Re: [s-b] Consultation: Beast voting

["Jamie Dallaire" <bad.leprechaun@xxxxxxxxx>]

I declare this Answer to be CONSISTENT. (not sure I can do this)

On that note, I give the following reflection:

What we had here was a case where two rules clearly conflict with each
other. One says one thing, the other says another. The answer could very
well have been argued to be PARADOX.

The rule defining registered voters says they can only be outsiders, while
the beast rule says the beast is a registered voter.

I think we need (suggestions please, I'm not sure how would be best) some
mechanism for determining PRECEDENCE in such cases of conflict.

I called this consistent because I do think that the registered voter rule
is more fundamental to the game than the beast rule, and so should take
precedence over anything the beast rule says.

That said there really is no official reason currently in the rules why this
should be so. The only way of determining precedence we have right now is to
have one rule claim precedence over another explicitly (as in the case of
the beast rule vs. the game actions rule, in terms of defining tricks as
game actions) or to have one rule explicitly defer to other rules (such as
4E7 (game actions) stating "Game Actions occur upon reaching the appropriate
fora, in the order they arrived, unless a rule states otherwise.").

What happens when neither of two conflicting rules claims precedence over
the other or defers to the other (as in the current case)? What would happen
if 2 rules claimed precedence over each other???

The three main fixes I can think of right now, none of them perfect:

- give "essential" rules (defined by the beast proposal last nweek, but that
property could be extended or rescinded from/to others) priority over
non-essential rules, except where explicitly noted by a non-essential rule.

- give rules with a lower rule number precedence over rules with a higher
rule number (except where specifically noted otherwise). Has the advantage
of leaving no conflict unambiguous rather than just specifying 2 tiers as
above, but there are probably better more sensitive ways of doing this.

- attributing different levels of precedence or importance to rules on an
individual basis (see clearance levels in paranomic-xp).

What else?

Billy Pilgrim
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