Archived at https://github.com/AgoraNomic/Reportor/tree/master/weekly_summaries
Report for the week of 2020-06-01..07:
# Summary
Welcome, Tyler!
A very busy week. With nch's new "Sets" economy coming, there's a rush
to submit proposals while submitting them is still free, leading the
Promotor to perform an unusual second distribution within the week.
Plenty of interesting ones, summarized in the sections below.
nch creates the Needlessly Abstract Exchange in anticipation of the new
economy, and the Dragon Corporation president promises new plans to
come.
Many proposals were adopted this week, including the office of the
Webmastor (filled by nch), outlawing actions dangerous to Agora, and
another attempt to fix auctions (with a wild auction experiment coming
on its heels). Let's see if we finally get a working zombie auction.
R. Lee seized the office of ADoP by deputizing this week, and many
office elections are under way.
What does negative karma mean? Is issuing blots a rebuke? Discussion on
these and other topics, and on treating each other well, referenced in
the "Honour, minor crimes, being nice to each other, gaming" section
below.
The Flappy Bird tournament isn't happening, but Agora's Birthday
tournament is coming up, and it looks like it will be Diplonomic. On the
subject of birthdays, happy birthday to Jason!
Agora's scholarly traditions continue. G. transforms eir earlier
arguments about the status of the ancient CFJ 7 into a thesis, and many
rules questions are discussed in other threads, including one in
Spanish.
Some other topics this week: rules about player intent; choosing good
terminology; continued discussion whether players should follow the
rules (including bringing back a crime/infraction distinction).
# Registrations
* New player Tyler registers.
# Voting and elections
* ATMunn becomes a candidate for Notary, and R. Lee tries to withdraw
but it's pointed out there's no mechanism for doing that. Voting
begins. Threads: "Notary Election", "Notary Election Enters Next
phase"
* P.S.S. proposes to add a mechanism for withdrawing candidacy
(thread: "Termination of Candidacy").
* R. Lee resigns as Notary.
* R. Lee takes the office of ADoP from Murphy by deputisation, and
initiates elections for Prime Minister, ADoP, and Webmastor.
* The Prime Minister election was actually initiated before e took
over ADoP; e also attempted to start elections for Promotor, ADoP,
Assessor, Arbitor and Registrar, saying e's interested in ADoP and
Registrar. Threads: "Election Time", "Prime Minister Election
Attempt".
* The current H. Prime Minister says e will not run for a second term,
in accordance with tradition.
* Due to a large number of proposals in flight, there are two proposal
distributions this week. Voting begins on the following:
* Proposals 8405-8408:
* A small fix (8405)
* Replace the Line-item Veto rule with a Cabinet Order. (8406)
* After 8406 was composed, proposal 8400 repealed Line-item Veto.
* Repeal auction definitions and defer the mechanism to the auctineer
and Treasuror instead. (8407)
* A new game / economy! (8408)
* Proposals 8409-8430:
* Fixes and other small changes (8410, 8412, 8413, 8415, 8416, 8417,
8422, 8423, 8428)
* Academic reform (8409)
* New patent title about contracts (8411)
* Change ministry descriptions (8414)
* Define a new term "Referenda" for proposal decisions (8418)
* Define new executive orders (8419) but allow the Prime Minister to
be recalled when that happens (8420)
* Allow exchanging any 3 Cards for 1 of a specified type (8421)
* Allow pending fixes without paying a Pendant (8424)
* Decreasing or removing punishment in certain cases: (8425, 8426,
8427, 8429)
* Back-award the 2016 Silver Quill (8430)
* The decisions on whether to adopt proposals 8388-8404 are resolved.
Adopted:
* The office of the Webmastor (8388)
* Strip old rule text including the Editor and Line-item Veto (8389,
8395, 8399, 8400)
* Make crimes are punishable according to the rules at the time of the
event (8392)
* Allow late nominations to otherwise uncontested elections. (8393)
* Ban zombies from office (8394; originally attempted in 8228)
* Fix auctions (8396)
* Define "to refer" (8397)
* Outlaw doing things that would harm Agora if it were not for R1698,
and introduce a new process for "high crimes" (8401, 8404)
* Bring back Promises (8402)
# History and Academics
* R. Lee pledges a bounty for filling in all the gaps in the CFJ
database in the years 2018 and 2019. Thread: "Pledge (attention COTC)"
* G. submits a thesis: "On the Continuity of the Agoran Judicial
System". It is based on eir arguments as Arbitor in March 2020 that e
could assign the ancient CFJ 7 to a new judge. It touches on how to
handle uncertainty over what may have happened over 26 years of
gameplay.
# Rules questions
* Should a CFJ entangling facts normally irrelevant to the game with
facts relevant to the game be judged IRRELEVANT? grok indeed judges
CFJ 3837 IRRELEVANT, after some continued discussion, including
discussion of the intended vs. actual meaning of the CFJ statement.
Threads: "CFJ 3837 Assigned to grok", "CFJ 3837"
* Can a player claim the same colour of glitter twice in a row for two
separate instances of earning that colour of ribbon? The Herald opines
yes. Thread: "Long Service Awards".
* Jason asks: Will the game of Agora ever end? Thread: "Is death
inevitable?". This becomes CFJ 3839.
* Do actions and CFJs in Spanish work? ATMunn tries, and some past
examples of use of languages other than English are discussed. Thread:
"¿Puedo realizar acciónes en español?". CFJs 3840 and 3841.
* Can confusion about ID numbers invalidate a proposal distribution? The
Promoter opines it can't, in thread "Distribution of Proposals
8388-8404".
# Auctions and zombies
* The Registrar raises a concern about "no stinking auction definitions"
being adopted in the middle of a zombie auction. The Assessor says e
is okay with holding off resolution of the proposal until auction
winners have had a chance to claim their winnings. Thread: "a
regulatory experiment (auctions)"
* The June zombie auction begins.
# Contracts
* Trigon circulates more drafts of the LoAFER contract for players who
want to help officers keep accurate records, and solicits preferences
from officers about how they would prefer messages requiring their
attention to be marked.
* nch creates the Needlesly Abstract Exchange, a contract for trading.
Players join and amendments are applied. Threads: "The Needlessly
Abstract Exchange" or others with "NAX" in the subject line.
* Dragon Corporation President Aris announces that some new plans are
afoot related to Sets. Subject: "State of the Dragon"
# Honour, minor crimes, being nice to each other, gaming
* Some discussion of how seriously people take negative karma and
punishment, and about treating each other well and how to handle
sensitive topics.
* These topics appear to a greater or lesser extent in the following
threads:
* Aris Reshapes the Legislative Process
* No Punishment for Nominal Crimes
* coherent vision for Agora Nomic as an independent
policing/judiciary force
* Discussion of Honor
* Historical note: ais523 said the honour system used to be defined
by a contract.
* There's discussion about relaxing the rules on officer reports in the
thread "No Punishment For Nominal Crimes".
* Some emotions are shared on the thread "Distribution of Proposals
8409-8430", after it's suggested Aris is submitting proposals for
money. This leads to discussion of the benefits and downsides of
offering rewards for proposals.
* Aris later proposes to remove the AI multiplier from proposal
rewards in the thread "Proposal Reward Trimming".
* ATMunn cares about our mental and emotional help, and is there for
us if we ever need someone to talk to.
# Miscellaneous
* Jason announces eir birthday and receives messages and coin grants.
* Some players object to R. Lee's Flappy Bird tournament.
* nch becomes Agora's first (to this Reportor's knowledge) Webmastor and
publishes eir first report, Agora OnLine. Except it turns out the
proposal adding the office may not have been properly distributed
(see: "[Promotor] Corrections to Report of May 14"), so that might
have been a dress rehearsal.
* Should being an author rather than a co-author also help someone get a
Lime ribbon? R. Lee submits a proposal to make it so ("Proposal: Edit
Lime") and there's discussion in the thread "Question About Lime
Ribbons".
* The Promotor does a unusual second round of proposal distributions
this week. Threads: "Possible Second Distribution [Attn. Assessor]",
"Administrative Guidance Regarding Distribution Timetables"
* On the thread "Aris Reshapes the Legislative Process", there's
discussion about writing rules about player intent, in the context of
banning "vote manipulation" to game Legislative Cards.
* R. Lee proposes an amendment to the No Faking rule to not mention
intent.
* Dave resumes discussion on "Agora Nomic as an independent
policing/judiciary force". (Discussion started in the week
2020-05-11..17.)
* Discussion begins on what to do for this year's birthday tournament.
It looks like Diplonomic is likely.
* There's discussion of how best to choose terminology, in the thread
"Distribution of Proposals 8409-8430".
* G. posts some examples of old terminology, Nomic Properties. Thread:
"some ancient type language"
# Proposals on proposals
* Aris proposes several changes to the rules on proposals and how Legislative
Cards are earned, and receives comments, in the thread "Aris Reshapes the
Legislative Process"
* Aris proposes to make it free to pend proposals by certifying they are
bug fixes, leading to discussion about whether this could generate
CFJs, and a revision. Thread: "Certifiable Patches"
* Other(s) in thread(s): "Pending Pends".
# Proposals on crime, punishment, and following the rules
* Aris submits two proposals to remove punishments for being stuck in an
impractical or impossible situation. Thread: "New Defenses"
* R. Lee proposes to allow the referee to issue zero-blot fines, saying
it will soon be harder to remove blots (under the new Sets economy).
Thread: "No Punishment For Nominal Crimes"
* P.S.S. finds a bug and R. Lee proposes a fix in the thread
"[Promotor] Draft".
* Aris proposes to allow fines larger than 3 blots to be entirely
forgivable. Thread: "Why Limit Clemency?"
* On whether and when players should follow the rules:
* There was discussion last week in the thread "Back-Awarding of
Silver Quills".
* Aris proposes two possible options for rule text clarifying when
players should avoid violating the rules, and alternatives are
discussed, including distinguishing "crimes" and "infractions".
Thread: "Rule Violation Options"
* Some notes from last week are gathered in the thread "The dumbest
idea I've ever had...?"; P.S.S. intends to prepare a draft soon.
* R. Lee proposes to amend Defense Against the Dark Arts (R2617) to only
criminalize dangerous actions, not dangerous proposals or voting on
them. Thread: "DADA Soft Repeal"
* There's discussion on what would or should happen if a dangerous
proposal gets enough votes to pass.
# Other proposals
* R. Lee proposes a new patent title, Terms of Service, for fun or
impactful contracts. Subject: "Patent Title Proposal (just a fun one)"
* Aris submits a proposal, drafted earlier, reforming Agora's academic
system. Thread: "College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences"
* Bug fix: "Promise Powers Patch".
* R. Lee proposes some fixes to pledges. Thread: "[Proposal] Small
Pledge Amendments"
* Our H. Prime Minister proposes some new Executive Orders. (At least
some of which had been discussed in a somewhat earlier thread.) G.
responds with a proposal to allow any player to vacate the office of
Prime Minister whenever the Executive Orders rule is changed. Thread:
"Executive Expansion"
* "Transmutation": nch proposes a rule allowing a player to transmute
any three Cards to a Card of a specified type. (Draft circulated last
week.)
* P.S.S. starts a discussion on removing references to rule numbers in
other rules, and submits proposals, in the thread "No More Numbers!".
* Stop the Rulekeepor from changing ID numbers or assigning the same ID
twice. Threads: "Aris Reshapes the Legislative Process", "Identity
theft protection act v1.1"
* Aris proposes to change the recently-introduced wording "in an
officially timely fashion" to "in a stately fashion". Thread: "Stately
Officiation"
* Aris proposes a system for officers to enact their own offices'
"Administrative Regulations" with approval from other officers, and as
one use case, proposes that the Herald's can authorize players to
award Patent Titles. Thread: "Administrative Reforms"
* R. Lee proposes to pay the Tailor for eir weekly reports of glitter
values, which e has already been publishing. Thread: "Proposal (Tailor
pay)"
* ATMunn proposes to allow players to take half of Agora's Coins, but
make it illegal to do so. nch mentions a past system involving illegal
"rebels" who could revolt if their rebellion was strong enough.
Thread: "The dumbest idea I've ever had...?"
* Trigon attempts to win by apathy by designing eir message announcing
intent to be caught by spam filters. Thread: "Credible Loan Offer"
* Aris drafts a proposal laying groundwork for having multiple types of
judicial cases. Thread: "Judicial Diversification"
* Aris proposes to make motions of no confidence easier to pass, but to
say the Prime Minister shouldn't take it personally. There's a bit of
discussion about the right way to express the latter, leading to a
revision. Thread: "Moving Forward With Confidence"
- Falsifian
