caller's argument (summary): Rule 1940 requires each (periodic compensation required to be paid out) to be paid out by the appropriate Officer at the beginning of the month. OFFICES ------- 5/13 t is Elected Assessor. Elysion is Elected Priest and Herald. 5/14 Blob resigns as Notary and Justiciar. Nominations open for these Offices. 5/15 Kelly wins the Low Oligarch auction with a bid of 75 VTs, and pays eir bid. Steve resigns as Speaker-Elect. Promotor Taral becomes temporary Speaker-Elect. Nominations open for Speaker-Elect. Taral Nominates for Notary. 5/16 Taral Nominates for Justiciar. Chuck Nominates for Justiciar and Speaker-Elect. OTHER ----- 5/8 Accountor Crito announces eir intent to Ratify eir Report of May 8. 5/9 Payroll Clerk lee levies a tax of 50% of all Stems, exempting 200 Stems per Player. This does nothing except tax Novalis 7 Stems. 5/12 Promotor Taral changes the Batch Size to 3. This change will affect the week of May 22. 5/15 Steve resigns from The Threat, dissolving it. Accountor Crito Ratifies eir Report of May 8. 5/17 Auction for 14 Indulgences ends; they cost 80 IATs each. 4 to t, 2 to Peekee, 3 to lee, 3 to Crito, and 2 to Steve. TRADE OFFERS ------------ Ongoing offers: Player Date Will sell In return for ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Carnival 9/16 +0.01 VT 1 Denaria Carnival 9/16 10 Denaria On a Player's birthday, sing "Happy Birthday" to em in a key with at least four sharps OotEE 9/13 1 Iris 1 VT; non-members subject to 9% Tariff Wes 4/5 1 Twig Commenting on and changing a proto Wes 4/5 ad space 1 Twig per 30 days Recent one-time offers: Player Date Will sell In return for ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Kelly 5/4 Any Basic Negotiable; e has 170 Stems, no ABC Currency Murphy 5/6 VTs, P-Notes IATs; one-to-one basis Murphy 5/6 33 P-Notes 0.9 Indulgences; directed to t, if Peekee turns down eir offer Peekee 5/2 50 VTs or 1 Indulgence P-Notes t 5/2 0.9 Indulgences 33 P-Notes from Peekee; will not sell at any price to an Immaculate Player Taral 5/4 P-Notes VTs; directed to Kelly ERRATA ------ -- Ed Murphy http://rivendell.fortunecity.com/meridian/309/ "Most of the time, it seemed sublimely unaware of its limbs, though it was beginning to suspect it had hands."