Note: UTC (Universal Time Code) = GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) = EST+5h = MST+7h
Distribution date: Tue Feb 13 01:01:14 UTC 1996 All proposals made on a Friday after 18:00 GMT have a prescribed voting period not ending before 18:00 GMT on the Monday of the next Nomic week.
Decision: Approved
Distribution date:
Tue Feb 13 22:42:45 UTC 1996
Resent:
Mon Feb 19 16:01:04 UTC 1996
The game shall be known as Net Waste Of Time; the only appropriate abbreviations of this name shall be NEWT or newt.
Decision: Approved
Distribution date:
Thu Feb 15 20:13:30 UTC 1996
Resent:
Mon Feb 19 16:01:31 UTC 1996
A Nomic Day shall be defined as a period of time with a duration of 14 hours. The speaker shall be responsible for keeping a schedule of the Nomic days in relation to real time. The Nomic days shall be known by their cardinal number as follows: N-Day 1, N-Day 2,...,N-Day 12. N-Day 1 shall begin at 00:00 GMT Monday, and N-Day 12 shall end at at the same time, one Nomic Week later.
Speaker's comments: I do not consent to this one. I feel that this is simply more work for me, with the probability of a *lot* more work for me. Also, with lag times, work times, and sleep times, 14 hours seems much too fine a gradation. Mycroft.
Decision: Approved
Distribution date:
Mon Feb 19 14:51:45 UTC 1996
Resent:
Mon Feb 19 16:01:52 UTC 1996
Each Player shall have at all times a Player Number. Every Player Number shall be a nonnegative integer. No Player may have more than one Player Number, and no two Players may have the same Player Number. Players may not change their Player Numbers. At the passing of this rule, the Speaker shall assign a Player Number to each Player. This information shall be recorded in the Player List.
Decision: Approved
Distribution date:
Mon Feb 19 14:54:36 UTC 1996
Resent:
Mon Feb 19 16:02:07 UTC 1996
At the beginning of each Nomic Week, the Speaker shall supply each Player with a copy of the official rules as of that moment. At any time, a Player may request a copy of any (not necessarily proper) subset of the rules, and the Speaker shall provide this at eir earliest convenience. These shall represent but not constitute the Official Ruleset as of the moment of mailing.
[Speaker's Note: I actually like this proposal - although the work may be quite large. However, I don't know how everyone feels about a large file dropping into eir lap every Monday morning. If this could be a problem, let me know - or propose an "exemption amendment".]
Decision: Approved
Distribution date: Mon Feb 19 18:26:31 UTC 1996
Rule 110 shall be transmuted into a mutable rule
Decision: Defeated - not unanimous
Distribution date: Mon Feb 19 18:29:10 UTC 1996
There may be no more than 30 mutable rules in effect at any time. If any proposals for new mutable rules or the transmutation of immutable rules to mutable rules are adopted after there are 30 mutable rules, one will come into effect (in order adopted), when any mutable rule is transmuted or repealed.
Excess rules are a part of the rule set and are to have "not in effect" noted after their rule numbers. During this time the rules not in effect may be repealed or transmuted in the normal manner.
Decision: Defeated - did not reach quorum
Distribution date:
Mon Feb 19 18:41:26 UTC 1996
Rule 220 is repealed.
Decision: Approved
Distribution date: Thu Feb 22 05:13:46 UTC 1996
And: No proposal or proposed rule change may contain the word "and". Any document containing the word is not a proposal. It may be a rule, it may be an official document, but it is not a Proposal.
Decision: Approved
Distribution date: Fri Feb 23 13:28:33 UTC 1996
For the purposes of this game, midnight on a day is defined as the minute between 23:59 the previous day and 0:01 on the day in question.
[comment] If there's nothing in the rules, I still don't like avoiding Monday proposals...
Decision: Invalid Proposal - Rule 309
Distribution date: Mon Feb 26 17:37:00 UTC 1996
Any proposition shall have its specified voting period contained within the submission for that proposal; this will be the amount of time following the point of transmission in which voters may transmit votes. This voting period shall not be less than 72 hours from time of transmission. In the event that this voting period is left out of the submission, or the time specified is an illegal amount of time, the voting period shall be one week from time of transmission. In addition, rule 205 shall be repealed.
Decision: Cancelled - Amended into proposal 313
Distribution date: Mon Feb 26 17:38:08 UTC 1996
Midnight shall be the time at the commencement of a day; the moment of 00:00. Thus, midnight Monday shall be after the end of Sunday, at the beginning of Monday. A day shall officially begin at 00:00 GMT, and the previous day shall end at the instant before that.
Decision: Invalid Proposal - Rule 309
Submission date: Tue Feb 27 12:15:46 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Wed Feb 28 19:05:06 UTC 1996
Any proposition shall have its specified voting period contained within the submission for that proposal; this will be the amount of time following the point of transmission in which voters may transmit votes. This voting period shall not be less than *5 Nomic Days* from time of transmission. In the event that this voting period is left out of the submission, or the time specified is an illegal amount of time, the voting period shall be one Nomic week from time of transmission. In addition, rule 205 shall be repealed.
[Speaker's comment: This is an amendment of Proposal 311. I am handling it by cancelling 311 and entering 313. Mycroft]
Decision: Approved
Submission date: Wed Feb 28 12:32:03 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Sat Mar 2 03:09:20 UTC 1996
Player Numbers: Players may change eir player numbers by submitting a request to the Speaker. This request takes effect at the moment it is recieved by the Speaker. A request for a Player Number that is illegal at the time the request would otherwise take effect is entirely null and void.
Decision: Invalid Proposal - Rule 309
Submission date: Wed Feb 28 12:32:03 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Wed Feb 28 19:08:23 UTC 1996
For the purposes of voting, the symbol :-) shall be equivalent to "FOR"; the symbol :-( shall be equivalent to "AGAINST". For Judgement, <:-] shall be equivalent to "TRUE", <:-[ shall be equivalent to "FALSE", while <|-? shall be equivalent to "UNDECIDED".
[Comment:] Nothing compels any player to use the symbols above. All it says is that these are legal sybols for the voting reactions. It allows a player with a sense of humour to be creative; at least these symbols are mnemonic. I considered things like %#$@. No, I don't take any funny chemicals while playing newt.
Decision: Approved
Submission date: Wed Feb 28 20:45:00 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Wed Feb 28 21:13:51 UTC 1996
A Player is called active if they have voted on or put forward at least one Proposal in the previous two Nomic Weeks, or is the Speaker. All other Players are called inactive.
Decision: Approved
Submission date: Wed Feb 28 20:45:00 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Wed Feb 28 21:15:37 UTC 1996
The Speaker is not required to send any information to an inactive Player, unless e has requested to be sent all information within the past two Nomic Weeks. This rule has priority over all other rules.
Decision: Approved
Submission date: Fri Mar 1 02:37:42 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Sat Mar 2 03:20:54 UTC 1996
A person wishing to join NEWT shall communicate in some fashion with the Speaker. The Speaker shall then transmit this communication to every Player, along with a description of the status the person will acquire should e become a Player. Within the next 150 hours, any Player may submit a Statement stating that the person is ineligible to join NEWT. In the absence of a Judgement of True on such a Statement, the person becomes a Player according to the norms specified in the communication.
[COMMENTS:] This is basically set up so that the Players need not use up Proposals on introducing new Players. The complicated wording is necessary to allow the Speaker to do things like choose a Player Number, assign a reasonable score, or assign any other attributes Players may acquire in the future. Mention should also be made of things like numbers of proposals submitted in a given Nomic week, etetera. The Players can always shoot this down for a good reason.
Decision: Approved
Submission date: Mon Mar 4 13:22:45 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Mon Mar 4 13:25:25 UTC 1996
A Proposal may be Amended by any Voter in the game provided that this Amendment is forwarded to the Speaker not two Nomic days before the end of that Proposal's voting period. The original Proposal, 'n' all votes cast for the unamended Proposal shall be discarded, 'n' this Amendment shall not be deemed a Proposal; rather, it shall be under the category of Amendment, 'n' no Player may make more than two Amendments per Nomic Week, but an Amendment shall in every other way be a Proposal, 'n' will share all other properties thereto.
Decision: Defeated
Submission date: Tue Mar 5 06:13:13 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Tue Mar 5 18:06:37 UTC 1996
Should a Player ever obtain imaginary points, so that eir total score becomes complex, then the Speaker shall only make public that Player's apparent score (analagous to apparent power). However, the Speaker will reveal the individual components of a Player's score in private on that Player's request.
[Speaker's Comment: for the non-engineers out there, "apparent score" will be the magnitude of the score. For a score A + jB (A + Bi for those who suffer under the misbelief that i is something other than current), apparent score is sqrt(A*A + B*B).]
Decision: Approved
Submission date: Tue Mar 5 06:13:13 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Tue Mar 5 18:22:12 UTC 1996
Players are permitted to loan points to other individuals on a week to week basis. At the end of the Nomic Week the debtor automatically pays back the loan with interest at the current fixed rate. If no rate has been specified in the Rules it is assumed to be 7%. The Speaker must be informed of a loan by both parties involved for the transaction to be complete. While a Player is borrowing another Player's points e may treat them just as though they were eir own, and may even use them to fulfill the winning condition.
Decision: Invalid Proposal - Rule 309
Submission date: Wed Mar 6 06:14:23 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Thu Mar 7 05:34:35 UTC 1996
The interest rate for NEWT shall be the same as the Bank of Canada prime rate at the time at which the loan was granted.
Decision: Approved
Submission date: Thu Mar 7 13:22:04 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Thu Mar 7 16:23:36 UTC 1996
The three characters following this colon and space: 'n' will be considered equivalent in the context of a proposal to the preposition which is not allowed by rule 309. However, these three characters will be allowed in a valid proposal.
Decision: Invalid Proposal - Rule 309.
Submission date: Thu Mar 7 13:22:04 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Thu Mar 7 16:23:58 UTC 1996
Rule 110 is transmuted to a mutable Rule.
Decision: Defeated - not unanimous
Submission date: Thu Mar 7 13:22:04 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Thu Mar 7 16:24:11 UTC 1996
Midnight on a day is defined as 0:00 on that day, that is, the first minute of the day.
Decision: Approved
Submission date: Thu Mar 7 19:05:10 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Fri Mar 8 20:26:03 UTC 1996
A Nomic Day is both a delineation of time; it is also a period of exactly 14 hours, just as a day is both a delineation of time and a period of exactly 24 hours. Likewise, a Nomic Week is both a period of time, as well as a time span of precisely 12 Nomic Days. [Proposer's note: This should (I hope) help to clear up some unclear issues with the rules, as in saying a certain number of Nomic days, etc. In this case, if the time was the 4 hours and 23 minutes into N-Day 2, two Nomic Days from that time would be 4 hours and 23 minutes into N-Day 4. Likewise, one Nomic Week from the previously mentioned time would be 4 hours and 23 minutes into N-Day 2, in the following Nomic Week...I hope this helps.] [Speaker's note: It's tough getting by 309, ain't it? Invalid proposal (second line, "of time and a period")]
Decision: Invalid Proposal - Rule 309
Submission date: Fri Mar 8 02:05:00 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Fri Mar 8 22:54:13 UTC 1996
Every Official Document that is not a Proposal must contain the word forbidden in Rule 309. At the moment of passing of this Rule, the Speaker shall modify every Official Document that does not contain the word forbidden in Rule 309 by appending that word. Documents not containing the word forbidden in rule 309 are either Proposals or text unrelated to NEWT. The classification of any document is a function of the Speaker.
[COMMENTS]And so it shall be. I just thought it wasn't interesting enough. Y'all don't seem to like that rule much, though.
Decision: Defeated
Submission date: Thu Mar 7 23:21 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Fri Mar 8 22:58:59 UTC 1996
Players are permitted to loan points to other individuals on a week to week basis. At the end of the Nomic Week the debtor automatically pays back the loan with interest at the current fixed rate. If no rate has been specified in the Rules it is assumed to be 7%. The Speaker must be informed of a loan by both parties involved for the transaction to be complete. While a Player is borrowing another Player's points e may treat them just as though they were eir own, & may even use them to fulfill the winning condition.
Decision: Passes
Submission date: Fri Mar 8 17:09:10 1996
Distribution date: Fri Mar 8 23:03:18 UTC 1996
Players may request a Change In Player Number. When this request is submitted, the Speaker shall distribute copies of the request to all Players. 200 hours from the time of distribution, the Change shall take effect, unless its doing so contradicts another rule or the Player whose number is to be changed has cancelled the request.
Comments: For those of us who don't like our Player Numbers... :)
Decision: Defeated
Submission date: Sun Mar 10 10::14:48 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Mon Mar 11 19:14:09 UTC 1996
Each day a player may submit to the speaker a fact which e considers entertaining. The fact must be less than five 80 column lines in length. The speaker shall bundle these facts into an archive every 5 days & distribute this document to all active players. After recieving the archive all players have 5 days to submit their vote for their favorite fact. For each vote e receives a player will be awarded 1 point. Any player who does not vote will lose 2 points. Points are awarded as soon as the votes are recieved & the voting record will not be made public.
Decision:
Submission date: Mon Mar 11 12:42:49 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Mon Mar 11 19:14:48 UTC 1996
A Player Number may be any number from any field of numbers. This Rule overrides all previous Rules.
Decision:
Submission date: Mon Mar 11 12:43:41 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Mon Mar 11 19:15:12 UTC 1996
A Nomic Day is both a delineation of time; it is also a period of exactly 14 hours, just as a day is both a delineation of time but also a period of exactly 24 hours. Likewise, a Nomic Week is both a period of time, as well as a time span of precisely 12 Nomic Days.
Decision:
Submission date: Mon Mar 11 12:12:03 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Thu Mar 14 03:41:08 UTC 1996
A Player may make a number of Proposals less than or equal to half the number of players in the game during a particular Nomic Week (rounding up). This Rule takes precedence over all previous Rules.
Decision:
Submission date: Tue Mar 12 07:10:12 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Thu Mar 14 03:41:50 UTC 1996
If a Player's Player Number becomes equal to eir Score e receives 10 points. If the application of this Rule would cause two Players' scores to become equal e loses 10 imaginary points. This Rule does not apply to the Speaker.
Decision:
Submission date: Tue Mar 12 07:15:12 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Thu Mar 14 03:42:08 UTC 1996
Any player, including the speaker, may propose a Bob rule. A Bob rule may not deal with the allocation of points, nor may it modify, transmute, or supersede another rule unless that rule is also a Bob rule. Bob rules will be allocated imaginary numbers & only require 40% of votes to pass. Bob rules do not apply on odd-numbered Tuesdays, as these are called "Bob days." Mike rules are like Bob rules except that they require 60% of voter support & only the 3 players with the highest apparent scores are eligible to vote. Mike rules can only last a maximum of one term. Any rule that applies to Bob rules shall also apply to Mike rules unless specifically stated otherwise. [Speaker's Comment: For the benefit of those outside of Ontario, my belief is that these rules are named for the former and current premiers of this great (but politically braindead) province. Oh, and "Rae days" was the name given to "forced holidays without pay" given to public servants during Bob's reign]
Decision:
Submission date: Thu Mar 14 01:15:04 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Thu Mar 14 04:15:11 UTC 1996
Rule 203 shall be modified to the effect that when one or more Players win, the Player with the lowest score becomes the Speaker.
Decision:
Submission date: Thu Mar 14 16:37:55 1996
Distribution date: Sat Mar 16 20:39:32 UTC 1996
Thu Mar 14 16:37:55 1996
Rule 211 is modified to read:
At the end of the voting period of a Proposal which becomes a rule, the Player who made the proposal shall receive F-A points, where F is the number of Votes cast FOR the Proposal + A the number of Votes cast AGAINST.
Comment:
the change is the addition of "which becomes a rule". (as well as the replacement of something with a +. See my discussion for more info.
Decision:
Submission date: Thu Mar 14 16:37:55 1996
Distribution date: Sat Mar 16 20:39:47 UTC 1996
Proposal:Rule 214 is modified to read:
If Judgement was invoked by a Voter, then the first Judge to be selected to Judge that Statement shall be the Speaker, unless the Speaker believes there would be a conflict of interest. If Judgement was invoked by the Speaker, or there would be a conflict of interest in eir opinion, the first Judge to be selected shall be a randomly selected Voter who the Speaker believes would have no conflict of interest.
In all cases, if a Judge beyond the first must be selected to judge a Statement, it shall be a randomly selected Voter. The Voter thus selected may not be the Player most recently selected as Judge for that Statement, nor may e be the Player who invoked Judgement.
If there is no impartial Player, the Judge shall be the Speaker.
Decision:
Submission date: Thu Mar 14 16:37:55 1996
Distribution date: Sat Mar 16 20:40:00 UTC 1996
Rule 210 is transmuted to an immutable Rule
Decision:
Submission date: Sat Mar 16 02:35:44 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Sat Mar 16 20:42:23 UTC 1996
Any Player may modify a Proposal that Player has submitted at any time before the Proposal's voting period has ended. The Player can simply notify the Speaker. This notification replaces the Proposal in question. The notification has all the properties of a Proposal, save that it is considered to have been submitted at the time of submission of the original Proposal for the purposes of any Rule limiting the number of Proposals a Player may submit.
Decision:
Submission date: Sat Mar 16 02:35:44 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Sat Mar 16 20:42:37 UTC 1996
A Player may submit to the Speaker a Tentative Vote on any Proposal whose voting period has not ended. At the end of the voting period for any Proposal, any Player who has not submitted a Vote but has submitted at least one Tentative Vote on the Proposal in question will have eir most recent Tentative Vote on the Proposal in question become eir Vote on the Proposal.
Decision:
Submission date: Mon Mar 18 12:37:23 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Tue Mar 19 06:22:43 UTC 1996
At the end of the voting period of a Proposal which becomes a Rule, the Player who made that proposal receives F points in addition to receiving Ai points, where F represents votes cast for the Proposal, A represents votes cast against the Proposal, & i represents the square root of -1. i.e. the player receives F + Ai points.
Decision:
Submission date: Mon Mar 18 12:40:39 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Tue Mar 19 06:24:15 UTC 1996
All Votes cast on a Proposal default to Tentative Votes until the end of the voting period at which point the last Tentative Vote made by each Player becomes a Vote. A player may revoke a Tentative Vote at any time before the end of the voting period.
Voting Period: 72 hours
Decision: Defeated - Failed to reach quorum.
Submission date: Mon Mar 18 18:14:31 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Tue Mar 19 06:25:18 UTC 1996
Any Player may submit a modification to a Proposal under voting before that Proposal's voting period has ended. The modification becomes a second Proposal & the original is not withdrawn. Multiple versions of a Proposal (e.g. 339) would be labelled 339a, 339b, etc... At the end of the voting period, any versions which have recieved the required number of votes are eligible to become the rule (but only one will be permitted to do so).
In case of a tie, the following criteria will be applied in order to determine the successful version:
If a version of the original Proposal is passed & the Player who made the original Proposal would receive no points, then e is awarded half the points given to the player who Proposed the amendment that passed.
The voting period for this Proposal shall be 6 days.
COMMENTS: Sorry about the length, but I wanted to very clear about the wording.
Decision:
Submission date: Tue Mar 19 11:36:01 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Thu Mar 21 22:22:10 UTC 1996
Any player who submits a computer program, text file, URL, or other data that aids the speaker in eir official duty may, at the speaker's discretion, be awarded up to 5 points & up to 10 imaginary points. If the speaker is thought to be awarding these points frivolously, a statement calling to revoke the points may be submitted.
Comments: valid examples would be mailing list software, URLs for Bank of Canada, official definitions of midnight, a computer program that keeps track of loans of both real and imaginary money, etc.
Decision:
Submission date: Wed Mar 20 04:32:28 UTC 1996
Distribution date: Thu Mar 21 22:37:24 UTC 1996
[PROPOSAL] The symbol "+" is solely an arithmetical symbol. The symbol "&" is equivalent to the word forbidden in Rule 309.
This Proposal, should it be adopted, will take effect 30 hours after it is voted on, unless there is an immutable Rule which prohibits this. This proviso supersedes any mutable Rules specifying the time of effect.
Voting period: 500000 seconds
[COMMENTS] The intent was to make people think, not to make them hit different keys on their keyboard. It is entirely possible to obey Rule 309 without going to contorted lengths - as long as you don't try to do anything too complex all in one rule. It was more or less intended to keep people from conveniently putting fifty things in one Proposal. I don't know why everyone seems to hate it, other than perhaps that they messed up on a few Proposals, but, well, this should clear up what I meant. The proviso, well, no Proposals should be affected. The Voting period? The game is asynchronous anyway, we might as well get used to it...
[Speaker's Comment: On the Voting Period: I know how long this is (thanks, Andrew). I'll let you all figure it out yourselves, since you all seem to enjoy this sort of thing...]
Decision: