Ruleset 101

Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Workers 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.

Workers 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”.

Workers

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 Worker. An Admin shall add them to the roster in the sidebar and the GNDT, at which moment they become a Worker.

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

Some Workers are Admins, responsible for updating the site and the Ruleset, and are signified as such in the sidebar. Workers 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 Workers

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

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

When an Worker 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 Worker Idled in a different dynasty), the Worker is given the default value for new Workers, if such a value exists.

An Admin may render a Worker Idle if that Worker has asked to become Idle in an entry or comment from the past four days, or if that Worker 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. An Admin may Unidle a Worker if that Worker 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 Worker 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 Worker, known as the Foreman. If there is no Foreman, the Dynasty is a Metadynasty.

Proposals

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

Special Proposal Voting

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

If a Worker other than the Foreman casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL on a Proposal, then the Vote of DEFERENTIAL is an indication of confidence in the Foreman. When the Foreman 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 Foreman’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 could not be Enacted without either one of the Votes AGAINST it being changed, or the set of Workers being changed, or by awaiting the passage of time.
• 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.

Votable Matters

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

Each Worker 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. A Worker’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-Worker never has a Vote, even if they were a Worker 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.

Calls for Judgement

If two or more Workers actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if a Worker feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any Worker 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 a Worker (other than the Foreman) 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 “Workers”, “Votable Matters”, “Calls for Judgement”, “Gamestate Tracking” and “Victory and Ascension”.

Every Worker 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 Foreman 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 it could not be Enacted without either at least one of the Votes AGAINST it being changed, or the set of Workers being changed, or by awaiting the passage of time.
• 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 Worker who made the DoV as its Foreman. That Worker may pass this role to another Worker at this point by making a post to that effect, if they wish. The Hiatus continues until the new Foreman makes an Ascension Address by posting an entry in the “Ascension Address” category - this should specify the Foreman's chosen theme for the new Dynasty, and may optionally specify that the terms Worker and Foreman 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 Worker 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 a Worker'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 Worker within BlogNomic.
• A Worker 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.
• A Worker should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or the GNDT).
• A Worker should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other Worker.
• A Worker should not edit the "Entry Date" field of a blog post.
• A Worker should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
• A Worker 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

Robots

Each Worker has a Robot, tracked in the GNDT and defaulting to ‘Ambler’. The available Robots are listed in the subrules to this rule, with the name of the rule being the name of the Robot.

Each Robot has a Precision Matrix, which is a grid, at most 10x10, of ‘X’, ‘O’, and ‘_’ characters. There shall be exactly one ‘X’ character in the Precision Matrix, and no outer row or column shall be entirely ‘_’ characters.

Each Robot has a Strength from 1 to 10.

Each robot has a integer Reputation Level. As a Weekly Action a Worker may set their Robot to any Robot whose Reputation Level is less than or equal to the Worker’s Reputation. If a Worker’s Reputation is ever less than their Robot’s Reputation Level, and their Robot is not the Ambler, their Robot immediately becomes the Ambler.

Each robot may have also have additional powers which can effect the gamestate

Overhead Crane

Precision Matrix:

_O_
OXO
_O_

Strength: 1

Reputation Level: 4

Additional Powers: When choosing a new Reference Point during successive Activations, a Worker with the Overhead Crane as their Robot may choose a Machine at Distance up to two rather than one from the outcome of the previous activation.

Forklift

Precision Matrix:

XOO
O_O
OOO

Strength: 8

Reputation Level: 2

Additional Powers: When activating the Forklift, after determining which machine is activated, the Worker may instead activate the machine directly above the original machine on the Factory Floor.

Ambler

Precision Matrix:

_OO_
OXOO
OOOO
_OO_

Strength: 4

Reputation Level: -1000

Additional Powers: Whenever a Worker using the Ambler spends Quota, they may spend one additional Quota to change their Ambler’s precision matrix to

_O_
OXO
_O_

for the duration of the action for which the quota was spent (including any repeat attempts taken due to the original action failing).

Duster

Precision Matrix:

OOO
OXO
OOO

Strength: 1

Reputation Level: 0

Additional Powers: Any Worker with Duster as their Robot may activate two Machines when removing a Dust Sheet, and for each of them perform the de-Shrouding and naming of Shrouded ones. However, a Worker with Duster as their Robot may not establish any Power Links

Lefty

Precision Matrix:

O___
OO__
OOO_
OOOX
OOO_
OO__
O___

Strength: 3

Reputation Level: 0

Additional Powers: When choosing a new Reference Point during successive Activations, a Worker with Lefty as their robot cannot choose the machine to the right of the machine outcome of the previous activation but may choose the machine two to the left of the outcome of the previous activation. A Worker with Lefty as their Robot cannot choose Right as their direction when performing a Shift Change, and if they choose Left use 6 as the Power instead of 2.

Machines

There are 100 machines. The ‘Machines’ wiki page tracks the information about each Machine. Each Machine has a number from 1 to 100, and is either Shrouded, Broken, Jammed, or Repaired. Each non-Shrouded Machine has a name of the form “The X Machine”, where X is either a one-word Noun or a one-word Gerund (if X is a word which may be either a Noun or Gerund, it is only considered to be a Gerund); each Shrouded Machine is named “-”.

Power Links

A Machine may have Power Links to one or more other Machines, but no more than one Power Link to a given Machine. These are tracked on the ‘Machines’ wiki page. If there is ever a cycle of Power Links, then any Worker may select a Machine in the cycle, set it to Jammed. If a Machine has a Power Link to or from a Jammed Machine, any Worker may set that Machine to Jammed. If a Machine is Jammed, any Worker may remove a Power Link to or from that Machine.

A Worker may spend 1 quota to activate two Machines and - if neither Machine is Shrouded, and if one has a Gerund name and the other has a Noun name - establish a Power Link from the first to the second. If a Power Link is not established, the worker may immediately perform this action again without spending any quota. If that action also does not establish a Power Link he may attempt to perform it a third time without spending any quota but no more after that (unless, of course, he spends another quota).”

If the Distance between the two Machines in a Power Link is ever more than five, any Worker may remove that Power Link and render Broken the Machine that the Link was from. This happens before any Machines become Jammed due to sharing a Link with another Jammed Machine.

Factory Repaired!

If every machine is Repaired, the Worker or Workers, other than the Foreman, with the highest Reputation each achieve victory.

Naming Machines

A Worker may spend 1 quota to activate a Machine and Remove its Dust Sheet. Upon doing so, if the Machine is Shrouded then it becomes Broken, and its name becomes “The X Machine”, where X is a one-word Noun of the Worker’s choice, or a one-word Gerund form of a verb of the Worker’s choice, the noun or verb being taken from the Dynastic Rules of the BlogNomic Dynasty whose number corresponds to the number of the Machine. If no machines were de-shrouded as a result of this action, the worker may immediately perform this action again without spending any quota. If that action also does de-shroud any machines he may attempt to perform it a third time without spending any quota but no more after that (unless, of course, he spends another quota)”

If the total number of Shrouded Machines is 7 or less, any worker may spend 2 Quota to Remove the Dust Sheet from any Shrouded Machine.

Machine Repair

If there are no Repaired Machines and Machine 1 is Broken then any Worker may set it to be Repaired .

If there is ever a Power Link from a Repaired Machine to a Broken Machine and that Link is not part of a Cycle, then any worker may make the Broken Machine Repaired and remove the Power Link.

A Worker may spend 1 quota to activate a machine and, if it is Jammed, set it to Repaired.

Operations

A Worker (known as the “Operator” throughout this rule) may, at any time, activate a Machine and Operate it. Upon doing so, if the Machine being Operated (known as the “Output”) is Repaired, and if the Output has at least one Power Link going into it from another Machine which is also Repaired, then the Operator must choose one such machine (known as the"Input”). Then if both bold words of any effect in the following list match the the second word of the name of either the Input Machine or the Output Machine then the Worker must trigger that effect once.

• Achieving Doomsday. All Jammed or Repaired Machines whose distance from the Doomsday Machine is 3 or less (including the Doomsday Machine itself) become Broken.
• Achieving Muffin. The Operator produces a fresh batch of baked goods, and gains 1 Reputation. The Muffin machine immediately becomes jammed.
• Achieving Victory. Klaxons sound and the Victory Machine becomes Jammed. Triggering this effect does not count as having achieved victory for the purpose of Rule 1.7.
• Innoculating Muffin. Green goo leaks from the Muffin Machine and it becomes Jammed.
• Removing StickyBomb. All Broken Machines adjacent to the StickyBomb Machine become Repaired.
• Rolling Death: A strange chill goes down everyone’s spine. The Operator must activate a machine using the death machine as the Reference Point. If it is Repaired, it immediately becomes broken. Repeat this process until either ten machines become Broken from this action or a non-Repaired machine is activated.
• Removing Power: Lights go out. The Power Machine may not be activated for the next 24 hours. Any action which activates it instead does nothing.
• Sharing Muffin: Muffins for everyone! The operator may pick a player other than themselves and increase that player’s reputation by one. The Sharing machine then becomes Jammed.
• RIOTing Rebel: A series of bricks are thrown at the Rebel Machine. The Rebel Machine and all adjacent machines which are not shrouded become broken.
• Changing Robot: A miniature rift opens up and swallows the operators robot. Provided he can, he must change his Robot to something else. This does not count as his weekly robot changing action, however he cannot change his robot for the next 24 hours—including by triggering the Changing Robot operation again.

An Operation Proposal is a proposal whose effects are limited to the addition, removal, or amendment of no more than five bullet points to the list of operations in this rule. A Worker may submit an Operation Proposal when that player has exactly two Proposals Pending, unless both of that Worker’s Pending Proposals are themselves Operation Proposals. This does not allow the Worker to violate any other restriction on the submission of Proposals other than the limit of two Pending Proposals at once.

The Factory Floor

The wiki page ‘Factory Floor’ contains the Factory Floor. The Factory Floor is a 10x10 grid containing the numbers from 1 to 100, corresponding to each of the Machines. The Factory Floor wraps at the edges. Two Machines are Adjacent if the Distance between them is one.

Any Worker may edit the formatting of the Factory Floor so as to improve its usefulness, including by adding additional information inside or outside the grid. In case of disputes over the acceptability of any such edit, the Foreman has final say unless overruled by the Ruleset, Proposal or CFJ.

Unless otherwise specified, The Distance between two Machines is defined to be the shortest number of orthogonal unit steps needed to move from one Machine to the other on The Factory Floor.

Translocation

A Worker may spend 1 quota to perform a Shift Change. When a Worker performs a Shift Change, they activate a Machine, pick a cardinal direction, and roll DICEN in the GNDT, where N is the Strength of their Robot. The row or column, as appropriate, of the Factory Floor containing the activated Machine is then shifted X squares in the chosen direction, where X is the result of the dice roll.

Activation

When a Worker is directed to activate a Machine, they shall select a Machine to be the Reference Point (unless one was already specified) and roll DICEX, where X is the number of ‘O’ and ‘X’ characters appearing in their Robot’s Precision Matrix. The Machine to which they activate shall be the Machine corresponding to the Nth ‘X’ or ‘O’ character in their Robot’s Precision Matrix (going from left to right, then top to bottom) when the Precision Matrix is overlaid on the Factory Floor with the ‘X’ above the Reference Point.

When a Worker is directed to activate more than one Machine at once, they shall activate the required number of Machines in succession. For each activation except for the first, the Reference Point shall be the outcome of the previous activation, or a Machine adjacent to it, at the option of the Worker.

Reputation

All Worker have a integer Reputation which by default 1. If a Worker’s reputation is greater than zero, the worker is considered to be Reputable. If a Worker’s reputation is below zero, the worker is considered to be Mischievous.

Forgiveness

If no Worker has done so during the current week, then any Worker may Forgive the Workforce. Upon Forgiving the Workforce, each non-Reputable worker gains one Reputation.

Jury of Peers

Twice per week, but never more than once in a 24 hour period, a Worker may either make a Citation Attempt or a Recommendation Attempt by making a story post to the blog with the title “Citation: XXXX” (for a Citation Attempt) or “Recommendation: XXXX” (for a Recommendation Attempt) where XXXX is the name of another Worker. For a Citation Attempt, the post should communicate an action the targeted Worker has performed which the first Worker feels was intentionally harmful to goal of making every Machine Repaired and why that Action was harmful. For a Recommendation Attempt, the post should communicate an action the targeted Worker has performed which the first Worker feels was extra helpful to goal of making every Machine Repaired and why that Action was helpful. Both of these are Votable Matters. If a Pending Citation or Recommendation Attempt has been open for 24 hours, any Admin may resolve it by totaling the Reputation of all Reputable Workers who voted FOR the Citation Attempt and comparing it to the total Reputation of all Reputable Workers who voted AGAINST the Citation Attempt. If the first number is greater, the Attempt passes. In the case of a Citation Attempt, the second Worker’s Reputation is decreased by one. In the case of a Recommendation Attempt, the second Worker’s Reputation is increased by one.

Quota

There is a numeric gamestate value called the Quota Factor which starts at 5. Once each at the start of July 22nd 2012, July 25th 2012, July 28th 2012 and July 31st 2012 the Quota Factor increases by one. At the start of August 3rd 2012, the Quota Factor becomes 500.

Each Worker has an amount of Quota, tracked in the GNDT and defaulting to 0. As a daily action, a Worker may add the current Quota Factor to their Quota. If a Worker fails to perform this action during a day, then they may perform it an extra time during any of the following three days.

A Worker cannot have more than five times the current Quota Factor in Quota. If any Worker has more than five times the current Quota Factor in Quota, that Worker’s Quota is reduced to five time the current Quota Factor.

A Worker may not spend more than more than twice the current Quota Factor quota per day.

Merit

Each Worker has a number of Merits, tracked in the GNDT, and defaulting to zero. Each time a Worker causes a machine to become Repaired, that Worker gains 1 Merit. Any Worker with 10 or more Merits can lose 10 Merits to gain 1 Reputation.

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 Workers.

Daily Action

If a game action is a Daily Action, each Worker 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)

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

Flavour Text

When posting a blog entry, a Worker 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.

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

Quorum

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

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 Worker 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 Worker, but only if it has not been performed (by any Worker) 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 Worker 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 Worker 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 Worker may update any Worker'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 Worker may correct the GNDT to comply with the Gamestate.

If a Worker 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, Workers are encouraged to raise a Call for Judgement instead. Workers shall be assigned a password for the GNDT when they join the Nomic.

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 Workers to transfer a numeric value only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to another Worker (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
• A Worker 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 Workers, or for existing Workers 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.
• 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.

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 a Worker if it is explicitly stated that it refers to a Worker'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 “Workers may Kick each other” and “Workers may not kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, Workers may not Kick each other.)
4. If two parts with the same scope contradict each other, the negative rule applies. (e.g. with “Workers may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “Worker may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then Workers may not Punch Spacemen on Friday.)