The following protoproposal attempts to clarify the performance and regulation of actions and encodes in law the previous judicial decision and former law that an index of Unanimity is greater than any other index.
It modifies rule 101 (Agoran Rights and Privileges) and rule 1503 (Rules Violations, which becomes Agoran Duties) in an attempt to strengthen Agoran law's recognition of its contractual nature. I also added the right of persons who are players to propose rule changes to rule 101. I think this proto is nearly ready to submit. I would appreciate any constructive feedback. ---------- Protoproposal h0134 (AI=3) Clarify actions Amend rule 101 (Agoran Rights and Privileges) to read: Persons have certain rights and privileges. Those rights which are enumerated in the rules or recognized by the Agoran courts may not be abridged, reduced, limited, or remove by Agoran law, and any provision of an otherwise binding agreement which would do so is unenforceable. Those privileges which are enumerated in the rules or recognized by the Agoran courts are assumed to exist in the absence of an explicit, binding agreement to the contrary. This rule takes precedence over all other rules. The failure of the rules to enumerate a right or privilege does not by itself imply that that right or privilege does not exist. Merely possessing a right does not by itself provide a mechanism by which the right can be exercised. However, the rules must provide mechanisms by which the following rights can be exercised. (a) Each person has the right to call for judgement on a statement with the expectation that the truth of the statement will be decided in a reasonable amount of time. (b) Each person has the right to call for the appeal of any judgement and the right to initiate an appeal on a sentencing or judicial order binding em. (c) Each person has the right to refuse to become party to a binding agreement. The absence of a person's explicit consent shall be considered a refusal. (d) Each person has the right not to be bound by an agreement or an amendment to an agreement which e has not had a reasonable opportunity to review. (e) Each person has the right not to be penalized more than once for a single action or inaction. Forcible deregistration is not a penalty. (f) Each person who is a player has the right to perform unregulated actions. (g) Each person who is a player has the right to participate in the fora. (h) Each person who is a player has the right to propose changes to the rules. (i) Each person who is a player has the right to deregister. Each person has the privilege of doing what e wilt. Please treat Agora right good forever. Change the title of rule 1503 (Rules Violations) to "Agoran Duties". Amend rule 1503 to read: The rules form a binding agreement to which all players are parties. When a person becomes a player, e agrees to be bound by the rules, fulfilling the duties required of em by the rules and in return being granted the rights guaranteed by the rules. An actual or alleged rule violation is equivalent to an actual or alleged violation of a binding agreement to be bound by the rule in question. The proposal, fora, and registration processes shall, prima facie, be considered to be protective of a Player's rights and privileges with respect to making and changing the agreement to be bound by the rules. Other rules may further differentiate the treatment of rules violations from the treatment of violations of other types of agreements. Amend rule 2125 (Regulation Regulations) to read: An action is regulated if one of the following conditions holds: (a) the action is prohibited; (b) the rules indicated that the action may be performed if certain conditions are satisfied; (c) the action would, as part of its effect, modify information for which some player is required to be a recordkeepor; (d) the action would, as part of its effect, make it impossible to make arbitrary modifications to the rules by any combinations of actions by players; or (e) the courts have held that the action is regulated, and the most recent such finding has not been overturned. Any other action is unregulated. Enact a rule with power 3, titled "Performance of actions" and reading: The rules may assign one or more mechanisms (the Means) to an action (the End). Each action is a Means for itself. Whenever a rule states that a person performs, or can perform, one action by performing another action, it shall be interpreted as assigning the latter action as a Means to the former action. Ends and their Means shall be considered equivalent in the following technical sense. Whenever a person performs an action which is a Means to some End, e shall be considered to have performed the End, even if the End could not naturally be performed. If a person somehow would simultaneously peform multiple Means with the same End, e shall be considered to have thereby performed the End only once. A person cannot perform an End unless there is at least one Means to that End which e can naturally perform. A player "publishes" or "announces" something by sending an appropriate message to a public forum. A player performs an action "by announcement" by announcing that e performs it. A player performs an action "by private message" to some player by sending an appropriate private message to the specified player. Any action performed by sending a message is performed at the time date-stampted on that message. Amend rule 478 (Fora) by replacing the text reading: A message is public if and only if it is sent via a public forum or is sent to all players and contains a clear designation of intent to be public. A player "publishes" or "announces" something by sending a public message. A player performs an action "by announcement" by announcing that e performs it. A player performs an action "by private message" to some player by sending an appropriate private message to the specified player. Any action performed by sending a message is performed at the time date-stamped on that message. with text reading: A message is public if and only if it is sent via a public forum or is sent to all players and contains a clear designation of intent to be public. Enact a rule, titled "The Orderly Comparison of Threats", reading: The Order of the Evil Eye, or more briefly the Order, is a total order consisting of all nonnegative real numbers in their standard mathematical order together with a special element called Unanimity, which is strictly greater than any other element of the Order. Whenever the rules indicate that two indices are to be compared, they shall be compared as though they were members of the Order. ---------- -- C. Maud Image (Michael Slone) "some things are lost and others gained" -- Andre, in agora-discussion