Welcome to the first incarnation of the official Ackanomic History page. This page will never be finished. I need your help, because if I don't know about something, I can't put it up here. So please email me with any corrections or suggestions.

I am indebted to Malenkai for collecting much of this information and giving his permission for me to use it here. Many thanks to all the others who have contributed to this history, particularly Bascule, who's written (and, I hope, will continute to write) excellent commentaries on Ackanomic current events.

If anyone has election results, please send them my way. I'd like to add them somewhere.

Contents

Chronology
Commentaries of Bascule
Political Party History

Chronology

The initial rule set.

I was the original player. I started this whole mess. I had no idea it would grow to be this huge. Actually I am quite pleased. Acka simply comes from my name, Ackers. I started the game, so I named it after me. :) Originally there was myself, Robert Sevin, Wayne, Paul Swan, and maybe a couple others. I can't think of any others that are still here. Mitch (Robert Sevin) apparently has an archive of every message every sent, so particulars can be gotten from him once he's off vacation. -- The Great Old One (formerly Bobalugah Rajiboo), 31 May 1996


I can say something about the early days. I would call the first couple of weeks, the Harfy Era. Our beloved speaker, Robert Sevin, proposed about 40-50 proposals in the first couple of weeks. One of the rules that did make it thru is the Voting Gnome. Robert's proposals caused our first speaker much grief. Eventually he had to resign as speaker, and that's when Robert took over.

Robert tried to introduce a new set of Rules. In addition to mutable and immutable rules, there was to be Harfy Rules [which could only be replaced by something sillier. See P330. -Ed.]. Many proposals had some reference to the Harfy Rules. Check out the web page for some of the early proposals. -- Wayne, 19 May 1996

Wayne claimed 85 points and said that he was the winner, because of R115, Permissibility of the Unprohibited. CFJ 113 (which remains vital to this day) ruled that because one means of acquiring points was regulated, thus every means was regulated, and Wayne's claim was invalid. See also P406 for a creative way to win.

A time when legislative gridlock could be applied to any pending proposal simply for depending on or referring to another (even implicitly, as in P474). The proposals didn't even need to be rules to impact the game. A different verdict or reversal of CFJ 127 could have broken the game. (See P416, P474, P475, CFJ 126, CFJ 127, CFJ 130, CFJ 134.)

First President elected:

Robert Sevin defeats Mohammed 9 votes to 3.

First Senate elected:

fon defeats ??? ??? votes to ????.
Mohammed defeats ??? ??? votes to ????.
chess piece face is elected unopposed.
Simon Marty Harriman is elected unopposed.

Calvin N Hobbes was the first Financier of the Free Market.

Owing to immigration and other factors, a great blizzard of e-mail enveloped the land, measuring some 120 messages a day in some mailboxes. The blizzard abated into a drought when President Sevin stepped in to discourage all non-essential communication.

A time when mass immigration to Ackanomia overwhelmed the existing population, and halted the legislative process by not voting and thus causing all proposals to fail because of quorum. The quorum rules couldn't be changed because quorum couldn't be reached to change them. Death, emigration, creative CFJs and the formation of the Quorum Party all helped to solve the crisis.

Malenkai was appointed to be the first Justice of the Supreme Court. Later, President Robert Sevin appointed Bascule, but it is still not clear whether he is a Justice, because three Senators are on vacation and the fourth seat is vacant (as of 31 May).

I need info and perspectives on this.
Bascule's commentaries: The Crisis and President Sevin's Actions.
See CFJ 153, CFJ 157, and CFJ 158.

this is not a name attempted to exploit a loophole in the vacationing rule (which stated that a player may put himself on vacation, but did not expressly prohibit players' putting others on vacation) by placing all players but himself on vacation. After much discussion, he revealed that he did not mean it seriously but rather meant it to point out that all the quibbling over the end of the game was rather trivial. In any case, CFJ 165 (which, ironically, was given to this is not a name to judge) decided that vacationing was covered by CFJ 113, and thus this is not a name's actions had no force.

Proposal 729 passed, making the earth flat. Burning was prescribed as the penalty for anyone who suggested the earth was round. Calvin N Hobbes suggested the earth was "not flat," for which he was burned. Many other proposals (including extranomic entities that provided safe haven against fire) were introduced. Bascule's commentary on the Witchhunt is illuminating.

I hope you record this in the history books:
"... I am now a criminal..." : )
"...Calvin died bravely, fighting till his last as a martyr to Science. Long live his name along side the likes of Galileo...Heck. He was Galileo..."
"...Thankfully, dying by combustion here in Acka has no effect on the status of a player. So Calvin's ashes were back to work this morning, same as usual..." -- Calvin N Hobbes, 20 May 1996

mr cwm also claimed that the earth was not flat (perish the thought!):

I did, in my message contending that one did not need to actually say the Earth was round to be subject of a witch-hunt, but only imply the possibility that it might be round, express my belief that the Earth was a disk, and thus both round and flat. It got me burned by a pathetic result of 2 votes to 1, showing CnH and me that no one was really paying us any attention. -- mr cwm, 3 Jun 96

Finally, a resource for Ackanomic schoolchildren to study when learning the history of their native land. Maintained by this is not a name, Ackanomic's Historian.

On 1 Jun 96, The Great Old One invoked R663 to turn various pending proposals into resolutions, which, according to the poorly written R663, could be done by any player. He then called for a paradox win based on this gridlock: any proposal to repeal 663 could be turned into a resolution. This has not yet been resolved, although this is not a name's 28 Apr call for a Constitutional Convention, which has not yet been distributed by the Promoter, could solve this crisis.

The excellent commentaries of Bascule

Political Party History

The Archive of Official Polls
The Gumball Archive
Phoebe the Steel Flea's Sayings