THE WEEKLY SALPINX
(Reportor's Weekly Report for 10-Jan-2018)
LEADERSHIP CRISIS DEEPENS
With the holidays over, Agorans are wondering: where are our key
Officers? The fundamental economic reports have not been seen in a
month; moreover, the critical vacancies of Arbitor, Referee, and
Assessor are stuck in election limbo due to the required role of the
Assessor in resolving elections. The question to ask here: where is
the leadership of the Prime Minister? While we've had a discussion-
thread reminder from the top office, direct leadership in tackling this
crisis has been lacking.
As the PM was also the architect of the policy that placed *all* voting
resolution on the Assessor, it's time to wonder: Should the ADoP be
re-authorized to resolve elections? Moreover, should that great PM
power come with PM responsibility? Do we need a change at the top?
HISTORICAL ANALYSIS
Many sub-games in Agora have ended when they've relied on a single,
hard-working recordkeepor to maintain state, and the recordkeepor has
stepped away or lost interest. (As an example, right now, shinies are
in danger). Moreover, several Nomics have died when key "officers" have
left - technically I'm still waiting for the Speaker of Claustronomic -
an Agoran offshoot - to resolve Round 3 (since it started in 2005).
For Agora as a whole, a couple systems have been used to guard against
collapse that happens when a key person abandons the game. Up until
~2006, this was done through a complex line of succession. The Speaker
was at the top. E was absolutely forbidden from deregistration, the one
exception to "you can always deregister" rule.
Moveover, there was a second office - the Speaker-elect (an elected
office as the name suggests), whose sole role was to step into the
Speaker role when when it was vacated. Further, the Speaker was not
just a perk but a responsibility. If any office was vacant, the Speaker
was required to perform those duties (this gave the Speaker an incentive
to encourage candidates for office!). Finally, if both the Speaker and
Speaker-elect became vacant, there was a full line of succession that
included all the offices:
> Rule 786/13
> Order of Succession for Speaker-Elect [excerpt]
> When the Office of Speaker-Elect is to be filled according to
> the Order of Succession, that order is defined to be:
>
> the Promotor
> the Registrar
> the Rulekeepor
> the Assessor
> the Justiciar
> the Clerk of the Courts
> all Officers in order of most recent registration
> all Active Players in order of most recent registration
This system required, ultimately, that there be at least one player at
all times to bootstrap things, which is why, platonically, there always
had to be a route to determining the speaker (who platonically could not
deregister).
The deputisation system replace that. Now, anyone can deputise to
bootstrap an office (or even the game if there are ever no players).
This makes it generally easier to run - however the one missing piece is
responsibility - there's no "buck stops here" and the PM and/or Speaker
aren't required to take on offices to keep things running. Has this
been a source of some of the "dead times" that have been experienced
since 2006?
IN OTHER NEWS
RURAL LOBBY PROTECTS FARM SUBSIDIES DESPITE UTTER LACK OF PRODUCTION
Despite a complete lack of farm production since its inception in
August, Agora continues to subsidize the rural communities through
representation in its ruleset and officer rewards, while fixed and very
high centralized pricing prevents crops from actually being developed.
At least 2 attempts to repeal these rules have failed to do so despite
being adopted, for technical reasons, and another comprehensive reform
is undergoing continual re-drafting. Normal process, or are proposal
authors taking bribes from the rural special interests?
