On Thu, 1 Jan 2009, Geoffrey Spear wrote: > I don't know about you, but I have way more free time the last week of > the year than at any other time of the year. I can only assume the > Holidays rule was enacted at a time when internet access for many > players was severely limited when they had to go home from their > dorms. Thus, I submit the following AI-3 proposal entitled "Bah > Humbug!":
Ah, memories. In Nomic World ca. 1992/3, a very small number of us (but still a quorum) had MUD access over the holidays--I remember hanging around a nearly deserted computer lab working on a senior project-- and managed to pass the first viral rule-mutations that caused trouble, and also created the first sub-nomics/contract rules called Committees, from which sprang the FRC among other things. In the first edition of the committee rules, we fully intended them to be mousetrapped, but that got CFJ'd down based only on a wording error...way back then...really changed how those things were viewed subsequently...I wonder sometimes if some Agora/nomic concepts wouldn't be very different except for that error. Hence the first holiday rules. My suggestion is replace it with something very simple, like "players CANNOT be cited/punished for failure to publish reports/distribute proposals/assign judges/judgements if the deadline falls in the holiday and SHOULD NOT perform actions that create further time requirements (distribute/assign judges) but if they do so, the effects are unchanged." This way, we don't give people extra time to do things they can do optionally (vote, object or support), and if something CANNOT be done after a deadline, the time isn't extended (dependent actions, voting, etc...). But if they miss a deadline on something that's required, they don't get cited for doing so. And yes it means someone has to stick around to prevent scams but, er, considering that the holiday rule itself is scammed or broken more years than not... -Goethe
