Detail: https://faculty.washington.edu/kerim/nomic/cases/3458
============================= CFJ 3458 =============================
The above-quoted message is a claim of error.
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Caller: ais523
Judge: Sprocklem
Judgement: FALSE
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History:
Called by ais523: 04 Feb 2016
assigned to Sprocklem: 09 Sep 2016
judged FALSE be Sprocklem 13 Oct 2016
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Caller's Arguments:
We define a claim of error as a method of challenging a
self-ratifying report, but we don't have any definition of what a claim
of error actually /is/. The message seems to fit the English definition
of the words in question.
The rules additionally require an "explicit public challenge" to prevent
self-ratification. It's unclear whether this is part of the definition
of a claim of error, or whether something can be a claim of error but
implicitly so that it doesn't prevent self-ratification, or whether
clearly being a claim of error is explicit enough to count. (I suspect
the message in question isn't explicit enough to count. I also, however,
have no problems with it self-ratifying, assuming it's accurate.)
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Caller's Evidence:
[Arbitor note: this is the "above quoted message"]
On Wed, 2016-02-03 at 16:55 -0500, Henri Bouchard wrote:
> I intend to deputise for Registrar in two days. Ignore the Registrar's
> Report I just published. It is invalid because the office is filled.
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Judge's Arguments:
The caller's arguments, available in the link above, also discuss how
this effects the documents self-ratification, which requires an
"explicit public challenge" and, in doing so, present a couple of
possibilities:
* The message is not a claim of error;
* The message is a CoE, but not an explicit public challenge;
* the message is a CoE, and is an explicit public challenge.
The second case implies that it is possible to implicitly make a claim
of error, in a manner that doesn't challenge self-ratification. The Rule
2201 reads "A doubt is an explicit public challenge via one of the
following methods...", which to my reading implies that each of the
following methods (including a claim of error), is always an explicit
public challenge. Additionally, while the action in question is pretty
harmless, the ability for an report to self-ratify after the publishing
has been shown to be an error, seems uncomfortable, if not scammable.
As far as the first case goes, insofar as I can remember, claims of
error have always been explicit. This has the advantage of making claims
of error easy to recognise, so the publisher can republish as
appropriate. In practice the only consequence of this option is that a
probably-correct ruleset was unexpectedly ratified (but was later
replaced anyways). In the future, people will just continue to be
explicit about what is a point of error.
On the other hand, I think the phrasing of the message in question makes
it pretty clear that the publishing of the document was in error and the
document should not be taken as fact. The downside to this third option
is that a claim of error could become more easier to miss.
Ultimately, I think that the (past) inconvenience of the one time
ratification of a probably-correct ruleset is dwarfed by the ease of
detectability of requiring more explicit CoEs.
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