Hey, I'm new here too so I don't know much, but there is this FAQ which was published a while ago:
Agora Nomic FAQ last updated 4/22/09 Q. What's with the funny pronouns? A. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spivak_pronoun (Agora traditionally uses "e" as subject and "emself" as reflexive). Q. What is Power? A. Power is a number that restricts how rules, proposals, and other entities can affect the gamestate. Rules with higher Power have higher precedence (Rule 1482) and are harder to amend (Rule 2140). Q. What is Adoption Index? Which one should I use? A. When submitting a proposal, you should specify an Adoption Index at least as high as the highest-Power rule you plan to amend, otherwise some amendments will fail even if the proposal is adopted (Rules 106, 2140). A higher Adoption Index requires a higher ratio of votes in favor (Rule 955); basically, AI=1 requires 50% + 1, AI=2 requires a 2/3 majority, AI=3 requires a 3/4 majority. Q. Do the rules get reset when someone wins? A. No, but each method of winning is generally accompanied by a cleanup procedure (Rule 2186) that resets the relevant part of the gamestate, e.g. winning by High Score resets scores. Q. Why does Rule 104 (First Speaker) still exist? A. It's the only initial rule that's never been amended. Some of us want to keep it that way. Q. What's the best way to get up to speed on the rules? A. The Full Logical Ruleset (Rule 1681) includes cross-references and notes on interpretation. Q. What's with lots of titles ending in "-or" instead of "-er"? A. Historical precedent, dating back to at least "Rulekeepor" in Rule 399/1 (now 1051/18; amended rules used to be renumbered). Q. What does "Cantus Cygneus" mean? A. Latin for "swan song". Probably grammatically incorrect. Q. What's the Senate for? A. A line of defense in case some large group of trolls ever decides "hur hur, we can ruin this game because we outnumber the existing players". If the trolls appear patient enough to wait two months, then we have time to erect stronger defenses. Q. Why is the recordkeepor of Rests called the Insulator? A. Mixed metaphor. The recordkeepor of Notes is called the Conductor. Q. What's with the words in all caps? A. See Rule 2152, which was explicitly based on RFC 2119. Q. How long is "as soon as possible" / "in a timely fashion"? A. One week (Rule 1023). Q. How are weeks defined? A. Absolute weeks (e.g. "at least once a week", "during the same week") begin at midnight UTC on Monday (Rule 1023). Relative durations (e.g. "within one week after") are measured relatively. Q. How should trivial corrections be made? A. Without objection (Rule 2221) or via disinterested proposal (Rules 2153, 2224). Q. What's an index? A. A real number or +inf ("unanimity") or -inf (Rule 2146). Q. What's a switch? A. A single-value attribute relevant to a specified type of entity, with a default setting (Rule 2162). Q. Why do replies go to the discussion list? A. Because most replies are discussionary in nature. If you send an attempted action to the discussion list by mistake, just forward it to the business list and add "TTttPF" ("this time to the Public Forum"). Q. Why are lots of things performed "by announcement"? A. Agora has long rejected the interpretation that any action can implicitly be performed by saying so ("I say I do, therefore I do"). Defining and using "by announcement" (Rule 478) makes it explicit. Q. What are the time limits for actions with support or without objections? A. The action must be performed within fourteen days of announcing intent. If the action depends on objections, then there's a minimum four-day wait. (Rule 1728) Q. What is Agoran Consent? A. Basically "with more support than objections". Specifying a number may increase the difficulty. (Rule 1728) Q. What are fungible assets? A. Interchangeable, indistinguishable. One typically says "you owe me a dollar", not "you owe me the dollar with a particular serial number". (Rule 2166) Q. What happens if a player leaves the game while holding an office? A. Only players can hold office (Rule 1006), so the office becomes vacant. Q. What is deputisation? A. A method for any player to perform a duty of an office because the officer is slacking off but hasn't been replaced yet, or the office is vacant (Rule 2160). Q. What's the schedule for elections to office? A. Elections occur whenever someone initiates one (Rule 2154); this is only required of the IADoP when the office is vacant or its holder is inactive (Rule 2217). Nominations last for four days, then the IADoP initiates voting if needed (Rule 2154) which lasts for seven days (Rule 107). Q. Do I have to accept or decline if I'm nominated? Can I change my mind? A. Self-nominations are implicitly accepted, other nominations are implicitly declined if not explicitly accepted by the nominee. You can change your mind about accepting, but not about explicitly declining (you must wait for a new election). (Rule 2154) Q. If an election ends with no candidates, does the office become vacant? A. No, it doesn't change anything, so the existing holder (if any) continues to hold it. Q. What is ratification? Why is it used? A. Modifying the gamestate to match a document (Rule 1551). To avoid having to perform massive gamestate recalculation if we notice that a mistake was made a long time ago. Q. What is self-ratification? Which documents self-ratify? A. Automatic ratification one week after publication, unless challenged first (Rule 2201). Mainly voting results (Rule 2034), reports of who holds which office (Rule 2138), and reports of who has which assets (Rule 2166). Q. What's the schedule for voting on proposals? A. Voting starts when proposals are distributed (Rule 106) by the Promotor (Rule 1607) and lasts one week (Rule 107). Adopted proposals take effect when resolved by the Assessor (Rule 106). Q. Can I change my vote? A. You have to retract your vote and cast a different one (Rule 683). Q. Can I cast multiple votes? A. On ordinary (basically Adoption Index < 2) proposals (Rule 2196), you can cast a number of votes equal to your caste, less if you've been penalized with enough Rests (Rule 2156). Q. How do castes change? A. Via the Grand Poobah (Rule 2211) or by spending Notes (2126). Q. What does it mean to endorse another voter? A. Basically "I vote however e votes" (Rule 2127). Q. What is quorum? A. Basically one-third the number of eligible voters (Rule 879). If fewer people vote, then the voting period is doubled (Rule 2168); if the decision still fails quorum, then it has no other outcome (Rule 955). Q. Who are the eligible voters? A. Basically all active players (Rules 1950, 2156, 2154). Q. How are salaries paid? A. Proposal authors, officers, judges, and contestmasters are paid in Notes (Rule 2126). Q. Why can't Notes be transferred? A. To force players to serve in multiple ways, change eir Key, or transpose or transfer eir Notes at a loss (Rule 2126). Q. How do I become a judge? A. Change your posture to sitting, then wait for the next rotation of the bench (Rule 1871). Q. What if I get a specific case that I don't know how to handle? A. Recuse yourself for it (Rule 2164). If you think that others would be similarly confused, consider increasing its interest index (Rule 2225) so it will be reassigned to a more confident judge (Rule 2226). Q. How are players penalized for breaking the rules? A. By receiving Rests via Notices of Violation (Rule 2230) and possibly criminal cases (Rule 1504). Q. What are equity cases? A. A system for negotiating settlements when someone violates the letter and/or spirit of a contract (Rule 2169). Q. How are incorrect judgements handled? A. Via appeal cases (Rule 911), which are assigned to judicial panels (Rule 2157). The panel judges according to a majority of panel opinions (Rule 911), or acts by unanimous agreement (e.g. it can recuse itself) (Rule 2157). Q. What are scams? A. Actions that follow the letter of the rules but abuse their spirit. Habitual offenders may be saddled with the Patent Title (Rule 649) of Scamster (Rule 1922). Q. Why isn't this contract public? I published it publically. A. Public contracts volunteer to stay public (Rules 2178, 2173) in return for additional privileges, e.g. becoming a contest (Rule 2136) or a partnership registered as a player (Rule 2145). Q. Why is Rule 2029 (Town Fountain) the only rule with Power > 3? A. Power > 3 was long reserved for possible future levels of high precedence, but never actually used except by the scam that created Rule 2029. Power = 3 rules are effectively omnipotent (Rule 2140). [ Published by Ed Murphy (Not sure what eir nickname is) as for as I know ] C-walker On Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 4:10 PM, Ben Daniel <b...@bendaniel.us> wrote: > I, a biological organism generally recognized by and commonly referred > to by the name of Ben Daniel, wish to register as a new player. > > Do you have some sort of welcome packet that might assist new players in > becoming familiar with the other players? If so, please forward one to me > or furnish a link where I might view such information. > > Also, something like a fruit basket (or suitable facsimile image of a fruit > basket) with a lovely greeting card would be a nice touch. I'm feeling > rather down today, it's been raining all weekend. > > Thank you. >
