It was before my time, but the motivation is that there's lots of things that we want (in a practical sense) to be changable by a "rule or proposal", so it makes sense to define a name for such things so you don't have to keep saying "X CAN be changed by a rule or proposal". It also makes sense to distinguish between temporary change agents (proposals that can only work once) versus Rules that can affect things continuously. So tying the definition to something (power) that turns on and off for proposals but is constant for Rules also makes sense. Secure-N is a relative latecomer, but once you have those other definitions, having shorthand for "can only be changed by (rule or proposal of power>N)" is also useful.
I can't remember any non-scam entities that were given power other than rules or proposals, maybe there were some other legit uses I've forgotten about. So it might be less scammy to say "an instrument is either a Rule, or a Proposal during the time that the proposal is taking effect - no other things are instruments". Maybe we should... but part of the fun is (a) leaving stubs for legit gameplay - maybe someday there will be a legit reason to allow a Decree to work and (b) where's the fun in that, if we over-generalize, we can promote a nice variety of scams and discussions like this one. :P On Wed, Feb 6, 2019 at 11:10 AM Cuddle Beam <cuddleb...@gmail.com> wrote: > I'm curious about the history around this sort of things. Like, what > motivated making the concept of "Instruments" in the first place for Agora? > It seems like such a weird thing. > > On Wed, Feb 6, 2019 at 7:07 AM Madeline <j...@iinet.net.au> wrote: > > > At what point do we just power-4 "Persons CANNOT be Instruments"? > > > > On 2019-02-06 14:41, Kerim Aydin wrote: > > > > > > Actually that Security thing is a big hole, there's lots of stuff > that's > > > secured, and R1688 applies the method here: > > > > except as allowed by an Instrument > > > > > > If "allowed" is defined as something a person can do "naturally" (the > > > way we > > > treat, say, "agree"), then when the instrument is a natural person, e > > > could > > > just say "I allow, on an ongoing basis, changes to happen when I > perform > > > them by announcement" and the method is supplied. > > > > > > Also, R105 specifies that an instrument can make a rule change "as > > > part of > > > effect", though it would get pretty philosophical to figure out how a > > > person's "effect" is triggered (at the very least, R105 limits it to a > > > publicly-written process of at least 4 days). > > > > > > On 2/5/2019 6:05 PM, Aris Merchant wrote: > > >> It still matters what the rules say about the order of precedence, > > >> because > > >> the order of precedence is decided by the rules. If the rule defining > > >> the > > >> order of precedence was repealed, there wouldn't be an order of > > >> precedence, > > >> and power would have no effect in that regard. As it happens, the > > >> power of > > >> an instrument that isn’t a rule currently doesn’t have any effect > > >> outside > > >> secured things and changing entities with higher power. > > >> > > >> -Aris > > >> > > >> On Tue, Feb 5, 2019 at 5:59 PM D. Margaux <dmargaux...@gmail.com> > > wrote: > > >> > > >>> But if the person is high enough powered (say, power=5), should it > > >>> matter > > >>> what the rules say about order of precedence if the high-powered > person > > >>> overrules them? > > >>> > > >>> I suppose ultimately it comes down to what the Agoran community is > > >>> willing > > >>> to accept, rather than what the Rules or any particular person says. > > >>> > > >>>> On Feb 5, 2019, at 8:49 PM, Ørjan Johansen <oer...@nvg.ntnu.no> > > wrote: > > >>>> > > >>>>> On Tue, 5 Feb 2019, D. Margaux wrote: > > >>>>> > > >>>>> I guess if a person had power >3, then the R2125 limitation > > >>>>> wouldn’t be > > >>> a barrier anymore, though. > > >>>> > > >>>> I don't see why. I don't think there's any provision for anything > > >>>> other > > >>> than a rule to take precedence over a rule, regardless of power. > > >>>> > > >>>> Greetings, > > >>>> Ørjan. > > >>> > > > > >
