On Mon, 23 Jun 2008, Alexander Smith wrote: > Goethe wrote: >> The rules define public as the state of a publicity switch, and by R754(2) >> this overrides any other definition of public. > Actually, they define Public as a state of a switch. However, does this > necessarily override all other uses of "public" in the rules? If it does, > then there is no such thing as a public message, and therefore we haven't > been playing Agora all this time. > > The question here is whether "public forum" means "forum whose Publicity is > Public", or whether in certain contexts it can mean something else.
It's possible to create such a context on purpose, but in the rules now, I can't find any contexts in the rules where it isn't clear (or at least abundantly reasonable) that "public" refers to a forum with that switch. If I've missed one let me know! Some of it does come down to (very strong) custom and context though, e.g.: (1) Common custom of calling a Y an X Y where X is the state of a switch for Y; (2) The combination of current Agoran custom for use of "public" and the past history of the Rules (e.g. there was a smooth transition from pre- switch language when public was defined without switches). But then, all definitions come down to custom and context on some level. -Goethe
