Jonathan Fry wrote: >If finding officers is such an issue (and I'm probably not going to >consent to the above), would it be time to consider automating some of >these processes?
Historically, many officeholders have used some degree of automation. I think a better way of putting what you're aiming at there is that we should seek officers who will automate to an appropriate degree. By the nature of the game, automation needs to be updated, and occasionally overridden, as the rules change and irregularities occur. I'd say that programming is a desirable skill for officeholders, to varying degrees for the different offices. It would be extremely unwise to rely on a single programmer to produce and maintain automata, or to rely on automation entirely. Nomic World was based entirely on the automation concept, and it died as a result when the programming didn't keep up with the rules. > Some other nomics have removed the work we'd associate >with the Promotor and Assessor by setting up web pages allowing the users >to enter proposals and vote on them. Registrar/Herald could probably be >handled that way, too. In addition to my comments above, I oppose any measure that would take game business off the mailing lists. Email is essentially self-archiving, which is very valuable in a crisis. Also, by means of the list much business is automatically public, and any business *can* be performed publicly, a latitude that has very frequently been employed. Submitting proposals and votes via HTTP would make those inherently private acts, denying us a public record and the opportunity for public comment. -zefram
