Ruleset 115

Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Oligarchs shall obey it. Section One consists of the “core rules” of BlogNomic, covering basic proposal mechanics; Section Two contains the rules of the current dynasty; and Section Three contains the appendix, which exists solely to clarify the remainder of the ruleset.

The Ruleset and Gamestate can only be altered in manners specified by the Ruleset.

Oligarchs may correct obvious spelling and typographical mistakes in the Ruleset and their own Pending Proposals at any time, including replacing Spivak and gender-specific pronouns with the singular “they”.

Oligarchs

Any human may apply to join BlogNomic (if they are not already playing) by registering at http://blognomic.com via the Register link in the sidebar, and then making a post making clear their wish to be a Oligarch. An Admin shall add them to the roster in the sidebar and the GNDT, at which moment they become an Oligarch.

An Oligarch may leave the game at any time by posting an entry to the BlogNomic weblog requesting such an action. An Oligarch may not rejoin the game within two weeks after having left. An Oligarch may only change their name as a result of a proposal approving the change.

Some Oligarchs are Admins, responsible for updating the site and the Ruleset, and are signified as such in the sidebar. Oligarchs who wish to become Admins may sign up with a username for the Ruleset Wiki, and submit a Proposal to make themselves Admins. Existing Admins may be removed from their posts by Proposal, CfJ, or voluntary resignation. New admins shall be given the GNDT configuration password when they become admins.

Idle Oligarchs

Some Oligarchs are Idle, and shall be marked as such in the sidebar. For the purposes of all Gamestate and the Ruleset, excluding Rules “Ruleset and Gamestate”, “Oligarchs”, “Dynasties”, “Fair Play” and any of those Rules’ subrules, Idle Oligarchs are not counted as Oligarchs.

If a Proposal contains a provision that targets a specifically named Idle Oligarch, then that Idle Oligarch is considered to be Unidle solely for the purposes of enacting that specific provision

When an Oligarch is unidled, if they went Idle in the same dynasty, their personal gamestate retains the last legally endowed values it had, if they are still valid. Otherwise (including if a value is invalid, does not exist, or the Oligarch Idled in a different dynasty), the Oligarch is given the default value for new Oligarch, if such a value exists.

An Admin may render an Oligarch Idle if that Oligarch has asked to become Idle in an entry or comment from the past four days, or if that Oligarch has not posted an entry or comment in the last seven days. In the latter case, the Admin must announce the idling in a blog post. Admins may render themselves Idle at any time, but should make a post announcing it when they do so. An Admin may Unidle an Oligarch if that Oligarch has asked to become Unidle in an entry or comment from the past four days, and Idle Admins may Unidle themselves at any time, unless the Oligarch who would be Unidled asked to become (or rendered themselves) Idle within the previous four days, and within the current dynasty.

Dynasties

BlogNomic is divided into a number of Dynasties. Each Dynasty may be headed by a single Oligarch, known as the Despot. If there is no Despot, the Dynasty is a Metadynasty.

Votable Matters

A Votable Matter is a post which Oligarchs may cast Votes on, such as a Proposal, a Call for Judgement or a Declaration of Victory.

Each Oligarch may cast one Vote on a Votable Matter by making a comment to the Official Post that comprises that Votable Matter using a voting icon of FOR, AGAINST, or DEFERENTIAL. Additional voting icons may be permitted in some cases by other rules. A valid Vote is, except when otherwise specified, a Vote of FOR or AGAINST. An Oligarch’s Vote on a Votable Matter is the last valid voting icon that they have used in any comment on that Votable Matter. Additionally, if the author of a Votable Matter has not used a valid voting icon in a comment to the post, then the author’s Vote is FOR. A non-Oligarch never has a Vote, even if they were an Oligarch previously and had cast a valid Vote.

Votable Matters can either be Pending, Enacted, or Failed. When a Votable Matter is first put forward, it is considered Pending.

Whenever an Admin resolves a Votable Matter, they must also mark their name, and report the final tally of Votes (or the fact that it was self-killed or vetoed).

This rule cannot be overruled by Dynastic Rules in its application to Calls for Judgement or Declarations of Victory.

Proposals

Any Oligarch may submit a Proposal to change the Ruleset or Gamestate, by posting an entry in the “Proposal” category that describes those changes (unless the Oligarch already has 2 Proposals pending, or has already made 3 Proposals that day).

Special Proposal Voting

When an Oligarch casts an explicit vote AGAINST their own Proposal, this renders the Proposal Self-Killed, even if the author later changes their Vote. The Despot may use VETO as a voting icon to cast a Vote on a proposal; when the Despot casts a vote of VETO on a Proposal, this renders the Proposal Vetoed, even if the Despot later changes their Vote.

If an Oligarch other than the Despot casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL on a Proposal, then the Vote of DEFERENTIAL is an indication of confidence in the Despot. When the Despot has a valid Vote other than VETO on a Proposal, then all votes of DEFERENTIAL are instead considered to be valid and the same as the Despot's Vote for the purposes of other rules unless otherwise specified.

Resolution of Proposals

The oldest pending Proposal may be enacted by any Admin (by updating the Ruleset and/or Gamestate to include the specified effects of that Proposal, and then setting that Proposal's status to Enacted) if either of the following is true:

• It has a number of FOR Votes that exceed or equal Quorum, has been open for voting for at least 12 hours, and has not been Vetoed or Self-Killed.
• It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours, it has more than 1 valid Vote cast on it, more valid Votes cast on it are FOR than are AGAINST, and it has not been Vetoed or Self-Killed.

The oldest pending Proposal may be failed by any Admin, if any of the following are true:

• It has been Vetoed or Self-Killed.
• The number of Oligarchs who are not voting AGAINST it is less than Quorum.
• It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and cannot be Enacted.

If a proposal somehow ends up being pending for more than 7 days, it is ignored for the purpose of calculating the oldest pending proposal, and can be failed by any Admin.

Calls for Judgement

If two or more Oligarchs actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if an Oligarch feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any Oligarch may raise a Call for Judgement (abbreviated CfJ) by posting an entry in the “Call for Judgement” category.

A Pending CFJ may be Resolved by an Admin if it has a Quorum of FOR Votes, a Quorum of AGAINST Votes, or if it has been open for voting for more than 48 hours. When a CFJ is Resolved, it is to be Enacted if it has more FOR Votes than AGAINST Votes and Failed otherwise. When a CFJ is Enacted, the Admin Enacting it shall update the Gamestate and Ruleset, and correct the GNDT and other gamestate tracking entities, as specified in the CFJ.

Any CfJ that specifies neither changes to the Gamestate or Ruleset nor corrections to any gamestate tracking entities may be failed by any Admin.

This Rule may not be overruled by Dynastic Rules.

Victory and Ascension

If an Oligarch (other than the Despot) believes that they have achieved victory in the current Dynasty, they may make a post to the Blognomic weblog in the Declaration of Victory category, detailing this.

Upon doing so, the game immediately goes into Hiatus, if it hasn’t already. During this time, the only game actions that may be taken are those covered by Rules “Oligarchs”, “Votable Matters”, “Calls for Judgement”, “Gamestate Tracking” and “Victory and Ascension”.

Every Oligarch may cast Votes on that DoV to indicate agreement or disagreement with the proposition that the poster has achieved victory in the current Dynasty.

A Pending DoV may be enacted if any of the following is true:

• It has been open for voting for at least 12 hours, has a number of FOR Votes that exceed or equal Quorum, and either the Despot has Voted FOR it or it has no AGAINST Votes.
• It has been open for voting for at least 24 hours, has a number of FOR Votes that exceed or equal Quorum, and has a number of AGAINST Votes lesser than half of Quorum, rounded down.
• It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours, has a number of Votes that exceed or equal Quorum, and more than half of its valid Votes are FOR.

A DoV may be failed if any of the following are true:

• It has been open for voting for at least 12 hours, and the number of Oligarchs who are not voting AGAINST it is less than Quorum.
• It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and cannot be Enacted.

When a DoV fails and there are no pending DoVs, Hiatus ends.

When a DoV is enacted, all other active DoVs are failed, and a new Dynasty begins with the Oligarch who made the DoV as its Despot. That Oligarch may pass this role to another Oligarch at this point by making a post to that effect, if they wish. The Hiatus continues until the new Despot makes an Ascension Address by posting an entry in the “Ascension Address” category - this should specify the Despot's chosen theme for the new Dynasty, and may optionally specify that the terms Oligarch and Despot will be replaced with theme-specific terms throughout the entire ruleset, and/or a number of dynastic rules to keep. Upon posting such an Ascension Address, the Ruleset is updated to reflect any changed terms, and any dynastic rules which were not listed to be kept are repealed.

A DoV may not be started in the period between an enacted DoV and that DoV’s Ascension Address. When a DoV is failed, if it has a number of AGAINST Votes that exceed Quorum, the Oligarch who posted it cannot make another DoV until after 120 hours (5 days) have passed since the time their DoV was failed.

This rule cannot be overruled by Dynastic Rules as it relates to Declarations of Victory, but can be overruled in other matters.

Fair Play

The following are BlogNomic’s rules of fair play. If any of these rules are found to have been broken, or if an Oligarch's behaviour or actions are otherwise deemed unacceptable (socially or otherwise), a proposal or CfJ may be made to reprimand or punish the perpetrator or, in cases of extreme or repeated violations, remove them from the game and bar them from rejoining.

• A single person should not control more than one Oligarch within BlogNomic.
• An Oligarch should not “spam” the BlogNomic blog. What counts as spamming is subjective, but would typically include posting more than ten blog entries in a day, more than ten blog comments in a row, or posting a blog entry of more than 1000 words.
• An Oligarch should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or the GNDT).
• An Oligarch should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other Oligarch.
• An Oligarch should not edit the "Entry Date" field of a blog post.
• An Oligarch should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
• An Oligarch should not do any action meant to make the game unplayable (for example, changing multiple keywords to the same word in an ascension address).

Seasonal Downtime

Blognomic goes into hiatus every year on December 24th, and remains in hiatus until December 27th. During this time no game actions may be taken except those described in the rules entitled “Votable Matters,” “Gamestate Tracking” and “Call for Judgement”.

Dynastic Rules

Civil War

The Despot are not Oligarchs for the purposes of any dynastic rule.

In certain circumstances as mandated in this rule, an Oligarch may Depose the Despot. When they do so, that Oligarch becomes the Interim Despot, and the Despot becomes an Oligarch, each retaining all of their existing GNDT values. The new then once Interim Despot may once convert any amount of their Credibility to Power at a rate of 5 Power per Credibility spent. Whichever Oligarch or Despot performed the action that caused the change in Despot must immediately make a story post highlighting the change. An Interim Despot who has been Interim Despot for three consecutive days since they since they most recently became Interim Despot then becomes the Despot. They then lose all gamestate and GNDT values except Power. Interim Despots may not be Deposed.

Whenever a Loyal Oligarch has more Power than the Despot and more Power than every other Oligarch, they may Depose the Despot.

Whenever all Seditious Oligarch have a combined Credibility that exceeds the Despot’s Power, the Oligarch with the highest Credibility may Depose the Despot.

The Despot may not cast a Veto on any votable matter unless they have taken a Shred a Document action in the previous ten minutes. The Despot may not veto more than one votable matter within a ten-minute window.

Fight the Power

All Oligarchs and the Despot have an amount of Power, which is tracked in the GNDT. New Oligarchs start with Power equal the median Power of the other Oligarchs, rounded down.

The Despot starts the game with 1000 power.

The Bank is Open if the Offices of Director of the Bank and Bank Associate are both held by Oligarchs. If the Bank is Open, an Oligarch may make a Bank Transfer of two or more Power by spending that amount of their own Power, increasing the Power of any one Oligarch or the Despot by one less than that amount, and increasing the Power of the Director of the Bank by one. (Oligarchs who unidled or joined the game within the previous five days may not transfer Power in this way.)

Factionalism

Each Oligarch has a Reputation, which is either Loyal or Seditious, defaulting to Loyal. This is tracked in the GNDT. An Oligarch who is Loyal may change their Reputation to Seditious at any time. An Oligarch who is Seditious must request the Despot to change their Reputation to Loyal. The Despot may impose conditions on such a change or decline to do so entirely if they wish. Within 24 hours of a change in Despot, all Seditious players may freely change their Reputation to Loyal once.

Offices

Each Oligarch may hold a single Office. By default, an Oligarch holds no Office. An Oligarch’s Office is tracked in the GNDT.

The following Offices are Offices of Command and are tracked in the GNDT by the first word of their titles. An Oligarch who holds an Office of Command may be referred to as a Commander. Each Office of Command may be held by no more than one Oligarch at a time:

• Chief of Police
• Director of the Bank
• Admiral of the Navy
• Brigadier of the Air Force
• General of the Military.

The following Offices are Offices of Authority, are tracked in the GNDT by the last word of their titles, and correspond to the Offices of Command by department. Each Office of Authority may be held by no more than 1/5 of all Oligarchs, rounded down, at a time:

• Police Inspector
• Bank Associate
• Navy Captain
• Air Marshal
• Military Colonel

A Commander may at any time assign an Oligarch who has no Office to the Office of Authority corresponding to the Commander’s Office. A Commander may at any time remove an Oligarch from the Office of Authority corresponding to the Commander’s Office. An Oligarch may remove themself from an Office of Authority by paying 1 Power to their Commander.

The Admiral of the Navy, Brigadier of the Air Force and General of the Military are all Military Leaders.

Government Actions

Various Government Actions exist. Each Government Action belongs to a named Tier, as listed below; the number in brackets after the name of the Tier is its Boldness - if the Strength of the Government is less than this number, Actions in that Tier cannot be performed. The Strength of the Government is equal to the Power of the Despot, minus 100 for each Office of command which is not currently held by an Oligarch.

Where an Action require Authorisation, it can only be performed if the Despot has made a blog post in the past 24 hours explicitly asking for the Action to be performed, and any decisions made in its performance must match the instructions given in that blog post.

Security Actions (375)

• With Authorisation, the General or a Colonel may Exile an Oligarch, reducing that Oligarch’s Power to zero and reducing the Despot’s Power by 50. This Action is Punitive.

Police Actions (250)

• With Authorisation, the Chief of Police may Raid an Oligarch, reducing the Powers of that Oligarch and the Despot by 10 each. This Action is Punitive.
• With Authorisation, the Chief of Police may Frame an Oligarch, swapping the Credibility of any two Oligarchs who have non-zero Credibilities and the same Reputation, and decreasing the Power of the Despot by 10. This Action is Punitive.

Political Actions (125)

• The Despot may spend 10 Power to Shred a Document.

Administrative Actions (0)

• The Despot may spend 5 Power to assign an Oligarch to an Office of Command not already taken by an Oligarch, or to remove a Commander from their Office. This Action is Punitive.
• The Despot may spend 5 Power to change the Reputation of any Oligarch to Seditious.
• The Despot may spend 5 Power to change the Reputation of any Oligarch to Loyal, if that Oligarch asked to become Loyal in a post or comment in the last 48 hours.
• As a weekly action, the Director of the Bank may increase the Power of every Commander by 15, the Power of every Oligarch who holds an Office of Authority by 10, and the Power of every Loyal Oligarch who falls into neither of the previous categories by 5.
• With Authorisation, a Loyal Oligarch may convert an amount of their own Credibility to Power at a rate of one Credibility to five Power.

Atrocity Actions (0)

• The Despot may Detain Dissidents, Carry Out an Assassination, or, with Authorisation, Commit a Massacre as a weekly action. If they Detained Dissidents, the Despot gains 15 Power and every Seditious Oligarch gains 5 Credibility. If they Carried Out and Assassination, they gain 60 Power and every Seditious Oligarch gains 20 Credibility. If the Despot commits a Massacre, the Despot gains 200 Power and all Seditious Oligarchs gain 100 Credibility.

Military Actions (0)

• The General of the Military may declare a Coup attempt by spending 10 Power and making a Proposal with the string “Coup:” in its title - that Proposal is counted as a Coup Proposal. If a Coup Proposal does not have an AGAINST vote from either the Admiral of the Navy or the Brigadier of the Air Force, then that Proposal cannot be vetoed. If there exists a Military Leader who has not voted FOR a given Coup Proposal, then that Proposal cannot be enacted.

If an Action is Punitive, the Despot gains 5 Power immediately after it is performed, if the chosen Oligarch is Seditious and if it is the first Punitive Action that has been performed that day.

Whenever an Oligarch loses Power as a result of being Exiled or a Raid, all other Loyal Oligarchs gain an amount of Power equal to the total amount lost due to that action, divided by the number of Loyal Oligarchs, rounded down.

Flunkies

Each Oligarch has a Flunky, whose Location is tracked in the GNDT. An Oligarch can change their Flunky’s location as a daily action. Every Flunky’s Location defaults to Home.

Some Flunky actions may require one or more other Oligarchs to be Targets. If an Oligarch is picked as a Target, they are said to be Targeted by the Flunky action.

Each Oligarch has an amount of Flunk which is 0 by default, and is tracked in the GNDT in a column called Flunk. As a Weekly Communal Action, any Oligarch may Up The Flunx. When an Oligarch Ups the Flunx, all Oligarchs gain two flunk.

As a daily action, an Oligarch can spend one Flunk in order to order a Flunky Action. Flunky Actions have different effects depending on the Flunky’s Location at the time of the order. Legal Flunky locations and their associated Actions are as follows:

• Home - no Action, but an Oligarch with a Flunky at Home can never be the target of another Oligarch’s Flunky Action
• Police Station - House Arrest Action - The using Oligarch picks a single Target. Target Oligarch’s Flunky is moved to their Home location and cannot be moved for three days. The using Oligarch gains 5 Power.
• Central Bank - Corruption Action - If the using Oligarch is Seditious, they may pick up to two different Targets. They and the selected Targets gain 10 Power and the Director loses 10 Power. If the using Oligarch is Loyal, they gain 10 Power and the Despot gains 5 Power. Only one Flunky may be in the Central Bank at any time.
• Oil Wells - Drilling Action - The using Oligarch awards every Oligarch five power.
• Refinery - Sabotage Action - The using Oligarch reduces the Power of every Oligarch by five, to a minimum of zero.
• Television Centre - Propaganda Action - The using Oligarch picks a single Target. The using Oligarch may raise or lower the Credibility of the Target by up to 3.
• Embassy - Diplomacy Action - The using Oligarch may raise their own Credibility by 1.
• Courthouse Steps - Riot Action - If the using Oligarch is Seditious, reduce the power of the Despot by 1 + (N*(N+1)/2) where N is the number of Seditious Oligarchs whose Location is the Courthouse Steps. If the using Oligarch is Loyal, increase the using Oligarch’s power by N. In either case, change the Location of every Oligarch whose Location is the Courthouse Steps to the Streets.
• Streets - No Action

Credibility

Each Oligarch has an amount of Credibility, which is tracked in the GNDT. The default Credibility is 0.

Upon becoming Seditious, an Oligarch gains 5 Credibility.

Any Oligarch may convert their own Power into Credibility at a rate of 5 Power to 1 Credibility.

It's good to be King

If the Despot has been the Despot for more than seven consecutive days in this dynasty (not including time spent in Hiatus), and is not named Josh, then they may Retire. When the Despot Retires, he or she ceases to be the Despot and has achieved Victory.

Send in the Peacekeepers

As a daily action, any Oligarch can spend 10 Credibility to Lobby the UN. The next proposal they make may be designated as a UN Mandate, by including the string "[UN]" in its title. If it does, any Oligarch who wishes to vote on it must first spend either 1 Credibility or 5 Power. A proposal with a UN Mandate can’t be vetoed.

Drain

As a Weekly Communal Action, an Oligarch may reduce the power of the Despot by 20 (or to 0 if the Despot's power is less than 20).

Appendix

Keywords

A keyword defined by a rule supersedes the normal English usage of the word. A keyword defined in this glossary supersedes that defined by a rule. (eg. A rule specifying "bananas are blue" cannot be overruled by posting a dictionary definition or a photo of a banana, and a rule specifying "every day is Sunday" will be overruled by the glossary entry below.)

Can

"is able to"

Comment

A blog comment published to the BlogNomic weblog at blognomic.com

Core Proposal

A Proposal which mandates changes that, even if conditionally, are limited to the creation, deletion, and/or amendment of core rules and/or the glossary, and/or renaming, banning, and/or the granting or removing of admin status from one or more Oligarchs.

Daily Action

If a game action is a Daily Action, each Oligarch able to perform it may take that action once each day, but not more than once every ten hours.

Day

References to a “day” as an entity rather than as a duration (e.g. “Sunday”, “The day after performing this action”, or “August 2nd”), unless otherwise stated, refer to a day beginning at and including 00:00:00 UTC, ending when the next day begins. It can never be 2 different days at the same instant.

Dice

References to "YDICEX" refer to Y X-sided dice, rolled within the GNDT. To roll dice, post DICEX in the comments field of the GNDT, replacing X with the number of sides on the die you wish to roll.

Dynastic Proposal

A Proposal which mandates changes that, even if conditionally, are limited to the creation, deletion, and/or amendment of dynastic rules and/or gamestate defined by dynastic rules.

Effective Vote Comment (EVC)

An Oligarch’s Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Votable Matter means that Oligarch’s Comment to that Votable Matter, if any, that contains that Oligarch’s Vote on that Votable Matter.

Flavour Text

When posting a blog entry, an Oligarch may use the “Commentary or flavour text” field of the blog publishing form to add their own comments or description of their post. For the purposes of all other rules, such text is not considered to be part of the post.

Gamestate

Any information which the Ruleset regulates the alteration of, including all Wiki Pages, or GNDT columns, which the Dynastic Rules explicitly mention.

IRC Channel

The Blognomic IRC channel is located at #nomic on the slashnet network (irc.slashnet.org).

May

"is permitted to"

May not

"is not permitted to"

Post

A blog post published to the BlogNomic weblog at blognomic.com

Private Message

A message sent via Blognomic’s Private Messages system at blognomic.com.

Quorum

Quorum of a subset of Oligarchs is half the number of Oligarchs in that subset, rounded down, plus one. If the word Quorum is used without qualifying which subset of Oligarchs it is referring to, it is referring to a Quorum of all Oligarchs.

Resolve/Resolution

If used in a context of a Votable Matter, the world “Resolve” means to perform the act, as an Admin, of enacting or failing a Votable Matter. The world “Resolution” means then the act of doing so. If used in any other context, the meaning of both “Resolve” and “Resolution” is the standard English meaning of these words

Rule

Each individually numbered section of the ruleset is a rule, including sections that are sub-rules of other rules.

Shall

"is required to"

Should

"is recommended that"

Sibling Rule

Two rules are “siblings” of each other if they are both direct subrules of the same rule.

Story Post

A Story Post is an entry in the “Story Post” category.

Subject

The "subject" of a blog entry is the part of the Title of an entry which is after the first colon. If the Title does not contain a colon, then the whole Title is the subject. Any entry whose subject is "" (i.e. an empty string) is not valid.

Subrule

A subrule is a type of rule that is nested within another rule. A proposal that specifically affects a rule affects all of its subrules; a proposal that specifically affects a subrule does not affect its parent rule or any other subrule of that rule, unless they are also explicitly cited as being affected by that proposal.

Vote

The word “Vote”, used as a noun, means a Vote that is cast in accordance with Rule “Votable Matters”. The word “Vote”, used as a verb, means the act of casting such a Vote.

Voting Icons

For use in voting, a check box http://blognomic.com/images/vote/for.gif shall represent a Vote FOR, an X http://blognomic.com/images/vote/against.gif shall represent a Vote AGAINST, an IMP http://blognomic.com/images/vote/imperial.gif shall represent a Vote of DEFERENTIAL, and an Imperial Seal http://blognomic.com/images/vote/seal.gif shall represent the Imperial Veto.

Week

References to a week as an entity rather than as a duration (e.g. “At the beginning of each week”, or “already happened this week”), unless otherwise stated, refer to a period of time between the beginning of a Monday and the end of the following Sunday.

Weekly Action

If a game action is a Weekly Action, each Oligarch able to perform it may take that action once each week, but not more than once every twenty-four hours.

Weekly Communal Action

If a game action is a Weekly Communal Action, it can be performed by any Oligarch, but only if it has not been performed (by any Oligarch) already in the same week.

Wiki

The BlogNomic Wiki at http://blognomic.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

Gamestate Tracking

Votable Matters and other official posts, as well as specific gamestate information, shall be tracked by the BlogNomic blog at http://blognomic.com. Any Oligarch may post to the blog at any time, but may only make official posts to the blog when the Ruleset allows it. Posts following the format specified by a rule are considered official posts. No entry may be more than one of the following official types of post: Votable Matters, and Idling Post.

If no Oligarch has commented on it, an official post may be altered or removed by its author; otherwise this can only be done as allowed by the Ruleset. However, despite this, official posts can never be changed from one category to another, or changed to be a different sort of official post, if they have been posted for more than fifteen minutes. The Admin processing an official post is allowed to append to the post to reflect its new status. Anything appended to a post in this way must be placed in the Admin field of the post, and the post's Status must be changed to reflect its status.

A non-official post may not, through editing of the blog or otherwise, be changed into an official post, with the following exception: Whilst a non-official post has been posted for less than fifteen minutes and has no comments, the author may change the categories as they wish.

Specific parts of the Gamestate data shall be tracked by the Generic Nomic Data Tracker at http://blognomic.com/gndt/generic.cgi?nomic=blog. Any Oligarch may update any Oligarch's data via the GNDT, whenever the Ruleset permits it.

All updates to the GNDT are logged. Actions that change gamestate directly (defined in other rules) can normally be performed simply by applying their effects to the GNDT, which updates the gamestate accordingly, unless another rule specifies some other method of performing them; one GNDT update may contain one or more actions, or one action may be split over multiple GNDT updates, as long as it’s clear what is happening and the actions are otherwise legal. The GNDT merely represents the Gamestate, and is not the same thing. In the event that the Gamestate and the GNDT are different, any Oligarch may correct the GNDT to comply with the Gamestate.

If an Oligarch feels that the GNDT was altered such that it no longer matches the gamestate (such as by performing an action which was against the Rules (as they were at the time of the alteration), or by any other means), they may simply undo the effects of that alteration. Instead of repeatedly reverting and re-reverting a disputed GNDT update, Oligarchs are encouraged to raise a Call for Judgement instead. Oligarchs shall be assigned a password for the GNDT when they join the Nomic.

Random Generators

The GNDT can be used to generate random results.

• The DICEN command can be used to generate a random number between 1 and N.
• The FRUIT command will return a random result from the following options: Lemon, Orange, Kiwi, Grape, Cherry, Tangelo.
• The COLOUR (or COLOR) command will return a random result from the following: White, Red, Green, Silver, Yellow, Turquoise, Magenta, Orange, Purple, Black.
• The VEGGIE command will return a random result from the following: Potato, Carrot, Triffid, Pumpkin.

Any changes to the potential outcomes of the GNDT’s random result commands must be made by proposal; and any proposal that seeks to nominate a change to this rule must first identify an active Oligarch with server-level access to the BlogNomic site who is able to perform the changes, and must also update this rule to reflect the new potential outcomes.

Clarifications

Numbers and Variables

• If a set of valid values is not specified in their definition, game variables defined to hold numeric values can hold only non-negative integers. Any action that would set those values below zero is an illegal action unless explicitly otherwise stated in the ruleset.
• Any situation which would require a roll of DiceX when X is zero or lower always yields a value of 0 unless stated otherwise.
• All numbers, unless stated otherwise by a rule, are in base ten.
• Unless otherwise specified, to “spend” or “lose” an amount X of a numeric value “V” means to subtract X from V; to “gain” X of a numeric value “V” means to add X to V; and to “transfer” X of a numeric value “V” from A to B means to subtract X from A’s V and add X to B’s V. Unless otherwise specified, only positive amounts can be spent, lost, gained, or transferred, and a rule that allows Oligarchs to transfer a numeric value only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to another Oligarch (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
• An Oligarch who has a choice in whether to take an action defined by a dynastic rule may not take that action if both of the following conditions are true: a) the action's effects are limited to changing values tracked in the GNDT and/or similar gamestate-tracking entities (such as a wiki page), and b) the action would change one or more of those values to an illegal value.
• If a rule implies that the result of any calculation should be an integer (for instance, by attempting to store that result in, or add it to, a gamestate variable that can only hold integers), the result of the calculation is instead the result rounded towards 0.
• If a number or other game variable is selected 'at random' or 'randomly' from a range of possible values, its value shall always be taken from a uniform probability distribution over the entire range of possible values, unless otherwise specified.
• If a game variable has no defined starting value for new Oligarchs, or for existing Oligarchs upon the variable’s creation, then that starting value is zero (for numerical variables) or blank (for a text string or list).
• Invalid values for game variables can never be used, even if the values stored in the GNDT remain valid. (for example, if X appears in a formula referring to a value that is a non-negative integer, X must be used as a non-negative integer)

Rules and Proposals

• If a new rule is created by a proposal and its location is not noted in that proposal, that new rule is to be placed in the Dynastic Rules.
• Unless explicitly stated otherwise, a wiki page shall be blanked when it becomes gamestate.
• Where a Proposal would amend the effects of Proposal Enactment, this does not apply to its own enactment unless explicitly stated (eg. a proposal proposing that enacted proposals earn their author a banana when enacted would not earn a banana for its own author, when enacted).
• Rules which trigger upon the Resolution of a Votable Matter are the responsibility of the Admin who Resolves it.
• Unless otherwise specified, a new Dynastic rule shall be placed at the end of the Dynastic Rules.
• If a rule would ever have no name, it is instead named “Unnamed Rule”.
• The names of rules are not themselves rule text and have no effect other than being rule names.
• If the admin enacting a proposal reaches a step which cannot be applied immediately (eg. “two days after this proposal enacts, Player A gains 1 point”), that step is ignored for the purposes of enactment. Once a proposal has been enacted, it can have no further direct effect on the gamestate.

Time

• For the purpose of all rules, time in Blognomic is in UTC.
• All references to time must be either specific or defined within the ruleset to be considered achievable in the gamestate. Abstract concepts of time (e.g. "dinnertime", "twilight") cannot be achieved until they fulfil one of these criteria.
• Where the month, day and/or year of a calendar date are ambiguous (eg. "04/10/09"), it shall be assumed that the date is in a day/month/year format.

Spelling

• Superficial differences between the spelling of geographic versions of English, e.g, British English, American English and Australian English shall be construed as irrelevant for the purposes of play.

Names

• Within the ruleset, a word only refers to the name of an Oligarch if it is explicitly stated that it refers to an Oligarch's name.

Prioritisation

• If two parts of the Ruleset contradict each other, precedence shall be construed in the following order:

1. The Appendix has precedence over any Rule;
2. A Dynastic Rule has precedence over a Core Rule, unless that Core Rule explicitly says it can’t be overruled by a Dynastic Rule;
3. If both contradicting parts are a Core Rule, or if both of them are a Dynastic Rule, the part with more limited scope applies. (e.g. if the rules “Oligarchs may Kick each other” and “Oligarchs may not kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, Oligarchs may not Kick each other.)
4. If two parts with the same scope contradict each other, the negative rule applies. (e.g. with “Oligarchs may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “Oligarchs may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then Oligarchs may not Punch Spacemen on Friday.)