On Wed, 7 Nov 2007, Ian Kelly wrote:
> I understood your previous post as arguing that the common definition
> of "announcing" could be used, but not "by announcement". Did I
> misunderstand you?
I think either works. The rules have continuously described what
constitutes "public" and "public messages." Non-players and players
have always been able to post public messages.
With no definition in the rules, making "announcements" or "announcing"
something falls on the common definition of the act of posting a public
message. The part of speech (noun or verb) is not significant.
The 2005 proposal defines what it means for a player to make an
announcement, and overrides the common definition for players. It so
happens that this override is strictly unnecessary as it duplicates
the common definition as long as "public" is defined. At the same
time, the rules definition for players does not undefine what it means
for a non-player to announce something or make an announcement, so again
the common definition applies for as long as "public message" is defined.
(Fortunately, we never undefined "public."
So to sum up:
1. Players may make announcements or announce things, as defined
in the rules by "announce" or "announcement."
2. Non-players may do the same, but by common definition of
"announce" or "announcement" combined with the rules definition
of "public" and "public messages."
3. For players, these announcements may generally perform actions.
(the definition of performing actions by announcement).
4. For non-players, announcements in general do not automatically
map to actions performed (there is nothing to specifically say
that a non-player may actually perform actions by announcement).
But the rules do so explicitly make this map for registration,
so registration is successful.
-Goethe
