This is my official submission of my Thesis "Spivak Culture". I intend to apply for a degree.
humble agoran farmer gettng that edumacation lol. Let's go!: -------------------------------*------------------------------- Spivak is very common in Agora, evidenced by its widespread use throughout the current Ruleset and its history. However, how did these niche pronouns arise to become so prominent in the Agoran (and nomic) context? Additionally, Spivak is discouraged in BlogNomic, the other largest nomic currently on the web, via “[Players] may correct obvious spelling and typographical mistakes in the Ruleset and their own Pending Proposals at any time, including replacing Spivak and gender-specific pronouns with the singular “they”. How have they grown to take opposite approaches to the same problem? Let’s delve into the history of it, to uncover the roots of these cultures. ---*--- The game of Nomic was first introduced to the public in the column of Metamagical Themas (published in the Scientific American) of Douglas Hofstadter, in June 1982, when excerpts from a book (still unpublished at the time) by the game's creator Peter Suber were printed and discussed. [1] Additionally, Douglas Hofstadter has an impassioned chapter in Metamagical Themas about gender-neutral language. [1] In those days, that was what brought people to Nomic, so there has been likely a tight relationship between Hofstadter’s writings (the gender-neutral language chapter in particular) and the game he revealed there as well: Nomic. This is further evidenced by mentions that in Nomic World, use of Spivak was a conscious homage to them. [2] Agora arose from Nomic World, which started on the 9th of October, 1992. In its initial Ruleset, it used the conventional singular “they” to refer to other people throughout, with no use of Spivak whatsoever [3], for example: “When a Judge has been selected, they shall have 3 days in which to accept or refuse their appointment as Judge.” “Once a Judge is selected, (ie has accepted their selection) they then have exactly one week to post an official Judgement on the issue for which their Judgement has been invoked.” However, the Ruleset at the 04 Nov 1992 shows a first (and single) evidence of Spivak use [4], here: "Rule 1047. [mutable] by Blob, last changed Tue Nov 3 13:19:28 1992 New players New players begin with zero points. A new player is a player who registers for the first time. If the player has been registered within the past 6 weeks, then e is not counted as a new player." Additionally, another single sign of Spivak use emerged on the Ruleset at December 11th [5] (Again, by "Blob", suggesting that they might be the originator of Spivak use that eventually flowed into Agora). *Rule 1108. [mutable] by Blob, last changed Fri Dec 11 16:29:23 1992 Playing Tag ----------- I propose the following mutable rule be enacted: At the passing of this rule, a player is selected at random from all recently active players. The player becomes "it". At all times thereafter, there must be one and only one player who is currently "it". This player then has the option of "tagging" another registered player, who is online and in the same room as "it". The tagged player then becomes "it" (except as outlined below), and the player who tagged em is no longer "it". There is no way for any player, other than "it", to know who is "it" at any given time, until such time as they are tagged by "it". If "it" tags a player who has been "it" in the past hour, then the tagged player does not become "it", and the player who was "it" stays that way. If a player who is "it" is deregistered, another "it" is selected randomly from all recently active players. A player who is "it" is to be informed that they are "it" whenever they logon to the game. However, those are the only registered cases, with all other pronoun use being the conventional "they". Further information about how Agora inherited Spivak can be seen here, via the following mention by Chuck Carroll (Agora's Originator) [6]: "I don't believe I took the idea of using Spivak pronouns in the Initial Ruleset from any other source than Nomic World. Although the use of Spivak pronouns may have been sparse within the Nomic World ruleset, I believe there were a few players using Spivak as their preferred pronouns within Nomic World, and thus Nomic World players who were coming over to the game that would come to be called Agora were familiar enough with Spivak pronouns that they were understandable." I don't remember specifically, but I suspect I chose Spivak pronouns because at the time I didn't like the singular "they" as a gender-neutral pronoun and found Spivak pronouns preferable, at least in a group where there was already knowledge of them. (I have since come around and fully endorse singular "they" in use outside of Agora.) Chuck" Agora’s Initial Ruleset (30th of June, 1993, by Chuck Carroll) has exclusive use of Spivak for personal pronouns [7], given in examples such as: “If the Judge fails to deliver a judgement within this time, e is penalized 10 points and a new Judge is selected.” “If the Speaker does not explicitly indicate that e refuses to consent to the proposal, it shall be assumed that e consents.” And such use has remained throughout the years, up to the current year of 2017. However, it's no longer exclusive. Currently, there is both of the use of the singular "they" as well as Spivak (with the latter being much more common in the Ruleset) [8], for example: Use of "they": "When the Rules state that a person or persons win the game, those persons win the game; specifically they win the Round that ends with the indicated win. Agora itself does not end and the ruleset remains unchanged. The Herald is then authorized to award those persons the Patent Title of Champion" "Officers SHOULD maintain a publicly visible copy of their reports on the World Wide Web, and they SHOULD publish the address of this copy along with their published reports." Use of Spivak: "Each player should ensure e can receive messages via each public forum." "A player CAN deregister (cease being a player) by announcement. If e does so, e CANNOT register by announcement for 30 days." ---*--- How about Blognomic? It’s a relatively younger nomic, starting at the 12th of January, 2003. Its initial ruleset used solely conventional pronouns [9], for example:: “Anyone who maintains an active weblog may apply to join BlogNomic by contacting any of the Admin Staff, giving a contact email address and the URL of the weblog that they wish to use in BlogNomic.” “They will be signed up as a member of the BlogNomic weblog, and will be considered a Player from the moment that they first appear on the player roster in the sidebar. “ Spivak was proposed to be law, and became so, via the proposal “Spivak”, at the 27th of April 2005 [10], which said: “Add to 1 - Ruleset and Gamestate, after its second paragraph: Spivak pronouns, as defined in the Glossary, shall be used throughout the Ruleset, whenever a Cremember is referred. Add to the Glossary: * The Spivak pronouns used in Blognomic are: Subject case: “e”; Object case: “em”, Possessive Adjective case: “eir”, Possessive Pronoun case: “eirs”, Reflexive case: “emself”. Whenever this is enacted, the admins may, at their leisure, correct any pronoun used in the Ruleset.” However, it was later repealed, via “Spivak Attack”, at the 21st of June, 2007 [11], which said: “Replace all Spivak pronouns (“e”, “eir”, etc.) with appropriate third-person plural terms (“they”, “their”, etc.), throughout the ruleset. Remove “Spivak pronouns, as defined in the Glossary, shall be used whenever a Corporation is referred to.” from Rule 1.1 (“Ruleset and Gamestate”). Repeal Glossary section 3.5 (“Spivak”).” Then, Proposal “Maybe we’re a little too [Evil]” (13th of April, 2008), proposed a more permanent way to replace Spivak [12], via: “ If “Proposal: No, Mr Spivak, I Expect You To Die [Evil]” passes, replace all Spivak pronouns in the ruleset with the singular “they”, and add “, including replacing Spivak pronouns with the singular ‘they’” to the end of the last sentence of rule 1.1.” That clause exists even now, nearly ten years later, and currently, Blognomic’s Ruleset doesn’t feature any Spivak, nor is it of common use during current gameplay discussion, in contrast to Agoran discussion, where it's currently common. ---------------------- Special Thanks to Ørjan Johansen, Chuck Carroll and Kerim Aydin for providing valuable info for writing this. [1] Stories by Douglas R. Hofstadter Scientific American:Author Douglas R Hofstadter http://www.scientificamerican.com/author/douglas-r-hofstadter/ [2] http://www.mail-archive.com/agora-discussion@agoranomic.org/msg36648.html [3] Nomic World Initial Ruleset http://www.nomic.net/deadgames/nomicworld/norrish/initial-ruleset [4] http://www.nomic.net/deadgames/nomicworld/rules/rules.3 [5] http://www.nomic.net/deadgames/nomicworld/rules/rules.6 [6] http://www.mail-archive.com/agora-discussion@agoranomic.org/msg36670.html [7] http://www.fysh.org/~zefram/agora/chuck0_nr_19930630.txt [8] http://www.mail-archive.com/agora-official@agoranomic.org/msg08091.html [9] Blognomic Initial Ruleset: http://blogspot.blognomic.com/2003_01_05_blognomic_archive.html [10] Proposal “Spivak”: http://blogspot.blognomic.com/2005_04_24_blognomic_archive.html [11] Spivak Attack: https://blognomic.com/archive/spivak_attack [12] Maybe we’re being a little too [Evil]: https://blognomic.com/archive/maybe_were_being_a_little_too_evil
