[Nomic] Proposal 8

[Adam Biltcliffe]

On Sep 22 2004, Jonathan David Amery wrote:

>  I propose the following:
> 
>  8, The rule of assumed consent.
> 
>  It shall be assumed that a player consents to a game action if any
> one of the following has occured:
> 
>  a) They are currently "on holiday" if that term has any meaning in
> the game.
>  b) They have made a game action at least one game day ago, and since
> the action under consideration.
>  c) They made the game action itself.

I have several objections:

Firstly, this doesn't address the primary need for a rule of assumed 
consent (the case of a player who does nothing whatsoever) unless we add a 
rule which enables the other players to forcibly declare someone to be "on 
holiday".

Secondly, the terms "player" and "game action" currently have no meaning. 
In the case of "player", this is probably as simple as changing it to 
"member of the List of Voters", but as to what constitutes a game action, I 
don't think that's currently well-defined at all. The only interpretation 
of your proposal which makes sense is that a game action is an action taken 
by a player intended to have an effect on the game, ie. one which takes 
place *outside* the game and therefore probably shouldn't be referred to as 
a 'game action'. There's also an implicit assumption that all game actions 
require consent, which I don't think is likely to be true in any 
definition.

I'd prefer to see any rule aimed at adding passive consent do it either by 
altering Rule 4 to redefine the means of forming a Consensus of Opinion, or 
at least by being more explicit about what it actually applies to.

The mechanic of "you lose your right to object if you do something else in 
the meantime" is an interesting one, since it encourages people to be 
prompt in their response to proposals. It might be useful, but I can 
potentially see it having the reverse effect if people want to discuss a 
proposal before voting on it and so are obliged to delay any other 
substantive actions so as not to lose their right to vote.

adam