Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Blognomickers 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 glossary, which exists solely to clarify the remainder of the ruleset.

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

Admins may correct obvious spelling and typographical mistakes in the Ruleset at any time, including replacing Spivak and gender-specific pronouns with the singular "they".

Blognomickers

Anybody may apply to join BlogNomic (if he is not already playing) by registering at http://blognomic.com via the Register link in the sidebar, and then making a post announcing his arrival. An Admin shall add him to the roster in the sidebar and the GNDT, at which moment he becomes a Blognomicker.

A Blognomicker may leave the game at any time by posting an entry to the BlogNomic weblog requesting such an action. A Blognomicker may only change his name as a result of a proposal approving the change.

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

Some Blognomickers are Idle, and shall be marked as such in the sidebar. For the purposes of the Ruleset, excluding Rules 1.1, 1.2, 1.8 and 1.10, Idle Blognomickers are not counted as Blognomickers. Admins may render a Blognomicker Idle if that Blognomicker has asked to become Idle or if that Blognomicker 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 de-Idle an Blognomicker at his request (unless that Blognomicker asked to become Idle within the previous 4 days, and within the current dynasty) - the Blognomicker's personal gamestate retains the values it had immediately prior to his going Idle. If one or more values would be undefined, it is set to the value new Blognomickers receive, if such a value exists.

Proposals

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

Proposals can either be Pending, Enacted, or Failed. When a Proposal is first put forward, it is considered Pending. A Proposal may not also be a Call for Judgment.

Voting

Any Blognomicker may cast his 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, DEFERENTIAL (only if the Votable Matter is a Proposal), or VETO (only if the Votable Matter is a Proposal and the Blognomicker is the Victorious Blognomicker).

In the case of a Proposal, If the Blognomicker who made the Proposal has not cast a Vote on it, his Vote is counted as FOR. If a Blognomicker uses more than one Voting Icon in comments on a Votable Matter, his Vote is the last voting icon he uses. If a Blognomicker leaves the game or goes Idle, his Vote is no longer valid. If a Blognomicker Votes against his own Proposal, that Vote may not be changed. This is referred to as a Self-Kill.

A Vote of DEFERENTIAL is a Vote of no opinion, or of faith in the decision of the Victorious Blognomicker. The Vote will count as the same as the Victorious Blognomicker’s Vote. If the Victorious Blognomicker casts a Vote of DEFERENTIAL on a Proposal, it serves the purpose of cancelling any previous Vote on that Proposal that was cast by the Victorious Blognomicker. If there is no Victorious Blognomicker, or the vote is made by the proposal’s author on his own proposal, a Vote of DEFERENTIAL counts as an explicit Vote of abstention, and has no effect except possibly to void earlier voting icons by that voter on that proposal.

If no Victorious Blognomicker has Voted on a Proposal, a Vote of DEFERENTIAL on that proposal does not count as a Vote for the purposes of rule 1.5.

Resolution of Proposals

The oldest pending Proposal may be enacted by any Admin (and the Ruleset and/or Gamestate updated to include the specified effects of that Proposal) 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 continuously been a proposal for that time, it has more than 1 valid Vote, more than half of its Votes are FOR, 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 enough AGAINST Votes that it could not be Enacted without one of those Votes being changed.
It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and half or fewer of its Votes are FOR.
It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and has fewer than 2 valid Votes.
The Blognomicker who proposed it has Voted AGAINST it.
The Victorious Blognomicker has Voted to VETO it

Whenever an Admin marks a proposal, CfJ, or DoV as enacted or failed, he must also mark his name, and report the final tally of Votes (or the fact that it was self-killed or vetoed).

Proposals the Victorious Blognomicker has Voted to VETO are considered vetoed. Proposals the author has Voted against are considered self-killed unless the Victorious Blognomicker has Voted VETO on them, or they have fulfilled one of the other requirements to fail a proposal before the author’s self-kill Vote is placed. Immediately after enacting a proposal that causes a rule with no name to be added to the ruleset, unless the proposal specifically states that the rule should have no name, the enacting admin can change the rule’s title to give it a name, so long as doing so does not change the meaning of any part of the ruleset, nor change any properties of the rule (such as specific words in the title) that the ruleset specifically cares about.

Calls for Judgment

If two or more Blognomickers actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if a Blognomicker feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any Blognomicker may raise a Call for Judgment (abbreviated CfJ) by posting an entry in the “Call for Judgment” category. The post shall go on to describe the issue, and measures that shall be taken to resolve it.

All Blognomickers may cast Votes on that CfJ to indicate agreement or disagreement with the position taken in that CfJ. If the Blognomicker who made a CfJ has not cast a Vote on it, his Vote is counted as FOR. Unfailed CfJs continue until they reach a Quorum of FOR Votes, a Quorum of AGAINST Votes, or if there is no hiatus going on, until four days have passed, and if there is a hiatus going on until two days have passed. After this time, if more than half the cast Votes are FOR Votes, the CfJ may be enacted by any Admin by updating or correcting the Gamestate and Ruleset as specified. Otherwise, the CfJ fails. A Failed CfJ has no further effect.

Any CfJ that has no effect on the ruleset or gamestate may be automatically failed by any admin.

Gamestate Tracking

Proposals, Calls for Judgment, and other official posts, as well as specific gamestate information, shall be tracked by the BlogNomic blog at http://blognomic.com. Any Blognomicker 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.

If no Blognomicker 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.

AA 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.

Voting and comments are accessible through the link at the bottom of every post.

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 Blognomicker may update any Blognomicker'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. A GNDT update that does not perform a rules-defined action does not alter the gamestate; Blognomickers should not alter the GNDT except to correct it to match the actual gamestate (in the case that the two somehow end up different), or to perform an action.

If a Blognomicker 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), he may simply undo the effects of that alteration. Instead of repeatedly reverting and re-reverting a disputed GNDT update, Blognomickers are encouraged to raise a Call for Judgment instead. Blognomickers shall be assigned a password for the GNDT when they join the Nomic.

Dynasties

BlogNomic is divided into a number of Dynasties. Each Dynasty is headed by a single Blognomicker, known as the Victorious Blognomicker, and is named according to the number of Dynasties he has headed (eg. "The First Dynasty of Myke").

The Victorious Blognomicker may Vote to VETO any Proposal.

Victory and Ascension

If a Blognomicker (other than the Victorious Blognomicker) believes that he has achieved victory in the current Dynasty, he 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 “Blognomickers”, “Voting”, “Calls for Judgment”, “Gamestate Tracking” and “Victory and Ascension”.

Every Blognomicker may cast Votes on that DoV to indicate agreement or disagreement with the proposition that the poster has achieved victory in the current Dynasty. If the Blognomicker who made a DoV has not cast a Vote on it, his Vote is counted as FOR.

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

It has been open for voting for 12 hours, has a number of FOR Votes that exceed or equal Quorum, and either the Victorious Blognomicker 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 fewer than half of Quorum, rounded down.
It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours, at least Quorum Blognomickers have Voted on it, and more than half of its Votes are FOR.

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

It has been open for voting for 12 hours and has enough AGAINST Votes that it could not be Enacted without one of those Votes being changed.
It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and cannot be legally 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 Blognomicker who made the DoV as its Victorious Blognomicker. (That Blognomicker may pass this role to another Blognomicker at this point, if he wishes.) The Hiatus continues until the new Victorious Blognomicker posts an Ascension Address to the BlogNomic weblog - this shall specify the Victorious Blognomicker’s chosen theme for the new Dynasty, and may optionally include a proclamation that any number of Dynastic Rules will be repealed, and/or that the words Voter and Returning Officer will be replaced with theme-specific terms throughout the entire ruleset.

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 Blognomicker who posted it cannot make another DoV until after 120 hours (5 days) have passed since the time their DoV was failed.

A Declaration of Victory may not also be any other type of Official Post unless the rules concerning that type of Official Post explicitly state otherwise.

Fair Play

The following are BlogNomic’s rules of fair play. If any of the rules are found to have been broken, a proposal or CfJ may be made to remove the perpetrator from the game, and bar them from rejoining.

A single person should not control more than one Blognomicker within BlogNomic.
A Blognomicker 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 Blognomicker should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or the GNDT).
Instead of deleting content from a blog post which has at least one comment, the content should either be struck through with <strike> tags, or replaced with a link to a copy of the same content on the wiki.
A Blognomicker should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other Blognomicker.
A Blognomicker should not edit the "Entry Date" field of a blog post.
A Blognomicker should not make or edit a post such that its title does not broadly match its URL title.
A Blognomicker should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
A Blognomicker should not do any action meant to make the game unplayable (for example, changing multiple keywords to the same word in an ascension address).

Dynastic Rules

Food

{Cheese} is {Awesome}. {Chocolate Cake} is {Delicious}.

Overseer

The Victorious Blognomicker may not participate in a Match, but he may act as {Judge}, {Arbiter}, and {Referee}.

A Harmless Drudge

The term “Hook” means a word or phrase in a proposal, the Ruleset or Gamestate, the meaning of which in the context of the current Dynasty is not obvious or apparent, such that one would ordinarily expect the Ruleset or Gamestate to supply a definition or explanation of that word or phrase. Subject to the Hook Limitations, a particular word or phrase constitutes a Hook if at least one of the following conditions is satisfied with respect to it:

(1) The word or phrase is expressly designated as a Hook in the Proposal that proposes to introduce it to the Ruleset or Gamestate (and the use of {curly brackets} around a given word or phrase shall be deemed to constitute a means of such express designation);

(2) The Victorious Blocnomicer, in a blog post or a comment the Proposal that proposes to introduce it to the Ruleset or Gamestate, expressly designates that word or phrase as a Hook; or

(3) A majority of the EVCs to the Proposal that proposes to introduce it to the Ruleset or Gamestate contain text that expressly designates that word or phrase as a Hook.

A word or phrase that is a Hook ceases to be a Hook once the Ruleset supplies a definition or explanation thereof that does not require one or more other Hooks to be defined or explained in the Ruleset or Gamestate. Thus, if the Ruleset contains the sentence “Socrates is mortal” (with the words “Socrates” and “Mortal” each being hooks), and a subsequent sentence is introduced into the Ruleset stating that “Any Blognomicker with exactly two pending Proposals is Socrates”, then “Socrates” ceases to be a Hook because its meaning can then be interpreted without reference to any other undefined or unexplained Hook.

A given Proposal may, subject to the Hook Limitations, contain any number of Hooks. If there is any uncertainty regarding whether a given word or phrase constitutes a Hook, or part of a Hook, then the decision of the Victorious Blognomicker, or in the absence of his decision, the decision of the {General Secretary of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association} shall be final (such that, for example, if a Proposal uses the phrase “unladen swallow”, the foregoing process may determine whether “unladen” and “swallow” are each separately Hooks, or if the unitary phrase “unladen swallow” is a hook).

When a Proposal is Resolved such that one or more Hooks is added to the Ruleset, they may be so identified with {curly brackets} (even if the curly brackets were not part of the Proposal that introduced them), and if at any time a given word or phrase ceases to be a Hook, then any Admin may remove the curly brackets that so identifies it as a Hook. The phrase “{curly brackets}” in the Ruleset with curly brackets around it is not a Hook, notwithstanding anything contrary in the Ruleset.

The Hook Limitations are as follows: (1) Subject to the other Hook Limitations, after May 16, 2010 23:59:59 UTC, no Proposal may be made that Proposes the introduction of one or more Hooks to the Rulestate unless that Proposal would supply a sufficient definition or explanation so as to cause the total number of Hooks in the Ruleset to decrease upon passage of the Proposal.

Vizzini's Victory

No Blognomicker may participate in a Match with a Sicilian if the Match has an {Arbiter}, {Referee}, or {Judge}. No Blognomicker may participate in a Match with an Asian. No Blognomicker may legally take any action which would make themself both a Sicilian and an Asian, or both an Asian and an Australian, or both a Sicilian and an Australian. All Australians are Criminals. Culture is a Quality. Its default value is Florinese. Sicilian, Florinese, Guilderian, Asian, Australian, and Nearly headless are its potential values.

Assorted Meats

Each Match must have a number of {Steak}s associated with it, with that number to be determined by the {Almighty Barbecuer}. Each {Steak} is {Delicious} and {Meaty}.

Terms of Service

A Blognomicker may not be provided {Service} unless aforementioned Blognomicker possesses a {Shirt} and {Shoes}.

Matches

As a weekly action, the Victorious Blognomicker may announce a Match. The Match must be one of any type specified in a subrule to this rule, and if there are no Match Types then a match cannot be held. The manner of deciding a Cheese, the eligible participants, and the activities contained within a match are different dependending on what type of match it is.

Guessing Game

This type of match is initiated when the Victorious Blognomicker posts a story post with the title “Match: Guessing Game”. Within 48 hours of the posting of that post, every other Blognomicker may reply in a comment with “X-Y”, where x and y are two integers. Only the first pair of integers posted by each Blognomicker counts.. The first proposal the Victorious Blognomicker creates once the 48 hour period has elapsed is referred to as the Contest Proposal. Once the Contest Proposal is resolved, the Blognomicker (if there is one) who correctly predicted the For-Against tally of the votes on that proposal becomes {Swiss} Cheese. All other participants in the contest become Deliciousl, and the Match is over.

Heart of Gold

If a Blognomicker ever rolls a 42 with GNDT dice, than that Blognomicker may travel to {The Restaurant at the End of the Universe}. Threat is a Quality. Its default value is Harmless. Harmless, Mostly Harmless, Mostly Harmful, and Harmful are its potential values. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe has a menu that includes Chocolate Cake, and a gift shop that makes Shirts available. Consequently, any Blognomicker (other than a Criminal) who visits the Restaurant at the End of the Universe may acquire and possess Chocolate Cake, a Shirt, or both.

HHGTTG

If a Blognomicker is Mostly Harmless than they may subsequently be elected as {The President of the Galaxy}

Quality over Quantity

Each Blognomicker has one or more Qualities that are conferred upon them by actions or definitions in the ruleset. Each Quality explicitly created by a proposal shall have one column created in the GNDT to track the value of that Quality, and that proposal must list a default value and an exhaustive list of its possible values. A Blognomicker may only have one value per Quality at any given time. If a player "becomes", "is", "is made to have" (or similar wording) a value that is possible for a particular Quality, the new value shall replace the old value for that Quality.

Therefore, Socrates is Mortal

An Argument is a type of Proposal that does not introduce one or more Hooks, but instead proposes to establish a meaning for one or more Hooks through deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning or both. In order for a Proposal to be an Argument, it must be identified as such in the title of the blog post that comprises it. An Argument does not count as a Proposal for purposes of the phrase "unless the Blognomicker already has 2 Proposals pending" in Rule 1.3, but no Blognomicker may have more than one Argument pending at any time. For example, if the Ruleset provides that "All dogs go to heaven", and also provides that "Happiness is a warm puppy", then an Argument, if it were made and enacted, could establish that "Happiness goes to heaven" (because happiness is a puppy as established by the Ruleset, a puppy is a kind of dog according to the ordinary meanings of "dog" and "puppy", and any dog goes to heaven as established by the Ruleset). There is established a section of the Dynastic Rules entitled "The Talmud" consisting of all conclusions that are established by means of Argument.

The Talmud

Progress is the subset of Blognomickers who are not a part of Congress

The Rill of Bites

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of {religion}, or prohibiting the {free exercise} thereof; or abridging the {freedom of speech}, or {freedom of the press}; or the right of the Blognomickers peaceably to {assemble}, and to {petition} the Victorious Blognomicker for a redress of grievances.

Congress and Progress

Congress is the opposite of Progress; thus Congress is a subset of all Blognomickers composed of those Blognomicers who have, during this Dynasty, at least once, had an EVC that included a vote AGAINST a Proposal (excluding any Proposal that was made on or prior to May 13, 2010) where that Proposal failed by exactly one vote (for example, 5-6). A Law is a Dynastic Rule proposed to be added to the Ruleset by the Blognomicker in question.

A chain of non-sequiturs

Whosoever {pulls} a {sword} from a {stone} is rightwise {King of England}. The {pen} is {mightier} than the {sword}. {Wite-out} is {mightier} than the {pen}. Bette Nesmith Graham may create and possess {wite-out}. The son of Bette Nesmith Graham is a {Monkey}. A {monkey} with a {typewriter} may create Shakespeare. Shakespeare. being a re-writer of history, may designate a Blognomicker as {King of England}. Anyone possessing a Sword may, as a weekly action, change the Culture of any Blognomicker to “Nearly headless”.

I'm afraid I can't do that

Only one Blognomicker can be {HAL} at any given time. {HAL} may choose whether or not to {open the pod bay doors}. If {HAL} chooses to {open the pod bay doors}, then {HAL} and becomes Harmless and loses his status as {HAL}. If {HAL} chooses not to {open the pod bay doors}, {HAL} becomes Harmful and Dave may attempt to {disconnect} {HAL}.

Crossing the Bridge

Luck is a quality, which may be “Good”, “Bad”, or “Unknown”. It defaults to unknown. If you have Unknown Luck, and you roll an odd number for any reason on the GNDT, your Luck is Bad. If you hove Unknown Luck, and you roll an even number for any reason on the GNDT, your Luck is Good.

{What} is your {name}. {What} is your {quest}. If you have good luck, {What} is your {favorite color}. If you have bad luck, {What} is the {airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow}.

It is your destiny

Following the adoption of this Proposal, the Victorious Blognomicker may designate a single, non-Asian, non-Australian Blognomicker as Bette Nesmith Graham, by posting a blog post identifying the Blognomicker so designated. The Victorious Blognomicker may simply identify the identity of the Blognomicker to attain that status, or may award it based on the Blognomicker in question having accomplished some kind of task, or in such other manner as the Victorious Blognomicker deems appropriate in his sole discretion. Once the Bette Nesmith Graham has been so designated, the Bette Nesmith Graham may designate any one or more Blognomickers (other than himself) as his son.

Shakespeare's Works

“Shakespeare” is any Proposal that is posted by a Blognomicker who is expressly permitted to post it and the text of which is in the poetic meter of iambic pentameter. The neat thing about Shakespeare is that, when Resolving it, any AGAINST vote that is cast by a Sicilian or Asian Blognomicker who fails to possess a {prosthetic forehead} is to be disregarded.

Stacking

The wiki page entitled Stack must always contain a list of items, known as the stack. No methods of changing the value of the stack are permitted except as specified in the Ruleset.

As a daily action, any Blognomicker may cease to possess one item which is currently in their possession. This item is immediately added to the top of the stack. This action is known as a push. Whenever a Proposal is enacted, if the stack is not empty, the top item is removed from it. This item immediately enters the possession of the author of the Proposal, unless it is impermissible for it to do so, in which case, the item is destroyed. This is known as a pop.

The value of the stack may be changed by proposal.

Local Ordinances

Criminals are Blognomickers known to be dangerous. If a Criminal would ever be Harmless or Mostly Harmless, that Criminal immediately becomes Mostly Harmful. Blognomickers are not Criminals until a Rule indicates that they are.

If a Blognomicker is ever Harmful, they become a Criminal. Cheating is the act of rolling DICE with one side or less. Any Blognomicker who Cheats becomes Mostly Harmful and a Criminal. A Blognomicker may be declared a Criminal by CfJ. A CfJ that would make a Blognomicker a Criminal is called a Trial.

A Blognomicker may cease to be a Criminal as a result of a {petition} action; if this occurs, that Blognomicker becomes Mostly Harmless.

Victory Conditions

If Progress contains exactly one Blognomicker, and that Blognomicker becomes a Criminal without Cheating, then that Blognomicker becomes Robin Hood for the duration of the dynasty. If a Robin Hood ever ceases to be a Criminal, he achieves victory.

As a weekly action, the {President of the Galaxy} may make a Nomination Post. Other Blognomickers cannot make Nomination Posts. A Nomination Post is a post that explicitly declares itself as such and contains the phrase “I Nominate X” where X is the name of another Blognomicker (the Nominated). If the comments on a Nomination Post contain a FOR voting icon posted by at least one member of each Culture, one by the King of England and one by a member of Congress, the Nominated of that post achieves victory.

Glossary

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

Daily Action: If a game action is a Daily Action, each Blognomicker able to perform it may take that action once each day, but not more than once every six 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 GMT, 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.

Effective Vote Comment (EVC): A Blognomicker's Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Proposal means that Blognomicker’s Comment to that Proposal (if any) that contains that Blognomicker’s Vote on the Proposal that is given effect in accordance with Rule 1.4 when the Proposal is Resolved.

Flavour Text: When posting a blog entry, a Blognomicker 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"

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

Quorum: Quorum is equal to half the number of Blognomickers, rounded down, plus one. If a Rule or other Gamestate document refers to a Quorum of some subset of Blognomickers (such as a Quorum of Blognomickers who share a particular Gamestate attribute, but excluding all other Blognomickers) then Quorum is equal to half the number of Blognomickers who share that Gamestate attribute, rounded down, plus one.

Resolve/Resolution: The world “Resolve” means to perform the act, as an Admin, of enacting or failing a Proposal, a Call for Judgment or a Declaration of Victory. The world “Resolution” means the act of doing so.

Shall: "is required to"

Should: "is recommended that"

Story Post: A Story Post is an Official Post that is not a member of any specific category of Official Posts mentioned or defined in a Core Rule (excluding Official Post).

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.

Votable Matter: The word “Votable Matter”, means a Proposal, a CFJ or a DoV.

Vote: The word “Vote”, used as a noun, means a Vote that is cast in accordance with Rule 1.4 “Voting”. 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 (currently 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 Blognomicker able to perform it may take that action once each week, but not more than once every twenty-four hours.

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

Clarifications

Numbers and Variables

Unless otherwise specified, game variables defined to hold numeric values can hold only non-negative integers, and any action that would set those values below zero instead sets them to zero. 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, when “X” is a number, to spend X of a numeric value “V” means to subtract X from V (i.e. replace V with V-X); 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 the amount A's V was reduced by to B's V. Unless otherwise specified, a rule that allows Blognomickers to transfer a numeric value only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to another Blognomicker (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
A Blognomicker 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 of those values to an illegal value.
If a rule implies that the result of a division 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 division is instead the result rounded towards 0.

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 Enactment or Failure of a Proposal are the responsibility of the Admin who Enacts or Fails it.

Time

For the purpose of all rules, time in Blognomic is in GMT.
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 Blognomicker if it is explicitly stated that it refers to a Blognomicker's name.

Ruleset 77

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