On Sun, Jun 7, 2020 at 1:06 AM Aris Merchant < thoughtsoflifeandligh...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > On Sat, Jun 6, 2020 at 11:12 PM Aris Merchant < > thoughtsoflifeandligh...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > > > > On Sat, Jun 6, 2020 at 10:24 PM Rebecca via agora-discussion < > agora-discussion@agoranomic.org> wrote: > > > > > > I also encourage everyone to vote against as many of Aris's proposals > as > > > possible (i.e, the non-essential ones) because Aris has submitted 10 > > > proposals or something, most of which are minor cosmetic changes, in a > > > blatant attempt to get heaps of money. > > > > > > > Uhhhhhhhh... That isn't true at all. The only one that's actually > cosmetic is "Referenda", which results in significant increases in brevity > and comprehensibility. I think it's a big improvement, and several others > seem to agree. The closest other ones are probably "Ministerial > Reshuffling" and "Proposal Recycling Initiative". I certainly wouldn't be > particularly upset if "Proposal Recycling Initiative" doesn't pass, it just > fixes a few problems that I noticed when fiddling with other legislative > rules. "Ministerial Reshuffling" means that chambers, which currently have > to be stretched quite a bit to cover all proposals, would cover them more > comfortably. This is also a worthwhile improvement. > > > > In general, money had relatively little to with my thinking. While I > can't say the thought of earning money isn't something I'm looking forward > to, I think I would have submitted all of my proposals even if there were > no financial reward for doing so. Now, clearly the impending economic > change is a major reason why I'm submitting all of these proposals. But > what actually happened was that while I was fixing things with the new > economic system, I saw other problems in the proposal rules. I decided to > propose ways to fix those too while pending was still free. I also > remembered a bunch of other things I didn't like in other rules, and > proposed fixes for those as well. I knew that in the future I'd be > financially punished for improving things, and so I decided to propose > improvements now rather than later. > > > > I put significant time into these proposals (many many hours, at least > ten and probably a fair bit more than that), and I was responsive to > feedback on them. We've decided that proposal authors deserve to be > rewarded for their time and effort in coming up with good proposals, using > a financial incentive. If we didn't want people to get money for writing > good proposals, we wouldn't have come up with a financial incentive. > Likewise, we've decided as part of our current economic system that pending > should be free, and I am relying on that arraignment while it lasts, just > as many others are, including you. If it had been proposed at the drafting > stage that some of these proposals should be merged, I would have > considered it, but you didn't propose that then. As it is, these are > proposals that are intended to make the game better. I'm not saying that > everyone is required to vote for them. We have voting procedures so people > can say whether specific changes are positive or negative. But if you > think my proposals are good, I'd ask you not to vote against them just > because I'll be receiving compensation from my work. > > > > As a final point, if people think that some of my proposals were split > up and should have been merged, I'm prepared to consider pledging to give > away some of the money. I wrote proposals that I considered logically > cohesive and sensible units for voting, but I do agree that if proposals > have been divided to the point where it's abusive and just gets extra > money, that's unfair and could be a reason to vote against the proposals. I > don't think I did that sort of abuse, but if the public disagrees with me > I'll give up some of the money to ensure that changes that I think are good > get considered on their merits. What I won't do is categorically agree to > give away compensation for the effort I put into writing proposals. I hope > people won't take my unwillingness to do that as a reason to vote down > proposals they otherwise approve of. > > Okay, I feel like I need to respond to this on a level that's more > personal and not just logical argumentation and justification. I realize > it's not your fault and I realize you couldn't have known any of this, but > I'm having a *really* strong emotional reaction right now, and I feel like > I need to explain why. > > I "graduated" from high school this week. It was... a hell of a time to > graduate. There was no real ceremony, just a social distanced filming of me > receiving a diploma case that didn't even contain a diploma. I didn't get > to go through any of the normal parts of graduating. Some of it I'll get to > do later. Some of it, like seeing all my friends at school again, I'll > simply never get to experience. I know life sucks for everyone right now, > but even so, things are... not great for me at the moment. > > Everything I said in my previous message was true. Those were all reasons > I did what I did. But more than that, I needed an escape from real life, > because real life just kind of sucks right now. So rather than spending my > graduation week celebrating, I spent almost half of it coming up with > proposals and doing other Agora things. Like I said, I think they're all > things that make the game better. Money had nothing to do with it. > > I don't expect everyone to vote for my proposals just because my personal > life is a mess right now. However, I would appreciate not being accused of > coming up with cosmetic proposals just to get rich. I realize that you > couldn't have known all of this, and for all that matter I realize that you > probably said what you said at least half as a joke or part of gameplay, > but assuming you know what someone else's motivations are is a dangerous > thing to get into (I do it too, it's very human). This is, as I said, an > overreaction, and it's in large part due to stuff that isn't really your > fault. That being said, I nearly cried, and I don't think I've ever been so > close to filing a Cantus Cygneus. I would really appreciate an apology. > > -Aris > Revision to that: Delete the world "nearly". Like I said, not even really your fault, but... IDK even know what I'm saying at this point. Why am I typing an email now of all times? -Aris
