Preamble:

We present BiNomic, a nomic game of two parts. Part the first is the Arena, wherein Players may engage in nomic competition. Part the second is the Senate, wherein the Senators provide the Laws that give the whole game its structure.

General Laws:

G1. The Laws shall govern all play within the game of BiNomic

G2. A person may go on Leave at any time by so indicating via the Arena forum. A person may come back from Leave at any time by so indicating via the Arena forum.

G3. A Holiday is a period of time designated as such by the Laws. At the start of a Holiday, all outstanding deadlines shall be extended by an amount of time equal to the duration of the Holiday. All deadlines that originate during a Holiday will be extended by the amount of time left in the Holiday period.

G4. Each year the BiSenate shall go on Holiday during the end of the year, from December 23rd through January 2nd, inclusive.

G5. The Queue shall be an ordered list of all Active Players. Whenever an Active Player is not listed on the Queue, e shall be added to the bottom of it. If multiple Active Players are concurrently not listed, they shall be added to the bottom in random order. On an occasion when the Laws specify that the Queue shall be used to select one or more Players, the number of Players to be selected shall be chosen from the top of the list, and those Players shall be removed from the Queue. When a Player is no longer Active, e is removed from the Queue.

G6. A BiNomic day runs from midnight GMT to the following midnight GMT. A deadline always falls on the first instance of midnight GMT that allows for at least as much time as the Laws specify for that deadline."

Laws pertaining to the Senate:

S1. A proposed Amendment shall take effect when a majority of Senators who are not on Leave indicates approval.

S2. A person may become a Senator by stating intent to become one. This intent must be seconded by a current Senator, if there are any.

S3. A person may be removed from the position of Senator voluntarily, or by consent of at least 2/3 of all other Senators.

S4. Any Senator may call for a Roll Call, so long as one has not been made in the last 2 weeks. A Roll Call requires that all Senators shall reply to the Senatorial forum within 72 hours. Any Senator, not on Leave, who fails to reply to the Roll Call within the prescribed time shall be put on Forced Leave. A Senator may remove themselves from Forced Leave by posting to the Senatorial forum and stating a desire to be removed. Any Senator on Forced Leave for longer than 3 weeks shall be removed from the Senate without prejudice.

S5. All amendment proposals sent to the mailing list shall include as the beginning of the subject line: "Proposal:" followed by a very brief title of the new amendment. When a Senator wishes to vote on amendments, the votes should be sent in an independent and seperate email from all other discussions and business. All amendment votes sent to the mailing list shall include as the beginning of the subject line: "Vote". Failure to include the required text will result in the Proposal failing automatically or the votes not being counted.

S6. Once a senator has made his vote clear on an amendment, either for or against, e may not change his vote on that amendment for fear that we have another 36 days of recounts.

S7. Each amendment proposal shall have a life cycle of exactly 14 days from the date it was introduced (its birth date). By the end of the 14th day, the amendment shall automatically be considered dead if it has not received the required votes to pass. The original composer of the amendment may declare the proposal dead at any time by sending a message to the bisenate mailing list. The proposal may also be declared dead when enough votes AGAINST the amendment has been received such that it is impossible with the current Senators to gain enough votes to pass. When an amendment proposal becomes dead, it shall be removed from the Pending Amendments list. The birth date and its death date shall be included in the Pending Amendments list.

S8. Only Senators, not On Leave or on Forced Leave, may make Proposals

Laws pertaining to the Arena:

A1. The Rules shall govern all play within the Arena.

A2. At the beginning of a new Round, all Rules shall be repealed.

A3. The Judge shall determine the validity of proposed Rules.

A4. The Judge may declare any active player other than himself to be the winner of the current Round.

A5. When the winner of a Round is declared, the Round ends and the winner becomes the new Judge.

A6. Whenever there is no Active Player serving as Judge, select a Player from the Queue to be the new Judge.

A7. Only Active Players who are not the Judge may submit rules in a Round.

A8. In case of conflict, the Rules of the Arena defer to the Laws of the
Senate.

A9. At the start of the round, all players other than the Judge are eligible
to Win. As the Round progresses, the Rules may cause one or more players
to be removed from contention. Players who are not eligible to win may
still participate in the Round. Once a player is removed from contention,
the rules may NOT restore him to contention. If there is ever only one
player eligible to win, that player wins. If there is ever no player
eligible to win, the Round ends without a winner. A Round can only end
with a single winner, or no winner.

Laws pertaining to the Court:

C1. The Court is composed of all the Justices. The Justices may privately consult and subsequently render a binding decision regarding the proper interpretation of the Laws. Rendering a decision requires unanimous agreement of a full Court. A decision may be nullified within 3 days of its announcement by agreement among a majority of the Senate.

Definitions:

Player: a person who has subscribed to the Arena forum, and has indicated intent to be a Player.

Active Player: a person who has posted to the Arena forum within the last week, and who is not on Leave.

Arena forum: the mailing list established for Arena-related communication.

Proposal: a proposed Amendment.

Law: Enacted by the Senate, governing both the Senate and play within the
Arena.

Rule: Enacted from within the Arena, and governing only the Arena.

Contender: A player who is eligible to Win the current Round in the Arena.

Items:

Spelling Bee: The owner of the Spelling Bee may change one word in any Rule by substituting up to two of its letters for other letters. This change may be anulled by the current Judge within 2 days of its application. Once used, the Spelling Bee is no longer owned and goes into its hive for two days. Whenever the Spelling Bee is neither in its hive nor owned by an Active Player, it is given to a Player selected from the Queue.

Author Chip: One Author Chip is created whenever a Proposal passes, and is given to the author of that Proposal.

Voting Chip: Voting Chips are created whenever a Proposal passes, one given to each Senator who voted on the Proposal.

Shiny Trophy: One Shiny Trophy is created whenever a Round ends with a
winner, and is given to the winner of that Round.

Really Shiny Trophy: One Really Shiny Trophy is created and given to the
winner of the Very First Round, and noone else.

Officers:

O1. The Laws may create Offices, each with certain prerogatives and duties associated with it.

O2. Except where otherwise specified, the following holds true of all Offices:
O2a. A given Office may be held by only one person at any time.
O2b. All vacancies in a given Office are filled by a single Point Vote among Senators, to be completed within 2 days time.
O2c. An Office may be vacated voluntarily by the Office holder, or by agreement among two-thirds of the Senate.
O3. Whenever the Laws designate Proxies for an Office, the highest-priority available Proxy shall carry out the duties and prerogatives of the Office whenever the Office is vacant, whenever the holder of the Office is on
Leave, or whenever the holder must recuse himself.

Webmaster: The Webmaster shall maintain a website for BiNomic, and shall keep it updated to reflect the state of the game. The Webmaster may propose an alteration to the text of the Laws, solely to correct improper spelling or punctuation, by posting the proposed alteration to the Senatorial forum. The proposed alteration takes effect only if no Senator objects to it within 3 days of its posting.

Speaker: The Speaker shall conduct random selections, greet new Players, and shall announce significant BiNomic events via the appropriate forum. The Speaker shall be the lowest-priority Proxy for all Offices

Chief Justice: The Chief Justice shall conduct the business of the Court, including the announcement of its decisions. This Office shall be filled only by agreement of a majority of the full Court. The Proxies for this Office are the Justices, ranked according to their
order on the Queue.

Justice: There shall be three Justices. No person shall be a Justice and Speaker at the same time. No person shall serve as Proxy for more than one Justice, nor shall a Justice serve as Proxy for another Justice. The order of the Proxy to fill a Court Justice office shall be determined in the following manner: At the time of recusing of the Court Justice, each player shall receive a Proxy Rating equal to 2 times the number of Voting Chips minus 3 times the number of Author Chips. These Ratings shall determine the order of the Proxy, except the Speaker, who shall remain the lowest ranked Proxy. If there are still any ties, then The Chief Justice (even if he is the one recusing), shall rank the tied candidates.

Arena Judge: The player who is the Judge of the Arena shall be considered to hold the Office of Arena Judge. A player who holds the Office of the Arena Judge and is also a Justice of The Court, must recuse himself from the Court Justice position for the entire term during which he holds the Office of the Arena Judge.

Procedures:

Point Vote: Each eligible voter shall assign 0,1,2, or 3 points to each eligible candidate. Failure to mention a number of points assigned to an eligible candidate is equivalent to assigning 0 points to that candidate. Each voter may assign a total of no more than 6 points in a given Point Vote. The candidate with the most accumulated points assigned to em is the winner of the vote. In the case where more than one winner is to be selected, the topmost point-earners are the winners. Random selection shall resolve any ties.

Webmaster: Mark Nau
nau@treyarch.com