[s-d] Some suggested rule revisions

[Ed Murphy <emurphy42@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I started to do a full revision of teucer's hybrid ruleset, but got
bored and pared it down to just the following.  /* These comments */
are intended to be removed after these are made ready for prime time,
while [[these comments]] are intended to be left in as guides.

Rule: In case of emergency

      This rule takes precedence over all other rules.

      /* Insert a copy of "I say I do, therefore I do" here
         if you plan to make the original more Byzantine. */

      Attributes and roles directly specified by this rule can only
      change as specified by this rule.

      Each player has a Mental State, which is exactly one of Calm,
      Trusting, or Paranoid.  A player can set his Mental State.

      While the number of active paranoid players minus the number
      of active trusting players is at least 1/3 the number of
      active players, a Panic is in progress.

      /* TODO:  address ambiguities in which persons are players */

      Timing directly specified by this rule is based on absolute
      time.  During a Panic, all other forms of timing are suspended.

      /* TODO:  address durations specified in absolute time but
         interrupted by a panic */

      Each Panic goes through the following stages, in order, with no
      gaps (though the Panic may end before being completed):

        a) Call to Order.  During this stage, any player can (and the
           Minister of Ministries shall) become Coordinator, thus
           ending this stage.

        b) Propositions.  This stage is four days long.  During this
           stage, each player can submit any number of Points of Order
           (documents specifying one or more changes to the gamestate).

        c) Decisions.  This stage is four days long.  During this stage,
           each player can vote up to once on each Point of Order.

        d) Resolution.  During this stage, the Coordinator shall (in a
           single message) implement a subset of the Points of Order
           that received more votes in favor than votes in opposition,
           thus making all players Calm afterward.

           /* Deliberately gives the Coordinator more power, to avoid
              having to tell him exactly what to do. */

Rule:  Pirate Nomic

      The name of this nomic is R Nomic.

      /* I first considered Kamikaze Nomic, but this is better. */

Rule:  History

      This nomic acknowledges Berserker Nomic, A Nomic, and B Nomic
      as its spiritual predecessors.

Rule:  Ntime

      This nomic has the following attributes:

        /* The clock is not an object for the same reason that Panic
           is no longer tied to objects */

        a) The clock state (abbr. "clock"), a switch.
        b) The nday, a positive integer.
        c) The ndelay, a non-negative integer.
        d) The nweek, a positive integer.
        e) The nyear, a positive integer, equal to ceiling(W/10)
             where W is the nweek value.

      Any player can set the clock state, but shall not do so except
      when the rules otherwise allow or require it.

      At midnight (00:00:00) Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the
      nday (if the clock is On) or ndelay (otherwise) is incremented
      by 1.  If the nday would otherwise exceed 12, then it becomes 1,
      the nweek is incremented by 1, and the clock becomes Off.

      Whenever the clock becomes On, the ndelay is set to zero.

      At the beginning of each voting period, the clock becomes
      Off.  During the voting period, the Minister of Changes can set
      the clock to On (unless it has already become On during that
      voting period, or he has not published a ballot for that voting
      period).

      The Minister of Ministries can set the clock to On, and shall do
      so if it is Off (unless there is at least one vacant Ministry
      or at least one other outstanding Ministerial obligation).

      A period of one nday is the time between two consecutive changes
      of the nday value.

      A duration to the effect of "X ndays", where X is a positive
      integer, means that the duration ends immediately after X full
      periods of one nday have passed.

      A duration to the effect of "X rdays", where X is a positive
      integer, means the duration ends immediately after X occurrences
      of midnight UTC.

      All events occurring at the end of an nday occur before all events
      occurring at the beginning of the next nday.

      Simultaneous changes (e.g. at the start of an nweek) occur in
      order of the precedence (highest first) of the rules calling
      for them.

Rule:  I say I do, therefore I do

      If the rules allow or require a person to perform an action,
      but do not otherwise specify a method, then he can perform it
      by sending a message saying that he performs it, provided that:

        a) He expects in good faith that it will be received in a
           timely fashion by all players.  Sending a message to a
           Public Forum generally qualifies.

        b) He specifies any necessary parameters for that action
           [[e.g. to vote on a proposal, you must specify which
           proposal, and which way you vote]].

      An action performed by sending a message is performed when the
      message is sent [[i.e. when it leaves the sender's normal
      technical domain of control]].

      Multiple actions performed in a single message are performed in
      the order they appear in the message.

      Stating "I perform <action> X times", where X is a specified
      positive integer, is equivalent to stating "I perform <action>"
      X times in a row.
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