======================================================================== The Game of Agora ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 101/17 (Power=4.0) The Game of Agora Agora is a game of Nomic, wherein Persons, acting in accordance with the Rules, communicate their game Actions and/or results of these actions via Fora in order to play the game. The game may be won, but the game never ends. Please treat Agora Right Good Forever. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 1698/5 (Power=4.0) Agora Is A Nomic Agora is ossified if it is IMPOSSIBLE for any reasonable combination of actions by players to cause arbitrary rule changes to be made and/or arbitrary proposals to be adopted within a four-week period. If, but for this rule, the net effect of a proposal would cause Agora to become ossified, or would cause Agora to cease to exist, it cannot take effect, rules to the contrary notwithstanding. If any other single change or inseperable group of changes to the gamestate would cause Agora to become ossified, or would cause Agora to cease to exist, it is cancelled and does not occur, rules to the contrary notwithstanding. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ======================================================================== Players ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 869/43 (Power=3.0) How to Join and Leave Agora Any organism that is generally capable of freely originating and communicating independent thoughts and ideas is a person. Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, no other entities are persons. Citizenship is a person switch with values Unregistered (default) and Registered, tracked by the Registrar. Changes to citizenship are secured. A registered person is a Player. To "register" someone is to flip that person's Citizenship switch from Unregistered to Registered. An Unregistered person CAN (unless explicitly forbidden or prevented by the rules) register by publishing a message that indicates reasonably clearly and reasonably unambiguously that e intends to become a player at that time. A player CAN deregister (cease being a player) by announcement. If e does so, e CANNOT register or be registered for 30 days. A person, by registering, agrees to abide by the Rules. The Rules CANNOT otherwise bind a person to abide by any agreement without that person's willful consent. If a player has not sent a message to a public forum in the last month, then any player CAN deregister em with 3 Agoran Consent. The Rules CANNOT compel non-players to act without their express or reasonably implied consent. The rules CANNOT compel players to unduly harass non-players. A non-person CANNOT be a player, rules to the contrary notwithstanding. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 478/34 (Power=3.0) Fora Freedom of speech being essential for the healthy functioning of any non-Imperial nomic, it is hereby resolved that no Player shall be prohibited from participating in the Fora, nor shall any person create physical or technological obstacles that unduly favor some players' fora access over others. Publicity is a forum switch with values Public, Discussion, and Foreign (default), tracked by the Registrar. Changes to publicity are secured. The Registrar may change the publicity of a forum without objection as long as: 1. e sends eir announcement of intent to that forum; and 2. if the forum is to be made public, the announcement by which the Registrar makes that forum public is sent to all existing public fora. Each player should ensure e can receive messages via each public forum. A public message is a message sent via a public forum, or sent to all players and containing a clear designation of intent to be public. A rule can also designate that a part of one public message is considered a public message in its own right. A person "publishes" or "announces" something by sending a public message. Where the rules define an action that CAN be performed "by announcement", a person performs that action by unambiguously and clearly specifying the action and announcing that e performs it. Any action performed by sending a message is performed at the time date-stamped on that message. Actions in messages (including sub-messages) are performed in the order they appear in the message, unless otherwise specified. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2139/12 (Power=2.0) The Registrar The Registrar is an office; its holder is responsible for keeping track of players. The Registrar's weekly report includes: 1. A list of all players, including information sufficient to identify and contact each player. 2. The date on which each player most recently became a player. 3. For each forum with non-Foreign publicity, sufficient instructions for players to receive messages there. The Registrar's monthly report includes: 1. For each former player for which the information is reasonably available, the dates on which e registered and deregistered. In the first Eastman week of every month the Registrar SHALL attempt to deregister every player that has not sent a message to a public forum in the preceding month. The Registrar's duties and abilities also include: * Changing the publicity of a forum, as described in Rule 478. * Publishing Cantus Cygnei and Writs of FAGE as described in Rule 1789. The Registrar is also responsible for tracking any switches, defined in a rule, that would otherwise lack an officer to track them, unless the switch is defined as untracked. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 1789/9 (Power=3.0) Cantus Cygneus Whenever a Player feels that e has been treated so egregiously by the Agoran community that e can no longer abide to be a part of it, e may submit a document to the Registrar, clearly labeled a Cantus Cygneus, detailing eir grievances and expressing eir reproach for those who e feels have treated em so badly. In a timely fashion after receiving a Cantus Cygneus, the Registrar shall publish this document along with a Writ of Fugiendae Agorae Grandissima Exprobratione, commanding the Player to be deregistered. The Registrar shall note the method of deregistration for that Player in subsequent Registrar Reports. The Player is deregistered as of the posting of the Writ, and the notation in the Registrar's Report will ensure that, henceforth, all may know said Player deregistered in a Writ of FAGE. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2532/0 (Power=2.0) Zombies Master is a secured player switch with possible values of any player, and Agora. Every player's default master is emself; rules to the contrary notwithstanding, a player CAN always flip eir own master to emself by announcement. A player whose master is not emself is a Zombie. A zombie's master, if another player, is allowed to act on behalf of the zombie (i.e. as the zombie's agent) to perform LEGAL actions. If a player has not made a public announcement in the past 60 days, then any player CAN flip that player's master to Agora by announcement. Each zombie whose master is another player has an untracked switch indicating whether the zombie Owes a Scare to Agora, with values FALSE (default) and TRUE. All such switches are flipped to TRUE at the beginning of each month. A zombie's master CAN flip that zombie's switch to FALSE by causing the zombie to perform a scary public action for the announced purpose of satisfying this scare debt. If that switch for a given zombie is TRUE at the end of a month, then within the next seven days any player can flip that zombie's master to Agora by announcement. This switch is of course the zombie's Boo Lien switch. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 1885/4 (Power=2.0) Zombie Auctions Whenever a zombie has Agora for a master and an auction for it is not underway or been won in the last seven days, then the Registrar CAN and SHALL, in a timely fashion, put the specified zombie up for auction by announcement. Each auction ends seven days after it begins. During an auction, any player who is not a zombie CAN bid a number of Shinies for the specified zombie by announcement. The winner of the auction, if any, is the player who bids the highest number of shinies, with ties broken in favor of the earlier bidder. The winner CAN and SHALL, in a timely fashion, flip the zombie's master to the winner by announcement, if e pays Agora the amount of the bid for the explicit and sole purpose of fulfilling this requirement. If there are no bids, the auction has no winner. If a zombie being auctioned ceases to have Agora as a master at any time between the initiation of the auction and the winner becoming the zombie's master (or failing to do so in a timely fashion after the auction), then the auction has no winner, and any obligations to pay for the zombie are voided. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2514/1 (Power=1.0) Emotions Emotion is a player switch, tracked by the Registrar, with possible values Joyous, Melancholy, and Indifferent, that defaults to Indifferent. At any time, any player CAN by announcement flip eir own Emotion to any value it is currently not. When doing this, e MUST provide a reason as to why e changed eir Emotion as such. It is IMPOSSIBLE to change another player's Emotion. A player's Emotion has the following effects: Indifferent: No effect. Melancholy: Any player that is not currently Melancholy MAY pat any Melancholy player on the back. Upon doing this, the Melancholy player is ENCOURAGED to change eir emotion to Joyous. Joyous: Any player that is Joyous is ENCOURAGED to pat Melancholy players on the back. E is also ENCOURAGED to do other kind acts, such as paying shinies to other players or pending other players' proposals. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ======================================================================== Rules & Regulations ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2141/9 (Power=3.0) Role and Attributes of Rules A rule is a type of instrument with the capacity to govern the game generally, and is always taking effect. A rule's content takes the form of a text, and is unlimited in scope. Every rule has power between 0.1 and 4.0 inclusive. It is not possible for a rule to have a power outside this range. Rules have ID numbers, to be assigned by the Rulekeepor. Every rule shall have a title to aid in identification. If a rule ever does not have a title, the Rulekeepor SHALL assign a title to it by announcement in a timely fashion. For the purposes of rules governing modification of instruments, the text, power, ID number, and title of a rule are all substantive aspects of the rule. However, rules to the contrary notwithstanding, the Rulekeepor CAN set rule aspects as described elsewhere in this rule. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 1688/8 (Power=3.0) Power The Power of an entity is a non-negative rational number. An Instrument is an entity with positive Power. The Power of an entity cannot be set or modified except as stipulated by the Rules. All entities have Power zero except where specifically allowed by the rules. Power less than one is called Ephemeral power, and an instrument with a power less than one is an Ephemeral instrument. A Rule that makes a change, action, or value secured (hereafter the securing Rule) thereby makes it IMPOSSIBLE to perform that change or action, or to set or modify that value, except as allowed by an Instrument with Power greater than or equal to the change's Power Threshold. This Threshold defaults to the securing Rule's Power, but CAN be lowered as allowed by that Rule (including by the Rule itself). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2140/2 (Power=3.0) Power Controls Mutability No entity with power below the power of this rule can 1. cause an entity to have power greater than its own. 2. adjust the power of an instrument with power greater than its own. 3. set or modify any other substantive aspect of an instrument with power greater than its own. A "substantive" aspect of an instrument is any aspect that affects the instrument's operation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 217/12 (Power=3.0) Interpreting the Rules When interpreting and applying the rules, the text of the rules takes precedence. Where the text is silent, inconsistent, or unclear, it is to be augmented by game custom, common sense, past judgements, and consideration of the best interests of the game. Definitions and prescriptions in the rules are only to be applied using direct, forward reasoning; in particular, an absurdity that can be concluded from the assumption that a statement about rule-defined concepts is false does not constitute proof that it is true. Definitions in lower-powered Rules do not overrule common-sense interpretations or common definitions of terms in higher-powered rules, but may constructively make reasonable clarifications to those definitions. For this purpose, a clarification is reasonable if and only if it adds detail without changing the underlying general meaning of the term and without causing the higher powered rule to be read in a way inconsistent with its text. Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, any rule change that would (1) prevent a person from initiating a formal process to resolve matters of controversy, in the reasonable expectation that the controversy will thereby be resolved; or (2) prevent a person from causing formal reconsideration of any judicial determination that e should be punished, is wholly void and without effect. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 1030/12 (Power=3.2) Precedence between Rules In a conflict between Rules, the conflict shall be resolved by performing the following comparisons in the sequence written in this rule, until the conflict is resolved. - In a conflict between Rules with different Power, the Rule with the higher Power takes precedence over the Rule with the lower Power; otherwise, - If all of the Rules in conflict explicitly say that their precedence relations are determined by some other Rule for determining precedence relations, then the determinations of the precedence-determining Rule shall be used to resolve the conflicts; otherwise, - If at least one of the Rules in conflict explicitly says of itself that it defers to another Rule (or type of Rule) or takes precedence over another Rule (or type of Rule), then such provisions shall be used to resolve the conflict, unless they lead to contradictions between each other; otherwise, - If any of the rules in conflict have ID numbers, then the Rule with the lowest ID number takes precedence; otherwise, - The Rule enacted earliest takes precedence. Clauses in any other rule that broadly claim precedence (e.g. over "all rules" of a certain class) shall be, prima facie, considered to be limited claims of precedence or deference that are applicable only when such claims are evaluated as described within the above sequence. No change to the Ruleset can occur that would cause a Rule to directly claim precedence over this Rule as a means of determining precedence. This applies to changes by the enactment or amendment of a Rule, or of any other form. This Rule takes precedence over any Rule that would permit such a change to the Ruleset. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2240/1 (Power=3.0) No Cretans Need Apply In a conflict between clauses of the same Rule, if exactly one claims precedence over the other, then it takes precedence; otherwise, the later clause takes precedence. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 105/18 (Power=3.0) Rule Changes Where permitted by other rules, an instrument generally can, as part of its effect, 1. enact a rule. The new rule has power equal to the minimum of the power specified by the enacting instrument, defaulting to one if the enacting instrument does not specify or if it specifies a power less than 0.1, and the maximum power permitted by other rules. The enacting instrument may specify a title for the new rule, which if present shall prevail. The ID number of the new rule cannot be specified by the enacting instrument; any attempt to so specify is null and void. 2. repeal a rule. When a rule is repealed, it ceases to be a rule, its power is set to 0, and the Rulekeepor need no longer maintain a record of it. 3. reenact a rule. A repealed rule identified by its most recent rule number MUST be reenacted with the same ID number and the next change identifier. If no text is specified, the rule is reenacted with the same text it had when it was most recently repealed. If the reenacting proposal provides new text for the rule, the rule must have materially the same purpose as did the repealed version; otherwise, the attempt to reenact the rule is null and void. Unless specified otherwise by the re-enacting instrument, a re-enacted rule has power equal to the power it had at the time of its repeal (or power 1, if power was not defined at the time of that rule's repeal). If the re-enacting instrument is incapable of setting the re-enacted rule's power to that value, then the re-enactment is null and void. 4. amend the text of a rule. 5. retitle a rule. 6. change the power of a rule. A rule change is any effect that falls into the above classes. Rule changes always occur sequentially, never simultaneously. Any ambiguity in the specification of a rule change causes that change to be void and without effect. An inconsequential variation in the quotation of an existing rule does not constitute ambiguity for the purposes of this rule, but any other variation does. A rule change is wholly prevented from taking effect unless its full text was published, along with an unambiguous and clear specification of the method to be used for changing the rule, at least 4 days and no more than 60 days before it would otherwise take effect. This rule provides the only mechanism by which rules can be created, modified, or destroyed, or by which an entity can become a rule or cease to be a rule. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2493/2 (Power=3.1) Regulations A Regulation is an textual entity defined as such by this rule. A regulation allows an officer (known as the Promulgator) to exercise rule defined powers. A regulation is in effect continuously from the time of its creation to the time of either its revocation or the repeal of the rule that allowed for its creation. When recommending a regulation, its Promulgator must specify by number the rule(s) upon which it is based (the parent rules), the list of which becomes an integral part of the regulation. The list of rules can generally be modified by the Promulgator according to the procedure for text changes. A regulation must be authorized by at least one rule in order for it to exist. A regulation has effect on the game (only) insofar as the rule or rules that authorized it permit it to have effect. If reasonably possible, a regulation should be interpreted so as to defer to other rules. The procedure for resolving conflict between regulations is the same as it is for rules (for the purposes of resolving conflicts only, a regulation is treated as if it had the power of its least powerful parent rule). Regulations are generally issued according to the following procedures, and they can be repealed by the announcement of their Promulgator. Alternate procedures may be used if provided for by all of the regulations's parent rules. If one parent rule specifies procedures that are more stringent than those that the other(s) specifies, those apply. Creating, modifying, revoking, or allowing for a regulation is secured at power 1. A regulation (or set of regulations), authorized by another rule, CAN generally be enacted or modified by its promulgator without 2 objections, or with Agoran consent. A notice pursuant to the previous sentence is known as a "recommendation", and the regulation(s) are said to be "recommended" to Agora. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2494/0 (Power=1.0) The Regkeepor The Regkeepor is an office, responsible for the maintenance of the Regulations. The Regulations are contained in the Regkeepor's weekly report, know as the Agora Nomic Code of Regulations (ACORN). E MAY publish multiple versions or editions of the ACORN. The ACORN is divided into titles, assigned by the Regkeepor, which are each given an integer. Generally, each office with the power to create regulations SHOULD be assigned the next successive natural number. Title 0 of the ACORN is reserved for use by the Regkeepor, and nothing in that title need be a regulation. Non-regulations printed in the ACORN have no binding effect, and SHALL clearly be marked by the Regkeepor. Each regulation SHALL be assigned an ID number by the Regkeepor, consisting of a string of the characters [0-9] and separator characters. The Regkeepor SHOULD establish some way of keeping track of the version of a regulations. The Regkeepor MAY also, at eir discretion, create ways of marking special types of Regulation (even in violation of the previous restrictions of this paragraph), mark sections or titles as reserved for future use, and make such other discussions of arrangement, annotation, and marking as are necessary and proper in the execution of eir duties. The Regkeepor SHOULD remember that the purpose of the ACORN is to make the regulations easily readable, and e SHALL not act in a manner intended to deceive others in eir official capacity. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 1051/17 (Power=1.0) The Rulekeepor The Rulekeepor is an office; its holder is responsible for maintaining the text of the rules of Agora. The Rulekeepor's Weekly report includes the Short Logical Ruleset. The Rulekeepor's Monthly report includes the Full Logical Ruleset. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 1681/21 (Power=1.0) The Logical Rulesets The Short Logical Ruleset (SLR) is a format of the ruleset. In this format, each rule is assigned to a category, and the rules are grouped according to their category. Rules are assigned to, ordered within, or moved between categories, and categories are added, changed, or empty categories removed, as the Rulekeepor sees fit. The listing of each rule in the SLR must include the rule's ID number, revision number, power, title, and text. The Rulekeepor is strongly DISCOURAGED from including any additional information in the SLR, except that which increases the readability of the SLR. The Full Logical Ruleset (FLR) is a format of the ruleset. In this format, rules are assigned to the same category and presented in the same order as in the SLR. The FLR must contain all the information required to be in the SLR, and any historical annotations which the Rulekeepor is required to record. The Rulekeepor SHOULD also include any other information which e feels may be helpful in the use of the ruleset in the FLR. Whenever a rule is changed in any way, the Rulekeepor SHALL record a historical annotation to the rule indicating: 1. The type of change. 2. The date on which the change took effect. 3. The mechanism that specified the change. 4. If the rule was changed due to a proposal, then that proposal's ID number, author, and co-author(s) (if any). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2221/6 (Power=3.0) Cleanliness Any player CAN clean a rule without objection by specifying one or more corrections to spelling, grammar, capitalization, and/or dialect, or to whether a synonym or abbreviation is used in place of a word or phrase, in the rule's text and/or title; the rule is amended by this rule as specified by that person. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2429/1 (Power=1.0) Bleach Replacing a non-zero amount of whitespace with a different non-zero amount of whitespace is generally insignificant, except for paragraph breaks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ======================================================================== General Definitions ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2152/7 (Power=3.0) Mother, May I? The following terms are defined. These definitions are used when a rule includes a term in all caps, and provide guidance in determining the ordinary-language meaning of a term when a rule includes a term otherwise. Earlier definitions take precedence over later ones. If a rule specifies one or more persons in connection with a term, then the term applies only to the specified person(s). 1. CANNOT, IMPOSSIBLE, INEFFECTIVE, INVALID: Attempts to perform the described action are unsuccessful. 2. MUST NOT, MAY NOT, SHALL NOT, ILLEGAL, PROHIBITED: Performing the described action violates the rule in question. 3. NEED NOT, OPTIONAL: Failing to perform the described action does not violate the rules. 4. SHOULD NOT, DISCOURAGED, DEPRECATED: Before performing the described action, the full implications of performing it should be understood and carefully weighed. 5. CAN: Attempts to perform the described action are successful. 6. MAY: Performing the described action does not violate the rules. 7. MUST, SHALL, REQUIRED, MANDATORY: Failing to perform the described action violates the rule in question. 8. SHOULD, ENCOURAGED, RECOMMENDED: Before failing to perform the described action, the full implications of failing to perform it should (in the ordinary-language sense) be understood and carefully weighed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2162/10 (Power=2.0) Switches A type of switch is a property that the rules define as a switch, and specify the following: 1. The type(s) of entity possessing an instance of that switch. No other entity possesses an instance of that switch. 2. One or more possible values for instances of that switch, exactly one of which is designated as the default. No other values are possible for instances of that switch. 3. Optionally, exactly one office whose holder tracks instances of that switch. That officer's (weekly, if not specified otherwise) report includes the value of each instance of that switch whose value is not its default value; a public document purporting to be this portion of that officer's report is self-ratifying, and implies that other instances are at their default value. At any given time, each instance of a switch has exactly one possible value for that type of switch. If an instance of a switch comes to have a value, it ceases to have any other value. If an instance of a switch would otherwise fail to have a possible value, it comes to have its default value. "To flip an instance of a switch" is to make it come to have a given value. "To become X" (where X is a possible value of exactly one of the subject's switches) is to flip that switch to X. If an action or set of actions would cause the value of an instance of a switch to become indeterminate, the instance instead takes on its last determinate and possible value, if any, otherwise it takes on its default value. A singleton switch is a switch for which Agora Nomic is the only entity possessing an instance of that switch. A boolean switch is a switch with values True and False. A positive boolean switch has a default of True; a negative boolean switch has a default of False. Attempting to flip an instance of a switch to a value it already has does not flip the switch. However, if a person is REQUIRED to flip a switch instance to a value it already has, then either attempting to do so using the required mechanism, or announcing that the switch already has the required value, fulfills the requirement without flipping the switch. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2509/0 (Power=2.0) Numerical Switches If a switch is defined as being associated with a specified set of numbers (a numerical switch), then the possible values for that switch are the numbers in that set. In particular, a "natural" switch is a switch with possible values of the non-negative integers. If a limit is further defined, the possible values are the numbers of the set within the specified limits. If 0 is in the specified values for a numerical switch and no default value is otherwise specified, 0 is the default value for that switch. If the rules describe mathematical operations to be used in flipping an instance of a numerical switch, the operations are interpreted as having common-sense mathematical application to determine that instance's resulting value. For example, "increasing a switch instance by M" is equivalent to "flipping a switch instance from its current value N to the value N+M". If the specified mathematical operation would result in a value outside that switch's defined set, the flipping CANNOT be performed, rules to the contrary notwithstanding. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2125/10 (Power=3.0) Regulated Actions An action is restricted if: (1) the Rules limit, allow, enable, or permit its performance; (2) describe the circumstances under which the action would succeed or fail; or (3) the action would, as part of its effect, modify information for which some player is required to be a recordkeepor. A Restricted Action CAN only be performed as described by the Rules, and only using the methods explicitly specified in the Rules for performing the given action. The Rules SHALL NOT be interpreted so as to proscribe unrestricted actions. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 1023/39 (Power=2.0) Agoran Time The following terms are defined: 1. The phrase "in a timely fashion" means "within 7 days". This time period is set when the requirement is created (i.e. X days before the limit ends). A requirement to perform an action at an exact instant (e.g. "when X, Y SHALL Z"), but not "in the same message", is instead interpreted as a requirement to perform that action in a timely fashion after that instant. 2. Agoran epochs: 1. Agoran days begin at midnight UTC. 2. Agoran weeks begin at midnight UTC on Monday. Eastman weeks begin at midnight UTC on the 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th of each Gregorian month; the fifth one of the month (if any) lasts till the end of the month. 3. Agoran months begin at midnight UTC on the first day of each Gregorian month. 4. Agoran quarters begin when the Agoran months of January, April, July, and October begin. 5. Agoran years begin when the Agoran month of January begins. 6. A pivot is either the instant at which Agora Nomic began (June 30, 1993, 00:04:30 GMT +1200) or an instant at which at least one person won the game. When used as a period of time, a "Round" (historical syn: "game") is the period of time between a pivot and the next pivot. The "Agoran" qualifier is assumed unless a different definition is indicated (e.g. Eastman weeks). These definitions do not apply to relative durations (e.g. "within days after "). 3. Two points in time are within a month of each other if: 1. they occur in the same Agoran month; 2. they occur in two consecutive Agoran months, and the later of the two occurs in an earlier day in the month than the earlier one; 3. they occur in two consecutive Agoran months on the same day of the month, and the later of the two occurs at the same or earlier time of day. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 1728/37 (Power=3.0) Dependent Actions A rule which purports to allow a person (the performer) to perform an action by a set of one or more of the following methods (N is 1 unless otherwise specified): 1. Without N Objections, where N is a positive integer no greater than 8. ("Without Objection" is shorthand for this method with N = 1.) 2. With N Supporters, where N is a positive integer. ("With Support" is shorthand for this method with N = 1.) 3. With N Agoran Consent, where N is an integer multiple of 0.1 with a minimum of 1. 4. With Notice. 5. With T Notice, where T is a time period. thereby allows em to perform the action by announcement if all of the following are true: 1. A person (the initiator) announced intent to perform the action, unambiguously and clearly specifying the action and method(s) (including the value of N and/or T for each method), at most fourteen days earlier. 2. If the action is to be performed Without N Objections, With N Agoran Consent, or With Notice, if the intent was announced at least 4 days earlier 3. If the action is to be performed With T Notice, if the intent was announced at least T earlier. 4. At least one of the following is true: 1. The performer is the initiator. 2. The initiator was authorized to perform the action due to holding a rule-defined position now held by the performer. 3. The initiator is authorized to perform the action, the action depends on support, the performer has supported the intent, and the rule authorizing the performance does not explicitly prohibit supporters from performing it. 5. Agora is Satisfied with the announced intent, as defined by other rules. 6. If a set of conditions for the performance of the action was given in the announcement of intent to perform the action, all those conditions are met. The actor SHOULD publish a list of supporters if the action depends on support, and a list of objectors if it depends on objections. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2124/20 (Power=2.0) Agoran Satisfaction A Supporter of a dependent action is an eligible entity who has publicly posted (and not withdrawn) support (syn. "consent") for an announcement of intent to perform the action. An Objector to a dependent action is an eligible entity who has publicly posted (and not withdrawn) an objection to the announcement of intent to perform the action. The entities eligible to support or object to a dependent action are, by default, all players, subject to modification by the document authorizing the dependent action. However, the previous sentence notwithstanding, the Executor of the announcement of intent is not eligible to support it. Agora is Satisfied with an intent to perform a specific action if and only if: 1. if the action is to be performed Without N Objections, then it has fewer than N objectors; 2. if the action is to be performed With N supporters, then it has N or more supporters; and 3. if the action is to be performed with N Agoran Consent, then the ratio of supporters to objectors is greater than N, or the action has at least one supporter and no objectors. 4. if the action is to be performed With Notice or With T Notice. The above notwithstanding, if the action depends on objections, and an objection to it has been withdrawn within the past 24 hours, then Agora is not Satisfied with the intent. The above notwithstanding, Agora is not satisfied with the intent if the Speaker has objected to it in the last 48 hours. A person CANNOT support or object to an announcement of intent before the intent is announced, or after e has withdrawn the same type of response. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2466/1 (Power=3.0) Acting on Behalf When a rule allows one person (the agent) to act on behalf of another (the principal) to perform an action, that agent CAN perform the action if it is POSSIBLE for the principal to do so, taking into account any prerequisites for the action. If the enabling rule does not specify the mechanism by which the agent may do so, then the agent CAN perform the action in the same manner in which the principal CAN do so, with the additional requirement that the agent must, in the message in which the action is performed, uniquely identify the principal and that the action is being taken on behalf of that person. A person SHALL NOT act on behalf of another person if doing so causes the second person to violate the rules. A person CANNOT act on behalf of another person to do anything except perform a game action; in particular, a person CANNOT act on behalf of another person to send a message, only to perform specific actions that might be taken within a message. When an action is performed on behalf of a principal, then the action is considered for all game purposes to have been performed by the principal, unless a rule specifically states that it is treated differently for some purpose, in which case it is treated as described by that rule. Allowing a person to act on behalf of another person is secured at power 2.0. This rule takes precedence over any rule that would prohibit a person from taking an action, except that it defers to any rule that imposes limitations specifically on actions taken on behalf of another person. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2524/0 (Power=2.4) Acting on Behalf via Contracts If a rule says that a contract CAN do something by announcement, it is equivalent to saying that that any person CAN take that action by announcement if the contract's text says that e CAN do so under the circumstances; if whether the contract enables the person to do so is indeterminate, or is the subject of an inextricable conditional, the action is IMPOSSIBLE. A person SHALL NOT cause a contract to violate a rule using this method. If a rule specifies that a contract SHALL or SHALL NOT do something, each party to the contract SHALL ensure that the contract respectively does or does not do that thing. The text of a contract can permit persons to act on behalf of a party or group of parties. To do so, it must specify: a. Which of its parties can be acted on behalf of; b. What actions can be taken; c. Who can take the actions; and d. Any conditions or limitations upon the actions. If any such limitations or conditions are inextricable, the actions CANNOT be used. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2518/0 (Power=3.0) Determinacy If a value CANNOT be reasonably determined (without circularity or paradox) from information reasonably available, or if it alternates indefinitely between values, then the value is considered to be indeterminate, otherwise it is determinate. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 1586/9 (Power=2.0) Definition and Continuity of Entities If multiple rules attempt to define an entity with the same name, then they refer to the same entity. A rule-defined entity's name CANNOT be changed to be the same as another rule-defined entity's name. A rule, contract, or regulation that refers to an entity by name refers to the entity that had that name when the rule first came to include that reference, even if the entity's name has since changed. If the entity that defines another entity is amended such that it no longer defines the second entity, then the second entity and its attributes cease to exist. If the entity that defines another entity is amended such that it defines the second entity both before and after the amendment, but with different attributes, then the second entity and its attributes continue to exist to whatever extent is possible under the new definitions. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2505/0 (Power=1.0) Random Choices When a Rule specifies that a random choice be made, then the choice shall be made using whatever probability distribution among the possible outcomes the Rule specifies, defaulting to a uniform probability distribution. The choice CAN be made using any physical or computational process whose probability distribution among the possible outcomes is reasonably close to that required by the Rules, and for which the final choice is not trivially predictable by the selecting person in advance. The selecting person SHOULD make the selection method public, and SHOULD use a method for which the final probability distribution can be readily confirmed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2517/0 (Power=3.0) Conditionals and Extricability A conditional is any textual structure that attempts to make a statement (the substrate) affecting any part or aspect of the gamestate, or the permissibility, possibility, or effect of any action affecting such a part or aspect, dependent on the truth value or other state of a textual structure (the condition). The condition is said to be "affixed" to the substrate (inverse "to be conditional upon"). A condition is inextricable if it is unclear, ambiguous, circular, inconsistent, paradoxical, depends on information that is indeterminate, or is impossible or unreasonably difficult to determine, or otherwise requires an unreasonable effort to resolve; otherwise it is extricable. A conditional is inextricable if its condition is inextricable; otherwise it is extricable. A player SHOULD NOT use an inextricable conditional for any purpose. An action is said to be "subject to" a conditional if its possibility, permissibility, or effect (depending on context) is determined by the conditional. A value is said to be subject to a conditional of the state of the value is determined by the conditional. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ======================================================================== Proposals ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2350/9 (Power=3.0) Proposals A proposal is a type of entity consisting of a body of text and other attributes. A player CAN create a proposal by announcement, specifying its text and optionally specifying any of the following attributes: * An associated title. * A list of co-authors (which must be persons other than the author). * An adoption index. Creating a proposal adds it to the Proposal Pool. Once a proposal is created, nether its text nor any of the aforementioned attributes can be changed. The author (syn. proposer) of a proposal is the person who submitted it. If a decision of whether to adopt a proposal was resolved as FAILED QUORUM in the last seven days, the Promotor CAN once add the proposal back to the Proposal Pool by announcement. The author of a proposal in the Proposal Pool CAN remove (syn. retract, withdraw) it from the Pool by announcement. The Promotor CAN remove a proposal from the Proposal Pool by announcement if it is not pending and has been added to the Pool more than 14 days ago. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2445/11 (Power=1.0) How to Pend a Proposal Imminence is a switch, tracked by the Promotor, possessed by proposals in the Proposal Pool, whose value is either "pending" or "not pending" (default). Any player CAN flip a specified proposal's imminence to "pending" by announcement by: a) spending the current Pend Cost in shinies, OR b) Without Objection. An Official Proposal is a proposal designated as such by the Rules; generally official proposals that are created as part of an Officer's duties. Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, an Official proposal is always pending. Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, players CANNOT claim rewards for the adoption of an Official proposal. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 1607/43 (Power=3.0) Distribution The Promotor is an office; its holder is responsible for receiving and distributing proposals. Determining whether to adopt a proposal is an Agoran decision. For this decision, the vote collector is the Assessor, the adoption index is initially the adoption index of the proposal, or 1.0 if the proposal does not have one, and the text, author, and coauthors of the proposal are essential parameters. Initiating such a decision is known as distribution, and removes the proposal from the Proposal Pool. The Promotor CAN distribute a proposal which is in the Proposal Pool at any time, by announcement. The Promotor SHALL NOT distribute proposals which are not pending. In a given Agoran week, the Promotor SHALL, as part of eir weekly duties, distribute all pending proposals except for those exempted from automatic distribution by other rules. Distributed proposals have ID numbers, to be assigned by the Promotor. If there is a Proposal in the Pool that it would otherwise be IMPOSSIBLE for any player to distribute, then any player CAN distribute that Proposal Without 3 Objections. The Promotor's report includes a list of all proposals in the Proposal Pool, along with their text and attributes. This portion of a public document purporting to be a Promotor's report is self-ratifying. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2137/2 (Power=1.0) The Assessor The Assessor is an office; its holder is responsible for collecting votes and keeping track of related properties. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 106/39 (Power=3.0) Adopting Proposals When a decision about whether to adopt a proposal is resolved, if the outcome is ADOPTED, then the proposal in question is adopted, and unless other rules prevent it from taking effect, its power is set to the minimum of four and its adoption index, and then it takes effect. Except as prohibited by other rules, a proposal that takes effect CAN and does, as part of its effect, apply the changes that it specifies. If the proposal cannot make some such changes, this does not preclude the other changes from taking place. If there is no Agoran Decision to adopt a particular proposal that has an outcome of ADOPTED, that proposal CANNOT take effect, rules to the contrary notwithstanding. Preventing a proposal from taking effect is a secured change; this does not apply to generally preventing changes to specified areas of the gamestate, nor to a proposal preventing itself from taking effect (its no- effect clause is generally interpreted as applying only to the rest of the proposal). Except insofar as the actions performed by a proposal happen one after another, rather than simultaneously, a proposal's effect is instantaneous. A proposal can neither delay nor extend its own effect. Once a propsal finishes taking effect, its power is set to 0. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2443/1 (Power=3.0) Expediting Proposals A player CAN expedite a proposal whose adoption index is at most 1.5, in a message containing the character string "[Expedition]" in the subject line, 1. by specially deputising for the Promotor to distribute the proposal, if it has not been distributed; or 2. by announcement, otherwise. If, in an Agoran Decision to adopt a proposal, the strength of AGAINST is zero, and the proposal was expedited at least 7 days earlier, then any player CAN specially deputise for the Assessor to resolve the decision. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2431/1 (Power=1.0) Proposal Competitions Any player CAN, with Agoran Consent, initiate a Proposal Competition with a specified Objective. Only one Competition may be in progress at a time. The Objective should be a specification of effects of a proposal, and SHOULD NOT depend on factors that could not be determined from the text of a proposal. During the Agoran Week following the initiation of a Proposal Competition, any player CAN specify that a Proposal e submits is a Competition Proposal for that Competition. Players are ENCOURAGED to describe how their Competition Proposals fulfill the Objective. The Promotor SHALL distribute all Competition Proposals for a given Competition in the same message. The Assessor SHALL resolve all the Agoran Decisions to adopt the Competition Proposals for a given Competition in the same message. Once all Agoran decisions to adopt Competition Proposals for a given Competition have been resolved, the Competition ends. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 1650/3 (Power=1.0) Silliness Each Agoran Week a Player is designated the Silly Person. The Silly Person SHALL in that week, by announcement (1) designate another player, who has not been the Silly Person in the past two weeks, to be the next week's Silly Person; (2) submit a Silly Proposal. If there is ever no Silly Person or the Silly Person is not a player, then the next week's Silly Person is the first player that any player publicly designates to be the next week's Silly Person. A Silly Proposal is a Proposal whose sole contents are one of the following: i) A limerick. ii) A poem with a rhyme scheme and/or strict metrical structure no longer than 14 lines (No free verse!) iii) A joke or truly hideous pun of no more than a two hundred words. The first Silly Proposal submitted by the week's Silly Person is an Official Proposal. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ======================================================================== Voting ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 693/16 (Power=3.0) Agoran Decisions When the rules calls for an Agoran decision to be made, the decision-making process takes place in the following three stages, each described elsewhere: 1. Initiation of the decision. 2. Voting of the people. 3. Resolution of the decision. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 107/20 (Power=3.0) Initiating Agoran Decisions An Agoran decision is initiated when a person authorized to initiate it publishes a valid notice which sets forth the intent to initiate the decision. This notice is invalid if it lacks any of the following information, and the lack is correctly identified within one week after the notice is published: 1. The matter to be decided (for example, "the adoption of proposal 4781"); 2. The voting method; 3. A clear description of the valid options; 4. The identity of the vote collector; and 5. Any additional information defined by the rules as essential parameters. The publication of such a valid notice initiates the voting period for the decision. The voting period lasts for 7 days. The minimum voting period for a decision with at least two options is five days. The vote collector for a decision with less than two options CAN and SHALL end the voting period by announcement, if it has not ended already, and provided that e resolves the decision in the same message. The voting period for a decision cannot be set or changed to a duration longer than fourteen days. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2528/0 (Power=3.0) Voting Methods Each Agoran decision has a voting method, which must be AI-majority, instant runoff, or first-past-the-post. The voting method is that specified by the authorizing authority, or first-past-the-post by default. Each Agoran decision has a set of valid options (the choices that the voters are being asked to select from) and valid votes (the ways in which the voters can express their opinion or lack thereof. For AI-majority decisions, the valid options are FOR and AGAINST; for other decisions, the valid options are defined by other rules. The valid votes on an Agoran decision are: 1. PRESENT; 2. The valid conditional votes, as defined by rules of power at least that of this rule; and 3. For an instant runoff decision, the ordered lists of entities. 4. For any other decision, the valid options. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 683/25 (Power=3.0) Voting on Agoran Decisions An entity submits a ballot on an Agoran decision by publishing a notice satisfying the following conditions: 1. The ballot is submitted during the voting period for the decision. 2. The entity casting the ballot (the voter) was, at the initiation of the decision, a player. 3. The ballot clearly identifies the matter to be decided. 4. The ballot clearly identifies a valid vote, as determined by the voting method. 5. The ballot clearly sets forth the voter's intent to place the identified vote. 6. The voter has no other valid ballots on the same decision. A valid ballot is a ballot, correctly submitted, that has not been withdrawn. During the voting period of an Agoran decision, a player CAN by announcement withdraw (syn. retract) a ballot that e submitted on that decision. To "change" one's vote is to retract eir previous ballot (if any), then submit a new one. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 208/12 (Power=3.0) Resolving Agoran Decisions The vote collector for an unresolved Agoran decision CAN resolve it by announcement, indicating the outcome. If it was required to be initiated, then e SHALL resolve it in a timely fashion after the end of the voting period. To be valid, this announcement must satisfy the following conditions: 1. It is published after the voting period has ended. 2. It clearly identifies the matter to be resolved. 3. It specifies the outcome, as described elsewhere, and, if there was more than one valid option, provides a tally of the voters' valid ballots. Each Agoran decision has exactly one vote collector, defaulting to the initiator of the decision. If the vote collector is defined by reference to a position (or, in the default case, if the initiator was so defined), then the vote collector is the current holder of that position. This rule takes precedence over any rule that would provide another mechanism by which an Agoran decision may be resolved. In general, changes to the gamestate due to the outcome of an Agoran decision take effect when the decision is resolved. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 955/25 (Power=3.0) Determining the Will of Agora Each Agoran decision has a voting method, which determines how voters may vote on it and how to calculate the outcome. The strength of a ballot is the voting strength of the voter who cast it on that Agoran decision. 1. For an AI-majority decision, let F be the total strength of all valid ballots cast FOR a decision, A be the same for AGAINST, and AI be the adoption index of the decision. The outcome is ADOPTED if F/A >= AI and F/A > 1 (or F>0 and A=0), otherwise REJECTED. 2. For an instant runoff decision, the outcome is whichever option wins according to the standard definition of instant runoff. For this purpose, a ballot of strength N is treated as if it were N distinct ballots expressing the same preferences. In case multiple valid options tie for the lowest number of votes at any stage, the vote collector CAN and must, in the announcement of the decision's resolution, select one such option to eliminate; if, for M > 1, all eir possible choices in the next M stages would result in the same set of options being eliminated, e need not specify the order of elimination. If an entity that is part of a valid vote is not a valid option at the end of the voting period, or disqualified by the rule providing for the decision, then that entity is eliminated prior to the first round of counting. 3. For a first-past-the-post decision, the outcome is whichever option received the highest total strength of valid ballots. In case of a tie, the vote collector CAN and must, in the announcement of the decision's resolution, select one of the leaders as the outcome. The previous notwithstanding: - If there is more than one option, and the number of valid ballots is less than the quorum of that decision, the outcome is instead FAILED QUORUM. - If there are no valid options, the outcome is null. The outcome of a decision is determined when it is resolved, and cannot change thereafter. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 879/34 (Power=2.0) Quorum Each Agoran Decision has a quorum. This is a number set when the decision is created, and thereafter cannot be changed. When a person initiates an Agoran Decision, that person SHALL state the quorum of that decision. However, incorrectly stating the quorum of a decision does not invalidate the initiation, nor does it actually change the quorum of the decision. The quorum that an Agoran Decision gains as it is created can be defined by other rules of power 2 or greater. If no other rule defines the quorum of an Agoran Decision, the quorum for that decision is equal to the number of players who voted on the Agoran Decision to adopt a proposal that had been most recently resolved at the time of that decision's initiation, minus 2. As an exception to the previous paragraph, the quorum of an Agoran Decision can never be less than 2. If the rules would attempt to set the quorum of an Agoran Decision to less than 2, it is set to 2 instead. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2422/2 (Power=3.0) Voting Strength The voting strength of an entity on an Agoran decision is an integer between 0 and 5 inclusive, defined by rules of power 2 or greater. If not otherwise specified, the voting strength of an entity on an Agoran decision is 1. When multiple rules set or modify an entity's voting strength on an Agoran decision, it shall be determined by first applying the rule(s) which set it to a specific value, using the ordinary precedence of rules, and then applying the rules, other than this one, which modify it, in numerical order by ID. Finally, if theresult of the calculation is not an integer, it is rounded up, and then if it is outside the allowable range of values for voting strength, it is set to the the minimum value if it was less and the maximum value if it was more. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2127/11 (Power=3.0) Conditional Votes A conditional vote on an Agoran decision is a vote which indicates a vote based on some condition(s). A conditional vote is evaluated at the end of the voting period and, rules to the contrary notwithstanding, is clearly specified if and only if the value of the condition(s) is/are determinate at the end of the voting period. If the conditional is clearly specified, and evaluates to a valid vote, it is counted as that vote; otherwise, it is counted as PRESENT. Any vote which is clearly expressed as a conditional, e.g. "FOR if is true, AGAINST otherwise", is a valid conditional vote that evaluates as specified. A vote endorsing another person is equivalent to a conditional vote evaluating to the vote specified in that person's valid ballot on the decision, if any. For an instant runoff decision, a vote consisting of a list, one or more entries of which are valid conditional votes, and the remaining entries of which are valid options, is a valid conditional vote. Such a vote is evaluated by evaluating each conditional entry to a list of votes (or an empty list, if it evaluates to PRESENT either directly or indirectly), and then concatenating those lists with the specified valid options in the order they occurred in the original vote. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2168/7 (Power=1.0) Extending the voting period Whenever the voting period of an Agoran decision would end, and the result would be FAILED QUORUM, the length of the voting period for that decision is instead increased to 14 days, except if it is already that length, provided this has not already happened for the decision in question. Upon such an occurrence, the vote collector for the decision SHALL issue a humiliating public reminder naming the slackers who have not yet cast any votes on it despite being eligible, and CAN end its voting period by announcement (resolving it constitutes an implicit announcement that its voting period is first ended) if the result would no longer be FAILED QUORUM, or if the decision is whether to adopt a proposal and no voter (other than possibly the proposal's author) has voted FOR. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 1950/33 (Power=3.0) Decisions with Adoption Indices Adoption index is an untracked switch possessed by Agoran decisions and proposals, whose value is either "none" (default) or an integral multiple of 0.1 from 1.0 to 9.9. Adoption index is secured with a power threshold of 2. Adoption index is an essential parameter of an Agoran decision if that decision has an adoption index. For any Agoran decision with an adoption index, the voting method is AI-majority. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2034/9 (Power=3.0) Vote Protection and Cutoff for Challenges A public message purporting to resolve an Agoran decision constitutes self-ratifying claims that 1. such a decision existed, 2. it was resolved as indicated, and 3. (if the indicated outcome was to adopt a proposal) such a proposal existed, was adopted, and took effect. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ======================================================================== Offices & Reporting ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 1006/41 (Power=2.0) Offices Officeholder is an office switch tracked by the ADoP, with possible values of any person or "vacant". An officer is the holder of an office, who may be referred to by the name of that office. If the holder of an office is ever not a player, it becomes vacant. An imposed office is an office described as such by the rule defining it. All others are elected. A person CANNOT be made the holder of an elected office without eir explicit or reasonably implied consent. A holder of an elected office who did not become its holder by winning an election, and has not won an election for that office since, is an interim holder. An elected office that is either vacant or has an interim holder is an interim office. The holder of an elected office CAN resign it by announcement, causing it to become vacant. The non-interim holder of an elected office CAN, With 3 Support, resign the office while appointing another player to become the holder of the office, provided that other player is one of the Supporters. Any player CAN cause an office to become vacant without 2 objections. When a proposal takes effect and creates a new office, if the proposal does not specify otherwise, the author of that proposal becomes the holder of the office. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2143/26 (Power=1.0) Official Reports and Duties For each person: 1. If any task is defined by the rules as part of that person's weekly duties, then e SHALL perform it at least once each week. If any information is defined by the rules as part of that person's weekly report, then e SHALL maintain all such information, and the publication of all such information is part of eir weekly duties. 2. If any task is defined by the rules as part of that person's monthly duties, then e SHALL perform it at least once each month. If any information is defined by the rules as part of that person's monthly report, then e SHALL maintain all such information, and the publication of all such information is part of eir monthly duties. Any information defined by the rules as part of a person's report, without specifying which one, is part of eir weekly report. Failure of a person to perform any duty required of em within the allotted time is the Class-2 crime of Tardiness. An official duty for an office is any duty that the Rules specifically assign to that office's holder in particular (regardless of eir identity). A person SHALL NOT publish information that is inaccurate or misleading while performing an official duty, or within a document purporting to be part of any person or office's weekly or monthly report. Reports SHALL be published in plain text. Tabular data must line up properly when viewed in a monospaced font. Publishing a report that deviates from these restrictions is the Class 2 Crime of Making My Eyes Bleed. Officers SHOULD maintain a publicly visible copy of their reports on the World Wide Web, and they SHOULD publish the address of this copy along with their published reports. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2379/0 (Power=1.0) No News Is Some News If the rules define a report as including a list, then while that list is empty, that report includes the fact that it is empty. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2138/24 (Power=1.0) The Associate Director of Personnel The Associate Director of Personnel (ADoP) is an office; its holder is responsible for keeping track of officers. The ADoP's report includes the following: 1. The date of the last change (if any) to each office's Officeholder. 2. The current status of the ongoing election for that office or, if there is no ongoing election for that office, the date on which the last election ended 3. For filled elected offices, whether or not the holder is interim. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2160/16 (Power=3.0) Deputisation A rule which purports to allow a person (a deputy) to perform an action via normal deputisation or special deputisation for an office thereby allows them to perform the action as if e held the office, as long as 1. it would be POSSIBLE for the deputy to perform the action, other than by deputisation, if e held the office, and 2. the deputy, when performing the action, announces that e is doing so by the appropriate form of deputisation. Only this rule may allow normal deputisation. Any rule may allow special deputisation. A player CAN perform an action as if e held a particular office, via normal deputisation, if all of the following are true: 1. The rules require the holder of that office, by virtue of holding that office, to perform the action. This requirement is fulfilled by the deputy performing the action. 2. Either (i) A time limit by which the rules require the action to be performed has expired or (ii) the office is vacant. 3. Either (i) the office is vacant; or (ii) the aforementioned time limit expired more than fourteen days ago; or (iii) the deputy announced between two and fourteen days earlier that e intended to deputise for that office for the purposes of the particular action. When a player deputises via normal deputisation for an elected office, e becomes the holder of that office, unless the action being performed would already install someone into that office. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2472/2 (Power=2.0) Office Incompatibilities Some pairs of office are incompatible: 1. Prime Minister and Speaker 2. Promotor and Assessor 3. Assessor and ADoP 4. Referee and Arbitor A player is Overpowered if e holds two offices which are incompatible with each other. Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, a player CANNOT be installed into an office if doing so would make em Overpowered. If a player is Overpowered, any player CAN Demand Resignation from em by announcement, provided e has announced intent do to so between four and fourteen days earlier. The Overpowered player is then removed from all offices. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2154/51 (Power=2.0) Election Procedure A player CAN initiate an election for a specified office: a) With 2 Support, if either the office is interim or the most recent election for that office was resolved more than 90 days prior, and provided that the initiator becomes a candidate in the same message. b) By announcement, if e is the ADoP and if the office is interim, or if e is the holder of that office. The above notwithstanding, an election for an office CANNOT be initiated if one is already in progress. After an election is initiated and until nominations close, any player CAN become a candidate by announcement. A candidate ceases to be a candidate if e ceases to be a player during the election. An election is contested if it has two or more candidates at the end of the nomination period, and uncontested otherwise. For a contested election, nominations close at the end of the poll's voting period. For an uncontested election, nominations close at the end of the nomination period. When an election is initiated, it enters the nomination period, which lasts for 7 days. In a timely fashion after the nomination period ends, the ADoP CAN and SHALL, in the same message: 1) If the election is contested, initiate an Agoran decision to select the winner of the election (the poll). For this decision, the Vote Collector is the Assessor, the valid options are the candidates for that election (including those who become candidates after its initiation), and the voting method is instant runoff. 2) Distribute all pending Campaign Proposals associated with the election. 3) If POSSIBLE per the following paragraph, end the election immediately. If at any point an uncontested election has a single candidate, and that candidate either is not the author of a Committed Campaign Proposal for that election or that proposal was adopted, then any player CAN declare them the winner of the election by announcement. If at any point an uncontested election has no candidates, or a single candidate who is the author of a failed Committed Campaign Proposal for that election, then any player CAN declare the election ended with no winner by announcement. The Assessor SHALL do one or the other in the same message in which e resolves a decision to adopt a Campaign Proposal for an ongoing uncontested election. A poll CANNOT be resolved until the decisions to adopt all associated Campaign Proposals are resolved. When resolving the poll, if a given candidate authored one of the associated Campaign Proposals, that proposal is Committed, and it was not adopted, then that player is disqualified. When the poll is resolved, its outcome, if a player, wins the election. When a player wins an election, e is installed into the associated office and the election ends. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2513/1 (Power=3.0) Campaign Proposals During the nomination period of an election, any candidate for that election CAN submit a Campaign Proposal for that election, provided e does not currently have a pending Campaign Proposal for that election, using the normal mechanism for proposal submission. Campaign Proposals SHOULD relate to the duties of the office up for election. Commitment is an untracked Campaign Proposal switch with values Committed (default) and Uncommitted. The author of a Committed proposal may flip it to Uncommitted by announcement. A Campaign Proposal is an Official Proposal exempt from automatic distribution, and SHALL NOT be distributed except as required by the rules. The election with which a Campaign Proposal is associated, as well as its Commitment, are essential parameters for an Agoran decision to adopt a Campaign Proposal. When a Campaign Proposal is adopted, it CANNOT take effect until the associated election ends. When the election ends, if the winner was the proposal's author, then any player CAN once make it take effect by announcement (with its power set as usual for an adopted proposal). If the conditions for a Campaign Proposal to take effect are met as a result of an action in a public message, the author of the message SHALL make it take effect in that message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 1551/18 (Power=3.1) Ratification A public document is part (possibly all) of a public message. When a public document is ratified, rules to the contrary notwithstanding, the gamestate is modified to what it would be if, at the time the ratified document was published, the gamestate had been minimally modified to make the ratified document as true and accurate as possible. Such a modification cannot add inconsistencies between the gamestate and the rules, and it cannot include rule changes unless the ratified document explicitly and unambiguously recites either the changes or the resulting properties of the rule(s). If no such modification is possible, or multiple substantially distinct possible modifications would be equally appropriate, the ratification fails. An internally inconsistent document generally cannot be ratified; however, if such a document can be divided into a summary section and a main section, where the only purpose of the summary section is to summarize information in the main section, and the main section is internally consistent, ratification of the document proceeds as if it contained only the main section. Text purportedly about previous instances of ratification (e.g. a report's date of last ratification) is excluded from ratification. The rules may define additional information that is considered to be part of the document for the purposes of ratification; such definitions are secured at a Power Threshold of 3. Ratifying a public document is secured with power threshold 3. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2202/6 (Power=3.0) Ratification Without Objection Any player CAN, without objection, ratify a public document, specifying its scope. Ratification Without Objection CANNOT cause the repeal, amendment, enactment, or mutation of any Rule, rules to the contrary notwithstanding. A player SHALL NOT knowingly use or announce intent to use Ratification Without Objection to ratify a (prior to ratification) document containing incorrect or Indeterminate information when a corrected document could be produced with reasonable effort, unless the general nature of the document's error and reason for ratifying it is clearly and plainly described in the announcement of intent. Such ratification or announcement of intent to ratify is the Class-8 Crime of Endorsing Forgery. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2201/7 (Power=3.0) Self-Ratification A public document defined by the rules as self-ratifying is ratified when it is continuously undoubted for one week. A doubt is an explicit public challenge via one of the following methods, identifying a document and explaining the scope and nature of a perceived error in it: 1. An inquiry case, appropriate for questions of legal interpretation. 2. A claim of error, appropriate for matters of fact. The publisher of the original document SHALL (if e was required to publish that document) or SHOULD (otherwise) do one of the following in a timely fashion: 1. Deny the claim (causing it to cease to be a doubt). 2. Publish a revision. 3. Initiate an inquiry case regarding the truth of the claim (if the subject is actually a matter of law), or cite a relevant existing inquiry case. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ======================================================================== Calls for Judgement ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 991/25 (Power=2.0) Calls for Judgement Any person (the initiator) can initiate a Call for Judgement (CFJ, syn. Judicial Case), specifying a statement to be inquired into: a) by announcement, if e has not previously initiated any CFJs in the current week, OR b) by announcement by spending the current CFJ cost in shinies. When a person initiates a Call for Judgment, e CAN optionally bar one person from the case by announcement. At any time, each CFJ is either open (default), suspended, or assigned exactly one judgement. The Arbitor is an office, responsible for the administration of justice in a manner that is fair for emself, if not for the rest of Agora. When a CFJ has no judge assigned, the Arbitor CAN assign any eligible player to be its judge by announcement, and SHALL do so within a week. The players eligible to be assigned as judge are all players except the initiator and the person barred (if any). The Arbitor SHALL assign judges over time such that all interested players have reasonably equal opportunities to judge. If a CFJ has no judge assigned, then any player eligible to judge that CFJ CAN assign it to emself Without 3 Objections. The Arbitor's weekly report includes a summary of recent judicial case activity, including open and recently-judged cases, recent judicial assignments, and a list of players interested in judging. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 591/45 (Power=1.7) Delivering Judgements When a CFJ is open and assigned to a judge, that judge CAN assign a valid judgement to it by announcement, and SHALL do so in a timely fashion after this becomes possible. If e does not, the Arbitor CAN remove em from being the judge of that case by announcement, and SHALL do so in a timely fashion after the time limit expires, unless the judge assigns a valid judgement in the mean time. The valid judgements for an inquiry case are as follows, based on the facts and legal situation at the time the inquiry case was initiated, not taking into account any events since that time: * FALSE, appropriate if the statement was factually and logically false * TRUE, appropriate if the statement was factually and logically true * IRRELEVANT, appropriate if the veracity of the statement is not relevant to the game or is an overly hypothetical extrapolation of the game or its rules to conditions that don't actually exist, or if it can be trivially determined from the outcome of another (possibly still undecided) judicial case that was not itself judged IRRELEVANT * INSUFFICIENT, appropriate if the statement does not come with supporting arguments or evidence, and the judge feels as if an undue burden is being placed on em by the lack of arguments and evidence. A CFJ judged as INSUFFICIENT CAN and SHOULD be submitted again with sufficient arguments/evidence. * DISMISS, appropriate if the statement is malformed, undecidable, if insufficient information exists to make a judgement with reasonable effort, or the statement is otherwise not able to be answered with another valid judgement. DISMISS is not appropriate if PARADOXICAL is appropriate. * PARADOXICAL, appropriate if the statement is logically undecidable as a result of a paradox or or other irresovable logical situation. PARADOXICAL is not appropriate if IRRELEVANT is appropriate, nor is it appropriate if the undecidability arises from the case itself or in reference to it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 911/54 (Power=1.7) Motions and Moots If a judgement has been in effect for less then seven days and has not been entered into Moot, then: - The judge of that CFJ CAN self-file a Motion to Reconsider the case by announcement, if e has not already self-filed a Motion to Reconsider that CFJ. - Any Player CAN group-file a Motion to Reconsider the case with 2 Support, if the CFJ has not had a Motion to Reconsider group-filed for it at any time while it has been assigned to its current judge. When a Motion to Reconsider is so filed, the case is rendered open again. If a CFJ has a judgement assigned, a player CAN enter that judgement into Moot with N+2 support, where N is the number of weeks since that judgement has been assigned, rounded down. When this occurs, the CFJ is suspended, and the Arbitor is once authorized to initiate the Agoran decision to determine public confidence in the judgement, which e SHALL do in a timely fashion. For this decision, the vote collector is the Arbitor and the valid options are AFFIRM, REMAND, and REMIT. When the decision is resolved, the effect depends on the outcome: - AFFIRM, FAILED QUORUM: The judgement is reassigned to the case, and cannot be entered into Moot again. - REMAND: The case becomes open again. - REMIT: The case becomes open again, and the current judge is recused. The Arbitor SHALL NOT assign em to the case again unless no other eligible judges have displayed interest in judging. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2175/9 (Power=1.0) Judicial Retraction and Excess A new case is a judicial case that has not had any judge assigned to it. The initiator of a new case CAN retract it by announcement, thus causing it to cease to be a judicial case. An excess case is a new case whose initiator previously initiated five or more cases during the same week as that case. A person SHALL NOT initiate an excess case. The Arbitor CAN refuse an excess case by announcement, thus causing it to cease to be a judicial case. When e does so, e fulfills any obligations with regards to that case. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2492/1 (Power=1.0) Recusal A judge CAN recuse emself from a CFJ they are assigned to by announcement. When a judge recuses emself from a CFJ the following happens: 1 - The CFJ becomes unassigned 2 - The recused judge becomes ineligible to be assigned as a judge for a week. 3 - The recused judge SHOULD suggest another judge for the CFJ to make the Arbitor's job easier. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ======================================================================== Justice ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2426/9 (Power=2.0) Cards A Card is a recognition of a specific violation of the rules or other manner of infraction that is awarded to the violator in order to draw attention to eir disregard for the rule of law and, depending on the type of Card, to impose a penalty. Cards CANNOT be issued except by players by announcement. Any attempt to issue a Card is INEFFECTIVE if it does not include (1) the type of card being issued, (2) the name of the person being issued the card (the bad sport), and (3) the specific reason for the issuance of the card, or if it attempts to issue a person a card for an action or inaction which e (more likely than not) did not commit, or if it attempts to issue a card for an action or inaction which is not prohibited by law, or if it attempts to issue a type of card which is blatantly and obviously unsuited to the conduct which constitutes the reason for its issuance or to the person to which it is being issued, or if it is made more than 14 days after the conduct constituting the reason for the issuance of the card, or if it attempts to issue a card to a player who has already been issued a card for the conduct constituting the reason for the issuance of the card. Issuing Cards is secured with power threshold 1.7. The types of Card are defined by the rules. A type of Card may have a defined set of circumstances for which it is appropriate, as well as a penalty which takes effect when a Card of that type is issued. Unless otherwise specified by the rule defining a type of Card, that Card type's penalty and circumstances for which it is appropriate are secured at the power threshold of that rule. It is inappropriate to award a card to a non-player person unless the rule defining the card says otherwise. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2477/1 (Power=1.0) The Referee The Referee is an office; its holder is responsible for keeping track of and adjudicating wrongdoing. The Referee's weekly report includes a list of all Cards issued within the past 90 days and the reasons therefor, as well as a list of all penalties due to Cards that are still in effect. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2478/6 (Power=1.7) Vigilante Justice A player CAN by announcement, but subject to the provisions of this rule, Point eir Finger at a person who plays the game, citing an alleged violation of the rules by that person. When a player Points a Finger, the investigator SHALL investigate the allegation and, in a timely fashion, SHALL conclude the investigation by: - Imposing the Cold Hand of Justice, issuing a Card to the pointed-at person by announcement whose reason is rooted in the allegation; or - if e believes that no rules violation occurred or that it would be ILLEGAL to issue a Card for it, announcing the Finger Pointing to be Shenanigans. There is no limit on how many times a player may impose the Cold Hand of Justice per week The Referee is by default the investigator for all Finger Pointing. When a Finger, other than the Arbitor's, is Pointed over an allegation related to the official duties or powers of the Referee, then the Arbitor CAN, by announcement, take over the investigation and thereby become the investigator. The Referee CANNOT Point eir Finger. The Arbitor CANNOT Point eir Finger at the Referee ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2479/4 (Power=1.7) Official Justice The Referee CAN, subject to the provisions of this rule, impose Summary Judgment on a person who plays the game by issuing a card to em by announcement. Summary Judgement is imposed on the Referee's own initiative, and not in response to any official proceeding The Referee CANNOT impose Summary Judgement more than three times a week ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2531/0 (Power=1.0) Referee Accountability If the Referee attempts to issue three or more INEFFECTIVE cards in a week, any player CAN, with two support, issue a writ of Impartial Arbitration Restoration, immediately making the position of Referee vacant. When a writ of Impartial Arbitration Restoration is issued, the ADoP SHALL initiate an election for the Referee within a timely fashion ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2474/2 (Power=0.5) Green Cards A Green Card is a type of Card that is appropriate for minor, accidental, and/or inconsequential infraction. A Green Card is also appropriate for any infraction for which no other type of Card is appropriate. 'Tis appropriate to issue a Green Card to a non-player person who plays the game, for the infractions previously described. When a person is issued a Green Card, e is ENCOURAGED to travel to the United States. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2506/0 (Power=2.0) Blue Cards A Blue Card is a type of Card that is appropriate for deliberate or negligent infractions either where the the player responsible profited from violating the rules or where e significantly harmed another person or the game as a whole. The person issuing a Blue Card must, in the same message, announce a penalty between 1 shiny and the greater of 25 shinies and the amount the bad sport profited from the infraction, in order for the card to be effective. E CAN additionally, in the same message, determine the distribution of the money between Agora and the players(s) harmed, save that e CANNOT distribute money to emself or such that it would be under eir effective control. By default, all the money goes to Agora. When a Blue Card is issued, as a penalty, within the next 7 days, any player CAN once, with 2 Support, Levy a Fine upon the bad sport. After the Fine is Levied upon the bad sport, e SHALL endeavor in good faith to pay the fine to Agora or the correct player(s), in accordance with the distribution laid out by the carder. Any player CAN also act on the bad sport's behalf to do so, fulfilling eir obligation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2427/2 (Power=2.0) Yellow Cards A Yellow Card is a type of Card that is appropriate either for infractions that have a significant, though small, impact on gameplay or for infractions for which a Green Card has already been issued. When a Yellow Card is issued, the bad sport SHOULD publish a formal apology of at least 200 words explaining eir error, shame, remorse, and ardent desire for self-improvement. A player issuing a Yellow Card MAY, when doing so, additionally specify up to 10 words to be included in the apology. Until e publishes such an apology, as a penalty, the bad sport's voting strength on all Agoran decisions initiated within 30 days of the Card's issuance is set to 0 after modifiers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2475/0 (Power=2.0) Red Cards A Red Card is a type of Card that is appropriate for serious and deliberate violations of the rules. A Red Card is also appropriate for a person who appears to be part of an attempt in bad faith to swarm Agora and outpower the regular players in voting strength. When a Red Card is issued, as a penalty, within the next 7 days, any player CAN once, with 2 Support, Throw the Book at the bad sport. When the Book is Thrown at the bad sport, eir voting strength on all Agoran decisions initiated during the first Agoran week which begins at least four days after the issuance of the Card is reduced by 2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2507/0 (Power=2.0) Black Cards A Black Card is a card appropriate for a person who plays the game, not currently a player, who either broke the rules while not a player or broke them while a player and then deregistered in bad faith. A Black Card CANNOT be issued to current players, and no more than 3 Black Cards CAN be issued per week. Any attempt to issue a Black Card in violation of these limitations is INEFFECTIVE. When a Black Card is issued, as a penalty, within the next 7 days, any player CAN once, with Agoran Consent, Slam the Door at the bad sport. After the Door is Slammed at a person, e CANNOT register or take any game actions for 30 days, rules to the contrary notwithstanding. Any attempt to Slam the Door on a player or a person whose most recent deregistration took place without eir consent is INEFFECTIVE, rules to the contrary notwithstanding. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2476/0 (Power=1.0) Pink Slips A Pink Slip is a type of Card that is appropriate for abuses of official power for personal gain A Pink Slip CANNOT be issued unless the reason indicates the specific office or offices whose power was abused. When a Pink Slip is issued, as a penalty, within the next 7 days, any player CAN, with 2 Support, become the holder of one or more of those offices still held by the bad sport. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ======================================================================== Winning ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2449/2 (Power=3.0) Winning the Game When the Rules state that a person or persons win the game, those persons win the game; specifically they win the Round that ends with the indicated win. Agora itself does not end and the ruleset remains unchanged. The Herald is then authorized to award those persons the Patent Title of Champion. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2452/2 (Power=0.5) Trust Tokens Any player can issue a Trust Token to another person by announcement. When the Assessor resolves a Decision to adopt a proposal, then any player who cast a valid vote on the Decision and was endorsed by another player's valid vote on the Decision is issued a Trust Token by the endorsing player. A person can win the game by announcement if e has been issued a Trust Token by each player except emself; if no person has won via this mechanism in the past; and if in the same message, e quotes, for each of those players, a public message in which that player issued em a Trust Token. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2465/0 (Power=0.3) Victory by Apathy A player CAN Declare Apathy without objection, specifying a set of players. Upon doing so, the specified players win the game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2510/2 (Power=1.0) Such is Karma Karma is a person switch tracked by the Herald in eir Weekly Report. Karma is an Integer switch. Agora also has an instance of the Karma switch. A player CAN publish a Notice of Honour. For a Notice of Honour to be valid, it must: 1. Be clear that it is a Notice of Honour, and be the first valid Notice of Honour that player has published in the current week; 2. Specify any other player to gain karma, and provide a reason for specifying that player; and 3. Specify any player to lose karma, and provide a reason for specifying that player. When a valid Notice of Honour is published, the player specified to gain karma has eir karma increased by one, and the player specified to lose karma has eir karma decreased by one. Raising one entity's karma while lowering another's in this manner is considered to be a "transfer" of karma. A player's positions in Court are defined as follows: - Any player with a karma of 7 or greater is a Samurai. - Any player with a karma of -7 or less is an Gamma. - The player with the highest karma (if any) is the Shogun. - The player with the lowest karma (if any) is the Honourless Worm. Each player's positions in Court are part of of the Herald's Weekly Report. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2511/1 (Power=1.0) Karmic Balance In a timely fashion after the beginning of each Quarter, the Herald CAN and SHALL by announcement, perform the following tasks in order: 1. Halve (rounding towards 0) the Karma of every Unregistered person. 2. Set the Karma of Agora such that the sum of all Karma switch instance values in the game is equal to 0. While the Karma of Agora is not equal to 0, the Herald CAN and SHALL publish a Notice of Honour specifying Agora as a gainer or loser in place of a player; to be valid, it must be specified such that the result would move the Karma of Agora closer to 0. For selection players in such transactions, the Herald SHOULD use standards of behavior and game balance befitting the spirit of the game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2529/2 (Power=1.0) Medals of Honour Medals of Honour are a destructible fixed currency tracked by the Herald. In the first Eastman week of an Agoran month, any player CAN declare emself to be eligible for a Medal of Honour by announcement if all of the following are true: * E has made at least 1 message to a public forum in the last Agoran month. * Eir Karma is not below -3. * In the last Agoran month, e has not had a Card issued to em. In the second Eastman week of an Agoran month, if there are any players who are eligible for a Medal of Honour, the Herald CAN, by announcement, initiate an Agoran Decision on who is to be awarded a Medal of Honour. E SHALL do so within the second Eastman week of that Agoran month. For this decision, the valid votes are all players who are eligible for a Medal of Honour, the vote collector is the Herald, and the voting method is instant-runoff. Upon the resolution of this decision, the Herald CAN, and SHALL in a timely fashion, award the outcome of the decision a Medal of Honour by announcement. After a player is awarded a Medal of Honour, all players who were previously eligible for a Medal of Honour become no longer eligible. If, at any time, any player has 6 or more Medals of Honour, and e has not won via this rule previously, e can win the game by announcement, destroying all of eir Medals of Honour. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2553/0 (Power=1.0) Win by Paradox If a CFJ about the legality or possibility of a game action, has been assigned a judgment of PARADOXICAL continuously for at least 7 days, and e has not done so already in respect of that CFJ, then that case's initiator CAN, by announcement, win the game. A player who wins in this fashion SHOULD submit a proposal to prevent the paradox from arising again. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ======================================================================== Awards ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2438/9 (Power=3.0) Ribbons The Tailor is an office, and the recordkeepor of Ribbons. Ribbon Ownership is a person switch, tracked by the Tailor in eir monthly report, whose values are the subsets of the set of types of Ribbon, defaulting to the empty set. If the rules are amended to change the types of Ribbon, if a player's Ribbon Ownership is subsequently illegal, then it is updated by removing all nonexistent types rather than resetting the entire value to default. To "award a person a " is to add that type of Ribbon to that person's Ribbon Ownership. A person "owns a " if that type of Ribbon is an element of eir Ribbon Ownership. While a person qualifies for a type of Ribbon, any player CAN, by announcement, award em that type of Ribbon. A person qualifies for a type of Ribbon if e has earned that type of Ribbon within the preceding 7 days (including earlier in the same message) and has not owned that type of Ribbon within the preceding 7 days. While a person owns all types of Ribbon, that person can Raise a Banner by announcement. This causes that person to win the game. That person's Ribbon Ownership becomes the empty set. The types of Ribbon, and the methods of obtaining them, are as follows: Red (R): When a proposal is adopted and changes at least one rule with Power >= 3, its proposer earns a Red Ribbon. Orange (O): When a proposal is adopted via an Agoran Decision on which no valid ballots were AGAINST (after evaluating conditionals), its proposer earns an Orange Ribbon. Green (G): While a person has held an elected office continuously for 30 days, and has not failed to perform any duties of that office within the appropriate time limits during those 30 days, that person qualifies for a Green Ribbon. Cyan (C): When a person deputises for an office, that person earns a Cyan Ribbon. Blue (B): When a person assigns a judgement to a CFJ, and has never violated a time limit to assign a judgement to that CFJ, that person earns a Blue Ribbon. Magenta (M): During Agora's Birthday, each person who has publicly acknowledged the fact qualifies for a Magenta Ribbon. Ultraviolet (U): When a person is awarded the Patent Title Champion, that person earns an Ultraviolet Ribbon. Violet (V): When a person is awarded a Patent Title other than Champion or a degree, that person earns a Violet Ribbon. Indigo (I): When a person is awarded a degree, that person earns an Indigo Ribbon. Platinum (P): The Speaker qualifies for a Platinum Ribbon. Lime (L): A person qualifies for a Lime Ribbon if three or more proposals adopted in the preceding 7 days had that person as a coauthor. White (W): A player qualifies for a White Ribbon if e has never previously owned a White Ribbon (including under previous rulesets). A player who has been registered for at least 30 days and has never caused another person to gain a White Ribbon (including under a previous ruleset) CAN award a White Ribbon to another person by announcement. Black (K): This rule does not specify any methods of obtaining Black Ribbons. Gray (A): The Tailor CAN award a Gray Ribbon by announcement, unless e has done so earlier in the month. E is ENCOURAGED to award such a Ribbon in the same message in which e publishes eir monthly report. Transparent (T): A person qualifies for a Transparent Ribbon while the number of other types of Ribbon that that person qualifies for and/or has earned within the previous 7 days is at least 5. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2480/1 (Power=2.1) Festivals Festivity is a singleton switch, whose possible values are integers ranging from 0 inclusive to the number of defined types of Ribbon exclusive, and defaulting to 0. While Agora's Festivity is 0, Festivity is tracked in the Tailor's monthly report. Otherwise, it is tracked in the Tailor's weekly report. Changes to Festivity are secured. If Agora's Festivity has had the same nonzero value for 14 days or more, any player CAN flip it to 0 by announcement. A player who owns at least N types of Ribbon CAN Start a Rank N Festival, where N is an integer greater than Agora's Festivity, with 4 Support from players who own at least N types of Ribbon. Upon doing so, Agora's Festivity is flipped to N. Exception: A player CANNOT do so if Agora's Festivity has had a value greater than or equal to N within the past 21 days. A person who owns a number of types of Ribbon equal to or greater than Agora's Festivity is known as Festive. Other persons are not Festive. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2481/1 (Power=2.1) Festival Restrictions While Agora's Festivity is nonzero, the following apply: 1. Non-Festive players are never considered Supporters of a dependent action; 2. Non-Festive players cannot flip the Imminence of any proposal; 3. Quorum for Agoran Decisions is equal to half the number of Festive players, rounded up; 4. Each Festive player has the maximum possible voting strength. All other players have the minimum possible voting strength. While Agora's Festivity is zero, the paragraphs above have no effect and are ignored. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 649/38 (Power=1.5) Patent Titles A Patent Title is a legal title given to a person in recognition of the person's distinction. The Herald is an office; its holder is responsible for tracking Patent Titles in eir monthly report. Awarding or revoking a Patent Title is secured. A person permitted and enabled to award (revoke) a Patent Title SHALL do so in a timely fashion after the conditions authorizing em to do so are announced, unless there is an open judicial case contesting the validity of those conditions. The Herald CAN award a specified Patent Title to a specified player With 2 Agoran Consent. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2444/3 (Power=1.0) Silver Quill The Silver Quill is an annual award designed to honor the authors of proposals of outstanding merit and influence on the game. In a timely fashion after the end of each Agoran Year, the Herald SHALL initiate and Agoran Decision to determine which Proposal has most greatly influenced that (ending) year of play. For this decision, the valid options are all proposals adopted between November 1 of the year prior to the ending year, and October 31 of the ending year. The vote collector is the Herald, and the voting method is instant runoff. Players are ENCOURAGED to discuss which eligible proposals best satisfy the aforementioned criteria. Proposals submitted by new players SHOULD be given somewhat higher weight, but the primary reference should be the proposals themselves and their effect on the game since adoption. Upon the resolution of the decision, if the outcome is not FAILED QUORUM and there were at least three votes containing it in any preference slot, that proposal wins the Ceremony, and the Herald CAN once, by announcement, award its author the Patent Title of "Silver Quill YYYY, substituting the ending year; otherwise, there is no winner. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2415/0 (Power=1.5) Badges A Badge is any patent title with the word 'badge' as part of its name. A badge SHOULD be used to award multiple persons for participating in specific event of note within Agora. Any player CAN award a badge that does not yet exist to three or more persons simultaneously, with Agoran Consent. The Herald CAN award an existing badge to persons Without Objection. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 1367/19 (Power=3.0) Degrees Certain patent titles are known as degrees. The degrees are - Associate of Nomic (A.N.) - Bachelor of Nomic (B.N.) - Master of Nomic (M.N.) - Doctor of Nomic History (D.N.Hist.) - Doctor of Nomic Science (D.N.Sci.) - Doctor of Nomic Philosophy (D.N.Phil.) Degrees are ranked in the order they appear in this rule, with degrees listed later being ranked higher. A specific degree CANNOT be awarded to any person more than once. A specified degree CAN be awarded with 2 Agoran Consent, and SHOULD only be awarded for the publication of an original thesis of scholarly worth (including responses to peer-review), published with explicit intent to qualify for a degree. The Herald SHOULD coordinate the peer-review process and the awarding of degrees. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2231/6 (Power=3.0) Order of the Hero of Agora Nomic Heroic titles are Agora's premier patent titles of distinction, and CAN be awarded to persons for meritorious service only by a proposal of power 3 or greater, which SHOULD explain why those persons are qualified. Bearers of heroic titles (Heroes) constitute the Order of the Hero of Agora Nomic. The Heroic titles in decreasing precedence are: Grand Hero of Agora Nomic (GHAN) -- This title CAN be awarded to any person obviously and directly responsible for the existence of Agora and/or Nomic in general. As this title is the highest honour that Agora may bestow, a Bearer of this title OUGHT to be treated right good forever. Hero of Agora Nomic (HAN) -- This title CAN be awarded to any person for outstanding meritorious service to Agora above and beyond the call of duty. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ======================================================================== Figureheads ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 104/0 (Power=3.0) First Speaker The Speaker for the first game shall be Michael Norrish. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 103/24 (Power=2.0) The Speaker The Speaker is an imposed office and the figurehead leader of Agora. The player or players who have most recently won the game are called Laureled. If at any time the office of Speaker is vacant, or when one or more players win Agora, then the Prime Minister CAN and SHALL, once and in a timely fashion, appoint a Laureled player to the office of Speaker by announcement. If the office of Speaker has been held continuously by the same person for 90+ days, then any player CAN appoint another player to the office with Support. For an election of the Prime Minister, the Speaker has voting strength one greater than e would have if e did not hold the office. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2423/3 (Power=2.0) First Among Equals The Prime Minister is an office. The Prime Minister is elected by the players of Agora primarily on account of not being the other guy. The Prime Minister SHOULD ensure that Agoran affairs proceed smoothly. The holder of the office of Prime Minister's voting strength is increased by 1 on all Agoran decisions other than a elections of the Prime Minister. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2463/0 (Power=1.0) Motion of No Confidence Any player can cause the office of Prime Minister to become vacant with 2 Agoran Consent by publishing a message with the character string "MOTION OF NO CONFIDENCE" in the subject line. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2451/5 (Power=2.0) Executive Orders Once per week and except as otherwise forbidden by this rule, the current Prime Minister CAN issue a Cabinet Order by announcement to perform the action(s) authorized by that Order. Each Cabinet Order is associated with an office. The current Prime Minister CANNOT issue more than one Cabinet Order associated with the same office more than once in the same month, nor can e issue a Cabinet Order associated with a vacant office. The available Cabinet Orders are: - Certiorari (Arbitor): The Prime Minister assigns emself as judge of a specified open case. - Dive (Referee): The Prime Minister issues a specified Card to a specified player. Notwithstanding rule 2426, the reason for the card MAY be any grievance held by the Prime Minister, not necessarily a violation of the rules, against the person to whom the Card is issued. - Manifesto (Promotor): The Prime Minister distributes a specified proposal in the Proposal Pool. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ======================================================================== Contracts & Obligations ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2450/3 (Power=1.7) Pledges Pledges are an indestructible fixed asset. Ownership of pledges is restricted to persons. The Referee is the recordkeepor of pledges. Creating, destroying, modifying, and transferring pledges are secured. To "pledge" something is to create a pledge with those terms. A person CAN pledge by announcement to create a pledge e owns. To "retract" (syn "withdraw") a pledge is to destroy it. A person CAN retract a pledge e owns without objection. To "call in" a pledge" is to destroy it. A player CAN call in any pledge with Agoran Consent, if e announces a reason the Terms of the pledge should be considered broken. Support for an intent to call in a pledge is INEFFECTIVE unless the supporting player explicitly confirms the reasons that the pledge should be considered broken. It is ILLEGAL to own a pledge when it is called in. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2519/0 (Power=3.0) Consent A person gives consent (syn. consents) to an action when e, acting as emself, publicly states that e agrees to the action. This agreement may be implied, but only if it is reasonably clear from context that the person wanted the agreement to take place. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2520/0 (Power=2.5) Contracts A contract is a ruleset-defined entity embodied in text. An entity can only become a contract through the appropriate ruleset defined procedures. Changes to the contract's text by rule defined mechanisms (including those delegated to the contract itself) do not change the identity of the contract. If any change to a contract's text, internal state, or other properties would cause them to become indeterminate and remain so for any non-infinitesimal amount of time, the change is canceled and does not occur. The following changes are secured at power 2.1: creating or modifying a contract or causing an entity to become a contract. The properties of contracts, as defined by other rules, include the following: - Parties, persons who agree to be bound by and assume powers under the contract. - The ability to be amended or destroyed. - The ability to compel actions by their parties. - The ability to allow persons to take actions on the part of their parties. - The ability to define arbitrary classes of asset. - The ability to possess and control assets. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2525/1 (Power=2.6) Interpreting Contracts A contract should generally be interpreted according to its text, including any clauses giving directions for its interpretation or construction. Additionally, justice, the intent of the contract's parties, and the principles governing rule interpretation should be reasonably applied when interpreting a contract. A contract is subservient to the rules. Although a contract may specify obligations or powers beyond those created by the rules, a contract may not override the rules: in particular, any provision of a contract that would unreasonably violate an inalienable right of players and/or persons or cause any rule defined statement about the gamestate, or about the possibility of an action, to become false is void and without effect insofar as it does so. The following are protected actions: 1. Registering and deregistering; 2. Submitting, pending, or voting freely on a proposal, but only if the sole effect the proposal would have if adopted is to create, modify, or destroy a contract or group of contracts, or to cause an entity or group of entities to become or cease to be a contract or group of contracts; 3. Creating, destroying, or amending a contract, intending to do so, and supporting, objecting to, or resolving such an intent, except where the mechanism for destruction or amendment is created by the contract itself; 4. Making true statements about a contract; 5. Calling, judging, assigning, or freely discussing a CFJ; 6. Objecting to or supporting an intent to perform an action while Speaker; 7. Using an executive order; 8. Making, amending, revoking or calling in a pledge; and 9. Any action affecting the status of a festival. Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, a contract CANNOT compel, forbid, or in any significant way alter, tamper with, or modify the performance of a protected action. A contract CANNOT punish a player for performing or failing to perform a protected action, or for doing so in a particular manner, except where it would otherwise be ILLEGAL. A contract also CANNOT enable a person to do any of the things prohibited to the contract by this paragraph. Insofar as a contract or a provision or clause of a contract contravenes the letter or clear intent of this rule, it is void and without effect. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2522/0 (Power=2.5) Contract Lifecycle A person CAN create a contract by announcement by transferring 1 shiny to Agora, specifying the contract's text. A person SHALL NOT create more than X (where X is the contract limit) contracts per week by this method, and the Notary CAN destroy any excess (i.e. beyond the X permitted) contracts by announcement within 7 days of the contract's formation, but only if the contract(s) were excess at the time of their creation. The contract limit is an untracked singleton switch, defaulting to 3, with possible values of any integer between 3 and 7. The contract limit can be set to any valid value in a regulation promulgated by the Notary. The amendment limit is an untracked singleton switch, with possible values of integers greater than or equal to 5, or positive infinity (default). The amendment limit can be set in a regulation promulgated by the Notary. The person or persons who create a contract CAN and SHOULD also specify a name for the contract; if e does not do so, the Notary CAN and SHALL assign a name in a timely fashion. A contract CAN amend, destroy, or retitle itself by announcement. A player CAN amend, destroy, or retitle a contract without objection, even if its text denies em the ability to do so. Players SHOULD only use this mechanism to recover from situations where the contract is underspecified or has unintended effects. The Notary CAN by regulation stop the same contract from amending or retitling itself more than Y times (where Y is the amendment limit limit) combined times per Agoran day; e CANNOT stop a contract from being destroyed, or from being retitled or amended by any other means. If a contract has fulfilled its purpose, does not specify any gamestate affecting statements, or otherwise seems unlikely to be used, the Notary CAN and SHOULD destroy it with Agoran Consent. Any player CAN destroy a contract with 2 Agoran Consent. Players SHOULD NOT use the methods in this paragraph to further their private interests. If the possibility of any action defined by this rule is indeterminate, or is subject to a inextricable conditional, it is impossible. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2523/0 (Power=2.4) Contracts as Agreements The text of a contract can specify obligations upon its parties. Parties to a contract SHALL abide by its terms, breaching them neither negligently nor deliberately. The fact that the action described by the contract is in violation of the rules is not a defense if the violative nature is reasonably clear from its text. If whether an action is permitted or forbidden by a contract is indeterminate or subject to an inextricable conditional, it is presumptively permitted. As an exception to the provisions of the previous paragraph and the circumstances in which cards would ordinarily be appropriate, a person awarding a card under this rule MAY and CAN validly consider the equitable interests of justice and interests of the game, including the importance of the observation of contracts, as a mitigating or aggravating circumstances when awarding a card. Such a person MAY, CAN validly, and SHOULD also consider the instructions of the contract or contracts in question when issuing a card. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2521/0 (Power=2.5) Parties to Contracts Each contract has an associated set of persons, known as the parties. The person who creates a contract is automatically a party. Other persons CAN become parties to a contract by announcement if the contract's text permits them to do so. Parties can leave a contract by announcement, ceasing being parties, if the contract's text permits them to do so. A contract CAN expel a party or group of parties by announcement, causing them to cease being parties. It is IMPOSSIBLE, by any means, for a person to become a party to a contract, for an contract to be created with a person as a party, or for an entity to become a contract with a person as a party, without that person's consent. This rule takes precedence over any rule that might make such a change possible. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2526/1 (Power=2.4) Sustenance Payments The Notary CAN, once a month, cause each contract that owns at least one shiny to transfer one shiny to Agora. E SHALL do so in the first Eastman week of every month. If a contract does not own at least one shiny, and is thus unable to make said payment, the Notary CAN and SHALL destroy it With Notice. If a contract becomes and remains able to pay before its destruction, the Notary CANNOT destroy it, and CAN and SHALL instead collect the shiny. The Notary CAN, by regulation, exempt a contract from the preceding paragraph. E SHALL NOT do so unless the contract seems to be in the public interest of Agora. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2527/0 (Power=1.0) The Notary The Notary is an office, and the recordkeepor of contracts. The Notary's weekly report contains all contracts, including their name, text, and parties. The Notary's weekly report also contains the list of private classes of asset. The Notary is ENCOURAGED to list all changes to the information e tracks in eir report. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2471/1 (Power=1.0) No Faking A person SHALL NOT make a public statement that is a lie. A statment is a lie if its publisher either knew or believed it to be not to be true at the time e published it (or, in the case of an action, not to be effective), and it was made with the intent to mislead. Merely quoting a statement does not constitute making it for the purposes of this rule. Any disclaimer, conditional clause, or other qualifier attached to a statement constitutes part of the statement for the purposes of this rule; the truth or falsity of the whole is what is significant. The previous provisions of this rule notwithstanding, a formal announcement of intent is never a lie. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ======================================================================== Economics ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2166/25 (Power=3.0) Assets An asset is an entity defined as such by a (a) rule, (b) authorized regulation, (c) group of rules and/or authorized regulations (but if such regulations modify a preexisting asset class defined by a rule or another title of regulations, they must be authorized specifically to do so by their parent rule), or (d) contract (hereafter its backing document), and existing solely because its backing document defines its existence. An asset's backing document can specify when and how that asset is created, destroyed, and transferred. Each asset has exactly one owner. If an asset would otherwise lack an owner, it is owned by Agora. If an asset's backing document restricts its ownership to a class of entities, then that asset CANNOT be gained by or transferred to an entity outside that class, and is destroyed if it is owned by an entity outside that class (except if it is owned by Agora, in which case any player CAN transfer or destroy it without objection). The restrictions in the previous sentence are subject to modification by its backing document. Unless modified by an asset's backing document, ownership of an asset is restricted to Agora, players, and contracts. As an exception to the last sentence, non-player persons are generally able to own assets defined by a contract they are a party to, subject to modification by the contract in question. A contract's text can specify whether or not that contract is willing to receive assets or a class of assets. Generally, a contract CANNOT be given assets it is unwilling to receive. If the contract is silent on the matter, or if its willingness is indeterminate or the subject of a inextricable conditional, the procedure to determine its willingness is as follows: 1. If the contract appears to anticipate being given assets, other than for sustenance (e.g. by authorizing parties to spend the contract's assets), then the contract is willing to receive all assets. 2. Otherwise, it is unwilling to receive all assets. The previous paragraph (including the list) notwithstanding, a contract CAN be given 1 shiny a month for its sustenance payment, so long as it never has more than 1 shiny at a time. The recordkeepor of a class of assets is the entity (if any) defined as such by, and bound by, its backing document. That entity's report includes a list of all instances of that class and their owners. This portion of that entity's report is self-ratifying. Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, a contract CANNOT oblige a person who isn't a member to record its internal state, nor is the default recordkeepor responsible for tracking a contract's internal state. For the purposes of this rule, the promulgator of a regulation is bound by it. An asset generally CAN be destroyed by its owner by announcement, subject to modification by its backing document. An indestructible asset is one defined as such by it backing document, and CANNOT be destroyed except by a proposal or rule, other than this one, specifically addressing the destruction of indestructible assets or that asset in particular; any other asset is destructible. In circumstances where another asset would be destroyed, an indestructible asset is generally transferred to Agora, subject to modification by its backing document and the intervention of other rules. To "lose" an asset is to have it destroyed from one's possession; to "revoke" an asset from an entity is to destroy it from that entity's possession. An asset generally CAN be transferred (syn. paid, given) by announcement by its owner to another entity, subject to modification by its backing document. A fixed asset is one defined as such by its backing document, and CANNOT be transferred; any other asset is liquid. When a rule indicates transferring an amount that is not a natural number, the specified amount is rounded up to the nearest natural number. A currency is a class of asset defined as such by its backing document. Instances of a currency with the same owner are fungible. The "x balance of an entity", where x is a currency, is the number of x that entity possesses. If a rule, proposal, or other competent authority attempts to increase or decrease the balance of an entity without specifying a source or destination, then the currency is created or destroyed as needed. When a player causes one or more balances to change, e is ENCOURAGED to specify the resulting balance(s). Players SHOULD NOT specify inaccurate balances. Where it resolves ambiguity, the asset or currency being referred to is the currency designated as "Agora's official currency", if there is one. An asset or class of assets is private, rather than public, if its backing document is a contract. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2486/0 (Power=3.14) The Royal Parade _ _\ /_ >_X_< .---._ /_\ _.---. /`.---._`{/ \}`_.---.`\ | / ___`{\_/}`___ \ | \ \."`* `"{_}"` *`"./ / \ \ )\ _\ /_ /( / / \ *<()( >_X_< )()>* / |._)/._./_\._.\(_.| jgs |() () () () () ()| <><>><> `"""""""""""""""""""` IN CELEBRATION of Alexis being crowned Princess of Agora, without prejudice to Any before or since who may come to hold a Title whether Patent or otherwise; IT IS HEREBY PROCLAIMED that a Royal Parade be established, imbued in this very Rule, which shall travel around Agora to Rules of import; AND THEREFORE, the Rulekeepor SHOULD place this Rule near recently-amended rules of high Power; AND FURTHERMORE, additions to this Parade are most welcome when Events suiting the honour should occur. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2515/0 (Power=1.0) Distributing Assets To 'distribute' a quantity of a fungible asset to a set of recipients is to transfer one instance of that asset at a time to the recipient that owns the least number of instances of that asset, until either no more instances of the asset are eligible to be distributed, or the number of instances so transferred equals the quantity to be distributed. If, when distributing a specific asset, two or more recipients each own the least number of instances of that asset, then the recipient that most recently became eligible to own the asset SHALL receive the asset being distributed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2545/0 (Power=2.0) Auctions An Auction is a way for entities to give away items in exchange for a currency. Any rule or contract CAN permit (or require) Auctions to be initiated. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2546/0 (Power=1.0) Lots Each Auction has one or more lots of items. A lot is a non-empty list of items to be transferred by a single Auction to a single recipient. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2547/0 (Power=1.0) The Auctioneer Each Auction has an Auctioneer. The Auctioneer of an Auction is the entity that initiates that Auction, and describes all of the specifics of an Auction. All rules or contracts permitting Auctions to be initiated should specify an entity to be Auctioneer. If no Auctioneer is specified, the default Auctioneer for Auctions defined by the rules is Agora, and the default Auctioneer for Auctions defined by a contract is the contract itself. A clause in a Contract purporting to make an entity which is neither the Contract itself nor a party to the Contract the Auctioneer of an Auction defined by that Contract is INEFFECTIVE. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2548/0 (Power=1.0) The Auction Announcer Each Auction has an Announcer. Only persons can be Announcers. If the Auctioneer of an Auction is a player, then that player is the Announcer of that Auction. Otherwise, the rule or contract defining an Auction CAN define the Announcer for that Auction. Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, no Contract can define a person as the Announcer of an Auction unless that person is a party to that Contract. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2549/0 (Power=1.0) Auction Initiation An entity authorized by a rule or contract to initiate an Auction CAN do so by announcement. If the rule or contract specifies that that entity MUST do so, that entity SHALL do so in a timely fashion. An Auction CANNOT be initiated other than as described by a rule or contract. An Auction CANNOT be initiated unless the announcer specifies all of * the Auction's lots, in the order they will be awarded, * the items in each lot, * the Auction's Auctioneer, * the Auction's Announcer, * the Auction's minimum bid, and, optionally * the Auction's currency in the message initiating the Auction. An Auction also CANNOT be initiated unless the Auctioneer is able to give away each item in each of the Auction's lots. If no currency is specified, it defaults to Shinies. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2550/0 (Power=1.0) Bidding A person authorized to bid on an Auction CAN do so by announcement, specifying the amount of the Auction's currency to bid. A bid placed on an Auction before it is initiated, or after it has ended, is INEFFECTIVE. An attempt to place a bid which is less than the Auction's minimum bid is INEFFECTIVE. A person CAN withdraw their bid on an Auction by announcement. If a person submits a bid on an Auction, all bids previously placed on that Auction by that person are withdrawn. A rule or contract defining an Auction CAN specify a class of players who are authorized to bid on that Auction. If the rule or contract does not specify a class of authorized bidders, any player is authorized to bid on an Auction defined by a rule, and any party to a contract is authorized to bid an Auction defined by that Contract. A person SHALL NOT bid on an Auction if it would be impossible for em to pay that amount at the conclusion of the Auction. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2551/0 (Power=1.0) Auction End An Auction ends 7 days after its initiation, or immediately if no bid has been placed or withdrawn in the last 96 hours, or immediately if it is terminated. When an Auction ends, any bid placed by an entity which does not own enough of the Auction's currency to pay the amount specified in the bid is automatically withdrawn. Once an Auction has ended, any further attempts to bid on that Auction or to withdraw bids from that Auction are INEFFECTIVE. Once the Auction has ended, the Auction's announcer SHALL announce the end of the Auction in a timely fashion. In the same message, e SHALL include the a list of all the bids on the Auction and the winner(s) (if there are any) of the Auction. A person's priority on an Auction is their position in the list of persons who have bid on the Auction, sorted by the value of their non-withdrawn bids in descending order. If two persons have placed non-withdrawn bids for the same value, a player who placed their non-withdrawn bid first has a higher priority than a player who placed their non-withdrawn bid at a later time. For each lot in the Auction, the winner of that lot is the player with the highest priority on the Auction who has not won any previous lot. If there are more lots than there are persons with non-withdrawn bids, the excess lots are not won by any person. The winner of a lot SHALL pay the Auctioneer the number of the Auction's currency equal to eir bid, in a single payment, in a timely fashion. When e does so, the Auctioneer SHALL transfer the items in that lot to that winner in a timely fashion. If the Auctioneer is not a person, then a person authorized to cause the Auctioneer to transfer those items SHALL do so in a timely fashion after the winner pays the Auctioneer, instead. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2552/0 (Power=1.0) Auction Termination Any player CAN terminate an Auction, by announcement, if the Auction has not ended and the Auctioneer of that Auction cannot transfer any item included in a lot in that Auction. When an Auction is terminated, all bids on that Auction are withdrawn, and then the Auction ends immediately. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2483/6 (Power=2.0) Economics Shinies (singular "shiny", abbreviated "sh.") are an indestructible liquid currency, and the official currency of Agora. The Treasuror is an Office, and the recordkeepor for shinies. Whenever a Payday occurs, the following events happen in order: 1. For each entity possessing shinies, half of eir shinies (rounded up) are destroyed. 2. 10 shinies are created in the possession of each player. 3. For each office, if a single player held that office for 16 or more days in the previous month and e was not issued any Cards other than Green for eir conduct in that office during that time, 3 shinies are created in the possession of that player. The occurrence of Paydays is secured. At the beginning of each month, a Payday occurs. When a person registers who has not been a player at any time in the previous 60 days, 10 shinies are created in eir possession. The Pend Cost is 3 Shinies. The CFJ Cost is 1 Shiny. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ======================================================================== Agoran Culture ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2446/5 (Power=1.0) The Agoran Newspaper The Reportor is an office. The Reportor's weekly report includes: 1. A suitable name for a newspaper, at the Reportor's discretion. 2. A description of events that have happened since the last report that the Reportor believes significant or interesting. 3. Any editorialization or other pieces of Agora-related information the Reportor pleases, as long as it is neither i) factually incorrect nor ii) disrespectful to any person or Agora itself. While meeting these requirements, the Reportor may format eir report however e pleases. The Reportor's reports are still subject to the requirements of rule 2143 The Reportor SHALL include at least one piece of information relevant to Agora in the last week and SHALL write with the goal of creating a more informed population. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2327/1 (Power=1.0) Read the Ruleset Week The first Agoran week each year which falls entirely in February is Read the Ruleset Week. Agorans are encouraged to read the ruleset during Read the Ruleset Week. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 1727/21 (Power=1.0) Happy Birthday WHEREAS, in June 1993, the world's only MUD-based nomic, Nomic World, had recently collapsed; yet, many of its players enjoyed nomic and did not wish to forego such a noble pursuit; And WHEREAS, Originator Chuck Carroll therefore composed an Initial Ruleset for an email nomic, based on the Initial Rulesets of Peter Suber, inventor of Nomic, and on the Rulesets of Nomic World and other nomics, And WHEREAS, a nomic thus rose like a phoenix from the ashes of Nomic World, played on the mailing list originally set up for discussion of Nomic World, and coming into existence at June 30, 1993, 00:04:30 GMT +1200, with a message sent by FIRST SPEAKER Michael Norrish, which read, in part, "I see no reason to let this get bogged down; there are no precedents or rules that cover this situation, so I think we may as well begin directly.... Proposals for new rules are invited. In accordance with the rules, these will be published, numbered and distributed by me at my earliest convenience." And WHEREAS, this nomic began as a humble and nameless nomic, known unofficially as yoyo, after the mailing list it was played on, until its Players, much later, gave it its OFFICIAL NAME of Agora, And WHEREAS, Agora has now become the wisest, noblest, eldest, and most interesting of all active email nomics, due to the hard work and diligence of Agorans as well as the frequent advice of Agoraphobes, And WHEREAS, Agorans desire to joyously commemorate Agora's founding, BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that Agora's Birthday is defined to be the entire day of June 30, GMT +1200, of each year. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2464/2 (Power=1.0) Tournaments A Tournament is a sub-game of Agora specifically sanctioned to be initiated as a tournament by the Rules. If a winner of a tournament is determined within 4 weeks of its initiation, that person or persons win the game, otherwise the tournament concludes with no winner. A Tournament is governed by a special temporary title of the ACORN, created in accordance with its parent rule, which have binding control over those who freely agree to play the tournament and over the tournament itself. Once the tournament is concluded, these regulations cease to have any effect, and CAN be repealed by any player by announcement. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2495/1 (Power=1.0) The Birthday Tournament In a timely fashion after the start of June 1 of each year, the Herald SHALL propose a set of Regulations governing a Birthday Tournament for that year; the Herald CAN also delegate the responsibility for creating or running the tournament to another player, with that player's consent, by announcement. The Birthday Tournament's regulations SHOULD be such that all persons who choose to participate have a fair chance of winning the tournament (according to its regulations), and a winner SHOULD be expected within 2-3 weeks following the tournament's initiation. After adequate time for discussion of the Birthday Tournament's regulations, the Herald (or delegate) CAN initiate a sanctioned tournament with a specified, finalized set of regulations, Without 3 Objections. By doing so e promulgates those regulations as a special temporary title of the ACORN. This title may thereafter be amended only by the Herald or eir designee without objection, to correct minor typos. The initiation SHOULD be timed to coincide with Agora's Birthday. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 1769/15 (Power=3.0) Holidays The period each year from midnight GMT on the morning of 24 December to the beginning of the first Agoran week to begin after 2 January is a Holiday. The week that contains the beginning of Agora's Birthday, together with the following week, is a Holiday. If a person breaks a Rule by missing a deadline that occurs during a Holiday, punishment is generally not appropriate. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2530/0 (Power=1.0) Poetry Duel Challenge Writ A player CAN issue the title's writ once a month to another, who this month a different writ they yet remit, by having the first player pays its due of ten shinies and announces intent. If a party remits, they are disgraced; else the pair must to the public present a poem each which then Agorans be faced with a Decision of which one is better. Each task a timely manner it be done, The winner gains the loser as debtor, of whose function this rule shall provide none. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rule 2029/0 (Power=4.0) Town Fountain /\ /\ / \ / \ T his Power-04 Rule (the first ever) was placed to honor The Agoran Spirit Of The Game by G., Steve, Murphy, root and OscarMeyr, Scamsters. Look on our works, ye Marvy, but do always Dance a Powerful Dance. Hail Eris! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ======================================================================== END OF THE SHORT LOGICAL RULESET