The Current Rules

The Current Rules


Rule 1
Jurisdiction: General

A memorial to Axiom's Past
October 1st, 1998 - March 31st, 2000


Rule 100
Jurisdiction: General

Axiom is a nomic game.

If a contradiction is determined to exist in the rules of Axiom such that two or more phenomena are described which are legally mutually exclusive, then, for that phenomenon, the following procedure shall determine which rule takes precedence:

(1) The rule with the lowest number among the rules in question shall take precedence unless precedence is explicitly claimed or deffered by the rules in question, in which case, the rules can settle things amongst themselves.

(2) If two statements in a rule's description are determined to be mutually contradictory, then the statement which appears later in the text, as it would be normally read, is given precedence.

Under no circumstances may any rule, or any entity which derives its authority from the rules, take precedence over this rule, because the notion of precedence exists under the authority of this rule.


Rule 101
Jurisdiction: General

Axiom, and things within Axiom, are all entities. An entity may only change when the rules say they can and then only in ways described by the rules.

If a player attempts an action, and no one objects to that player's attempt within two weeks, then once these two weeks have elapsed, the game state of Axiom is altered to be as though that player had succeeded in eir attempt, if it has not already been so altered.

For a player to successfully attempt an action, that attempt must be made publicly knowable to all players.

In Axiom, something is to be considered "publicly knowable" if and only if a description of that thing exists on the Axiom mailing list.

Official Annotation 2000/08/24/A:
This Rule does not give objections the power to modify the already established portions of the game state; Legal actions change the game state at the time they are taken.


Rule 102
Jurisdiction: General

Section 1 What A Proposition Is

The following shall be the alphanumeric character set:

A a B b C c D d E e F f G g H h I i J j K k L l M m N n O o P p Q q R r S s T t U u V v W w X x Y y Z z 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

The following shall be the punctuation character set:

! ? @ # $ % & | \ ( ) [ ] < > { } _ ~ - + / * ^ = . , : ; ' " ` and " " (white space).

The alphanumeric and punctuation sets shall be collectively known as the legal character set.

Any player of Axiom may introduce text in a forum of Axiom which purports to be an official proposition. Such text shall be considered to be a true and legal proposition, whatever its content or lack thereof, so long as:

(A) the text contains some alphanumeric characters and no characters not in the legal set, and
(B) a title composed of no more than 100 legal characters is specified, and
(C) the date of the latest possible counting of the vote correctly specified in the announcing message.

Section 2 What Propositions Can Do

The text of a proposition shall be treated as a list of changes to the game state of Axiom. If and only if the proposition passes, the game state may be modified by propositions in order to:

(A) A create one or more new rules.
(B) Change the text of one or more rules.
(C) Renumber one of more rules.
(D) Repeal one of more rules.
(E) Otherwise modify one or more rules.
(F) Change the state of some non-rule entity in Axiom.
(G) Perform some combination of the above.

Propositions may not perform retroactive changes to the rules, to any non-rule entity, or to the game state.

If a proposition's text seems to contain nothing but the text of a proposed rule, then that text shall be placed in a rule numbered one higher than the highest rule already existing.

If a proposition seems to contain one time instructions that make no sense, target nonexistent entities, or otherwise produce alogical situations, these instructions shall be considered null and will not be carried out or included in a rule as the text of that rule.

Section 3 How To Produce Votes

Any player may produce a vote on any proposition by announcing such an action in a forum of Axiom. Any player may destroy one of eir votes by making a similar announcement of this action. Destruction of votes may also be called retraction. All votes must be FOR or AGAINST, or be of some synonymous type (like yea/nea, PRO/CON, etc).

A player implicitly retracts old votes on a proposition if e creates new ones, unless these votes are created as extra votes under the auspices of some rule. Extra votes may be similarly changed by retraction and recreation so long as the rule making provisions for the extra vote still permits such creation.

Section 4 How To Count Votes

Once 168 hours have passed since the creation of a proposition, providing that the votes have not already been counted, then the vote counting shall occur.

When counting votes, if (the votes FOR the proposition) / (the total number of votes on the proposition) resolves to some value greater than 1/2, then the proposition passes. In this special case, the ratio of 0/0 is considered to be infinitesimally greater than a half.

If there are any characteristics which change the decision procedure for counting a vote (which is a distinct idea from the modification of procedures for vote creation) then only the state of such characteristics at the exact instant of proposition resolution shall matter.

Section 5 Other Things Which Can Be Done To Propositions

A proposition may be retracted by its author up to 48 hours after the proposition's creation by announcing the retraction to a forum of Axiom. When retraction occurs, all votes on that proposition are automatically retracted.

It is considered good form for players to post a draft of a proposition for comment, before starting the formal voting period.

Section 6 The Time Spiders Clause

If, at some time between the announcement of a proposition and its 408 hour voting period, the number of supporting votes so far created is equal to the number of players, then vote counting occurs immediately.


Rule 103
Jurisdiction: General

Anyone may join Axiom as a player by subscribing to the mailing list and sending a message stating that they agree to abide by all the current a future rules of the game. Having joined the game of Axiom, no-one may re-join without first leaving the game.

A player or Slacker may leave the game of Axiom at any time by stating eir intention to do so in a message to the mailing list; this is functionally equivalent to rebuking the rules. Having stated the intention to leave the game, that person is no longer considered a player of Axiom. When a player leaves Axiom, eir name is removed from the Judge Pool Listing, all of eir votes are automatically retracted, and eir possessions (such as $T) are destroyed.

Any player may take a temporary break from the game of Axiom, by stating (1) eir intention to do so in a message to the mailing list, (2) providing a date before which e will return to normal player status, and (3) explicitly listing such information as e would normally track on eir own (such as $T, positions, offices, etc). Until that player sends a message to the mailing list officially ending eir vacation, e is considered to be vacationing. When a player goes on vacation, eir name is removed from the Judge Pool Listing, and all of eir votes are automatically retracted, and e is not able to make rule defined actions unless it is made clear in a rule that that particular actions is a legal one for Vacationing players. When a player returns from vacation, eir name is added to the Judge Pool Listing and e regains the right to take game actions.


Rule 104
Jurisdiction: General

The currency of Axiom is Suber Tokens (abbreviated $T). Players may exchange $Ts (so long as all participants agree to the exchange) in increments of 0.01, but no smaller. No player may ever own fewer than $T0.00.

When a player joins Axiom, $T10.00 are created for em.

When a player leaves Axiom, all of the Suber Tokens e owns are destroyed.

It is considered good form for players to track eir own Suber Token holdings and post eir previous holdings and eir new wealth at the bottom of eir emails when these values change.


Rule 105
Jurisdiction: General

All players are either independent or affiliated with a faction.

A faction is formed when three independent players agree to form a faction and what the name of eir faction will be.

A faction is dissolved when any of its members leaves it, either by announcing eir unaffiliation or leaving Axiom, or by other means.

The members of a faction may unanimously elect a leader of eir faction. The leader of a faction is authorized to create an extra vote called a faction vote for a proposition provided no other factions votes from a current or former leader of eir fation exist for the proposition in question.


Rule 106
Jurisdiction: General

On any given proposition, any player may produce a special type of extra vote called a corrupt vote by purchasing it for ($T0.25) * (1 + the number of corrupt votes already purchased by players on this proposition). The Suber Tokens used in the purchase shall be held in reserve and then divided evenly among the players of Axiom at the resolution of the proposition the corrupt votes were purchased for (with rounded leftovers going to the author of the proposition).

No player may produce a second corrupt vote, even if e retracts the first.


Rule 107
Jurisdiction: General

There is a class of entities known as Slackers. A Slacker is exactly like a player except as otherwise noted by the rules.

A player becomes a Slacker by one of two methods:
(1) when e has not posted to a forum of Axiom for 28 days, e is not on vacation, and this is pointed out by another player.
(2) if e is on vacation and does not return by eir stated return date

A Slacker may Unslack by making it publicly knowable that e does so. When a Slacker Unslacks, e becomes a player again.

Slackers may not perform any actions except Unslacking, leaving the game, convening a court, or any other actions specifically allowed to Slackers by the rules.

Slackers are never considered as players for purposes of determining the number of players in Axiom at any given time.


Rule 110
Jurisdiction: General

When a person has a grievance, believes that the gamestate is not fully specified, or has some other issue which bears official, public, clarification, that person may convene a court and call for an issue to be decided upon.

The Clerk Of The Court shall select an appropriate judge who shall post an official decision on the issue within 168 hours of public notice of eir selection, or be replaced by the COTC and face the opprobrium of Axiom.

If a Slacker is also a judge, the COTC must choose a new judge to replace em.


Rule 111
Jurisdiction: General

The official decision of a judge shall be considered useful, but non-binding, until 168 hours have passed since its posting. If no one convenes a court on this decision it becomes binding.

When forming an official decision, the judge should consider (1) the rules of Axiom as they are written and as they were intended, (2) previous court decisions that may be relevant, (3) the living and breathing traditions of Axiom, (4) fair play, and (5) the fun that a bit of randomness can introduce, in that order such as is necessary to render a comprehensive decision.

It is bad form for judges to rule on anything not strictly necessary to the resolution of the issue their court was convened for.


Rule 112
Jurisdiction: General

There are certain actions or complexes of actions which the rules permit but create sanctions for performing. Such actions are known as crimes, and may only be defined in the rules.

Any player (hereafter the prosecutor) may accuse any other player (hereafter the accused) of having committed a crime by convening a criminal court and naming the crime that the accused allegedly committed.

For a criminal court, the COTC shall assign a judge according to the same rules as for a "generic" court. It borders on criminal incompetence for the assigned judge to post a ruling before the accused has had a chance to argue in eir own defense, but the ruling must come within the same period as a for a generic court.

The ruling in a criminal court should be produced as if it were a generic court, except that the judge should consider justice before all other decision making criteria, and it should include mention of the guilt or innocence of the accused.

A criminal court is not disbanded upon the posting of the ruling, unless the judge finds the accused innocent. If the accused is guilty, then the prosecutor and the accused shall email a suggested punishment to the judge within 24 hours of the posting of the ruling, and within 72 hours of the posting of the ruling, the judge shall pick the fairest of the suggestions e has received from the accused or the prosecutor (even if one came in late) as the punishment and post it.

Upon the posting of the punishment, the punishment is carried out. A court convened (within 168 hours of the punishment's posting) on the issue of the proper following of judicial procedures for the trial, may reverse the punishment, but not retroactively. For example, if a player lost $T2.00 then it is restored, but the opportunity to have spent it while the appeal is moving forward is not restored; if a player had eir voting privileges suspended for three weeks, then a speedy appeal might restore it in 4 days, but any lost voting opportunities are not also restored.

If the accused is found innocent, then the prosecutor loses $T0.75 (or all they have if they would have negative Suber Tokens otherwise) and the accused gains however much the prosecutor loses.


Rule 113
Jurisdiction: General

It is the crime of Churning to join Axiom, after recently leaving it, in an attempt to derive some benefit from am otherwise balanced game mechanism.

It is the crime of Lying to post inaccurate information to a forum of Axiom which is known, or should be known, to be inaccurate.

It is the crime of Polluting The Records for a player to consistently post messages to a forum of Axiom with no summary containing self-documenting information. It is unfair for excessive punishments to be levied for this crime.


Rule 115
Jurisdiction: General

Players may hold offices. Slackers may not hold offices. Each office must be described in a rule that lays out what special responsibilities and privileges are entrusted to its holder.

When an election starts, players have 72 hours to publicly nominate emselves for that office. Then for 72 more hours players should vote on the nominees by stating an order of preference among the nominees (with no requirement to include all nominees).

After initial voting, if one nominee has an overall majority (more than 50% of top preferences cast) then they are elected; if not the nominee with fewest votes is eliminated and votes for them pass to the second choice of anyone who voted for them. If no majority is clear, this elimination process continues until one nominee has an overall majority, and this nominee becomes the new holder of the office.

If no one nominates emself then the election is over and the current officer has been re-elected. If no one votes, then the nominee who has been a player of Axiom longest is elected. The rules defining different offices may specify variations on any part of the election process.

The first and the fifteenth day of each month are Report Days. Those report days which fall on the first of January, April, July, and October (in the Gregorian calendar) shall mark the beginning of a Quarter.

At the beginning of each quarter, an election cycle shall begin. In an election cycle, an election shall start for the office whose defining rule is numbered lowest. When the election for this office is completed, a new election shall be held for the office defined by the next lowest rule. This process will repeat until an election has been held for all offices.

Officer's may grant and revoke any power of eir office to other players by announcing this to a forum of the game. These players are known as Acting Officers. The collection of the officer and all of eir acting officers is known as the Administration of the office.

Any player may attempt to impeach an administration by announcing this to a forum of Axiom. If another player seconds this attempt, then (1) an election for the office immediately starts, and (2) all the duties of that office are put on hold such that no member of the administration is required or able to perform the duties of the office until the referendum election is over.

If an Officer becomes a Slacker, e is immediately impeached. The player who pointed out the Slacker is nominated for the office helf by the Slacker.


Rule 116
Jurisdiction: General

There is an office whose holder (hereafter the Clerk Of The Courts or COTC) shall run the appointment of judges.

The COTC shall keep a Judge Pool Listing of all players who have not been a judge since the last refresh of the list. When a court is convened, the COTC shall choose, in a responsible and impartial manner, who from the Judge Pool Listing is to be judge and then remove eir name.

When the Judge Pool Listing is empty, the COTC shall refresh it by adding the name of every non-vacationing player to it. Slackers may never be added to the Judge Pool Listing.

When a player becomes a Slacker, e is immediately removed from the Judge Pool Listing.

It is also the responsibility of the COTC to make web accessible the important records relevant to each case.


Rule 117
Jurisdiction: General

It is a responsibility of the office of Registrar to track the official status of players.

It is also the responsibility of the registrar to send an email to each vacationing player reminding em of the impending end of eir vacation so that e doesn't forget.

The primary responsibility of the Registrar is to publish the Official Register to the message list on each Report Day, detailing: (1) Each email address receiving email from the game forum, (2) the known names of the people associated with these addresses, (2) which of these people are players, (4) which players are vacationing, (5) which of these people are Slackers, (6) all the information which each vacationing player listed upon taking eir vacation, and (7) all changes to this information since each vacation started.

It is considered good form to pay the registrar for eir harfing services when you get back from vacation.


Rule 150
Jurisdiction: General

Section 1 Terminology

Every rule in Axiom has a special characteristic known as its "Jurisdiction". The default Jurisdiction for a rule is "General". Any rule which does not have the default Jurisdiction may be referred to as a "subrule".

For the purposes of determining what rules can effect what entities, an test may be performed on an entity. If that entity (or that type of entity) was first described by a subrule, then that entity is an "X entity" where X is the Jurisdiction of the subrule in question. Subrules are their own entities. The General rules may describe other means by which entities are classified with respect to subrules.

Subrules, eir entities, and all actions within such localized spheres of influence may be referred to collectively as subgames.

A player of Axiom may announce something to the effect that e wants to follow a subruleset or participate in a subgame. This makes that player legally a subrule entity of the subrules to which e has requested entry. Players are always also considered to be General entities.

Section 2 Metaphysics

All entities, regardless of jurisdiction, exist in a manner consistent with the General rules. Subrules entities, and only subrule entities, must also follow eir subrule's dictates.

The characteristic called Jurisdiction is called this because the general idea is that subrules should work in a manner consistent with this concept. Where fuzziness may exist in the language, things should be interpreted with as much latitude as the concept of jurisdiction and the prerogatives and safety of the General rules allow.

Subrules may compel players to take certain actions which may have effects on General entities, but they cannot give players wholly new powers or abilities.

If subrules should ever happen to gain "players" independently of Axiom itself, those players are considered to be purely subrule entities, except that they may later join Axiom proper and gain full playerhood by following the General rules as normal. If this should happen then eir status will be identical to players who were Axiom players first and subgame players later, with respect to subrule status at least.

Section 3 Creating Subgames

A set of subrules may be created by any player by that player's announcement of:

1. The name of the subruleset (which shall be the Jurisdiction of rules within that set).

2. The web address where that ruleset's information will be found.

3. The starting content of that ruleset.

Section 4 Orderly Paperwork

It is the responsibility of the founder of a subgame to keep track of that subgame's ruleset unless other provisions have been made.

The numbering of subrules shall take the form 150.Y.Z where Y is a number between 999 and zero which is the same for all subrules in the subruleset and Z holds whatever indexing system is employed by the subrules to index emselves. For purposes of precedence, the Y portion shall be treated as thousandths and the Z portion shall only impact precedence within the subruleset, if that.


Rule 200
Jurisdiction: General

There exists a quantity of distance in Riemmania. The units for distance are the jarak (abbreviated with the lower case letter 'j').

There exists a quantity called mass in Riemmania. The units for mass are the misa (abbreviated with the lower case letter 'm'). mass is not quantized, however it is considered good form to define masses as multiples of 1/100 of a misa.

There exists a quantity called energy in Riemmania. The unit for energy is the tenaga (abbreviated with the lower case letter 't'). Energy is qunatized in multiples of 1/100 of a tenaga.


Rule 201
Jurisdiction: General

There exists a 2 dimensional space in Axiom which is officially called: "Riemmania".

Any point on this space may be defined via two co-ordinates: x and y.

x and y may be any multiple of 0.01 jarak from -10 jarak to 10 jarak, or take on the value 'null'. If one or more co-ordinate is null, then the specified point is not located, or connected in any way, to the plane.

The plane has no bounds: The left side wraps around to the right side, and the top wraps to the bottom. Hence, the co-ordinate -10 and +10, are actually the same.

The distance between two points on the plane may be found via the following formula: s^2 = delta(x)^2 + delta(y)^2
Where 's' is the distance, delta(x) is the change in x co-ordinate, and delta(y) is the change in y co-ordinate. (Note that the ability to wrap around the board makes trips from close to one side, to close to it's conjugate side, have a shorter distance than traversing a bounded board.) If either x or y is null for one of the points, then the distance between them is undefined.

It is considered good practice to specify points on the plane via an ordered pair notation: (x,y)


Rule 202
Jurisdiction: General

Objects may exist in Riemmania. Objects must have the following properties:

A mass must be assigned to all objects.

A physical size must be defined for objects. If desired, the size of the object may be zero in all dimensions, and hence be a point object. It is considered good form for objects to be rectangular, however, this is not mandatory.

Each object must have a single reference co-ordinate, which uniquely defines the bounds of the entire object. This co-ordinate must be contained within the objects bounds. (It is considered good form for the reference co-ordinate to be at the centre of the bounding rectangle.)

No object is permitted to have any part of its bounds overlap with the bounds of another object, unless explicitly overridden by a rule.


Rule 203
Jurisdiction: General

Each player is represented as a point object in Riemmania, known as an orang. (The point object's reference co-ordinate is the same as the point which signifies its `bounds'.)

The mass of an orang is 10 misa.

Orangs posses energy. On the 1st and the 15th of each month (as determined by Greenwich Mean Time), each orang recieves 20 tenaga. Each orang may posses a maximum energy of 40 tenaga. Excess tenaga are destroyed.

Movement through Riemmania is carried out by the expenditure of energy. To move a distance s, the following formula is used to calculate the energy change for the moving orang:

delta(E) = -k*m*s

Where delta(E) is the energy change of the orang (rounded down to the nearest 1/100 of a tenaga), m is the sum of the mass of the orang and all his possessions, and k is a constant defined as 0.1 t/(j*m)

At the beginning of the game, each orang's plane co-ordinates are null. When a player wants to begin playing on the plane, he may choose his own starting co-ordinates, by setting their co-ordinates to valid values other than null.


Rule 323
Jurisdiction: General

Section A:

With the exception of Section A, the text of this rule shall may not be posted, in full or in part, in any official Axiom document -- including public messages and Axiom web pages. In place of the text of this rule, excluding Section A, shall be placed the string "!!! CENSORED !!!". Instead, the COTC must maintain a copy of the complete text of this rule which he shall distribute to any PLAYER upon request. It is a crime of Being A Dirty Stinking Traitor to distribute the text of this rule to any person who is not a player of Axiom.

!!! CENSORED !!!


Last Updated: 9/13/2000 3:00pm PST
Author:
Jennifer Mueller
If you're wonder whether the game is still going, message me at mueller4@sonic.net