spoon-discuss: Yet Another amicus brief

["David E. Smith" <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(It's not really brief at all, I suppose.)

Just random snips from my mail archive:


Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.33.0202071757270.7557-100000@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2002 17:58:45 +0000 (GMT)
...
"So damn ugly." is 377/0.

(That was to -business; it was my official recognition of the proposal.)


Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.33.0202090658550.4028-100000@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2002 07:15:59 +0000 (GMT)
...
Uncle Psychosis revises "So damn ugly." (377/1) and gives 1 point to
Wonko.

(Recognition of its modification by Uncle Psychosis)


Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.33.0202130714040.1197-100000@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 07:14:45 +0000 (GMT)
...
377/1 passes (6-4-1).
I much preferred the version created by 375, but what the hell.
Created 129/2.
Just to test it out, I declare that the gamestate is Blue.
Uncle Psychosis scores 12 points.

(Vote results, in which the measure passes)


Message-ID: <200202141156480300.0025900C@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2002 11:56:48 -0500
From: "Donald Whytock" <dwhytock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: spoon-discuss@xxxxxxxxx
...
So let's just make it official, as per your r129/2:

I object to the statement by the administrator that p377 passed.
I object to the statement by the administrator that p377 received six
 affirmative votes.
What the hell...I object to the statement by the administrator that p377
 was recognized and part of the ballot.

(I would point out at this time that the objections were sent to -discuss,
not -business. Thank you, drive through.)


The message-id headers are good grep bait, for searching the list
archives if nothing else. Searching for "377" is a bit ugly, because
someone's mail server is running version 377 of their software.

Now, let's play.

A (spurious) argument for FALSE could be: since the objection was only
sent to the -discuss list, it is possible that not all players received
the objection (which is required by 129/2). I doubt this is enough for a
ruling, since not even I have access to the subscribers' lists for the two
mailing lists. It is effectively impossible to determine whether or not
this objection holds any merit, especially since the makeup of the
-discuss subscriber list has likely changed since then (and it's not
common practice to keep that sort of thing archived).

A somewhat better argument for FALSE is thoughtfully provided for us by
129/2: "in which case the usual methods for determining the current rules
and game state shall apply."

It could be argued that The Administrator (i.e. me) is "the usual method"
for that sort of thing. It could just as easily be argued that the CFJ
process is "the usual method".

I maintain that the course of Proposal 377 (proosal, revision, ballot,
votes, vote counting, rule creation of 129/2) was wholly within the rules.

But maybe my word isn't good enough. Fine by me, I don't have much ego
left to be damaged anyhow. Working retail has pretty much broken me of
that...

The CFJ process is the most likely other form of recourse, and no CFJ
related to that proposal/ballot/vote was ever requested, to the best of my
knowledge (and the -business list archives would seem to back me up on
that assumption).

Even without 129/2, we're okay. 129/0 and 129/1 both place a one-nweek
time limit on such objections, which will expire in a matter of minutes.

As I made each of the statements against which objections have been made
more than 20 days (not ndays) ago, we're left with that whole "usual
method" business.

I would claim that CFJs are the usual method for determining the truth or
falsehood of an in-game statement, and no CFJ related to any of those
statements has been made.

Therefore, thanks to the 20-day rule, 129/2 stands.

(I would like to take this opportunity to point out that I think 129/2 is
a festering boil on the left butt-cheek of the personification of our
Nomic, and would like few things better than to see it go away, but I'm
having rather a hard time coming up with a plausible reason for that to
happen.)

...dave



---- David E. Smith, POB 515045, St. Louis MO 63151
http://www.technopagan.org/    http://metadave.net/
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"There is so much randomness in the world that it's
a dice roll whether I'm happy or depressed." - TMCM