RE: spoon-discuss: incompatibility in judgements

["Kieron Jarvis" <kieron.jarvis@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> ______________________start proposal_________________
>
> 1) amend Rule 201 : "The Ballot" to read in full: "The Administrator
shall,
> prior to the close of voting each nweek, distribute to all Players a list
of all
> Ballot Issues for that nweek, this list shall be known as 'the Ballot'."
>
> 2) amend Rule 202 : "Ballot Issues" to read in full:"The following become
Ballot
> Issues at the start of a nweek's voting:
> 1. Proposals then active
> 2. Motions requiring a vote introduced since the previous nweek's voting
> 3. Elections to replace elected Officers whose terms expire that nweek
> 4. Elections to fill vacant elected Offices
>
> Proposals that are Ballot Issues may be altered after the start of the
nweek's
> voting but not if they are on that week's Ballot."
>

I would vote against this Proposal. I don't like this mutability of
Proposals during the voting period.

Consider the following (unlikely) scenario:

At a point in the future the Office of Administrator falls upon a Player
good at scamming.
This Administrator proposes a fairly minor rule change which we all vote in
favour of. E delays publication of the Ballot. 10 minutes (or less) before
the close of voting e makes wholesale changes to eir Proposal, recognises
eir Proposal, and publishes the Ballot. E could take over the whole game.


Another way that a flexible Proposal system could be abused is by
withdrawing your Proposal if voting is going against it and the Ballot
hasn't been published.

I don't like the thought that I can't reliably vote until the Ballot is
published and the Ballot can be published any time within the voting period.
When the voting period falls across a weekend I only get one day to vote as
my e-mail access is at work (during my lunch break). I would rather see the
published Ballot as informative only and not affecting game state.

Another problem with flexible Proposals until the publication of the Ballot
is one for the Administrator. When e prepares the ballot for publication, e
needs to ensure that all Proposal revisions are incorporated. In a busy
voting period, this could mean that e runs out of time to publish it one day
so e puts it over to the next. Then on the next day there's another rash of
Proposal revisions which have to be acknowledged before e can publish the
Ballot which could conceivably delay publication another day. And what
happens to the revision that is sent 5 seconds before publication of the
Ballot. It should be on the Ballot but it wasn't recognised in time.


While I like some flexibility, I don't like the flexibility which this
Proposal would allow.

I think I've spent long enough on the soapbox, time to get down.

XnJester.