Agora is a game of Nomic, wherein Persons, acting in accordance with the Rules, communicate their game Actions and/or results of these actions via Fora in order to play the game. The game may be won, but the game never ends.

Please treat Agora Right Good Forever.

Agora is ossified if it is IMPOSSIBLE for any reasonable combination of actions by players to cause arbitrary rule changes to be made and/or arbitrary proposals to be adopted within a real-world (UTC) four-week period.

If, but for this rule, the net effect of a proposal would cause Agora to become ossified, or would cause Agora to cease to exist, it cannot take effect, rules to the contrary notwithstanding. If any other single change or inseparable group of changes to the gamestate would cause Agora to become ossified, or would cause Agora to cease to exist, it is cancelled and does not occur, rules to the contrary notwithstanding.

Any entity (including a group of entities confederated with the intent of forming a single person under this Rule) that is or ever was able to willingly communicate original ideas is a person. Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, no other entities are persons.

Questions about personhood are to be resolved equitably, with regard for the good-faith of those involved and the customs of honorable play.

Citizenship is a secured person switch with values Unregistered (default) and Registered, tracked by the Registrar. A registered person is a Player. To "register" someone is to flip that person's Citizenship switch from Unregistered to Registered.

An Unregistered person CAN (unless explicitly forbidden or prevented by Rules of power 3 or greater) register by publishing a message that indicates reasonably clearly and reasonably unambiguously eir desire to become a player at that time (for example, by saying "I register"). Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, two or more persons CANNOT become Registered simultaneously.

The basis of a person is the set of all persons that are (recursively) part of em, in addition to emself. Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, a person CANNOT become Registered if eir basis overlaps with that of any current player.

A player, acting as emself, CAN deregister (cease being a player) by announcement. If e does so, e CANNOT register or be registered for 30 days.

A person, by registering, agrees to abide by the Rules. The Rules CANNOT otherwise bind a person to abide by any agreement without that person's willful consent.

The Rules CANNOT compel non-players to act without their express or reasonably implied consent. The rules CANNOT compel players to unduly harass non-players. A non-person CANNOT be a player, rules to the contrary notwithstanding.

Publicity is a secured forum switch with values Public, Discussion, and Foreign (default), tracked by the Registrar.

The Registrar CAN change the publicity of a forum without objection as long as:

1. e sends eir announcement of intent to that forum; and

2. if the forum is to be made public, the announcement by which the Registrar makes that forum public is sent to all existing public fora.

Each player should ensure e can receive messages via each public forum.

A public message is a message sent via a public forum, or sent to all players and containing a clear designation of intent to be public. A rule can also designate that a part of one public message is considered a public message in its own right. To "publish" or "announce" something is to send a public message whose body contains that thing. To do something "publicly" is to do that thing within a public message.

Where the rules define an action that a person CAN perform "by announcement", that person performs that action by, in a single public message, specifying the action and setting forth intent to perform that action by sending that message, doing both clearly and unambiguously.

Any action performed by sending a message is performed at the time date-stamped on that message. Actions in messages (including sub-messages) are performed in the order they appear in the message, unless otherwise specified. Allowing actions performed by sending a message to take place simultaneously must be done explicitly and is secured at power 2.

The Registrar is an office; its holder is responsible for keeping track of players.

The Registrar's weekly report includes:

1. A list of all players, including information sufficient to identify and contact each player.

2. The date on which each player most recently became a player.

3. For each forum with non-Foreign publicity, sufficient instructions for players to receive messages there.

The Registrar's monthly report includes:

1. For each former player for which the information is reasonably available, the dates on which e registered and deregistered.

Whenever a Player feels that e has been treated so egregiously by the Agoran community that e can no longer abide to be a part of it, e may submit a document to the Registrar, clearly labeled a Cantus Cygneus, detailing eir grievances and expressing eir reproach for those who e feels have treated em so badly.

In a timely fashion after receiving a Cantus Cygneus, the Registrar shall publish this document along with a Writ of Fugiendae Agorae Grandissima Exprobratione, commanding the Player to be deregistered. The Registrar shall note the method of deregistration for that Player in subsequent Registrar monthly Reports.

The Player is deregistered as of the posting of the Writ, and the notation in the Registrar's monthly report will ensure that, henceforth, all may know said Player deregistered in a Writ of FAGE.

Activity is a secured player switch tracked by the Registrar, with values Active (default) and Inactive. To flip a player's activity to active (inactive) is to activate (deactivate) em. The date on which each player's activity was last changed is part of the Registrar's weekly report.

A player CAN, acting as emself, activate or deactivate emself by announcement.

Any player CAN, with notice, make a player who has not made a public announcement in the past 30 days inactive.

If a player has been inactive continuously for the past 60 days, then any player CAN deregister em without 3 objections. The Registrar SHOULD attempt to deregister players who meet this condition. The publication of intent for such a deregistration SHOULD be sent to the inactive player's registered email address at the same time that it is published.

An "Agoran forum" is a forum with publicity of discussion or public. Players of Agora have the following expectations of Agoran fora:

• Agoran fora allow equal participation for all players, subject to the rules of Agora and the explicitly stated rules of the fora.

• The rules of participation in public fora are as closely aligned with the rules of Agora itself as possible; a player expects to be able to fully participate in all public fora as long as eir participation is in line with Agora's rules.

• Agoran fora allow all interested persons, even those that are otherwise restricted in eir participation, to read all messages.

• Discussion fora moderators may restrict participation subject to eir own clearly stated rules but should only do so to players temporarily and proportional to the harm of the rule breakage.

• The content of discussion fora should primarily be about Agora itself, or reasonably adjacent topics.

If an existing Agoran forum is in violation of these expectations, the Agoran community, led by the Registrar, SHOULD remove it or replace it with an appropriate forum as soon as possible.

Banned is a secured negative boolean person switch tracked by the Registrar. A person is unwelcome if e is Banned or if at least one part of em is unwelcome. Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, an unwelcome person CANNOT register or be registered, and e is immediately deregistered if e is ever a player. Designations of unwelcomeness are secured.

A Banned switch SHOULD ONLY be flipped by a proposal for the express purpose of flipping Banned switches.

Flipping a Banned switch to True (banning a player) SHOULD ONLY be done when:

• the person's actions have been deemed harmful to Agora, to any player of Agora, or the overall community, and

• the harm has been clearly communicated to the person, and e has been given time to consider and respond, and

• e has made no attempt to make amends, eir attempt was unsatisfactory, or e has continued to act in harmful ways.

Actions that are harmful are subject to the discretion of the community of Agora, but may include: any form of identity-based discrimination, personal attacks, disrespect of values or beliefs of any member of the Agoran community, or provocative/bad-faith comments.

Once a quarter, any unwelcome person may submit a Request for Forgiveness to the Registrar. Such a document SHOULD contain sincere self-reflection including any appropriate apologies and an indication on how e intends to avoid or prevent similar incidents in the future.

The Registrar SHALL publish any Request for Forgiveness e receives in a timely fashion. If the community deems the Request sincere and appropriately reconciliatory, steps should be undertaken to flip the submitter's Banned switch to False.

The following terms are defined. These definitions are used when a rule includes a term in all caps, and provide guidance in determining the ordinary-language meaning of a term when a rule includes a term otherwise. Earlier definitions take precedence over later ones. If a rule specifies one or more persons in connection with a term, then the term applies only to the specified person(s).

1. CANNOT, IMPOSSIBLE, INEFFECTIVE, INVALID: Attempts to perform the described action are unsuccessful.

2. MUST NOT, MAY NOT, SHALL NOT, ILLEGAL, PROHIBITED: Performing the described action violates the rule in question.

3. NEED NOT, OPTIONAL: Failing to perform the described action does not violate the rules.

4. SHOULD NOT, DISCOURAGED, DEPRECATED: Before performing the described action, the full implications of performing it ought to be be understood and carefully weighed.

5. CAN, POSSIBLE, EFFECTIVE, VALID: Attempts to perform the described action are successful.

6. MAY, LEGAL, PERMISSIBLE: Performing the described action does not violate the rules.

7. MUST, SHALL, REQUIRED, MANDATORY: Failing to perform the described action violates the rule in question.

8. SHOULD, ENCOURAGED, RECOMMENDED: Before failing to perform the described action, the full implications of failing to perform it ought to be understood and carefully weighed.

A "number" is considered to refer to a real number, unless otherwise explicitly specified. A "number of (items)", where (items) is a set of discrete entities, is considered to refer to a non-negative integer, unless otherwise explicitly specified.

If a switch is defined as being associated with a specified set of numbers (a numerical switch), then the possible values for that switch are the numbers in that set. In particular, a natural or integer switch is a switch with possible values the non-negative integers or all integers, respectively. If a limit is further defined, the possible values are the numbers of the set within the specified limits.

If the rules describe mathematical operations to be used in flipping an instance of a numerical switch, the operations are interpreted as having common-sense mathematical application to determine that instance's resulting value. For example, "increasing a switch instance by M" is equivalent to "flipping a switch instance from its current value N to the value N+M". If the specified mathematical operation would result in a value outside that switch's defined set, the flipping CANNOT be performed, rules to the contrary notwithstanding.

An action is regulated if: (1) the Rules limit, allow, enable, or permit its performance; (2) the Rules describe the circumstances under which the action would succeed or fail; or (3) the action would, as part of its effect, modify information for which some player is required to be a recordkeepor.

A Regulated Action CAN only be performed as described by the Rules, and only using the methods explicitly specified in the Rules for performing the given action. The Rules are not to be interpreted so as to proscribe unregulated actions.

The above notwithstanding, sending a message (in general or with specific attributes) is never a regulated action; however, the rules may be interpreted so as to proscribe sending public messages (in general or with specific attributes).

The following terms are defined:

1. The phrase "in a timely fashion" means "within 7 days". This time period is set when the requirement is created (i.e. X days before the limit ends). A requirement to perform an action at an exact instant (e.g. "when X, Y SHALL Z"), but not "in the same message", is instead interpreted as a requirement to perform that action in a timely fashion after that instant.
2. The phrase "in an officially timely fashion" means "before the end of the next Agoran week". This time period is set when the requirement is created (i.e. between 7 and 14 days before the period ends).
3. Agoran epochs: a. Agoran days begin at midnight UTC. b. Agoran weeks begin at midnight UTC on Monday. Eastman weeks begin at midnight UTC on the 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th of each Gregorian month; the fifth one of the month (if any) lasts till the end of the month. c. Agoran months begin at midnight UTC on the first day of each Gregorian month. d. Agoran quarters begin when the Agoran months of January, April, July, and October begin. e. Agoran years begin when the Agoran month of January begins. f. A pivot is either the instant at which Agora Nomic began (June 30, 1993, 00:04:30 GMT +1200) or an instant at which at least one person won the game. When used as a period of time, a "Round" (historical syn: "game") is the period of time between a pivot and the next pivot. The "Agoran" qualifier is assumed unless a different definition is indicated (e.g. Eastman weeks). These definitions do not apply to relative durations (e.g. "within <number> days after <event>").
4. Two points in time are within a month of each other if: a. they occur in the same Agoran month; b. they occur in two consecutive Agoran months, and the later of the two occurs in an earlier day in the month than the earlier one; c. they occur in two consecutive Agoran months on the same day of the month, and the later of the two occurs at the same or earlier time of day.
5. Any anniversary, monthly anniversary, or quarterly anniversary that would otherwise attempt to occur on a day of the month that does not exist (after considering any leap day) instead occurs on the first day of the following month.

An action is a Tabled Action if the Rules purport to authorize its performance via one of the following methods:

• With N Support, where N is a positive integer.
• Without N Objections, where N is a positive integer.
• With N Agoran Consent, where N is a positive integer multiple of 0.1.
• With T notice, where T is a time period.

The parameters N and T, if omitted, default to 1 and 4 days, respectively (e.g. "without objection" means N=1). If a rule defines N as less than 1, it is instead treated as 1.

A person, acting as emself, CAN by announcement table an intent (syn. "intend") to perform a tabled action, clearly, conspicuously, explicitly, and without obfuscation specifying the action, the method (including non-default parameter values), and, optionally, conditions.

A person is the sponsor of such an intent if e tabled it, or if e is authorized to perform its action due to holding a rule-defined position previously held by the person who tabled it.

For a given tabled intent, a player CAN, unless otherwise forbidden by the rules or the document enabling the action, act on eir own behalf, by announcement, to:

• Become a supporter ("support" it), unless e tabled or previously supported it;
• Become an objector ("object to" it), unless e previously objected to it;

A supporter/objector to an intent, acting as emself, CAN by announcement cease to be a supporter/objector ("withdraw" support/objection) of that intent.

Limiting the ability to support or object to an intent is secured at the power of the rule enabling that action to be performed.

An intent is ripe if was tabled within the past 14 days, the Speaker hasn't objected to it in the past 48 hours, and its conditions, if any, are each clearly and unambiguously met.

An intent is mature if it was tabled at least 4 days ago and nobody withdrew objections from it in the past 24 hours.

A rule purporting to allow a person to perform a tabled action allows em to do so by announcement, if, considering only intents for that action/method combination:

• With N Support: e is a sponsor or supporter of a ripe intent with at least N supporters.
• Without N Objections: e is a sponsor of a mature ripe intent with less than N objectors.
• With N Agoran Consent: e is a sponsor or supporter of a mature ripe intent with supporters greater than N times its objectors (e SHOULD list supporters and objectors).
• With T notice: e is the sponsor of a ripe intent created at least T ago.

If a value CANNOT be reasonably determined (without circularity or paradox) from information reasonably available, or if it alternates indefinitely between values, then the value is considered to be indeterminate, otherwise it is determinate.

A communication purporting to express conditional intent to perform an action is considered unclear and ambiguous unless, at a minimum, the conditional is determinate, true, and reasonably straightforward to evaluate with publicly-available information at the time of communication. The communicator SHOULD explain specific reasons for being uncertain of the outcome when e makes the communication.

When a Rule specifies that a random choice be made, then the choice shall be made using whatever probability distribution among the possible outcomes the Rule specifies, defaulting to a uniform probability distribution.

The choice can be made using any physical or computational process whose probability distribution among the possible outcomes is reasonably close to that required by the Rules, and for which the final choice is not trivially predictable by the selecting person in advance. The selecting person SHOULD make the selection method public, and SHOULD use a method for which the final probability distribution can be readily confirmed.

A Fingerprint for a document (the Plaintext) is a document that could not have been reasonably created without knowledge of the Plaintext, and which is related to the Plaintext in such a way that one could not reasonably produce another document related to that Fingerprint in the same way.

Where the rules define an action that a person CAN perform "by commitment" to a particular kind of document, that person performs that action by performing it by announcement while, in the same message, also publishing a what is purportedly a Fingerprint for a document of that kind.

If multiple rules attempt to define an entity with the same name, then they refer to the same entity. A rule-defined entity's name CANNOT be changed to be the same as another rule-defined entity's name.

A rule, contract, or regulation that refers to an entity by name refers to the entity that had that name when the rule first came to include that reference, even if the entity's name has since changed.

If the entity that defines another entity is amended such that it no longer defines the second entity, then the second entity and its attributes cease to exist.

If the entity that defines another entity is amended such that it defines the second entity both before and after the amendment, but with different attributes, then the second entity and its attributes continue to exist to whatever extent is possible under the new definitions.

A type of switch is a property that the rules define as a switch, and specify the following:

1. The type(s) of entity possessing an instance of that switch. No other entity possesses an instance of that switch.

2. One or more possible values for instances of that switch, exactly one of which should be designated as the default. No values other than those listed are possible for instances of that switch, except that, if no default is otherwise specified, then rules to the contrary notwithstanding, the "null" value is a possible value for that switch, and is the default.

At any given time, each instance of a switch has exactly one possible value for that type of switch. If an instance of a switch comes to have a value, it ceases to have any other value. If an instance of a switch would otherwise fail to have a possible value, it comes to have its default value. A Rule that designates a switch as "secured" (at a given power level) designates changes to the properties of that type of switch as secured (at that power level) and designates changes to the value of each instance of the switch as secured (at that power level).

"To flip an instance of a switch" is to make it come to have a given value. "To become X" (where X is a possible value of exactly one of the subject's switches) is to flip that switch to X.

If a type of switch is not explicitly designated as possibly-indeterminate by the rule that defines it, and if an action or set of actions would cause the value of an instance of that type of switch to become indeterminate, that instance instead takes on its last determinate and possible value, if any, otherwise it takes on its default value.

A singleton switch is a switch for which Agora Nomic is the only entity possessing an instance of that switch.

A boolean switch is a switch with values True and False. A positive boolean switch has a default of True; a negative boolean switch has a default of False.

Attempting to flip an instance of a switch to a value it already has does not flip the switch. However, if a person is REQUIRED to flip a switch instance to a value it already has, then either attempting to do so using the required mechanism, or announcing that the switch already has the required value, fulfills the requirement without flipping the switch.

The Power of an entity is a non-negative rational number. An instrument is an entity with positive Power.

The Power of an entity cannot be set or modified except as stipulated by the Rules. All entities have Power zero except where specifically allowed by the rules.

A Rule that makes a change, action, or value secured (hereafter the securing Rule) thereby makes it IMPOSSIBLE to perform that change or action, or to set or modify that value, except as allowed by an instrument with Power greater than or equal to the change's Power Threshold. This Threshold defaults to the securing Rule's Power, but CAN be lowered as allowed by that Rule (including by the Rule itself).

Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, no entity with power below the power of this rule can

1. cause an entity to have power greater than its own.

2. adjust the power of an instrument with power greater than its own.

3. set or modify any other substantive aspect of an instrument with power greater than its own (that is, one that affects the instrument's operation).

A proposal is a type of entity consisting of a body of text and other attributes. A player CAN create (syn. submit) a proposal by announcement, specifying its text and optionally specifying any of the following attributes:

• An associated title.

• A list of coauthors (which must be persons other than the author).

• An adoption index.

Creating a proposal adds it to the Proposal Pool. Once a proposal is created, its text, author, and AI cannot be changed. The author (syn. proposer) of a proposal is the person who created it.

The author of a proposal in the Proposal Pool CAN remove (syn. retract, withdraw) it from the Pool by announcement.

The destruction of a proposal and the causing of a proposal to cease being a proposal are secured. The removal of a proposal from the Proposal Pool, other than by distribution, is secured.

If a referendum on a proposal was resolved as FAILED QUORUM in the past seven days, the Promotor CAN once recycle the proposal by announcement, adding it to the Proposal Pool and causing it to become pended.

Proposals created since the enactment of this rule have a secured untracked Class switch with possible values ordinary (the default) and democratic.

When a proposal with an adoption index greater than or equal to 3.0 is created, its class becomes democratic.

Any player CAN, with 2 Agoran consent, flip an ordinary proposal's class to democratic, provided that it is in the Proposal Pool or that there is a referendum on it whose voting period has not yet ended.

The Promotor is an office; its holder is responsible for receiving and distributing proposals.

A referendum is the Agoran decision to determine whether to adopt a proposal (its associated proposal). For this decision, the vote collector is the Assessor, the adoption index is initially the adoption index of the proposal, and the text, author, coauthors, and class of the proposal are essential parameters. Initiating a referendum is known as distribution, and removes the proposal from the Proposal Pool.

The Promotor CAN distribute a proposal which is in the Proposal Pool at any time.

In a given Agoran week, the Promotor SHALL distribute each proposal that was in the Proposal Pool at the beginning of that week, except for those excepted from automatic distribution by other rules, or those that are otherwise removed from the Pool. If there are ten or more undistributed proposals in the proposal pool, the Promotor MAY refrain from distributing the most recently added 5 proposals if e distributes each other proposal in that Agoran week.

Distributed proposals have ID numbers, to be assigned by the Promotor.

If there is a Proposal in the Pool that it would otherwise be IMPOSSIBLE for any player to distribute, then any player CAN distribute that Proposal without 3 objections.

The Promotor's report includes a list of all proposals in the Proposal Pool, along with their text and attributes. This portion of a public document purporting to be a Promotor's report is self-ratifying.

The destruction of a referendum is secured. Causing a referendum to cease being a referendum is secured.

The Assessor is an office; its holder is responsible for collecting votes and keeping track of related properties.

When a referendum on a proposal is resolved, if the outcome is ADOPTED, then the proposal in question is adopted, its power is set to the minimum of four, the adoption index of the proposal, and the adoption index of the referendum, and it takes effect. Proposals CANNOT otherwise be adopted or take effect, rules to the contrary notwithstanding.

When a proposal takes effect, the proposal applies the changes that it specifies in its text, except as prohibited by other rules. Unless otherwise specified by the text, the effects are applied in the order they appear in the text. Clearly marked comments are ignored. If the proposal cannot make some changes it specifies, that does not preclude the other changes from taking place.

Except insofar as the actions performed by a proposal happen one after another, rather than simultaneously, a proposal's effect is instantaneous. A proposal can neither delay nor extend its own effect. Once a proposal finishes taking effect, its power is set to 0.

No entity with power below the power of this rule can prevent a proposal from taking effect; this does not apply to generally preventing changes to specified areas of the gamestate, nor to a proposal preventing itself from taking effect (its no-effect clause is generally interpreted as applying only to the rest of the proposal).

A rule is a type of instrument that is always taking effect and has the capacity to govern the game generally. A rule's content takes the form of a text, and is unlimited in scope. The ruleset is the set of all currently-existing rules.

Every current rule has power between 0.1 and 4.0 inclusive.

Every rule shall have an ID number, distinct among current and former rules, to be assigned once by the Rulekeepor by public designation.

Every rule shall have a title to aid in identification. If a rule ever does not have a title, then the Rulekeepor CAN and SHALL assign a title to it by announcement in a timely fashion.

For the purposes of rules governing modification of instruments, the text, power, ID number, and title of a rule are all substantive aspects of the rule. However, rules to the contrary notwithstanding, the Rulekeepor CAN set rule aspects as described elsewhere in this rule.

When interpreting and applying the rules, the text of the rules takes precedence. Where the text is silent, inconsistent, or unclear, it is to be augmented by game custom, common sense, past judgements, and consideration of the best interests of the game.

Definitions and prescriptions in the rules are only to be applied using direct, forward reasoning; in particular, an absurdity that can be concluded from the assumption that a statement about rule-defined concepts is false does not constitute proof that it is true. Definitions in lower-powered Rules do not overrule common-sense interpretations or common definitions of terms in higher-powered rules, but may constructively make reasonable clarifications to those definitions. For this purpose, a clarification is reasonable if and only if it adds detail without changing the underlying general meaning of the term and without causing the higher powered rule to be read in a way inconsistent with its text.

Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, any rule change that would (1) prevent a person from initiating a formal process to resolve matters of controversy, in the reasonable expectation that the controversy will thereby be resolved; or (2) prevent a person from causing formal reconsideration of any judicial determination that e should be punished, is wholly void and without effect.

In a conflict between Rules, the conflict shall be resolved by performing the following comparisons in the sequence written in this rule, until the conflict is resolved.

• In a conflict between Rules with different Power, the Rule with the higher Power takes precedence over the Rule with the lower Power; otherwise,

• If all of the Rules in conflict explicitly say that their precedence relations are determined by some other Rule for determining precedence relations, then the determinations of the precedence-determining Rule shall be used to resolve the conflicts; otherwise,

• If at least one of the Rules in conflict explicitly says of itself that it defers to another Rule (or type of Rule) or takes precedence over another Rule (or type of Rule), then such provisions shall be used to resolve the conflict, unless they lead to contradictions between each other; otherwise,

• If any of the rules in conflict have ID numbers, then the Rule with the lowest ID number takes precedence; otherwise,

• The Rule enacted earliest takes precedence.

Clauses in any other rule that broadly claim precedence (e.g. over "all rules" of a certain class) shall be, prima facie, considered to be limited claims of precedence or deference that are applicable only when such claims are evaluated as described within the above sequence.

No change to the ruleset can occur that would cause a Rule to directly claim precedence over this Rule as a means of determining precedence. This applies to changes by the enactment or amendment of a Rule, or of any other form. This Rule takes precedence over any Rule that would permit such a change to the ruleset.

In a conflict between clauses of the same Rule, if exactly one claims precedence over the other, then it takes precedence; otherwise, the later clause takes precedence.

When the rules provide that an instrument takes effect, it can generally:

1. enact a rule. The new rule has power equal to the minimum of the power specified by the enacting instrument, defaulting to one if the enacting instrument does not specify or if it specifies a power less than 0.1, and the maximum power permitted by other rules. The enacting instrument may specify a title for the new rule, which if present shall prevail. The ID number of the new rule cannot be specified by the enacting instrument; any attempt to so specify is null and void.

2. repeal a rule. When a rule is repealed, it ceases to be a rule, its power is set to 0, and the Rulekeepor need no longer maintain a record of it.

3. reenact a rule. A repealed rule identified by its most recent rule number MUST be reenacted with the same ID number. If no text is specified, the rule is reenacted with the same text it had when it was most recently repealed. If the reenacting proposal provides new text for the rule, the rule SHOULD have materially the same purpose as did the repealed version. Unless specified otherwise by the reenacting instrument, a reenacted rule has power equal to the power it had at the time of its repeal (or power 1, if power was not defined at the time of that rule's repeal). If the reenacting instrument is incapable of setting the reenacted rule's power to that value, then the reenactment is null and void.

4. amend the text of a rule.

5. retitle a rule.

6. change the power of a rule.

A rule change is any effect that falls into the above classes. Rule changes always occur sequentially, never simultaneously. If a specification would ever be interpreted as causing multiple changes to happen at once, it is instead interpreted as attempting to cause them to occur separately, in the order they are listed in the specification.

Any ambiguity in the specification of a rule change causes that change to be void and without effect. An inconsequential variation in the quotation of an existing rule does not constitute ambiguity for the purposes of this rule. Furthermore, if the change being specified would be clear to any reasonable player, the specification is not ambiguous, even if it is incorrect or unclear on its face. This provision does not prevent the specification of undesirable changes; for instance, an amendment which adds a typo is not corrected to remove the typo.

A rule change is wholly prevented from taking effect unless its full text was published, along with an unambiguous and clear specification of the method to be used for changing the rule, at least 4 days and no more than 60 days before it would otherwise take effect.

This rule provides the only mechanism by which rules can be created, modified, or destroyed, or by which an entity can become a rule or cease to be a rule.

A regulation is a textual entity defined as such by this rule, and under the authority of a person, known as its Promulgator. A regulation must be authorized by a rule (its parent rule) in order to exist. It has only the effect that rule explicitly gives it.

A regulation CAN be enacted, amended, and repealed as specified by its parent rule. By default, a person CAN, with 2 Agoran consent, enact, amend, or repeal a regulation for which e is the Promulgator. Regulations are tracked by the Rulekeepor as part of eir monthly report in a fashion similar to rules.

              _
            _\ /_
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  | /   ___`{\_/}`___   \ |
  \ \."`*  `"{_}"`  *`"./ /
   \ \  )\  _\ /_  /(  / /
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jgs  |() () () () () ()|
     <<o>><<o>><o>><<o>>
    `"""""""""""""""""""`
     IN CELEBRATION of Alexis being crowned Princess of Agora,
          without prejudice to Any before or since
          who may come to hold a Title
          whether Patent or otherwise;
    IT IS HEREBY PROCLAIMED that a Royal Parade be established,
          imbued in this very Rule,
          which shall travel around Agora to Rules of import;
    AND THEREFORE, the Rulekeepor SHOULD place this Rule
          near recently-amended rules of high Power;
    AND FURTHERMORE, additions to this Parade are most welcome
         when Events suiting the honour should occur.
    NEXT UP in the Parade comes the Discordian Court:  G. the
         Grand Vizier is arguing with Janet the Untitled, while
         nix, Court Anarchist, is cramming cancelled ballots into
         eir pockets.

The Rulekeepor is an office; its holder is responsible for maintaining the text of the rules of Agora.

The Rulekeepor's weekly report includes the Short Logical Ruleset. The Rulekeepor's monthly report includes the Full Logical Ruleset.

The Short Logical Ruleset (SLR) is a format of the ruleset. In this format, each rule is assigned to a category, and the rules are grouped according to their category.

Rules are assigned to, ordered within, or moved between categories, and categories are added, changed, or empty categories removed, as the Rulekeepor sees fit.

The listing of each rule in the SLR must include the rule's ID number, power, title, and text.

The listing of each rule in the SLR must additionally include a revision number selected by the Rulekeepor. The Rulekeepor SHOULD select revision numbers such that they can be used retrospectively to determine that the text of a rule has changed while it maintained the same ID number. The Rulekeepor may exercise reasonable discretion in calculating revision numbers.

The Rulekeepor is strongly DISCOURAGED from including any additional information in the SLR, except that which increases the readability of the SLR.

The Full Logical Ruleset (FLR) is a format of the ruleset. In this format, rules are assigned to the same category and presented in the same order as in the SLR. The FLR must contain all the information required to be in the SLR, and any historical annotations which the Rulekeepor is required to record.

The Rulekeepor SHOULD also include any other information which e feels may be helpful in the use of the ruleset in the FLR.

Whenever a rule is changed in any way, the Rulekeepor SHALL record and thereafter maintain a reasonably accurate historical annotation to the rule indicating:

1. The type of change.

2. The date on which the change took effect.

3. The mechanism that specified the change.

4. If the rule was changed due to a proposal, then that proposal's ID number, author, and coauthor(s) (if any).

Any player CAN clean a rule without objection by specifying one or more corrections to spelling, grammar, capitalization, formatting, and/or dialect, or to whether a synonym or abbreviation is used in place of a word or phrase, in the rule's text and/or title; when e does so, if any text changes were specified, that rule is amended by this rule by applying the changes as a single amendment (failing as a whole if any fail); then, if any title changes were specified, that rule is retitled by this rule by applying the changes as a single retitling (failing as a whole if any fail).

Any player CAN refile a rule without objection, specifying a new title; the rule is retitled to the specified title by this rule.

Cleaning rules is secured. Refiling rules is secured.

Replacing a non-zero amount of whitespace with a different non-zero amount of whitespace is generally insignificant, except if doing so substantially changes the semantic, logical, or artistic structure of the text.

An emergency message is one whose subject line contains the text "[Emergency]".

The Prime Minister CAN, in an emergency message and with 3 Agoran consent, enact, amend, or repeal Emergency Regulations, provided that the intent to do so was also contained in an emergency message. To the extent explicitly permitted by this rule, Emergency regulations are always taking effect.

Emergency Regulations CAN, as part of their effect:

• Extend any deadline provided for by any instrument other than this rule, including a deadline for an obligation to be met, or deadline prior to which an action must be performed in order to be valid, such as the end of voting period. Such an extension CANNOT cause the total time period, such as the time from when an obligation was created to the deadline or the whole of a voting period, to be more than double its original length.
• Create, destroy, or transfer assets, or require or forbid their creation, destruction, or transfer.
• Collectively, exercise Mint Authority
• Cause one or more players to win Agora.
• Appoint or remove officeholders, other than Prime Minister or Speaker.
• Modify the Festivity.
• Award Patent Titles that are either Badges or are not mentioned in any Rule.
• Modify the Publicity of Fora.

The Prime Minister CAN, in an emergency message and with 4 Agoran Consent, provided that the intent to do so was also contained in an emergency message, Extend the Emergency.

If there is an Emergency Regulation that has existed for at least a month and the Prime Minister has not Extended the Emergency in the past month, any player CAN, with 7 days notice, cause this rule to repeal all Emergency Regulations.

If the Prime Minister has not sent a message to a public forum in the preceding four days, the Speaker CAN exercise eir powers under this rule as if e were the Prime Minister, and notwithstanding any rule that would prohibit a single player from holding both offices.

Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, Emergency Regulations CANNOT be enacted, amended, or repealed except as described in this Rule.

When the rules call for an Agoran decision to be made, the decision-making process takes place in the following three stages, each described elsewhere:

1. Initiation of the decision.

2. Voting of the people.

3. Resolution of the decision.

An Agoran decision is initiated when a person authorized to initiate it publishes a valid notice which sets forth the intent to initiate the decision. To be valid, the notice must clearly specify the following information:

1. The matter to be decided (for example, "the adoption of proposal 4781");

2. The voting method;

3. A clear description of the valid options;

4. The identity of the vote collector; and

5. Any additional information defined by the rules as essential parameters.

The publication of such a valid notice initiates the voting period for the decision. The default length of the voting period is 7 days. Changing the length of a decision's voting period is secured at power 2, and it CANNOT be set or changed to more than 14 days, or less than 5 days for a decision with at least two options.

The vote collector for a decision with less than two options CAN end the voting period by announcement, if it has not ended already, and provided that e resolves the decision in the same message.

A public notice purporting to initiate an Agoran decision is a self-ratifying attestation that the notice was valid, that the person (if any) publishing the notice was authorized to initiate the decision, and that such a decision was initiated.

The destruction of an Agoran decision and the causing of an Agoran decision to cease being an Agoran decision are secured at the power of the Rule authorizing the initiation of such a decision.

Each Agoran decision has a voting method, which must be AI-majority, instant runoff, or first-past-the-post. The voting method is that specified by the authorizing authority, or first-past-the-post by default.

Each Agoran decision has a set of valid options (the choices that the voters are being asked to select from) and valid votes (the ways in which the voters can express their opinion or lack thereof). For AI-majority decisions, the valid options are FOR and AGAINST; for other decisions, the valid options are defined by other rules.

The valid votes on an Agoran decision are:

1. PRESENT;

2. The valid conditional votes, as defined by rules of power at least that of this rule; and

3. For an instant runoff decision, the ordered lists of entities.

4. For any other decision, the valid options.

An entity submits a ballot on an Agoran decision by publishing a notice satisfying the following conditions:

1. The ballot is submitted during the voting period for the decision.

2. The entity casting the ballot (the voter) was, at the initiation of the decision, a player.

3. The ballot clearly identifies the matter to be decided.

4. The ballot clearly identifies a valid vote, as determined by the voting method.

5. The ballot clearly sets forth the voter's intent to place the identified vote.

6. The voter has no other valid ballots on the same decision.

A valid ballot is a ballot, correctly submitted, that has not been withdrawn. During the voting period of an Agoran decision, an entity CAN by announcement withdraw (syn. retract) a ballot that e submitted on that decision. To "change" one's vote is to retract eir previous ballot (if any), then submit a new one. Submitting and withdrawing ballots is secured.

The vote collector for an unresolved Agoran decision CAN resolve it by announcement, indicating the outcome. If it was required to be initiated, then e SHALL resolve it in a timely fashion after the end of the voting period. To be EFFECTIVE, such an attempt must satisfy the following conditions:

1. It is published after the voting period has ended.

2. It clearly identifies the matter to be resolved.

3. It specifies the number of voters (or a list of the voters). For these purposes and for determining quorum, a "voter" is someone who submitted a ballot on the decision that was valid when it was submitted and also valid (i.e. not withdrawn or otherwise invalidated) at the end of the voting period.

4. It specifies the outcome, as described elsewhere, and, if there was more than one valid option, provides a tally of the voters' valid ballots.

Each Agoran decision has exactly one vote collector, defaulting to the initiator of the decision. If the vote collector is defined by reference to a position (or, in the default case, if the initiator was so defined), then the vote collector is the current holder of that position.

This rule takes precedence over any rule that would provide another mechanism by which an Agoran decision may be resolved.

In general, changes to the gamestate due to the outcome of an Agoran decision take effect when the decision is resolved.

Each Agoran decision has a voting method, which determines how voters may vote on it and how to calculate the outcome. The strength of a ballot is the voting strength of the voter who cast it on that Agoran decision, as calculated at the end of that decision's voting period.

1. For an AI-majority decision, let F be the total strength of all valid ballots cast FOR a decision, A be the same for AGAINST, and AI be the adoption index of the decision. The outcome is ADOPTED if F/A >= AI and F/A > 1 (or F>0 and A=0), otherwise REJECTED.

2. For an instant runoff decision, the outcome is whichever option wins according to the standard definition of instant runoff. For this purpose, a ballot of strength N is treated as if it were N distinct ballots expressing the same preferences. In case multiple valid options tie for the lowest number of votes at any stage, the vote collector CAN and must, in the announcement of the decision's resolution, select one such option to eliminate; if, for M > 1, all eir possible choices in the next M stages would result in the same set of options being eliminated, e need not specify the order of elimination. If an entity that is part of a valid vote is not a valid option at the end of the voting period, or disqualified by the rule providing for the decision, then that entity is eliminated prior to the first round of counting.

3. For a first-past-the-post decision, the outcome is whichever option received the highest total strength of valid ballots. In case of a tie, the vote collector CAN and must, in the announcement of the decision's resolution, select one of the leaders as the outcome.

The previous notwithstanding:

• If there is more than one option, and the number of voters is less than the quorum of that decision, the outcome is instead FAILED QUORUM.

• If there are no valid options, the outcome is null.

The outcome of a decision is determined when it is resolved, and cannot change thereafter.

Each Agoran decision has a quorum. This is a number set when the decision is created, and thereafter cannot be changed. When a person initiates an Agoran decision, that person SHALL state the quorum of that decision. However, incorrectly stating the quorum of a decision does not invalidate the initiation, nor does it actually change the quorum of the decision.

The quorum that an Agoran decision gains as it is created can be defined by other rules of power 2 or greater. If no other rule defines the quorum of an Agoran decision, the quorum for that decision is equal to 2/3 of the number of voters on the referendum that had been most recently resolved at the time of that decision's initiation, the whole rounded to the nearest integer.

As an exception to the previous paragraph, the minimum quorum of an Agoran decision is 2, or 1 if there are fewer than 2 players in the game. If the rules would attempt to set the quorum of an Agoran decision to less than the minimum quorum, it is set to the minimum instead.

The voting strength of an entity on an Agoran decision is an integer between 0 and 15 inclusive, defined by rules of power 2 or greater. If not otherwise specified, the voting strength of an entity on an Agoran decision is 3.

When multiple rules set or modify an entity's voting strength on an Agoran decision, it shall be determined by first applying the rule(s) which set it to a specific value, using the ordinary precedence of rules, and then applying the rules, other than this one, which modify it, in numerical order by ID. Finally, if the result of the calculation is not an integer, it is rounded up, and then if it is outside the allowable range of values for voting strength, it is set to the minimum value if it was less and the maximum value if it was more.

A conditional vote on an Agoran decision is a vote which indicates a vote based on some condition(s). A conditional vote is evaluated at the end of the voting period and, rules to the contrary notwithstanding, is clearly specified if and only if the value of the condition(s) is/are determinate at the end of the voting period. If the conditional is clearly specified, and evaluates to a valid vote, it is counted as that vote; otherwise, it is counted as PRESENT.

Any vote which is clearly expressed as a conditional, e.g. "FOR if <X> is true, AGAINST otherwise", is a valid conditional vote that evaluates as specified.

A vote endorsing another person is equivalent to a conditional vote evaluating to the vote specified in that person's valid ballot on the decision, if any.

For an instant runoff decision, a vote consisting of a list, one or more entries of which are valid conditional votes, and the remaining entries of which are valid options, is a valid conditional vote. Such a vote is evaluated by evaluating each conditional entry to a list of votes (or an empty list, if it evaluates to PRESENT either directly or indirectly), and then concatenating those lists with the specified valid options in the order they occurred in the original vote.

Whenever the voting period of an Agoran decision would end, and the result would be FAILED QUORUM, the length of the voting period for that decision is instead increased to 14 days, except if it is already that length, provided this has not already happened for the decision in question.

Within four days of such an occurrence, the vote collector for the decision SHALL issue a humiliating public reminder naming the slackers who have not yet cast any votes on it despite being eligible players, and CAN end its voting period by announcement (resolving it constitutes an implicit announcement that its voting period is first ended) if the result would no longer be FAILED QUORUM, or if the decision is a referendum on a proposal and no voter (other than possibly the proposal's author) has voted FOR.

Adoption index (AI) is an untracked switch possessed by Agoran decisions and proposals, secured at power 2. For decisions, the possible values are "none" (default) or integral multiples of 0.1 from 1.0 to 9.9. For proposals, the possible values are integral multiples of 0.1 from 1.0 to 9.9 (default 1.0).

The adoption index of a referendum CANNOT be set or changed to "none" or to a value less than that of its associated proposal. If a referendum ever has an adoption index of "none" or an adoption index less than that of its associated proposal, it is immediately set to the adoption index of the associated proposal.

Adoption index is an essential parameter of an Agoran decision if that decision has an adoption index.

For any Agoran decision with a non-"none" adoption index, the voting method is AI-majority.

A public message purporting to resolve an Agoran decision is a self-ratifying attestation that

1. such a decision existed,

2. it had the number of voters indicated,

3. it was resolved as indicated, and

4. (if the indicated outcome was to adopt a proposal) such a proposal existed, was adopted, and, if it had not previously taken effect, took effect.

An Office is a position described as an Office by the Rules. Officeholder is an office switch tracked by the ADoP, with possible values of any person or "vacant" (default). Each instance of the Officeholder switch is secured at the power of the Rule defining the associated office (or the power of this Rule, if the defining Rule's power is higher). An officer is the holder of an office, who may be referred to by the name of that office. If the holder of an office is ever not a player, it becomes vacant.

Imposed offices and sortitioned offices are offices described as such by the rules that define them. All other offices are elected. An office is voluntary if and only if it is elected or sortitioned. The selection method for a sortitioned office is a sortition for that office. The selection method for an elected office is an election for that office.

A person CANNOT be made the holder of a voluntary office without eir consent. A person voluntarily entering emself into the selection method of that office always satisfies this requirement, regardless of whether it meets the normal definition of consent.

The holder of a voluntary office CAN resign it by announcement, causing it to become vacant. Any player CAN cause a voluntary office to become vacant without 2 objections.

The non-interim holder of an elected office CAN, with 3 support, resign the office while appointing another player to become the holder of the office, provided that other player is one of the supporters.

Immediately after a proposal finishes taking effect, if one or more offices exist that did not exist prior to the proposal taking effect, each such office, if it is vacant, becomes held by the author of the proposal.

Each officer CAN, with 1.5 Agoran consent, enact, amend, or repeal eir own office's Administrative Regulations. If e has won an election for the office in the past 7 days, e CAN repeal them by announcement. Administrative Regulations have the following properties:

1. An officer SHALL NOT violate requirements in eir office's administrative regulations clearly intended to be punishable as rules violations in the discharge of eir office.
2. Any player CAN act on behalf of an officer to exercise eir official powers as authorized by eir office's administrative regulations.
3. All players SHOULD abide by an officer's administrative regulations in matters relating to eir area of responsibility.

A holder of an elected office who did not become its holder by winning an election, and has not won an election for that office since, is an interim holder. An elected office that is either vacant or has an interim holder is an interim office.

An office is term-limited if the most recent election for that office was resolved more than the length of that office's term prior. The term for the office of Prime Minister is 90 days. The term for all other elected offices is 180 days.

A player CAN initiate an election for a specified elected office:

a) With 2 support (if the office is either interim or term- limited) or 4 support (otherwise), and provided that the initiator becomes a candidate in the same message.

b) By announcement, if e is the ADoP (or, if the office is the ADoP, if e is the Assessor) and the office is interim, or if e is the holder of that office.

Once per quarter, the ADoP CAN and SHALL publish a Notice of Election specifying between 2-4 term-limited offices (if there fewer than 2 term-limited offices, the ADoP MUST instead list all of them). Such a notice initiates elections for the specified offices. The ADoP SHOULD prioritize offices that have gone longest since their last elections.

The above notwithstanding, an election for an office CANNOT be initiated if one is already in progress.

When an election is initiated, it enters the nomination period, which lasts for 4 days. After an election is initiated and until nominations close, any player CAN become a candidate by announcement. A candidate ceases to be a candidate if e ceases to be a player during the election or if holding the office would make em Overpowered. During the nomination period, a candidate CAN cease to be a candidate by announcement if there is at least one other candidate.

Each candidate in an election is ENCOURAGED to campaign by indicating why e would be the best choice, and (if applicable) how e would run the office differently than the previous holder. The ADoP SHOULD remind candidates to campaign.

An election whose nomination period is complete is contested if it has two or more candidates, and uncontested otherwise. Nominations close at the end of the poll's voting period or when the election is ended, whichever comes first.

After the nomination period ends, the ADoP (or, if the office is the ADoP, the Assessor) CAN and, in a timely fashion, SHALL:

1. If the election is contested, initiate an Agoran decision to select the winner of the election (the poll). For this decision, the Vote Collector is the ADoP (or, if the office is the ADoP, the Assessor), the valid options are the candidates for that election (including those who become candidates after its initiation), and the voting method is instant runoff. When the poll is resolved, its outcome, if a player, wins the election. If the outcome is not a player, the election ends with no winner.

2. If POSSIBLE per the following paragraph, end the election immediately.

If at any point an uncontested election has a single candidate, then any player CAN by announcement declare em the winner of the election, thereby causing em to win the election. If at any point an uncontested election has no candidates, then any player CAN declare the election ended with no winner by announcement.

When a player wins an election, e is installed into the associated office and the election ends.

Any player CAN, with 2 Agoran consent, expel (impeach) the holder of a specified voluntary office. When a person is impeached from an office, the selection method for that office is immediately initiated (if possible). Players SHOULD NOT use this method of removal unless the officer has abused the powers of eir office or otherwise shown emself unworthy of the trust of Agora.

A player acting as emself (the deputy) CAN perform an action ordinarily reserved for an office-holder as if e held the office if all of the following are true:

1. The rules require the holder of that office, by virtue of holding that office, to perform the action. (This requirement is fulfilled by the deputy performing the action.)

2. It would be POSSIBLE for the deputy to perform the action, other than by deputisation, if e held the office.

3. The deputy, when performing the action, announces that e is doing so by deputisation or by temporary deputisation.

4. The deputy has not held the office in the past 7 days.

(If the office is vacant, then the remaining items in this list need not be true.)

5. A time limit by which the rules require the action to be performed has expired.

6. The office's holder has not changed in the past 7 days.

7. Any of the following are true:

   a) The deputy announced between 2 and 14 days earlier that e intended to deputise for that office for the purposes of the particular action.

   b) The time limit expired between 14 and 28 days ago.

   c) The time limit expired more than 28 days ago, and the deputisation is temporary.

When a player deputises for a voluntary office, e becomes the holder of that office, unless the deputisation is temporary, doing so would make em Overpowered, and/or the action being performed would already install someone into that office.

Delegate is an Office switch with possible values of "None" and any active player, and default value of "None". Delegates are tracked by the ADoP in eir weekly report.

A player CAN flip the Delegate switch of a specified office to emself with Agoran Consent. If the Delegate switch of an office is set to "None", the holder of that office CAN flip the Delegate switch of that office to a specified player with support from that specified player.

An officer CAN and SHOULD take a Vacation from a specified office e has continuously held for over 6 months with 7 day notice, if e has not done so in the past year. When an officer qualifies for a Vacation, the ADoP SHOULD encourage em to take one, at least once a quarter.

An officer is On Vacation from a specified office if e has taken a Vacation from that office in the past 30 days. The list of officers currently on vacation is part of the ADoP's report.

While the holder of an office is On Vacation, the Delegate of that office CAN perform an action ordinarily reserved for the office-holder as if e held the office, if it would be POSSIBLE for the Delegate to perform the action, other than by this method, if e held the office.

Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, while an officer is On Vacation that officer NEED NOT comply with any duties of that office, and the Delegate, if any, SHALL comply with all duties of the office as if e held the office.

The Delegate of an office CANNOT resign it. The Delegate of an office, if any, and the holder of that office, if any, CAN by announcement flip the Delegate of that office to "None".

A player CAN by announcement initiate a sortition for a vacant sortitioned office for which a sortition is not ongoing. At the beginning of each quarter, for each sortitioned office for which a sortition is not ongoing, the ADoP CAN once by announcement, and SHALL in a timely fashion, initiate a sortition.

Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, a sortition CANNOT be initiated for an office for which a sortition is ongoing.

When a sortition is initiated, it enters the lots period. Any player CAN by announcement become an option for that office during this period. If a person ceases to be a player during this period, e also ceases to be an option for each current sortition.

Seven days after a sortition is initiated, its lots period ends. The ADoP CAN by announcement, and SHALL in a timely fashion after a lots period ends, randomly select one of the options for that office. When e does so, that player becomes the officeholder for that office, then the sortition ends.

If a sortition's lots period has ended, and the sortition has no valid options, then it immediately ends with no selection, and any duty to select an option with respect to it is discharged.

If a sortition is ever ongoing for a non-sortitioned office (or for an office that no longer exists), that sortition immediately ends.

The Associate Director of Personnel (ADoP) is an office; its holder is responsible for keeping track of officers.

The ADoP's report includes the following:

1. The date of the last change (if any) to each office's Officeholder.
2. The current status of the ongoing election for that office or, if there is no ongoing election for that office, the date on which the last election ended
3. For filled elected offices, whether or not the holder is interim.
4. For offices with a weekly and/or monthly report, the date (if any) that each was most recently published.

Some pairs of office are incompatible:

1. Prime Minister and Speaker

2. Promotor and Assessor

3. Assessor and ADoP

4. Referee and Arbitor

A player is Overpowered if e holds two offices which are incompatible with each other. Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, a player CANNOT be installed into an office if doing so would make em Overpowered.

If a player is Overpowered, any player CAN, with Notice, Demand Resignation from em. When this occurs, each office that the Overpowered player holds becomes vacant.

For each person:

1. If any task is defined by the rules as part of that person's weekly duties, then e SHALL perform it at least once each week.

2. If any task is defined by the rules as part of that person's monthly duties, then e SHALL perform it at least once each month.

For each office, if any information is defined by the rules as part of that office's weekly or monthly report, then its officeholder SHALL maintain all such information, and eir weekly or monthly duties respectively include publishing a document or series of documents, labelled as that office's report (or as that office's weekly or monthly report as appropriate), that includes all such information.

Any information defined by the rules as part of a person's report, without specifying which one, is part of eir weekly report. Failure of a person to perform any weekly duty required of em within the allotted time is the Class 1+N infraction of Weekly Tardiness, where N is the number of times e has previously committed the infraction in the past month.

Failure of a person to perform any monthly duty required of em within the allotted time is the Class 3 infraction of Monthly Tardiness.

An official duty for an office is any duty that the Rules specifically assign to that office's holder in particular (regardless of eir identity).

A person publishing a report SHALL do so in plain text, with tabular data lining up properly when viewed in a monospaced font. Publishing a report that deviates from these restrictions is the Class 2 infraction of Making My Eyes Bleed.

A player CAN, by announcement, petition a specified person with a specified duty to take a specific action related to that duty. That person SHOULD publicly respond to that petition in a timely fashion. A player CAN petition a specified non-vacant office in the same fashion; its holder SHALL respond in the same fashion.

Officers SHOULD:

• publish dates in YYYY-MM-DD or DD Mon YY format in reports, whichever is more fitting to the situation;

• communicate a schedule of when regularly timed duties will usually be done;

• maintain an online version of eir report(s) in a browser-native format (such as HTML); AND

• maintain a repository of eir report(s) in a public place.

Players SHOULD:

• signal the official name of the primary action and/or the relevant officer that tracks said actions in the title of a public message; AND

• be kind.

Once per month, a player CAN Succumb by announcement. When a player Succumbs, each of eir deadlines to perform an Officer's duty or judge a Call for Judgement is extended by 1 day if it would otherwise expire within the next week.

Complexity is a secured office switch reflecting how complex it is to fulfill the duties of its office. Its possible values are all integers from 0 to 3 inclusive, where 1 is the default. It is tracked in the ADoP's weekly report. The ADoP CAN, with 2 Agoran consent, flip the complexity of an office to a specified possible value.

For each office a player holds, eir voting strength is increased by the complexity of the office for referenda on ordinary proposals, up to a maximum increase of 3 by this method.

For each type of switch that is not defined as untracked and that has at least one instance that would otherwise lack a recordkeepor, there exists an imposed office named "Tracker of [type name]" whose holder tracks those instances.

If the rules define a report as including a list, then while that list is empty, that report includes the fact that it is empty.

For some entity or class of entities to be "tracked by" another entity is for the latter entity to be its recordkeepor.

For an entity to be a recordkeepor for a type of switch is for that entity to be the recordkeepor for all instances of that switch.

Where the rules specify a recordkeepor for some set of instances of a switch, that recordkeepor's (weekly, if not specified otherwise) report includes the value of each instance in that set whose value is not its default value; a public document purporting to be this portion of that recordkeepor's report is self-ratifying, and implies that other instances in that set are at their default value.

The recordkeepor of a class of assets is the entity (if any) defined as such by, and bound by, its backing document. That recordkeepor's report includes a list of all instances of that class and their owners. A public document purporting to be this portion of that recordkeepor's report is self-ratifying.

The Webmastor is a sortitioned office.

The Webmastor's monthly report includes a Directory, a Changelog, a Warning Log, and an Error Log. The Directory lists notable currently maintained public resources. The Changelog lists notable changes to resources. The Warning Log lists notable potential issues, such as inaccurate or aging resources or unintended issues with a public resource. The Error Log lists notable losses of resources - where a resource has become inaccessible, unmaintained, or unusable. Where 'notable' is used in this rule its meaning is up to the Webmastor's discretion.

The Archivist is an office; its holder is responsible for ensuring the continued availability of documents of historical interest.

The archivist’s monthly report contains:

• Instructions for accessing collections of:
  • Texts of each historic rule revision.
  • Texts of each proposal.
  • Judicial cases.
  • Public messages.
  • Messages to discussion fora.
  • Theses for which a person was awarded a degree.
  • Optionally, any other documents the Archivist deems worthy of archival.
• A description of the completeness of each of the above collections. The referenced collections NEED NOT be perfectly complete or accurate, but the Archivist SHOULD work towards improving their completeness and accuracy.

A retroactive change is one that changes the game's record of past events. Retroactive changes are secured with power threshold 3.

When a document or statement (hereafter "document") is to be ratified, the following definitions apply:

• The publication time can be specified by the instrument allowing the ratification, defaulting to the instant at which the document to be ratified was published.
• The truth time is the instant at which the document specifies that it was true, or the publication time if such an instant is not specified.
• The application time is the instant at which the document to be ratified is ratified.

Ratification CANNOT occur if the truth time would be after the application time, or if the publication time would be after the application time.

Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, when a document is ratified, the gamestate is modified to what it would be if, at the truth time, the gamestate had been minimally modified to make the ratified document as true and accurate as possible.

Ratification CANNOT occur if it would add inconsistencies between the gamestate and the rules.

Ratification CANNOT occur if the required modification to the gamestate is not possible or if multiple substantially distinct possible modifications would be equally appropriate.

If the minimal modification would include past or present rule changes, they are instead excluded unless the ratified document explicitly and unambiguously recites either the changes or the resulting properties of the rule(s).

An internally inconsistent document generally CANNOT be ratified; however, if such a document can be divided into a summary section and a main section, where the only purpose of the summary section is to summarize information in the main section, and the main section is internally consistent, ratification of the document proceeds as if it contained only the main section.

Text purportedly about previous instances of ratification (e.g. a report's date of last ratification) is excluded from ratification. The rules may define additional information that is considered to be part of the document for the purposes of ratification; such definitions are secured with power threshold 3.

Ratification is secured with power threshold 3.

A public document is part (possibly all) of a public message.

A player CAN, without objection, ratify a specified public document.

Ratification Without Objection CANNOT cause the repeal, amendment, enactment, or mutation of any Rule, rules to the contrary notwithstanding.

A player SHALL NOT knowingly use or announce intent to use Ratification Without Objection to ratify a (prior to ratification) document containing incorrect or Indeterminate information when a corrected document could be produced with reasonable effort, unless the general nature of the document's error and reason for ratifying it is clearly and plainly described in the announcement of intent. Such ratification or announcement of intent to ratify is the Class 8 Infraction of Endorsing Forgery.

When a public document published less than 180 days ago is first continuously undoubted for one week after publication:

• If the rules define it as self-ratifying, it is ratified.

• If the rules define it as a self-ratifying attestation to a given statement, the statement is ratified, with the publication time being the instant at which the document was published.

  This clause is inapplicable if the statement to be ratified cannot be reasonably ascertained from the ruleset and the contents of the message.

Any person CAN by announcement issue a doubt (syn. claim of error), identifying a public document published less than 180 days ago and explaining the scope and nature of a perceived error in it (or in a statement it attests to).

The definition of documents as self-ratifying and the definition of documents as self-ratifying attestations are secured at power 3.

When this happens, the publisher of the original document SHALL (if e was required to publish that document) or SHOULD (otherwise) do one of the following in a timely fashion, in an announcement that clearly cites the claim of error:

1. Deny the claim (causing it to cease to be a doubt).

2. Publish a revision.

3. Initiate an inquiry case regarding the truth of the claim (if the subject is actually a matter of law), or cite a relevant existing inquiry case.

The issuance of a doubt on a documents, the denial of a claim of error, and the ceasing of a doubt on a document to be a doubt are secured at power 3.

Blots are an indestructible fixed fungible asset with ownership restricted to persons. A person with 1 or more blots is Impure, a person with 0 blots is Pure. An impure unregistered person is a Fugitive. The Referee is an office, and the recordkeepor for blots.

To expunge a blot is to destroy it. Creating and destroying blots is secured with a Power Threshold of 1.7

A person CAN, by announcement, create a specified number of blots in eir possession.

Any player CAN pay a fee of 7 Spendies to revoke a blot from a specified person.

Once a quarter, the Referee CAN (and SHALL during its first Eastman week) publish a Notice of Clemency, upon which half (rounded down) of each fugitive's blots are destroyed.

Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, an impure person CANNOT win the game.

The voting strength of a player on an Agoran decision is reduced by 1 for every 3 blots in eir possession.

A player CAN, with 7 days notice, deregister (exile) a specified player (the outlaw) who has more than 40 blots.

An Infraction is a violation of a rule. The person who committed an infraction is its infracter.

The Investigator for an infraction is the Referee unless e is the infracter. Otherwise, it is the Arbitor.

The Class of an infraction is 2 unless a rule specifies a different Class for it.

The Base of an infraction is N, where N is the number of previously-investigated, unforgiven infractions that have been committed by the same person in the past 30 days. The previous notwithstanding, if the base of an infraction would be greater than its class, the infraction's base is equal to its class.

Within 14 days of an infraction being committed, or if the infraction has been noted in the past 60 days, the Investigator CAN investigate the infraction by announcement, specifying a number of blots between the Base and the Class of the infraction, inclusive. When e does so, that many blots are created in the possession of the infracter.

The previous notwithstanding, an Investigator CANNOT investigate an infraction that has already been investigated or forgiven. The Investigator of a noted, unforgiven infraction SHALL investigate the infraction in a timely fashion after it has been noted; failure to do so is the Class N infraction of Favoritism, where N is equal to the Class of the noted infraction.

A player CAN, by announcement, "note" an unforgiven infraction committed by any other player in the past 14 days, specifying the incident and the rule it violates (or name of the Infraction if it has one); but a player CANNOT note an infraction that has already been investigated.

The Referee's weekly report contains a list of noted and investigated Infractions committed in the previous week.

All infractions that have not been forgiven are unforgiven.

Any player CAN, with Agoran Consent, "forgive" an unforgiven infraction that occurred in the past 30 days. When an infraction is forgiven, if the infraction was investigated, a number of blots in the possession of the infracter equal to the number of blots specified by the investigation are destroyed or, if e has less blots than specified, all eir blots are destroyed. The previous notwithstanding, a player cannot forgive or support an intent to forgive eir own infraction.

An infraction is automatically forgiven if:

(1) the alleged infracter can't be established by a preponderance of the evidence to have committed the infraction;

(2) at the time the alleged infraction occurred, it was not an infraction;

(3) the infraction was for failure to take an action that the infracter, through no fault of eir own, COULD NOT have performed;

(4) the infraction is for conduct that the infracter, through no fault of eir own, was obliged to undertake by a rule of equal or greater power to the one e violated;

(5) the infracter could not have avoided the infraction when exercising the highest reasonably possible standard of care; or

(6) any available non-null punishment would be blatantly and obviously unsuited to the conduct which constitutes the infraction or to the person who committed the infraction.

Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, any attempt to investigate an infraction which would result in the creation of blots is INEFFECTIVE if:

(1) it does not include the specific reason for the fine; or

(2) it would result in a punishment that is blatantly and obviously unsuited to the conduct which constitutes the infraction or to the person who committed the infraction.

Any person (the initiator) can initiate a Call for Judgement (CFJ, syn. Judicial Case), specifying a statement to be inquired into by announcement.

When a person initiates a Call for Judgement, e CAN optionally bar one person from the case by announcement.

At any time, each CFJ is either open (default), suspended, or assigned exactly one judgement that was validly assigned.

The Arbitor is an office, responsible for the administration of justice in a manner that is fair for emself, if not for the rest of Agora.

Judge is an untracked CFJ switch with possible values of any person or former person, or "unassigned" (default). To "assign" a CFJ to a person is to flip that CFJ's judge to that person. To "remove" or "recuse" a person from a being the judge of a CFJ is to flip that CFJ's judge from that person to unassigned.

When an open CFJ's judge is unassigned, the Arbitor CAN assign any eligible player to be its judge by announcement, and SHALL do so in a timely fashion after it becomes an open and unassigned CFJ. The players eligible to be assigned as judge are all active players except the initiator and the person barred (if any). The Arbitor SHALL assign judges over time such that all interested players have reasonably equal opportunities to judge. If a CFJ has no judge assigned, then any player eligible to judge that CFJ CAN assign it to emself without 3 objections.

The Arbitor's weekly report includes a summary of recent judicial case activity, including open and recently-judged cases, recent judicial assignments, and a list of players interested in judging.

If two CFJs become assigned to the same judge in the same message, those CFJs are "linked" to each other, unless that message specifies that the CFJs should not be linked. The Arbitor SHOULD consider linking two CFJs if they inquire about the same or substantially similar events and are called at approximately the same time.

When a CFJ is open and assigned to a judge, that judge CAN assign a valid judgement to it by announcement, and SHALL do so in a timely fashion after this becomes possible.

The valid judgements for an inquiry case are as follows, based on the facts and legal situation at the time the inquiry case was initiated, not taking into account any events since that time:

• FALSE, appropriate if the statement was factually and logically false.

• TRUE, appropriate if the statement was factually and logically true.

• IRRELEVANT, appropriate if the veracity of the statement is not relevant to the game or is an overly hypothetical extrapolation of the game or its rules to conditions that don't actually exist, or if it can be trivially determined from the outcome of another (possibly still undecided) judicial case that was not itself judged IRRELEVANT.

• INSUFFICIENT, appropriate if the statement does not come with supporting arguments or evidence, and the judge feels as if an undue burden is being placed on em by the lack of arguments and evidence. A CFJ judged as INSUFFICIENT SHOULD be submitted again with sufficient arguments/evidence.

• DISMISS, appropriate if the statement is malformed, undecidable, if insufficient information exists to make a judgement with reasonable effort, or the statement is otherwise not able to be answered with another valid judgement. DISMISS is not appropriate if PARADOXICAL is appropriate.

• PARADOXICAL, appropriate if the statement is logically undecidable as a result of a paradox or or other irresolvable logical situation. PARADOXICAL is not appropriate if IRRELEVANT is appropriate, nor is it appropriate if the undecidability arises from the case itself or in reference to it.

If the judge of an open CFJ has not violated a time limit for assigning it a judgement, and has not previously filed a motion to either extend or reconsider the case, e CAN file a motion to extend the case by announcement. Doing so extends eir judgement deadline for that case by one week. In doing so, e SHOULD include a (nonbinding) draft or outline of eir current thoughts on the case.

If a judgement has been in effect for less then seven days and has not been entered into Moot, then:

• The judge of that CFJ CAN self-file a Motion to Reconsider the case by announcement, if e has not already self-filed a Motion to Reconsider that CFJ.
• Any Player CAN group-file a Motion to Reconsider the case with 2 support, if the CFJ has not had a Motion to Reconsider group-filed for it at any time while it has been assigned to its current judge.

When a Motion to Reconsider is so filed, the case is rendered open again.

If a CFJ has a judgement assigned, a player CAN enter that judgement into Moot with N+2 support, where N is the number of weeks since that judgement has been assigned, rounded down. When this occurs, the CFJ is suspended, and the Arbitor is once authorized to initiate the Agoran decision to determine public confidence in the judgement, which e SHALL do in a timely fashion.

For this decision, the vote collector is the Arbitor and the valid options are AFFIRM, REMAND, and REMIT. When the decision is resolved, the effect depends on the outcome:

• AFFIRM, FAILED QUORUM: The judgement is reassigned to the case, and cannot be entered into Moot again.

• REMAND: The case becomes open again.

• REMIT: The case becomes open again, and the current judge is recused. The Arbitor SHALL NOT assign em to the case again unless no other eligible judges have displayed interest in judging.

A new case is a judicial case that has not had any judge assigned to it. The initiator of a new case CAN retract it by announcement, thus causing it to cease to be a judicial case.

An excess case is a new case whose initiator previously initiated five or more cases during the same week as that case. A person SHALL NOT initiate an excess case. The Arbitor CAN refuse an excess case by announcement, thus causing it to cease to be a judicial case. When e does so, e fulfills any obligations with regards to that case.

A judge CAN recuse emself from a CFJ e is assigned to by announcement.

The Arbitor CAN recuse a judge from a case by announcement, if that judge has violated a time limit for judging the case and has not judged it in the mean time; the Arbitor SHALL do so in a timely fashion after the time limit expires, if able. The Arbitor CAN recuse an inactive or unregistered judge by announcement.

If a judge is recused from a case that was continuously open and assigned to em for at least the past 4 days, e SHOULD NOT be assigned as a judge until e has apologised and/or reasonably explained eir actions.

When a person initiates a Call for Judgement, e CAN, optionally, submit it to the Referee by announcement. All persons are ENCOURAGED to submit a case to the Referee only when there is a good reason not to let it be processed by the Arbitor as usual.

When a CFJ is submitted to the Referee, the Referee receives all obligations and powers, other than obligations to report, for that case that the Arbitor would otherwise receive due to being Arbitor. This rule takes precedence over Rules that would otherwise assign duties and powers regarding to a judicial case to the Arbitor.

A person SHALL NOT make a public statement that is a lie.

A public statement is falsy if any of the following was true at the time of publication:

• The statement was not true and the author knew or should have known that it was not true.
• The author did not believe the statement to be true.

A public statement is a lie if it is falsy and any of the following is true:

• The author made the statement with intent to mislead.
• The author, in the same message, declared the statement to be made "under penalty of No Faking" (or similar).

For the purposes of this rule, an attempt to perform an action by publishing certain text constitutes an implicit statement that the action was EFFECTIVE.

Merely quoting a statement or attempt does not constitute making it for the purposes of this rule. Any disclaimer, conditional clause, or other qualifier attached to a statement or attempt constitutes part of the statement or attempt for the purposes of this rule; the truth or falsity of the whole is what is significant.

The above notwithstanding, a formal announcement of intent is never a lie.

If a consenting Player makes a clear public pledge (syn. Oath) to perform (or refrain from performing) certain actions, then breaking the pledge is ILLEGAL; doing so is the Class N infraction of Oathbreaking, where N is the value explicitly stated by the pledge, or 2 if the pledge does not explicitly state a value. Allowing a pledge to expire without carrying out an action one pledged to do in it constitutes breaking the pledge. If it would otherwise be indeterminate whether a player has violated a pledge, then e shall be deemed to have violated that pledge.

The time window of a pledge is W days, where W is the value explicitly stated by the pledge, or 60 if the pledge does not explicitly state a value. A pledge ceases to exist at the end of its time window.

If breaking the pledge harms specific other parties, the Referee SHOULD solicit the opinion of those parties in determining an appropriate fine.

The Notary CAN destroy a pledge Without Objection, but SHOULD NOT do so unless the pledge no longer serves any significant purpose.

When a rule allows one person (the agent) to act on behalf of another (the principal) to perform an action, that agent CAN perform the action if it is POSSIBLE for the principal to do so, taking into account any prerequisites for the action. If the enabling rule does not specify the mechanism by which the agent may do so, then the agent CAN perform the action in the same manner in which the principal CAN do so, with the additional requirement that the agent must, in the message in which the action is performed, uniquely identify the principal and that the action is being taken on behalf of that person.

A person SHALL NOT act on behalf of another person if doing so causes the second person to violate the rules. A person CANNOT act on behalf of another person to do anything except perform a game action; in particular, a person CANNOT act on behalf of another person to send a message, only to perform specific actions that might be taken within a message, including actions that would otherwise be taken by publishing certain text.

When an action is performed on behalf of a principal, then the action is considered for all game purposes to have been performed by the principal, unless a rule specifically states that it is treated differently for some purpose, in which case it is treated as described by that rule.

Allowing a person to act on behalf of another person is secured at power 2.0. This rule takes precedence over any rule that would prohibit a person from taking an action, except that it defers to any rule that imposes limitations specifically on actions taken on behalf of another person.

An agent CANNOT act on behalf of a principal to perform an action via a specific method if the rules state that the actor acts "as emself" or "on eir own behalf" to perform the action via that method.

Promises are a class of assets, tracked by the Notary. Their essential attributes are their text and creator. A consenting player CAN, by announcement, grant a specified entity a promise, specifying its text and becoming its creator. A promise's owner is referred to as its bearer. Promises with the same text, creator, and bearer are fungible. Promises with the same text and creator SHOULD be referred to by the same title, but the title is not an essential attribute of the promise, just a way of referring to it.

The creation of promises is secured. The text of a promise CANNOT be altered after it is created.

A player (the casher) CAN, by announcement, cash a promise, provided that both a) any conditions for cashing it specified by its text are unambiguously met, and b) either the casher is the promise's bearer, or the promise is owned by the Library. By doing so, e acts on the creator of the promise's behalf, causing the creator to act as if e published the promise's text, and destroys the promise. However, to limit recursion, no promise can be cashed during the execution of another promise unless it existed before the execution of that promise began. The bearer SHOULD recite the promise's essential attributes in the same message e cashes it.

In a promise's text, "the bearer" and "the casher" (or the like) both refer to the player who cashed the promise, and "this promise" (or the like) refers to the promise. The text of the promise can refer to the context of the message in which it is cashed, but the context of the message does not otherwise change the meaning of the promise.

The Library is an entity and CAN own promises.

The creator of a promise CAN take or revoke it from the Library by announcement, unless the promise's text unambiguously designates it as irrevocable. Any player CAN revoke a specified promise from the Library without objection. If a promise specifies expiration conditions then any player CAN by announcement destroy it while the expiration conditions are unambiguously met.

A person is deemed to have consented to an action if and only if, at the time the action took place:

1. e, acting as emself, has publicly stated that e agrees to the action and not subsequently publicly withdrawn eir statement;
2. e is party to a contract whose body explicitly and unambiguously indicates eir consent;
3. the action is taken as part of a promise which e created; or
4. it is reasonably clear from context that e wanted the action to take place or assented to it taking place.

Any group of one or more consenting persons (the parties) may publicly make an agreement among themselves with the intention that it be binding upon them and be governed by the rules. Such an agreement is known as a contract. A contract may be modified, including by changing the set of parties, with the consent of all existing parties. A contract may also be terminated with the consent of all parties. A contract automatically terminates if the number of parties to it falls below one. It is IMPOSSIBLE for a person to become a party to a contract without eir consent.

Parties to a contract governed by the rules SHALL act in accordance with that contract. This obligation is not impaired by contradiction between the contract and any other contract, or between the contract and the rules.

Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, any change that would cause the full provisions or parties of a contract to become publicly unavailable is canceled and does not take effect.

The portion of a contract's provisions that can be interpreted with reference only to information that is either publicly or generally available are known as its body; the remainder of the provisions are known as the annex.

A party to a contract CAN perform any of the following actions as explicitly and unambiguously permitted by the contract's body:

• Act on behalf of another party to the contract.

• By announcement, revoke destructible assets from the contract.

• By announcement, transfer liquid assets from the contract to a specified recipient.

Any player CAN cause a contract to be terminated (syn. "shred") without 2 objections. This SHOULD only be done to remove unused contracts or contracts deemed detrimental to the game as a whole.

The Notary is an office.

The Notary's monthly report contains:

1. every pledge, along with its title, creator, time window, time of creation, and time of expiry;
2. every contract, with its title, full provisions, and parties; and
3. every promise, along with its title, text, creator, and bearer.

If the Notary is required to report an entity's title, but none has been otherwise publicly provided, e CAN assign one by public designation.

An asset is an entity defined as such by a document that has been granted Mint Authority by the Rules (hereafter the asset's backing document), and existing solely because its backing document defines its existence. An asset's backing document can generally specify when and how that asset is created, destroyed, and transferred.

The rules collectively have Mint Authority. Contracts have Mint Authority. An asset defined by rule or regulation is public; any other asset is private.

Each asset has exactly one owner.

An asset CANNOT be gained by or transferred to an entity unless its backing document specifies that entity can own it. If an asset's backing document is otherwise silent on which entities can own it, then it can be owned by Agora, players, and contracts.

An asset "in abeyance" is one whose owner is nonexistent, indeterminate, or invalid. If an asset would otherwise be in abeyance, then it is owned by the Lost and Found Department (if possible) or destroyed (otherwise), subject to modification by its backing document (provided that the modification either destroys it or prevents it from being in abeyance). Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, the Lost and Found Department can own assets of every type. Assets owned by the Lost and Found Department can be transferred or destroyed by any player without objection.

An asset generally CAN be destroyed by its owner by announcement, subject to modification by its backing document. Attempts to destroy no assets are successful. An indestructible asset is one defined as such by its backing document, and CANNOT be destroyed except as explicitly specified by its backing document; any other asset is destructible.

For an entity to gain (historical syn. earn) an asset is for that asset to be created in that entity's possession. To grant an entity an asset is to create it in eir possession. To grant an entity a set of assets is to create each asset in the set in eir possession.

For an entity to lose an asset is for that asset to be destroyed from that entity's possession. To revoke an asset from an entity is to destroy it from that entity's possession.

For entity A to take an asset from entity B is to transfer it from entity B to entity A.

An asset generally CAN be transferred (syn. given) by announcement by its owner to another entity, subject to modification by its backing document. Attempts to transfer no assets are successful. A fixed asset is one defined as such by its backing document, and CANNOT be transferred except as explicitly specified by its backing document; any other asset is liquid.

When a rule indicates creating, destroying, or transferring an amount of assets that is not a natural number, the specified amount is rounded up to the nearest natural number after all other calculations.

A fungible asset is one where two instances of it are considered equivalent if they have the same owner, for the purposes of specification, granting, and transferring. The total amount of a fungible asset that an entity owns is also know as that entity's "balance" of that asset.

If the Rules associate payment of a set of assets (hereafter the fee for the action; syns: cost, price, charge) with performing an action, that method for performing that action is a fee-based method.

If the fee is a non-integer quantity of a fungible asset, the actual fee is the next highest integer amount of that asset.

To use a fee-based method, an entity (the Actor) who is otherwise permitted to perform the action must announce that e is performing the action; the announcement must specify the correct set of assets for the fee and indicate intent to pay that fee for the sole purpose of using that method to perform that action.

Upon such an announcement:

• If the Rules specify a recipient for the fee, and the Actor CAN transfer that specified fee from emself to the recipient, then that fee is transferred from the Actor to the recipient and the action is performed simultaneously;

• If the Rules do not specify a recipient, and the Actor CAN destroy the specified fee in eir possession, then that fee in eir possession is destroyed and the action is performed simultaneously.

• Otherwise, no changes are made to asset holdings and the action is not performed.

Stamps are a category of asset ownable by players. The Collector is a sortitioned office. The Collector tracks Stamps in eir weekly report.

For each person there is a corresponding type of stamp. Stamps of any given type are fungible.

Any player CAN, once per week, pay X Stamps, where each specified Stamp is a different type, to gain (X^2)-X radiance.

Any player CAN, once per week, pay X Stamps, where each Stamp is the same type, to gain (X-1)*2 radiance.

Any active player CAN win by paying N Stamps, where N is the current number of active players and each specified Stamp is of a different type.

Any player CAN pay a fee of 5 Spendies to grant emself X stamps of eir own type. When less than 8 Stamps of eir type exist, X is 2. When 8 to 15 Stamps of eir type exist, X is 1. When 16 or more stamps of eir type exist, X is 0.

Any player CAN pay a fee of 5 + (X) Spendies to transfer a specified stamp from the L&FD to emself. X is equal to the number of times e has already done so in the current month.

When a player receives a welcome package, if e has not received a welcome package, including under any previous definition, since e last registered nor in the past 30 days, e gains the following assets:

• One stamp of eir own type.
• 10 spendies, if e has not been granted any spendies since e last registered.

A player CAN, by announcement, cause a specified player to receive a welcome package (syn. "grant" em a welcome package).

It is considered to be a player's Agoran Birthday on the anniversary of the day e first registered. If the day a player first registered is unknown, that player CAN, with Agoran consent, declare a day to be eir Agoran Birthday. As long as the day a player first registered remains unknown, it is considered to be eir Agoran Birthday on the anniversary of the day e most recently declared as eir Agoran Birthday.

In a timely fashion after the start of a player's Agoran Birthday, the Registrar SHALL announce it.

The Geologist is a sortitioned office that tracks crystals.

A crystal is an indestructible asset with secured integer switches identity, size (default 0), and instability (default 0).

Once a quarter, the Geologist CAN (and SHALL during its first Eastman week) publish a Notice of Crystal Growth, upon which each crystal whose identity is not equal to the ID of any rule in the current ruleset has its size increased by 3.

If a proposal amends or repeals a rule, if a crystal exists whose identity equals that rule's id, that crystal absorbs that proposal. Otherwise, grant to the author of the proposal a crystal with identity equal to the ID of that rule, then that crystal absorbs that proposal. Each crystal can only absorb a given proposal once by this method.

When a crystal absorbs a proposal, the following occur in sequence:

• The size of that crystal is increased by the power of that proposal when that proposal's power was greater than 0 (rounded down).

• If that crystal's owner is not the author of that proposal, the instability of that crystal is increased by 2.

• If that crystal's owner is not the author or coauthor of that proposal, the instability of that crystal is increased by 2.

• If the instability of that crystal is greater than its size, it is transferred to the author of the proposal, then its instability becomes equal to its size.

A player is crystallized if the total size of crystals e owns is at least the number of rules in the current ruleset.

A player CAN increase the size of a specified crystal by 1 by paying a fee of 11 spendies.

Any player CAN, by announcement, Shatter the System, specifying at least 1 crystallized player, and provided that no person has done so in the past 30 days. When a player does so, each crystallized player wins the game.

If a player won the game in this manner 4 days ago, then all existing crystals are destroyed.

The Spendor is a sortitioned office.

Spendies are a fungible liquid asset ownable by players and contracts. Spendies are tracked by the Spendor in eir weekly report.

At the end of each month, all Spendies are destroyed. At the beginning of each month, every player is granted 20 Spendies.

Vitality is an untracked player switch with possible values of alive, unalive, and ghostly (default). Bangs are a fungible asset.

Match state is an untracked singleton switch with possible values none (default), initializing, and ongoing. If the match state is none and has not changed in the past 7 days, a player CAN by announcement flip it to initializing. When the match state is flipped to none or to initializing, each player becomes ghostly (if e is not already), then all bangs are destroyed.

While the match state is initializing:

• A player CAN by announcement incarnate, thereby flipping eir vitality to alive.
• A player CAN by announcement trigger the match, provided the match state has not changed in the past 7 days.
• At the beginning of each Agoran week, if any player triggered the match in the previous Agoran week, and if there at least three alive players, the match state is flipped to ongoing, after which each alive player is granted 2 bangs.

If the match state is ongoing, no player has won the game as a result of this Rule in the past 28 days, and a single player was alive at the beginning of the week, that player CAN stand alone by announcement. When a player stands alone, eir radiance is increased by 30, then the match state is flipped to none (if it is not already).

When a player takes an action that causes one or more vitalities or bang balances to change, e SHOULD recite all such changes in the same message as which e takes that action. A document reciting all bang balances and vitalities SHOULD be published and ratified as needed.

While the match state is ongoing, a player CAN by announcement load a round, specifying a document (the sealed orders), provided that e has not done so in the current Agoran week.

While the match state is ongoing, a player CAN by announcement fire a round, specifying a document (the revealed orders), provided that all of the following are true:

• E was an alive player at the beginning of the current Agoran week.
• E has not done so in the current Agoran week.
• In the previous Agoran week, e loaded a round with sealed orders that are a fingerprint for the revealed orders.
• The order list explicitly and unconditionally specifies a single clear, unambiguous, and unconditional list of persons to target (the target list).

When a player (the shooter) fires a round, sequentially for each person (the target) in the target list, if the shooter has at least two bangs and was alive at the beginning of the week, and the target was an alive player at the beginning of the week, then two of the shooter's bangs are destroyed, after which the target is eliminated.

When a person is eliminated, if e is an alive player then the following happen in order:

• Eir vitality is flipped to unalive.
• E gains one bang.

A player who loaded a round in one Agoran week SHALL, within the first four days of the next Agoran week, fire a round, provided the match state has not changed during either period; failure to do so is the class 1 infraction of wasting ammunition.

If the match state is ongoing and has not changed in the past 7 days, and if no player has loaded a round or fired a round in this Agoran week or the previous two Agoran weeks, then any player CAN flip the match state to none by announcement.

If the match state is initializing and has not changed in the past 28 days, then any player CAN flip the match state to none by announcement.

Bounty Amount is an untracked player switch. Its possible values are all integers from 0 to 10 inclusive, where 0 is the default.

Twice each month, each player CAN, by announcement, put a bounty on a specified player. Doing so increases the specified player's Bounty Amount by 1.

Immediately after an alive player is eliminated, the shooter gains a number of spendies equal to the target's Bounty Amount, and then the target's bounty amount is flipped to 0.

The shooter SHOULD publish the target's Bounty Amount at the time of the elimination when e eliminates a target with a non-zero Bounty Amount.

The Illuminator is a sortitioned office, responsible for tracking radiance.

A player's Radiance is an integer player switch defaulting to 0, tracked by the Illuminator. When a player is "granted" or "gains" a specified amount of radiance, eir radiance is increased by that amount.

Upon a correct announcement from a player that eir radiance is 100 or more (correctly specifying the amount), e wins the game. Then, eir radiance is set to 0, and all other players' radiance are set to half their current value rounded down.

Once a quarter, the Illuminator CAN (and SHALL during its first Eastman week) publish a Notice of Diminution, upon which all radiance switches are set to half their current value rounded down.

Any player CAN increase eir radiance by 1 by paying a fee of 2 Spendies.

When the Rules state that a person or persons win the game, those persons win the game; specifically they win the Round that ends with the indicated win. Agora itself does not end and the ruleset remains unchanged. The Herald is then authorized to award those persons the Patent Title of Champion once, by announcement.

A player CAN Declare Apathy without objection, specifying a set of players. Upon doing so, the specified players win the game, except for those who have won the game through this Rule in the past 14 days.

If a CFJ about the effectiveness, possibility, or legality of a change in the gamestate has been assigned a judgement of PARADOXICAL continuously for between 7 and 90 days, then that case's initiator, CAN, by announcement, Transcend Logic, specifying that CFJ, provided that e has not already won the game with respect to that CFJ or to a CFJ linked to it. When a person transcends logic, e wins the game.

A player who wins in this fashion SHOULD submit a proposal to prevent the paradox from arising again.

The Tailor is an office, and the recordkeepor of Ribbons.

For each type of Ribbon, <type> Ribbon Ownership is a secured negative boolean person switch, tracked by the Tailor in eir monthly report. Laudability is a secured person switch with non-negative integer possible values, defaulting to 0, tracked by the Tailor as part of eir monthly report. When a person owns more types of ribbons than eir Laudability, eir Laudability is set to the number of types of ribbons e owns.

To "award a person a <Ribbon type>" is to flip that person's <that type> Ribbon Ownership to True. A person "owns a <Ribbon type>" if eir <that type> Ribbon Ownership is True.

A person qualifies for a type of Ribbon if e has earned that type of Ribbon within the preceding 7 days (including earlier in the same message).

While a person owns all types of Ribbon, that person can Raise a Banner by announcement. This causes that person to win the game. When a person wins this way, for each type of Ribbon, that person's <type> Ribbon Ownership is flipped to False.

The types of Ribbon, and the methods of obtaining them, are as follows:

Red (R): When a proposal is adopted and changes at least one rule that, immediately before or after the change, has Power >= 3, its proposer earns a Red Ribbon.

Orange (O): When a proposal is adopted via a referendum on which no valid ballots were AGAINST (after evaluating conditionals), its proposer earns an Orange Ribbon.

Green (G): While a person holds a voluntary office, has done so continuously for the past 30 days, and has not failed to perform any duties of that office within the appropriate time limits during those 30 days, that person qualifies for a Green Ribbon.

Emerald (E): When a person wins an election, e earns an Emerald Ribbon.

Cyan (C): When a person deputises for an office or is the delegate for an office while its holder is on vacation, and that person has not held or deputised for that office within the past 7 days, that person earns a Cyan Ribbon.

Blue (B): When a person assigns a judgement to a CFJ, and has never violated a time limit to assign a judgement to that CFJ, nor ever self-filed a motion to reconsider that CFJ, that person earns a Blue Ribbon.

Magenta (M): When, during Agora's Birthday, a person publicly acknowledges it, that person earns a Magenta Ribbon.

Ultraviolet (U): When a person is awarded the Patent Title Champion, that person earns an Ultraviolet Ribbon, unless the Champion title was awarded as the result of winning the game via this rule.

Violet (V): When a person is awarded a Patent Title other than Champion or a degree, that person earns a Violet Ribbon.

Indigo (I): When a person is awarded a degree, that person earns an Indigo Ribbon.

Platinum (P): The Speaker qualifies for a Platinum Ribbon.

Lime (L): A person qualifies for a Lime Ribbon if three or more proposals adopted in the preceding 7 days had that person as a coauthor.

White (W): A player qualifies for a White Ribbon if e has never previously owned a White Ribbon (including under previous rulesets). A player who has been registered for the past 30+ days or 180+ cumulative days and has never acted on eir own behalf to cause another person to gain a White Ribbon (including under a previous ruleset) CAN act on eir own behalf to award a White Ribbon to another person by announcement.

Black (K): An instrument CAN, as part of its effect, cause a person to earn a Black Ribbon. When this occurs, this Rule awards that person a Black Ribbon.

Gray (A): Once per month the Tailor CAN award a Gray Ribbon by announcement. E is ENCOURAGED to award such a Ribbon in the same message in which e publishes eir monthly report.

Transparent (T): A person qualifies for a Transparent Ribbon while the number of other types of Ribbon that that person qualifies for, earns, and/or was awarded within the previous 7 days is at least 5.

While a person qualifies for a type of Ribbon:

• If e has not owned that type of Ribbon within the preceding 7 days, any player CAN, by announcement, award em that type of Ribbon.

Qualifying for ribbons is secured. Earning ribbons is secured.

Festivity is a secured singleton switch, whose possible values are integers ranging from 0 inclusive to the number of defined types of Ribbon exclusive, and defaulting to 0. Festivity is tracked in the Tailor's monthly report. In addition, while Festivity is non-zero, the Tailor SHALL announce its value each week; a public document purporting to be such an announcement is self-ratifying. A Festival is ongoing whenever Agora's Festivity is non-zero.

If Agora's Festivity has had the same non-zero value for 14 days or more, or if it has a non-zero value and fewer than 5 players are Festive, then any player CAN flip it to 0 by announcement.

A Festive person is a person whose Laudability is greater than or equal to Agora's Festivity. An N-Festive person is a person who would be Festive, were Agora's Festivity N.

For any integer N greater than Agora's Festivity, an N-Festive player CAN flip Agora's Festivity to N with 4 support from other N-Festive players, unless Agora's Festivity has had a value greater than or equal to N in the past 21 days.

While Agora's Festivity is non-zero, the following apply:

1. Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, non-Festive players CANNOT support/be a supporter for tabled action intents;

2. Quorum for Agoran Decisions is equal to half the number of Festive players, rounded up;

3. Each Festive player has the maximum possible voting strength. Each person who is not a Festive player has the minimum possible voting strength. Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, no modifications to voting strength (other than defining the maximum and minimum) are applied by any other Rule.

While Agora's Festivity is zero, the paragraphs above have no effect and are ignored.

A Patent Title is a legal title held by an entity in recognition of eir distinction. The Herald is an office; its holder is responsible for tracking Patent Titles in eir monthly report.

Awarding or revoking a Patent Title is secured at power 1. A person permitted and enabled to award (revoke) a Patent Title SHALL do so in a timely fashion after the conditions authorizing em to do so are announced, unless there is an open judicial case contesting the validity of those conditions.

The Herald CAN award a specified Patent Title to a specified player with 2 Agoran consent. Any player CAN award a specified Patent Title to a specified player, as authorized by the Herald's Administrative Regulations.

A Badge is any patent title with the word 'badge' as part of its name. A badge SHOULD be used to award multiple persons for participating in specific event of note within Agora. Any player CAN award a badge that does not yet exist to three or more persons simultaneously, with Agoran consent. The Herald CAN award an existing badge to persons without objection.

Certain patent titles are known as degrees. The degrees are

• Associate of Nomic Art (A.N.A.)
• Associate of Nomic (A.N.)
• Juris Doctorate of Nomic (J.N.)
• Baccalaureate of Nomic Art (B.N.A.)
• Baccalaureate of Nomic (B.N.)
• Magisteriate of Nomic Art (M.N.A.)
• Magisteriate of Nomic (M.N.)
• Doctorate of Nomic Art (D.N.Art.)
• Doctorate of Nomic History (D.N.Hist.)
• Doctorate of Nomic Law (D.N.Law.)
• Doctorate of Nomic Science (D.N.Sci.)
• Doctorate of Nomic Philosophy (D.N.Phil.)

There are four classes of degrees, ranked in ascending order of merit: Associate degrees (A.N.A. and A.N.), Baccalaureate degrees (J.N through B.N.), Magisteriate degrees (M.N.A and M.N), and Doctorate degrees (D.N.Art. through D.N.Phil.).

A specified degree CAN be awarded by any player other than the awardee, with 2 Agoran consent. It SHOULD only be awarded for the publication of an original thesis of scholarly worth (including responses to peer-review), published with explicit intent to qualify for a degree. The Herald SHOULD coordinate the peer-review process and the awarding of degrees.

Degrees SHOULD be awarded according to the extent to which the thesis contributes to Nomic culture or thought: Associate degrees for an appreciable contribution, Baccalaureate degrees for a substantial contribution, Magisteriate degrees for a remarkable contribution, and Doctorate degrees for an exceptional contribution. Any degree at the Doctorate level SHOULD take into account the awardee's academic history and participation in Agora over time.

Theses for Art degrees SHOULD demonstrate substantial creativity and need not be in written form. Theses for all other degrees SHOULD demonstrate substantial research or analysis. J.N. and D.N.Law are appropriate for high-quality legal analysis, of the sort typical to CFJs, but exceeding an ordinary CFJ in depth. The D.N.Hist. degree is appropriate for historical research, especially when it presents a narrative that educates Agorans about the events of the past. The D.N.Sci. degree is appropriate for theses that demonstrate concrete or scientific thinking, whereas the D.N.Phil. is appropriate for theses that demonstrate abstract or philosophical thinking.

Heroic titles are Agora's premier patent titles of distinction, and CAN be awarded to persons for meritorious service only by a proposal of power 3 or greater, which SHOULD explain why those persons are qualified. Bearers of heroic titles (Heroes) constitute the Order of the Hero of Agora Nomic.

The Heroic titles in decreasing precedence are:

Grand Hero of Agora Nomic (GHAN) -- This title may be awarded to any person obviously and directly responsible for the existence of Agora and/or Nomic in general. As this title is the highest honour that Agora may bestow, a Bearer of this title OUGHT to be treated right good forever.

Hero of Agora Nomic (HAN) -- This title may be awarded to any person for outstanding meritorious service to Agora above and beyond the call of duty.

The following Patent Titles CAN be awarded by the indicated Officers with 2 Agoran consent. In order to balance the history, dignity, spontaneity, and serendipity of the awards, the Herald, Speaker, and Prime Minister are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to provide their support or objections, and reasons for doing so, reasonably quickly after any such intents are announced.

• Tapecutter, awardable by the Rulekeepor to the author of an adopted proposal that significantly reduces, streamlines, or simplifies the ruleset.

• Scamster, awardable by the Referee to any player who has shown great enthusiasm, persistence, or skill in the perpetrating of scams without breaking any Rules.

• Hard Labor, awardable by the ADoP to any player who holds 2+ offices for 3+ continuous months while performing eir official duties in a timely and conscientious manner that promotes the gameplay of the office.

• MacGyver, awardable by the Assessor to the author of an adopted proposal that fixes serious bugs in the ruleset, especially if the fix uses existing rules text in novel and unexpected ways, or to a judge for similarly using rules text to resolve an apparent bug without the need for legislative action.

• Bard, by Speaker the award should given be, to persons who publish repeated creative wit or poetry.

• Helping Hand, awardable by any Officer to any person not holding that office who puts substantial labor into aiding in the duties of that office, without consideration of any other reward they might receive.

• Tiger Team, awardable by any Officer to any player who points out a usable rules bug that would directly provide em with a strong game advantage if e used it, but proposes a fix without attempting to use the bug.

• Terms of Service, awardable by the Notary to any player who creates multiple Contracts that achieve fun gameplay and significantly impacts Agora as a whole

The Herald is also ENCOURAGED to proactively recommend or, as otherwise permitted, award these titles when appropriate, especially if the potential awardee is the officer emself.

April is hereby designated Awards Month.

The following Patent Titles CAN be awarded by the indicated Officers with 2 Agoran consent. The Patent Titles SHOULD be awarded during Awards Month, and the award SHOULD be made to commemorate acts performed in the previous Agoran year. The full name of each awarded Patent Title is [Title Below] NNNN, where NNNN is the year each act was performed.

The Herald SHALL announce it is Awards Month in an officially timely fashion after it begins. E SHOULD petition officers to award their awards if they have not done so by the end of Awards Month.

Each indicated Officer SHOULD award these titles to 1-2 persons each year, and SHOULD solicit an open call for nominations and discussion before making these awards. The Herald SHALL note any additional information indicated below as part of eir report of Patent Titles.

• Silver Quill, awardable by the Promotor to the author of a proposal of outstanding merit and influence on the game, or to a coauthor, although e SHOULD only do so if it is generally agreed that that coauthor contributed more to that proposal than the person who submitted it (additional information: ID number of the proposal).

• Wooden Gavel, awardable by the Arbitor to the judge of a CFJ or series of CFJs with a strong and foundational impact on the judicial precedents of Agora (additional information: ID numbers of the judgements).

• Golden Glove, awardable by the Tailor to the player who made the most interesting, successful, and/or competitive series of moves while attempting to win or get substantially ahead in the game.

• Employee of the Year, awardable by the ADoP to the persons who put the most persistent hard labor into keeping the game going through the performance of Officers' duties (additional information: offices held by the awardee during that year).

The Speaker is an imposed office and the figurehead leader of Agora. The player or players who have most recently won the game are called Laureled. If at any time the office of Speaker is vacant, or when one or more players win Agora, then the Prime Minister CAN once appoint a Laureled player to the office of Speaker by announcement.

Whenever the Prime Minister CAN appoint a Laureled player to the office of Speaker, e SHALL do so in a timely fashion, except that the Prime Minister MAY defer appointing a new Speaker while there is pending one or more open CFJs that could plausibly determine or affect the question of whether a player is Laureled. If the Prime Minister is emself Laureled, eir power to appoint a Speaker continues for the entirety of a message in which e resigns as Prime Minister, and if e is the only Laureled player, e CAN void that power, and thereby discharge the obligation to use it, by announcing that e declines to take the office.

If the office of Speaker has been held continuously by the same person for the past 90+ days, then any player CAN appoint another player to the office with support.

The Speaker for the first game shall be Michael Norrish.

The Prime Minister is an office. The Prime Minister is elected by the players of Agora primarily on account of not being the other person. The Prime Minister SHOULD ensure that Agoran affairs proceed smoothly.

Any player can cause the office of Prime Minister to become vacant with Agoran consent by publishing a message with the character string "MOTION OF NO CONFIDENCE" in the subject line. Motions of confidence SHOULD used whenever Agorans want to shake things up, rather than as a personal judgement of the Prime Minister.

Once per week, except as otherwise forbidden by this rule, the current Prime Minister CAN issue a Cabinet Order by announcement to perform the action(s) authorized by that Order.

Each Cabinet Order is associated with an office. The current Prime Minister CANNOT issue more than one Cabinet Order associated with the same office more than once in the same month, nor can e issue a Cabinet Order associated with a vacant office.

The available Cabinet Orders are:

• Certiorari (Arbitor): The Prime Minister assigns emself as judge of a specified open case.

• Dive (Referee): The Prime Minister levies a fine of 2 on a specified player. Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, the reason for the fine MAY be any grievance held by the Prime Minister, not necessarily a violation of the rules, against the person to whom the fine is levied.

• Manifesto (Promotor): The Prime Minister distributes a specified proposal in the Proposal Pool.

The Distributor is an imposed office whose holder is generally responsible for the management of the primary Agoran fora. The holder CANNOT be changed except without objection or by proposal. Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, the Distributor CANNOT deregister or be deregistered.

The first Agoran week each year which falls entirely in February is Read the Ruleset Week. Agorans are encouraged to read the ruleset during Read the Ruleset Week.

The Agoran week each year containing the Ides of March is Ratify the Ruleset Week. During Ratify the Ruleset Week, the Rulekeepor SHALL submit a proposal to ratify a purported ruleset published since the last time the ruleset was ratified.

WHEREAS, in June 1993, the world's only MUD-based nomic, Nomic World, had recently collapsed; yet, many of its players enjoyed nomic and did not wish to forego such a noble pursuit;

And WHEREAS, Originator Chuck Carroll therefore composed an Initial Ruleset for an email nomic, based on the Initial Rulesets of Peter Suber, inventor of Nomic, and on the Rulesets of Nomic World and other nomics,

And WHEREAS, a nomic thus rose like a phoenix from the ashes of Nomic World, played on the mailing list originally set up for discussion of Nomic World, and coming into existence at June 30, 1993, 00:04:30 GMT +1200, with a message sent by FIRST SPEAKER Michael Norrish, which read, in part,

"I see no reason to let this get bogged down; there are no precedents or rules that cover this situation, so I think we may as well begin directly.... Proposals for new rules are invited. In accordance with the rules, these will be published, numbered and distributed by me at my earliest convenience."

And WHEREAS, this nomic began as a humble and nameless nomic, known unofficially as yoyo, after the mailing list it was played on, until its Players, much later, gave it its OFFICIAL NAME of Agora,

And WHEREAS, Agora has now become the wisest, noblest, eldest, and most interesting of all active email nomics, due to the hard work and diligence of Agorans as well as the frequent advice of Agoraphobes,

And WHEREAS, Agorans desire to joyously commemorate Agora's founding,

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that Agora's Birthday is defined to be the entire day of June 30, GMT +1200, of each year.

A Tournament is a sub-game of Agora specifically sanctioned to be initiated as a tournament by the Rules. The person who initiates a tournament is its Gamemaster. Each time that one or more winners of a tournament are determined before it concludes, that person or those persons win the game. A tournament concludes when its regulations state that it concludes. Additionally, if it has not previously concluded, a tournament concludes 3 months after its initiation.

A Tournament is governed by a set of regulations, created in accordance with its parent rule, which have binding control over those who freely consent to play the tournament and over the tournament itself. Once the tournament is concluded, these regulations cease to have any effect, and CAN be repealed by any player by announcement. A Tournament's regulations collectively have Mint Authority.

A player who is not the gamemaster of an existing tournament CAN initiate a sanctioned tournament with a specified set of regulations with 2 Agoran consent. A tournament created using this method is called a Free Tournament.

A free tournament CAN be concluded with no winner without 3 objections. Tournaments SHOULD only be concluded in this manner if it is clear that its regulations are malformed or contrary to the tournament's intent or that it is IMPOSSIBLE for any player to win the tournament.

In a timely fashion after the start of June 1 of each year, the Herald SHALL propose a set of Regulations governing a Birthday Tournament for that year; the Herald CAN also delegate the responsibility for creating or running the tournament to another player, with that player's consent, by announcement.

The Birthday Tournament's regulations SHOULD be such that all persons who choose to participate have a fair chance of winning the tournament (according to its regulations), and a winner SHOULD be expected within 2-3 weeks following the tournament's initiation.

After adequate time for discussion of the Birthday Tournament's regulations, the Herald (or delegate) CAN initiate a sanctioned tournament, promulgating a specified, finalized set of tournament regulations, without 3 objections. These regulations may thereafter be amended only by the Herald or eir designee Without 3 Objections. The initiation SHOULD be timed to coincide with Agora's Birthday.

The period each year from midnight GMT on the morning of 24 December to the beginning of the first Agoran week to begin after 2 January is a Holiday.

The week that contains the beginning of Agora's Birthday, together with the following week, is a Holiday.

If a person breaks a Rule by missing a deadline that occurs during a Holiday, punishment is generally not appropriate.

                /\   /\
                / \ / \
                   T
                  his
                Power-04
         Rule (the first ever)
          was placed to honor
     The Agoran  Spirit Of The Game
     by G., Steve, Murphy, root
     and OscarMeyr, Scamsters. Look
     on our works, ye Marvy, but do
always Dance a Powerful Dance.  Hail Eris!

Hats are a secured player switch defaulting to "none" with the following possible values and associated meanings for the player's current focus:

none: no particular focus

armored helm: competing for wins and in sub-games

dunce cap: expressing regret or acknowledging a mistake

floral wreath: resolving conflict

green eyeshade: maintaining accurate records

hard hat: repairing problems in the rules

jaunty beret: exploring creative expression

jester's cap: bringing levity and humor

judicial wig: ruling on CFJs and interpreting the rules

knitted cap: finding loopholes and exploits

plain hat: simplifying the rules

rugged fedora: researching Agoran and Nomic history

sleeping cap: reducing eir participation in Agora

steampunk hat: creating new game mechanics

traditional mortarboard: conducting research and writing theses

A player CAN change eir hat at any time by notifying the recordkeepor for eir hat (publicly or privately). The recordkeepor for a player's hat is the player emself. Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, reporting on one's own hat is OPTIONAL.

Hats do not otherwise limit or restrict a player's actions in any way, and every player is ENCOURAGED to participate in all aspects of the game regardless of eir current hat.

The Absurdor is a sortitioned office.

The Boulder's Height is a singleton integer switch defaulting to 0, tracked by the Absurdor.

Each player CAN, once a week, by announcement, push the boulder. When a player pushes the Boulder, its Height is increased by 1. At the beginning of each week, if the boulder was not pushed in the previous week, the Boulder's Height is set to 0. The Absurdor SHOULD list the largest Height of the Boulder ever reached in eir report.

The Veblen is a unique indestructible fixed asset tracked by the Absurdor, with ownership entirely restricted to players and Agora. If the Veblen would otherwise be in abeyance, or if it is owned by the Lost and Found Department, it is immediately transferred to Agora.

The Veblen cost is a secured singleton positive integer switch tracked by the Absurdor and with default value one.

A player CAN pay a fee of X spendies, where X is an integer not less than the current Veblen cost, to set the Veblen cost to X+1. When e does so, if e does not own the Veblen, the Veblen is transferred to em.

The owner of the Veblen SHOULD conspicuously show off eir ownership of it from time to time.