I deputise for the Reportor to publish the following Weekly Report.
THE WEEKLY SALPINX
Winter Solstice Edition
ULLETIN - ASSESSOR RESIGNS ** URGENT BULLETIN - ASSESSOR RESIGNS ** URGE
AGORAN ECONOMIC MALAISE DEEPENS AS LEGISLATIVE REFORM IS SCUPPERED BY
SPECIAL INTERESTS
In a stunning reversal for the Reformers, Proposal 7988 was defeated by
several late vote-switches from FOR to AGAINST, including a switch by
the proposal's author. Proposal 7988 would have changed the basis of
Agoran money supply from a system of fluctuating stamps that drained the
Agoran bank while making Officers' pay a weekly gamble dependent on the
timing of the Treasuror's report, to a monthly automatic supply rate
independent of Agora's balance sheet.
While initial votes favored the proposal, several legislators switched
votes due to a single clause, which eliminated non-players' ability to
freely call CFJs (instead requiring w/o 3 objections). The rights of
non-players was seen as non-negotiable to some voters, who switched
their votes and killed the proposal. The author of the proposal switched
eir vote not for the non-players per se, but due to other events: "I'm
now convinced, by the events of the Black Card Scandal, that CFJs should
be entirely removed from the economy and 2 CFJs/week should be an
absolute right in Rule 217. As for economic reforms, I'm done - you all
can do what you want there."
Since that vote, no non-player CFJs have been called in the time it
would have taken to repair that clause, and economic reforms and general
activity has come to a near-standstill, or at least reached a new level
of uncertainty as the necessary Treasuror's Reports have languished.
Still, in principle, those rights have been protected. There is no
current word on the next steps for the economy. A land-reform bill has
been in drafting for months, but its sheer complexity leaves in question
its success with voters. Meanwhile, a new gameplay system of Favours
and Balloons may be rendering the importance of the base economy
increasingly irrelevant.
AGORAN CREDIT UNION OPENS, ATTRACTS DEPOSITS
The one bright spot for economic action has been the opening of the
Agoran Credit Union, a Contract that allows persons to deposit Shinies
in exchange for an ACU private currency of Bills, at the rate of 10
Bills for 1 Shiny. This has allowed for some flexibility in exchanges
and may ultimately provide some kind of private solution to economic
troubles. "If we can arrange it so Agora can borrow currency from the
ACU, then Shinies can go from Agora to players to the ACU to Agora
again, with the only casualty being Agora's national debt level which
will continually expand. Just like a real currency!" said one Agoran
source, though whether it was a positive statement or deranged muttering
is a subject for debate.
IF THIS HEADLINE IS TRUE, CONDITIONALITY MAY BE ON ITS WAY OUT
For over 17 years, since the foundational judgements of CFJs 1214-1215,
taking actions "conditionally" has been seen as substantially clear for
the purposes of specifying by-announcement actions, with certain limits
on the complexity/scope of conditional clauses. At press time, voting
was very close on Proposal 7993, which enacts a Rule purporting to ban
the practice once and for all. However, the banning Rule would be
enacted at Power-1, so there has been some discussion on whether it
would succeed in overruling the accepted specifications of R478, as
governed in interpretation by R217.
HISTORY CORNER - AGORAN HOLIDAYS
At its inception in 1993 (and in previous Nomic World), Agora was an
extremely academic exercise - in the sense that most players' internet
access was governed by the academic calendar. As such, early on it
became clear, if you were one of the few to be around on winter
holidays, you could get through all sorts of bad proposals and scams
while people weren't paying attention.
R1769 was first adopted in 1998 as a way to work around this problem.
>From its initial adoption until late 2013, R1769 actually "changed" time
in the game, by saying (in essence) "if a deadline [e.g. for voting, or
an Officer's duty] occurs during a Holiday, the deadline is instead N
time after the end of the Holiday." (N varied over the years).
This was straightforward to say, but its legalistic effects were
complex. As mentioned recently in CFJ 3580, Agora does not have
high-level protections against "mucking with the definition of time." A
Rule might say "a day in Agora is 3 centuries of real time" and
effectively halt all play (subject to R217 definition limitations). And
indeed, every year it became a bit of a bet as to "how the holiday
deadlines will be broken this time." In this reporter's memory, one
that jumps out was an assertion that this made the deadline for posting
Intent (for Objections) come *after* the time for actually conducting
the action, with fairly predictable results.
The current "soft" holiday rule has its problems. It simply says that
punishment is not appropriate for missing holiday deadlines - however
this does not stop Voting, nor does it prevent people from deputising
for missed Officer's duties. This is somewhat lessened by the fact
that, these days, there's no academic access limit and people generally
don't leave over the holidays, and to date it has caused no noted issues.
