[spoon-discuss] Draft 2: Less is More: Voting

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

[[ This is a DRAFT proposal that shouldn't overlook too much anymore.
comments are welcomed. ]]

Less Is More: Voting

Replace the text of Rule 15 with the following:

{{ __Voting__

A. Voter Eligibility

Only Players may vote. Other game entities may vote only if explicitly
permitted to do so by another rule which has precedence over this rule.

[[ I'm still not a fan of House Grem, and I definitely don't believe that
NPCs should vote in any circumstance. But hopefully this won't piss off
too many people... ]]

A player may not vote if e joined the game less than one nday prior to the
beginning of voting. A player may not vote if e is On Leave. A Player may
not vote if e is Dead.

B. Voting Period

Voting begins at the start of the 8th nday of each nweek, and ends at the
end of the 10th nday of each nweek. Votes cast prior to the beginning of
voting, or after the end of voting, shall not be counted. (Preemptive
Voting, addressed below, is an exception to this rule.)

C. The Ballot

At least 48 hours prior to the close of voting each nweek, The
Administrator shall distribute, via a public forum, the Ballot for that
nweek. The Ballot shall list all proposals legally recognized between the
start of the previous nweek's voting period and the start of the current
nweek's voting period.

At the time the Ballot is distributed, all proposals on that Ballot, and
the identities of their authors, must be displayed for public review. This
display shall remain available for public review for the remainder of the
Voting Period.

If, 48 hours prior to the close of voting in an nweek, the Ballot has not
been distributed, or the proposals due to appear on said Ballot have not
been displayed for public review, the Clock is turned to Off. Following
this, the Clock is turned On once the Ballot has been distributed and all
proposals on the Ballot have been displayed for public review.


D. Casting Votes

To cast a vote, a Player must submit eir vote either privately to the
Administrator, or to a public forum. Votes cast privately shall not be
disclosed publicly until the end of the voting period, at which point they
must be disclosed.

If a player goes On Leave before Voting begins in an nweek, e has the
option to Preemptively Vote, or PV, on any proposals which have been
recognized before the player goes On Leave. PVs must be sent privately to
the Administrator. Should a proposal be revised after a PV is cast, the PV
for that proposal is automatically changed to 'Abstain'. Any proposals
recognized after the player goes On Leave receive 'Abstain' votes from the
PVing Player. If the Player returns from Leave before the end of Voting,
eir PVs are erased, and that Player must vote in the normal manner.

[[ I left out the requirement that PVs be publicly announced. Seems silly.
]]



E. Legal Votes

The only legal votes for a proposal are 'Yes', 'No', 'Shelve', and
'Abstain'. Votes may be Rectified to one of the above forms by the
Administrator at eir discretion, if e believes the intent is clear and
unambiguous. Such Rectification is subject to the standard rules for
objecting to the Administrator's interpretation.

[[ Thus players can still vote while wielding the Sushi, speaking in a
drunken slur, prevented from using big words like "Abstain" by entropy
limits, etc.  This is what I've been doing all along anyway. :) ]]

E.1. Affirmative Votes
'Yes' votes are votes in favor of a proposal.

E.2. Negative Votes
'No' votes are votes against a proposal.

E.3. Abstentions
'Abstain' votes count as votes for purposes of quorum [[ even though we
don't have such a thing ]] but count neither as affirmative, nor negative,
votes.

E.4. Shelving
'Shelve' votes count as negative votes. If the proposal fails, and at
least half of the votes cast for that proposal are either affirmative
votes or 'Shelve' votes, the proposal is deemed neither to have passed nor
failed. At the beginning of the next nweek, a new proposal is created,
with a revision number of 0, otherwise identical to the shelved proposal.
Such a proposal counts as only half a proposal against a player's
Bandwidth limit. This paragraph supercedes subsection F of this rule.

[[ Note that I left out the part about a veto overriding this rule -- if
it's gonna get shelved and probably revised anyway, no point in my vetoing
it. ]]

F. Vote Counting

At the end of each voting period, The Clock turns Off. After all votes are
processed, and The Administrator posts said results to a Public Forum, the
Clock turns On.

If and only if a proposal receives more affirmative votes than negative
votes, the proposal is considered to have passed. Otherwise, the proposal
is considered to have failed.

Proposals are processed in increasing integral order of serial number with
respect to each other, but are otherwise considered to occur
simultaneously, in the "instant" between the end of one nweek and the
beginning of the next nweek.

[[ I'm trying to avoid things like: if p857 passes, having to count its
effects for PART of a ballot, but otherwise allow proposals to do things
like "if X passes, do this too". Suggestions on the wording are especially
welcome. ]]

G. Passed Proposals

When a proposal passes, the following effects occur in order.

* The author of the proposal gains 3d6 points.
* Other effects specifically related to proposal passage, such as Charm and
  Entropy adjustments, occur.
* The effects specified in the proposal occur in the order listed in the
  proposal.


H. Failed Proposals

When a proposal fails, the following effects occur in order.
* The author of the proposal loses 1d6 points.
* Other effects specifically related to proposal failure, such as Charm
  and Entropy adjustments, occur.

[[ should I try to specify an order for the adjustments? I can't presently
think of a circumstance where it'd be relevant whether Entropy is adjusted
before or after Charm, for example, but you never know... ]]

I. Administrative Veto

If the Administrator is not also a player, e may Veto any proposal. If
more than 75% of the votes cast for a proposal are affirmative votes, the
Veto has no effect. Otherwise, the proposal is deemed to have failed.

Regardless of whether The Administrator is also a Player, The
Administrator may Veto a proposal which, in eir sole judgment, is
technically infeasible to implement or which would cause grievous and
irreparable damage to the game as a whole. Such a veto is not subject to
the 75% override condition above, but is subject to the Call For Inquiry
process.

[[ The above is potentially controversial. Whee! ]]

[[ I left out the reduced scoring for vetoed proposals -- I think 3d6 is
more fair than Xd3 anyway. ]]

}}



Repeal Rules [[ 15, ]] 20, 23, 30, 32, 124, 294, 403, 580, 629, 706.

[[ above is a list of rules which are combined or otherwise relevant to
this. ]]

[[ 403 is the "opposed props" rule that's never been used. ]]
[[ 629 is the "boring" rule -- it's never come up. ]]
[[ 706 is the ala carte rule. it's never come up either, and if it did,
it'd be a pain in the ass. even more than society props, which drive me
mad. ]]

Remove the last paragraph from Rule 3 [[ killing the clock at the end of
an nweek ]]

Remove the second paragraph from rule 547.

/* end prop */

...dave


---- David E. Smith, POB 515045, St. Louis, MO 63151
http://www.technopagan.org/     http://metadave.net/
http://www.bureau42.com/        http://whatIsay.com/


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