THE RULES OF ACKANOMIC

Rule 42/0
Revenge of Life, the Universe, and Everything
Robert Sevin (Mitchell Harding)

If at any time this rule's number is not 42, this rule changes its number to 42. This rule takes precedence over any other rule which would try to set or change this rule's number.

[Original Author: Joseph DeVincentis aka devjoe, Proposal 582]

Rule 101/3
The Game of Ackanomic

Ackanomic is a self-modifying game of rules. All players must always abide by all the rules then in effect, in the form in which they are then in effect, and interpreted in accordance with current game custom. The term "rules", as used in the rules, means the rules of Ackanomic.

The rules and the game state may only be changed as described in the rules. Actions described in the rules may only be performed, and shall only have those effects, as specified by the rules. Whatever is not explicitly prohibited or regulated by the rules, however, is permitted and unregulated. Game custom, spirit of the game, and linguistic interpretation are external concepts and are not regulated or part of the game state.

The game consists of a sequence of "Cycles". Cycles end when specified by the Rules. At most one Cycle is in progress at any one time. A voting player may only win a Cycle by achieving a winning condition that is defined by the Rules. Non-voting players may not win Cycles of Ackanomic. A player may not win the Game of Ackanomic. A player always has the option to leave the Game of Ackanomic.

This rule has precedence over all other rules.

Rule 102/7
Resolving Conflicts

Two or more rules may conflict with each other about a point of Ackanomic law. In such a situation, if the rules other than this one specify a single, coherent, unambiguous method for resolving the conflict then that method is applied to determine which rule or rules take precedence with regard to that particular point of law. Otherwise, the rule with the lowest rule number takes precedence.

If two statements in the same rule conflict with each other, and the rule doesn't define a way to resolve the conflict, then the statement which appears later in the rule takes precedence.

If two rules have different base numbers, use the base number to determine which is lowest. Among rules with the same base number, use the sub rule numbers to determine which rule has the lowest number, treating a rule without a sub rule number as if the sub rule number was zero.

Rule 103/11
Retroactive Effects

No rule may generate any effect that applies retroactively to a time before the generation of the effect.

Rule 104/7
Proposals

A Voting player may submit a proposal by sending its text to the Promoter, who shall then post it publicly to be voted on.

All proposals shall be voted on, unless they are retracted or deemed invalid in accordance with the Rules. In these cases, they are removed from consideration, and are considered to be neither accepted or rejected.

As soon as possible after a proposal's prescribed voting period ends, the votes on that proposal shall be posted publicly. The proposal is then accepted if a quorum has been achieved and the required number of YES votes were cast on the proposal.

If a proposal is accepted, one of two things happen. If the proposal consisted of a list of one-time effects, such as changes to the rules, then those effects shall be applied, one at a time, in the order in which they appear in the proposal. (Ambiguous, retroactive, and/or meaningless effects are ignored.)

Otherwise, the proposal itself changes from a proposal to a rule. [It is assigned a title and number as described in Rules 301 and 303.]

Rule 106/13
Voting on Proposals

Voting Players may vote either YES, NO, or PRESENT on each proposal, by sending their vote to the Tabulator. Votes must be unambiguous and unconditional. A Voting Player may also choose not to vote on a proposal, which is called abstaining. Voting Players who do not vote within the prescribed voting period shall be deemed to have abstained. Voting Players may change their vote up until the end of the prescribed voting period, but in any case are limited to one vote per proposal.

A Voting Player (hereafter referred to as Player A) may authorize another Voting Player (hereafter referred to as their Proxy) to vote in their stead, provided that Player A has no default vote specified. To do this, Player A must send a message to the Tabulator stating who will be their Proxy. A Voting Player may cease to authorize another Voting Player from voting in their stead. To do this, a Voting Player must send a message to the Tabulator stating that they no longer want a Proxy.

At the instant before the end of the voting period of a proposal, all Voting Players that have not cast a vote on the proposal, and have a Proxy, will cast a vote identical to the vote cast by their Proxy (if their Proxy cast a vote) on the proposal. If a player's Proxy has abstained, then that player will cast a PRESENT vote on the proposal.

The required number of YES votes for a proposal to be accepted is three-fifths of the total number of YES and NO votes legally cast within the prescribed voting period. If that value is 0, however, the required number of YES votes for acceptance is 1.

The prescribed voting period on a proposal is seven days, starting from the moment that the proposal is publicly distributed as specified by the rules.

Entities may vote only as specified by the rules. Non-entities may not vote.

Rule 107/6
Quorum and Active Players

If the number of players who voted on a proposal is equal to or greater than the number of abstaining Active players at the time the results are posted, the proposal meets quorum; otherwise it does not meet quorum.

Rule 205/6
When Score Changes Take Effect
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

Score changes take effect as specified below, depending on the category of the score change. If the category cannot be determined for some reason, the score change is deemed to take effect when it is publically knowable.

1) Score Changes Managed by Officers

a) All score changes take effect when the officer in charge of managing or reporting on an activity which could produce a score change, announces the effect which results in the score change.

b) [For example, if a player fails to deliver judgement in a certain time, the penalty for that failure is not scored until the officer responsible for managing and reporting CFJs announces this fact. Another example is polls taken where the result of the poll dictates a scoring change. That change occurs when the results of the poll are publically released.]

c) Players, acting in their capacity as officers, must announce all score changes they are responsible for notification of in the order which they are made aware the occurrence. They must do so in a timely manner.

d) The Scorekeeper is not considered an office for the purpose of this section (1). This section (1), defers precedence to R 207.

e) [Examples of current rules in this category are: 213, 374, 212, 593 (-20), 404, 1307 (-10), 909 (-12, -3), 913 (-10 only), 927.]

2) Score Changes Triggered by Player Actions and Public Announcements

a) If a score change is due to some other effect, such as the result of a public posting, proposal retraction, or CFCJ penalty, etc, the score change is said to occur at the time of the public post.

b) [Examples of current rules in this category are: 423, 217, 578, 593 (-5 only), 730 (+6 only).]

3) Rule Based Triggered or Mandated Score Changes

a) If the score change is due to an event occurring (such as a player reaching a certain score, or the adoption of a proposal), this score change is said to occur an infinitesimal amount of time after it is possible for the public to be aware of the event occurring. All score changes due to a single event occur simultaneously.

b) [For example, if there exists a trigger whereby a player has 80 points added to their score if they reach -60 points, and they have -58 points, and make a public proposal retraction which causes a loss of 2 points, they gain 80 points an infinitesimal amount of time after that post. The public may not actually know this at the time, but it is possible for them to know it].

c) [Examples of current rules in this category are: 207, 901, 207.2, 913 (except the -10), 919, 866, 962.2]

4) Scoring Changes Based on the Content of an Adopted Proposal

a) If a Score change is called for based on the content of a Proposal, or an effect generated from that proposal, it is deemed to have occurred simultaneously with any score changes mandated by R 207. It is the duty of the Scorekeeper to announce such score changes.

b) [Examples of current rules in this category are: 207.1]

5) Scoring on Changes to Rules Which Cause Score Changes

If a score change is due to a rule or entity (e.g. Magic Potato), and a rule change is adopted that affects how that rule or entity causes score changes (including, but not limited to, destroying the entity), then no score changes are generated by that rule or entity for the adoption of the specific rule change in question. This paragraph has precedence over sections 2), 3) and 4) where there is a conflict. This rule defers precedence to R 313 where there is a conflict. [This is to handle the "Potato Paradox" when a Proposal passes to repeal the Magic Potato, or the 10th proposal passes that repeals the Brass Monkey, no scoring is generated by those entities for the proposal which passed.]

6) Exceptions, Errors, and Omissions

a) No score changes can occur simultaneously for a given player, except where the rules explicitly say they can. If it appears that they do, they shall be categorized into the above categories, and occur in the order the above categories occur in this rule. If that still leaves any apparent simultaneous score changes, the score changes will occur in the order of largest absolute value first. If that still leaves a tie, however, the tied score changes shall occur at the same time.

Retroactive score changes are not permitted, but corrections to the scores are allowed when an error is discovered. This section (6) has precedence over sections 1 thru 5, where there is a conflict.

7) Rule Precedence

This rule has precedence over all other rules dealing with scoring, except that it defers precedence to R 207, and except where specific clauses above defer precedence.

Rule 207/13
Scoring When A Proposal's Voting Results are Reported

I. Timing of these score changes
All the following scoring changes are applied at the time the Proposal's tabulated voting results are officially reported, unless the new rule or effect calls for an instantaneous change to 1 or more players' score, in which case the score changes detailed in this rule are applied an infinitesimal amount of time after those effects are applied.

II. Timing when results are reported simultaneously
If more than one Proposal's tabulated voting results are officially reported at the same time, the scoring changes are applied in numerical order of the Proposals, with an infinitesimal amount of time separating each application.

III. Scoring on Accepted Proposals
If a non-Modest proposal is accepted, the player who proposed it receives 10 points, and every player who voted NO on it receives 3 points.

IV. Scoring on Rejected Proposals
If a proposal is rejected, but meets quorum, the player who proposed it loses 7 points and every player who voted YES on it receives 3 points.

V. Effect of Proposals which do not meet Quorum
If a proposal does not meet quorum, each active player who was not on vacation and abstained on the proposal shall lose 5 points and become non-voting. The events which Rule 254 generates when a player voluntarily changes to non-voting status do not occur in this case, but if a player who became non-voting by this rule does not become a voting player within a week of having become non-voting, then the events in Rule 254 are carried out as if the player voluntarily became non-voting. Players who become non-voting in this manner do not lose offices they hold because of doing so, until they have remained non-voting for one week; this takes precedence over rule 401.

VI. Short Proposal Bonus
If a non-Modest proposal is accepted which contains less than five lines, none of which contains more than 80 characters, including space characters, of text in the body of the proposal (excluding whitespace and furniture), the player who submitted it is awarded 5 extra points.

VII. New Player Author Bonus/Soft Penalty
For the first three weeks of being a new player (as opposed to a returning player) in Ackanomic, a player shall receive a three-point bonus whenever one of their non-Modest proposals is accepted or any one of their proposals is rejected.

VIII. Null Proposals
The above provisions notwithstanding, if an accepted proposal does not become a new rule or generate at least one valid effect under Rule 103, no points are scored by any player as a result of that proposal being accepted, the preceding provisions of this rule notwithstanding. Such proposals, and only such proposals, are "Null Proposals".

Rule 207.1/7
That's just silly
Bascule (Matt Black)

If an accepted proposal contains the phrase "loophole surfing expert", then the player who submitted the proposal is said to be silly, and shall score 5 points. However, if the proposal was also distributed by the Promoter on April First (All Fool's Day), the player is instead said to be foolish, and shall score 10 points.

Any player who scores points in the above manner may publicly announce, in the seven days following the proposals acceptance, "The new silly phrase is ****", where **** is a three word phrase. All instances of the phrase "loophole surfing expert" in this rule will be replaced by the three word phrase chosen by that player.

Rule 207.2/4
Keep 'Em In The Game
Mitchell Harding

Anyone whose score is below -60 and above -1000000 [negative 1 million] automatically has it reset back to 0. Anyone whose score reaches exactly -60 has their score changed to 20.

Rule 207.3/3
Foolishness
IdiotBoy (Matt Miller)

If a player submits a proposal which meets the following conditions, then proposal is a Foolish Proposal:

a) The first line of the proposal is "I was young and foolish then, I feel old and foolish now."
b) The rest of the text of the proposal is a previously submitted and rejected proposal, altered in no way from this previously submitted proposal except in the updating of numerical rule pointers.
c) Either the player submitting the proposal was the author of the previous proposal, or the player submitting the proposal gives proper credit to the original author. If the original author is still a registered player of Ackanomic, it is considered good form to transfer some of the points gained through the resubmitted proposal's Foolishness to em.

Whenever a Foolish Proposal is accepted or rejected, all scoring effects from rule 207 related to its acceptance or rejection shall be doubled.

Rule 209/3
Modesty and Pride
Brinjal (Simon Clarke)

A proposal is considered to be Modest if and only if the author of the proposal prefaces the proposal with the words "This is a Modest proposal".

Whenever a Modest proposal is adopted, its author shall receive half the number of points that rule 207 would have directed that they receive if the proposal had not been Modest (rounded down).

A proposal is considered to be Grandiose if and only if the author of the proposal prefaces the proposal with the words "This is a Grandiose proposal".

Whenever a Grandiose Proposal is adopted, the author shall receive an additional 6 point bonus above and beyond any other points received for that proposal. This is considered a scoring change based on the content of the proposal.

If a proposal appears to be designated as both Modest and Grandiose, or it cannot be determined which designation should hold sway, the proposal is declared invalid, and removed from voting consideration.

Rule 210/3
Literature
Vynd (John McCoy)

I. Some special proposals are literature. These are, of course, the proposals in which actual literature is quoted. To be considered a piece of literature, a proposal must meet the following requirements:

A) The proposal must contain in it's body [as opposed to title] one or more quotations from sources listed on the Literature list. This quotation must be an exact copy of words found in, written, uttered or otherwise communicated by the source, enclosed in quotation marks. It must be either a complete sentence of 7 words or more, or a contiguous phrase of at least 14 words in length. [This last bit is to try and stop people from trying to pass off "to be" as a quote from Hamlet, and the like.]

B) The source of the quotation must be cited in brackets [like this] immediately following the quotation itself. This citation should include the author or orator of the quotation, and also the work and page number(s) [or scene, act, lines, stanzas, etc] where it can be found, if applicable. [Note that I am deliberately not making any penalty for failing to cite a quotation, beyond the fact that it won't let your proposal qualify as literature. I considered including a "plagarism" penalty here, but I think it's better to have the quote uncited than to not have them at all because so and so couldn't remember the page number for the line he's thinking of].

C) Even if the quotation meets the above requirements, it is invalid if it is does not actually become part of a Rule, or a Rule in and of itself. Quotations are invalid if they are contained within double curly braces as described in Rule 346, unless the entire text of the proposal is in double curly braces. [In other words, the quote has to actually go into the ruleset, as opposed to being Self Deleting text.]

II. Whenever a proposal that is literature passes, it's author gains X points. X is either the number of sentences quoted according to section I of this rule, or the number the total number of words quoted according to section I divided by 14, whichever is smaller.

III. A proposal is a Great Work if it meets the following requirements:

a) All of the text that is ammended to a Rule, or becomes part of a new rule, consists entirely of quotations and citations as described in section I.

b) It creates at least one new rule, or makes at least one ammendment to existing rules, and these ammendments and new rules must include a total of at least 42 words quoted as described in section I.

c) It is not Modest.

If a proposal that is a Great Work passes, then the player who authored the Great Work will gain A$200 in royalties, in addition to any other bonus or penalties caused by the passage of the proposal. All players who voted against a Great Work that was accepted will lose 7 points, for their poor taste, in addition to any other bonuses or penalties caused by the passage of the proposal. Great Works that do not pass have no special effects.

IV. The Literature list is not a Rule, nor part of a Rule, but rather a document on which is kept the list of sources that can be quoted as Literature by following the procedures described in this rule. Entries on the Literature list can be either Artists of Works. They must follow the format of: Artist (or Work): name of Artist ; descriptive information. Artists can be any individual, or any group of people who collaborated to produce quotable material [For example, The Police]. Works are some type of recording of words. Collections of connected works [such as the Star Wars trilogy] are permissible as a single entry, but not collections of unconnected works [such as an anthology of work by several authors]. Descriptive information is information that helps to clarify exactly who or what a given entry on the list refers to [Artist: The Police ; band with Sting as lead singer. ; or Artist: George Washington ; First President of the USA]. Any entries on the Literature list which do not abide by this rule, and follow the format described above, are invalid and cannot be quoted from. Inclusion of descriptive information is, however, optional. The Literature list may only be altered through the use of Proposals or the Spelling Bee.

It is a duty of the Web-Harfer to maintain a publicly available copy of the Literature list, and to link it with this Rule. He is encouraged, but by no means required, to maintain links to sites about the various sources on the list.

This Rule takes precedence over all other Rules dealing with Literature, the Literature list, and Great Works.

Rule 211/17
Invoking Judgement

Any player who has a question or complaint about any matter concerning the rules, the facts, or their interpretation may email their statement to the Clerk of the Court, who will then distribute it publically. A call for judgement is then incurred on that statement.

Any CFJ must include a single, clear, and clearly labeled statement that can be answered TRUE, or FALSE. The remainder of the CFJ may consist of alternate material to bolster one decision or another. The judge is required only to consider the actual statement provided and the game state.

CFJ's with no clear statement, or consisting of empty statements or inherently contradictory statements or multiple statements, in the judgement of the Judge, shall be judged "Invalid". A statement with multiple sentences is not necessarily disqualified; it is up to the judgement of the Judge as to whether such submission is Invalid, as per above.

Any CFJ whose statement is substantially similar, or whose negative is substantially similar, to the statement of another CFJ submitted by the same player within the past week, in the judgement of the judge, shall be judged Invalid. This applies even in the case that the previously submitted CFJ was retracted by the player in question.

[eg "SnafuMoose has the power to amend a rule" is valid, while "Can I amend a rule?" is not (cannot be answered true, false). "I think PlayerXXX is a butthead" is also not valid, since it also cannot be answered true/false ("PlayerXXX is a butthead" is valid)]

If the statements of two unresolved Paradox Win CFJs are substantially similar, in the opinion of the judge of the higher-numbered one, then the higher-numbered one shall be judged Invalid. Any Paradox Win CFJ which is based on the same sort of Paradox, in the judgement of the judge, as any Paradox Win CFJ ever judged TRUE, shall be judged Invalid.

Rule 212/8
Selecting A Judge

When Judgement has been called for, a Judge is randomly selected from among the other active players that are eligible to judge CFJs, as defined by any applicable rules. It is a duty of the Clerk of the Court to make this selection. The player selected has 3 days in which to accept or refuse the appointment by posting to the applicable officer. Any player who does not respond to selection in 3 days shall be considered a deadbeat and penalized 10 points, and deemed to have refused appointment; the CFJ shall then be assigned to the Praetor. If a selected player actively declines appointment, then a further random selection is made from the remaining pool.

If the "remaining pool" is ever reduced to 0 eligible active players, and a judge needs to be selected, then all those currently active players who have previously declined judgement on the CFJ in question are added back to the the remaining pool. If doing this still leaves 0 eligible judges, then the CFJ is deemed Invalid, and removed from consideration, and no judge is selected.

If the CFJ is a Call For Criminal Judgement (CFCJ), the player or players against which the CFCJ is being called are excluded from "the other active players" and "remaining pool" as described above. This exclusion is made before the random determination is made. In other words, a player who has a CFCJ called against them may not be selected to judge that CFCJ.

A player whose name appears on the CFJ Ineligibility List (List) is ineligible to be selected as a Judge. As a public action, a player may remove their name from the List if it is on the List, or add their name to the List if it is not there already.

Whenever a player is considered a deadbeat as per this rule or rule 213, their name is added to the CFJ Ineligibility List if it is not already there.

Rule 213/1
Delivering Judgement

Having accepted the appointment a Judge has exactly one week in which to post an official Judgment. A Judge who fails to deliver Judgment within that period is considered and deadbeat and penalized 10 points, and the CFJ which he was judging shall be assigned to the Praetor.

Rule 214/1
Possible Judgements

There are only the following possible Judgements: (1) True; (2) False; (3) Undecided; or (4) Invalid. A Judgement may be accompanied by reasons and arguments, but any such reasons and arguments form no part of the official Judgement itself.

Rule 215/1
Judgements Must Accord With The Rules

All Judgements must be in accordance with all the rules in effect at the time judgement was invoked, and with respect to the game state at that time. When the rules are silent, inconsistent, or unclear on the statement in question, however, then the Judge shall consider currently existing game custom and the spirit of the game in reaching a decision.

A statement verified (or nullified) by judgement applies retroactively to any past game situation it may concern.

Rule 216/0
Judgements Are Not Rules

If a statement on which Judgement has been called is Judged to be true, and that Judgement is not overruled, it does not thereby become a rule, or any part of a rule. It merely becomes an explicit part of currently accepted game custom.

Rule 217/20
Overturning Judgements

After any Judgement is returned, a player may appeal the case to the Supreme Court for consideration. The time period for appeal shall be 4 days from the posting of the Judgement. A single CFJ may not be appealed more than three times.

The player may include with his appeal any such material he deems relevant to the case. The Court is under no obligation to consider such material, and should use normal procedures to determine a verdict.

A case may also reach the Supreme Court if the Praetor submits any CFJ to that body. The Praetor may submit with the CFJ an explanation of why he is not deciding it himself, although the Supreme Court is under no obligation to read it.

The Supreme Court shall then decide the case and should return its verdict within one week. With the verdict of a majority of the Justices being the verdict of the Court.

If the court agrees with the previous verdict, then the player who lodged the appeal shall be fined an amount from 1 to 25 points for frivolously bothering the judges. If the Justices fail to specify the amount of this fine with their verdict, it shall be 25 points. However, if the Court finds the case differently than the previous verdict, then the verdict shall be overturned to the new verdict, and the judge (or each justice on the court) who delivered the previous verdict, shall be fined an amount from 1 to 10 points, to be decided by the Justices of the Court. If the Justices fail to specify the amount of this fine with their verdict, it shall be 1 point.

If a case reached the Supreme Court through submission by the Praetor, a player may still appeal the Court's decision, but the case shall be treated as if it had already been appealed once.

In the event that a player opposes the appeal, they may appeal again to the Supreme Court, assuming they are not exceeding any appeal limits specified elsewhere in this, or other rules.

Supreme Court Justices or Acting Supreme Court Justices may not appeal Judgements or Supreme Court appellate decisions to the Supreme Court. Members of a Jury that ruled on a CFJ may not appeal that CFJ, neither can the Judge, Prosaecutor and Consaecutor of that CFJ.

Rule 218/1
Trials By Jury
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

[This would allow for the trials by jury. The effects would be minimal, considering Acka is nicely defined. However, it would add another possibility to deal with strange occurences. The rule was kept as simple as possible]

Upon a verdict of "Undecided" being ruled by a judge, the following will take place. The "Undecided" verdict should be published by the CoC, but the CFJ will no be redistributed to another judge, rather, a Jury trial is formed, its ruling to be accepted as the ruling of the CFJ. This takes precedence over any rule that would redistribute a CFJ ruled "Undecided".

The initiator of the CFJ will act as Prosaecutor. The Judge who ruled undecided will nominate a player, excluding the Prosaecutor, to act as Consaecutor. That player should have an opinion different from the Prosaecutor's, although this is left at the discretion of the Judge. The Prosaecutor and Consaecutor will each select 2 players that are neither one of themselves, nor Justice or Acting Justice, to act as Jury members for this CFJ.

Within seven days, they must each submit to the Judge a message that outlines their positions, why they believe their position is correct, and what the result of the jury verdict should be. A soon as the two messages are received by the Judge, he will distribute both of them to the Jury members selected. Should the dealine pass with one not submitting the message, then the result asked by the other takes effect. Should both miss the deadline, the CFJ is declared invalid and that ruling is passed on to the CoC for publication.

Upon receiving the two documents, the Jury then has seven days to discuss it among themselves and provide a ruling. They should choose one of themselves to act as spokesperson, who will give their ruling to the Judge. No reasoning should be given with the ruling.

The possible rulings are as follows. If all agree to support one of the two opinions presented to them, then they should present its result as verdict. The players may present their own verdict if all agree on it. If no consensus can be reached, the Consaecutor's opinion prevails and the result he outlined is implemented as verdict.

The Judge will then pass on the CFJ to the CoC for publication.

A jury verdict can be appealed to the Supreme Court. Justices, acting Justices, members of that Jury, the Judge, the Prosaecutor and Consaecutor may not appeal the verdict.

Rule 230/0
Level Playing Field
ThinMan (John Bollinger)

Whenever the rules call for a random determination to be made, each of the alternatives shall be assigned the same probability. [I.e. use uniform weights.] This rule defers to any rule that specifies an alternative weighting scheme.

Rule 250/6
Registered Players

A player is any person who is registered as a player. Players are named, unownable entities. No person may register as a player more than once concurrently. Anyone is allowed to observe the game and participate in discussion of any issue, but no person who is not a player may make a proposal, or vote on any proposal, or call for judgement, or judge, or score points, or win a cycle. No person who is not a player may hold office or have any tasks, duties or responsibilities within the game.

No matter how many times a person legally registers as a player in Ackanomic, that person is always considered the same player. [That is, if a player quits and later rejoins, he is considered the same player.]

Rule 251/12
Player Names
Wayne Sheppard

Every player has exactly one Ackanomic name. This name must be a string of name characters from three to twenty characters in length. Neither the first nor the last character in this string may be the space character. All official nomic business shall use this name to refer to that player.

A player may change his Ackanomic name, so long as the new name complies with all applicable rules. The Registrar shall record and acknowledge each legal name change; a legal name change takes effect at the time of the Registrar's acknowledgement. The Registrar shall record the change. When a player changes their Ackanomic name, all Ackanomic business will be changed to follow their new name.

Rule 252/8
Joining the Game
Guy Fawkes (Robert Shimmin)

I. For the purposes of this rule, a player whose most recent departure from Ackanomic caused him or her to become an Undead that still exists is considered a Returning player. All other players are considered New.

II. A person wishing to join the game, and who cannot do so as a Returning player, should notify the Registrar, providing a valid email address, their real name, and the legal Ackanomic name they wish to play under. Upon them providing this information, should the requested name indeed be a legal Ackanomic name, the Registrar shall post a public message announcing the new player and providing their Ackanomic name, real name, and email address, and if the prospective player provided it, how they discovered the game. Upon the posting of such an announcement, the person becomes registered as a player.

III. Upon the registration of a New player, the following procedure takes place, in the order shown.

1) The New player is granted 1 kaa of urban land and a Small building thereupon as their legal residence. This building shall be known as their Home. This building shall also be known as "player name's House", where "player name" is replaced by their official Ackanomic name. The player may change the name of their building by publically announcing the new name and unambiguously identifying the building they wish to rename.

2) The New player is paid from the Treasury the sum of A$900.

3) The New player is given 100 newly created PFBonds associated with himself. The Financier shall assign a label that may be used to refer to the PFBonds associated with the New player, although this procedure may continue without waiting for him to do so.

4) The Registrar shall select a Mentor for the new player. If the Mentor was chosen from the volunteer pool, e receives A$25 from the Treasury immediately; otherwise, e receives A$25 if and when e accepts the mentorship.

IV. A person able to join the game as a Returning player may do so by posting a public message to that effect. This message must include their Ackanomic and real life names, as well as a valid email address. The Registrar shall then record their return to the players list.

V. Upon the registration of a Returning player, the following procedure takes place:

1) The Undead with that player's Ackanomic name changes from an Undead to a player.

2) All Bond Promissories in that player's real life name are converted to PFBonds associated with that player. Their label is the same as the PFBonds whose conversion created the Bond Promissories.

3) If the player left during the current cycle, his score is the minimum of 0 and the score he had upon last leaving the game.

VI. Any player joining the game may specify that they are joining as a non-voting player. Otherwise, they are assumed to be joining as a voting player.

Rule 253/3
Mentors
snowgod (Phil Ackley)

When the Registrar must select a Mentor for a new player, he shall follow these guidelines. No one may become a mentor except as specified in the rules.

It is the duty of the Registrar to maintain a list of players who are in the volunteer pool. If there are not enough players in the volunteer pool to assign a mentor for each new player, the Registrar may randomly select a player from the general population.

Non-volunteering selectees must publicly accept mentorship within 1 day or be assumed to have declined, in which case the registrar must select a new mentor.

The duties of the mentor are as follows:

1) Answer any questions concerning game procedure to the new player.

2) Provide a new player with history and arguments for and against either side of a proposal in the voting queue upon the new player's request.

3) Provide a new player with information on any matter that requires his immediate attention [for example, a newly active player who is required to return judgement].

4) Answer any other questions the new player has concerning the game of Ackanomic.

The mentor shall be responsible for performing these duties for a period of two weeks from the day he assigned to the player, or until the new player declines further services [whichever comes first].

A mentor must always provide information without political or religious bias.

Rule 254/4
Player States
Guy Fawkes (Robert Shimmin)

At any given time, exactly one of these states shall apply to each player:
Pending
Active
Vacation
Non-voting
Upon registration, a player is Pending, unless he specified that he was joining as a non-voting player, in which case he is Non-voting. A player in either of the states "Pending" or "Active" is considered a voting player.

A Pending player becomes Active when it becomes publically knowable that he has voted on a proposal.

Only Active players may be randomly selected for anything, except where the rules specifically allow non-active players to be selected.

Any non-voting player may become a voting player by posting publicly that they are doing so; e begins as Pending. A player may not do so within three days of having joined as a non-voting player or of having changed from voting to non-voting status, voluntarily or otherwise.

Any voting player may become a non-voting player by posting publicly that they are doing so; at the moment of this announcement, all their existing votes on proposals whose results have not yet been released are cancelled; they are treated as having declined judgement on all CFJ's they have been selected to judge but not yet accepted or declined, and treated as having failed to return a verdict on any they have accepted, and they are removed from all offices non-voting players cannot hold, and removed from the list of candidates in any Election or Nomination for an office non-voting players cannot hold.

Rule 255/19
Vacationing
Austin Appleby

A player shall be considered "on vacation" when he or she makes a public request that he or she desires to be on vacation. Players are allowed to put only themselves on vacation. The Rules may specify other ways a Player may be put on vacation. Whenever a player goes on vacation by any means, his player state becomes Vacation.

A player should specify the expected duration of their vacation. If the duration is not specified when they go on vacation, it is assumed to be 14 days. If the period specified is longer than 60 days, it is assumed, and recorded, as 60 days. If the period specified is shorter than 2 days, it is assumed, and recorded, as 2 days. It is a duty of the Registrar to keep a record of the expected duration of vacationing players.

While a player is on vacation, the player shall not be randomly selected for anything, except where the rules specifically allow vacationing or non-active players to be selected. The player shall also not be chosen to perform any task. The duties of any offices held by the player shall be performed by the Speaker or someone appointed by the Speaker, unless some other rule provides for an Acting Officer or some other assignment (including possible non-assignment) of these duties. The person assuming the duties of these offices is said to be assuming them in an acting capacity, and as such, these appointments or assumption must be made in accordance with R 401, section (i). It is permissible for an acting officer, appointed by this clause, to assume the duties of another acting officer.

A player on vacation is not considered an "active player" while they are on vacation. Nor may they be removed from the game by any procedure, unless that procedure *explicitly* states that it applies to vacationing players, or that procedure is part of this Rule.

The only thing a player on vacation may legally do is take himself off vacation and send public messages. A player shall take himself off vacation by declaring to the public forum that he is back from his vacation. As soon as the player makes this public declaration, he returns to the player state besides Vacation he most recently had.. The one exception is that a player who has been on vacation less than 2 days may not take themselves off vacation.

Votes cast before a player went on vacation shall count normally. If a vacationing player does not cast a vote on a proposal, then the player shall have no vote or abstention recorded for that proposal.

If a player is still on vacation when their expected duration expires, they are put "on ice", and it is a duty of the Registrar to announce this fact publically. A player on ice is still considered a vacationing player, and their on ice status is removed at the same time they return from, or are removed, from vacation.

A player who is on ice for 14 consecutive days is automatically Impeached from any offices they may hold. A player who is on ice for 60 consecutive days is removed from the game.

This rule has precedence over any rule which conflicts in whole or in part, with any of its provisions.

Rule 256/10
Leaving the Game
pTang1001001sos (Mark Nau)

Upon a player leaving, the following procedure takes place, in the order shown.
1) All of his mimsy possessions are taken away and considered unowned.
2) The player is removed from all offices.
3) If the player was never at any time Active or Non-Voting, all of his A$ are transferred to the Treasury, every PFBond associated with him is destroyed, every entity remaining in his possession is destroyed, and then the player is deregistered. In this case, the procedure ends here.
4) If the player was at any time Active or Non-Voting, the procedure continues.
5) Every PFBond associated with him is converted into a Bond Promissory in his real life name. Bond Promissories are tradeable entities.
6) All their existing votes on proposals whose results have not yet been released are cancelled.
7) The player ceases to be a player and becomes an Undead.

Rule 257/10
No Dead Players Allowed
Mitchell Harding

If any voting player who is not currently on a voluntarily activated vacation does not vote or send a public message for a time period of one week, and this fact is pointed out to the Speaker by any player, then the Speaker has a Duty to send a message to the player who has been absent. In this message the Speaker has a Duty to ask the player if e wishes to continue playing the game, and to point out why the message is being sent. If the player does not reply within 3 days, then e is placed on vacation with an expected duration of 3 days, unless e never was an active player, in which case e is removed from the game, .

If the player in question was the Speaker himself, the Speaker has 3 days to respond to the original message in the public forum, or be placed on vacation with an expected duration of 3 days.

Rule 258/6
Undead
/dev/joe (Joseph DeVincentis)

There exists the class of named, unownable entities known as the Undead.

Entities that are owned by Undead cannot be manipulated in any way except by an action of the Undead. This rule takes precedence over all other rules except those pertaining to the transferrence of the Chartreuse Goose and Rule 666. This rule defers to Rule 666 (End of Cycle).

The location of an Undead is known as its "haunt".

Rule 259/0
Evil Twins
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

Provided two players agree to it, they will become the other's evil twin. They will remain as such until one of them sends a public message containing the phrase: "my evil twin is a good twin".

Rule 261/0
Zombie Master
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

Should a player follow all the directions below, in order, with all steps made publicly on the same day (none earlier than 2am Acka time, none later than 3am) then the player is said to control the Undead (who is also a Zombie).

1. Using his wings to fly backwards to where an Undead is located.
2. To destroy a trinket [to please Baron Samedi]
3. To say the incantation 'Mortoo Tomboo Miyi' preceded by the Undead's name. [this means 'mine the undead in the tomb']
4. To give 10% of their Ackadollars to the poorest player.

If the incantation is said but the ritual fails for some reason (including not being completed), then the player loses 10 points.

The player controlling a Zombie may bid it by a public message to do one the following actions:
(i) To destroy a certain Frankenstein Monster. The named monster is destroyed.
(ii) To act as patsy for a CFCJ before judgement is returned. If there is a penalty for a Crime it is applied to the Zombie, the player is kept innocent (Takes precedence over the rule "Criminal Justice"). The Zombie is then busy for as long as any sentence would keep it busy or otherwise occupied (eg: goal sentence) and cannot do its master's bidding until it is no longer busy.
(iii) To go arm wrestle another Zombie. Both zombies are busy for 7 days and cannot do their masters' bidding during those seven days.
(iv) To protect a player's donkey in a Grab-A-Donkey game. The donkey cannot be grabbed for the coming turn.

Bidding an Undead to do one of the above counts as a Paranormal Power use by a player entity (the controlling player).

A Undead will stay under the control of another player until it is no longer an Undead, the controlling player himself becomes Undead, or someone kisses that Undead."

Rule 301/8
Proposal and Rule Titles
Wayne (Wayne Sheppard)

Each Rule shall have a Title. Each Proposal shall also have a Title. When a Proposal is submitted, the player that submits it may indicate the Title for the Proposal. If the player doesn't indicate a Title for the Proposal then the Promoter shall select a Title.

If the Proposal is accepted and the Proposal creates a New Rule, then the New Rule shall have the Title indicated by the proposal, or if none is specified, the New Rule shall have the same Title as the Proposal. If the Proposal amends or transmutes a Rule, the Title of the Rule shall remain unchanged, unless the proposal explicitly amends the Title of the Rule.

Rule 303/11
Proposal and Rule Numbering

I. Each rule has an effective ordinal number, hereafter referred to simply as the rule's number. Rule numbers and proposal numbers are unownable entities. A valid rule number is one or two positive integers. The first is called the base rule number, and the second, if present, is called the sub rule number and is separated from the base rule number by a period.

II. When a new rule is created as a result of the acceptance of a proposal, it is numbered as follows:

1. If the proposal specifies that the new rule is to be a member of a Rule Suite, and a Head of a Rule Suite rule exists for that Rule Suite, then that new rule has the base rule number of the Head of the Rule Suite, and the least sub rule number greater than all other sub rule numbers in that Rule Suite. [New rules in Rule Suites default to going at the end.]

2. Otherwise, if the proposal specifies a valid rule number for the new rule, and that number is not already the number of another rule, then the new rule is assigned that number.
[Proposals should specify rule numbers for any rules they create so that the new rule(s) are numbered into the appropriate section of the rules.]

3. Otherwise, the new rule uses the number of the proposal that created it as its base rule number. If some other rule already has this number, then the new rule takes a sub rule number as large as necessary to have a rule number different from all other rules.

III. When a new rule is created by another rule, or by some entity (besides a proposal) granted the power to create rules by some rule, it is numbered as follows:

1. If the entity creating the rule declares it to be a member of a Rule Suite, as in II.1. above, then it is numbered as in II.1. above.

2. Otherwise, if the rule or entity creating the new rule assigns it a valid rule number which is not already the number of another rule, then the new rule is uses that number.

3. If neither 1 nor 2 above numbers the rule, then the rule is numbered with the least positive integer greater than all existing base rule numbers.

Rule 305/6
For Personal Glory...
SnafuMoose (Stephen F Roberts)

Preamble: Such that each player should be able to strike his own mark upon Ackanomic; And that all future AckaCitizens should remember the exploits of those that went before them; Let this rule be enacted.

(a) i. The official copy of the official rules should include with the text of each rule the name of the originator of the rule and the date the rule was enacted.

ii. The originator's name should appear just below the title of the proposal and before the text of the proposal.

(b) i. Likewise, any changes to the rules should be noted with the name of the changer and the date the changes were enacted.

ii. The names of any changers should appear at the end of the rule, after the body text of the rule, and before the beginning of the next rule.

(c) The requirements in (a) and (b) do not have to apply to rules created before the enactment of this rule if such data is not known.

Rule 307/3
Revision Numbers
/dev/joe (Joseph DeVincentis)

In addition to its effective ordinal number, each rule has a revision number. Rule numbers may be written as X/R; in any such construction, X is the effective ordinal number and R is the revision number.

Each rule's revision number is equal to the number of times that rule has been changed, since its creation, except that changes due to the Spelling Bee or due to the deletion of specially delimited text, or due to the rule amending itself, shall not be counted, and if a proposal changes a rule in more than one way [such as transmuting a rule, amending it, and then transmuting it again] then this counts as only one change.

Rule 309/2
Substantially Similar Proposals
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

Proposal A is invalid if it, or the game effect that would occur if it is adopted, is substantially similar, (in the judgement of a judge to adjudicate such matters) to Proposal B, or the game effect that would occur if Proposal B is adopted, and both of the following are true:

a) Proposal A was distributed after Proposal B.
b) Proposal B is still under voting consideration.

It is a Crime to be the author of both Proposal A and Proposal B. (as the terms 'Proposal A' and 'Proposal B' are used in this rule).

Rule 311/3
Rule Suites
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

1) A rule is a Head of Rule Suite if and only if all of the following lettered items are true of it:

a) Its rule number is a single integer (i.e. without the . (dot)).

b) Its title consists of a word or phrase followed by the words "Rule Suite", and no other rule has the same title.

c) Its text contains an overview of the content or purpose of the Rule Suite. This overview may be in notes brackets.

d) Its text contains a phrase or sentence in notes brackets which can serve as a link to the Rules in the Rule Suite.

2) A Head of a Rule Suite may contain other material which shall be interpreted normally. If, for a particular Head of a Rule Suite, represents the word or phrase described in section 1b, then that Rule can be referred to as the Head of the Rule Suite.

3) A rule is a member of a certain Rule Suite if and only if its number is X.Y, where X is the number of the Head of that Rule Suite, and Y is a positive integer.

4) It is a privilege of the Web-Harfer to move rules which are members of Rule Suites out of the main rules document into a separate document, and to establish and maintain a link from the link phrase (section 1 d)) to this document. If any such member rules are moved to a separate document, then all such member rules of that Rule Suite must be moved to that document, and the link must be established and maintained.

Rule 313/10
Proposal Bribery
/dev/joe (Joseph DeVincentis)

I. The Right to Fair Voting
A proposal is invalid if it calls for one or more effects that discriminate in any way between players based on their voting actions on that proposal, or any other specific proposal or proposals identified in the proposal. Effects that depend on the way players vote are allowed if they apply to all proposals, or to all proposals in one or more classes previously defined by the rules. [This would be modest proposals, harfy proposals, etc.] This section defers to section IV of this rule.

II. Voting Actions
The following are voting actions:
A. Casting a YES, NO, or PRESENT vote by rule 106.
B. Bribing Tammany by rule 315.
C. Being part of a political party that gets a unity vote.
D. Using a Bonus Vote by rule 317.
Other actions may be designated by the rules to be voting actions.

III. Effects Triggered on Changing the Triggering Rules
If a proposal adds, changes, or repeals rules that generate effects or cause some entity to generate effects (including but not limited to score changes) based on the way players vote, then those rules generate no effects based on the way players vote on that particular proposal. This section of this rule takes precedence over all other rules which generate effects based on the way players vote on proposals, but defers to the following paragraph.

IV. Bribes
A. A proposal may include a Bribe section, which must be in a separate paragraph in preface to the main text of the proposal in a proposal, beginning with the word "Bribe" and a colon [as in "Bribe: A$1"]. Any Bribe which violates any of the rules regarding Bribes is invalid.

B. Bribes may only cause the transfer of tradeable entities from the author of the proposal to players who voted YES on the proposal; a Bribe need not specify that the entities come from the author of the proposal, since it is assumed.

C. If a proposal does not specify a condition for receiving its Bribe, then every player who votes YES on the proposal is eligible to receive the Bribe. A Bribe may specify further conditions, and may offer different amounts to different players, or based on different conditions [I.e., extra bribes can be given to players whose parties generate unity votes], but any conditions in the Bribe must be determinable when the voting results are posted.

V. Processing Bribes
A. When the voting results for a proposal containing a Bribe section are posted, if the amount(s) specified by the Bribe cannot be transferred from the proposal's author to all eligible players, based on the conditions stated in the Bribe, the Bribe is invalid.

B. The required number of YES votes for a proposal containing an invalid bribe to be accepted is one more than the total number of YES and NO votes legally cast within the prescribed voting period. This paragraph takes precedence over rule 106.

C. When the voting results for a proposal containing an invalid Bribe are posted, the author of that proposal loses 15 points, and no other rules that generate score changes or other effects when a proposal is rejected trigger any effects for that proposal; this takes precedence over any such rules.

D. When the voting results for a proposal containing a valid Bribe are posted, the amount(s) specified by the Bribe are transferred from the proposal's author to all eligible players, based on the conditions stated in the Bribe.

Rule 315/13
Tammany
pTang1001001sos (Mark Nau)

Tammany is a unique entity capable of casting one vote on each Proposal. Tammany only votes on Proposals as specified by this Rule.

A statement sent to the Tabulator is a Tammany Bribe if, and only if, it conveys the following information:

a) the Proposal number of a Proposal that has not yet come to resolution.

b) an amount of currency in the range of A$ 5 to A$ 100 (inclusive)

c) a Desired Vote of either YES, NO, or SILENT.

d) the intent of the sender of the message to bribe Tammany the amount specified, in order to vote in the manner specified on the Proposal specified.

It is the Duty of the Tabulator to ensure that each Tammany Bribe remains secret until the end of the voting period of the Proposal to which it applies. The Tabulator shall not intentionally examine the text of any Tammany Bribe until this rule makes it eir Duty to do so. If he should inadvertently do so, he should, as a matter of ethics, avoid allowing this foreknowledge to influence his game actions in any way.

Each Player may submit a maximum of one valid Tammany Bribe per Proposal. Should more than one Tammany Bribe be submitted by a Player for a given Proposal, the Tammany Bribe received most recently by the Tabulator shall be deemed the sole valid Tammany Bribe by the Player for that Proposal, with all others being disregarded.

Before the voting results for a given Proposal are announced, the Tabulator has the Duty of determining whether and how Tammany will vote on this Proposal, based upon the valid Tammany Bribes for that Proposal and the specifications below in this Rule. Tammany's vote and all Tammany Bribes pertaining to a Proposal shall be reported along with the voting results for the Proposal.

each Player who submitted a Tammany Bribe on a Proposal which is about to be resolved shall have the designated amount of currency deducted from his account and placed in the Treasury. If this would result in a negative curreny balance for the player, his entire Bribe is disregarded and no currency is deducted.

Tammany shall vote YES on a Proposal if and only if the total amount of currency associated with Tammany Bribes that had a Desired Vote of YES is greater than the total amount of currency associated with Tammany Bribes that had a Desired Vote of NO plus twice the total amount of currency associated with Bribes that had a Desired Vote of SILENT.

Tammany shall vote NO on a Proposal if and only if the total amount of currency associated with Tammany Bribes that had a Desired Vote of NO is greater than the total amount of currency associated with Tammany Bribes that had a Desired Vote of YES plus twice the total amount of currency associated with Bribes that had a Desired Vote of SILENT.

Rule 317/8
Bonus Votes
Niccolo Flychuck (Uri Bruck)

1. Bonus Votes are tradeable entities.

2. A player can own at most five Bonus Votes at an given time. If a Player who already owns five Bonus Votes receives an additional Bonus Vote, by any means, the additional Bonus Vote is destroyed.

3. Bonus Votes are used in the following manner - A player sends a message to the Tabulator that e is casting eir Bonus Vote on a specific proposal, and the legal type of Vote that Bonus Vote represents. The Bonus Vote shall then be counted as a vote on that proposal. When the results of that proposal are released by the Tabulator, the Bonus Vote is destroyed.

4. A Player can only cast a Bonus Vote e owns. A particular Bonus Vote can only be cast once. Any attempt to cast a Bonus Vote fails if it does not meet these restrictions.

5. A voting player can use at most one Bonus Vote per proposal. A voting Player can use at most one Bonus Vote on any string of three consecutive proposals. On any single proposal, at most four Bonus Votes are counted. If more than four Bonus Votes were sent to the Tabulator on a single proposal, only the last four valid Bonus Votes to have arrived before the end of the voting are counted, the rest are destroyed. Non-voting players may not use Bonus Votes.

6. Other rules may specify means by which Bonus Votes are acquired or destroyed, subject to the restrictions in this rule.

7. A voting player may pay $A150 to the Treasury to declare any one proposal in the voting queue to be a Guarded Proposal. Bonus Votes may not used on a Guarded Proposal. Bonus Votes already cast on that proposal are not counted, and any player who cast a Bonus Vote that was nullified in this manner is given one Bonus Vote as compensation.

Rule 319/2
Unanimity Is Lovely (although not so lovely as it used to be)
Robert Sevin (Mitchell Harding)

When a non-modest proposal passes, and had no votes other than YES votes cast, the President shall publicly congratulate the author by giving a formal speech. Also in celebration of this joyous occasion, the player with the lowest score shall have their score increased by 2 points. If more than one player is tied for lowest score, all of their scores change to 2. If this would cause a player to lose points, that player will instead have their score increased by 3 points.

Rule 330/7
Retractions
Wayne (Wayne Sheppard)

A player may retract their own proposal by publically posting that they are doing so, so long as the voting results on that proposal have not been publically announced. All votes cast on a retracted proposal shall be ignored. The player retracting the proposal loses 2 points, except during the first three weeks of eir being a new player (as opposed to a returning player) in Ackanomic, in which case the player instead will lose no points.

A player may retract their own Call For Judgement (CFJ) by publically posting that they are doing so, so long as a verdict on that CFJ has not been delivered. The player retracting the CFJ loses 1 point.

A player may retract their own Miscellaneous Submission by publically posting that they are doing so, so long as a decision on the acceptance or rejection of the submission in question is not publically knowable. The player retracting the submission loses 1 point. This section takes precedence over any rule which would prevent retraction of these entities. Instances of following, and nothing else, are Miscellaneous Submissions:

Rule 340/2
Spelling Errors
Wayne (Wayne Sheppard)

If there are spelling errors in any Ackanomic document, including Rules, Proposals, and Call for Judgements, and the spelling error is unambiguous, then the mispelled word shall be treated as if it were spelled correctly.

If there is a typographical error in any number in any Ackanomic document, and the intended number can be determined beyond reasonable doubt, then the mis-typed number shall be treated as if it were typed as intended, and be considered a misspelled word with respect to Rule 342 (with the correct spelling being the intended number).

Rule 342/8
Spelling Bee
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

1) The Spelling Bee is an unownable entity. Its purpose is to fly through the Rules and CFJ Archive and sting out misspelled or mistyped words. It may not fly through, or sting, any other entities.

2) Its flight may only be initiated by an officer privileged to do so.

3) Its flight may be initiated at any time, including immediately after the Application of a Rule change, or the publication of a CFJ verdict.

4) An officer initiates its flight by posting a public message with the term "Spelling" in its subject line. Its flight consists of, in that post, a listing of all Rule and CFJ changes being made, clearly labeled by rule or CFJ number, old word, and replacement word. These changes are called "stingings" and must be made in accordance with the rules below. Words in titles and headers of Rules and CFJs may be stung. No one may initiate a flight which is illegal, or contains illegal stingings.

5a) Permissible Stingings:
a) Replacing a misspelled word with its correctly spelled equivalent.
b) Changing the capitalization of the first letter of a word.
c) Replacing correctly spelled words with the word that was intended. Ie, replacing "an" with "and" in the following example from R 214: "A Judgement may be accompanied by reasons an arguments".
d) Replacing proper nouns with their proper spelling when the proper spelling is generally known and accepted.
e) Adding a period at the end of a sentence when it is missing. f) Correcting the labels (numbers or letters) of a set of numbered or lettered sections when there are skipped or repeated labels, and at the same time, changing any reference in any rules to any of the relabeled sections so that they refer to the intended sections.

5b) Impermissible stingings. This list takes precedence over 5a) where there is conflict:
a) Replacing a creative or made up word, such as "Torkola".
b) Replacing British, American, or archaic spellings with their American, British, or non-archaic equivalent.
c) Replacing a foreign word with its Anglicized equivalent.
d) Replacing Spivak pronouns with other pronouns, or replacing non-gender neutral language with gender neutral language, or replacing any pronoun or phrase with a Spivak pronoun.
e) Replacing words in quotes or words followed by [sic].
f) Replacing slang or colloquial words, or spellings thereof.
g) Changing the word, such as replacing "superceeds" with "takes precedence over", or "computer" with "machine", even if the word being replaced is misspelled.
h) Fixing grammar errors, except what is allowed by 5a).
i) Replacing abbreviations and acronyms.
j) Making any change that violates the "spirit" of what was intended in the writing being edited.

6) Upon the flight being announced, the legal changes are applied to the rules.

7) Changes made by the Spelling Bee are not noted below the Rules, as is customary for other changes. This clause takes precedence over any rule which would require such notation.

8) Where there is doubt, correct spellings are adjudicated by the Official Dictionary.

Rule 344/5
Notes and Comments
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

A left square bracket in a rule or other text begins a note, which ends with the next following right square bracket, or the end of the rule or body of text, whichever comes first. [This means that notes do not nest.] In the Ackanomic language, notes have no semantic meaning, whatever their lexical content.

Rule 346/5
Self Deleting Text
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

Any rule text in double curly braces {{eg, this}}, shall be applied exactly once, then shall be deleted from the rule. If such a deletion should leave the rule entirely void of text, excluding the title, header, whitespace, and other furniture, the entire rule is deleted as well. Such rules, and only such rules, are called "Self Deleting Rules"

If a rule contains 2 or more sections of text in double curly braces, these sections shall be applied sequentially in the order that they appear in the rule, not simultaneously.

If a rule contains more sets of left double curly braces than right double curly braces, that rule is amended to append a set of right double curly braces after all of its other text.

Any text anywhere in this rule in double curly braces is explicitly excluded from the effects of this rule.

[Thus the following are semantically equivalent in rule text:

{{Robert Sevin shall be declared the winner of cycle one, the game cycle number shall be set to one, and the full process described above shall be conducted.}}

Paragraph B:
This is the first sentence of Paragraph B, which includes the header "Paragraph B:" just before this sentence. Upon passage of this Rule, Robert Sevin shall be declared the winner of cycle one, the game cycle number shall be set to one, and the full process described above shall be conducted. Then, Paragraph B, which ends with this sentence, shall be stricken from this Rule.
]

Rule 348/8
" "
mr cwm (Eric Murray)
[Web-Harfer's note: The name of this rule is a single space character.]

No two named entities may have names that match. The names of Rules and Proposals are exempted from this restriction.

No named entity may have a name that matches a former name of any current or former player, except that a player may change his name to one that he previously held.

An attempt to do anything that requires a name to be chosen [such as creating a Trinket or Organization] fails if the chosen name matches a name already in use.

Two names match if and only if their primitive forms are the same. The primitive form of a name is found by removing all articles ("a", "an", and "the") from the name, then removing all characters except letters and numbers, then converting all uppercase letters to lowercase. ["Bronze Torch" and "Bron, the Zet oRch" have the same primitive form: bronzetorch.]

If two names are found to match in conflict with the first paragraph of this rule, the CSRR Officer shall change one or both of the names in such a way as to fix the problem. Any game document or business that referred to such an entity by name shall be changed to indicate the new name.

This Rule defers to other Rules on the matter of whether it is permissible for a returning Player to choose, as eir Ackanomic name, the same name as an Undead.

Rule 349/0
Aleph Beth Gimel
Alfvaen (Aaron Humphrey)

Whenever it is desired that the alphabetical ordering of two names be determined, the following procedure is followed:

1) The two names are compared word-by-word, where a word is considered to be a series of non-whitespace characters delinated by whitespace. Further, each word is considered as if it were all lowercase. An initial "the" or "The" is ignored.

2) Words are compared letter-by-letter, where a series of digits is considered to be a single letter, an accented letter is treated as its unaccented form(except as specified below), and non-alphanumeric characters are ignored. A numeric "letter" precedes another numeric "letter" if its numeric value is less, or, if they have the same numeric value, if it has fewer leading zeroes. A numeric letter always precedes an alphabetic letter. An alphabetic letter precedes another alphabetic letter if it comes earlier in the alphabet. An unaccented letter precedes an accented letter if neither would otherwise precede the other. (The alphabet is in the order: "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz".) If neither of two letters precede the other, they are considered to be identical. A word precedes another word if the first non-identical character precedes the corresponding character in the other word, if no such character exists, the words are considered to be identical.

3) If one name contains fewer words than the other, and all the words in the shorter name are identical to the corresponding words in the other name, then the shorter name is considered to come first. Otherwise, the name whose word was considered to come first in the last comparison done is considered to come first.

4) If the above procedure does not yield a relative ordering for the two names, then they are ordered in ASCII collation order.

An "alphabetic list" shall be a list of names whose elements are ordered so that if there are any two elements A and B such that A occurs before B in relative alphabetical ordering, as defined above, occurs before element B in the list.

Rule 360/6
Hearings
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

A Rule may specify circumstances under which a Hearing is called. When this happens, Count Tabula shall announce in a public message that a Hearing has been called, citing the rule that requires it and the circumstances that brought it about, and telling the valid responses [and other pertinent details]. As of this announcement, the Hearing is in session.

While the Hearing is in session, each Player may send his or her response to that Hearing to Count Tabula privately. Count Tabula shall record each response that matches one of the valid responses for the Hearing. If a Player who has already responded sends another valid response, Count Tabula shall discard the previous response and record the new one. Any response contained in a post that does not unambiguously identify the Hearing it is in response to, even if only one Hearing is in progress, is invalid. Non-voting players may not vote in hearings, unless a rule says otherwise for a specific type of hearing.

The Hearing shall end when it has been in session for three days. When it ends, it ceases to be in session.

Once a Hearing has ended, it has a verdict. The verdict of the Hearing is whichever valid response was given by the most Players, and other entities capable of voting in hearings, in response to the Hearing, if exactly one valid response holds this distinction. Otherwise, if there is a tie among two or more responses, the verdict shall be whichever of the tied responses appears first in the Rule defining them. If no responses were received while the Hearing was in session, the verdict shall be "Never mind." Count Tabula has the Duty of announcing the verdicts of Hearings with all due haste.

A hearing may be retracted any time before its result is announced by the player who put it forward.

Rule 362/10
Crisis Resolution
The Governor (Dan Marsh)

1) The Speaker, and only the Speaker, may declare a State of Crisis at any time via public announcement, provided the game is not in a State of Crisis. Upon such declaration being legally made, the game is said to be in a State of Crisis until the State of Crisis is lifted as specified by the rules.

2) When, and only when, the game is in a State of Crisis the following officers have the following powers:

a) The Speaker may declare the State of Crisis lifted.
b) The President may publically issue a State of Crisis Resolution Document detailing a list of changes to be made in the ruleset. These changes will be applied three days after the issuance of that document, or at the end of a failed challenge (whichever is later) unless it has been challenged and defeated.

3) Any voting player may publically challenge the State of Crisis Resolution Document within three days of its issuance, provided that document has not been previously challenged. If such a challenge is lodged, a Hearing is called. The valid responses in this Hearing are "The President is scamming us", and "This will patch the crisis". If the verdict of the Hearing shows that the President is scamming us, the document is defeated, and an Impeachment Paper is immediately filed against the President. Otherwise, the challenge is said to have failed.

This rule takes precedence over any rule with which it conflicts.

Rule 370/5
No E-mail, No Game
/dev/joe (Joseph DeVincentis)

All players and observers joining Ackanomic must have a valid e-mail address reachable from the official mailing list at the time they join, or else they may not join.

If all of a player's mail from the official mailing list sent in a period of 3 days or longer (with a minimum of 10 messages) bounces, the Postmaster may put that player on vacation by publicly announcing that he is doing so, and giving the reason. A player put on vacation in this way may not return until email from the list can reach his address again.

If a player or observer's mail from the list bounces for a week or more (minimum 20 messages) then the Postmaster may remove that player or observer from the game by publicly announcing that he is doing so, and giving the reason. This applies to players on non-voluntary activated vacation The player or observer may rejoin at a later time as usual.

If possible, all players must configure their e-mail software to correctly report the current time for the time zone specified.

Rule 371/0
Timing
ThinMan (John Bollinger)

Posts that are sent through any mailing list maintained by the Postmaster are deemed to have occured at the time that they are received by the list server. Posts that are not sent through such a mailing list and for which the Speaker is one of the designated recipients are deemed to have occured at the time that they are received by the Speaker's mail server. Other posts not sent through any of the Postmaster's mailing lists are deemed to have occured at the earliest time that they are received by the mail server of any of the Players, other than the sender, designated as recipients. If a Player posts a message only to himself, then that post is deemed to have occured at the time that it was sent.

(The term "mail server" is intentionally left open to some interpretation. It is intended to indicate the actual computer used for e-mail by the relevant player if that computer has a full-time internet -- or other form of e-mail -- connection; otherwise it is intended to mean that computer from which the relevant player downloads his mail.)

Players are encouraged to use an appropriate Postmaster-maintained mailing list if available. If the times of two posts are compared and (i) only one of them went through one of the Postmaster's lists and (ii) their times are otherwise within three minutes of each other, then the post sent through the Postmaster's list is deemed to have occured first.

This rule defers to any rule which specifies an alternative method for determining the times or relative times of posts.

Rule 373/1
Public Actions
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

This rule defers to all other rules.

Each attempt to perform an action either succeeds or fails. To perform an action entails two things: first, to attempt the action; and second, for the attempt to succeed.

The rules may specify that certain possible courses of play are public actions. Any active player may attempt any public action available to him or her simply by sending a public message specifying the action to be taken. However, if any information that is necessary to specify the action fully and unambiguously is left out of that message, then the attempt fails. [An attempt may also fail for other reasons.]

If the rules specify that a certain course of play is available to a player or organization, but do not specify how that course of play is to be taken, then that course of play is a public action, and it is taken as described above.

Rule 374/5
Politeness Moon
Mitchell Harding

Any Player sending a public message should be as polite as possible. Any Player may call a Hearing on the matter of whether a certain public message from another Player was polite.

The valid responses to a Politeness Moon Hearing are "Yes, it was polite." and "No, it was not polite.". If the verdict of the Hearing shows that the message was not polite, the Player who sent it loses 3 points. If it shows that it was polite, its author gets the nickname Jazz JackRabbit for the next 3 days.

Rule 380/3
Time Zone
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

A day in Acka starts when the day starts in New York City, USA, and ends when the day ends there. This is called the Acka Day. [That is to say, the official time zone is EDT(-0400)/EST(-0500).]

Whenever a day of the week, day of the month, or time of day is specified, in the rules or other official document, and it is not qualified with a time zone, it shall be said to occur, if it is a time of day, when that time of day occurs in the Acka Day, and if a day or date, it shall begin and end when the corresponding Acka Day begins and ends.

When a day of the week or a day of the month is specified, and no time of day is specified, then the action is said to occur at 12:00, noon on that day.

When the term "calendar week" is used, it is interpreted to mean a 7-day period from the beginning of a Sunday to the end of the next Saturday.

Rule 401/13
Offices, Commonalities
pTang1001001sos (Mark Nau)

Offices are named, unownable entities, unless the rules specify otherwise for a particular office.

The following applies to all Offices:

(i) Seats:

A Seat of an Office is an unownable entity, unless the rules specify otherwise for a particular Office or Seat. [Seats are held, not owned.] The Rule that creates an Office should specify how many players can hold that Office at any one time. This is referred to as the number of "Seats" an Office has. If the Rules fail to specify the number of Seats for any given Office, the Office has only one Seat. A Seat is either held by one Player or it is vacant. No player may hold more than one seat for a given Office, including any seat held in an acting capacity, Non-voting players may not hold offices unless a rule says otherwise for a specific office.
(ii) Duties:
The Duties of an Office are the tasks that the Officer(s) are expected to carry out to facilitate the conduct of Ackanomic business. Duties tend to be typified by the compilation, maintenance, and distribution of information.
(iii) Privileges:
The Privileges of an Office are the considerations the Officer(s) receive according to the Rules regulating the Office. Examples can include the receipt of Ackanomic currency, the ability to cast extra votes in certain circumstance, or special consideration with regards to making appointments or issuing CFJ decisions.
(iv) Acting Officers:
The Rules may specify conditions under which a Player serves in an Office in an "Acting" capacity. In such a case, the Player is responsible for performing all of the Duties without receiving any of the Privileges of the Office, except for Privileges which are also explicitly defined to be Duties by the rules, or Privileges required to perform explicitly defined Duties, or Privileges of the office when the Acting officer is filling in for a vacationing player. For any given Seat, there can be an "Acting" Officer only if the Seat is vacant. Non-voting players may only be acting officers for offices which may normally be held by non-voting players.
(v) Salaries:
If the Rules specify that a particular Officer is to receive a specified salary in A$s, then that number of A$ is transferred from the Treasury to that Officer at noon on the first Monday of each month.
(vi) Term of Office:
a) The Rules may specify a Term of Office, which is the amount of time a Player may hold an Office before his Term is considered to have expired. If the Rules fail to specify a Term for any Office, the Office is considered to have none, which is to say that the Term never expires.
b) When a Player's Term expires, he is no longer considered to be holding the Office. The Player performs the Office in an "Acting" role until the Seat is filled.
(vii) Stepping Down:
An Officer may always voluntarily step down from office, leaving it vacant. Whenever possible, the Officer should give at least 3 day's notice of his intention to vacate an office.
(viii)
A player may not acquire titles or offices except as specified by the rules.
(ix) Optional Offices
An office is considered "optional" if and only if it is specified as such by the rules. An optional office has the following effects:

a) A player filling an optional office in an acting capacity is not required to perform the duties of that office. This sub-section takes precedence over section (iv) and R 403.

b) If a nomination is held for an optional office, and no one volunteers for that office, no action is taken to fill the office once the nomination period ends, except as follows: If an optional office is vacant, and no nomination or election is currently being held for that office, any player may insist that a nomination (or election, as the case may be) commence, by making a statement to that effect to the public forum. At such time, a nomination (election) shall be conducted by the appropriate officer.

(x) Office Type
All offices are either Functional or Political. If the rules fail to specify the type of an office, that office is a Political Office. Vacancies in a particular Political office are filled by election for office (by the procedure in R 402), unless other rules specify otherwise. In the case of an optional Political office where a nomination did not produce any volunteers, the election process is aborted at that point.
(xi) Efficiency
Officers have 3 days to complete the tasks and duties they are responsible for, not counting any time the officer is on vacation or in Gaol, unless other rules unambiguously specify a different finite amount of time for these things.

Officers, in good faith, shall do all tasks and duties as quickly as feasible to keep the game moving along.

Rule 402/9
Offices, Related Definitions
pTang1001001sos (Mark Nau)

(i)  A Nomination is conducted as follows:
      a) The appropriate Officer publicly announces the
         beginning of the Nomination, the reason the
         Nomination is being called, and when the Nomination
         shall end.
      b) If there is no Nomination Period specified for
         the Nomination, the default Period is 3 days.
      c) During the Nomination Period, volunteers shall
         notify the appropriate Officer of their intent to be
         considered.
      d) At the end of the Nomination Period, the appropriate
         Officer shall publicly report the list of eligible
         volunteers (Nominees).
      e) If there are no eligible volunteers, the Nomination
         Period shall continue until there is an eligible
         volunteer, except in the case of optional offices
         [qv Rule 401, section (ix)].
      f) If the rules fail to state who is eligible to volunteer,
         then all Players are eligible.

(ii) An Election for Office is conducted as follows:
      a) A Nomination is conducted. Any Player who is eligible
         to hold the Office is eligible to volunteer.
      b) If the number of Nominees is the same as the number of vacant 
         Seats for the Office in question, the appropriate Officer shall
         announce this fact, and the Seats shall be filled by the Nominees.
         This shall conclude the Election process; no actual Election shall
         be held in this case. Otherwise,
      c) The appropriate Officer publicly announces the start
         of the Election, the Office for which the Election is
         being held, and when the Election will end.
      d) Elections last 3 days from the time the appropriate officer
         announces he is starting to accept votes.
      e) During the Election Period, each voting player may cast one
         vote for any one of the Nominees by so notifying the
         appropriate Officer.
      f) At the end of the Election Period, the appropriate
         Officer shall publicly announce the vote tallies
         for each Nominee, and which Nominee(s) shall hold
         the Office.
      g) Letting N stand for the number of vacant Seats for the
         Office in question, the top N Nominees, ranked by
         votes received, shall hold the Office.
      h) In the event of a tie for number of votes received,
         the tie can be resolved in one of the following
         manners:
         1) Recount: Count Tabula shall once again tally the votes and
            announce the election's winner(s) as described in sections (f)
            and (g) above, except that this time, votes by non-Player 
            entities shall not be counted.
         2) Random: Count Tabula shall randomly assign a
            ranking order among any Nominees tied for votes received.
            All tied Nominees shall be ranked this way, including
            any non-active ones.
         3) <Officer> Preference: the Officer named shall select
            a ranking order among any Nominees tied for votes.
         4) New Election: the entire Election for Office shall
            start over, with all results of the current Election
            for Office disregarded.
      i) If the Rules fail to specify what method shall be used
         to resolve ties, then the Random method shall be used.

Rule 403/11
Functional Offices, Commonalities
pTang1001001sos (Mark Nau)

This rule takes precedence over rule 401.

An Office is a Functional Office if and only if the Rules specify it as such.

The following applies to all Functional Offices:

(i)    A functional Office has only one Seat unless the
       Rules specify otherwise.

(ii)   As a Privilege of Office, each Player shall receive a
       monthly salary of A$25 for every Functional Office held.

(iii)  A Functional Officer going on vacation shall be judged
       to have vacated his Seat for the period of the vacation,
       after which he shall hold the Seat once again.  At his
       discretion, the President may appoint a volunteer to
       fill an "Acting" role for a Functional Office vacated by
       vacation.  In this case, there shall be no action to
       fill the empty Seat.  This section takes precedence over
       section (vi) of this Rule.

      (iv)   Whenever a Functional Office has a vacant Seat, and there
             is no Acting Officer for that Seat, the President is
             to be the Acting Officer for that Seat, unless the rules
             define another officer to be an Acting Officer for that
             particular office.

(v)    Functional Officers may be impeached by the following
       process:
       a)  The President declares publicly his intention to
           impeach a stated Player from a given Functional Office.
       b)  At least 2/3 of Senators concur with the impeachment
           by so notifying the President within 3 days of
           the President's declaration.
       c)  At this time, the Functional Office is vacant.

(vi)    Whenever a Functional Office has a vacant Seat, or if the current 
        holder of that Seat publically states an intent to vacate his Seat and 
        requests the President conduct a Nomination to fill it, the President 
        shall conduct a Nomination for that Seat.  After the Nomination, the 
        President shall select an eligible Nominee and announce that Nominee's 
        name publically.  That Nominee shall hold the Functional Office.  If 
        the Nomination was initiated at the Functional Officer's request, he 
        shall be considered to have resigned at the instant the new Officer is 
        announced, if he has not already left the Seat.

Rule 404/7
Offices, Impeachment
pTang1001001sos (Mark Nau)

This rule defers precedence to rule 593 where there is a conflict.

An Officer is Impeached by the following process:

(i) An Impeachment Paper (IP) is authored by a voting Player and posted to the public forum. The IP shall contain the stated intent to remove one Player from one Office held by that Player. An author may only have one IP pending at any one time.

(ii) All voting Players except the Officer named in the IP shall be able to cast one vote either YES or NO on the matter of removing said Officer from Office. The voting period shall be 3 days.

(iii) Upon submission of the IP, the Player in question shall no longer be considered to hold the Seat, instead filling an "Acting" role for the Office. There shall be no action taken to fill that Seat until the IP is resolved.

(iv) At the expiration of the voting period, there will be a resolution of ACCEPTED or REJECTED for the IP. An IP is REJECTED unless it meets ALL of the conditions below, in which case it is ACCEPTED:

a) At least 1/2 of all active players, excluding the Officer named in the IP, voted YES.
b) At least 2/3 of all Players who voted on the IP voted YES.
(v) If the IP is ACCEPTED, the Player named in the IP is no longer considered to be the "Acting" officer, and the Seat is open.

(vi) If the IP is REJECTED, the Player named in the IP is restored to Office, and the author of the IP is penalized 10 points. Also, the author of the IP cannot author an IP for a period of 30 days.

(vii) The Rules may specify additional means of impeachment without invalidating the process outlined above. As well, this rule defers to all other rules on the matter of what conditions are required for an IP to be ACCEPTED.

Rule 405/13
Speaker
pTang1001001sos (Mark Nau)

This rule takes precedence over all other rules.

(i) The Office of Speaker is declared to have one Seat.

(ii) Whenever this Office is vacant, it shall be filled by an Election for Office. The specifications for the Election for Office are:
a) Nomination Period: 3 days.
b) Voting Period: 3 days.
c) Tie Resolution: New Election.

(iii) As an additional Privilege of Office, the Speaker shall receive a monthly salary of A$35.

(iv) Whenever the Speaker goes on vacation, he is considered to be temporarily vacating the Office until he returns from vacation. No action shall be taken to fill the office. The Speaker shall appoint a volunteer to be Acting Speaker for the vacation period immediately prior to going on vacation. If there are no volunteers, then the Clerk of the Court shall be Acting Speaker for the duration. This section takes precedence over section (ii) of this Rule.

(v) Performance of tasks required by Sections (vi) thru (viii) are duties of the Office of Speaker.

(vi) The Speaker is the Officer in charge of random things, and shall make random determinations when the rules require such, and those rules do not specify another officer or procedure for making the random determination, or it is not possible for the specified officer to do so.

When the rules require one of a set of distinct objects to be chosen or operated on without specifying how one is to be chosen, the Officer in charge of random things shall choose one of the possible choices at random, with equal probabilities for all possible choices.

(vii) If, in any rule, an action is required to be carried out, and the rule does not either specify who is to carry it out or define a mechanism for choosing someone to do so, the Speaker is required to carry out the task.

(vii) If any game state information or data needs to be tracked, and the rules do not specify who is to track it, the Speaker is required to do so, and is required to make it available to any player on request or as needed [e.g. player locations and thread splits].

(viii) If it is ever the case that no active Player is Speaker or Acting Speaker, and the application of other rules and/or the preceding clauses of this rule do not correct that situation, the following succession procedure is used to appoint an Acting Speaker:

a) All offices are listed in the order of the rule number which creates or defines the office (in the case of a rule defining multiple offices, the offices are listed in the order in which they appear in the rule).

b) All offices not held by an active player are then removed from the list.

c) The player holding the office at the top of the list becomes the Acting Speaker. If, however, that office has more than one seat, the active player whose Ackanomic name appears first in an alphabetic listing of active seatholders of that office becomes the Acting Speaker. [The Acting Speaker then has the duty assure that all offices are filled, including Speaker, as the case may be, in accordance with the rules.]

(ix) It is a privilege of the Speaker to submit Common Sense Reports (CSRs), provided that the game effect(s) of the CSR, should it be accepted, is limited to the renumbering of rules and the fixing of rule number references in the rules. The CSR is distributed, and accepted or rejected as described in the rules for CSRs.

Rule 406/6
Promoter
David Chapman

The Office of the Promoter is a Functional Office. The Duties of the Promoter are:

(a) to accept proposal submissions from players;
(b) to keep a record of each proposal from the time it is submitted to the time its voting period ends;
(c) to assign each proposal an integer number greater than any number previously assigned to a proposal. It is expected, but not required, that the promoter shall give each proposal a number exactly one greater than the previous proposal's number;
(d) to promptly distribute each numbered proposal for voting.

The Promoter has three days to distribute each proposal in accordance with part (c) except during a Proposal Moratorium [see R 415].

Rule 407/8
Web-Harfer
Robert Sevin (Mitchell Harding)

The Office of the Web-Harfer is a Functional Office.
The Duties are:

a) To keep the information on the Ackanomic WWW page up-to-date.
b) To select and maintain one or more links to on-line Dictionaries of the English language. The term "Official Dictionary", as used elsewhere in the rules, shall be construed to mean the union of these Dictionaries.
c) To seek and appoint Assistant Web-Harfers (who must be volunteers) to help keep the Ackanomic WWW page up-to-date. [This mainly would be, for example, putting an assistant in charge of the CFJ portion of the page.]

The Privileges are, in addition to receiving the customary salary:

a) To initiate flights of the Spelling Bee.
b) To add whitespace and line breaks to the rules. The Web-Harfer should consider all player requests to do so.
c) To seek and appoint Assistant Web-Harfers as needed to keep the Ackanomic WWW page up-to-date. [This is a duty because the Web-Harfer is obligated to get help when it is needed, rather than let the Ackanomic WWW page become out-of-date.]

It is the responsibility of other players to make public any information that should be reflected in the WWW page.

Rule 408/19
Tabulator and Count Tabula
Sean Crystal

The Office of the Tabulator is a Functional Office. The Duties of the Tabulator are:

(a) to count votes on each proposal.
(b) to maintain the voting records of each player on each proposal.
(c) to report the acceptance or rejection of proposals, in the time order in which their voting periods ended; the time of these reports is deemed to be the time indicated by the message's initial timestamp.
(d) to handle the duties (except duty (b), below) of Count Tabula when that office is vacant, or its holder is on vacation.

The Tabulator need not perform duties (a),(b), or (c) on any proposal which has been retracted, nullified, or deemed invalid in accordance with the Rules.

It is the Tabulator's Privilege to appoint a player to the Office of Count Tabula. This is the only way that Office can be filled.

The Office of Count Tabula is a Functional Office. The Duties of the Office include solicitation, tabulation, and reporting of votes on all Ackanomic matters, excluding Proposals. This includes, but is not limited to, Hearings [see Rule 360], Impeachment Papers [Rule 404], and all Elections for Office [Rule 402].

When the Tabulator is on vacation, Count Tabula is the Acting Tabulator, and no other procedure for filling the office shall be taken unless Count Tabula requests it. This rule takes precedence over Rule 403 [Functional Offices, Commonalities].

Rule 409/8
Registrar
David Chapman

The Office of the Registrar is a Functional Office. The Duties of the Registrar are:

(a) maintaining a list of all registered players and their Ackanomic names.

(b) furnishing new players with any game information they need, including but not limited to:

(c) to make oneself available for questions from new players.

(d) keeping track of all of the titles and offices the players hold, and who holds the Magic Potato.

(e) asking new players how they found out about the game, and making any answer they provide public.

Rule 410/4
Scorekeeper
David Chapman

The Office of the Scorekeeper is a Functional Office. The Duties of the Scorekeeper are:
(a) maintaining a record of the players' current scores
(b) recording each score change
(c) detecting and announcing as soon as possible the event of a player winning a cycle by points.

Rule 411/3
Senate
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

The Office of Senator has four Seats. The Speaker is not eligible to hold this office. The Senators are collectively an Institution known as the Senate. The Speaker or Acting Speaker is the titular head of the Senate, with the title of ProConsul. When a Senate vote is tied, the ProConsul may cast a tiebreaking vote on the matter in question.

Rule 411.1/1
Senate Resolutions
ThinMan (John Bollinger)

The President, the Speaker, the Supreme Court Justices, and the Senators may each introduce a Senate Resolution by publicly posting its text. The officer introducing the resolution shall then post a presumptuous, ostentatious speech, at least as long as the text of the resolution, explaining why the resolution should be accepted.

If the text of the resolution is longer than 20 80-character lines, or if it is not prefaced in the same document with a statement to the effect that the following text is a Senate Resolution and a provisional title, then the Officer who introduced it is considered an Incompetent Political Buffoon for the following three days. Otherwise, a vote is initiated in the Senate on the question of whether or not to accept the Resolution; the voting period shall be three days for this.

If the Senate votes in favor of accepting a resolution then immediately after the results of the vote are publicly announced (as described in rule 1001), that resolution's text is added to the ruleset as a new rule with its initial title the specified provisional title, and an initial number equal to the first integer greater than 5000 which is not already a rule number. The player who initiated the resolution is then permitted to cheer, strut, and make victory gestures. The CSRR Officer is permitted and encouraged to assign such a rule a new number once within the first 7 days of its existence (in order to place it in the correct section of the rules); the Harfmeister is permitted to once rename such a new rule to any legal name during the first seven days of its existence.

If the Senate votes against accepting the resolution then the player who introduced it loses 10 points and is encouraged to moan, gripe, and complain about their choice of either "tree-hugging, big-government, hippie liberals" or "gun-toting, poor-hating, draconian conservatives."

Rule 412/7
Financier and Free Market
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

The Office of the Financier (OotF), or Financier, is a Functional Office. This rule defers to other Officer rules that define another officer to perform a subset of the duties described here.

The Duties of the Financier are:

a) To maintain accurate records of the who owns each ownable entity, what each Player owns, and what each named non-Player entity [such as the Treasury or the Chartreuse Goose] owns.

b) To log (or collate logs made by other officers) all transfers of entity ownership and the creation and destruction of entities, and to verify that these events happen only in accordance with the Rules.

c) To make the records and logs available to any Player upon request.

d) To maintain the Free Market (FM), and to verify any transaction made there was made in accordance with the rules.

The Priveleges of the Financier are:

a) To receive the usual salary for a Functional Officer.

Rule 413/4
Clerk of the Court
Robert Sevin (Mitchell Harding)

The Office of the Clerk of the Court is a Functional Office. The Duties of the Clerk of the Court are:
(a) to receive Calls for Judgement (CFJs),
(b) to select Judges for CFJs, distribute them publically, and to otherwise administer CFJs as necessary
(c) to receive verdicts from Judges and other judicial entities, and to distribute the verdicts publically, at which time they become official.
(d) maintaining and making public upon request the CFJ Ineligibility List.
The Clerk of the Court shall be Acting Speaker when there is no Speaker, and is the default Acting Speaker when the Speaker is on vacation.

Rule 414/7
President
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

The Presidency of Ackanomia is an Office with one Seat. The player who holds that seat is called the President. The President's Term of Office is 8 weeks. The Presidency is filled by an Election for Office.

(i) The Duties are:
a) To publicly announce the occurrence of an open Seat for a Functional Office.
b) To conduct a the nominations for open Functional Office seats.
c) To publicly announce the occurrence of a Player being appointed to hold a Functional Office.
d) Other rules may define other duties.

(ii) The Privileges are:
a) To decide who among the volunteers shall be selected to hold an open Seat for Functional Office.
b) Other rules may define other privileges.

(iii) Whenever this Office is filled in an acting capacity, the Acting President may exercise Privilege "a" as listed in section (ii) of this Rule. This section has precedence over rule 401.

Rule 415/7
Presidential Decisions
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

All of the powers granted on this list are considered Presidential decisions. The President, and only the President, may invoke them. Such invocation must be in a public message, and must be accompanied by reasoning as to why it is being done.

I. Holiday

The President may declare any period of 1 to 7 days a Holiday, provided there are no declared Holidays which have not ended, and provided no Holiday has ended within the past 3 days. The declaration must include the Holiday's duration and start date/time.

No time during a Holiday shall count towards the times officers have to do their tasks. Nor shall it count towards any "periods" as defined elsewhere in the rules. This clause takes precedence over any rule which would require the counting of such time.

II. Proposal Moratorium

The President may declare a Proposal Moratorium to start on the day following the declaration, so long as the declaration is an integral amount of days from 1 to 10, and a Proposal Moratorium is not currently in progress. No officers may distribute Proposals during a Proposal Moratorium.

III. Bomb Shelter

The President may build a Bomb Shelter for the community. In addition to any other requirements of this rule to do so, however, the President must also pay A$850 in construction costs, or it will not be built. Any Bomb Shelter is destroyed 7 days after it is built by a rare species of acidic mold.

IV. Ambassador

The President may remove the Ambassador from office. In doing so, he or she may also appoint a replacement Ambassador from among the players eligible to hold the position.

Rule 416/5
Supreme Court
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

The Office of Justice has two Seats. The President, Speaker, Praetor, and Senators are not eligible to hold this office. The Justices are collectively known as the Supreme Court.

Justices are appointed by the President and confirmed by Senate vote. Should the Senate reject a candidate, then the President must propose another candidate until either the Senate confirms a candidate, or until the Senate rejects three candidates for the particular vacancy. In the case where the Senate rejects three candidates, the Office is then filled by election.

The Praetor or Acting Praetor shall be an Acting Justice whenever there is a vacancy in the Supreme Court.

Rule 417/7
Justices Rock
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

Justices Rock

The players that are also Justices (should the position exist) that is, members of the Supreme Court, have the following powers, provided all agree to use it and how to use it, on the one instance.

They may nullify a Presidential decision. That is, a decision made by the President acting in his or her capacity as the President.

They may nullify a Senatorial decision. That is, a decision made by the Senate acting in its capacity as the Senate.

They may nullify a previous Supreme Court decision. That is, a previous decision made by the Supreme Court acting in its capacity as Supreme Court, including, but not limited to, AOJs, and CFJ appeals.

The decision must be made public by an Act Of Justice (AOJ) in which they give a statement on what decision is being nullified, and an explanation as to why. The AOJ must be published with the names of all the justices at the end, with the phrase "verified and agreed" before each of their names. As soon as it is made public, it is in effect and cannot be overturned except by another AOJ, unless it is deemed unlawful by a Call For Criminal Judgement (CFCJ), should such a procedure exist.

The following types of AOJs are explicitly prohibited:

1) An AOJ to nullify a Presidential Decision to appoint a particular player to the Supreme Court.
2) An AOJ to nullify a Senatorial Decision to confirm a particular player to the Supreme Court.
3) An AOJ that nullifies a decision made 7 days or more prior to the time of the (attempted) AOJ.
4) An AOJ that nullifies a Senatorial decision either to accept or to reject a Senate Resolution.

If either/both the Senate and president do not exist, then Justices cannot use their first two powers.

Supreme Court Justices and acting Supreme Court Justices are ineligible to be selected to judge CFJs.

When a CFJ comes before the Supreme Court, a Justice, as a public action, may decline judgement on that CFJ. In this case, an Acting Justice is selected to sit on the Court to adjudicate that CFJ only, in the original Justice's stead; the procedure used to select the Acting Justice in this case is the same as if the original Justice went on vacation.

Rule 418/3
Justices Are Keeper Of The Sacred Laws
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

Before the result of a CFJ is made public, a Justice or Bronze Torch owner can add their own reasoning to the official publication of the result by sending it either to the person in charge of CFJs, or to the public forum. Prior to its official publication, this reasoning can be made public by no one other than the author of the reasoning.

Upon the Judge or Court reaching a verdict, the person in charge of CFJs will also add any reasoning submitted under the auspices of this rule to the official publication of the CFJ, along with the judge's decision.

Rule 419.1/6
Ambassador
pascal (Jason Reed)

There exists the office of Ambassador, with one seat, and the duty of obtaining information regarding other Nomics, providing information about Ackanomic upon requests to similar representatives of other Nomics, and keeping the Players of Ackanomic informed of major events in other Nomics and endeavours to create meta-Nomic games.

Rule 419.2/10
Internomic Interface
Kelly Martin (Kelly Martin)

I. Liaison

The Ambassador (or, in the absence of an Ambassador, the Speaker) is Ackanomic's Liaison to InterNomic. The Liaison shall keep the Players of Ackanomic apprised in a timely fashion of events in InterNomic of interest to Ackanomic.

II. InterNomic Proposals

Any Voting Player may request the Liaison to make an InterNomic Proposal by sending the Proposal to the Liaison. If said Proposal is adopted by InterNomic, the player who requested it receives 7 points upon the Liaison reporting the fact of its adoption to Ackanomic.

III. InterNomic Voting

Whenever Ackanomic is permitted to vote upon any matter in Internomic, the Liaison shall initiate a binding vote in the People's Council for Internomic to determine how e should cast Ackanomic's vote in Internomic. If there are fewer than 4 members in the People's Council for Internomic, then the Liasion shall initiate a binding vote in a Joint Assembly of the Senate and the People's Council for Internomic to determine how e should cast Acaknomic's vote in Internomic. In the latter case it is the Senate's responsibility to report the results of the vote to Ackanomic.

In the event that the Institution or Institutions in which the vote was initiated do not reach a decision, the President shall determine how e casts Ackanomic's vote.

IV. InterNomic Judgements (ISFJs)

Whenever Ackanomic is required to serve as a judge in Internomic, the Liaison shall publically post the statement for judgement along with the initiator's reasoning, if any. During the three days following this post, players may respond to the statement for judgment with whatever comments and reasoning they may have on the judgement. Three days after the Liaison's posting of the statement for judgement, a Hearing will commence. The valid responses for this Hearing will be the allowed verdicts Ackanomic may deliver in response to the ISFJ. For the purposes of determining a verdict in this Hearing, each response from a Bronze Torch holder counts as two player responses, and non-player responses do not count. The verdict of this hearing shall be the verdict delivered on the statement for judgement. In the event of a tie or a verdict of "Never Mind", the Liaison shall determine which verdict to deliver. This section has precedence over rules governing Hearings. When reporting the verdict to Internomic, the Liaison shall use whatever player comments he feels are appropriate, including dissenting ones, and shall annote these comments with their author's Ackanomic name.

V. Internomic Attitude

In order to change the Attitude of Ackanomic toward any other member nomic of InterNomic, a vote must be held. Each Senator has one vote, each member of the People's Council for Internomic has one vote and the Liaison has one vote (if the Liaison is also a Senator, or a member of the People's Council for Internomic, e only gets one vote total). These votes are duties of the respective offices. If 60% or more of these eligible voters vote in favor of changing the Attitude of Ackanomic, then the Liaison shall take whatever steps are necessary and possible to carry out this decision in InterNomic.

VI.

The People's Council for Internomic is an Institution. Any player may join this Institution by posting a public message. Any players may leave this Institution by posting a public message. The People's Council for Internomic is in Session when it has one or more members. Whenever it is necessary to appoint an Acting Ambassador, the Speaker should first consider members of the People's Council for Internomic for the appointment

Rule 420.1/5
Historian
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

The Historian is an optional office with one seat.

The duties are to maintain a WWW page of the History of Ackanomic. Content of the page is up to the Historian [but should include the comings and goings of political parties (and their agendas); history of Presidents, Senators, and Winners, notable historical events such as the Quorum Crisis, etc]. The Historian should maintain a copy of all Historical Dissertations.

The Historian does not receive a salary, but it is considered good form for players to give donations to the Historian when he or she is doing a good job.

Rule 420.2/0
Ackanomic History Guild
Guy Fawkes (Robert Shimmin)

1. There exists an Institution called the Ackanomic History Guild, hereafter called the Guild.

2. The Ackanomic History Guild consists of all players who have a Guild Ranking greater than zero. Guild rankings may not be changed except as described by the rules.

3. Any player may submit a public message called a Historical Dissertation. A Historical Dissertation must: (a) be at least 50 lines in length, excluding blank lines; (b) state that it is a Historical Dissertation; (c) describe in detail one or more events in Ackanomic history.

4. Unless more than one-third of the members of the Ackanomic History Guild express disapproval of a particular Historical Dissertation within a week of its posting, the author of that Historical Dissertation shall have his Guild Ranking incremented by 1 seven days after its posting.

5. Only members of the Ackanomic History Guild are eligible for Nomination for the Office of Historian.

Rule 421/8
Office of Common Sense, Redundancy, and Redundancy
The Governor (Dan Marsh)

(a) There shall be a functional office called Common Sense, Redundancy, and Redundancy. This office may be referred to as CSRR.

(b) The purpose of the Office of Common Sense, Redundancy, and Redundancy is to make changes to the rules when it finds that the rules, as written, do not make sense, are redundant, do not conform _in fact_ to their interpretation in game custom, or are redundant. The Office may perform other functions if they conform to the rules. [The Office should make minor changes. But if it can get major changes past the, shall we say, review process, it can.]

(c) A privilege of the CSRR is to issue Common Sense Reports (CSRs). A CSR is a list of suggested changes to the rules, but it is not a proposal.

(d) The CSRR shall distribute CSR's publicly, and assign each one a unique number. After a CSR is distributed, any player may officially object to it by publishing his or her objection publicly. If less than 2 voting players object to the CSR within a 3 day review period immediately following its distribution, then the changes it suggests will be made at the end of the review period. The CSRR shall publish a notice that the changes have been made.

Rule 422/7
Postmaster
/dev/joe (Joseph DeVincentis)

The Postmaster is an optional functional office with one seat.

A duty of the Postmaster shall be to create and maintain an official mailing list and a separate official voting mailing list for Ackanomic, so public messages can be sent to one address and forwarded from there to all players and observers automatically. [The official list is intended for messages of importance to all Ackanomic, and the official voting list for messages of importance only to voting players.] The Postmaster shall create additional, optional lists as he deems it appropriate. Another duty of the Postmaster shall be to keep a publicly available record of the Postal Code.

The Postal Code is a document which may be changed by the Postmaster by publicly posting the desired changes; if fewer than 2 players publicly disagree with the change within 3 days, it is applied to the Postal Code; otherwise, the change is ignored.

A message is a public message if and only if it is distributed to all non-vacationing Players or it is sent to any mailing list indicated as a public forum in the Postal Code, and any actions performed in the message obey all restrictions in the Postal Code for that list, and the subject line contains either "Ackanomic:" or "Acka:". For the purposes of this paragraph and the restrictions in the Postal Code, an action is a statement that the player is doing something regulated by the rules, or a public post required by the rules. [Only actions are regulated; discussion can take place anywhere, though players should try to post to appropriate lists.]

A private message qualifies as being "from" a certain Player if and only if the recipient is satisfied that the sender of the message was in fact the Player in question. An officer who receives private messages in the course of his Duties may set a reasonable protocol in place for verifying the authorship of such messages.

For a player not on vacation not to be subscribed to at least one form of the official mailing list is a Crime. For a voting player not on vacation not to be subscribed to at least one form of the official voting mailing list is a Crime. There may be multiple forms of the official list, such as a regular list and a digest list. Any person subscribed to any public forum who is not a player is considered to be an observer. The Postal Code must always indicate which list is the official list.

If a digest version of any mailing list exists, the Postmaster shall have the privilege of moving any player or observer from the normal list to the digest version of that list if that person's e-mail is bouncing.

The Postmaster shall receive the usual salary for a Functional Office.

Rule 423/5
Map-Harfer
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

The Office of the Map-Harfer is an optional Functional Office.

The duties of the Map-Harfer are:
a) to create and maintain the Map of Ackanomia, as governed by other rules.
b) to maintain and make publically available a list of the locations of all entities, including players, for which location is known or specified.

Rule 424/4
Poet Laureate
Guy Fawkes (Robert Shimmin)

The optional Office of Poet Laureate exists. The Duties are:

1) To compose poetry as described below.
2) To maintain a web page preserving the literary heritage of Acka.

Once a month, the President may require the Poet Laureate to compose a poem to commemorate an important milestone in Ackan history (winning a cycle of internomic, a great e-mail blizzard, the resolution of a major crisis, the enshrinement of an Elder, etc.) or to liven a festive occasion. These lists are by no means all-conclusive, and the President may require the Poet Laureate to compose for just about any event, although if players feel he is using this power frivolously, they are permitted to sneer. The Poet Laureate has seven days from the date of the President's request to publically post such a poem, unless the President's original public request allows him a longer period of time. The Poet Laureate receives no special compensation for such compositions.

Other players may commission the Poet Laureate to write poems on their behalf (to commemorate great accomplishments of theirs, to mock their adversaries, or just to make sure their otherwise imminently forgettable career will be recorded somewhere). It is solely the privilege of the Poet Laureate to earn fees for such works, though he may refuse to accept a commission entirely. The amount of the commission fee can be anything agreed on by both the commissioning player and the Poet Laureate, so long as this does not conflict with rules regarding transfers of currency or entities. For such a commission to have effect, a public post must be made giving the commissioning player, the fee (if any), and the date by which the work must be completed.

The Poet Laureate must also maintain a web page recording the literary treasures of Acka. Such items include poems of the Poet Laureate, Party Hall Party poems, sad little Gaol songs and Dueling Limericks (should such styles exist), and any other works of verse or song described in the rules.

Rule 425/4
Praetor
(Guy Fawkes) Robert Shimmin

I. The Office of the Praetor is a Political Office. To be eligible for the office, a player must be active and one or more of the following:
a) a Bronze Torch holder
b) the owner of a Gold Stripe or Ruby Slipper
c) a former Supreme Court Justice
d) enshrined in the Hall of Elders
Regardless of any other eligibility, a current Justice or Acting Justice is never eligible.

II. If an Acting Justice needs to be selected because of a Justice's Vacation, the Praetor shall be selected before other eligible players, if not already an Acting Justice; if the Praetor cannot be selected, or the Praetor abdicates the appoinment, players eligible to be Praetor shall be selected before other players.

If an Acting Praetor needs to selected due to Vacation, players eligible to be Praetor shall be selected before other players.

III. If a judge or judge-designate should ever be declared a deadbeat, the CotC shall select the Praetor as the next Judge for the deadbeat's CFJ. If, however, the Praetor's seat is vacant, or the Praetor is ineligible to receive the CFJ in the first place [e.g., because they initiated it, or it is a CFCJ and the Praetor is the defendant], it shall be reassigned as if the deadbeat had actively declined judgment.

IV. The Praetor may not decline Judgment. When a CFJ is submitted to him, he is assumed to have immediately accepted it. He may send a CFJ to the Supreme Court, and if e does this, he is not required to deliver a verdict.

V. The Praetor is forbidden to take any action or inaction which would cause him to be a deadbeat. If he is ever a deadbeat, he is immediately removed from office, and the seat is vacant.

VI. The player who holds the Office of Praetor may be selected to judge CFJ's by the methods described in other rules. Should this occur, he is not acting as the Praetor on this CFJ, and he is neither bound by the rules of the Office nor able to use the Praetor's powers on this CFJ. Should, however, he ever become a deadbeat as a result of such a CFJ, he is immediately removed from office as described in the previous paragraph, and the CFJ is reassigned as if he had actively declined.

Rule 426/3
Undead-Harfer
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

The Office of the Undead-Harfer is a Functional Office. When vacant, it is filled by the Financier in an acting capacity.

The Duties are:

a) To maintain a list of all Undead, the entities they own, and any other pertinent details of the Undead.
b) To make this list available to any player upon request.

Rule 427/2
Bond-Harfer
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

The Office of the Bond-Harfer is a Functional Office. When vacant, it is filled by the Financier in an acting capacity.

The Duties are:

(a) to calculate and publically report the yields on PFBonds, per PFBond, when they occur.
(b) to calculate and report PFBond yields per player based on the PFBond yields per bond and players' PFBond portfolios.

Rule 428/1
Trinket-Harfer
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

The Trinket-Harfer is an Optional Functional Office.

The Duties are:

a) To keep an acccurate record of all Trinket names, values, and descriptions, and to make that record available to any player on request.

Rule 429/0
Treasure-Harfer
Alfvaen (Aaron Humphrey)

There exists an optional Functional Office of Treasure-Harfer.

The Duties are:

a) To keep a record of all buried and found treasures -- who buried them, who found them(if applicable), their map when revealed, and the entities they contain, as well as any other information, clues, or riddles provided formally or informally that e feels are relevant.

b) To be the default Map Custodian for any Treasure Map whose Writer requests it, as in Rule 1217. The Treasure-Harfer is not excluded from finding any Treasure for which e is not a Map Custodian.

Instead of the normal salary for a Functional Officer, the Treasure-Harfer shall receive an Automatic Sculpture every month. The Treasure-Harfer is encouraged to bury these for other players to find; if e does not, and lets them accumulate in eir possession, then other players are permitted to sneer.

Rule 450/2
Experts
Robert Sevin (Mitchell Harding)

Any player may become an Expert on any area or areas of the Ackanomic rule set. An Expert in a given area must be knowledgeable about the area, particularly including knowledge of relevant rules and CFJs. In order for a player to become an Expert in a given area they must publicly state their desire to become an Expert, and they must declare the area (or areas, if they wish to become an Expert in more than one area simultaneously) in which they wish to be considered an Expert. For each title of Expert requested, the Senate shall conduct a vote on whether to approve the request or not. The player shall become an Expert in each area approved. This vote has a voting period of 2 weeks. If the Senate does not declare a player an Expert in a requested area, they have the option of posting the reasoning for their decision. There is no limit to the number of areas a player may be an Expert in, and there is no limit to the number of players that may be an Expert in a given area.

When deciding whether or not a player is an Expert in a given area, the Senate must consider the following criteria:

1. The player must be well versed in all rules and CFJs relevant to the area.
2. The player must be keeping up to date with any relevant new proposals.
3. The player must be honest, and willing to interpret the rules when a conflict arises that is relevant to their area of Expertness. They must do so without bias.
4. The area must be well-defined and specific.
5. The area must not be too broad (ie "the rules" is too broad, but "Acka economy" isn't).
6. The area must not be so simple that everyone understands it well.

An Expert may publicly resign as an Expert in any given area (or areas). This causes them to no longer be an Expert in that area (or areas). The Senate may, at any time, vote to cause a player to no longer be an Expert in any given area (or areas). The Senate must publicly announce their intention to do so, and then publicly announce the results of their vote. If 75% or more of the Senate votes to revoke the player's title of Expert in a given area (or areas), the player loses that title (or titles). The Senate must publicly give their reasoning for this decision.

Rule 500/1
Entities
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

Something is an entity if and only if the rules specify that it is, or it is defined by the Rules and Ackanomic tradition indicates that it is an entity. [Caveat: implicit entityhood (by game custom) may be abandoned in a future version of this rule. Explicitly defining your entityish creations to be entities is strongly recommended.]

An entity may not be created, destroyed, or manipulated except as specified by the Rules. It can have no material effect on the game other than those effects specified by the Rules.

Rules, the rule set, and Proposals are unownable entities. Rule changes may manipulate Rules and the Rule set.

Manipulation of an entity is permissible if such manipulation is not explicitly regulated by the rules, and such manipulation would not have a material effect on the game. In other words, the game state must be the same after the manipulation as it would have been had the manipulation not occurred.

For the purposes of this rule, discussion and messages (public or private) are not considered a material effect on the game. Nor are the initiation or results of a CFJ or CFCJ concerning the matter of whether or not a certain event constitutes a material effect. It is recognized that deciding whether a particular manipulation materially affected the game state is a matter that often can only be decided by judgement alone.

Entities may not be broken into fractional pieces, and fractional pieces of entities may not be created. When any rule or anything else empowered by the rules specifies a fractional number of entities are created, destroyed, transferred, or otherwise operated upon, that action uses the least integer greater than the fractional number in place of the fractional number. This paragraph takes precedence over all other rules.

Rule 500.1/3
Entity Names
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

Each entity is either named (which means it has a name) or nameless. An entity is nameless unless the Rules specify otherwise.

When a named entity is created, it shall be given a name in accordance with the Rules. If the Rules do not specify any other method for determining its name, or if the method specified does not give a legal name, that entity shall be considered nameless until a name is legally assigned to it.

A name is a sequence of name characters. The name characters are: 

	! # $ % & * + - / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : = ? @ \ ^ _
	A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
	a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
	| ~ . , '
and the space character.

[Parentheses, double quotes, back quotes, square brackets, angle brackets, braces, and non-ASCII characters are not name characters.]

An alphabetic character can be "accented". If this is the case, then it has two equivalent representations, one with the non-accented alphabetic character, and one with an accented representation of the same character. The accented representation will be in accord with the HTML standard, so that, for instance, an o with an umlaut will be represented as &ouml; . (This is the only circumstance under which a semicolon can be part of a name.) The accented representation is intended mainly for use on the Ackanomic web pages, where it will show up[in most browsers, at least]as the accented character in question. A character cannot be accented in a way that cannot be represented in the HTML standard. In any context where characters are being counted, the accented representation of a character counts as a single character.

If a named entity at any time ever does not have a name, it shall immediately take the name "Nameless Thing #X", where X is the lowest positive integer creating a legal name for the entity. If this would result in multiple entities having the same name, one of them is chosen at random. If this method does not produce a legal name, the entity remains unnamed.

[So, for example a character named "those pesky aliens" might have an accented representation of eir name as "thöse pésky âliens".]

Rule 500.2/1
Entity Ownership
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

Named entities may own other ownable entities, or even own themselves. (Nameless entities may not.)

Each entity is either unownable, nontradeable, tradeable, or gift, except that a gift entity is also tradeable. An entity is nontradeable unless the Rules specify otherwise.

If an entity is nontradeable or tradeable, then it is ownable. At any given time, each ownable entity is either owned by one named entity or Somewhere Else (unowned).

When an ownable entity is created, it is unowned, unless the Rules specify an initial owner for it. Entities may be transferred from one owner to another only through methods specified by the Rules.

Rule 500.3/2
Entity Uniqueness
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

An entity is unique if, and only if, the Rules specify that it is. Each unique entity is the only entity of its type.

If there are several entities of the same type, and at least one of them is unique, all the non-unique entities of that type are destroyed. If there are several unique entities of the same type, the oldest one survives and the rest are destroyed.

Unique entities may not be cloned, copied, duplicated, or Xeroxed; an attempt to forge a copy of a unique entity always results in humiliating failure.

A unique entity is also mimsy, unless the rules specify that it is not. A non-unique entity is not mimsy, unless the Rules specify that it is.

Rule 501/4
ExtraNomic Entities
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

Other nomics may exist, although it is uncertain exactly where they might reside (maybe in some of the smaller cells of the Gaol.)

When the Rules specify that an entity is "imported" from another nomic, that entity is, for the purposes of Ackanomic, created at that time. Its behavior and ownership are generally governed by the rules of the nomic from which it was imported. However, it may not perform protected actions, create entities, or manipulate or destroy entities that weren't imported from the same nomic; if a nomic specifies that an entity imported from it performs any of these actions, the entity is immediately exported. For the purposes of Ackanomic, it is then destroyed.

Rule 505/16
Treasury and AckaDollars
pTang1001001sos (Mark Nau)

I. AckaDollars

The AckaDollar (A$) is the official currency of Ackanomia.

AckaDollars are gift entities.

II. Treasury:

The Treasury is a named, unownable entity that serves as a storing house for entities that belong to no Player, except for those entities for which the rules explicitly state are not in (or considered to be in) the Treasury. Items owned by the Treasury are said to be "in the Treasury", and they may not be manipulated in any way except as explicitly allowed by the Rules.

III. Hard Currency:

AckaDollars may not be created nor destroyed, except as Trinkets are created and destroyed. This Rule has precedence over any Rule that would create or destroy A$, except it defers to rules concering the creation and destruction of Trinkets. Whenever the Rules specify that a Player should receive A$, and do not indicate where those A$ should come from, they shall come from the Treasury. Whenever the Rules specify that a Player should lose A$, and do not indicate where those A$ should go to, or specify that they should be destroyed, they shall go to the Treasury instead. The total number of A$ shall always be 75,000 less the combined value of all extant Trinkets and Majiks (including those Trinkets and Majiks created in Ackanomic, yet exported as described in the rules).

IV. Bankrupt Treasury:

Whenever some number of Players are to receive A$ from the Treasury, and there are insufficient available A$ to meet those obligations, the following process is executed:

V. Donation:

A player may donate any non-mimsy Tradeable entity they own to the Treasury by publically announcing they are doing so. When a Trinket is donated (or otherwise transferred to the Treasury), it is transformed into its value in A$ upon donation.

Rule 506/7
Trinkets
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

A class of gift entities known as Trinkets exist.

Trinkets always have a positive, integral value in A$; this takes precedence over all other rules. The value of a Trinket may only be changed as specified by the rules. The owner of a Trinket may transform it into its value in A$ by publically announcing they are doing so. This action destroys the Trinket, creating A$ in its stead, and it upsets the art and antiquities communities.

A player may create a Trinket by publically announcing its name, description, and value, as long as the player has at least as many A$ as the announced value. Upon doing so, the stated amount of A$ is transformed into the Trinket, and the creating player becomes the owner of the Trinket.

Other rules may also create and bestow ownership of Trinkets, so long as the rule provides for naming, describing, and valuing the Trinket. In these cases, however, if the value of the Trinket would exceed the number of A$ in the Treasury directly before it would be created, it is not created.

A player-created Trinket, whose name contains the name of a current or former player other than that of the creating player, such that the player name in question existed before the Trinket was created, is a forgery. The rules may define other circumstances under which a Trinket is a forgery. Upon it being publically knowable that a Trinket is a forgery, it is transferred to the Treasury. For the purposes of this clause, the Trinket name "contains" a name N, if it contans a word or phrase of the same length in words as N, that when stripped of any conventional English morphological changes, matches N as described in rule 348. [e.g. "Malenkai's Loophole" and "Malenkai-esque Statues" would be forgeries].

Trinkets have no power to affect any entities except as specified in the rules.

Rule 507/6
PF Bonds
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

There shall exist an acka-entity known as the Political Favor(PF), also known as the Bond or PFBond.

Each PF is "associated" with exactly one player.

PF Bonds are nameless, tradeable entities.

Rule 508/5
Bond Yields
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

At the end of every two weeks, PF Bond dividends are calculated. For each PF bond, the dividend earned is 1% of the change over that bond cycle in the score of the player in whose name the bond was issued, if that player's score increased, or 0.5% of the change, if the score decreased. The total of the dividends from the PF bonds each entity owns is calculated, and that number of A$ is paid to the entity from the treasury if it is positive; else the negative of that number of A$ is transferred from the entity to the treasury.

Two week cycles for PF Bonds shall end on at 12:00 on Mondays of the appropriate weeks.

Rule 509/2
Controlling Interest
IdiotBoy (Matt Miller)

If a player (player A) owns more than 50% of the PFBonds associated with another player (player B), player A is said to have a "controlling interest" in player B.

Player A may direct player B, in whom he has to controlling interest, to vote in a certain way on a given proposal. This is known as "exercising one's controlling interest."

Exercising one's controlling interest is accomplished by posting a public message which unambigously states the following:

a) Player A is exercising his controlling interest in Player B.

b) The proposal on which player A is exercising his interest. The deadline for voting on this proposal must be at least 3 days after the message is posted.

c) The vote which Player B is to cast on the proposal.

When player A exercises his controlling interest, A$30 is transferred from player A to player B, to cover player B's costs. Also A$20 is transferred from player A to the Clerk of the Courts, to file the appropriate documents.

If player B does not vote in the way specified, he is guilty of Stiffing His Shareholders. If a controlling interest in player B is exercised more than once on the same proposal, he shall only be guilty of Stiffing his Shareholders if he violates the last such exercise of controlling interest.

A player who has Stiffed His Shareholders will:

a) Have A$50 transferred from his account to player A, to reimburse with damages.
b) Have A$30 transferred from his account to the Clerk of the Courts, to have the paperwork corrected.
c) Have A$1 transferred from himself to the owner of each PFbond in his name, including player A. [e.g., snowgod owns 60 PFIdiot, Malenkai owns 40 PFIdiot. If IdiotBoy Stiffs His Shareholders, IdiotBoy would pay A$60 to snowgod and A$40 to Malenkai.]

A player may not exercise his controlling interest in any single other player more often than once a calendar week.

Rule 510/2
Voluntary Debt Prohibited
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

No player may use more A$'s to buy, trade, give or in any way move out of his account, than there are in his/her account at that moment in time. In other words, a player may never voluntarily go into debt, but it is possible that a player may go into debt involuntarily.

If a player is in debt, that player continues to earn A$s from jobs, yields, interests, donations, and selling or auctioning assets for currency.

Rule 511/2
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

A trinket worth more than $99, whose description has "This trinket is Majik. It is sapphire bullet of pure love number <number>" as its first and second sentences becomes a Majik as soon as creation of the trinket is complete (where <number> is an integer greater than 199).

An existing trinket can be made into a Majik by the Archaeologist. A player who owns a trinket worth more than A$99 can ask in a public message if that trinket is special (and providing an integer greater than 199). If the Archaeologist replies publicly "This trinket is Majik. It is sapphire bullet of pure love number <number>" (<number> being the number given by owner) then the two sentences above from the Archeologist get added to the start of the description and the trinket becomes a Majik.

Majiks are no longer trinkets but keep the value, name and description (or amended description) they had when trinkets.

If Aliens have failed to capture a rule for three weeks in a row, then the sapphire bullet numbers are looked at. A random Majik is selected for consideration from among those existing Majiks which have sapphire bullet numbers that match rule numbers of existing rules. The rule with that number is abducted. The effects of the rule abduction will then follow from the rule called "The Sinister Alien Abduction Act".

A Majik becomes a simple trinket again (with the same value name and description as that of the Majik) if any of following three events take place:
1. The player who created (and still owns) a Majik publicly says "<Majik's name> looks like a snake to me."
2. The Aliens abduct a rule with number identical to that of a Majik's sapphire bullet number.
3. The player who created a Majik becomes an Undead.

Once a Majik becomes a trinket again, it is transformed into its value in A$.

Rule 515/5
Trading and Gifts
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

This Rule defers to all other rules. [Rules may specify conditions in which certain trades may not take place, even though this rule specifies that they are legal. Rules may specify alternate means of trading entities, beyond those given here.]

A Player may offer a trade of one group of entities for another, by sending a public message specifying the entities offered (if any) and the entities requested (if any), if and only if the trade is legal. If the message further states specifically to which Players the trade is offered, then the trade is exclusive; otherwise it is offered at large.

A trade that offers or requests any entity that is not tradeable is illegal. A trade that offers more entities of any type than the Player offering the trade owns is illegal. A trade that offers more entities of any type than the Player offering the trade owns is illegal. All other trades are legal.

An offer made in this way stands until it is legally retracted or accepted, or the entity who offered it no longer owns the entities offered, or the offer has been standing for at least three days, whichever comes first.

A Player may retract a trade he or she offered by sending a public message to that effect.

A Player may accept an exclusive trade offered to him or her, or any trade offered at large [but not one that was offered specifically to someone else], if and only if he or she owns all of the entities requested, in at least the quantities requested. He or she does this by sending a public message to that effect.

When a Player accepts a standing trade, the entities offered are transferred from the Player who offered the trade to the Player who accepted it, and the entities requested in exchange are transferred from the Player who accepted the trade to the Player who offered it.

A Player or organization who owns a gift entity may transfer that entity to another Player or organization as a public action.

All trades made as described by this rule are said to occur on the Free Market.

Rule 516/15
Auction
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

1) An Auction can be called either as specified by another Rule, or by any Player acting on their own.

The call for Auction must include:
a) the item or items to be Auctioned, which must be unowned if the Rules are calling (or directing a player to initiate) the Auction, and must be tradeable entit(ies) owned by the Player calling the Auction if it is being called by a Player acting on their own. Default quantity is 1 item.
b) if more than one item is being auctioned, whether or not the items should be grouped and auctioned as a lot (default = no). If yes, then "item" (and "items") as used in the remainer of this rule shall be construed to mean the entire lot of items being auctioned, and quantity shall be 1.
c) the minimum bid (default = A$0)
d) whether the Auction is to be private or public (default = public)
e) the player initiating the auction (default = Speaker)

2) The Auctioneer will be the player initiating the auction. If this is not possible for some reason, the Speaker shall be the Auctioneer. If this is impossible as well, there shall be no Auction until the situation is corrected.

3) The Auctioneer is disqualified to bid in a private Auction. The Auctioneer may use the title of Chief Cheese for the duration of any Auction.

4) The Auctioneer has the following duties: announcing the start of the auction and the relevant details of the auction; announcing the conclusion and results of the auction; making sure the auction procedure is conducted as specified by the rules; and accepting bids in private auctions.

5) The Auction shall last for 3 days, or 3 hours past the auction's most recent bid (in public auctions), whichever is longer, after which time the Auctioneer shall announce the results, and all A$ and items shall be transferred to their new owners. If the Auction was private, the Auctioneer shall keep a 10% commission of all monies transferred to the Treasury as compensation for performing the work and not being permitted to bid.

6) The Auction shall be conducted as follows:
6a) All qualified players are permitted to submit bids of a positive amount of A$ equal to or less than the amount they possess. If a player submits multiple bids, only the highest will be considered. Anyone who submits a bid in excess of the A$ they have is disqualified, and their bids are disqualified. Anyone who submits a bid below the minimum bid is also disqualified. Bids may not be retracted.

6b) In a public auction, each bid, except the first one, must exceed the previous bid by at least 10% for regular public auctions, and at least 1% for Shubik auctions, or it is disqualified.

6c) Let N be the quantity of items up for Auction. The players who made the N highest qualified bids shall each receive an item in exchange for the amount of A$ they bid. If the number of players who made qualified bids is less than N, then the Auctioneer shall receive all the the remaining items, if the minimum bid was A$0. If it was not A$0, then the remaining item(s) shall revert to the player initiating the auction. If, instead, they were unowned when the Auction was initiated, they are destroyed. If the auction was called by a player, and that player no longer has has at least N items at the conclusion of the auction, that player is placed in Contempt. If a bidder does not have enough A$ to honor their bid in either type of auction, they are placed in Contempt. In either of these cases, the auction is voided, and reinitiated if originally called by the rules.

6d) If the bids are tied such that the Auctioneer cannot determine who gets item(s), the Auctioneer shall resolve the tie(s) via random means, and disclose this fact. All tied bidders shall be eligible for the random selection, including any non-active ones.

6e) If the Auction is private, the Auctioneer shall not disclose the bids to anyone during the process of the Auction. If the Auction is public, bids must be submitted to the public forum.

7) When a player acting on their own calls a public auction in which exactly one item is being auctioned, that player may declare that auction to be a "Shubik Auction" when it is initiated. An auction may not be so declared under any other circumstances. At the conclusion of a Shubik Auction, the player who made the second highest bid, if such a player exists, forfeits his bid to the treasury as well, and receives no compensation.

Rule 517/4
Contracts
Red Barn (Daniel Knapp)

Contracts are named, tradeable entities. Any player may create a contract by publicly announcing that e is doing so and providing the name and text of the contract.

A contract has space at the bottom for signatures; a player may sign any contract by announcing that e is doing so, and signing the contract adds the signing player's signature at the bottom of the contract. [Of course, the wording of the contract might specify a player.]

A Player who takes a game action which violates one or more Contracts that bear his or her signature commits a Crime in doing so. A Player who, through inaction, violates one or more Contracts that bear his or her signature has committed a Crime by allowing this to happen.

Contracts may be destroyed under the following circumstances:

1) If the signers of the contract all publicly agree to destroy it, and it is owned by a player or Organization which also agrees to destroy it, it will be destroyed.

2) If there is a clause in the contract specifically dealing with its destruction, and the conditions in that clause are met, then it will be destroyed as soon as this fact is publicly knowable.

Rule 593/10
Ackanomic Research Guild
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

I. The Ackanomic Research Guild (Guild) consists of the holders of the following, and only the following, offices on the lettered list below. A member of the Guild has the title of Scientist:

A. Inventor

The Office of Inventor has one seat and is filled by Election for office. The Duties of the Inventor are to keep a public record of all existing Blueprints, to keep a public record of who owns each existing Gadget, and to take care of all other bookkeeping required to ensure that all Gadgets behave in accordance with their Blueprints.

B. Wizard

The Office of Wizard has one seat. This office is Tradeable, and is held by the player who possesses the seat, if any. When this seat is vacant (and not buried), it is auctioned in a public Auction, with a minimum bid of A$100.

C. Archaeologist

The Office of Archaeologist has one seat. This seat is filled or transferred only as follows: At the end of a Cycle, this seat is transferred to the single voting player who had the highest score when the cycle ended, which was both a prime number and not equivalent to the Magic Number at that time, and who is not already a Scientist other than the Archaeologist. If no such player exists, this seat is not transferred (nor filled if vacant).

II. A player may hold no more than one of the preceding offices at any one time.

III. When a Scientist is removed from their office by impeachment, he loses 20 points. If a Scientist resigns from their office while an Impeachment Paper is pending against him, he loses 5 points. An Impeachment Paper against a Scientist requires no quorum and a simple majority of votes in favor to be accepted.

Rule 594/15
Blueprints
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

(i) Blueprints are unownable entities. A Scientist can create a new Blueprint by posting its text publicly. If the Scientist has no Processing Chips, then the Blueprint is not created; otherwise, one Processing Chip is destroyed for every ten sentences, of fraction thereof, in the Blueprint. In this case, the Scientist is the creator of the Blueprint. A Rule can also create a new Blueprint by specifying that it is doing so, and specifying the text of the new Blueprint. In this case, the author of the Rule is considered the creator of the Blueprint.

Each Blueprint defines a different type of gadget. This definition consists of naming the type of gadget and unambiguously describing the behavior of such a gadget. A blueprint may state a requirement of various raw materials. If a blueprint does not require raw materials of at least half the number of processing chips (rounded up) used in creating the original blueprint, then the text ' Raw materials of N processing chips are required.' (with N replaced by the minimum number described above) is immediately appended to the blueprint, and any other existing requirement of processing chips as raw materials in that blueprint is deleted.

A Scientist may create no more than 4 Blueprints per calendar month.

(ii) When a Blueprint violates or conflicts with one or more Rules, the Blueprint is destroyed, as are any extant Gadgets made from that Blueprint. An attempt to create a Blueprint which violates or conflicts with one or more rules fails; in this case, no processing chips are spent, and the Blueprint is not created.

(iii) A Blueprint is lonely if and only if there do not currently exist any Gadgets made from that Blueprint. The creator of a Blueprint that is lonely may destroy it. If a Scientist leaves or loses their office for any reason, all of his or her lonely Blueprints are destroyed. [This gives the Players a way to get rid of the Blueprint for some Doomsday device: impeach the Scientist. In other cases, the Blueprint is generally approved by vote.]

(iv) If the specification or behaviour, attributes, etc, specified by 2 Blueprints is in conflict, the Blueprint which was created first has precedence. If the Blueprints were created at the same time, the one which would appear first in an alphabetic list of their titles would hold precedence. If this still does not resolve the conflict, or the precedence cannot be determined with finality for any reason, both Blueprints, and all gadgets made from each, are destroyed, in a large yellow, pungent, cloud of dust, which remains in the Archaeologist's home for 3 days.

(v) If a Blueprint specifies the effects of a certain kind of Gadget-related manipulation, and tells who can perform it, but does not specify how it is to be accomplished, then that type of manipulation can be performed as a public action. [See Rule 373 for more about public actions.]

[A Blueprint is not a legally binding document except where the Rules say that it is.]

Rule 595/17
Gadgets
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

(i) A Gadget's Blueprint is the Blueprint that defines the class of Gadget to which that Gadget belongs. If a Gadget's Blueprint exists, the Gadget behaves in the manner defined by the Blueprint, and may be manipulated in accordance with it.

(ii) Gadgets are entities. A Gadget is tradeable unless its Blueprint specifies otherwise. A Blueprint has the authority to specify that Gadgets made from it are nontradeable or gift.

(iii) The ability to create Gadgets is a Privilege of a Scientist. A Scientist may create a Gadget only by performing these tasks, in this order:

(a) choosing a type from those defined by existing Blueprints. If the gadget requires raw material, the Scientist may use that provided by a player or from the Treasury. The raw materials used are destroyed.

(b) announcing publicly that a new Gadget of that type is being made. This cannot be done if the Scientist is already in the process of making a Gadget.

(c) building the gadget. This task is completed when the Scientist has spent at least three days building, and the Blueprint defining the type of Gadget to be made has existed for at least one week. The Gadget is created at the end of this time. If the Treasury provided the raw materials, then the Treasury owns it, otherwise it is unowned.

(d) if a gadget has no owner, then announcing publicly that the new Gadget has been built and initiating a public Auction of the Gadget, as defined by Rule 516. Otherwise, announcing the gadget is completed and who its owner is.

(iv) Gadgets may also be created by rules, provided the rule specifies the quantity created, the Blueprint which defines its behaviour, and how ownership is to be determined. If ownership is to be determined by Auction, The Auction shall be conducted by the process defined by Rule 516.

(v) A Gadget's owner can destroy it by publicly announcing that he or she is doing so, unless the Gadget's Blueprint specifies that it is indestructible.

(vi) A Gadget may create, destroy, or manipulate a Protected entity if its Blueprint so specifies. [So, Gadgets can affect other Gadgets, create points, and so on, as long as this behaviour does not conflict with the Rules.]

(vii) A Gadget is a Qualified Gadget if and only if its Blueprint has existed for at least a fortnight.

Rule 596/2
The Mad Scientist
Swann (Steven Swiniarski)

There is an optional Office of Mad Scientist which has one seat. The holder of the Office has the title of Scientist, but e is not a member of the Ackanomic Research Guild. This Office cannot be filled by any other Scientist, and when a Player takes the seat of this Office e must say publicly; "They laughed at me back at the Academy, the fools! Bwahahaha!" Or words to that general effect.

This Office can only be filled or transferred as follows: If the seat is vacant, it is filled by the last Player to take possession of any Frankenstein Monster. If it is impossible or illegal for the last player to take possesion of a Frankenstein Monster to become Mad Scientist [no such player exists, or the player is already a "real" scientist, whatver], then, the seat shall be filled by Election for Office.

The Mad Scientist's duty is to create Blueprints for, and build, Frankenstein Monsters. Being an outcast from the Scientific community, e has none of the other usual privileges associated with being a Scientist.

The Mad Scientist shall receive A$15 for each Frankenstein Monster e creates.

Any official communication by the Mad Scientist, in eir capacity as Mad Scientist, shall be made in a bad Transylvanian accent and contain at least one exclamation point.

This Rule takes precedence over all Rules on the matters of Scientists, including Mad Scientists.

Rule 597/7
The Frankenstein Monster(s)
Swann (Steven Swiniarski)

There is a class of entities known as Frankenstein Monsters. Each Frankenstein Monster is unique, and has it's own name. Each Frankenstein Monster has it's own Blueprint, which can be created in the manner described by this, and only this, rule. Only the Mad Scientist can construct anything from a Blueprint created according to this Rule, an attempt by any(one)thing else to build something from a Blueprint for a Frankenstein Monster is doomed to dismal failure.

A Blueprint for a Frankenstein Monster is not a Blueprint until its construction is completed by the Mad Scientist. Until then it is a Blueprint-under-construction.

If no Blueprint for a Frankenstein Monster is currently under construction, and no Frankenstein Monster is being built from a Blueprint, the Mad Scientist shall begin construction of a Blueprint for a Frankenstein Monster by making a public announcement, in the proper accent, as follows:

"I am building a monster and its name is <name>!" (where <name> throughout this Rule refers to a name picked for the Monster by the Mad Scientist that is not the same as that of any other Entity, or any prior Monster.)

Thereafter, the construction of a Blueprint for a Frankenstein Monster named <name> is initiated. The Blueprint is constructed by the Mad Scientist attaching valid Frankenstein Parts to it. However, e may only attach such Frankenstein Parts as are delivered to em.

Any voting player (including the Mad Scientist) has the option of digging up and delivering a Frankenstein Part to the Mad Scientist, once per calendar week.

A Frankenstein Part is dug up in the following manner:
i) A complete sentence of no more than thirty words is copied from either some current Rule or some past version of a Rule, such that the rule in question was initially created by a Proposal. The sentence is valid if and only if it is not already to be found in the current blueprint-under-construction, or in the completed Blueprint of a Frankenstein Monster.

ii) A single noun phrase is selected from this sentence.

iii) All instances of the selected noun is replaced by <name> (in whatever grammatical form is appropriate.) Any verbs, pronouns, or other nouns that corresponded in number with the original noun phrase are modified if necessary to correspond in number with <name>. Any pronouns for which the original noun phrase was an antecedent should also be modified to a neuter or otherwise gender-nonspecific form.

iv) The modified sentence, if it fulfills all the above conditions, is a valid Frankenstein Part.

The Mad Scientist must attach all parts to the Blueprint-under-construction, in the order delivered. If any Part is in conflict with a prior attached Part, (i.e. the two Parts would give the Monster mutually-exclusive attributes, (one says "the monster is blue," the other "the monster cannot be blue.") or would lead to a paradoxical or self-contradictory Blueprint) the new Part is rejected, withers, and is discarded.

The Mad Scientist shall keep secret the text of the Blueprint-under-construction (it is not yet a Blueprint), not revealing anything of its nature or contents, until one of the following conditions is true:

v) Its construction is such that any new parts would be rejected.
vi) No player other than the Mad Scientist has submited a Frankenstein Part that was not rejected in the past 30 days.
vii) It is over 500 words long.
viii) It consists of more than 20 complete sentences.

Once this happens the Mad Scientist shall publicly announce;

"I have assembled the Blueprint for <name>!"

E shall then post the text of the Blueprint-under-construction. At this point the Blueprint is constructed, (and is a Blueprint) and no more Parts may ever be added to it. The Mad Scientist must immediately, after this announcement, begin building the Frankenstein Monster subject to the general limitations placed upon Scientists working from Blueprints except that e need not pay Processing Chips, or any raw materials of any sort.

Once the Frankenstein Monster <name> is built, the following happens, (these provisions take precedence over the rules governing the fate of things built from Blueprints):

viii) The Mad Scientist shall exclaim, "It's alive! <name> IS ALIVE!"
ix) The <name> Monster is awarded to the last Player other than the Mad Scientist to have dug up and delivered a Part that was successfully attached (i.e. not rejected) to the Monster. This Player then owns the <name> Monster.
x) If this Player also submitted the last Part in the case where any additional Parts would have been rejected, that Player shall also win the current cycle, be awarded the honorary title of Angry Villager, and be awarded a Silver Pitchfork (a non-unique ownable entity).
xi) The Blueprint is hidden away and may never, ever be used again to create another Monster. If the <name> Monster ever ceases to exist, its Blueprint instantly crumbles into useless dust.

Frankenstein Monsters behave in the manner described in their Blueprints, unless they are in conflict with another blueprint, in which case the Blueprint which was created easrliest hs precedence. Blueprints for Frankenstein Monsters alway defer to the rules.

This Rule takes precedence over all Rules concerning Blueprints, Frankenstein Monsters, Gadgets, and the creation thereof.

Rule 601/6
Winning By Paradox

A call for judgement whose statement alleges that further play is impossible, that changing the rules is impossible, or that a player action which would affect the game state appears equally legal and illegal is a "Paradox Win CFJ." Only those CFJs so specified by the rules are Paradox Win CFJs. When it ceases to be legal to appeal a particular Paradox Win CFJ, if the final verdict is true, and the player who submitted the CFJ is a voting player at that time, then that player wins the cycle.

Rule 603/13
Winning by Points

Points are entities. It is possible for a Player to have a negative number of points.

The number of points a Player has is commonly referred to as his or her score; when it is specified that a Player's score is changed, the appropriate number of points are created or destroyed in order to accomplish the specified change.

The Magic Number is the number of points needed to win a cycle by points. The base value of the Magic Number is 239. The Magic Number, and its base value, may only be changed as specified by the rules.

If exactly one voting player has a number of points equal to or greater than the Magic Number, that player has achieved a Winning Condition.
[See Rule 666 for the effects of winning a cycle.]

If two or more voting players reach the Magic Number at exactly the same time, as determined by the Scorekeeper, the Magic Number shall be increased by 100, or to 11 points above the highest player score, whichever is greater. None of the players shall win the cycle at that time.

If two or more voting players reach the Magic Number at substantially the same time, and the Scorekeeper, in a good faith attempt, cannot determine which of the players reached it first, then the players are deemed to have reached the Magic Number at exactly the same time, and the preceding paragraph shall apply. Making this determination is a duty of the Scorekeeper.

Rule 605/8
Winning is Inherently Amusing (or Winning by Palindrome)
mr cwm (Eric Murray)

Upon each creation, via Proposal, of a Rule fulfilling all three of the following conditions:

(1) the Rule has a game effect in addition to its own addition to the Ackanomic Rule Set and any effect claimed under this Rule.

(2) each word in the Rule exists either in the Ackanomic Rule Set previous to the creation of the Rule, or in the Official Dictionary, provided that such dictionary exists and is not under the control of any Player.

(3) the text of the Rule is palindromic, that is, the text of the Rule would be the same, character by character, forward and backward if all alphabetic characters were lower-case, and anything other than alphabetic characters and numeric digits was removed.

the Player who submitted the Proposal that created the Rule shall:

(1) win the current Cycle of the Game, if the Proposal which created the rule was non-Modest. This win, if it occurs, shall occur immediately after the score changes as a result of the Proposal being accepted are applied.

(2) receive the honorific title "Sage o' Doe Gas" to hold until such time as another Player achieves that title under this Rule.

Rule 607/4
Winning by Finding the Crystal Chalice
Habeous Corpus(Ed Graham)

The Acka-Entities known as the Crystal Chalice, the Vault Containing the Crystal Chalice, Golden Goblets, and the Keys That Unlock the Vault Containing the Crystal Chalice exist. The Keys That Unlock the Vault Containing the Crystal Chalice and the Golden Goblets are Tradable, all other Entities defined by this Rule are non-Tradable.

The Vault Containing the Crystal Chalice (hereafter in this Rule known as the Chalice Vault or CV) The CV is a plain metal chest with five (5) colored locks, each lock corresponds to one of the Keys That Unlock the Vault Containing the Crystal Chalice. They are colored Gold, Silver, Bronze, Chartreuse, and Purple. Whenever the CV is Somewhere Else, and there is an owner of the Chartreuse Goose (Goose), any voting Player may submit a Proposal divining the conditions for finding the CV. The conditions for finding the CV may never be such that only one voting Player meets the conditions. The owner of the Goose may Propose to divine the conditions for finding the CV, but may never, while the owner of the Goose, become eligible to find the CV, or claim the Crystal Chalice. No other restriction on conditions for finding the CV are permissible. If the conditions for finding the CV are such that no Player can meet them, or require actions taken outside of Acka, other Players are allowed (and encouraged) to vote against the Proposal, and sneer and throw small objects (preferably edible ones) at the Player authoring the Proposal. If the Proposal is accepted and the conditions for finding the CV are divined, the Chalice Vault is no longer considered to be Somewhere Else, and those conditions may not be changed until after such time as it goes Somewhere Else, as defined by Rules. This takes Precedence over all Rules which would allow a Player to Propose changes to the conditions under which the CV is found.

After the conditions for finding the Chalice Vault are established, the five (5) Keys that Unlock the Vault Containing the Crystal Chalice (Keys) are created and placed around the neck of the Chartreuse Goose. The owner of the Goose must dispose of the Keys as outlined in this Rule. However, if disposal of any or all Keys is not possible because there are no eligible Players, the Key(s) shall remain with the Goose until such time as it does become possible, or the current Cycle ends, and the owner of the Chartreuse Goose shall suffer no penalty. If the Goose goes Somewhere Else before all Keys are distributed, or if any Keys are returned to the Goose after she has gone Somewhere Else, those Keys shall remain with the Goose, even after she is once again owned by a Player, and no penalties shall be assessed by any Player for failure to distribute the Key(s). If at any time after being received by the Goose the Keys become destroyed, the Chalice Vault shall immediately go Somewhere Else. No new Keys are created until after the CV is no longer Somewhere Else. Players may possess Keys only as allowed by Rules.

No Player may possess any Key more than once as long as there are eligible Players who have not yet possessed that Key since the conditions for finding the CV have been divined. All Keys must be initially distributed to an eligible Player within seven (7) days after their creation or their return to the Goose, or the return of the Goose from Somewhere Else. After initial distribution, each Player shall either redistribute eir Key(s) to another eligible Player as outlined in this Rule, or the Key(s) shall be responsible for the respective actions taken against that Player as outlined below. Any Player possessing one or more Keys may attempt to give a Key to a non-eligible Player, but that Key shall be immediately returned to the Goose, and that Player shall no longer be eligible to receive any Keys for the duration of the Cycle. Non-voting players are never eligible to receive Keys. If a Player goes on Vacation or leaves the Game or becomes a non-voting player, all Keys possessed by that Player are immediately transferred to the Chartreuse Goose. The owner of the Goose must then distribute the Key(s) as an initial distribution in accordance with distribution Rules. If any Player possessing any Key(s) becomes the owner of the Chartreuse Goose, e must immediately distribute the Key(s) in accordance with distribution Rules. The owner of the Chartreuse Goose shall be responsible for monitoring and enforcing the transfer of the Keys between Players.

The Gold Key may be given to any Player whose monetary account has a positive number of A$. Immediately, the Key will consume 1A$ for every day that the Key remains in eir possession. If at any time, the possessor of the Gold Key should have an account balance that is not positive, the Key shall be immediately transferred back to the Chartreuse Goose. The owner of the Goose must then distribute the Key as an initial distribution in accordance with distribution Rules. Any A$ consumed by the Gold Key are returned to the Treasury at the end of each Cycle.

The Silver Key may only be given to a Player possessing one or more Gadgets. After seven (7) days the Key shall destroy one (1) randomly chosen Gadget owned by the Player possessing the Silver Key and will destroy an additional Gadget every week until it is transferred, or all Gadgets owned by the Player are destroyed. If at any time the Player possessing the Silver Key should have no Gadgets, , the Key shall be immediately transferred back to the Chartreuse Goose. The owner of the Goose must then distribute the Key as an initial distribution in accordance with distribution Rules.

The Bronze Key may only be given to a Player possessing one or more Processing Chips. After seven (7) days the Key shall destroy one Processing Chip owned by the Player possessing the Bronze Key and will destroy an additional Processing Chip each week until it is transferred or all Processing Chips owned by the Player are destroyed. If at any time the Player possessing the Bronze Key should have no Processing Chips , the Key shall be immediately transferred back to the Chartreuse Goose. The owner of the Goose must then distribute the Key as an initial distribution in accordance with distribution Rules.

The Chartreuse Key may only be given to a Player possessing one or more of the following Acka Entities: Amber Bananas, the Great Trombone, the Little Lamb, and/or the Gumball. The Player may hold onto the Chartreuse Key for any length of time, as long as e continues to hold at least one of the above Entities. If at any time the Player possessing the Chartreuse Key should have none of the qualifying entities, the Key shall be immediately transferred back to the Chartreuse Goose. The owner of the Goose must then distribute the Key as an initial distribution in accordance with distribution Rules.

The Purple Key may be initially given to any Player. Once initially distributed, the Purple Key may not be given away, but may be traded for any tradable Acka-Entity. The Purple Key may remain in the possession of any Player for any length of time, subject to the following conditions:

1. The Cycle in which the Player received the Purple Key has not ended.
2. The Player possessing the Purple Key has no other Keys.

As soon as either of these conditions are no longer true, the Player possessing the Purple Key must transfer the Purple Key to another Player within seven (7) days or else the Purple Key is transferred back to the Chartreuse Goose. The owner of the Goose must then distribute the Key as an initial distribution in accordance with distribution Rules.

At any time the Player possessing the Purple Key may use the Key to unlock a Gaol Cell and release emself or any other Player currently in Gaol. However, if the Player Possessing the Purple Keys has any other Keys in eir possession at the time e used the Key to open a Gaol Cell, all existing Keys are immediately destroyed. Any Players possessing Keys at this time are permitted to sneer and throw small objects at the Player using eir Purple Key in this fashion.

Only a single voting Player possessing all five (5) Keys may attempt to find the Chalice Vault. If that Player satisfies all conditions for finding the CV, e shall find the CV and use eir Keys to unlock the CV and take possession of the Crystal Chalice. Immediately after a voting player opens the vault and takes possession of the Crystal Chalice, the following actions will occur, in order:

1. The Crystal Chalice is transformed into a Golden Goblet, with the name of the winning Player and the number of the current Cycle engraved on the base of the Goblet.
2. Another Crystal Chalice is created and placed in the vault.
3. All extant Keys That Unlock the Vault Containing the Crystal Chalice are destroyed.
4. The vault closes automatically and locks.
5. The vault is transported to Somewhere Else.
6. The Player possessing the most recent Golden Goblet is declared the Winner of the Cycle.

Rule 607.1/1
Vault Divination
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

The Golden Frog knows the location of the Chalice Vault. If a player eligible to find the Chalice Vault legally possesses the entity called The Golden Frog, The Golden Frog will tell him where the CV is, and the player will thus find it.

Other players may still possess the Golden Frog, but they shall not find the CV by doing so, unless they are eligible.

Rule 620/13
Chartreuse Goose
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

Let a unique, nontradeable, non-mimsy entity exist named the Chartreuse Goose.

A player who possesses the Chartreuse Goose may not win the Cycle. This clause takes precedence over any other rule which establishes winning conditions.

The player possessing the Chartreuse Goose is responsible for feeding it. At such time that officers' salaries are paid, 18 A$ shall be deducted from the account of the player then possessing the Chartreuse Goose, if such a player exists. He may post a public message describing exactly what he has fed the Goose. Otherwise, it shall be assumed that the Goose has eaten grass, much like cows eat grass. If this payment would force a player to go into debt, the 18 A$ is not paid, but instead the Goose becomes grumpy and bites its owner, inflicting a 9-point penalty.

Once per calendar week, the Goose-holder may spend 12 A$ to treat the Goose to some luxury (feather preening, an extra-large meal, a trip to the movies, etc.). If he does so, the Goose has a 5% chance of taking pity on its owner and flying Somewhere Else. Whether or not the goose flies away is determined by the officer in charge of random things.

The Chartreuse Goose (hereafter called "Goose") is transferred as specified below. Other rules may specify other ways for it to be transferred.

Conditions upon which the Goose is transferred:

1) Upon a verdict of other than TRUE on a Paradox Win CFJ, the initiator of the CFJ receives the Goose from wherever it is. If the initiator already has the Goose, however, they shall transfer an A$60 court fee to the Clerk of the Court.

2) Upon a verdict on a Paradox Win CFJ being overturned to TRUE, the Goose goes Somewhere Else, if and only if the player possessing it was the initiator of the CFJ in question. If this judgement is not overruled, then the player who called for judgement is declared the winner of the cycle; the win occurring at the time it becomes illegal to appeal the CFJ under the current rules.

All of the following actions must be announced publically if they are performed, and the time of such post establishes the time when these actions occur. These transfers are impermissible between the time a Paradox Win CFJ submitted by the Goose owner is publically knowable to have been judged TRUE, and the last instant that CFJ may legally be appealed:

3) A player who possesses the Goose and has done so for at least 7 days may pay A$200 to the Treasury and cause it to go Somewhere Else.

4) A player who possesses the Goose and has done so for at least 30 days may pay A$75 to the Treasury and transfer the Goose to the single active player with the lowest score. The player receiving the Goose receives A$75 from the Treasury. This option is not available if more than one active player has the lowest score. The receiving player may not decline the transfer.

5) A player who possesses the Goose may pay A$350 to the Treasury and transfer it to any other active player of their choice. The receiving player may not decline the transfer.

6) A player possessing a Chartreuse Goose Egg may take the Goose off the hands of any player who possesses it, provided the Goose owner agrees to the transaction, and pays a mutually agreed upon amount of currency (of at least A$50) to the Treasury. The Egg owner will receive from the Treasury the same amount that the Goose owner payed in, as compensation.

7) Upon a player who possesses the Goose achieving any of the following titles, the Goose is transferred Somewhere Else: Commander of the Blue Cross, Officer of the Blue Cross, Sage o'Doe Gas. If the event which granted one of these titles also would have established a winning condition had the player not had the Goose, this transfer is deemed to have occurred an infintesimal amount of time after that event.

Rule 666/22
End of Cycle
pTang1001001sos (Mark Nau)

Upon a Cycle winning condition being achieved, the following steps occur, in order:

Rule 667/7
Fat Lady
snowgod (Phil Ackley)

The unique, unownable, entity known as the Fat Lady exists.

The Fat Lady shall sing only if a player wins a Cycle. The Speaker is required to announce that the Fat Lady is singing within a reasonable time of a winner being declared, and the Fat Lady will not sing until the Speaker announces that she is doing so.

The Fat Lady's singing will endure for exactly three hours, or until any player publicly posts an original limerick politely asking her to stop, whichever comes first.

Any player who possesses both the Great Trombone of Ackanomia, and the Great Tuba of Ackanomia, may accompany her, provided they publically post an original lyrical composition of 8 or more lines while she is singing, for her to sing, and provided they were not the player who most recently accompanied her as described in this rule. Upon doing so, a Bonus Vote shall be created and transferred to the player. It is considered good form for the song to contain at least one truly deplorable pun.

Rule 668/4
Eggs and Fruit
ThinMan (John Bollinger)

A Chartreuse Goose Egg is a nameless, tradeable entity. A player who owns a Chartreuse Goose Egg may reduce his own score to zero at any time by informing the Scorekeeper that he is doing so, provided that his score is greater than zero. Chartreuse Goose Eggs have no other power.

The Right-Handed Grapefruit is a unique, nontradeable entity. A player who owns a Right-Handed Grapefruit may at any time make Right-Handed Grapefruit Juice (a tradeable, potable entity; the action of frinking it destroys it).

Rule 669/3
Marks of the Champion
Guy Fawkes (Robert Shimmin)

Champion's Cloaks and Badges of Glory are nontradeable entities. Champion's Cloaks are Garments.

A Champion's Cloak is a regal garment of the color(s) and design of its owner's choice, while Badges of Glory are elaborate medals of various designs. (It is customary, though not required, for the owner of either of these entities to describe it within 3 days of acquiring it.)

A player may request to be called, "Exalted One," or the honorific of his choice while he wears any of these objects. It is not necessary to honor such requests.

Rule 670/7
Commission d'Arts
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

1) Upon the end of a cycle which exceeded 30 days in length, or as otherwise directed by the rules, an Ad Hoc Committee on the matter of Fine Art (also referred to as The "Commission d'Arts", or the Commission) shall be called. Exception: The Commission shall not be called if it has been less than 60 days since any previous one has been called.

2) The Commission shall produce, and publically post, a report listing 4 Nominees for the Silver Moon award. A Nominee must be a work of art from Acka's past, such as a Silly Vacation Hat description, Phoebe post, Gaoler poem, Prosthetic Forehead, etc. Rules, Proposals, and other written works are also permissible, but are discouraged as Nominees, unless they are truly meritorious. One constraint is that the Nominee must be publically accessible from a web page maintained by the Web-Harfer. Material created by non-active players is discouraged as a Nominee.

3) Each Nominee in a given report must be unique, but Nominees from a previous report may appear on the current one, except that no Nominee which previously won a vote under this rule may be a Nominee again.

4) If the Commission fails to produce the report within the constraints of this rule, or if the Commission has not produced the report within 4 days since it was called, then after a 4 day grace period (to allow the members of the Commission to dwell on what they have done) every member of the Commission will be burned as a witch and have their score reduced by 2 points.

5) Upon the issuance of the report, a Hearing is called. The valid responses are the names of the Nominees, as listed in the Commission's report. The winning Nominee is the Nominee indicated by the verdict of the Hearing (if any).

6) Upon a winning Nominee being announced, the author (or player who originally posted the material, in the case of something like Phoebe's wisdom) of the material is awarded the Silver Moon, and a cash prize of A$75, if they are a registered player. If they are not a registered player, their Undead is awarded said entities, unless there is no Undead associated with the author, in which case no awards are created or bestowed.

7) The Silver Moon recipient, if a registered player, is required to make an acceptance speech, not to exceed 10,000 words, unless they are in Gaol, in which case they will be represented by a cardboard cutout on wheels, which will lower the whole tone of the occasion, and they will lose 5 points for detracting from the festivities (although they still receive the above awards, of course).

8) It is a duty of the Web-Harfer to so note on the web pages which material has won a Silver Moon for its recipient.

9) A Silver Moon may only be created in accordance with the rules, and awarded in accordance with the rules. When one is required for this occasion, it is made by the Frobozz Magic Medal Company, Ackanomic Division.

Rule 709/12
Gaol
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

This rule has precedence over all other rules, except where this rule explicitly defers to other rules.

The Gaol has an Evidence Room that is a Location unlimited in capacity. The Gaoler shall place items in the Evidence Room as directed by the Rules. Items in the Evidence Room belong to no Player. Items in the Evidence Room may not be manipulated in any way except as explicitly permitted by the Rules. This paragraph takes precedence over R665 (Treasury and Hard Money) insofar as it is necessary to prevent the unowned items from being placed in the Treasury.

The Location known as the Gaol is hereby created. It is a cramped building. A player may not leave the Gaol except by the application of a Rule which explicitly defines a procedure or condition for the player to be released or removed from the Gaol.

If a player is in the Gaol, they shall not count for the purposes of determining Quorum.

Players in the Gaol may not be selected to judge CFJ's, to be mentors, to find Phoebe's Matchbox, or to be Mad Hatters. If a player has been selected to judge a CFJ and has not yet accepted or declined the appointment when e enters the Gaol, e is considered to have declined the appointment as judge.

If a player is in the Gaol, they may perform no game actions except those on the following numbered list and those allowed by Rule 101. If a particular action on this list is not defined elsewhere the rules, however, it is considered to be "prohibited". This clause defers to any other rule which regulates any action on the following list:

1) A voting player in the Gaol may make a Call for Judgement (CFJ)
2) A voting player in the Gaol may make a Call for Criminal Judgement (CFCJ)
3) A player in the Gaol may make an Appeal for Pardon (AFP), as long as that player is not the President.
4) A player in the Gaol may bribe the Gaoler, if such an officer exists
5) A player in the Gaol may go on Vacation
6) A player in the Gaol may return from Vacation
7) A player in the Gaol may make a Public Apology.
8) A player in the Gaol may post up to 3 public messages a day.

Note that "game action" means anything where the player must act. Examples include voting, submitting proposals, AOJs, chewing the Gumball, etc. Examples of what this does NOT include are things like gaining points, passively receiving currency or the Magic Potato, or winning.

A player is released from the Gaol if and when their sentence expires. Other rules may specify other conditions under which a player is released.

Rule 710/11
Criminal Justice
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

This rule defines the Call for Criminal Judgement (CFCJ) procedure. Except as detailed in this rule, it shall be like the Call for Judgement in all ways, including how it is submitted, how judges are selected, how it is appealed, etc. Any changes to the CFJ procedure will automatically be "inherited" by the CFCJ procedure when they do not contradict the exceptions detailed in this rule.

1) A "court fee" of A$20 will be paid by the player making the CFCJ, to the Treasury.

2) A CFCJ will be clearly labelled as such, to distinguish it from an ordinary CFJ.

3) Its "statement" shall be "X has committed a Crime", where X is replaced with the name of a registered player.

4) Its "reasoning" section shall show how Player X broke the Rules.

5) It shall include a "suggested penalty" section, which is a recommended penalty to be imposed on Player X, should a verdict of TRUE be reached. More than one class of penalty may be recommended. The valid classes of penalties are:

6) Upon a verdict of FALSE on the CFCJ, no penalty shall be imposed upon Player X.

7a) Upon a verdict of TRUE, the judge may retain or alter the recommended penalty. The result will become the actual penalty. This will be imposed following a 3 day "grace period".

7b) If the penalty was a SENTENCE in the Gaol, player X shall be moved from their current Location to the Gaol at the end of the grace period, at which time their sentence will start. If, however, player X was already in the Gaol at the end of the grace period, the sentence they are currently serving shall be increased by the length of the new sentence.

7c) If the penalty specifies a TRANSFERENCE of any entity which it is not permissible to transfer, that part of the penalty shall be void, but such shall not necessarily void other parts of the penalty.

7d) If the penalty includes a PUBLIC APOLOGY, Player X is required to post a public message of at least the court-required length apologizing for his criminal ways. This should be done within three days of the expiration of his grace period, and it should have "Acka: Public Apology" as its subject line. Failure to comply will result in the addition of three days to that player's Gaol sentence, if he is in Gaol, or the immediate transfer of that player to the Gaol for a three-day incarceration if he is not in Gaol. Self-abasement is especially encouraged in such a message.

8a) All other verdicts shall work as they would for a CFJ. Any verdict may be appealed as with a CFJ.

8b) If a TRUE verdict is not upheld on an appeal, any penalties, except SENTENCE, are reversed, effective the time of the appeal verdict. The amount of any penalty of SENTENCE is subtracted from player X's current sentence (if any, assume 0 if none), and the player is released from Gaol if their resultant sentence is non-positive.

8c) If a TRUE verdict is upheld on an appeal, the appellate court or judge may impose a penalty different from the previously imposed penalty. If such an appeal verdict is delivered during the grace period, the new penalty is imposed at the end of that grace period instead of the original one (ie, the grace period is not adjusted). If the appeal verdict is delivered after the grace period ended (previous penalty already imposed), then the appropriate transactions are performed to adjust the penalty. In this case, if either penalty involved a SENTENCE in the Gaol, then the difference is tacked on or subtracted from player X's current sentence. If the result is non-positive, player X is released from the Gaol if they are there. If the result is positive, and player X is not in Gaol, they are placed there immediately.

9) No more than one CFCJ may be brought against a single player for a single instance of allegedly breaking the Rules. No one may be tried more than once for the same alleged instance of violating the Rules (an appeal is considered a continuation of the original trial).

Rule 711/2
Appeal for Pardon
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

Any player may make an Appeal for Pardon (AFP), provided all of the following are true:

1) The player is not the President.
2) The player has had a verdict of TRUE reached against them within the past 3 days on a CFCJ, OR the player is in the Gaol, OR the player is Guilty of Patent Infringement.
3) The player is not on vacation.

An AFP must be made to the public forum. From the time it is made public, the President has 3 days to GRANT or DENY the pardon. If there is no President, the President is on vacation, or the President does not act on the AFP within 3 days, the AFP is considered DENYed.

If the AFP is GRANTed, the penalty from the most recent CFCJ against the player is waived, and/or the player is immediately released from the Gaol, if they are in the Gaol, or the player will no longer be said to be Guilty of Patent Infringement.

Rule 712/7
Gaoler
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

(i) The Office of Gaoler is hereby created.

(ii) There shall be one seat for this office. This seat is filled by election.

(iii) The duties are

(iv) The Privileges are:

Upon announcing a bribe, the A$ is transferred from the player making the bribe to the Gaoler, if and only if the player has sufficient A$.

The Gaoler is not obligated to release a player from which they have received a bribe.

Rule 713/2
Crime
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

To break the Rules is a Crime, a Felony.

To perform an action specified by the Rules to be Illegal is a Crime. An action specified by the Rules to be "impermissible" is, by contrast, impossible. However, an attempt to commit such an action is a Crime [even though the action itself does not occur].

If, however, the illegally or impossiblility of a publically knowable change to the game state goes unreported for at least 14 days, the action or inaction which caused that change is considered legal, but it is still a Crime. The change is deemed to have occurred retroactively to the time of the attempt. The preceeding does not apply to the case of events which occur automatically, but whose occurrance is not (or erroneously) reported [e.g., loss of the Great Trombone]. This paragraph has precedence over rule 103.

Failure of an Officer to perform a Duty of an Office e holds is a Crime. The act of performing a Duty incorrectly is Malpractice, which is also a Crime.

Rule 714/3
Cow Town Hotel
snowgod (Phil Ackley)

This rule establishes a Hotel named Cow Town. It is a classy building.

Cow Town is located near the Library, at 32 Yellow Roosevelt Avenue in the bottom of a crater filled with water.

Cow Town is a hideout for Gaolbirds. Any player who has been found guilty of a crime (per CFCJ) can enter Cow Town during their "grace period". This is accomplished by publically posting a message that reads "I'm going down to Cow Town, Cow's a friend to me. Live's beneath the ocean, that's where I will be. Beneath the waves, the waves, and that's where I will be. I'm going to see the Cow beneath the sea." Immediately after the posting of such a message, an eligible player will enter Cow Town.

Any player in Cow Town is a Fugitive and should be referred to as such in any public message.

No player may enter Cow Town except as specified in this rule. Upon entering Cow Town, the guest shall have the Chartreuse Goose transferred to him or her from wherever it is.

The fee for staying in Cow Town is A$25 a night. The owner of Cow Town may do with the hotel as he sees fit, however selling the hotel to another player is considered to be bad form, and players are allowed to sneer. The only exception to the sneering bit is if a former gaoler wishes to sell the hotel to a newly elected gaoler.

Any Player who is staying in Cow Town may submit proposals, vote on proposals, call for judgement, deliver judgement, transfer currency in accordance with the rules, or leave Cow Town of their own consent. A player in Cow Town may also go on vacation or return from vacation.

Any Player who is staying in Cow Town may not perform any action that is not on the above list . Upon entering Cow Town all privileges that a player is entitled to are suspended until the player leaves Cow Town.

No player in Cow Town may be removed from Cow Town without first giving their consent. This rule takes precedence over Rule 836 and any rules dealing with heresy, witchhunts, the justice system or the gaol.

The gaoler may visit Cow Town, but shall never stay there.

Rule 715/3
in Contempt
snowgod (Phil Ackley)

A player who is held in Contempt shall be required to either pay a fine of A$100 to the treasury, or be placed in the Gaol for three days. The player who is in Contempt is allowed to choose which of the two options he would like. If the player does not make a choice within three days of being held in Contempt it will be assumed that he has chosen the Gaol sentence.

A player shall cease to be held in Contempt once a choice as been made per above.

Rule 716/3
Patent Infringement
mr cwm (Eric Murray)

When a rule change occurs that causes a new named entity or named class of entities to exist, and a Player owns an entity with the same name as the new entity or class, that Player shall be Guilty of Patent Infringement, unless that entity is any type of Frog.

When a Player becomes Guilty of Patent Infringement they shall:

1) deliver the item described in the preceding paragraph to the Gaoler, to be placed in the Gaol's Evidence Room.
2) obtain a Prosthetic Forehead in accordance with the Rules, and present it to a Scientist, as a symbolic apology to the intellectual community.
3) be said to be Guilty of Patent Infringement until an Appeal For Pardon is GRANTed them by the President.

Rule 719/0
Zuriti'ili
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

Zuriti'ili is a Crime.

As it is not yet entirely clear what constitutes the heinous Crime of Zuriti'ili, the judge of a CFCJ alleging that such a Crime has occurred is granted an unusual amount of latitude in setting forth a verdict. He or she is encouraged to research ancient tomes before reaching a decision, and in presenting the verdict may set forth a single guideline relevant to the current case, to aid future judges in similar situations. Naturally, the guideline may not conflict with the existing guidelines and other rules, and it must agree with the verdict itself (otherwise it is ignored for the purposes of this rule.)

[Recommended guidelines are of forms like "Xxxx does not constitute Zuriti'ili," or "It is possible for an act of Zuriti'ili to involve xxxx." To stretch the fun, they should be broad and vague so that the definition of Zuriri'ili sharpens slowly over time.]

On appeal, this guideline may be upheld (if the verdict is upheld) or overturned and possibly replaced with another guideline (even if the verdict itself is upheld) as long as the resulting guideline and verdict agree with one another and with the rules. When it becomes illegal to appeal a Zuriti'ili CFCJ further, any guideline from that CFCJ that was not overturned on appeal is added to the list of guidelines below.

Guidelines:

. At least once in the history of Ackanomic, a player has committed Zuriti'ili.

. Zuriti'ili may be related to one or more entities that can be owned.

Rule 835/3
Locations
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

1) A Rule that defines an entity or class of entity may specify that the entity is a Location. Unless otherwise specified, a Location may contain any number of players. Instances of Locations are entities, and are unique, unless otherwise specified. A Location may only have properties, or be given properties, as specified by the Rules.

2) A player must be in exactly one Location at any one time. A player may only leave, or be removed from, a Location as specified by the Rules. A player may only enter, or be placed in, a Location as specified by the Rules. Locations are unowned unless conditions for ownership, as specified by the Rules, have been met and are maintained.

3) If a Rule specifies that a player enters a Location, they leave their current Location, unless there is some other restriction which would prevent them from leaving the current Location [e.g. Gaol]. In this case they actually do not enter the destination Location; they remain where they are.

4) A Location may be specified as a Common Location. Players may leave and enter such Locations freely, provided they meet any specific conditions that may be defined for the Common Location.

5) If a player leaves or is removed from, any Location, and it is unspecified to which Location that they go, they go to their Home, if it exists.

6) Wilds of Ackanomia

6a) Let the Common Location known as the Wilds of Ackanomia exist. If a player leaves any Location, and it is otherwise unclear or undefined which Location they go to, or the specified destination does not exist, or they cannot go to their Home, they go to the Wilds of Ackanomia.

6b) If it is ever otherwise unclear for any reason what Location a player should go to [e.g., an old player rejoining the game], they go to the Wilds of Ackanomia.

7) Somewhere Else

7a) Somewhere Else is an unownable and unmappable Location. Entities may not be transferred to and/or from Somewhere Else except whereas such transfers are explicity permitted by the Rules. No player may ever be Somewhere Else.

8) Any player rejoining the game goes to the Location they were in when they left the game. Any player joining the game for the first time goes to their Home.

Rule 836/3
Hotels
this is not a name (Mike Epstein)

A class of Locations called the Hotel (plural Hotels) is hereby created. Each particular Hotel may only be created by the passage of a Rule. If the Rule that creates a particular Hotel ceases to exist, that Hotel vanishes in a cloud of dust. The Rule that creates a Hotel should specify the size building it is. If it does not, it is puny by default.

Any Player may stay in a Hotel upon announcing it to the public forum and paying the hotel's fee. If the fee for a particular Hotel is not defined elsewhere in the rules, it is A$10 per 24-hour period or fraction thereof. The fee for staying in a Hotel is paid to the owner of the Hotel, unless otherwise specified. If a Hotel has no other owner, its owner is considered to be the Treasury. If the owner of a Hotel is a Player, that Player may set the fee for that Hotel, but any increase in a Hotel's fee will not apply to any Player staying in that Hotel at the time of the fee increase. If the owner of a Hotel ceases to be a Player, ownership of that Hotel reverts to the Treasury. Hotels are tradeable.

A Player staying in a Hotel is considered a Guest of that Hotel. A Player may stay in a Hotel for any length of time as long as e has enough currency to pay for the privilege.

If a Guest goes on Vacation, e will remain in the Hotel as long as e has enough currency to pay for the privilege, provided that no other rule requires the Player to leave the Hotel.

A Guest will not leave the Hotel until either e posts to the public forum that e is leaving, e runs out of money to pay for the stay, the Hotel ceases to exist, or e is required to leave the Hotel by any applicable Rule. The owner of a Hotel does not have the ability to make a Guest leave that Hotel unless otherwise specified by another applicable Rule.

Players who are staying in Hotels and owners of Hotels may have other privileges, duties or special characteristics as specified by another applicable Rule.

This rule defers to any rule requiring that a player enter a Location other than a Hotel. A Player staying in a Hotel who is required by any rule to enter another Location automatically leaves the Hotel.

Rule 837/4
Nothing Important
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

The Location known as the Ackanomic Afterlife hereby exists.

It is a luxurious palace near the Senate building. The palace is a classy building. This palace magically heals all burns of players here, and the ashes of players have been known to spontaneously "decombust" back into the player when put there.

A player may leave this palace whenever he or she wants, by publically announcing that they are doing so.

Rule 839/9
Buildings
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

A building is a class of entity in Ackanomic which can be of six sizes:
small (aka cramped or puny) (1 land unit)
cosy (2 land units)
classy (4 land units)
lavish (6 land units)
sumptuous (9 land units)
extravagant (12 land units)
A player may own more than one building, although only one (of his choosing) may be his home. A player's home is also his legal residence. Each instance of a player home is a Common Location, with the restriction that no player may enter a Home they don't own without permission of the owner.

A player may change the name of buildings they own by publicly announcing the new name and unambiguously identifying the building they wish to rename.

The Senate Building is lavish. The FM building is a classy place. The Courthouse is a cosy building. These buildings may never be smaller that as defined originally but can be greater. All of these buildings are Common Locations. All other land, with or without buildings on them, that is not owned by players is called common lands.

Buildings are always owned by whoever or whatever owns the land that the building sits on, or unowned if that land is unowned. If the land which a building sits on is at any time not all owned by the same player or entity (or all unowned), the building is immediately destroyed, unless it is a building specified by the rules to exist. In the latter case, the building and all the land it sits on are transferred to the last player to have owned all that land at the same time; if no such player exists or that player is no longer a player or otherwise is prohibited from owning the land and/or building, the land and building become unowned.

Rule 840/4
Library
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

The Library is a classy building where a copy of all legal documents are kept. It is a Common Location. The Historian (or by default the Speaker) is in charge of the Library. It may not be destroyed or reduced in size to less than what it is originally (classy).

Rule 841/5
Towers
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

1) There are two types of towers: Ostentatious Towers and Public Towers. An Ostentatious Tower is a tower that a player adds to a building they own (the term "Ostentatious Tower" is always with respect to a particular player). A Public Tower is a tower that a player adds to a public building, (that is, a building defined by the rules which is owned by no player or Undead), or to a kaa of public land.

2) A player is always said to be 'permitted' to build (or extend) an Ostentatious Tower associated with them. A player is said to be permitted to build (or extend) a Public Tower provided they submit a plan to an Ad Hoc Committee on the Matter of Skylines, and that Ad Hoc Commitee votes approval of that plan. Such a plan must describe a tower that could legally be built (or a legal extension of an extant Public Tower). The Public Tower so built (or extension thereof) as a result of this permission must accord with the plan approved by the Ad Hoc Committee.

3) There is no limit to the number of towers that may be added to a building, and there is no upper limit to their height, so long as they are constructed (or extended) via procedures defined in the rules. Towers are unownable entities.

4) A tower is constructed as follows, provided the player is permitted to construct it. The player publically announces which building they are adding a tower to (or which kaa of land they are building it on), a description of the tower, and the height of the tower (as a positive integral number of meters). Towers must be at least 35 meters tall. Towers cost A$3 per meter to construct, and if a player cannot afford the construction costs, they may not build a tower of that height.

5) A player may also extend the height of a tower they are permitted to extend by an integral number of meters, at a cost of A$5 per meter, by publically announcing they are doing so, and by describing the extension.

6) A building's height is the height of its tallest tower. All buildings without a tower are less than 35 meters high, unless the rules specify otherwise. A stand-alone tower built on a kaa of land without an attached building is considered a building in its own right.

7) Any tower in the Gaol's evidence room is twisted into a pretzel-shaped blob, and will not exceed the height of the Gaol. Towers may not manipulate protected entities or perform protected actions except where specified by the rules. Towers may only be destroyed as specified in the rules.

8) It is said that a tower of sufficient height will reach close to the edge of the stainless steel hollow walls that surround the earth, and it is known that a Brass Monkey is taller than two average cat-heights.

9) Each building with an Ostentatious Tower also has a basement capable of holding one player for each 20 meters in the combined height of all towers on that building. When a Tornado strikes, if the total number of players in a building with a basement who are not otherwise sheltered is less than or equal to the capacity of the basement, then all those players manage to escape to the basement and are sheltered. If there are too many such players in a building, then while fighting to get into the basement, none of them manage to get in before the tornado hits.

Rule 843/6
Hall of Elders
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

1) Let the Hall of Elders exist. It is a common location, and is housed in a classy marble building, at least 3 blocks from the Gaol.

2) Whenever a player leaves the game, their likeness (hereafter, where appropriate, referred to as if it were the actual player) is eligible to be enshrined in the Hall of Elders. They shall be a candidate for such an honor if someone nominates them (via a public message) for such within 3 days of them leaving the game. If multiple players nominate the same departing player, they are only considered nominated once.

3) If a departing player has been nominated, their confirmation period starts at the time of their nomination and ends 3 days after their nomination. During the confirmation period, players may send messages to the public forum supporting the nominee (maximum one such message per player). The nominee shall receive one confirmation point for each such message posted in accordance with the rules. They shall also receive one point for each cycle (or game) they won while a player, up to a maximum of 5 points from this source.

4) At the end of the nomination period, the nominee is confirmed if and only if the number of confirmation points they received is in excess of the number of active players divided by 2. After it is decided whether or not the player has been confirmed, all of their confirmation points are destroyed.

5) If the departing player returns to the game either during the nomination period, or the confirmation period, they are no longer considered a nominee. This section takes precedence over all the preceding ones.

6) Once confirmed, the great honor of being enshrined in the Hall of Elders is bestowed upon the nominee. It is a duty of the Web-Harfer to place relevant information about the (including their portrait, if such exists), on a web page which represents the Hall. Such information should include a replica of any items being haunted by the enshrinee's undead (except land and the like). The Historian should provide a brief biography of the enshrinee, and a list of any offices they may have held while a player. This is considered "relevent information", as per above.

7) Whenever an enshrinee is enshrined in the Hall (either by this rule or another), An Ackanomic Holiday shall be placed on the calendar, named after the enshrinee (e.g. Elder X's Day). The date (excluding year) shall be chosen as follows:
1) It shall not be Jan 22nd.
2) It shall be the date the player in question originally joined the game, if that date can be determined with finality, and that date is not already an Ackanomic Holiday, otherwise,
3) It shall be the date the player in question most recently left the game, if that date is not already an Ackanomic Holiday, otherwise,
4) The Speaker shall choose a date that is not already an Ackanomic Holiday.

8) If the player in question returns to the game at least 30 days after being enshrined, they may use the title Elder, and shall have the powers and benefits explicitly specified by other rules for Elders.

9) The rules may explicitly delineate other procedures for an active player to be enshrined in the Hall, and this rule defers to such where there is a conflict.

Rule 844/5
Land Baroncy
Jammer (John-Martin Lotz)

A player may purchase a kaa of empty, common land for A$50.

All deals to buy common land at any other price, or to buy common land with a building on it, or which would result in a player owning more than 5 kaa of land, and all deals to sell land to the treasury must be approved by senate vote. When the senate approves a land deal, the transaction occurs when the approval is announced, if there is no other reason it cannot occur.

Land is tradable, but any trade which would result in a player owning more than 5 kaa of land must be approved by senate vote. When such a transaction is agreed upon by two players or other entities, the senate is called to vote on the matter. If the senate approves the trade, it occurs when the senate announces the result; if the senate fails to post a result for the vote, the trade occurs when the senators are placed in Contempt for failing to do so.

Rule 845/5
Map
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

Let there be the Map of Ackanomia. It is a resource of Ackanomia, and may be owned by no single player.

The Map is a concrete representation of the abstract structure, location, and relationships of the (lands, buildings, residences, boundaries with other Nomics, and other geographic entities in Ackanomia, and its interfaces with the Inter-Nomic realm). The non-existence of any of the entities mentioned in this paragraph in parentheses shall not be sufficient to cause the non-existence of the Map.

The Null Map is permissible as the Map. If the Null Map is being used, the officer in charge of the Map must make this fact public.

The officer in charge of the Map may choose any medium he or she desires to render it. The recommended mediums shall be HTML with clickable images/cgi, or VRML. The officer shall consider public opinion, availability, and cost of technology when making such a decision.

If the medium chosen allows what is now commonly referred to as "links", or a similar mechanism, then the Map shall be designed so as to permit links to individual player's "abodes", or other content, so long as the medium that content is rendered in is compatible with the Map's medium.

The officer in charge of the Map should add, change, or remove buildings and other Locations as the Rules specifying these are enacted, amended, or repealed.

Rule 846/2
Constructions and Architectural Aesthetic
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

The following table details the prices involved with various buildings: 
Size            Construction    Destruction     Rebuilding      Upgrade
Small               A$100            A$10         A$100           A$500
Cosy                A$500            A$50         A$250          A$1600
Classy             A$2000           A$200        A$1000          A$4000
Lavish             A$5000           A$500        A$2500          A$7000
Sumptous          A$10000          A$1000        A$5000         A$15000
Extravagant       A$20000          A$2000       A$10000           n/a
Construction costs do not include land. If a building is destroyed, it no longer exists. If a building is damaged it may be repaired for the cost of rebuilding. For the cost of an upgrade and provided the player owns enough land, a building's size is increased to the next. No building can be more than extravagant.

Such costs are paid to the Treasury and events associated with them occur upon acknowledgement by the Financier. A player may only build on land they own and provided they own enough land. A player may only alter buildings they own.

The player may post a description of a building they own at any time. The building is thereby made exactly as eir description of it, provided that description follows the rules. It is a crime to give a description of the house which is not in accord with the rules.

Rule 850/1
Museum
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

I. Ackanomic Museum of Antiquities

The Ackanomic Museum of Antiquities (Museum) exists; it is a classy building near the Library. It is a Common Location. The Museum has 3 wings: the North Wing, the Malenkai Wing, and the McCumber Annex. The Malenkai Wing is the most prestigious, but the McCumber Annex is sort of cramped and unused.

II. Curator

The Financier is the curator of the Museum, and it is a duty of that office to maintain records of the Museum's inventory, and other relevant Museum details.

III. Donation

A player may donate any Gadget, Trinket, or Prosthetic Forehead that they own to the Museum, by going there and publically announcing which object(s) they are donating. All newly donated objects (along with the name of the associated benefactor) are placed on display in the North Wing. The Museum has high standards, so it will not accept Prosthetic Forehead donations if it already has 15 such pieces on display. Items on display in the Museum are not considered in the Treasury.

IV. Donation Value

Objects on display are valued by the Museum as follows:
a) Prosthetic Foreheads: A$10.
b) Gadgets: The most recent price paid for that type of Gadget at an auction such that the proceeds of that auction went to the Treasury. If that value is undefined, its value is A$50.
c) Trinkets: The value the Trinket had when it was donated. If it was once part of a Buried Treasure for more than 60 continuous days, it is an Antiquity, and its value is increased by 30% (fractions truncated), upon donation, and it is no longer considered to have once been part of a Buried Treasure for for that length for the purposes of this sub-section, unless it again acquires that attribute.

V. Benefactor Value and Renaming the North Wing

Each Museum benefactor has a benefactor value (BV), which is the sum of the value of all objects on display in the North Wing that that benefactor donated (the benefactor of record is considered to be the last player to donate a particular object). Upon a benefactor's BV exceeding A$1000, the North Wing is renamed in his honor to his player name; this rule is amended to replace all occurrences of the string 'North' which directly precede the word "Wing" or are in single quotes, in this rule with that player's name (the occurrence in single quotes being replaced last).

VI. Bonus Vote

On the first day of each month, the Museum throws a party honoring its benefactors. This is a private gathering. There are door prizes, but as the Museum is always tight on funds, they are pretty lame. The only one of note is a Bonus Vote, which is awarded to a random benefactor. Each benefactor's probability of receiving this Vote is their BV divided by the total BV. If the total BV is zero, however, no award is bestowed.

VII. The Value of Winning

Upon a benefactor's BV exceeding A$5000, if e is a voting player, all objects donated by that benefactor are transferred to the Malenkai Wing, and a big ceremony, which is a public gathering, is held. If this appears to occur simultaneously with a renaming of the North Wing, however, it will occur an infinitesimal time afterwards instead. This rule is then amended to replace all occurrences of the player's name which directly precede the word "Wing" or is in single quotes, with the concatenation of the strings "No" and "rth", and then all occurrances of the string 'Malenkai' which directly precede the word "Wing" or are in single quotes, are replaced by the player's name. That player is then declared the winner of the Cycle. No player may win a Cycle more than once in this manner, and if it appears that they otherwise would, no part of this section preceding this sentence shall apply in that instance.

VIII. Museum Security

Objects may not be removed or stolen from the Museum except as described by the rules. Any person caught stealing from the Museum, as described in the rules, shall go to Gaol with a sentence of 7 days per object pilfered, in addition to any other penalties described in the rules.

Rule 852/2
Portrait Gallery
snowgod (Phil Ackley)

The Portrait Gallery is a small building and a Common Location. It is a duty of the Web-Harfer to maintain a gallery of portraits.

This gallery shall be linked to the Official Ackanomic Web Page and must contain a portrait of every player who has submitted one. The Web-Harfer may resize portraits in order to keep them uniform. If a player has no portrait the Web-Harfer shall place an empty picture frame in the gallery containing the words "This space reserved for x" (where x is the name of the player without a portrait.)

If the Web-Harfer can think of a feasible way of doing so, he may charge admission to the gallery. However, the price of Admission must never exceed A$2. Charging admission is a privilege of the Web-Harfer.

The Web-Harfer may, but is not required to maintain a gallery containing images of deceased players.

Rule 854/3
Ackanomic Institute of Genetic Replication
Guy Fawkes (Robert Shimmin)

The Ackanomic Institute of Genetic Replication exists. It is housed in a cosy laboratory in the south part of Acka. It is a Common Location. When required by the rules, it will produce a replica of a player. Such a replica may only take actions explicitly allowed it by the rules, and is rather short-lived, being destroyed at the end of the occasion which warranted its creation. Unless specified otherwise, there is no charge for such replicas.

The Ackanomic Institute of Genetic Replication also provides customized mutations, at a small fee, to any interested player. If in a public message a player announces he is paying the specified fee for a mutation described in this rule, the cost is deducted from his account, and he receives that mutation and any special attributes associated with it described in this rule. If he later wishes to have the mutation removed, he must pay a fee equal to that for receiving the mutation, and he shall cease to have both the mutation and any special attributes associated with it.

Current available mutations:

Extra head: Cost -- 50 A$. Each extra head possessed by a player allows him to wear one more piece of headwear than he would otherwise be allowed. This takes precedence over other rules dealing with any form of headwear inasmuch as their restrictions on the number of pieces of headwear a player may wear are relaxed for those with extra heads. Players with extra heads are encouraged to occasionally get into public arguments amongst their heads.

Pointy ears: Cost -- 4 A$ each, or 6 A$ for a pair. Pointy ears don't do much, but players who have them may threaten other players with a Vulcan Neck Pinch and be taken seriously. Players without pointy ears may also make this threat, but they are liable to be laughed at upon doing so. Players with only one pointy ear are liable to be laughed at regardless of their actions.

Wings: Cost -- 100 A$. Winged players need not worry about dangling from the earth, as they can reattach the suction cups for any player that might lose them. Because of the size of buildings, it requires three winged players to reattach a dangling building's suction cups, and after doing so, they must rest for three days before reattaching anything else. Buildings that have also lost their emergency tether can still be reattached by three winged players, but the strenuous effort will cause the players to lose their wings as well. Since extra heads ruin a player's aerodynamics, a player may not have both wings and an extra head.

Telepathy: Cost -- 350 A$. No player may purchase telepathy unless he already owns an Extra head mutation, and at least one Pointy ear mutation. A player who has (owns) the telepathy mutation gains the ability to use the power described as telepathy in Rule 1117, but must follow all restrictions on and is subject to any side effects of it's use as described in that Rule. The Telepathy mutation cannot be removed or destroyed by the W-File pair or their alien sedative, however, this takes precedence over Rule 261.

Telekinesis -- 500 A$. No player may purchase the Telekinesis mutation unless he already owns an Extra head mutation, at least one Pointy ear mutation, and the Telepathy mutation. A player who has (owns) the Telekinesis mutation has the ability to use the power described as telekinesis in Rule 1117, but must follow all restrictions on and is subject to any side effects of it's use as described in that Rule. The Telekinesis mutation cannot be removed or destroyed by the W-File pair or their alien sedative, however, this takes precedence over Rule 261.

Other mutations may be developed in the future, and if they are, they should be added to this rule.

Rule 901/10
The Magic Potato
Sean Crystal

This rule creates a unique entity known as the Magic Potato. The Magic Potato will be given to a randomly chosen Active player each week. The responsibility of choosing the Player randomly will be left up to the Officer in charge of random things. There will exist only one Magic Potato at any one time. The Player that currently holds the Magic Potato will gain three extra points for each proposal of his that is accepted while he holds the Magic Potato.

The first Magic Potato will be given out on the first Monday following the accepting of this Proposal into law.

There also exists the Great Tuba of Ackanomic, a unique entity. Whenever the Magic Potato is transferred from one player to another, the Great Tuba is given to the player who just lost the Magic Potato. The holder of the Great Tuba scores one extra point whenever one of his proposals passes.

Rule 903/5
Gumball
Simon Marty Harriman (Andy Swan)

There is a unique entity called the gumball which can be chewed only on alternate Wednesdays and Thursdays.

For the purposes of this rule, alternate Wednesdays and Thursdays are defined as the second and fourth Wednesdays and the first and third Thursdays of each calendar month.

Rule 905/9
The Blue Cross
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

1. Each player has a Blue Cross Rank; it is a non-negative integer. At all times, a player's Blue Cross Rank is equal to the number of non-Null proposals he submitted which have been accepted, plus an additional 10 if he has a Blue Cross Bonus. If a player has registered for the game and quit one or more times previous to his most recent registration, proposals he made under his previous registration(s) shall count towards his Blue Cross Rank if they were accepted, even if he wasn't a player when they were accepted.

2. Any time a player has more than one Blue Cross Bonus, all but one of his Blue Cross Bonuses are destroyed. Any time a rule requires that a player be given a Blue Cross Bonus, one is created with his name stamped in gold upon it, and it is given to that player. A Blue Cross Bonus is a nameless, nontradeable entity. Ruby Slippers, Gold Stripes, Silver Stripes, and Blue Crosses are nameless, nontradeable entities, and are medals.

3. When a President or Senator has ended a term in office by resigning, or due to his term of office expiring, and he has served at least 6 weeks in that office, then he is given a Blue Cross Bonus if he does not already have one, except in the case that the player resigned from the office of President or Senator while an Impeachment Paper was pending to remove him from that office.

4. a. A player with a Blue Cross Rank of 20 or more qualifies for a Blue Cross.
b. For each 160 points of Blue Cross Rank above 20 that a player has, he qualifies for a Ruby Slipper.
c. For each 40 points of Blue Cross Rank a player with a Blue Cross has above that required for his Blue Cross and all his Ruby Slippers, he qualifies for a Gold Stripe.
d. For each 10 points of Blue Cross Rank a player with a Blue Cross has beyond that required for his Blue Cross and all his Ruby Slippers and Gold Stripes, he qualifies for a silver stripe.

5. Any time a player has too many medals for his Blue Cross Rank, as defined by the previous section, then medals are taken from him and destroyed such that he no longer has too many. Any time a player has too few of any of these medals, the President, Proconsul, or Senator may award medals of the appropriate types to that player until he has enough of each type. The Frobozz Magic Medal Company, Ackanomic Division, performs the creation and destruction of these medals as medals are to be awarded or destroyed.

6. A player with at least one Gold Stripe or Ruby Slipper shall have the title "Officer of the Blue Cross." A player with one Ruby Slipper shall have the title "Commander of the Blue Cross".

A player with two Ruby Slippers may wear them on his feet; any two Ruby Slippers so worn are considered to be a spaceship. A player wearing a spaceship may click the two Ruby Slippers together to launch himself to Kansas, provided he obeys any other restrictions in the rules on spaceship launches.

Kansas is a moon of Acka; it is a location not in Acka, nor on either side of Acka. Ruby Slippers magically adjust to fit any feet as needed.

Rule 907/2
Bronze Torch
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

Bronze Torches are awarded as a recognition of merit to those players who have shown us the light through the stickiest of rule interpretation quagmires.

Bronze Torches are metallic entities. A Player may have at most one Bronze torch.

Bronze Torches are awarded by the President, the Proconsul, or a Justice. Each time one is to be awarded, it is created for the occasion by the Frobozz Magic Medal Company, Ackanomic Division. They may only be awarded to a player if that player is eligible to receive one.

Once a player has delivered a total of 15 verdicts on CFJs, CFCJs, or as part of (or all of) the Supreme Court, they are eligible for a Bronze Torch. Verdicts which have been overturned do not count towards this total, nor do any verdicts other than True or False. A verdict which is upheld by the Supreme Court counts both for the original Judge and for the Justices of the Court (assuming it is True or False).

Rule 909/11
Steel Flea
Bascule (Matt Black)

Phoebe the Steel Flea lives in a matchbox. Phoebe the Steel Flea looks like a flea, feels like a flea and behaves like a flea most of the time. However Phoebe is a unique entity that was created thousands of years ago by Acka-scientists who had access to advanced nano-technology that has since been lost in the mists of time.

Whenever Phoebe's matchbox is missing, the Officer in charge of random things randomly shall determine which lucky voting player has found the matchbox with Phoebe in it. It is a red and blue matchbox, very pretty, if a little battered. Phoebe's matchbox should be found within 3 days of it going missing.

The player who has found Phoebe's matchbox is very lucky, since she is very wise, having been built in an era of knowledge and wonder. In the week following eir marvellous discovery, e should open Phoebe's matchbox and listen to her make a statement of insight and wit. They should share this wisdom with the rest of the players of Ackanomic in a public message, and will gain 6 points for being so generous.

If any other voting player believes that this message is obviously fake and not clever or witty enough for the nanotech Phoebe, he or she may challenge the authenticity of the message by posting to that effect publically. A Hearing is then called, with valid responses of "Phoebe would not say anything so crass" and "Phoebe said much the same thing to me once". If the verdict is the former, then obviously the Player did not accurately report what Phoebe said, and e will lose the 6 points awarded previously, and will be fined another 6 points for selfishly keeping Phoebe's wisdom to emself. Such challenges must be made within 3 days of the wisdom being posted, and may only be made once per report.

If a message was posted within a week of the player finding Phoebe, that player is deemed to have carefully hidden her matchbox at the time of posting the message, and the matchbox is deemed to be missing.

If a message was not posted within a week of the player finding Phoebe, e is deemed to have lost the matchbox and is fined 3 points for being so careless. If this happens, the matchbox is deemed to be missing.

Phoebe's matchbox is a unique entity.

Rule 910/2
The Ackanomicon
Vynd (John McCoy)

This rule takes precedence over all other rules.

The Ackanomicon is a powerful book of magic, and the occult, aligned with Chaos. No man knows it's age or author, although many speculate that it predates even the Codex of Kra. It is massive in size, fully 6 inches thick and a foot across, bound in leather and iron. It looks a lot like a Spell Book of Chorg, except meaner.

The Ackanomicon is kept in it's own special room at the Library, called The Vault of the Book, or, sometimes, *that* room. It's not a very popular room, partly because it is well hidden, but largely because, well, people have a tendency to get hurt in *that* room. It is impossible to remove The Ackanomicon from this room, it likes it there.

Any Player may visit The Vault of the Book by going to the Library, and publicly announcing that he is entering The Vault of the Book, in search of forbidden knowledge. No player may visit The Vault of the Book more than once in a calender month, or more than once in any given 14 day span. Don't ask why, you don't want to know.

All players who visit the Vault of the Book will discover that they are irresistably drawn to read The Ackanomicon, which is always open to a random page. No one ever gets past this first page that they read, but even one page of The Ackanomicon can provide one with great insight, or great pain.

Whenever a player visits The Vault of the Book, the Officer in Charge of Random Things will determine which page from the list below The Ackanomicon was open to, by selecting one page at random with (you guessed it) equal probability. Some pages are duplicates, however, or at least discuss the same material. Because of this, some results will be more common than others. Each entry on the list below specifies how many pages of it's type are found in The Ackanomicon, if it does not, then there is assumed to be only one.

Players who read The Ackanomicon are encouraged to post (vague, perhaps) descriptions of the knowledge gleaned from it's text, as well as the effects it had on them.

[This slightly odd set-up is intended to allow keep the really good and really bad effects from being too common, but stil allow the addition of new pages without completely rewriting some probability chart]

The Known Pages of The Ackanomicon:

Arcane Trivia (15 pages): These pages contain many tantilizing but ultimately uneducating bits of information on all manner of things ancient and occult. They have no effect on the reader.

Vile prophecies (5 pages): These are pages describing all manner of terrible events that are to befall the reader in the near future. The reader of one of these pages suffers a loss of 5 points.

Inner workings (5 pages): These pages give glimpses into some of the basic workings of the universe of mortal men, at a price. The reader gains A$50, but loses 5 points.

Arcane Lore (5 pages): These pages describe ceremonies and rites used in the far distant past to gain special powers. The reader gains a random Otzma card. Reading this page is considered a use of a Paranormal Power by the reading player.

Terrorizing pages (3 pages): These pages inspire indescribable terror in all who read them, causing a loss of 15 points.

Ancient artifact (1 page): A page describing the workings of a powerful ancient device. The reader loses A$50, and receives a newly created random Qualifed Gadget, which, if its a mechanical Gadget, breaks when the reader receives it. This page has no effect on a player without sufficient A$.

Mutation (2 pages): The contents of the page warp the players mind. He gains the power of Telepathy, or Telekinesis if he already has Telepathy. If the player has Telepathy and Telekinesis already, then he loses both powers, as well as any entities which have granted such powers.

Dark Domain (2 pages): Reading these pages opens a portal to a terrible realm of darkness and nightmare. The reader is treated as if he was in Gaol for the next 48 hours, except that he may not be released in any fashion before this period is up. The reader has not, however, actually commited a Crime, nor is he actually in Gaol.

Visitation (1 page): This page summons Aliens down to Acka. The Aliens will immediately conduct a raid on the ruleset as if the Magic Potatoe had just been distributed, as described in Rule 1131. This is considered a use of a Paranormal Power by the reading player.

The Secret (1 page): This page contains the great, unutterable Secret. The reader of this page may ammend the rule Beldin's Pants as if he were Beldin's Tailor, any time within the 72 hours immediately after he has read from The Ackanomicon. Doing so, however, will cost the player A$30, he may only do so once.

Long lost treasure (2 pages): These pages decribe the locations of long lost treasure troves. The reader gains A$250.

Doomsday (2 pages): These pages describe the coming apocalypse in excruciating detail. The also compel the reader to act to hasten the end, by forcing him to donate 1/3rd (rounded down) of his A$ to The Round Earth restoration Society.

Forbidden Fruit (1 page): Knowledge no man was meant to know. The reader loses 20 points, and becomes Enlightened.

Catastrophe (1 page): Reading this page unleashes a Tornado into Acka, as described by the Rule Tornado. The reader is considered to be sheltered. Reading this page is considered a use of a Paranormal Power by The Ackanomicon, but the reader must volunteer to be the Krykec for this occurance.

Not so Forbidden Fruit (4 pages): The player has an out of body experience in which he is transported to an primordial jungle where he is worshiped as a god by the natives. Upon waking up, he will find that all he has left to remember it by is an Amber Banana.

Ancient One (1 page): The player warps time and space with a terrifying incantation of power, summoning the Ancient Powers into his presence. The Chartruse Goose is immediately transfered into his possesion, and it's not happy. If the reading player was already in possesion of the Chartruse Goose, then it goes Somewhere Else (and is REALLY not happy).

Rule 911/7
The Great Trombone of Ackanomia
Brinjal (Simon Clarke)

The Great Trombone of Ackanomia is hereby created. It is unique, and will always either be in the possession of one player, or be Somewhere Else. Upon the adoption of this rule, the Great Trombone is Somewhere Else.

Whenever the Great Trombone is Somewhere Else, the first player to make a valid public claim will take possession of it. A claim is only valid if the player concerned has had a publically knowable score of exactly 76 points at any time within the past 3 days.

Whenever the score of the player who possesses the Great Trombone exceeds 152 points, they lose possession of the Great Trombone, and it returns to Somewhere Else.

If the player who possesses the Great Trombone leaves the game, they automatically relinquish possession of it, and the Great Trombone is once again said to be Somewhere Else.

The Great Trombone is a unique entity.

Rule 913/4
Parades
Brinjal (Simon Clarke)

When the Tabulator distributes the voting results for a proposal whose number ends with the digits "76", and the proposal was accepted, an Ackanomic Parade shall be held, with the player who made the proposal as the Guest of Honour.

The Guest of Honour has seven days from the distribution of the proposal's voting results to publish an interesting description of the parade. Failure to comply with this requirement, if and when proved, will result in ten points being deducted from the score of the Guest of Honour.

All players will take part in the Parade, and will receive one point for so doing.

The player in possession of the Great Trombone of Ackanomia, if such an entity exists, will lead the Parade and receive not one but ten points.

Any player on Vacation will be represented by an identical replica of themselves, provided for the occasion by the Ackanomic Institute of Genetic Replication, if such exists. Otherwise they will be represented by a cardboard cutout on wheels, which will lower the whole tone of the occasion, so any points they would have received as a result of the Parade will be withheld.

Rule 915/8
Prosthetic Foreheads
/dev/joe (Joseph DeVincentis)

There is an endless supply and an endless variety of Prosthetic Foreheads. Prosthetic Foreheads are tradeable entities.

Prosthetic Foreheads are unique. No two Prosthetic Foreheads are identical, nor for that matter are any two Prosthetic Foreheads substantially similar. Whenever a player describes a Prosthetic Forehead as a condition of buying it from the Treasury, any player who feels the recently purchased Prosthetic Forehead bears too great a resemblance to a previously existing Prosthetic Forehead may summon a Forehead Tribunal within three days of the offending Prosthetic Forehead's purchase. A single Prosthetic Forehead may be subjected to only one Forehead Tribunal; only the first call for a Forehead Tribunal on any given Prosthetic Forehead shall be considered valid.

A Forehead Tribunal is a Hearing. The valid responses are, "Yes, 'is toppy's a copy." and "No, 'is peak's unique." If the verdict is that "Yes, 'is toppy's a copy.", the offending Prosthetic Forehead is destroyed and the player who described it loses two points. Otherwise, the player who called the Forehead Tribunal forfeits 5 A$ to the Treasury.

Any player may buy a Prosthetic Forehead at any time by paying A$7 to the Treasury, and posting publicly that they are doing so, and declaring the type of Prosthetic Forehead he is buying in this public message. A player may own any number of Prosthetic Foreheads at any time. If a player has a Rock To Wind A String Around (if such an entity exists), she may give it to the treasury instead of paying the A$7 in the above procedure.

A Player who is not already wearing a Prosthetic Forehead may wear any one e owns by announcing publicly that e is doing so and what type of Prosthetic Forehead is involved. A Player who is wearing a Prosthetic Forehead may remove it by announcing the action publicly. After a player removes a Prosthetic Forehead, his real head is sore for 48 hours and she may not wear a Prosthetic Forehead during this time.

Rule 917/4
Rocks, Walls, and Facial Hair
snowgod (Phil Ackley)

There exists a type of entity called A Rock To Wind A String Around.
There exists a type of entity called A Wall Of Trombones.
There exists a type of entity called Santa's Beard.
All of the above entities may be manipulated by vending machines, should such things exist. All of the above entities are Tradeable.

Rule 919/5
Brass Monkey
Techno (Jerome Herrman)

The Brass Monkey is a very large, unique, unownable entity with a low, booming voice.

A Streak begins when a proposal is accepted and there is no Streak already underway. The Streak includes the proposal that started it and all the accepted proposals that follow, until the next time a proposal is rejected. The Streak is then broken.

If ten or more proposals are accepted during a single Streak, it is a Chrome Streak. Chrome Streaks are Strange. When a Chrome Streak is broken, the Brass Monkey shall climb to the top of the tallest building in Acka Land and proclaim:

"The makers of the Chrome Streak shall be awarded 5 bonus points!"

With that, each Player shall receive 5 points for each proposal he or she submitted that was accepted during the Streak (including those that were accepted before it was Chrome), up to a maximum of 15 points per Player.

Rule 921/5
Acid Rain Dance
Techno (Jerome Herrman)

The player who most recently submitted a proposal whose number, when having its digits added together, equals exactly 28, may perform the Acid Rain Dance. The player performing the Acid Rain Dance shall post a public description of the dance. Immediately after the public description of the Acid Rain Dance, the Acid Rain shall fall, destroying the Amber Banana Tree(so that it goes Somewhere Else), unless the Amber Banana Tree is protected by the Bronze Umbrella. If the Amber Banana Tree was destroyed, the player who performed the Acid Rain Dance receives the Amber Banana Tree Seed.

Only the Amber Banana Tree can be destroyed by Acid Rain unless permitted by other rules.

Rule 923/7
The Amber Banana
Techno (Jerome Herrman)

The Amber Banana Tree(which, in this rule, shall also be referred to as the Tree) is a unique, mimsy, nontradeable entity. Whenever the player who last performed the Acid Rain Dance is in the game(and not undead), the Amber Banana Tree shall be in their possession. It shall go Somewhere Else if that players leaves the game.

Any player who has a proposal in the queue whose number, when having its digits added together, equals exactly 21 [ex. prop 777], shall have the right to purchase one Amber Banana from the owner of the Tree, if it is not Somewhere Else. The price for one Amber Banana shall be A$10, payable to the owner of the Tree. Amber Bananas are tradeable entities.

A player who owns an Amber Banana may publicly announce that e is eating the Amber Banana as "cows eat grass". Upon eating the Amber Banana(which destroys it), said player may inform the owner of the Tree how e should vote on a single proposal, which must be in the current queue and whose digits must also sum to 21. (It may be the same proposal as allowed em to buy the Amber Banana in the first place, but it need not be.) This effect takes precedence over any other Rules which may specify how the Tree's owner shall vote on that proposal. A player may only eat one Amber Banana per week.

If the Amber Banana Tree is Somewhere Else, then a player who would otherwise be eligible to purchase an Amber Banana may instead purchase an Amber Banana Tree Seed(also referred to in this rule as the Seed)by paying A$50 to the Ackanomic Institute of Genetic Replication(which had the foresight to preserve one so that the species would not die out), unless such a seed already exists. The Amber Banana Tree Seed is a unique, tradeable entity. At any time, the owner of the Seed may publicly declare that e is planting it. At that point, the Seed is destroyed, and in two weeks time, the Amber Banana Tree will appear in eir possession.

Rule 925/6
The Press
Bascule (Matt Black)

Any player may start a newspaper, by publically declaring that they are doing so. Newspapers must be given names, which must be announced at the same time that the newspaper is created. A small fee of A$20 must be paid to the treasury to cover start-up costs.

A player who owns a newspaper is allowed to post messages to an official mailing list with an indication that the message is an article of that newspaper. Such an article is then said to have been published in that newspaper.

A posting that is not sent to one of the official mailing lists is never considered to be a newspaper publication. In addition, no player may publish an article in a newspaper she does not own without the express permission of the newspaper's owner.

A newspaper must publish at least one article during each calendar month, or it will cease to exist. When this happens, the newspaper is said to have gone belly-up.

Newspapers are named, tradeable entities. When a newspaper is created, it belongs to the player who started it. To own more than three newspapers at any one time is a Crime. An owner of a newspaper may close it down by publically announcing that he is doing so. In this case, that newspaper is said to have "gone bust" and no longer exists.

News articles may be published without reference to a specific newspaper. Such articles are said to be the work of the Underground Press, or Samizdat organisations.

Journalistic pseudonyms are permitted.

It is a Crime for a Player to refuse to publish, in a newspaper he or she owns, a correction of an untrue statement that previously appeared in that newspaper, after a public request for such a correction has been made. Simply neglecting to publish such a correction for a period of three days or more after the request shall be taken as refusal to do so.

Rule 929/5
Baaa
this is not a name (Mike Epstein)

The unique entity called the Little Lamb exists. The Little Lamb resides on the common lands of Ackanomia.

Any player may take possession of the Little Lamb by publically announcing they are doing so, unless it is currently possessed by a player who has possessed it for less than one week.

Just as cows eat grass, the Little Lamb also eats grass. Therefore, any player who possesses the Little Lamb will be charged A$10 each time e takes possession of the Little Lamb. The fee will be paid to the Orkatass Lawn Care Company and Motor Inn for reseeding the common lands (which is then immediately transferred to the Treasury, as the OLCCaMI is a not-for-profit entity).

But while a player possesses the Little Lamb, e has three times the normal probability of receiving the Magic Potato, and e may purchase a Wool Sweater from the Treasury for A$10.

Any number of Wool Sweaters may exist at one time. They are created by the Orkatass Lamb Products Company when purchased. A player may put on a Wool Sweater if e possesses one. However, players wearing Prosthetic Foreheads may not put on a Wool Sweater, because Wool Sweaters will not fit over Prosthetic Foreheads. Wool sweaters are tradeable, mimsy entities.

Rule 931/3
Garments
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

A class of entity known as a Garment exists. Garments are tradeable, unless the rules for a particular Garment specify otherwise. The owner, and only the owner, of a particular garment may don that garment if he is currently wearing no garment, or remove it if he is currently wearing it. These actions, when legal, are accomplished by publicly announcing them. The owner of a particular garment is said to be wearing it only from such time as he dons it until such time as he removes it or no longer owns it; no player is said to be wearing any garment he does not own. Garments may be worn and unworn, and these actions, with respect to a particular garment, may only be performed by the owner of the Garment. Only those entities explicitly designated by the rules as Garments are Garments.

Rule 933/2
Purple Robe of Justice
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

The Purple Robe of Justice (Robe) has [just] been discovered in the catacombs beneath the Courthouse. It is unique, and quite valuable, and the older it gets, the more valuable it becomes. The Robe is a mimsy, non-Tradeable, Garment.

Whoever is wearing the Purple Robe of Justice has their odds of being selected to judge a CFJ trebled. This clause takes precedence over R 212 inasmuch as the random process is affected in the way described above.

If the owner of the Robe is ever penalized some number of points for failing to deliver a verdict on a CFJ, failing to respond to a CFJ, or for having a CFJ overturned, they immediately lose the priceless Robe, and it goes Somewhere Else.

The value of the Robe is price that was last paid for it, plus A$15.

Any player (other than the Robe's owner), may buy the Robe, thus becoming the new owner, regardless of where it is, provided they pay its current value to the Treasury, and all of the following are true:

a) It is not currently being auctioned. b) Its current owner, if a player, has had it at least 1 week. c) Its current owner is not judging a CFJ. d) Its current owner is not a judge-designate for a pending CFJ.

Other rules may designate other ways in which ownership of the Robe may be transferred. This rule defers precedence to those, including the fact that the above conditions need not necessarily be met, unless the other rule specifies such.

A player losing ownership of the Robe never receives monetary compensation for losing it.

Rule 935/6
Processing Chips
Habeous Corpus (Ed Graham)

The Tradeable Entities known as Processing Chips exist and are considered raw material. A Processing Chip is an eight pin dual-in-line package (DIP) with the first two pins bent up at 180 degrees. The back of the DIP is covered with scorching. It resembles a rather large, distinctly ugly bug.

When a Proposal is accepted, a Processing Chip is created and given to the author of that Proposal.

Rule 938/0
We Shall Inherit The World!
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

The Ambassador must seek all nomics that contain the letters 'h', 'a', 'r' and 'f' in their name. It will then be his job to organize an assault on those nomics until they are captured. The Ambassador will gain 40 points for every such nomic captured. Players assisting the Ambassador will gain 20 points for aiding in the successful capture of a nomic (as acknowledged by the ambassador).

A nomic is considered captured if it recognizes our president as their almighty Harf god, the supreme deity.

Rule 939/2
Beldin's Tailor
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

The bearer of the Magic Potato is also Beldin's Tailor. Beldin's Tailor has the privilege of amending the rule entitled "Beldin's Pants" as described in this rule, if and only if they were not the last player to amend that rule via the methods described in this rule.

Beldin's Tailor may amend the rule entitled "Beldin's Pants" in any one of the following ways by publically announcing the amendment, provided said amendment is unambiguous:

1) They may replace any one word in the rule with a different word, and as part of this amendment, optionally replace an article which directly precedes the replaced word (if present) with another article. The new word must appear in the Official Dictionary or elsewhere in the rules.

2) They may delete any one word in the rule, and, as part of this amendment, optionally delete an article which directly precedes the deleted word (if one happens to directly precede it).

3) They may add any one word anywhere in the rule, and, as part of this amendment, optionally add one article to directly precede the new word. The new word must appear in the Official Dictionary or elsewhere in the rules.

4) They may add or delete one piece of standard English language punctuation, or change one piece of punctuation to another piece of standard English language punctuation. Square brackets and curly braces are not considered standard English language punctuation for the purposes of the preceding sentence.

For the purposes of the above, the articles are 'a', 'an', and 'the'.

The rule entitled "Beldin's Pants" may not be amended by the Spelling Bee, by Common Sense Report (CSR), or by an effect generated by a CSR. This paragraph has precedence over rules 421 and 342.

Rule 940/10
Beldin's Pants
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

Beldin's Pants are a Garment, initially Somewhere Else. Beldin's Pants may only be removed as described by the Praetor. Beldin's Pants are unique.

Each recipient of Beldin's Parka loses 1 trinket every Thursday at noon.

Rule 942/1
The Widget of Yendor
breadbox (Brian Raiter)

The Widget of Yendor exists. It is a unique, Tradeable entity.

The Widget of Yendor (hereinafter referred to as simply "the Widget") is in one of two states at any time: the "frobbed" state, or the "tweaked" state. When the Widget is unowned, it is always in the tweaked state.

A player who owns the Widget may change it to the frobbed state by publically stating that they are "frobbing the Widget". They may change it back to the tweaked state by publically stating that they are "tweaking the Widget". (Frobbing the Widget when it is already in the frobbed state has no effect. Likewise, tweaking the Widget when it is already in the tweaked state also has no effect.)

When the Widget is in the frobbed state, any scoring changes that would normally occur to the owner's score fail to have an effect. [In essence, the score of the player who owns the Widget does not change while the Widget is frobbed.]

The Widget will automatically change its state to tweaked if it is in the frobbed state when any of the following are true:

1) the Widget is unowned;

2) the Widget's current state was set by a player other than the current owner [as opposed to an automatic state change];

3) the Widget has been in the frobbed state continuously for seven days;

4) the score of any player is within thirty points of the amount necessary to win.

Furthermore, any attempt to frob the Widget when any of the above conditions are true will have no effect.

Rule 945/0
The Cabinet
Vynd (John McCoy)

The Cabinet is a unique, nontradeable entity. The Cabinet is a very fine piece of furniture, about 5 and one half feet in height, made out of teak. It has a number of drawers, in several different sizes, all of which have well wrought golden handels. It is otherwise much like any other cabinet, with the sole exception that it seems to have an infinte amount of storage space inside it.

The purpose of The Cabinet is to advise the President of Ackanomic. The Cabinet is always owned by the current President. When there is no President, The Cabinet is Somewhere Else. Whenever a new player becomes President, The Cabinet immediately comes into his possesion.

No one is exactly sure how The Cabinet is supposed to advise the President. One idea which has gained some popularity is that players should put advice inside The Cabinet for the various Presidents to turn to in times of need. This advice takes the form of trinkets, preferably trinkets whose descriptions or names actually contain advice. No player eccept the current President is allowed to actually place trinkets inside The Cabinet, however, due to long standing custom.

Any President may place no more than three (3) trinkets into The Cabinet durring one term in office. These trinkets may be trinkets that the President himself has created, or trinkets created by other players and given to the President with the express wish that they be placed into The Cabinet. The President is strongly discouraged from pocketing trinkets given to him for such a purpose, he should return them if he does not wish to place them in The Cabinet.

Trinkets inside The Cabinet are owned by The Cabinet, and travel with it whever it goes. If the President wishes to remove a trinket or group of trinkets from The Cabinet, he must first seek approval from the Senate. The President may post a public message requesting permission to remove a trinket (or trinkets) from The Cabinet only once per term. Once such a call has been made, the Senate has one week to vote on the issue. This vote is known as a Confirmation hearing, but is not, in fact, a Hearing. YES votes are in favor of granting permission, NO votes against it, and majority rules. If the Senate fails to complete such a Confirmation hearing in the alloted week, then the Senators will be placed in Comtempt.

Rule 1001/9
Institutions
Niccolo Flychuck (Uri Bruck)

1. There exists a class of entities called Institutions. Institutions may only be created, abolished, given rights, privileges, duties, and roles as specified by the rules.

2a. This section (2a thru c) defers to rules governing decision making in Institutions. An Institution votes "in favor" of something, or "in support of an action" when a simple majority of its members vote "in favor" or "in support". An Institution votes against something, or opposes an action when a simple majority of its members vote "against", or "in opposition" to the action. The voting and reporting processes under which these votes occur are detailed in sections 3 and 4.

2b. If however, a vote or action has more than two possible outcomes (excluding abstaining), then a simple plurality of its members determines which of the options the Institution supports.

2c. If the members of an Institution are tied with respect to a specific action or vote, and there is no provision for breaking ties in that Institution (or the application of such provisions does not result in the tie being broken), then that Institution neither supports, nor opposes that action, nor votes in any way on the matter.

3. When an Institution is called on to vote, it has 7 days conduct and publically report the results of the vote, and how each member voted, unless the rules call for a different amount of time. Results may be announced before the alloted time ends, in which case the voting period is over when those results are announced. Any member who did not vote, and was an active player at any time during the alloted time, is placed in Contempt. If the Institution fails to report a vote (or fails to report that it did not reach a decision in the case of an unbroken tie) in accordance with the above, all its members who are players are placed in Contempt.

4. For the purposes of this rule, the composition of a Institution is taken to be its composition at the end of any voting or decision period. Acting members are considered to be members in place of the members they are acting for, except that acting members may never be placed in Contempt under any provision of this rule.

5. When two or more Institutions are called to vote on a matter in Joint Assembly, then all the members of all the Institutions in the specific Joint Assembly vote on the matter as if they were all members of one Institution. If an Additive Joint Assembly was called, then each player votes once for each Institution in the Joint Assembly that he is a member or an acting member of. If a Union Joint Assembly was called, then each player who is a member of at least one of the Institutions in the Joint Assembly votes exactly once, regardless of the number of Institutions he is a member of. If it is not specified whether the Joint Assembly is Additive or Union then Union is assumed.

When an Officer initiates a vote in Joint Assembly e also designates a player whose duty it is to count the votes and report the resupublically. The player must be either the Officer emself, or a member of one of the Institutions in the Joint Assembly. If the vote was not initiated by an Officer than the Speaker shall designate the player.

If two or more Institutions are called to vote on a matter and a Joint Assembly is not explicitly specified, then each Institution votes seperately, and each Institutions decision counts as one vot.

6. If no other rule defines when a given Institution is in session, then it is in session when it has more than 1 member.

Rule 1003/14
Organizations
Niccolo Flychuck (Uri Bruck)

Organizations are unownable, named entities.

1. Forming an Organization

Any Player may form a new Organization by announcing its name publicly. (Its name must be a legal name.) When this happens, that Player becomes the Founder of the new Organization and its only member. Organizations formed in this way are known as Player-sanctioned Organizations.

Alternatively, an Organization may be created and defined by other Rules. Such Organizations are called Rule-sanctioned Organizations. A Rule-sanctioned Organization does not necessarily have a Founder.

Any player may request membership in an Organization. The Organization may then grant the request as a public action. When a request for membership is granted, the player becomes a member of the Organization.

A player-sanctioned Organization may, as a public action, give a particular member the ability to grant any request for membership in that Organization, without waiting around for the consent of the rest of the members. A player-sanctioned Organization may also, as a public action, establish an open admissions policy, which means that anyone can join that Organization at any time.

2. Organization Disbandment

The rules may call for the disbandment of an Organization. When an Organization is disbanded, everything owned by the Organization is transferred to the Treasury, and the Organization is then no more. A Player-sanctioned Organization is disbanded upon it having no members.

3. Organization Size

The Size of an Organization is the number of members it has. Terms such as 'larger' and 'smallest', when applied to Organizations, refer to the Sizes of the Organizations being compared. [For example, to say that one organization is larger than another is to say that it has more members.]

The Active Size of an Organization is the number of Players who are members of that Organization and are not on vacation.

4. Organization Similarity

For any two Organizations X and Y, orgsim(X, Y) is defined as the percentage of members of X who are also members of Y.

The H Similarity between two Organizations, A and B, is the greater of orgsim(A, B) and orgsim(B, A).

The L Similarity between two Organizations, A and B, is the lesser of orgsim(A, B) and orgsim(B, A).

The M Similarity between two Organizations, A and B, is the average of orgsim(A, B) and orgsim(B, A).

5. Player Liberty Clause

No player may become a member of an Organization without first expressing their consent to joining it. A player may leave an Organization of which he or she is a member at any time.

Rule 1005/1
Organizational Action
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

This Rule defers to all other rules. [Not all Organizations necessarily work this way. Churches in particular have their own unique internal structures. The Rules may also define other ways Organizations can act, and may define that certain Organizations are unable to use this process under certain circumstances.]

An Organization can attempt actions. However, the process for an Organization to attempt an action is somewhat more complex than the same process for players. First, some member of the Organization sends a public message suggesting an action for the Organization to take. The suggestion must include the name of the Organization for which it is being suggested. The other members of the Organization may then approve of the suggestion or denounce it. If any member denounces the suggestion, it is voided.

If, after a suggestion is made, all members of the Organization approve it within seven days, and no member denounces it, then the Organization attempts the action as suggested. The time of this attempt is the time of the last approval.

If seven days pass after a suggestion is made, then the Organization shall make the attempt, as suggested, if and only if no member of that Organization denounced the suggestion, and at least two thirds of the Organization's members approved it within the seven-day period.

Rule 1007/3
Organizational Powers
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

This rule defers to all other rules.

Organizational Powers ("Powers" for short) are tradeable entities. All Organizations can own Powers.

Where the rules say that an Organization may buy a Power of a certain type, what is meant is that the Organization may, as an action, contribute an amount of currency to the Treasury in exchange for a new Power of the type specified, which is then created in that Organization's possession.

Any Powers that contain the word 'alien', 'ufo', 'gray', 'green', 'occult', 'subterfuge', 'abduction', 'unnatural' or plural thereof, shall also be considered Paranormal Powers. Use by an organization of such a power counts as a non-player entity use of such.

Rule 1009/9
Big Tents and Rewarding Party Unity
Mitchell Harding

A Big Tent is an Organizational Power. They are usually quite large, covering more than a kaa of land when fully erected, and are blazoned with broad, colorful stripes. An Organization may buy a Big Tent for A$300.

An Organization that has a Big Tent is called a Political Party. It is a Crime to be a member of more than one Political Party at once.

At the end of a proposal's voting period, but before votes on that proposal are counted, if every active non-vacationing player member of a given Political Party voted YES on that proposal, and no member of the Party is also a member of some other Party, then the Political Party itself shall cast an additional YES vote on that proposal for every three active non-vacationing player members it has.

Party membership and how players voted are determined based on the facts in force at the end of the voting period for each proposal.

Rule 1011/1
Trade Licenses
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

A Trade License is an Organizational Power. An Organization may buy a Trade License for A$50.

If an Organization has a Trade License, that Organization may offer, accept, and retract trades on the Free Market, and give gifts. The procedure for each of these actions is the same as for players [see Rule 515], except that where those procedures call for a public message, any member of the Organization may send that message on behalf of the Organization-- assuming the actions described therein have already been approved as specified by Rule 1005 or some other Rule.

Rule 1013/1
Secret Laboratories
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

A Secret Laboratory is an Organizational Power. An Organization may buy a Secret Laboratory for A$ 1000.

An Organization that has a Secret Laboratory may, as an action, build a Gadget from any existing non-lonely Blueprint once per calendar month. This new Gadget is created in the Organization's possession.

[Secret Laboratories are said to be buried deep underground.]

Rule 1040/20
Party Hall
Niccolo Flychuck (Uri Bruck)

I. Party Hall is an Institution. Party Hall is in session when there are three or more Swingers.

II. The number of members of Party Hall is equal to the number of Parties plus the number of Capital Swingers plus one. Each member is a Political Officer known as a Swinger. The Office of Swinger is an Optional Political Office.

III. There are three kinds of Swingers: Party Swingers, Capital-Swingers, NAP Swingers.
Non-voting players are eligible for all types of Swinger offices.

A. Party Swingers -

1. Each Party has exactly one Swinger's Office in Party Hall. Each Party's Office may be filled by a member of that Party selected by the Party, by a method decided upon by the Party.

2. A PartySwinger can be impeached by the procedure for Impeachment described by the rules with the additional provision that at least one of the votes in favor of Impeachment was cast by a member of eir Party. This section takes precedence over R404 and R403 where there is a conflict.

3. Whenever a Party's Swinger Office becomes vacant, the Party may appoint another member of the Party in eir stead.

4. When a Party's Swinger or Acting Swinger is on Vacation, that Party may appoint another one of its members as Acting Swinger.

5. If all members of a Party are on Vacation then no Acting Swinger is appointed for that Party.

6. If a Party Swinger leaves a Party, then e immediately ceases to be a Swinger for that Party.

7. A Party Swinger may resign at any time.

8. When a Party dissolves, its Swinger's Office continues to exist for 7 days after it dissolves. During those 7 days the Swinger's Office is considered to be On a Limb. If it is legal to purchase a Capital Swinger's Office, then a Swinger who occupies a Swinger's Office which is On a Limb has the option of purchasing a Capital Swinger's Office for a price which A$100 higher than the price as calculated in section B of this rule. If a Swinger exercises this option then instead of creating a new Capital Swinger Office, the Swinger's Office becomes a Capital Swinger's Office, and retains all of its PartyChessPieces and its current board position.

At the end of those 7 days, if the Swinger has not exercised the above option, the Swinger's Office is destroyed and all of its pieces are destroyed.

This section precedence over section B 2 of this rule.

B. Capital Swingers -

Capital Swinger Offices are Tradable, but may not be traded to anybody who is already a Swinger.
If there are fewer than 7 non-Warm Swinger Offices in Party Hall, then additional Offices can be created in the following manner:

1. Any player who is not currently a Swinger may announce eir desire to purchase an Office of Capital Swinger.

2. An amount of A$ equal (100 + (Number of Swingers multiplied by 50)) is transferred from that player's account to the Treasury.

3. The player names eir Office a legal Ackanomic name.

4. Swingers who acquire their Offices in this manner are known as Capital Swingers.

5. When a Capital Swinger goes on Vacation, no acting Swinger is appointed. If a Capital Swinger's Office changes ownership, then the previous owner ceases to be a Swinger, and the new owner becomes Swinger in eir stead.

6. A Capital Swinger may resign at any time. In such a case, the Office of Swinger e resigned from is destroyed.

C. NAP Swinger

1. The NAP Swinger's Office is filled by general election as described in the rules with the following exceptions:

a. Only non-aligned players, that is, players who are not members of any political party, are eligible to run for the Office of NAP Swinger.

b. Each vote sent in by a non-aligned player is counted as if it were two two votes.

2. The Player who holds the NAP Swinger's Office continues to be NAP Swinger until e either resigns, is impeached, or becomes a member of a Party.

3. The NAP Swinger may be impeached according to the rules describing impeachment, with the additional requirement that e can only be impeached if at least half the active non-aligned players vote for the impeachment, regardless of the number of players who voted on the IP. This section takes precedence over R404 and R403 where there is a conflict.

4. If there are no non-aligned players, then there is no NAP Swinger Office.

5. When the NAP Swinger goes on Vacation, the Speaker shall appoint a non-aligned player as Acting NAP Swinger. If the Speaker is a member of a Party, then e may not be an Acting Swinger emself.

IV. If a Swinger's Office remains vacant for more than 7 days then the Office is declared a Warm Office, until it is no longer vacant.

V. When a Party's Swinger's Office is vacant, it is permissible for the Party to Adopt a member of the Party who is also a Capital Swinger as the Party's Swinger. The Adoption is performed by posting a public message to that effect, and notifying the Chess-Umpire. When a Capital Swinger is Adopted by a Party, e retains eir pieces, board position and Swingscore, and any other PartyChess related entity or property e possesses. However he ceases to be a Capital Swinger and becomes a Party Swinger. Eir Office is renamed to reflect that change, in keeping with section III.A of this rule.

Rule 1044/9
Swingpoints
Niccolo Flychuck (Uri Bruck)

1. Let NoS be the the number of Swingers, excluding Swingers on Vacation, including Acting Swingers.

2.
a. Every two weeks on Monday the Chess-Umpire awards Swingpoints to Swingers who have positive Weights according to the following scheme:

(i) The Swinger or Swingers with the highest Weight receives NoS SwingPoints.
(ii) The Swinger or Swingers with the second highest Weight receives NoS-1 SwingPoints.
(iii) The Swinger or Swingers with the third highest Weight receives NoS-2 SwingPoints.
(iv) If NoS>4 then the Swinger or Swingers with the fourth highest Weight receives NoS-3 SwingPoints.
(v) If NoS>5 the Swinger or Swingers with the fifth highest Weight receives NoS-4 SwingPoints.
(vi) If NoS>6 then the Swinger or Swingers with the sixth highest Weight receives Nos-5 SwingPoints.

b. If it is not possible to find a Swinger that answers the description in any of the above sections, then that section is ignored. A Swinger who received Swingpoints by one section cannot receive Swingpoints by section which follows it.

3. Swingpoints are Tradable.

4. Swingpoints can converted to the following items:

a. Any set of Swingpoints can be converted to points to be added to the player's score according to the formula points added = Swingpoints*2.
b. A set of four Swingpoints can be converted to a single Bonus Vote.
c. Any set of Swingpoints can be converted into an equal number of probability points which are added to the CrIndex of an Otzma Card type chosen by the player.

5. The process of conversion.

a. A player can only convert Swingpoints that e owns, if a player attempts to convert more Swingpoints than e owns, the conversion does not take place.
b. A player makes a conversion by publically announcing the fact the e is doing so.
c. A player can only make a single conversion at a time.
d. A player can only make a conversion if e has not made any conversion of any type in the preceding 7 days. A player cannot make a conversion if e has made a conversion of the same type in the preceding 14 days. The default conversion described in 4a, is not subject to these restrictions.

6. It is the duty of the Chess-Umpire to track all aspects of Swingpoints. If there is no Chess-Umpire, then it is the duty of the newest Swinger to keep track of Swingpoints.

Rule 1080/5
Ad Hoc Committees
Niccolo Flychuck (Uri Bruck)

1. An Ad Hoc Committee (Committee) can be called in any of the following ways:

a. By other rules.
b. By any player, as a public action, posting a call for one, provided at least 5 additional players publically endorse this call within 3 days.
c. This section defers to any rule which empower a Committee with regards to the procedures that are considered to valid calls only for the specific type of Committee which is empowered by that rule.
d. The decision of any Committee has no effect on the game state except where the rules say it does.

2. The call must specify the matter on which the Committee is to be called, and the specific case this matter pertains to. If a call to a Committee specifies a matter, and no rule empowers a Committee for such a matter, or another Committee has already been called on the same specific case in the same calendar month, then the call is void (except when this occurs as a result of section 5 of this rule).

3. When an Committee has been legally called it shall initially be composed of 7 different randomly selected, active, voting players. If that is not possible, the Committee call is voided.

4. Players may, as a public action, resign from a Committee within 3 days of being selected to one. If such resignation occurs within 3 days of the formation of the Committee, and the Committee is still in session, then another active, voting player who has not been on this particular Committee is randomly selected to take their place, if such a player exists.

5. Once a Committee has been formed, it has 7 days to come to a decision on the matter in question, and three days to post it. It is a Crime for a player to falsely represent the decision of a Committee. If a Committee fails to post its decision in 10 days, all of its members are held in Contempt. If this occurs, or the Committee reaches 0 members before it reaches a decision, it is dissolved, and another one is called on the specific matter in question.

6. Once a Committee has posted its decision, it dissolves.

7. The decision of the Committee is binding to the specific case on which it has decided. A decision made by a Committee can be overturned as described in the rules.

Rule 1081/0
Ad Hoc Comittee on the matter of Skylines
Niccolo Flychuck (Uri Bruck)

An Ad Hoc Committee on the matter of Skylines is empowered to approve or deny a plan for a public building submitted by a player. When a player anounces that e is submitting a plan for a Public building then that message is considered to be a call for an Ad Hoc Committee on the Matter of Skylines.

Rule 1082/2
Committee for the Protection, Preservation, and Integrity of the Arts
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

If a player feels another player has created a lame, inane, or otherwise useless Trinket of negligible artistic merit within the past 3 days, they may make public complaint to that effect by naming the offending player and offensive Trinket (or Trinkets), provided no such complaint has been previously logded naming the allegedly offensive Trinket(s).

An Ad Hoc Committee is then called on the matter of whether the allegedly offensive Trinket(s) are in fact lame, inane, or otherwise useless or of negligible artistic merit. This committee is called the Committee for the Protection, Preservation, and Integrity of the Arts (CPPIA).

The CPPIA shall then decide whether the Trinket(s) is(are) "the most inane thing since the 'whatever it is we're auctioning today'", or "the hottest thing since the 'Hubert Feathers'". The CPPIA may use any criteria they choose, but it should consider the artistic merit and usefulness of the Trinket(s) when making its decision. Only one decision will be made for each CPPIA session; it shall apply to all Trinkets under review before the committee.

If the CPPIA makes the latter ('hottest') decision, the player who originally made the complaint shall post a limerick praising/ admiring the vindicated Trinket(s) (within 3 days of the decision), forfeit A$30 for some sorely needed art appreciation classes, and be immediately transported to the Museum for an education.

If the CPPIA makes the former ('inane') decision, the player who created the Trinkets forfeits A$25 for the cost of new murals to decorate the walls of the Gaol (which they should describe), and, if the total value of the Trinkets in question is A$25 or less, the Trinket(s), if they still exist, are forgeries.

Rule 1083/1
Ad Hoc Committee on the matter of Fine Art
Robert Sevin (Mitchell Harding)

An Ad Hoc Committee on the matter of Fine Art is empowered to nominate 4 players for the Silver Moon Award, following the criteria outlined in Rule 670. An Ad Hoc Committee on the matter of Fine Art may only be called by a rule.

Rule 1112/3
Let there be Harf!
snowgod (Phil Ackley)

At any given time, there will be, at most, a single player with the title of Harfmeister. The title of Harfmeister cannot be transferred or awarded except as described in the rules. If, at any time, no one has the title of Harfmeister, or the player with the title is 'on ice', the title is given (or transferred) to the Speaker.

The Harfmeister may designate proposals currently under consideration (in the voting queue) as Harfy, by publically announcing that he or she is doing so. No more than three proposals may be designated as Harfy at the same time. Once so designated, a proposal may never lose its Harfy status, until it is accepted, rejected, or otherwise removed from voting consideration. The Harfmeister may not designate his or her own proposals as Harfy, however. Proposals may only be designated as Harfy by methods explicitly defined in the rules.

If a Harfy proposal passes, its author gains 5 points (a score change based on proposal content) and the title of Harfmeister passes from the current Harfmeister to the author of the Harfy proposal. If two or more Harfy proposals are accepted simultaneously, the title of Harfmeister shall go to the author of the highest numbered one.

The Harfmeister may use his or her discretion in determining what is to be considered Harfy for the purposes of this rule, but it is considered bad form to designate a proposal as Harfy that is not really Harfy, and other players are permitted to sneer.

If any voting player feels the Harfmeister is hogging the Harf [that is, sitting on the title of Harfmeister with no intent to designate any proposals as Harfy], they may start an Inquisition by publically calling for one. An Inquisition is a Hearing. It is also Strange. The valid responses to an Inquisition are 'No! He's going to share the Harf!', or 'Yes! He is Hogging the Harf!' If the verdict is the latter, the Harfmeister is guilty of hogging the Harf and must immediately go to his or her home if he or she may legally do so. The person who called for the Inquisition then becomes the Harfmeister.

Rule 1117/6
Telepathy, Telekinesis, and Side Effects
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

A player's stars are aligned when, and only when, her score, her number of A$, and the number of accepted proposals she has authored are all prime. A player experiences a minor epiphany as she leaves the Ackanomic Afterlife if and only if her stars were aligned at some point while she was in the Ackanomic Afterlife. A player endures a jolt of personal empowerment only by correctly reporting to a public forum that within the past 24 hours she has had a minor epiphany.

When a player endures a jolt of personal empowerment, the following occurs: if she does not already have the ability to use telepathy then she gains that ability; otherwise, if she does not already have the ability to use telekinesis then she gains that ability; otherwise she receives one newly-created dose of psi-enhancer. Doses of psi-enhancer are non-tradeable entities.

When a player uses telepathy she is permitted to send one public or private message that other rules prohibit her from sending. This does not constrain the recipient's interpretation of the message (i.e. Telepathy does not permit a player to vote when they are otherwise not permitted to do so, although it does permit them to send a message labelled as a vote). One use of telekinesis permits the telekinetic player to cast one vote even when prohibited to do so by other rules -- she is said to be able to manipulate her (and only her) vote counter. A player may vote telekinetically even if otherwise prohibited from sending messages, whether or not she has the ability to use telepathy.

So long as a player has the ability to use telepathy and/or telekinesis, she may make as many uses of it as she likes. However, telepathy and telekinesis are Paranormal Powers. However, if a player uses either telepathy or telekinesis it is not treated as a use of a Paranormal Power unless she has already used that same power within the last 17 days (408 hours). It's just considered to be another wind sheared weather balloon and it is good form for senators to publicly deny everything about the incident. If, however, the player uses telepathy or telekinesis twice in a 17 day (408) hour period, then the player will be treated as having used that Paranormal Power. This paragraph takes precedence over the Rule called 'Dealing with the Paranormal'.

Rule 1118/4
Dealing with the Paranormal
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

The W-File Pair is a team of two agents, Mold and Scold. They investigate paranormal activities and the use of unnatural abilities.

If a player has made use of a Paranormal Power then that player (also called Krykec for the purposes of this rule) is taken in for questioning. Krykec will be injected with an alien sedative which destroys one of her doses of psi-enhancer if she has at least one, and which otherwise removes whichever Paranoral Power that player has most recently used. They will then question Krykec about 'alien colonization' for 48 hours, during which time Krykec may neither take any action that would be prohibited if she were in Gaol, nor make any use of Paranormal Powers. Krykec is not actually in Gaol during that time, however, and she is released after the 48 hours are over.

If a non-player entity makes use of a Paranormal Power, then the W-File Pair will investigate the incident. In this case, a player, to be called Krykec for the purposes of this rule, will be randomly selected to assist in this investigation.

Within seven days of being called Krykec for the purposes of this rule, the player must write a report to be called 'W-File Case #number' (where number is the report number). It is good form for all players to sneer publicly at the contents of the report. At least one Scientist must write a refuting report that should contain the phrases 'violates the laws of physics' and 'a claw is a claw and nobody has seen a talking claw'. Any Scientist may exempt himself from the responsiblity of writing this report himself by publicly posting a message in which he states:

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." [William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5]
and specifies the particular W-File Case e is exempting emself from any time within seven days of the W-File Case being posted, unless he is the only Scientist remaining who has not posted a "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." [William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5] message. If there is only one Scientist remaining who has not declared himself to be "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." [William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5] for a particular W-File Case, then that Scientist, who is designated the Horatio for that W-File, is now the only Scientist responsible for writing the refuting report described above, and must do so within seven days of the W-File Case to be refuted being posted, unless another Scientist does so first [out of the goodness of his heart, I guess]. If no refuting report is posted by any Scientist within seven days of a W-File Case being reported, then all Scientists who had not exempted themselves from the responsibility of writing that refuting report will have committed a Crime. The Mad Scientist is not considered a Scientist, for the purposes of this Rule alone; this takes precedence over any other Rule which may state or imply that e is.

The W-File pair is a named, unownable entity.

Rule 1123/1
snowgod's Disease
Guy Fawkes (Robert Shimmin)

A horrible epidemic is sweeping across Acka!

This epidemic is named "snowgod's Disease." Its sufferers are highly prone to send private messages to the public forum, particularly if those private messages are to one's co-conspirators in a scam, coup attempt, or other loophole surfing activity. To preserve the public health of Acka, some action must be taken!

Whenever a player believes another player is infected with snowgod's Disease, he may call a Public Health Emergency by posting in a public message that he is doing so, and naming which player he believes is infected. A Public Health Emergency is a type of Hearing. The valid responses are, "Yes, why just yesterday e posted a letter to eir aunt!" and, "No, e, uh, meant to do that." If the verdict is "Yes, why just yesterday e posted a letter to eir aunt!" the named player is determined to be infected with snowgod's Disease until the end of the calendar month, and the player who called the Hearing, known for this purpose as the Medical Examiner, shall within the next seven days, publically post what treatment he feels the infected player should be subjected to. This "prescription" is not a legally binding document. No player may have a Public Health Emergency called against him more than one per calendar month, as this would be just plain too silly.

Rule 1127/1
Sanctity of Harf
Robert Sevin (Mitchell Harding)

No player may have the character string (delimited by the quotation marks) "harf", nor any variation wherein the only difference is capitalization, contained within their Ackanomic name.

Rule 1129/1
Crazy French-Scotsmen
Robert Sevin (Mitchell Harding)

Any new player of Ackanomic (defined, for these purposes, as a player who has been a player of Ackanomic for less than 31 days) that is playing Ackanomic for the first time (i.e. they have only joined the game of Ackanomic once) may publicly complain when they lose any points or currency. When they exercise this option, the penalty will immediately be counteracted. In order for this complaint to have the effects described in this rule, it must express the sentiment "I didn't understand the rules! You keep changing the rules! You never told me about that rule!". It need not (and in fact is encouraged not to) use those exact phrases, but it must adequately express those sentiments.

If the penalty involved a loss of points, the penalized player's score (after having the penalty revoked) will be raised to the first prime number higher than their current score. If the penalty involved a loss of currency, the player with the most currency (in case of a tie, the player with the most currency whose Ackanomic name occurs first alphabetically) must give the new player currency, the amount of which must be positive and non-zero. The player cannot be selected to give themselves currency. In this case, whichever player (other than the penalized player) with the most vowels in their name will give the penalized player a positive non-zero amount of currency.

This public complaining may only be exercised 3 times by any player. If a player manages to legitimately exercise this ability 3 times within a 48 hour period, they will be dubbed a Crazy Scotsman. If the player manages to legitimately exercise this ability 3 times within a 24 hour period, they will instead by dubbed a Crazy French-Scotsman.

Rule 1131/9
The Sinister Alien Abduction Act
snowgod (Phil Ackley)

Section I - Abduction

Sinister Aliens exist. They are located at an advance staging base on the metallic universal sphere directly over the top of the earth (henceforth known as the edge of the universe). Sinister Aliens may alter the text of a Rule, in the manner and under the conditions set out below. This process is known as "abduction". The effect of an abduction on a Rule, when it has an effect, is that of a temporary repeal of said Rule, plus any prescribed rule changes contained herein .

The selection of the Rule to be abducted by Sinister Aliens occurs as follows: as soon as possible after the distribution of the magic potato, the Officer in Charge of Random Things shall select a random integer in the range [M,N], where M and N are, respectively, the numbers of the lowest and highest numbered Rulespresent in the Ruleset. A number selected by this method shall be known as a Alien Target Designation Number. If the Alien Target Designation Number selected is the number of a Rule, then that Rule is abducted as described below unless the Rule is protected as described below, and no further Alien Target Designation Numbers are selected in that week. If the Alien Target Designation Number is the number of a Rule Suite(that is, there exists a Rule Suite the base number of whose rules is the Alien Target Designation Number), then one of the Rules in that Suite(including, possibly, the Head of that Suite, if it exists), determined at random, shall be abducted instead. If the Alien Target Designation Number is does not correspond to the number of a Rule or a Rule Suite, then a new Alien Target Designation Number is selected as above, unless three such Alien Target Designation Numbers(none of which is the number of a Rule)have already been selected that week. In that case, the Sinister Aliens are deemed incompetent and no Rule can be abducted until the next Magic Potato distribution.

If the Sinister Aliens are deemed incompetent and all three Alien Target Designation Numbers are prime, then the Treasury shall pay A$100 to each active player, to recompense them for the emotional duress caused by the Sinister Alien attack.

If a Rule has been abducted or if an abduction attempt has been made but defeated, the Officer in Charge of Random Things shall announce the number and title of that Rule. If no Rule has been abducted, then he shall announce that fact.

It is considered good form for the officer in charge of random things to include an epic tale of Ancient Alien Battles or a story of the Sinister Alien's journey from the edge of the universe in this announcement. It is also considered good form to announce that the Sinister Aliens "were surely the Nemesis of our own Ancients" and that "We shall One day triumph over them, just as our forefathers, the ancients, must have!"

An abducted Rule shall be treated as if it has been repealed for a period of one week. After one week the rule is said to be returned by the aliens. All nomic business related to said rule will be put on hold until the rule is returned by the Sinister Aliens. Any deadlines that had been specified by the abducted rule that would otherwise fall within the week of the rule's absence shall be extended one week. This deadline extension takes precedence over all other rules. Any Bad Pointer References created by the abduction (and temporary repeal) of this rule shall be treated as ambiguous rule changes.

Section II - Protection

The President may purchase an Earth Defense Missle for any Rule for the sum of A$250 per Rule. No other player may purchase Earth Defense Missles, but it is considered good form for a player to donate money to the President to help defray costs. The Prresident may not purchase more than two Earth Defense Missles in any one calendar week.

If the Sinister Aliens attempt to abduct a rule that has been protected with Earth Defense Missles the aliens shall be blown out of the sky and the rule designated by the Alien Target Designation Number will remain intact, and in its original form. The President then has the option acting "hip" and making a speech congratulating Ackanomic on its victory.

Section III - Exemption

There is one exception to the above: if this Rule is the abducted Rule the Sinister Aliens shall have abducted the only power they maintain over our ruleset. As it would be impossible for them to return the rule, this rule shall then repeal itself.

All Rule Changes caused by the Sinister Alien Abduction Act shall be attributed to Sinister Aliens.

The selection of an existing Rule to be abducted by Sinister Aliens is considered a Paranormal Power use by a non player entity.

Rule 1132/0
Alien Abductions of Players
/dev/joe (Joseph DeVincentis)

Within 3 days after a rule is abducted by Sinister Aliens, any player may make a call for Alien Volunteers by announcing publicly "There has been a spacecraft sighted, flying high above the sky." [They Might Be Giants, "For Science", 1st verse]

After such a call, players may volunteer to meet the aliens by posting publicly "Yes, I will kiss the girl from Venus, for science." [They Might Be Giants, "For Science", 3rd verse] until either 3 days have elapsed or there are 3 such volunteers, whichever comes first.

However, at any time before this procedure ends, any player may announce "Now listen all you swingers, don't you try to tag along." [They Might Be Giants, "Absolutely Bill's Mood", line 12] After a player does so, no additional Swingers may volunteer in the above manner for that abduction, though any Swingers who have already volunteered are not affected and non-Swingers may continue to volunteer.

When the aliens return the rule whose abduction prompted the call for Alien Volunteers, if there are any volunteers, one is selected at random to be abducted in the Aliens' spaceship (in addition to any rule that might be abducted). Within 3 days of being abducted, the abducted volunteer should announce the spaceship launch together with the name of a moon; the player is then transported to that moon. If he fails to do so within this time, he is found to be left behind by the Aliens in a far-off field in the Wilds of Ackanomia. [You didn't think they landed in the middle of downtown, did you?]

Rule 1209/14
The Machine That Goes *ping*
Guy Fawkes (Robert Shimmin)

I. There exists the unique entity called The Machine That Goes *ping*, henceforth known as the Machine.

The Machine is a product of advanced technology, covered in buttons, lights, and switches. It may be from the same culture that produced Phoebe, and so it is of great importance that The Machine That Goes *ping* be studied by all of Acka.

II. The Machine That Goes *ping* may exist in the Home of any active player, but nowhere else. Its location may change only as specified in this rule.

The player in whose home the Machine resides has the duty of assisting Acka in its study of the Machine and is given the title "Scholar of *ping*" (hereafter, Scholar) for as long as the Machine shares his abode. For the purposes of this rule, "the current Scholar's term" refers to the period of time since the Machine last changed locations. It specifically does not refer to any periods of time before the Machine's most recent change in location during which the current Scholar was also Scholar.

III. Within seven days of a player receiving this title, the Machine shall manifest in the Scholar's dreams and utter one truth. This truth shall take the form, "IF AND ONLY IF today {if clause}, THEN the Machine That Goes *ping* shall go *ping*." It must be a truth the Machine has never uttered before.

In the Machine's truth, {if clause} will be replaced by no more than twelve words. Each of these words must be in the official dictionary or exist in the Rules. {if clause} shall not contain anything that is not a word, except punctuation properly used by the rules of standard English. The truth must be such that the Machine shall not fail to go *ping* for any seven consecutive calendar days, nor shall it go *ping* without fail for any fourteen consecutive calendar days during the current Scholar's term.

Upon waking from this dream, the Scholar must announce the Machine's truth in a public message to all Acka, but disguise each letter of each word in the {if clause}, but not space characters, with *'s in order to preserve the sacred truth from the eyes of heretics. E.g., the truth "IF AND ONLY IF today is Wednesday or Thursday, THEN the Machine That Goes *ping* shall go *ping*," must be announced, "IF AND ONLY IF today ** ********* ** ********, THEN the Machine That Goes *ping* shall go *ping*." Punctuation shall be placed in its proper place in an undisguised fashion. If the Scholar does not announce the Machine's truth in this fashion within seven days of receiving his title, he is deemed to be a quack and the Machine randomly teleports itself to another active player's Home.

IV. Beginning on the calendar day after the Scholar announces the Machine's truth, the Machine shall go *ping* exactly once on any calendar day the statement described by "today {if clause}" is at any time true. The Machine shall not otherwise go *ping*. It is the duty of the Scholar to inform the rest of Acka of this occurrence. He must do so by posting a public message with the form, "Today is Someday, the xth day of Month, in the Year of Our Lord YYYY, and the Machine That Goes *ping* Has Gone *ping* today. Since I have been scholar, the Machine has gone *ping* n times." In the actual message, Someday, xth, Month, and YYYY shall be replaced by the appropriate elements of the date of the *ping* which is being announced, and n shall be replaced by the number of times that the Machine has gone *ping* during the current Scholar's term.

V.
The Scholar must announce each *ping* as described above either in the day in which it occurred or during the next two days. It is expected, however, that each *ping* be announced during the day in which occurs -- tardy (although legal) announcments are subject to reprisals as described below. Announcements of *ping*'s not made on the day in which the *ping* occurred must be prefaced by an apology from the Scholar for his tardiness. "Days" and "dates" as used in this rule are said to begin and end when the Acka Day begins and ends.

The Scholar must make exactly one announcement as described above each time the Machine goes *ping*. He may not announce that the Machine went *ping* for occasions on which it did not actually go *ping*. Although he is permitted to announce a *ping* on a day after the *ping* occurred, he is not permitted to indicate by any means, that the Machine shall go *ping* or not go *ping* on any future date, nor may he use any means whatsoever not described in the rules to communicate any information regarding the Truth to any player, so long as the undisguised Truth is not publically knowable.

VI.Unless otherwise forbidden, each player other than the Scholar is permitted to publicly post a guess at the undisguised form of the Machine's truth. The player during each Scholar's term who legally so posts the correct guess first received by the Scholar shall receive the following rewards: he shall be congratulated by the Scholar; he shall receive one random Boon of the Ancients, created at that time by the Machine; and the Machine shall transport itself to his home.

Each player who posts an incorrect guess shall suffer the following consequences: he shall be publicly ridiculed by the Scholar, who shall be immune from the politeness moon in so doing (this takes precedence over Rule 374), and he shall pay a fine of A$ 10 for mocking the sacred truth. The Scholar must respond to each guess with either congratulations or ridicule, as appropriate, within three days of the time of the guess.

Players are forbidden from posting more than one guess during any given term of any particular Scholar.

VII. If the Machine has gone *ping* at least six times since a Magic Letter was named, and at least six times during the current Scholar's term, any active player other than the Scholar or the most recent player to ever name a Magic Letter may name any letter of the alphabet not already named as the Magic Letter during the current scholar's term to be the Magic Letter by so posting to the public forum. Each time a Magic Letter may be named, the Scholar shall consider for that purpose only the first post he receives naming a Magic Letter. The Scholar must respond within three days by naming the player whose post was considered, and by publically reposting the Machine's truth in its disguised form, except that any * representing the Magic Letter or any letter previously named the Magic Letter during the current Scholar's term shall be replaced with the actual letter or letters represented. The player whose post was considered then forfeits the Magic Letter Premium to the Treasury. The Magic Letter Premium is based on the type of letter chosen, from the following schedule: Common vowels ('a', 'e', 'i', 'o') cost A$25, Common consonants ('d', 'l', 'n', 'r', 's', 't') cost A$15, all other letters cost A$5.

VIII. If the Machine has gone *ping* thirty times during the current Scholar's term, the Scholar must, within three days of the 30th *ping*, publically post the Machine's truth in its undisguised form.

When the Scholar posts the undisguised truth as directed by this section, the Machine randomly teleports itself to another active player's Home.

IX. If the Scholar is placed in Gaol or goes on vacation, the Machine randomly teleports itself to another active player's home. If, before the Scholar announces the Truth, he claims in a public message: "I have weighter matters to research, such as the shape of the Earth", the Machine teleports itself to another active player's home.

Should it ever be publically knowable that the current Scholar has violated any part of this rule during the current Scholar's term, or if the Scholar announces a *ping* after the day in which it occurred, any player who feels the Scholar's error or tardiness has compromised the game may post a public message calling for the Scholar's removal. Upon the posting of such a message, the Machine immediately teleports itself to the home of the Player calling for the Scholar's removal.

If the Scholar loses his title for any reason other than going on vacation, he must post the truth most recently revealed to him in its undisguised form within three days of the loss of his title, unless he has already done so. If he loses his title by going on vacation, he must post the undisguised form of the truth most recently revealed to him within three days of returning from vacation.

Whenever the Machine changes locations, it shall cease to go *ping*, and it shall not resume this function until a new truth is announced. Guesses at the truth and attempts to name a magic letter are wholly ignored for the purposes of all other provisions of this rule if they occur before the current scholar has announced the disguised form of the truth, or if they are received by the Scholar after a correct guess has already been received during his current term.

Whenever the Machine randomly teleports itself, it is the duty of the Officer in charge of random things to determine and report its new location.

Rule 1211/3
Boons of the Ancients
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

1) Whenever the rules specify a Boon of the Ancients is bestowed upon a particular player, the Boon is chosen from the list below, created if necessary (or as described following), and transferred to the particular player (or elsewhere, as described following).

2) Boons may either be bestowed randomly or deterministically. If the rule bestowing the Boon does not specify a method, the random method is used.

3) Under the deterministic method, the player designated to receive the Boon ("player" for the purposes of this rule) has 3 days to choose a Boon for himself to receive. No Boon is bestowed if three days pass and the player has made no selection.

4) Under the random method, the numbers in parentheses following each choice are summed, and the probability of receiving a particular Boon on the list is the number in parentheses after that Boon divided by the sum. The Officer in Charge of Random Things then randomly chooses a Boon for the player to receive based on these probabilities.

5) If the Boon is not of type "Must Describe", it is immediately created if necessary, and transferred to the player after it has been chosen.

6) If the Boon is of type Must Describe, the player has 3 days to post a description of the Boon as specified in the list. If no description is posted in that time, no Boon is bestowed. A Boon is of type Must Describe if the words "Must Describe" appear in its description in the list below.

7) Boons of type Must Describe are created 7 days after their description is posted, or when the results of a Bogusity Hearing on that particular Boon's description are publically knowable, whichever is later, unless the Boon is found to be Bogus, in which case the player receives no Boon, and/or no Boon is created.

8) Any player may call a Bogusity Hearing within three days of a description of a Must Describe Boon being posted. Only one such Hearing may be called per Boon. The player who described the Boon may not vote in the hearing. This takes precedence over R 360. The valid responses to the Bogusity Hearing are "This loophole surfer is totally Bogus", and "Thats a pretty cool idea". If the result is the former, the Boon is found to be Bogus and the player who described it loses 11 points.

9) Boon list [weights sum to 100 in this case]:

a) The player has found an ancient artifact. A random Qualified Gadget, such that no instance limits are exceeded for any particular Gadgets, is bestowed (45).

b) The player has found an ancient scroll. A random Otzma Card, all cards having the same probability, such that no instance limits are exceeded for any particular Otzma Card, is bestowed (25).

c) The gods smile upon the player. 1 Bonus Vote is bestowed (10).

d) An ancient relic. A Trinket of value A$75 which the player Must Describe. In this case, A$75 in the Treasury is transmuted into the Trinket when it is bestowed as above (7).

e) Ancient knowledge. A Blueprint is created in the Blueprint Archive (not owned by the player, but said to be created by the player), as described by the player (Must Describe) (5).

f) Ancient wisdom. An Otzma Card is added to the Otzma Card Rule Suite, which the player Must Describe (5).

g) The gods are bored. The player is given pointy ears (2).

h) The gods are grouchy. The Chartreuse Goose is transferred to the player. (1).

Rule 1213/9
Grab-a-Donkey
Habeous Corpus (Ed Graham)

Create a game known as Grab-a-Donkey. The game consists of a moderator, known as the Wrangler and players, who initially comprise all current active Players of Ackanomic, not including the Player designated as the Wrangler, those on Vacation, in Gaol, or otherwise prohibited from performing Ackanomic actions. Each player in Grab-a-Donkey starts off with one (1) donkey. A non-voting player may be the Wrangler.

The following special equipment is required to play Grab-a-Donkey. The equipment will be issued from the Game Box at the start of play, and all equipment will automatically be returned to the Game Box at the end of the game.

One (1) donkey per player
One lariat per player (used to Grab other donkeys)
One (1) blanket (used to Cover the player's own donkey)
The Wrangler may call for a Grab-a-Donkey game at any time, as long as no Grab-a-Donkey game is currently being played. If no Wrangler exists, the first player to claim to be Wrangler may call for a game of Grab-a-Donkey in accordance with the previous sentence. A game of Grab-a-Donkey may only be called once per calendar month, however.

If it has been at least 60 days since the most recent game of Grab-a-Donkey ended, and there is no game of Grab-a-Donkey in progress, any player may claim the title of Wrangler and Belt-Holder, by publically announcing they are doing so. The titles are then transferred to the claimant. It is considered good form for the claimant to start a game of Grab-a-Donkey shortly after doing this.

The rules of Grab-a-Donkey are as follows:

A. When a new game of Grab-a-Donkey starts, all Players of Ackanomic, excluding the Wrangler, those exempted as noted above, or those who publically decline participation, will be placed on the Grab-a-Donkey Active List ("GAL" hereafter).

B. Each Round, a player on the GAL will either
(a) Cover their donkey,
(b) Grab another player's donkey on the GAL,
(c) Stand Around Admiring their Donkey,
(d) Resign (this action is only permissible in the first round).

Unless a player specifies a different choice to the Wrangler in a private message by the end of the Round, the player will Stand Around Admiring their Donkey. Rounds will last no less than one full day and no more than 3 full days from the start of the round. Players may change their action at any time before the end of the Round.

Upon a player resigning, or leaving the game of Ackanomic, their stated actions that round are disregarded, and they are removed from the GAL at the start of the next round. They are considered to have Covered their Donkey for determining the outcome of the current round.

C. If exactly one player ("A") chose to Grab another player's donkey ("B"), and if B did not Cover their donkey, then B will lose their donkey and be removed from the GAL at the start of the following Round, unless player B is in possesion of the Little Lamb, in which case A willbecome confused and grab the lamb by mistake and B will remain in possesion of his donkey. (In this situation, possesion of the Little Lamb will transfer to player A.) Otherwise, "A" is said to have successfully grabbed "B"'s donkey. If more than one player attempted to grab "B"'s donkey, none of those attempts is successful.

D. If only one player on the GAL did not choose to Cover their donkey, then all other players will be removed from the GAL at the start of the following Round.

E. At the end of the Round, the Wrangler will publicly report what each player on the GAL did, and determine the results.

F. If and when there are exactly zero players left on the GAL, that game of Grab-a-Donkey shall end. The current Wrangler shall lose their title at that time.

G. If and when there are exactly two players left on the GAL, the permissible moves become (a) rock, (b) scissors, (c) paper. Any player not making such a move in this case is removed from the GAL at the end of the round. If at the end of a round, any of the following are true:
Player A chose rock while Player B chose scissors
Player A chose scissors while Player B chose paper
Player A chose paper while Player B chose rock
Player A is said to have successfully grabbed Player B's donkey, and Player B loses his donkey and is removed from the GAL.

H. If and when there is exactly one player left on the GAL, that game of Grab-a-Donkey shall end. That player shall be considered to be the Belt Holder of that game of Grab-a-Donkey (and shall also have the title of Wrangler). The Belt Holder shall be awarded 3 Points plus the number of donkeys he successfully grabbed that game.
He shall also have the right to Propose exactly one (1) amendment to this rule that changes the way the game of Grab-a-Donkey is played. No player other than the Belt Holder should submit such proposals, and other players are permitted to sneer at such attempts (and vote them down). An exception to this is maintenence proposals, or proposals to fix bugs or paradoxes, are permitted by anyone.

I. During the course of a game of Grab-a-Donkey, the Wrangler may voluntarily give the transfer the title of Wrangler to any willing player not on the GAL. The transfer must occur between two rounds, immediately after the old wrangler releases the results for a round. If the Wrangler goes on Vacation or quits the game of Ackanomic, the first player not on the GAL to name himself Wrangler shall become the Wrangler, and the game of Grab-a-Donkey shall continue from its last publically knowable state. If no player not on the GAL does so within three days, and the old Wrangler has not yet returned from Vacation or rejoined the game, then the current game of Grab-a-Donkey will end, and there shall be no Wrangler.

Rule 1215/6
Duels
Niccolo Flychuck (Uri Bruck)

1. Any player who feels offended by another player, or is engaged in a heated discussion with another player, may challenge that player to a duel, subject to the limitations described below.

2. The procedure for challenging and conducting a duel is as follows:

The Challenging player finds another player who agrees to be their Second. The Challenger gives their Second the name of the player he wishes to Challenge, and the reason for the Challenge.

The Second posts a public message, which announces the name of the Challenging player, the name of the Challenged player, the reason for the Challenge, and the fact that a Challenge has been made.

The Challenged player has 3 days to find another player who agrees to be their Second and have the Second respond to the message publically. The message must contain the following information: The Challenge it is a reply to, and a Game or Contest chosen by the Challenged player for the Duel, or an explicit waiver of the privilege of choosing the Game or Contest. If there is no response to the Challenge within the 3 days, or the Challenged player declines the Challenge, or the response does not conform to the rules preceding, then he is considered to have forfeited the Duel.

The Game or Contest (hereafter called Contest) chosen for the Duel must be one in the Games and Contests Rule Suite. Moreover, it must be playable by exactly two players, or two teams of two players each and have definitive rules for determining a winner, or a winning team. If the chosen contest is for two teams, then each of the participants of the Duel teams up with eir respective Second. If the Challenging player, the Challenged player, and the two Seconds are not four different players, then the team option is not available and the contest chosen must be playable by exactly two players.

If the Challenged player waived the privilege of choosing a Contest, the Challenging player may choose a Contest.

The duel starts upon the Challenged Player's Second posting the acceptance of the Duel. [The President, or any other Political Officer, may announce the start of the duel, if they wish.]

When the Duel is over, the winner of the Duel receives 6 points in addition to any rewards or penalties he may have received as part of the Contest itself. The loser of the Duel loses 6 points in addition to any rewards or penalties he may have received as part of the Contest itself. The winner's Second receives 3 points, the loser's Second loses 3 points.

The results of the Duel have no other direct influence over Ackanomic. However if either the Challenger or the Challenged have committed themselves in a public message to a certain action depending on the results of the Duel, then they must perform that action if the rules permit performance of the action. Should they fail to perform that action, they are breaking the rules.

3. Whenever a duel is forfeited, the Challenged player loses 6 points, and the Challenging player gains 6 points. The Seconds scores are not changed in this case.

4. Conditions under which a duel may not be called, or unusual forfeit and cancellation conditions:

a. It is impermissible to Challenge an Untouchable Player to a Duel.

b. A Player who Challenged another Player to a Duel or a Player who has been Challenged by another Player to a Duel is Untouchable until the Duel procedures are resolved.

c. A Player who was a Challengee in a Duel, that is, was Challenged to a Duel and accepted, continues to be Untouchable until the end of the Calendar month in which the duel ended.

d. Players on Vacation or in Gaol are Untouchable.

e. A Player who announces that he will be going on Vacation on a specific future date is Untouchable until they return from that vacation, or for three days if they do not go on that vacation within 3 days.

f. If a player who is currently engaged in Duel procedures goes on Vacation or to Gaol he forfeits the duel.

g. A Player running for Office may not Challenge another Player running for the same Office to a duel.

h. A player who has declined a Duel, or failed to respond to a Challenge, is Untouchable until 3 days after the date he has declined, or until 3 days after he is considered to have forfeited the duel.

i. If both the Challenger and the Challenged go on Vacation simultaneously, then the Duel is cancelled.

j. No player may make more than 3 challenges per calendar month. No more than 6 duels may be called per calendar month.

Rule 1217/7
Buried Treasure!
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

A player may bury Treasure by publically announcing that they are doing so, and by stating what the Treasure consists of. The Treasure must consist of one or more tradeable entities owned by that player. Hereafter, the term "Treasure" means the collection of these specified constituent entities.

Immediately after this announcement, the player ceases to own the Treasure; it is considered "buried" or "hidden", and is unowned. Buried Treasure is not considered part of the Treasury.

A player who buries Treasure must write a Treasure Map that describes, at a minimum, the conditions which must be met for a player to "find" the Treasure. These conditions may be as simple or as difficult to achieve as desired by the map writer. In fact, they may be impossible to achieve under the current ruleset. For the purposes of this rule, "conditions" means 1 or more conditions.

The map writer is free to disclose all, part, or none of the map publically or privately at any time, or drop hints, clues, obscure riddles, etc in any manner they choose, even if such is not obvious, is subtle, or is encrypted [for example, the text of a proposal could be part of a Treasure Map, or a riddle, in disguise]. The map writer should consider the fun and spirit of the game when making such decisions [they could always just give the entities away].

Upon a player (who is not a map custodian with respect to the map in question) achieving the conditions for finding buried Treasure as specified by a Treasure Map, it is a duty of the map writer or a map custodian (if any exist) to make this fact, and the map, public (once they become aware of the condition being achieved, and final act that lead to the condition being achieved is publically knowable). This action destroys the map, and the player who achieved the conditions receives the Treasure, and thus becomes the owner of its constituent entities (which are no longer considered "Treasure"). In the case of multiple players achieving the conditions before the map is destroyed, the first to achieve it finds the Treasure. If the condition is achieved simultaneously by 2 or more players, the finder is determined at random by the Officer in charge of Random Things. All such players shall be eligible for the random selection, even non-active ones.

The map writer is free to achieve the conditions. This is considered bad form, and the Chartreuse Goose is permitted to sneer. Furthermore, when this happens, the Chartreuse Goose is transferred to the map writer from wherever it is.

The rules may specify conditions under which a player becomes a map custodian for a particular Treasure Map. Once a player becomes a map custodian for a particular map, they are not permitted to disclose anything about the map, or find the Treasure associated with that map, even if they achieve the conditions, as long as that map is in existence. A player will never "un become" a map custodian for a particular map once they have been one. Any player responsible for announcing that another player has achieved the conditions will not do so in the case of a map custodian (with respect to that map) achieving them.

Whenever a map writer goes on vacation, or leaves the game, they should give the map to the Treasure-Harfer (or acting Treasure-Harfer), who becomes the map custodian (although for short vacations, they may not wish to do this). Upon the Treasure-Harfer going on vacation, they should give the map to the acting Treasure-Harfer, etc. It is possible, and acceptable, for a map to be permanently or temporarily lost because of players leaving the game. Such is the nature of buried treasure. Players should avoid giving the map to a map custodian, unless it is in the best interest of the fun of the treasure hunt (i.e., they are going on a long vacation or leaving).

The map writer is not a map custodian, unless he happens to become one as specified in the above paragraph.

If a Treasure ever contains 0 or less buried entities, the Map for that Treasure is destroyed.

Rule 1230/1
Party Chess Rule Suite
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

[This is the head of the Party Chess Rule Suite. Party Chess is a multi-player chess variant played on a 20x20 board with drop-style setup, which is open to arbitrary piece creation.]

[The rules for Party Chess, and the definition of the pieces, can be found by following this link]

Rule 1240/0
Otzma Cards Rule Suite
Niccolo Flychuck (Uri Bruck)

[Otzma Cards are a set of entities that can be used to carry out game actions. They can be used only once. They can be perceived as Magic style cards for Ackanomic, or as Gadgets that can only be used once.]

[Otzma Cards Rules.]

Rule 1250/0
Games & Contests Rule Suite
Niccolo Flychuck (Uri Bruck)

[This is the head of the Games & Contests Rule Suite. Games & Contests include sub games and gaming equipmentthat can be used in subgames. Some of them are maintaiined on a seperate web page, others are in the rule suite]

[Rules for sub games and gaming equipment]

Rule 1301/14
Church
Niccolo Flychuck (Uri Bruck)

1. Churches are Organizations.

2. Any may Player may declare eir intent to found a Church. A Church officially exists when the player has three Followers in addition to eirself, and publically announces all of the following details of the Church:

3. a.Each Church may have a Church Policy.

b.Church Policy is an internal Church document.

c. A Player who disobeys the Church Policy of a Church of which he or she is a member is guilty of Iconoclasm, which is a Crime. It is impermissible for a Player to take a game action which constitutes Iconoclasm if he or she has any legal alternative which would not constitute Iconoclasm. [That is, Iconoclasm normally doesn't happen unless there is no alternative. It is possible for a player to commit Iconoclasm by inaction, though.]

d. The initial Church Policy will be set by the Founder. Church Policy may only change according to Church Policy.

e. A Church is not obliged to divulge Church Policy, in whole or in part, in a public forum.

f. Church Policy has no effect over the power to ordain Priests. It cannot take this power away from the Founder, neither can it give this power to anyone else.

g. Church Policy cannot prevent a Church member from leaving a Church.

4.a. The Church Founder has the power to ordain Priests.

b. A Founder may ordain a Player as a Priest if and only if that Player is a member of eir Church.

c. The Founder may delegate any of his duties or authorities to the Priesthood, except for the power to ordain Priests.

d.In the absence of the Founder, the most senior Priest will perform the duties, and have the authority of the Founder, except for the power to ordain Priests.
If seniority is not defined in Church Policy, then the most senior Priest, will the one who has been Priest for the longest duration of time.

e. If a decision is to be made by the Priesthood, and no method for making such decisions is defined in Church Policy, then the decision will be made by a simple majority rule. In case of a tie, then seniority is taken into account. If seniority is not defined in Church Policy, then the seniority of a Priest will be defined as the length of time that has passed since that Player has been ordained as a Priest in that Church. If there is still a tie after this, then the Founder will break the tie.

5. a. A Church may define its own alternative terminology for the Church specific terms defined in this rule.

b. Any terms that the Church intends to use in a public forum, must be defined in Church Dogma.

c. If undefined terminology is used by Church members in a public forum, any player may publically request the Church to provide an explanation of that term.
Members of the Church may respond to this however they like, and any such response has the official Ackanomic Seal of Politeness, regardless of how brain-stoppingly offensive it is.

d. A Church mailing list is not considered a public forum.

6. A player may not be a member of more than three Churches at the same time.

7. a. Any player may petition the Founder of a Church for membership in that Church.

b. If Church Policy has nothing to say on accepting new members, then Church membership will be up to the Founder. However, a Player cannot become a member of a Church until the Founder of the Church sends a public announcement to that effect.

c. A player may leave a Church at any time.

8. a. If a Church ever has no Priests or (Heaven forbid) has fewer than zero Priests, that Church is disbanded. That is, it no longer exists as a Church.

b. If a Church ever has fewer than four members, it is disbanded.

c. For purposes of membership, the Church Founder is considered a Priest.

d. Any function that can be performed by a Priest, can also be performed by the Church Founder.

e. If at any time a Church does not meet its membership criteria, that is, it either has less than four members, or has no Priest, it is officially disbanded. When a Church is disbanded, a public announcement is made to that effect.

f. If a Priest refuses to recognize that the Church has been disbanded, then the remaining Church members may be known as a Cult. A Cult has no official status whatsoever.

9. Church, Church membership, Foundership, Priesthood, and Church Dogma are Protected.

10. A Church may own and trade currency and assets. If Church policy is silent about the managing the Church's Currency and Assets, then the Church Founder manages the Church's Currency and Assets.

Rule 1303/6
Synod
Niccolo Flychuck (Uri Bruck)

1. There exists an Institution called Synod.

2.Each Church may have at most 1 seat in the Synod. Each Organization with a Trade License may have at most 1 seat in the Synod. No other entity may have a Seat in the Synod. An Organization with a Trade License is referred to in this rule as a TLO.

3. The Synod is in session when there are two or more occupied Seats in the Synod, at least one of which is occupied by a Church Delegate.

4. A Church (or TLO) which does not have a seat in the Synod can purchase a Seat for an Entry Fee of A$50 plus (A$5 multiplied by the maximum number of members of that Church (or TLO) had over the 14-day period preceding the date of purchase). If A Church (or TLO) withdraws from the Synod within 14 days, it is refunded the entire Entry Fee. If a Church (or TLO) withdraws at any time after that, it is refunded 3/5 of its Entry Fee.

Entry fees are transferred from the Church or TLO) to the Synod. Refunds, when paid, are transferred from the Synod to the Organization receiving the refund.

5.
a.
(i) A Church which has a Seat in the Synod may appoint a Priest of that Church to occupy that Seat. The Priest is known as the Church Delegate, and the Seat is known by the name of the Church, or an abbreviation approved by the Church. A Delegate may resign at any time. If the Delegate goes on Vacation the Church may appoint another Priest of that Church as an acting-Delegate. If a Delegate resigns, The Church may appoint another Priest as Delegate. A Church may leave its Seat unoccupied. This section takes precedence over R457.

(ii) A TLO which has a Seat in the Synod may appoint a member of that TLO to occupy that Seat. The appointed member is known as the Trade Delegate, and the Seat is known by the name of the TLO, or an abbreviation approved by the TLO. A Delegate may resign at any time. If the Delegate goes on Vacation the TLO may appoint another member of that TLO as an acting-Delegate. If a Delegate resigns, the TLO may appoint another member as Delegate. A TLO may leave its Seat unoccupied.

b.
One of the Church Delegates is given the title of Yor-Delegate. The Yor-Delegate is always the Delegate of the largest Church in the Synod. If there are two or more Delegates who represent Churches of the same size, and there is no other Delegates who represents a larger Church then the Delegate who has been longer in the Synod, from among the Delegates of said Churches, shall be the Yor-Delegate. The Yor-Delegate has the duty of acting on behalf of the Synod, in accordance with the decisions of the Synod. The Yor-Delegate may have other duties defined by other sections of this rule, or by other rules. The Yor-Delegate has no privileges.

c.
When a Seat has been left unoccupied for a period of three weeks, it is the duty of the Yor-Delegate to contact the Organization or TLO that owns that Seat and inquire as to whether or not e intends to appoint a Delegate for that Seat. If the Founder either replies that e does not intend to appoint a Delegate, or does not appoint a Delegate within a week, or fails to respond within a week, then that Organization is considered to have withdrawn from the Synod. If a Organization which owns a Seat is dissolved, then its Seat is destroyed.

6. All actions carried out by the Synod must be approved by the Delegates. Each Delegate's vote is multiplied by the number of non-vacationing members of eir Organization. When there more votes in favor of some action than against it the Synod is considered to support that action. Organizations whose Seats are unoccupied during the vote are said to have abstained from the Vote.

7. When the Synod is in session it can trade currency and assets.

8. Profit Sharing Day - whenever the Synod has been in session for at least 14 consecutive days and there was no Profit Sharing Day for at least 14 consecutive days. An Organization is eligible for getting a share of the profits if (a) it has a Delegate in the Synod and (b) it had a Delegate in the Synod for at least 90% of the time during the 14 days previous to the Profit Sharing Day.

Profits are defines the number of A$ owned by the Synod at the moment Profit Sharing Day is anounced, minus the number of A$ owned by the Synod at the end of the previous Profit Sharing Day, or the most recent day on which the Synod was not in Session, which was more recent. If this number is determined to be negative, then Profits are defined to be equal to zero.

Let TotalMem be the total number of members of all Organizations. For each Organization let NoM be the number of members of that Organization. Each Organization receives (NoM*2)/(TotalMem*5), rounded down to the nearest integer. For the purpose of Profit Sharing Day, vacationing members are counted as well. It is the duty of the Yor-Delegate to track and declare Profit Sharing days, calculate the amount of A$ each Organization receives, report it to the Financier, and record the amount of A$ at the end of the Profit Sharing day.

Whenever the word Organization or the word Organizations appear in the second paragraph of this section, it means an eligible Organization as defined in the first paragraph of this section.

9. When the Synod is not in Session it is impermissible for the Synod to trade, distribute profits to member Churches, or take any other action, except for the duty of contacting Founders of Churches with unoccupied Seats, as described in section 5 of this rule.

10. a. A Church is not eligible for a Seat in the Synod if there is at least one Church which already owns a Seat in the Synod whose M Similarity with the former Church is equal to or greater than 30.
b. A Church is not eligible for a Seat in the Synod if the total M Similarities with all the other Churches which are members of the Synod is equal to or greater than 80. Should more than one Church become ineligible simultaneously, then the Church which had a Delegate for the shortest duration from among the ineligible Churches, loses its Seat. This process is repeated until there no more Churches which are ineligible for a Seat.
c. A TLO is not eligible for a Seat in the Synod if there is at least one Organization which owns a Seat in the Synod whose M Similarity with the former Organization is equal to or greater than 60. When ever a Church acquires a Seat in the Synod, any TLO which becomes ineligible for a Seat loses its Seat in the Synod and receives its full entry fee as a refund, regardless of the time that passed since it joined the Synod.
d. For the purposes of this rule, and for the purposes of all Synod actions, TLOs are considered to have an active size of 1, regardless of eir actual size.

Rule 1307/11
Ackanomic Middle Ages
Bascule (Matt Black)

The Earth is flat. The Earth is flat. Contradiction of this fact is Heresy.

If a Player publicly refers to the Earth being round any other Player may start a Witchhunt by sending a public message that names the alleged witch, quotes his or her allegedly heretical message, and calls for a Witchhunt, provided a Witchhunt is not already in progress against that player, and provided there are less than 5 Witchhunts in progress.

A Witchhunt is a Hearing. It is also a Very Grave Matter. The valid responses to a Witchhunt are 'No! E said the Earth is flat' and 'BURN THE WITCH!' The Player who tabulates the responses to a Witchhunt shall be called Witchfinder General while it is in session.

If the verdict is 'BURN THE WITCH!' the alleged witch shall be branded a witch and heretic. E shall then be incinerated atop a bonfire large enough that it not only reduces the witch to eir component atoms but also inspires righteous terror in all who see it. When a witch is burned, e shall enter the Ackanomic Afterlife, and shall lose 10 points. Any player who has ever been burned as a heretic is considered Enlightened. An Enlightened player may never have a Witchhunt called against them, or be burned as a heretic.

A member of a Church may save any player from being burned as a witch, or as a heretic, provided e posts a public message (before a Witchhunt called on that player is resolved) saying 'I am running to the Church', then the name of the Church of which e is a member, then 'and I hold the Altar by the Horns for' followed by the player's name. This is called granting Sanctuary Of Salvation.

Rule 1309/4
We don't need Gravity
snowgod (Phil Ackley)

Ackanomic exists on the underside of the earth, which is, of course, flat. Ackanomic, and everything it contains, is held onto the earth with Suction Cups so that it doesn't fall off.

Communications with entities residing on the topside of the earth are made possible through a series of incredibly complex devices that even the inventor cannot begin to understand. These devices too, are attached to the earth with suction cups.

In the event that any item loses its suction cups, which may only happen in accordance with the rules, it shall fall off of the earth and dangle from its surface by the attached emergency tether.

If a building is dangling by its emergency tether, players may still enter and leave the building, by climbing up and down the tether. If a building has its emergency tether break and floats free, no one may enter or leave that building unless they have wings, or are given a ride by a winged player. Objects that reside in a floating building cannot be accessed or used by anyone who is not also inside that building.

Rule 1311/1
If we don't need Gravity, we'd better have Pressure
mr cwm (Eric Murray)

[The empirical observations outlined in "We don't need Gravity" reveal a great deal about the nature of the Earth and the Universe. This cosmology, while including some speculation, is consistent with and explains those observations.]

The Universe consists of a semi-infinite block of 2024 aluminium alloy joined to a semi-infinite block of Type 304 stainless steel. The sole defect in these semi-infinite blocks is a spherical hollow centered at the interface with a diameter two average cat-heights greater than the greatest distance defined or implied in any other Rule. The Earth lies centered within this hollow, oriented parallel to the interface between the blocks with Ackanomia facing the stainless steel side. The spherical hollow is pressurized to 1 atmosphere with life-sustaining gas.

Note that the asymmetry of the Universe will cause anything that becomes detached from the underside of the Earth to fall to the the stainless steel surface of the hollow.

This Rule takes precedence over any Rule that would define or imply any distance greater than the greatest distance defined or implied by this Rule.

Rule 1313/5
Tornado
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

A Tornado shall sweep though Acka at the time of the Summer Solstice, Winter Solstice, Vernal Equinox, and Autumnal Equinox. Tornadoes are dangerous entities.

Whenever a Tornado sweeps through Acka, the scores of all non-Sheltered players shall be randomly reassigned among the non-Sheltered players. All non-Sheltered players shall be involved in the random reassignment of scores, including non-active ones. In other words, the score of each non-Sheltered player is placed in a pool, all non-Sheltered player's scores are set to 0, a random score is chosen from the above pool, without replacement, and added to the score of a randomly chosen (without replacement) non-Sheltered player, until the pool is exhausted. ("without replacement" means the randomly chosen entity may not be re-chosen for the duration of a single instance of this process, once it has been randomly chosen). If there are no non-Sheltered players, the Tornado has no effect on players' scores as detailed previously in this paragraph. Sheltered players are unaffected, in any case.

The Officer in charge of random things is responsible for carrying out this procedure, when the Rules call for it to occur.

Players in the Ackanomic Afterlife and Gaol are Sheltered. If a Bomb Shelter exists, all players are Sheltered, regardless of their Location.

A Bomb Shelter may only be created by methods specified in the Rules. Players may only become Sheltered by methods specified in the Rules.

The Rules may specify other ways or times that a Tornado sweeps through Acka.

Whenever a Tornado sweeps through Acka, each player's or haunted house that is dangling from its emergency tether stands a separate 50% chance of losing its tether and being swept off the face of Acka. The player or undead shall retain possession or haunt of the land the building was sitting on. A player so bereaved of shelter may rebuild his house for A$100, and he must name it upon its reconstruction. Until such time, he shall be issued a small tent for use as his Home.

If the house belonged to a player who was on vacation, that player shall be assumed to be vacationing in a far-off land with a two-letter name. Upon his return, he may submit a report containing the name of this far-off land and a summary of his journeys there. If he does so within seven days of his return, he shall receive five points.

A dangling house may be saved from this chance of being blown away if within the five days preceding the tornado, a Priest in good standing with the weather gods blessed the house. Such a blessing must state that which house is being blessed and contain at least two words of at least six syllables. A priest is said to be in good standing with the weather gods if he posted a prayer of deliverance, as defined by the rules, at the beginning of the current calendar month.

Rule 1317/2
Codex of Kra
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

The Codex of Kra has recently been unearthed outside the window of the Ackanomic House of Pancakes. It is an ancient tome in an arcane language, probably scribed by the Elder Ackanomians who created the Machine that goes *ping*. All that has been discovered about it initially is that it seems to describe the laws of Ackanomican physics, and the empirical observations and theory which led to the formulation of those laws.

The optional office of AckaPhysicist exists. It is a privilege of the AckaPhysicist to translate the Codex of Kra, and report its contents to the people of Acka [maintaining, or arranging to maintain a web page of its contents would be ideal].

Such translations shall describe the Acka world and universe (multiverse?) in terms of the Ackanomican physics, mathematics, observations, theory, experiments, etc, as discovered by the Ancients, as well as any additional conclusions the AckaPhysicist draws from his translations of the Codex.

If any player believes a particular translation posted by the AckaPhysicist to be an obvious forgery, or otherwise doubts its accuracy, they may publically accuse the AckaPhysicist of being a quack, if they do so within three days of the translation being published. In this case, there will then be a Hearing, with valid responses of "the Ancients weren't that clueless" and "my own experiments have produced similar results". A verdict of "the Ancients weren't that clueless" will prove that the AckaPhysicist is a quack in the case of this particular translation.

If the AckaPhysicist is found to be a quack, he is fined A$25 for misleading the masses with bogus science, and the translation in question is stricken from the official records. If the translation is proven to be genuine, however, the accuser must publically apologize to the AckaPhysicist, and pay him A$25 compensation for the damage to his reputation.

Upon the AckaPhysicist being found a quack for the third time in a single term, he is immediately impeached from the office, and has 7 days to write a piece on Elvis returning from the dead in an alien spaceship for one of Acka's newspapers, if any exist. If none exist, or he cannot get permission from the owner of one to publish the piece, he must start his own in accordance with the rules for doing so, and publish the piece.

Any results not found bogus are added to the official publication of the Codex of Kra. Such writings become part of game custom where they do not contradict the Rules. Translations of the Codex of Kra hold legal sway only if, when, and where the rules indicate that they do.

The Codex of Kra is unique and owned by no player, but it remains in the custody of the AckaPhysicist while he is translating it, with translated passages being available for view at the Library.

Rule 1319/2
Round Earth Restoration Society
Guy Fawkes (Robert Shimmin)

At some time in the distant past, the Earth was indeed round, and through a great cataclysm, it became flat when two massive roughly hemispherical chunks broke off of it, one from the north, and one from the south. Like all things which fall off the Earth, these two fragments of the Earth now dangle from emergency tethers.

The Round Earth Restoration Society exists. Its goal to restore a round shape to the Earth by building enormous winch-like machines to reel in these two dangling fragments. Unfortunately, the cost of such machines is very high -- 15,000 A$. At any time, a player may make a contribution to the Round Earth Restoration Society by posting a public message containing a non-negative amount of A$ less than that player's current balance that they wish to transfer to the Treasury on behalf of the Round Earth Restoration Society. If taxes should ever exist in Acka, such contributions are tax-deductible. It is a duty of the Financier to keep track of how much money has been donated to the Treasury on behalf of the Society, and by whom.

Once the Round Earth Restoration Society has raised 15,000 A$, a large machine shall be built, and the northern fragment joined to the earth, giving it a roughly hemispherical shape. Once an additional 15,000 A$ has been raised, the southern fragment will be likewise joined, restoring a spherical shape to the Earth.

If the earth should become hemispherical, saying such is not Heresy, and this takes precedence over Rule 1307. If the Earth should ever become a sphere, all occurrences of the words "flat" and "round" in Rule 1307 shall become "round" and "flat," respectively, and this paragraph shall then be repealed.

Rule 1320/1
This is the way the world ends
Vynd (John McCoy)

If the Earth is ever made to be round via the method described in Rule 1319, then the End of the World will have occurred. The world ending has no effect on the game of Ackanomic, except as specified in the rules.

Players are encouraged to scream in terror when the world ends, and it is considered good form for the President to post a public message which he begins by calling for order but then ruins by panicking, repenting his sins, and crying like a baby. If any newspaper fails to publicly post an article notifying its subscribers of the End of the World within 7 days of its occurrence, its owner will be fined A$5 for poor coverage of the news.

The End of the World causes the cycle to immediately end. The winner of the cycle will be the active or vacationing player who had donated the most A$ to The Round Earth Restoration Society at the time that the Earth was made round. If this selection method results in a tie, or the player who would win is for some reason ineligible to win the cycle, then the player who most recently became Enlightened out of those players who are tied will be the winner of the cycle. If none of the players who are tied for most A$ donated to The Round Earth Society are Enlightened, then the Speaker will randomly select with equal probability one of the players who are tied to be the winner. In any of these cases, the winner will recieve the title of Prophet of Doom.

All players who became Enlightened at least 14 days before the End of the World will recieve a Boon of the Ancients for their incredible foresight and wisdom. The active player who has been Enlightened the longest should post a public message in which he castigates those who persecuted him. It should include the phrase "You have paid the price for your lack of vision."

When a player wins due to The End of the World, the Fat Lady will not sing as described in rule 667. Instead, she will sing the song "It's The End Of The World As We Know It" by R.E.M. for a full 24 hours, this singing cannot be stoped or accompanied by any means. Players are permitted to whimper.

This Rule takes precedence over any other Rule discussing the End of the World, or the singing of the Fat Lady.

Rule 1321/7
Rama-lama-ding-dong
snowgod (Phil Ackley)

Deep in the rain forest it was doing what it usually does in rain forests, which was raining: hence the name. This rain will cause a horrible flood to sweep through Ackanomic destroying all of the suction cups that keep us attached to the bottom of the earth is something is not done. Therefore, sometime during the first three days of each month every non-vacationing priest must post a prayer of deliverance to the public forum. This prayer must contain at least 3 words with 6 syllables, and one line of text that is "spoken in tongues". For the purposes of this rule, a non-vacationing priest is any priest who was not on Vacation at the end of the prayer period.

If exactly one priest fails to comply with this rule his house shall lose its suctions cups and dangle from the bottom of the earth. If two priest fail to comply, 5 buildings chosen at random will lose their suctions cups. If more than two priest fail to comply, the floods shall destroy all of the suction cups in Ackanomic, causing everything to dangle.

This rule defers to all other Rules which do not contain this sentence outside of quotation marks.

Rule 1322/1
Doomsday! Part II
Robert Sevin (Mitchell Harding)

All hell shall hereby break loose. Chaos shall reign until June 8, 2001, at which time this rule shall repeal itself. This rule defers to all other rules.

[Original Author: Jason Orendorff aka Mohammed, Proposal 740]

Rule 1323/0
Repent And Mend Thy Ways
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

If there has not been a single flood in the past 6 months big enough to detach the suction cups of at least 5 buildings, then Acka is said to be experiencing a drought. A flood that detaches the suction cups of at least 5 buildings removes the drought status.

On the first day of the months following the month when the drought begun, and on the first of every month after that while the drought is still in effect, there shall be a plague of locusts. Locusts are annoying little creatures that think only of eating.

When there is a plague of locusts, 4 randomly selected buildings will have their tethers eaten away (destroyed) by these locusts. Tethers can be repaired at the cost of A$10 to the treasury, provided the thing the tether was holding hasn't floated away.

After each plague of locusts, it is good form for priests to make a public speech promising that the Acka will mend its evil ways and become virtuous again. Heretics may giggle.

Rule 1324/2
More Blatant Elitism
Robert Sevin (Mitchell Harding)
Decision: Accepted

This rule allows any player of Ackanomic to assume a title, based on their current score. No player may use any title on this list except the title that their score entitles them to. Observers may use the title Harmless.

[[ This table is best viewed using a non-proportional font, eg Courier ]] 

     Score          Title

     0 or below     Harmless
     1-20           Mostly Harmless
     21-40          Poor
     41-70          Average
     71-100         Above Average 
     101-150        Competent
     151-200        Dangerous
     201-250        Deadly
     251 or over    Elite
If a player assumes a title which requires a score higher than their own, in addition to any penalties required by other rules, that player is deemed to have been ambushed by Thargoids in hyperspace and blasted into a million pieces, leading to the loss of 1 point.

[Original Author: Matt Black aka Bascule, Proposal 795]

Rule 1325/1
Universal Nomic strikes back!
Robert Sevin (Mitchell Harding)

By this rule, Ackanomic recognizes that the Universe is a Nomic, and that Gravity was its initial ruleset.

[Original Author: Randy Hall aka Malenkai, Proposal 896]

Rule 1326/0
Gimme that Gnome yet again
Robert Sevin (Mitchell Harding)

Doctor Who, not Star Trek or any other science fiction serial, is the official science fiction television serial of Ackanomic.

The official science fiction television serial is Protected.

[Original Author: Randy Hall aka Malenkai, Proposal 923]

Rule 5001/0
Concerning Government
/dev/joe (Joseph DeVincentis)

No IP against the Speaker or any Senator shall be accepted unless, in addition to the conditions imposed by Rule 404, the Senate votes in favor of impeaching the officer named in the IP.


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