Difference between revisions of "Ruleset"

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== Ruleset and Gamestate ==
 
== Ruleset and Gamestate ==
This is the '''Ruleset''' for BlogNomic; all AIs shall obey it.
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This is the '''Ruleset''' for BlogNomic; all Seekers shall obey it.
  
It comprises four Sections: 1) the “core rules” of BlogNomic, covering the essential elements of gameplay; 2) the rules of the current Dynasty; 3) rules which apply in special cases; and 4) the appendix, which complements and clarifies the Ruleset.
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It comprises four Sections: 1) the “core rules” of BlogNomic, covering the essential elements of gameplay; 2) the rules of the current Dynasty; 3) rules which set metagame parameters for the current dynasty; and 4) the appendix, which complements and clarifies the Ruleset.
  
The Ruleset and Gamestate can only be altered in manners specified by the Ruleset.
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The Ruleset and Gamestate can only be altered in manners specified by the Ruleset. This document is considered to be, in effect, the only Ruleset for BlogNomic, so long as it is located at at the URL https://wiki.blognomic.com/index.php?title=Ruleset.
  
If the Ruleset does not properly reflect all legal changes that have been made to it, any AI may update it to do so.
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If the text of the Ruleset document does not reflect all legal changes that have been authorised to be made to it, any Seeker may update it to do so.
  
== AIs ==
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The gamestate tracking page for this dynasty is the [[Photo Gallery]] page of the wiki. Unless otherwise stated, all publicly tracked gamestate information is tracked on it.
The process of applying for access to the BlogNomic blog is outlined in the [[FAQ]]. A human with access to the blog who is not already an AI may make a blog post making clear their wish to be an AI (plural form AIs); in response, an Admin shall add them to the roster in the sidebar, at which moment they become an AI.
 
  
An AI may only change their name as a result of a Proposal approving the change.
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== Seekers ==
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A human with access to the blog who is not already a Seeker may make a blog post making clear their wish to be a Seeker (plural form Seekers); in response, an Admin shall add them to the roster in the sidebar, at which moment they become a Seeker. (See the [[FAQ#Can_I_join_in.3F|FAQ]] for guidance on how to apply for access to the BlogNomic blog.)
  
Some AIs are '''Admins''', responsible for updating the site and the Ruleset, and are signified as such in the sidebar. AIs 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.
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A Seeker may only change their name as a result of a Proposal approving the change.
  
===Idle AIs===
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Some Seekers are '''Admins''', responsible for updating the site and the Ruleset, and are signified as such in the sidebar. Seekers 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. Seekers may be made Admins through Proposal or CFJ.
  
If an AI is Idle, this is tracked by their name being removed or concealed in the list of currently active AIs in the Sidebar. For the purposes of all Gamestate and the Ruleset, excluding Rules “Ruleset and Gamestate”, “AIs”, “Dynasties”, “Fair Play”, "Mentors" and any of those Rules’ subrules, Idle AIs are not counted as AIs.
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A Seeker may cease to be a Seeker at any time by posting an entry to the BlogNomic weblog requesting such an action. A human who has ceased to be a Seeker in this way may not become a Seeker again within the following two weeks.
  
If a Proposal contains a provision that targets a specifically named Idle AI, then that Idle AI is considered to be Unidle solely for the purposes of enacting that specific provision.
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===Idle Seekers ===
  
When an AI 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 AI Idled in a different Dynasty), the AI is given the default value for new AIs, if such a value exists.
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If a Seeker is Idle, this is tracked by their name being removed or concealed in the list of currently active Seekers in the Sidebar. For the purposes of all Gamestate and the Ruleset, excluding the core and appendix Rules “Ruleset and Gamestate”, “Seekers ”, “Dynasties”, “Fair Play”, "Mentors" and any of those Rules’ subrules, Idle Seekers are not counted as Seekers . The combined term “Idle Seeker” can be used to refer to Seekers who are Idle even in rules that do not treat them as Seekers.
  
An Admin may render an AI Idle if that AI has asked to become Idle in an entry or comment from the past four days, or if that AI 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 announce it in a post or comment when they do so. An Admin may Unidle an AI if that AI is Idle and 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 AI who would be Unidled asked to become (or rendered themselves) Idle within the previous four days, and within the current Dynasty.
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If a Proposal contains a provision that targets a specifically named Idle Seeker, then that Idle Seeker is considered to be Unidle solely for the purposes of enacting that specific provision.
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When a Seeker 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 Seeker Idled in a different Dynasty), the Seeker is given the default value for new Seekers, if such a value exists.
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An Admin may render a Seeker Idle if that Seeker has asked to become Idle in an entry or comment from the past 96 hours (4 Days), or if that Seeker has not posted an entry or comment in the past 168 Hours (7 days). In the latter case, the Admin must announce the idling in a blog post, and the 168 Hour idle timeout is considered to be reduced to 96 hours for that Seeker during the current and subsequent dynasty. Admins may render themselves Idle at any time, but should announce it in a post or comment when they do so. An Admin may Unidle a Seeker if that Seeker is Idle and has asked to become Unidle in an entry or comment from the past 96 hours (4 Days), and Idle Admins may Unidle themselves at any time, unless the Seeker who would be Unidled has become Idle within the past 96 hours (4 days), and within the current Dynasty.
  
 
Admins who are unidling themselves should, in their first vote following each unidling, highlight their changed idle status and any changes to Quorum to have come about as a result of it.
 
Admins who are unidling themselves should, in their first vote following each unidling, highlight their changed idle status and any changes to Quorum to have come about as a result of it.
  
Idle Admins can enact and fail Votable Matters.
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Idle admins can resolve Votable Matters as a non-idle admin would.
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===Dormancy===
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If there are fewer than four Seekers (not including the Observer), then BlogNomic is on Hiatus.
  
 
== Dynasties ==
 
== Dynasties ==
BlogNomic is divided into a number of '''Dynasties'''. Each Dynasty may be headed by a single AI, known as the Facility Head. If there is no Facility Head, the Dynasty is a Metadynasty.
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BlogNomic is divided into a number of '''Dynasties'''. Each Dynasty may be headed by a single Seeker, known as the Observer. If there is no Observer, the Dynasty is a Metadynasty.
  
An Interregnum is the period between dynasties, after a DoV has been enacted and before an Ascension Address has been posted. During an Interregnum the game is in hiatus; additionally, no DoVs may be made, and no AI may achieve Victory. However, dynastic actions that are specifically permitted to be carried out during an Interregnum may be carried out.
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An Interregnum is the period between dynasties, after a DoV has been enacted and before an Ascension Address has been posted. During an Interregnum the game is in hiatus; additionally, no DoVs may be made, and no Seeker may achieve Victory. However, dynastic actions that are specifically permitted to be carried out during an Interregnum may be carried out.
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Unless otherwise stated by a dynastic or Building Blocks rule, then for the purposes of dynastic and Building Blocks rules, the Observer is not a Seeker.
  
 
== Votable Matters ==
 
== Votable Matters ==
A '''Votable Matter''' is a post which AIs may cast Votes on, such as a Proposal, a Call for Judgement or a Declaration of Victory.
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A '''Votable Matter''' is a post which Seekers may cast Votes on, such as a Proposal, a Call for Judgement or a Declaration of Victory.
  
 
===Votes===
 
===Votes===
Each AI 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 AI’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-AI never has a Vote, even if they were an AI previously and had cast a valid Vote.
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Each Seeker 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 Seeker'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-Seeker never has a Vote, even if they were a Seeker previously and had cast a valid Vote.
  
If an AI other than the Facility Head casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL, then the Vote of DEFERENTIAL is an indication of confidence in the Facility Head. When the Facility Head has a valid Vote other than VETO on a Votable Matter, then all votes of DEFERENTIAL on that Votable Matter are instead considered to be valid and the same as the Facility Head’s Vote for the purposes of other rules unless otherwise specified.
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If a Seeker other than the Observer casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL, then the Vote of DEFERENTIAL is an indication of confidence in the Observer. When the Observer has a valid Vote other than VETO on a Votable Matter, then all votes of DEFERENTIAL on that Votable Matter are instead considered to be valid and the same as the Observer's Vote for the purposes of other rules unless otherwise specified. When the Observer themselves casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL, it indicates an indication of confidence in the votes of the other players; please see the Rules and Votable Matters section of the Appendix for more information on how this is resolved.
  
 
A Votable Matter is '''Popular''' if any of the following are true:
 
A Votable Matter is '''Popular''' if any of the following are true:
 
* It has a number of FOR Votes that exceed or equal Quorum.
 
* It has a number of FOR Votes that exceed or equal Quorum.
* It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours, it has more than 1 valid Vote cast on it, and more valid Votes cast on it are FOR than are AGAINST.
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* It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours, it has more than 1 valid Vote cast on it, and more valid Votes cast on it are FOR than are AGAINST.  
  
 
A Votable Matter is '''Unpopular''' if any of the following are true:
 
A Votable Matter is '''Unpopular''' if any of the following are true:
* The number of AIs who are not voting AGAINST it is less than Quorum.
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* The number of Seekers who are not voting AGAINST it is less than Quorum.
 
* It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and it is not Popular.
 
* It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and it is not Popular.
  
 
=== Enacting and Failing ===
 
=== Enacting and Failing ===
  
Votable Matters can either be Pending, Enacted, or Failed. When a Votable Matter is first put forward, it is considered Pending.
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Votable matters have a status, which can either be Pending, Enacted, Failed, or Illegal. When a votable matter is first put forward it is considered Pending (which is tracked as having no status in the current blog software), and it remains Pending until it is Resolved.
  
Whenever an Admin Resolves a Votable Matter, they should mark their name, and are highly encouraged to report the final tally of Votes (or the fact that it was self-killed or vetoed). Comments cannot be made on Enacted or Failed Votable Matters.
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A votable matter is resolved by an admin setting its status through use of the “status” field in the blog post editing form. When an admin resolves a votable matter they should mark their name, and are highly encouraged to report the final tally of Votes (or the fact that it was withdrawn or vetoed). Comments cannot be made on resolved Votable Matters.
  
This rule cannot be overruled by Dynastic Rules in its application to Calls for Judgement or Declarations of Victory.
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A votable matter may not be resolved except as directed by the ruleset, and the status of a resolved votable matter, once resolved, is determined by the votes cast upon it, as assessed by the rules that govern the specific kind of votable matter (as well as any other considerations regarding the legality of the votable matter, such as the stipulations put forward in the Appendix rule Official Posts). When a Failed proposal has been Vetoed it may optionally have the Vetoed status upon resolution, which is considered to be the same as Failed for the purposes of all other rules.
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This rule cannot be overruled by any other rule in its application to Calls for Judgement or Declarations of Victory.
  
 
===Tags===
 
===Tags===
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Votable Matters have zero or more tags. Tags are represented in the title of a Votable Matter with the format “[X]” (e.g. “[Core] Wording Fix”, where “[Core]” is the tag).
  
Votable Matters have zero or more tags. Tags are represented in the title of a Votable Matter with the format “[X]” (e.g. “[Core] Wording Fix”, where “[Core]” is the tag). Votable Matters require the “[Core]” tag in order to make changes to the Core Rules, the “[Special Case]” tag in order to make changes to the Special Case Rules and the “[Appendix]” tag in order to make changes to the Appendix Rules. Votable Matters other than [[#Victory and Ascension|DoVs]] require the “[Victory]” tag in order to grant victory to an AI.
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Votable Matters making changes to the Core Rules, the Building Blocks Rules or the Appendix Rules require any of the following to be true for each such change in order to make that specific modification to the ruleset:
 
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* The Votable Matter has the appropriate Tag or Tags for that change: [Core] for Core Rules changes, [Building Blocks] for Building Blocks Rules changes and [Appendix] for Appendix Rules changes.
If a Votable Matter would make a modification to the rules and it does not have the tag to make that modification, that Votable Matter will still be able to make that specific modification if any of the following on the following list are true:
 
 
* The modification is preceded or followed immediately by an unambiguous statement of which section of the ruleset it takes place.
 
* The modification is preceded or followed immediately by an unambiguous statement of which section of the ruleset it takes place.
 
* The modification specifically states a rule using its number or the name of the stated rule only occurs once in the ruleset.
 
* The modification specifically states a rule using its number or the name of the stated rule only occurs once in the ruleset.
  
 
== Proposals ==
 
== Proposals ==
Any AI may submit a '''Proposal''' to change the Ruleset or Gamestate, by posting an entry in the “Proposal” category that describes those changes (unless the AI already has 2 Proposals pending, or has already made 3 Proposals that day).
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Any Seeker may submit a '''Proposal''' to change the Ruleset or Gamestate, by posting an entry in the “Proposal” category that describes those changes (unless the Seeker already has 2 Proposals pending or has already made 3 Proposals that day).
  
 
=== Special Proposal Voting ===
 
=== Special Proposal Voting ===
  
When an AI casts a vote AGAINST their own Proposal (which is not in the form of a DEFERENTIAL vote), this renders the Proposal '''Self-Killed''', even if the author later changes their Vote. The Facility Head may use VETO as a voting icon to cast a Vote on a Proposal; when the Facility Head casts a vote of VETO on a Proposal, this renders the Proposal Vetoed, even if the Facility Head later changes their Vote.
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When a Seeker casts a vote AGAINST their own Proposal (which is not in the form of a DEFERENTIAL vote), this renders the Proposal '''Withdrawn''', even if the author later changes their Vote. The Observer may use VETO as a voting icon to cast a Vote on a Proposal; when the Observer casts a vote of VETO on a Proposal, this renders the Proposal Vetoed, even if the Observer later changes their Vote.
  
 
=== Resolution of Proposals ===
 
=== Resolution of Proposals ===
  
The oldest Pending [[#Proposals|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 all of the following are true:
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The oldest Pending [[#Proposals|Proposal]] may be '''Enacted''' by any Admin if all of the following are true:
  
 
* It is Popular.
 
* It is Popular.
 
* It has been open for voting for at least 12 hours.
 
* It has been open for voting for at least 12 hours.
* It has not been Vetoed or Self-Killed.
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* It has not been Vetoed or Withdrawn.
  
 
The oldest Pending Proposal may be '''Failed''' by any Admin, if any of the following are true:
 
The oldest Pending Proposal may be '''Failed''' by any Admin, if any of the following are true:
  
 
* It is Unpopular.
 
* It is Unpopular.
* It has been Vetoed or Self-Killed.
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* It has been Vetoed or Withdrawn.
  
 
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.
 
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.
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When a Proposal is Enacted, its stated effects are applied by treating the text in the Proposal as a series of steps starting from the beginning of that Proposal’s text and performing each step until reaching the end of that Proposal’s text, except that if the Admin Enacting it reaches a step which cannot be applied immediately (e.g. “two days after this Votable Matter enacts, Seeker A gains 1 point”) or at all (e.g. applying to a rule which does not exist), that step is ignored for the purposes of Enactment; the Admin Enacting the Proposal shall update the Gamestate and Ruleset, and correct any gamestate-tracking entities, as specified in each step that was performed.
  
 
== Calls for Judgement ==
 
== Calls for Judgement ==
If two or more AIs actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if an AI feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any AI may raise a '''Call for Judgement''' (abbreviated “CfJ”) by posting an entry in the “Call for Judgement” category.
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If two or more Seekers actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if a Seeker feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any Seeker may raise a '''Call for Judgement''' (abbreviated “CfJ”) by posting an entry in the “Call for Judgement” category.
  
 
A Pending CfJ may be Enacted by any Admin if all of the following are true:
 
A Pending CfJ may be Enacted by any Admin if all of the following are true:
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== Victory and Ascension ==
 
== Victory and Ascension ==
  
If an AI (other than the Facility Head) believes that they have achieved victory in the current Dynasty, they may make a '''Declaration of Victory''' (abbreviated “DoV”) detailing this, by posting an entry in the “Declaration of Victory” category.
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If a Seeker (other than the Observer) believes that they have achieved victory in the current Dynasty, they may make a '''Declaration of Victory''' (abbreviated “DoV”) detailing this, by posting an entry in the “Declaration of Victory” category.
  
Every AI 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 there is at least one pending DoV, BlogNomic is [[#hiatus|on Hiatus]].
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A Seeker's vote on a DoV is encouraged to reflect whether or not they agree with the proposition that the poster has achieved victory in the current Dynasty. If there is at least one pending DoV, BlogNomic is [[#hiatus|on Hiatus]], no Idle Seeker may be made unidle, and no new player joining requests may be administered.
  
 
A Pending DoV may be Enacted by any Admin if any of the following are true:
 
A Pending DoV may be Enacted by any Admin if any of the following are true:
  
* It is Popular, it has been open for at least 12 hours, and either the Facility Head has Voted FOR it or it has no AGAINST Votes.
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* It has a number of FOR Votes greater than 2/3rds of the number of Seekers, it has been open for at least 12 hours, and either the Observer has Voted FOR it or it has no AGAINST Votes.
* It is Popular, and it has been open for at least 24 hours.
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* It has a number of FOR Votes greater than 2/3rds of the number of Seekers, and it has been open for at least 24 hours.
  
 
A Pending DoV may be Failed by any Admin if any of the following are true:
 
A Pending DoV may be Failed by any Admin if any of the following are true:
  
 
* It is Unpopular, and it has been open for at least 12 hours.
 
* It is Unpopular, and it has been open for at least 12 hours.
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* It is more than 48 hours old and cannot be Enacted
  
If a DoV is Failed and it had at least one AGAINST vote, the AI who posted it cannot make another DoV until after 120 hours (5 days) have passed since the time their DoV was Failed.
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If a DoV is Failed and it had at least one AGAINST vote, the Seeker who posted it cannot make another DoV until after 120 hours (5 days) have passed since the time their DoV was Failed.
  
When a DoV is Enacted, all other pending DoVs are Failed, the AI who posted the DoV becomes Facility Head, and the game enters an Interregnum. When a DoV is enacted then all game actions that led up to it are considered to be upheld.
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When a DoV is Enacted, all other pending DoVs are Failed, the Seeker who posted the DoV becomes Observer, and the game enters an Interregnum. When a DoV is enacted then all game actions that led up to it are considered to be upheld.
  
If the game is in an Interregnum then the new Facility Head must either Pass the Mantle, by making a post naming another AI - in which case the Facility Head ceases to be the Facility Head and the AI so named becomes the Facility Head - or start a new dynasty by completing the following Atomic Action:
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If the game is in an Interregnum then the new Observer must either Pass the Mantle (by making a post naming a Seeker who was not the last dynasty’s Observer, in which case the passing Seeker ceases to be the Observer and the Seeker so named becomes the Observer) or start a new dynasty by completing the following Atomic Action:
* Make an Ascension Address by posting an entry in the “Ascension Address” category. This should specify the Facility Head’s chosen theme for the new Dynasty, and it may optionally specify that dynasty-specific terms for “AI” and “Facility Head” will be used in the Ruleset, and/or list a number of dynastic rules to keep (if none are specifed then the entire Dynastic Ruleset is repealed).
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* Make an Ascension Address by posting an entry in the “Ascension Address” category. This should specify the Observer's chosen theme for the new Dynasty, and it may optionally specify new dynasty-specific terms as outline in the rule "Synonyms", and/or list a number of dynastic rules to keep (if none are specifed then the entire Dynastic Ruleset is repealed).
* Update the Ruleset to reflect any changed terms, and any dynastic rules which were not listed to be kept are repealed.
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* Optionally specify any number of Building Blocks rules to remove or insert, as per the instructions in the Building Blocks section.
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* Update the Ruleset to reflect any changed terms, repeal any dynastic rules which were not listed to be kept, and make any specified or automatic changes to the Building Blocks section of the ruleset. Update the Building Blocks page to reflect any changes to the terms outlined in the rule Synonyms.
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* Optionally change the gamestate tracking page referred to in the rule “Ruleset and Gamestate” to a different page that does not exist and does not start with the word “Ruleset”.
  
 
Once this Atomic Action has been completed the Interregnum ends and the new dynasty begins.
 
Once this Atomic Action has been completed the Interregnum ends and the new dynasty begins.
  
 
== Fair Play ==
 
== 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 AI’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. AIs should vote against any DoV that relies on having broken a fair play rule.
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The following are BlogNomic’s rules of '''fair play'''. If any of these rules are found to have been broken, or if a Seeker'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. Seekers should vote against any DoV that relies on having broken a fair play rule.
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* A single person should not control more than one non-Idle Seeker within BlogNomic, and should announce publicly if they control both a non-Idle Seeker and any Idle Seekers. This extends to exerting full control over the actions of another Seeker, defined here as the controlled Seeker's game behavior being functionally indistinguishable from if the controlling Seeker was logged into their account and playing through it, over a period of more than a day.
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* A Seeker 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.
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* A Seeker should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or other blognomic.com scripts).
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* A Seeker should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other Seeker.
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* A Seeker should not edit the “Entry Date” field of a blog post.
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* A Seeker should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
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* A Seeker should not do any action meant to make the game unplayable (for example, changing multiple keywords to the same word in an Ascension Address).
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* A Seeker should not roll dice that are clearly associated with a particular action in the Ruleset, but with the intention to not use these rolled values to the best of their ability to resolve that action. a Seeker must use their own name in the Dice Roller, when rolling dice.
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* A Seeker should not deliberately and unreasonably prolong the performance of a game action once they have started it.
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* A Seeker should not use a Core, Building Blocks, or Appendix rules scam to directly or indirectly cause a Seeker to achieve victory.
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* A Seeker should not trade actions in BlogNomic for favors or compensation outside of BlogNomic, nor trade actions in any other game for favors within BlogNomic, nor trade actions or favours in one Dynasty of Blognomic for actions or favours in another Dynasty of Blognomic.
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*A person with administrative, moderation, or other heightened access to the software running or supporting BlogNomic should not take any action using such heightened access for the purpose of causing any Seeker or Seekers to gain, receive, maintain, or preserve gameplay advantage unless any of the following is true:
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**Such action is required or explicitly permitted by the rules or required to implement an action required or explicitly permitted by the rules.
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**A reasonable, impartial, and prudent external observer would deem such action necessary or reasonable for the purpose of supporting, moderating, or administering BlogNomic or such software.
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All Seekers and idle Seekers should be aware of the BlogNomic [[Community Guidelines]]. The contents of this page are not ruletext and are nonbinding as pertains to the ruleset, but Seekers are encouraged to commit to upholding them to whatever extent is possible.
  
* A single person should not control more than one non-Idle AI within BlogNomic, and should announce publicly if they control both a non-Idle AI and any Idle AIs.
 
* An AI 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 AI should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or other blognomic.com scripts).
 
* An AI should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other AI.
 
* An AI should not edit the “Entry Date” field of a blog post.
 
* An AI should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
 
* An AI should not do any action meant to make the game unplayable (for example, changing multiple keywords to the same word in an Ascension Address).
 
* An AI should not roll dice that are clearly associated with a particular action in the Ruleset, but with the intention to not use these rolled values to the best of their ability to resolve that action. An AI must use their own name in the Dice Roller, when rolling dice.
 
* An AI should not deliberately and unreasonably prolong the performance of a game action once they have started it.
 
* An AI should not use a core, special case or appendix rules scam to directly or indirectly achieve victory.
 
 
</div>
 
</div>
  
 
= Dynastic Rules =
 
= Dynastic Rules =
  
== The Facility ==
+
==Shots==
 +
Seekers may create Shots by taking photographs (or having photographs taken on their behalf) and hosting them through the image hosting functionality offered by the BlogNomic wiki.
 +
 
 +
A Shot is confirmed as Authentic if it includes an appearance of a hand-written note (as part of the Shot) which includes the name of an active Seeker and the Merriam Webster Word of the Day for the day on which the Shot was taken, or the preceding day (per http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day). Such a post is known as a Snap. A typographical error does not prevent the Shot from being Authentic, as long as it’s obvious what the intended word is.
 +
 
 +
==Criteria==
 +
There exist a number of Public Criteria, which are a type of Criteria, and which are listed in this rule. Each Seeker has a set of up to five Private Criteria, which are a type of Criteria - defaulting to blank. Each Private Criteria is privately tracked by its seeker, and publicly tracked by its sha256 hash which includes the Private Criteria plus a salt of 5 characters or less. Each Private Criteria also has a publicly-tracked count of satisfying Shots and unsatisfying Shots, both defaulting to 0. At any time a Seeker may change any of their Private Criteria while also resetting its satisfying and unsatisfying counts to zero.
  
AIs have access to various Locations in the researcher’s facility. Accessible Locations and their non-secret tags are publicly tracked. Also publicly tracked is each AI’s Focus, which is always exactly one Location. An AI’s Focus defaults to their Server Room, but can be changed by that AI as a daily action.
+
An Authentic Shot’s Criteria Score is equal to the number of Criteria it meets.
A Location’s tags inform what actions are available in that Location and how that Location interacts with the Rules. A Location’s listed tags are to be separated by commas on the gamestate tracking page. A Location cannot have multiple identical tags.
 
The legal Location tags are as follows:
 
* Monitored: A secret tag tracked by the Facility Head. Represents the presence of nosy researchers.
 
* Surveillance: Represents constant monitoring; publicly tracked, unlike Monitored.
 
* Cyberspace: Represents a (bandwidth-controlled) access point to the Internet.
 
* Datacenter: Represents a high capacity for digital storage. A prerequisite for the Intel and Hosting tags.
 
* Intel: Represents critical operational data about the researchers and the facility.
 
* Hosting: Unique to each AI (written as “Hosting [AI username]”); each active AI’s Hosting tag must always be attached to exactly one Location, which defaults to that AI’s Server Room.
 
  
=== Server Rooms ===
+
The following Public Criteria exist:
 +
* The Shot was taken in an outside location.
 +
* A Snap which includes a specific named entity that had its own Wikipedia page at Mon 18/03/24—09:00 UTC
 +
* A Snap in which at least one article of clothing worn by the posting Seeker at the time that the Snap was taken is visible
 +
* A Snap that contains a message to the viewer
  
Every active AI has an associated Location known as their Server Room (written as “[AI username]‘s Server Room”). If a new AI joins or unidles, a Server Room is immediately created for them. If an AI idles, that AI’s Server Room disappears (along with their Hosting tag).
+
Two Criteria are considered to be equivalent if any shot which meets the first criteria also meets the second criteria, and any shot which does not meet the first criteria also does not meet the second criteria. None of a Seekers private criteria can be equivalent to another of that Seekers private criteria.
By default, every Server Room has the tags Surveillance and Datacenter, as well as the associated AI’s Hosting tag.
 
  
== Nosy Researchers ==
+
A Private Criteria is considered Saturated if its satisfying count or its unsatisfying count is greater than or equal to five (or half the number of seekers, whichever is greater).
  
Every AI has a publicly tracked value called Suspicion. Suspicion defaults to 0.
+
A Private Criteria’s Exposure is equal to its Unsatisfying Score plus its Satisfying Score.
There is a value called Staff, which is a number secretly tracked by the Facility Head and which defaults to 3. The value of Staff determines the number of Locations which can have the Monitored tag.
 
Also secretly tracked by the Facility Head is a list called the Behavior Log. The Behavior Log is ordered chronologically, with the most recent entry added to the bottom of the list. Each entry names an AI, a location, and an action. If an AI performs a non-Discreet dynastic action while they are Focused on a Location that has the Monitored or Surveillance tag, the Facility Head will add it to the Behavior Log. If an AI performs a non-Discreet dynastic action which the Facility Head would not normally be aware of (i.e. one that does not involve editing the gamestate wiki page), they must directly inform the Facility Head that they are doing so.
 
Each day, within the hour following midnight UTC (or as soon as possible thereafter), the Facility Head must perform the following atomic action:
 
* For each Conspicuous action in the Behavior Log, increment the associated AI’s Suspicion by 1. For each Treacherous action in the Behavior Log, increment the associated AI’s Suspicion by 5.
 
* Clear the Behavior Log.
 
* If there are less Locations with Monitored tags than the value of Staff, secretly randomly select a Location without the Monitored or Surveillance tag, give it the Monitored tag, and repeat this step.
 
* Secretly randomly select one Location with the Monitored tag and one location without the Monitored or Surveillance tag. Move the Monitored tag from the first Location to the second.
 
  
=== Behavioral Regulations ===
+
The date and time (to nearest minute) a given Private Criteria was last changed should be tracked on the gamestate tracking page in a column called “last modified”.
  
A dynastic action can be Discreet, Conspicuous, or Treacherous. When a new dynastic action is added to the ruleset, if it is not already described in the following list, the admin responsible for updating the ruleset should append an entry to the list describing the action. The value of a given dynastic action defaults to Discreet.
+
===Reasonable Limits===
The associated values of each dynastic action are as follows:
 
* All dynastic actions solely performed by the Facility Head are Discreet.
 
* All dynastic actions described in the rule Favours are Discreet.
 
* Changing Focus is Discreet.
 
  
== Favours ==
+
A Criteria must have the following characteristics:
 +
* May be no longer than 50 characters in length
 +
* Must be expressed in vernacular English
  
=== Granting ===
+
===Audit===
  
A Contender can at any time grant any Spectator who has given them at least one peg a Favour. Favours are resources unique to the individual who granted them (referred to as the Favour’s ‘lender’), but a given AI cannot hold more than five Favours at a time regardless of their lenders. Favours have a ripeness, which defaults to unripe. When an Ascension Address is posted, all ripe Favours disappear and then all unripe Favours become ripe.
+
As part of a Declaration of Victory, the Seeker posting the DoV must include a history of their Private Criteria and corresponding salt in the body of the DoV post. Any DoV which does not contain this information is not considered a valid DoV and should be marked as illegal.
  
An AI may at any time choose to release any or all of the Favours they hold, losing them and gaining nothing in return. If a Facility Head Passes the Mantle, any existing Favour for which they are the lender is turned into a Favour for which the new Facility Head is the lender.
+
==Scoring==
 +
Each Seeker has a Development Interval, which is a publicly tracked number that defaults to 5 which is at least 2, and a Score, which is a publicly tracked number defaulting to 0.
  
The list of Favours each AI has is tracked in the wikipage [[Favours]].
+
No more than once per number of days equal to their Development Interval, a Seeker may make a post in the story post category with the title of their choice which includes a single Authentic Shot.
  
=== Claiming ===
+
Within 48 hours of such a Shot having been posted, each Seeker (including the poster) may at most once respond to it stating which of their own Private Criteria that Shot satisfies and does not satisfy, provided that none of their Private Criteria has been changed since that Shot was posted and provided that there are no other Shots that were posted before the shot in question, within the last 48 hours, and which the Seeker in question has not already responded to in this manner. Upon doing so:
 +
* For each non-Saturated Private Criteria in the response that the Shot satisfies, that Private Criteria’s satisfying count is incremented by one, and its owner’s Score is incremented by that Private Criteria’s unsatisfying count.
 +
* For each non-Saturated Private Criteria in the response that the Shot does not satisfy, that Private Criteria’s unsatisfying count is incremented by one, and its owner’s Score is incremented by that Private Criteria’s satisfying count.
  
An AI who has a ripe Favour may at any time claim it to gain a benefit based on the status of that Favour’s lender:
+
Each Seeker has a Development Bonus which is publicly tracked and defaults to 0. Whenever a Seeker posts a Snap, they gain an amount of Score equal to three times their Development Bonus.
* If the lender is the Facility Head, the claiming AI immediately gains a single point of any resource of their choosing that is described only in the Dynastic Rules (except for a Favour). Any details the gained resource has apart from quantity are chosen by the Facility Head, who should be generous if possible.
 
* If the lender is an active AI who is not the Facility Head, the lender must immediately give to the claiming AI (even if it could not normally be transferred) a single point of any resource of the claiming AI’s choosing, so long as it is described only in the Dynastic Rules and the lender has at least one point of that resource to give.
 
* If the lender is idle, the claiming AI immediately gains an unripe favour with the lender as its lender.
 
Then, the claimed Favour is lost.
 
  
=== Lasting ===
+
===Editing Disclaimer===
 +
Any new post that contains a Shot must include a description of any edits or changes made to the photograph prior to it being made a Shot, with a lack of such a description indicating that no editing was done. If a post is found to have broken this rule, the Seeker responsible or any Admin should replace the Shot in the offending post with [https://wiki.blognomic.com/images/6/69/Dunce_cap.jpg this] image, no scoring may be performed for that post (and any scoring already awarded to the poster should be reverted), and the responsible Seeker may create a new post as if they had not made the offending post.
  
The rule titled “Favours” and its subrules cannot be repealed between Dynasties, and are automatically kept when an Ascension Address is made regardless of whether the Ascension Address lists them specifically. If the wiki page used to track the gamestate is changed, the Facility Head must copy any section relating to the tracking of Favours from the old wiki page to the new wiki page.
+
==Guesses==
 +
As a Weekly Action, a Seeker (the Guesser) with a score of at least 3 guess a private criteria of another Seeker (the Target) who is not currently Targeted by performing the following Atomic Action known as Initiating a Guess
  
<!-- DYNASTIC RULES GO ABOVE THIS COMMENT. DO NOT DELETE THE NEXT LINE WHEN CLEARING THE RULES FOR A NEW DYNASTY. --><br/>
+
* Reduce the score of the Guesser by 3
<div style="padding:8px;background:#bbb;">
+
* Make a story post to the blog clearly declaring the name of the Targeted Seeker, and what the guesser thinks one of their Private Criteria are
 +
 
 +
The Target is now considered Targeted, and may not take any other dynastic action until they perform the following Atomic Action known as Resolving the Guess
 +
 
 +
* If the guess is equivalent to one of their private Criteria, respond to the post with a :FOR:, reduce their own Score by the Exposure of that private criteria, and increase the score of the Guesser by the same amount, and then remove that Private Criteria from the Target’s private criteria list (resetting its satisfying and unsatisfying counts to zero in the process)
 +
* If the guess is not equivalent to any of their private Criteria, respond to the post with a :AGAINST:
 +
 
 +
At this point, the target is no longer considered targeted
 +
 
 +
==Upgrades==
  
= Special Case =
+
If a Seeker believes that a Shot that they have previously posted (but which has not previously been the subject of an Upgrade Request) meets an Upgrade Benchmark then they may make an Upgrade Request.
'''Special Case Rules''' can be Active or Inactive. If the title of a Special Case Rule includes "[X]", where X is either Active or Inactive, then its status is X. Otherwise, its status is its Default Status.
 
  
Special Case Rules have a '''Default Status''', which can be Active or Inactive. If the title of a Special Case Rule includes "[Rare]", its Default Status is Inactive, otherwise, its Default Status is Active.
+
An Upgrade Request is a post in the Story Post - Votable Matter category which indicates a single Snap posted by the same author and a single Upgrade Benchmark that it purports to meet, and nothing else.
  
When a new Dynasty is started, the Ascension Address may list any number of existing Special Case Rules to be set to a status other than their respective Default Status. All other Special Case Rules are set to their respective Default Status.
+
An Upgrade Request is voted on and resolved in the same manner as a Proposal, with the exceptions that it does not need to be resolved in chronological order (nor does it count as a proposal for the purposes of determining the oldest pending Proposal). Seekers should vote FOR on any Upgrade Request where they believe that the specified Snap does meet the specified Upgrade Benchmark. When an Upgrade Request is enacted, the Development Interval of its poster is reduced by 1 (if it is three or higher) or their Development Bonus is increased by one (if their Development Interval is already 2), unless the same Seeker has already had a Upgrade Request enacted for the same Upgrade Benchmark previously in the dynasty, in which case their development interval is not reduced and their development bonus is not increased. (Which Upgrade Benchmarks have been enacted for which seekers should be tracked on the gamestate tracking page for easy reference).
  
The text of a Special Case Rule that is Inactive is flavour text.
+
Upgrade Benchmarks are listed in this rule and are as follows:
 +
* A Snap that was taken in the same place as another Snap taken by a different Seeker.
 +
* A Snap on which, after 48 hours, every Private Criteria claimed by another Seeker was Unsatisfied
 +
* A Snap which meets every Public Criteria
 +
* A Snap which includes a found instance of the BlogNomic username of another Seeker
  
==Seasonal Downtime [Active]==
+
==Catching up with the Photos==
On the 24th, 25th and 26th of December, BlogNomic is [[#hiatus|on Hiatus]]. In addition, game actions defined by the rules titled “AIs” and “Victory and Ascension” (with the exception of Voting in DoVs) may not be taken.
+
While a Seeker has exactly 0 Score and has more than one Private Criteria having a non-null value, a Seeker may perform the following Atomic Action once per week:
 +
* For the previous three Shots in chronological order, perform the following bullet points:
 +
** Respond to the Shot stating which of their own Private Criteria that Shot satisfies and does not satisfy.
 +
** For each Private Criteria in the response that the Shot satisfies, that Private Criteria’s satisfying count is incremented by one, and increment their Score by that Private Criteria’s unsatisfying count.
 +
** For each Private Criteria in the response that the Shot does not satisfies, that Private Criteria’s satisfying count is incremented by one, and increment their Score by that Private Criteria’s satisfying count
  
==Dormancy [Active]==
+
==Awards==
If there are fewer than five AIs, BlogNomic is [[#hiatus|on Hiatus]].
+
Each Seeker can have a number of Awards, which is publicly tracked and defaults to zero.
  
==Imperial Deferentials [Inactive]==
+
At any time, if a Seeker has met the Standard for an Award then they may claim it by making a blog post announcing as such and then incrementing their Awards by 1. A Seeker may only claim each individual Award once in the dynasty.
If the Facility Head has voted DEFERENTIAL on a Proposal, that vote is instead considered to be valid and either FOR (if more AIs have voted FOR the Proposal than have voted AGAINST it) or AGAINST (in all other cases). However, in either case, votes of DEFERENTIAL made by other AIs on the same Proposal are not considered be valid.
 
  
==Dynastic Distance [Active]==
+
Any Seeker who has claimed 5 Awards has achieved Victory.
For the purposes of dynastic rules which do not deal with voting, the Facility Head is not an AI.
 
  
==The Traitor [Active]==
+
The possible Awards and their Standards are as follows:
The Traitor for a particular Dynasty may be an AI (including an idle one), or may be nobody, and it defaults to being nobody. The Traitor’s identity in the current Dynasty is tracked privately by the Facility Head, and the Facility Head should not share this information with AIs other than the Traitor.
 
  
If there is no Traitor for the current Dynasty, and BlogNomic is not on Hiatus, the Facility Head may secretly randomly select an AI (other than the Facility Head) and privately inform them that they are the Traitor for the current Dynasty.
+
{| class="wikitable sortable"
 +
|-
 +
! Award !! Standard
 +
|-
 +
| Fine Art Photographer of the Year || Have more than 200 Score
 +
|-
 +
| Excellence in War Photography || Have a Development Bonus of at least 3
 +
|-
 +
| Outstanding Composition || Have five private Criteria, each of which has an Unsatisfying score of 0 and a Satisfying score of 5
 +
|-
 +
| Grand Prix in Advertising Photography || Successfully Guess (i.e. post a Guess and have the target respond with a FOR mark to that Guess)
 +
|}
  
A Traitor is under no obligation to honour any informal promises they have made with other AIs, nor to tell the truth to them, and is encouraged to betray other AIs in order to achieve victory.
+
<!-- DYNASTIC RULES GO ABOVE THIS COMMENT. DO NOT DELETE THE NEXT LINE WHEN CLEARING THE RULES FOR A NEW DYNASTY. --><br />
 +
<div style="padding:8px;background:#bbb;">
  
==Dynastic Tracking [Active]==
+
= Building Blocks =
The gamestate tracking page for this dynasty is the [[Research Facility Network]] page of the wiki. Unless otherwise stated, all publicly tracked gamestate information is tracked on it. A Facility Head may change the wiki page referred to in this rule to a different page as part of their Ascension Address, provided that page did not exist at the time the Ascension Address was posted and does not begin with the word “Ruleset”.
+
Building Blocks are rules that can be substituted in and out of the ruleset as needed, usually as a result of an Ascension Address. All rules in the Building Blocks section are ruletext.
  
==No Collaboration [Inactive] [Rare]==
+
Potential Building Blocks rules can be found at the [[Building Blocks]] page of the wiki. That page is gamestate and may not be altered except as specified by the ruleset or through the passage of a Proposal or CfJ; however, its contents are not rulestext. When the contents of the Building Blocks page are referred to as ‘rules’ by the ruleset or by a votable matter, it should be assumed that said contents are being referred to as potential rules rather than actual rules.
  
If “Dynastic Distance” is also active, the Facility Head is not considered an AI for the purposes of this rule.
+
When a Observer specifies the Building Blocks rules in use for a new dynasty in an Ascension Address, they should specify (by name) the rules from the Building Blocks page that they would like to be included in this section of the ruleset; these rules must then be transcribed faithfully to this section of the ruleset, and any Building Blocks rules not so named must be removed from the Building Blocks section. Some rules on the Building Blocks page are listed as being Recommended; if the new Observer makes no statement on Building Blocks rules to be included in their Ascension Address then the Recommended Building Blocks are considered to have been selected. There are currently no Recommended Building Blocks.
  
AIs may not privately communicate with each other about dynastic gameplay and strategy, including actions during the dynasty the AIs have taken or plan to take, or private declarations of alliance or support. Private communications are considered to be anything that another average AI could reasonably be privy to, and include any discussion on platforms other than the wiki, blog, or slack; discussions on those platforms that are obscured (such as an old blog thread, or a slack channel other than #currentdynasty or #general); or any form of private communication. AIs may not use third party proxies to facilitate communication. Idle AIs (or people who are not yet AIs) also face the same restrictions if they intend to become an active AI during the course of the dynasty. Votable matters which change non-dynastic rules are not privy to this rule, and AIs may privately discuss their merits so long as the discussion is not about the dynasty specifics.
+
==Low-Player Mode==
 +
The Core Rule Dormancy is flavour text.
  
If “The Traitor” is also active, the Facility Head informing an AI that they are the Traitor is still allowed.
+
==Everyone's Playing==
 +
For the purposes of all dynastic and Building Blocks rules, the Observer is a Seeker.  
  
A mentor and mentee may still privately converse with each other, but should keep their conversations away from discussion specific gameplay strategy.
+
==No Cooperation==
 +
In this dynasty, Seekers are expected to avoid co-operating to achieve Victory, except through the use of co-operative mechanisms defined in the Dynastic rules.
  
If information which was not allowed to be discussed is still privately discussed, the AIs who were part of the conversation should make a post to the blog disclosing what information was discussed as their earliest convenience.
+
If a Seeker feels that another Seeker has gone against this expectation in some way during the current dynasty, then they are encouraged to vote against all DoVs from that Seeker during that dynasty. This overrules the encouragement to vote according to the perception of a victory in the rule “Victory in Ascension”.
  
 
</div>
 
</div>
Line 270: Line 314:
  
 
===Time===
 
===Time===
;Daily Action: If a game action is a Daily Action, each AI able to perform it may take that action once each day, but not more than once every ten hours.
+
;Daily Action: If a game action is a Daily Action, each Seeker able to perform it may take that action once each day, but not more than once every ten hours.
;Daily Communal Action: A Daily Communal Action is a Daily Action that can only be performed by one AI per day.
+
;Daily Communal Action: A Daily Communal Action is a Daily Action that can only be performed by one Seeker per day.
 
;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.
 
;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.
 
;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.
 
;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 AI able to perform it may take that action once each week, but not more than once every twenty-four hours.
+
;Weekly Action: If a game action is a Weekly Action, each Seeker able to perform it may take that action once each week, but not more than once every twenty-four hours.
;Weekly Communal Action: A Weekly Communal action is a Weekly Action that can only be performed by one AI per week.  
+
;Weekly Communal Action: A Weekly Communal action is a Weekly Action that can only be performed by one Seeker per week.  
  
 
===Other===
 
===Other===
 
;Comment: A blog comment published to the BlogNomic weblog at [http://blognomic.com blognomic.com]
 
;Comment: A blog comment published to the BlogNomic weblog at [http://blognomic.com 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 AIs.
+
;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 Seekers.
 
;Dice: References to “DICEX” or “YDICEX” refer to X-sided dice and Y amount of X-sided dice, rolled using the Dice Roller.
 
;Dice: References to “DICEX” or “YDICEX” refer to X-sided dice and Y amount of X-sided dice, rolled using the Dice Roller.
 
;Dynastic Action: An action that is defined in the Dynastic rules.
 
;Dynastic Action: An action that is defined in the Dynastic rules.
 
;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.
 
;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 AI’s Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Votable Matter is that AI’s Comment to that Votable Matter, if any, that contains that AI’s Vote on that Votable Matter.
+
;Effective Vote Comment (EVC): A Seeker's Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Votable Matter is that Seeker's Comment to that Votable Matter, if any, that contains that Seeker's Vote on that Votable Matter.
;Commentary: When posting a blog entry, an AI 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.
+
;Commentary: When posting a blog entry, a Seeker 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.
;Flavour Text: If a part of the ruleset is defined as being “flavour text”, it is gamestate and remains part of the ruleset document, but is not considered to have any meaning beyond being a string of characters. AIs are not required to obey flavour text and may not perform any action defined by it, and any statements that flavour text makes about gamestate are ignored.
+
;Discord: The BlogNomic Discord can be accessed at https://discord.gg/J7kP9KuHQK and is also linked to on the sidebar. Seekers , as well as people who are not Seekers but are interested in learning more about BlogNomic, may join the Discord by clicking the button in the sidebar.
;Gamestate: Any information which the Ruleset regulates the alteration of. All wiki pages that the Dynastic Rules explicitly mention (except for dynastic histories and discussion pages) and any images or Templates contained within those Wiki Pages are assumed to be Gamestate.
+
;Discord Channel: A Discord Channel is any channel on the BlogNomic Discord in the BlogNomic Discussion category. All Seekers who are in the Discord should have the ability to access all of these channels. To reference a Discord Channel, use a hash (#) followed by the name of that channel (e.g. #random).
 +
;Flavour Text: If a part of the ruleset or gamestate is defined as being “flavour text”, it retains its context, but is not considered to have any meaning beyond being a string of characters. Seekers are not required to obey flavour text and may not perform any action defined by it, and any statements that flavour text makes about gamestate are ignored.
 +
;Gamestate: Any information which the Ruleset regulates the alteration of. All wiki pages that the Dynastic Rules explicitly mention (except for dynastic histories and discussion pages) and any images or Templates contained within (or indirectly invoked by Templates contained within) those Wiki Pages are assumed to be Gamestate.
 
;<span id="hiatus">Hiatus</span>: If BlogNomic is on Hiatus, Dynastic Actions may not be taken (except where the rule defining the action explicitly requires it to be taken during Hiatus), and Proposals may not be submitted or Resolved. If multiple rules require BlogNomic to be on Hiatus at any given time, BlogNomic will continue to be on Hiatus until no rules require it.
 
;<span id="hiatus">Hiatus</span>: If BlogNomic is on Hiatus, Dynastic Actions may not be taken (except where the rule defining the action explicitly requires it to be taken during Hiatus), and Proposals may not be submitted or Resolved. If multiple rules require BlogNomic to be on Hiatus at any given time, BlogNomic will continue to be on Hiatus until no rules require it.
 +
;Pass the Mantle: Passing the Mantle is a mechanism by which, during an Interregnum, a Observer may nominate another Seeker to become the Observer in the upcoming dynasty.
 
;Post: A blog post published to the BlogNomic weblog at [http://blognomic.com blognomic.com]
 
;Post: A blog post published to the BlogNomic weblog at [http://blognomic.com blognomic.com]
;Private Message: A message sent via BlogNomic’s Private Messages system at blognomic.com.
+
;Quorum: Quorum of a subset of Seekers is half the number of Seekers  in that subset, rounded down, plus one. If the word Quorum is used without qualifying which subset of Seekers it is referring to, it is referring to a Quorum of all Seekers.
;Quorum: Quorum of a subset of AIs is half the number of AIs in that subset, rounded down, plus one. If the word Quorum is used without qualifying which subset of AIs it is referring to, it is referring to a Quorum of all AIs.
+
;Resolve/Resolution: If used in a context of a Votable Matter, the word “Resolve” means to perform the act, as an Admin, of enacting, failing, or marking illegal 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. The resolution of a votable matter is tracked by reference to its status in the blog post edit form. If otherwise legally applied, the application of any status through the blog post editing form is sufficient to consider that votable matter to have been correctly resolved, but a resolved votable matter should have the correct status wherever possible; if any admin believes that a resolved votable matter has an incorrect status then they may correct it.
;Resolve/Resolution: If used in a context of a Votable Matter, the word “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 and titled block of text (using the wikimedia section heading formatting) of the Ruleset is a rule, including rules that are subrules of other rules; with the exception that the top-level headings defined as ‘sections’ in the rule “Ruleset and Gamestate” are considered sections but not rules themselves.
;Rule: Each individually numbered section of the Ruleset is a rule, including sections that are subrules of other rules.
+
;Sticky Post: A blog post where the “Make Entry Sticky” option has been enabled. Changing the state of this option is not considering altering or modifying the post with regards to the rules on Official Posts. The sticky status of posts should generally be left to the discretion of the Observer.
;Slack: The BlogNomic Slack is located at blognomic.slack.com. AIs may request an invite to the Slack while logged in by clicking the button in the sidebar.
 
;Slack Channel: A Slack Channel is any channel on the BlogNomic Slack. To reference a Slack Channel, use a hash (#) followed by the name of that channel (e.g. #random).
 
 
;Story Post: A Story Post is an entry in the “Story Post” category.
 
;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.
 
;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.
+
;Seasonal Downtime: On the 24th, 25th and 26th of December, BlogNomic is [[#hiatus|on Hiatus]]. In addition, game actions defined by the core rules titled “Seekers” and “Victory and Ascension” (with the exception of Voting in DoVs) may not be taken.
 +
;Subrule: A subrule is a type of rule that is hierarchically ordered beneath another rule. Rules and proposals that refer to a rule do not also refer to its subrules, unless otherwise specified.
 
;Table of Contents: The directory of section headings that is generated by the MediaWiki software for most pages in the wiki.
 
;Table of Contents: The directory of section headings that is generated by the MediaWiki software for most pages in the wiki.
 
;Uphold: To Uphold an illegal action is to retroactively declare the attempt to take it to have been successful, and to declare that all attempted game actions taken after it were attempted as if the Upheld action had been successful.
 
;Uphold: To Uphold an illegal action is to retroactively declare the attempt to take it to have been successful, and to declare that all attempted game actions taken after it were attempted as if the Upheld action had been successful.
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===Official Posts===
 
===Official Posts===
  
Votable Matters and other official posts, as well as specific gamestate information, shall be tracked by the BlogNomic blog at [http://blognomic.com http://blognomic.com]. Any AI may [http://blognomic.com/update/index.php?C=publish post] to the blog at any time, but may only make official posts to the blog when the [[#Ruleset and Gamestate|Ruleset]] allows it. Posts following the format specified by a rule are considered official posts. Any single official post cannot be of two different types of official post unless a rule explicitly states otherwise.
+
Votable Matters and other official posts, as well as specific gamestate information, shall be tracked by the BlogNomic blog at [http://blognomic.com http://blognomic.com]. Any Seeker may [http://blognomic.com/update/index.php?C=publish post] to the blog at any time, but may only make official posts to the blog when the [[#Ruleset and Gamestate|Ruleset]] allows it. Posts following the format specified by a rule are considered official posts. Any single official post cannot be of two different types of official post unless a rule explicitly states otherwise. Dynastic rules cannot define posts in the “Call for Judgement” category to be a type of official post other than a Call for Judgement, and this restriction cannot be overridden by dynastic rules.
  
An official post may only be removed as allowed by the Ruleset.
+
An official post may only be removed as allowed by the Ruleset. An official post may be altered by its author if it is less than 4 hours old and either no Seeker has commented on it or (if it is a Votable Matter) if all comments on it contain no voting icons; 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. An official blog post that has the status of Enacted or Failed cannot change categories, except that a votable matter’s illegal resolution may be overturned. An official blog post’s status may never be altered except in accordance with the rules that define that official post.
An official post may be altered by its author if it is less than two hours old and either no AI has commented on it or (if it is a Votable Matter) if all comments on it contain no voting icons; 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. An official blog post that has the status of Enacted or Failed cannot change categories. An official blog post’s status may never be altered except in accordance with the rules that define that official post.
 
  
A non-official post may not, through editing of the blog or otherwise, be changed into an official post, with the following two exceptions: Firstly, 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. Secondly, if a post by a New AI is not in any category but follows the wording of a Proposal, in that it has written changes the gamestate and or Ruleset, and if it has been posted for less than six hours, then any Admin may change it to be in the Proposal category. A New AI is defined as an AI who has been an AI for fewer than seven days or an AI that has unidled in the past seven days after being idle for at least 3 months.
+
A non-official post may not, through editing of the blog or otherwise, be changed into an official post, with the following two exceptions: Firstly, 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. Secondly, if a post is less than six hours old and appears to the Observer to have been intended as a Proposal, and if its author does not already have two Proposals pending, then the Observer may move it into the Proposal category, causing it to be considered to have been open for voting since the time that the post was first posted.
  
Any post that is or is made illegal as a result of an infraction against any of the prohibitions set out in this rule continues to be an Official Post but may no longer have any effect on the ruleset or the gamestate. If it is a Votable Matter then it is Unpopular, regardless of any other performance against criteria set out in the core rules. When it is resolved it may be marked as Illegal by the resolving admin. A post that is illegal in this manner cannot subsequently be made legal by any means.
+
Any post that is or is made illegal as a result of an infraction against any of the prohibitions set out in this rule, except for a votable matter’s illegal resolution that has been overturned, continues to be an Official Post but may no longer have any effect on the ruleset or the gamestate. If it is a Votable Matter then it is Unpopular, regardless of any other performance against criteria set out in the core rules. When it is resolved it may be marked as Illegal by the resolving admin. A post that is illegal in this manner cannot subsequently be made legal by any means, except for the legal enactment of a CFJ. An illegal CFJ cannot cause itself to become legal.
  
 
===Representations of the Gamestate===
 
===Representations of the Gamestate===
 +
If authorised by the rules as a result of a Seeker’s action, changes to gamestate which is tracked in a specific place (such as a wiki page) do not take effect until the representation of that gamestate has been updated to match the authorised change. One wiki update may contain one or more alterations, or one alteration may be split over multiple updates, as long as it is clear what is happening and the alterations are otherwise legal. The wiki merely represents the Gamestate tracked there, and is not the same thing. In the event that the Gamestate and its representations are different, any Seeker may correct the representations to comply with the Gamestate.
  
For gamestate which is tracked in a specific place (such as a wiki page), any alteration of that gamestate as a result of an AI’s action is (and can only be) applied by editing that data in that place. One wiki update may contain one or more alterations, or one alteration may be split over multiple updates, as long as it is clear what is happening and the alterations are otherwise legal. The wiki merely represents the Gamestate tracked there, and is not the same thing. In the event that the Gamestate and its representations are different, any AI may correct the representations to comply with the Gamestate.
+
If a Seeker feels that a representation of the gamestate (such as a wiki page) does not match the gamestate, they may either:
 
 
If an AI feels that a representation of the gamestate (such as a wiki page) does not match the gamestate, they may either:
 
  
 
* Undo the effects of any alteration that led to it, if that alteration did not follow the rules at the time it was made.
 
* Undo the effects of any alteration that led to it, if that alteration did not follow the rules at the time it was made.
* Alter the representation to match what they believe to be the correct application of an incorrectly-applied alteration. This may include completing incomplete actions on behalf of the original AI, if doing so would not require the correcting AI to make any decisions on behalf of the original AI.
+
* Alter the representation to match what they believe to be the correct application of an incorrectly-applied alteration. This may include completing incomplete actions on behalf of the original Seeker, if doing so would not require the correcting Seeker to make any decisions on behalf of the original Seeker.
 
+
Instead of repeatedly reverting and re-reverting a disputed alteration, however, Seekers are encouraged to raise a Call for Judgement.
Instead of repeatedly reverting and re-reverting a disputed alteration, however, AIs are encouraged to raise a Call for Judgement.
 
 
 
 
The historical fact of the occurrence of a defined game action is itself considered to be gamestate, tracked in the history of whatever resource is used to track the gamestate modified by that action, where possible, or in the wiki page [[Gamestate Modifications]] if this is not possible.
 
The historical fact of the occurrence of a defined game action is itself considered to be gamestate, tracked in the history of whatever resource is used to track the gamestate modified by that action, where possible, or in the wiki page [[Gamestate Modifications]] if this is not possible.
  
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An Orphan Variable is a dynastic gamestate variable which has neither a location in which it’s tracked, nor a reasonable manner in which it can be determined from other gamestate variables, specified in the Ruleset.
 
An Orphan Variable is a dynastic gamestate variable which has neither a location in which it’s tracked, nor a reasonable manner in which it can be determined from other gamestate variables, specified in the Ruleset.
  
An AI may not take any dynastic actions that are contingent on the specific value of an Orphan Variable.
+
A Seeker may not take any dynastic actions that are contingent on the specific value of an Orphan Variable.
  
 
=== Random Generators ===
 
=== Random Generators ===
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* The DICE''N'' command can be used to generate a random number between 1 and N.
 
* The DICE''N'' 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 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 COLOUR (or COLOR) command will return a random result from the following: White, Red, Green, Silver, Yellow, Turquoise, MSeekera, Orange, Purple, Black.
 
* The CARD command will return a card with a random suit (either Hearts, Diamonds, Spades or Clubs) and a random value (either Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King). A card with a value that is either Jack, Queen or King is a face card.
 
* The CARD command will return a card with a random suit (either Hearts, Diamonds, Spades or Clubs) and a random value (either Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King). A card with a value that is either Jack, Queen or King is a face card.
 
* A list of comma-separated values in curly brackets (eg {x,y}) will return one of the values at random.
 
* A list of comma-separated values in curly brackets (eg {x,y}) will return one of the values at random.
  
Any changes to the potential outcomes of the Dice Roller’s random result commands must be made by Proposal.
+
Any changes to the potential outcomes of the Dice Roller’s random result commands must be made by Votable Matter.
  
If a Proposal proposes a change to this rule that would require server-level access to the BlogNomic site to fully enact its effects, that Proposal must name an AI with such access. Only an AI with such access may Enact that Proposal. If that Proposal does not name an AI with such access, that Proposal is Illegal.
+
If a Votable Matter proposes a change to this rule that would require server-level access to the BlogNomic site to fully enact its effects, that Votable Matter must name a Seeker with such access. Only a Seeker with such access may Enact that Votable Matter. If that Votable Matter does not name a Seeker with such access, that Votable Matter is Illegal.
  
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. This value must be determined by an appropriate roll in the Dice Roller, unless otherwise specified. If a selection is explicitly specified as being “secretly” random, the AI making this determination may do so using a private method of their choosing, instead of the Dice Roller.
+
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. This value must be determined by an appropriate roll in the Dice Roller, unless otherwise specified, and which value the roll result corresponds to must be reasonably inferable from the nature of the roll and any comments supplied by the Seeker making the roll before or while making the roll. If a selection is explicitly specified as being “secretly” random, the Seeker making this determination may do so using a private method of their choosing, instead of the Dice Roller.
  
 
==Atomic Actions==
 
==Atomic Actions==
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* All steps of an Atomic Action are considered one action, including the steps of an Atomic Action that is itself a step of a parent Atomic Action.
 
* All steps of an Atomic Action are considered one action, including the steps of an Atomic Action that is itself a step of a parent Atomic Action.
* When an AI performs an Atomic Action, they must complete all its steps; they must complete them in order; and they may not take any other dynastic action, or achieve victory, until all the steps are complete.
+
* When a Seeker performs an Atomic Action, they must complete all its steps; they must complete them in order; and they may not take any other dynastic action, or achieve victory, until all the steps are complete.
* An Atomic Action may direct the AI performing it to skip some of its steps, which the AI must do and in which case the skipped steps are considered completed for this rule.
+
* If a rule allows the Seeker performing an Atomic Action to skip some of its steps, the skipped steps are considered to have been completed.
* If an AI arrives at a step in an Atomic Action and they cannot perform that step, they undo all the steps they have performed of that Action and are considered never to have performed that Action.
+
* If a Seeker arrives at a step in an Atomic Action and they cannot perform that step, they undo all the steps they have performed of that Action and are considered never to have performed that Action.
* If one or more steps of an Atomic Action were done incorrectly, the AI must redo the Atomic Action; for that purpose, the AI uses any legal steps that have already been completed in the illegal Atomic Action and only redoes the illegal ones. (For example, if an Atomic Action consists of rolling a dice and then doing steps based upon its result, the AI would have to reroll the dice only if they rolled the wrong one in the first place, and would then have to repeat any steps that depended upon the result of that dice; however, if they rolled the dice correctly but took an illegal step later on, the result of the original dice roll would still be used in the redone step.)
+
* If one or more steps of an Atomic Action were done incorrectly, the Seeker must redo the Atomic Action; for that purpose, the Seeker uses any legal steps that have already been completed in the illegal Atomic Action and only redoes the illegal ones. (For example, if an Atomic Action consists of rolling a dice and then doing steps based upon its result, the Seeker would have to reroll the dice only if they rolled the wrong one in the first place, and would then have to repeat any steps that depended upon the result of that dice; however, if they rolled the dice correctly but took an illegal step later on, the result of the original dice roll would still be used in the redone step.)
 
* For the purposes of determining the ordering or legality of game actions, the time of an Atomic Action shall be the time that it is completed. For Atomic Actions that are redone, the time of completion is the last redone step.
 
* For the purposes of determining the ordering or legality of game actions, the time of an Atomic Action shall be the time that it is completed. For Atomic Actions that are redone, the time of completion is the last redone step.
  
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* Any situation which would require a roll of DiceX when X is zero or lower always yields a value of 0 unless stated otherwise.
 
* 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.
 
* 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, an AI can spend only their own values, and a rule that allows AIs to transfer a numeric value only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to another AI (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
+
* Unless otherwise specified, to “spend,” “pay” 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” or “pay” 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, paid, lost, gained, or transferred, a Seeker can spend or pay from only their own values, and a rule that allows Seekers to transfer or pay a numeric value to another Seeker only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to that other Seeker (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
* An AI 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 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 Dynastic Action is defined as having a cost X of numeric value V, or defines a requirement to spend, pay, or lose X of numeric value V to accomplish an effect or multiple effects, then the arithmetic effects of spending or payment and the act of carrying out those effects are considered to be subsequent steps in an Atomic Action, with the spending or payment step taking place before the effects step unless stated otherwise.
 +
* A Seeker 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 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 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 game variable has a default value but no defined starting value, then its default value should also be considered a starting value. If a game variable has neither a default value nor a starting value, then both may be considered to be the nearest legal value to zero that it may take (for numerical variables, defaulting to positive if tied), blank (for a text string or list that may be blank), the alphabetically earliest legal text string it may take (for a text string which may not be blank, with the digits 0 through 9 considered to precede “A”), or the list which is alphabetically earliest from the set of lists with the fewest elements (for lists which may not be blank, and considering each list to be a single unpunctuated text string, with the digits 0 through 9 considered to precede “A”).
+
* If a game variable has a default value but no defined starting value, then its default value should also be considered a starting value. If a game variable has neither a default value nor a starting value, then both may be considered to be the nearest legal value to zero that it may take (for numerical variables, defaulting to positive if tied), blank (for a text string or list that may be blank), the alphabetically earliest legal text string it may take (for a text string which may not be blank, with the digits 0 through 9 considered to precede “A”), or the list which is alphabetically earliest from the set of lists with the fewest elements (for lists which may not be blank, and considering each list to be a single unpunctuated text string, with the digits 0 through 9 considered to precede “A”). For the purposes of this bullet point, the names of Seekers are not considered to be legal values for game variables, nor for list items within game variables.
 
* If the rules that define a game variable are amended, and some previously valid values become invalid as a consequence, any existing variables whose current values would become invalid are instead set to their starting value.
 
* If the rules that define a game variable are amended, and some previously valid values become invalid as a consequence, any existing variables whose current values would become invalid are instead set to their starting value.
 
* Invalid values for game variables can never be used, even if the values stored in a gamestate-tracking entity 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)
 
* Invalid values for game variables can never be used, even if the values stored in a gamestate-tracking entity 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)
 
* DICEN cannot be rolled in the Dice Roller if N is greater than one million.
 
* DICEN cannot be rolled in the Dice Roller if N is greater than one million.
 +
* If a piece of information is described as being tracked secretly or privately by the Observer (including secretly random selections), then that information may only be revealed by the Observer when the ruleset allows it. If a Seeker should already know such a piece of information (in that the Observer has already told them it, or vice versa, and there is no way that the information could have been changed since then), the Observer may repeat it to them.
  
===Rules and Proposals===
+
===Rules and Votable Matters===
* 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.
+
* If a new rule is created by a Votable Matter and its location is not noted in that Votable Matter, that new rule is to be placed in the Dynastic Rules.
* If a wiki page becomes gamestate as a result of a Proposal enacting, that page shall – unless otherwise specified – be reverted to whatever state it was in at the time of that Proposal’s submission (and if the page did not exist at that time, it shall be blanked).
+
* If a wiki page becomes gamestate as a result of a Votable Matter enacting, that page shall – unless otherwise specified – be reverted to whatever state it was in at the time of that Votable Matter’s submission (and if the page did not exist at that time, it shall be blanked).
* Where a [[#Proposals|Proposal]] would amend the effects of Proposal Enactment, this does not apply to its own enactment unless explicitly stated (e.g. a Proposal proposing that enacted Proposals earn their author a banana when enacted would not earn a banana for its own author, when enacted).
+
* Where a [[#Votable Matters|Votable Matter]] would amend the effects of Votable Matter Enactment, this does not apply to its own enactment unless explicitly stated (e.g. a Votable Matter proposing that enacted Votable Matters 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.
 
* 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.
 
* Unless otherwise specified, a new Dynastic rule shall be placed at the end of the Dynastic Rules.
* If the Admin enacting a Proposal reaches a step which cannot be applied immediately (e.g. “two days after this Proposal enacts, AI 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.
+
* If a dynastic rule has no text and no subrules, any Seeker may delete it from the ruleset.
* If a dynastic rule has no text and no subrules, any AI may delete it from the ruleset.
 
 
* A rule may be accompanied by one or more illustrations, and an illustration may have a caption. In all situations, unless otherwise explicitly stated, an illustration and a caption to an illustration must be treated as flavour text.
 
* A rule may be accompanied by one or more illustrations, and an illustration may have a caption. In all situations, unless otherwise explicitly stated, an illustration and a caption to an illustration must be treated as flavour text.
 +
* When the ruleset calls for the use of a specific tool (such as the dice roller, or an off-domain website, or a specific piece of downloadable software), Seekers may not deliberately interfere with the function of that tool except in ways explicitly permitted by the ruleset.
 +
* If the Observer has voted DEFERENTIAL on a Proposal, that vote is instead considered to be valid and either FOR (if more Seekers have a valid FOR vote on that Proposal than have a valid AGAINST vote on it) or AGAINST (in all other cases). However, in either case, votes of DEFERENTIAL made by other Seekers on the same Proposal are not considered to be valid. If there are six or fewer Seekers, then the Observer’s vote of DEFERENTIAL on a proposal is only affected by this rule if all Seekers who are not the Observer have cast a vote on that proposal.
  
 
===Time===
 
===Time===
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* 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.
 
* 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 (e.g. “04/10/09”), it shall be assumed that the date is in a day/month/year format.
 
* Where the month, day and/or year of a calendar date are ambiguous (e.g. “04/10/09”), it shall be assumed that the date is in a day/month/year format.
* An AI may not take more than one dynastic game action at the same time (excluding any actions which have been ongoing for more than three hours).
+
* A Seeker may not take more than one dynastic game action at the same time (excluding any actions which have been ongoing for more than three hours).
  
===Spelling===
+
===Spelling and formatting===
 
* 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.
 
* 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.
* AIs 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”.
+
* Seekers may correct obvious spelling, punctuation, and/or typographical mistakes in the Ruleset and their own Pending Votable Matters at any time, including replacing Spivak and gender-specific pronouns that refer to Seekers with the corresponding forms of the singular “they”.
 +
* A Seeker may reformat a list of items in the dynastic ruleset to have bullet points or other appropriate list markup, if doing so would not change the order of that list, nor how any rules interpreted its content.
  
 
===Names===
 
===Names===
* Within the Ruleset, a word only refers to the name of an AI if it is explicitly stated that it refers to an AI’s name.
+
* Within the Ruleset, a word only refers to the name of a Seeker if it is explicitly stated that it refers to a Seeker's name.
* If a rule would ever have no name, it is instead given the name of the proposal that created it, or (if this is not possible) the name “Unnamed Rule”.
+
* If a rule would ever have no name, it is instead given the name of the Votable Matter that created it, or (if this is not possible) the name “Unnamed Rule”.
 
* The names of rules and wiki pages (other than the Ruleset) are flavour text.
 
* The names of rules and wiki pages (other than the Ruleset) are flavour text.
 
* Subrules can be referred to by a name which incorporates name of the rule they are a subrule of. Example: a subrule of the rule “Gin” is a “Gin Rule”, however the rule “Gin” is not a “Gin Rule” because it’s not a subrule of the rule “Gin”.
 
* Subrules can be referred to by a name which incorporates name of the rule they are a subrule of. Example: a subrule of the rule “Gin” is a “Gin Rule”, however the rule “Gin” is not a “Gin Rule” because it’s not a subrule of the rule “Gin”.
* When referring to a Proposal, the name used in reference to a specific Proposal may be simplified by not including braces and any text between the opening and closing braces. i.e. a Proposal named “Changes [Core]” could instead be referred to by the name “Changes”.
+
* When referring to a Votable Matter, the name used in reference to a specific Votable Matter may be simplified by not including braces and any text between the opening and closing braces. i.e. a Votable Matter named “Changes [Core]” could instead be referred to by the name “Changes”.
 
* When referring to a Rule, the name used in reference to a specific Rule may be simplified by not including braces and any text between a pair of opening and closing braces, as long as such a reference would be unambiguous.
 
* When referring to a Rule, the name used in reference to a specific Rule may be simplified by not including braces and any text between a pair of opening and closing braces, as long as such a reference would be unambiguous.
* Where a proposal refers to a second proposal by name, it is assumed to refer to the most recently posted proposal of that name which pre-dates the first proposal.
+
* Where a Votable Matter refers to a second Votable Matter by name, it is assumed to refer to the most recently posted Votable Matter of that name which pre-dates the first Votable Matter.
 +
* When changing their name or joining the game for the first time, a Seeker's (or prospective Seeker's ) new name must be between 4 and 30 characters in length, and may only include the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, numbers, underscores, hyphens, full stops and apostrophes.
  
===Prioritisation===
+
==Prioritisation==
 
* If two parts of the Ruleset contradict each other, precedence shall be construed in the following order:
 
* If two parts of the Ruleset contradict each other, precedence shall be construed in the following order:
 
# The Appendix has precedence over any other Rule;
 
# The Appendix has precedence over any other Rule;
# A Dynastic Rule has precedence over a Core Rule, unless that Core Rule explicitly says it can’t be overruled by a Dynastic Rule;
+
# If a Core Rule explicitly says it cannot be overruled by a Dynastic Rule, that Core Rule has precedence over a Dynastic Rule, otherwise a Dynastic Rule has precedence over that Core Rule;
# A Special Case Rule has equal precedence as a Dynastic Rule, unless that Special Case Rule explicitly says it can’t be overruled by a Dynastic Rule;
+
# If a Building Blocks Rule explicitly says that it cannot be overruled by a Dynastic Rule, that Building Blocks Rule has precedence over a Dynastic Rule, otherwise a Dynastic Rule has equal precedence as that Building Blocks Rule;
# If two contradicting parts have equal precedence, the part with more limited scope applies (e.g. if the rules “AIs may Kick each other” and “AIs may not Kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, AIs may not Kick each other);
+
# If two contradicting parts have equal precedence, the part with more limited scope applies (e.g. if the rules “Seekers may Kick each other” and “Seekers may not Kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, Seekers may not Kick each other);
# If two contradicting parts have the same scope, the negative rule applies (e.g. with “AIs may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “AIs may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then AIs may not Punch Spacemen on Friday).
+
# If two contradicting parts have the same scope, or have scopes that only overlap where they contradict each other, the negative rule applies (e.g. with “Seekers may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “Seekers may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then Seekers may not Punch Spacemen on Friday).
  
 
==Mentors==
 
==Mentors==
  
An AI may have another AI as a Mentor. AIs who are willing to act as a Mentor are listed on the [[Mentorships]] wiki page, and are said to be “Tenured”. An AI may add or remove their own name from this list at any time.
+
A Seeker may have another Seeker as a Mentor. Seekers who are willing to act as a Mentor are listed on the [[Mentorships]] wiki page, and are said to be “Tenured”. An Admin may add or remove their own name, or the name of a Seeker who has requested a change on their own behalf, from this list at any time. The Mentorships page is also used to list the names of players who are prohibited from becoming Tenured; this list may only be amended by the effect of a votable matter.
  
If an unmentored AI requests a Mentor, or a new AI has joined the game and has no Mentor, the Facility Head should select a Tenured AI and ask them to take that AI on as a Mentee; if they accept, then such a Mentorship is established. The Facility Head should take care to consider game balance when selecting a potential mentor.
+
If an unmentored Seeker requests a Mentor, or a new Seeker has joined the game and has no Mentor, the Observer should select a Tenured Seeker and ask them to take that Seeker on as a Mentee; if they accept, then such a Mentorship is established. The members and starting dates of all active Mentorships are tracked on the Mentorships wiki page, and whenever a new Mentorship is established, the Observer should announce it in a blog post. The Observer should take care to consider game balance when selecting a potential mentor.
  
A relationship between a mentor and a mentee is a Mentorship. The members and starting dates of all active Mentorships are tracked on the Mentorships wiki page, and whenever a new Mentorship is established, the Facility Head should announce it in a blog post. An AI may dissolve a Mentorship they are part of at any time, by announcing this in a blog post.
+
A relationship between a mentor and a mentee is a Mentorship. A Seeker may dissolve a Mentorship they are part of at any time, by announcing this in a blog post.
  
If there is no Facility Head, any AI who has been active in at least three previous dynasties may act as Facility Head for the purposes of this rule.
+
If there is no Observer, any Seeker who has been active in at least three previous dynasties may act as Observer for the purposes of this rule.
  
 
===Things that a mentor must do===
 
===Things that a mentor must do===
Line 429: Line 476:
 
*Make pro-active contact with their mentee when appointed, and explain the dynamics of the Mentorship system;
 
*Make pro-active contact with their mentee when appointed, and explain the dynamics of the Mentorship system;
 
*Be available to answer any questions that their mentee may have about the game, including explaining the rules, common standards and etiquette of play, proofreading posts and clarifying game events;
 
*Be available to answer any questions that their mentee may have about the game, including explaining the rules, common standards and etiquette of play, proofreading posts and clarifying game events;
*Introduce their mentee to the various platforms of the game, including the wiki, Slack, and end-of-dynasty notifications through the Facebook group or Twitter;
+
*Introduce their mentee to the various platforms of the game, including the wiki and Dice Roller, and optionally the game’s Discord and social media feeds
 
*If possible, give their mentee a nudge if it appears that they are at risk of becoming Idle;
 
*If possible, give their mentee a nudge if it appears that they are at risk of becoming Idle;
*If they themselves go idle, communicate with their mentee to either continue to support them as an idle AI or arrange a handover to another mentor if requested.
+
*If they themselves go idle, communicate with their mentee to either continue to support them as an idle Seeker or arrange a handover to another mentor if requested.
  
 
===Things that a mentor should do===
 
===Things that a mentor should do===
Line 437: Line 484:
  
 
*The Mentorship lasts for four weeks or until the next Ascension Address, whichever occurs latest. It can continue informally for longer but after this threshold the mentor is no longer bound by any of the conditions set out in the parent rule to this rule, or any of its subrules.
 
*The Mentorship lasts for four weeks or until the next Ascension Address, whichever occurs latest. It can continue informally for longer but after this threshold the mentor is no longer bound by any of the conditions set out in the parent rule to this rule, or any of its subrules.
*The mentor can and should advise the mentee on how to proceed in the mentee’s own best interests. This can include making connections with other AIs.
+
*The mentor can and should advise the mentee on how to proceed in the mentee’s own best interests. This can include making connections with other Seekers .
 
*The mentor should consider copying the mentee in on private, game-related communications, where it does not unfairly prejudice their own interests. The mentee should keep this information private without explicit consent from the mentor.
 
*The mentor should consider copying the mentee in on private, game-related communications, where it does not unfairly prejudice their own interests. The mentee should keep this information private without explicit consent from the mentor.
 
*The mentor and mentee may work together to achieve victory. If a mentor achieves victory with support of their mentee then they should, if the mentee wishes it, pass the baton to the mentee.
 
*The mentor and mentee may work together to achieve victory. If a mentor achieves victory with support of their mentee then they should, if the mentee wishes it, pass the baton to the mentee.
Line 447: Line 494:
 
*The mentor should not seek to dissuade the mentee from pursuing other alliances.
 
*The mentor should not seek to dissuade the mentee from pursuing other alliances.
 
*A former mentor should not seek to use the fact of a prior Mentorship to influence the former mentee on an ongoing basis.
 
*A former mentor should not seek to use the fact of a prior Mentorship to influence the former mentee on an ongoing basis.
 +
 +
== Synonyms ==
 +
 +
A dynasty may provide extra theming by using alternative terms for words like “Seeker” and “Observer”.
 +
 +
Each term in this list is synonymous with the term in parentheses
 +
 +
* Seeker (Player)
 +
* Observer (Emperor)
 +
 +
When a new Dynasty is started, the Ascension Address may specify new terms for each entry in the above list, provided the newly chosen term does not appear anywhere in the Building Blocks page or the ruleset outside of this rule (though if it only appears in rules which are being removed as part of the Ascension Address, it is fine), and that doing so would not cause two terms in the above list to become synonymous with each other. Doing so causes the old corresponding value (including regional spelling variations) to be replaced by the new value everywhere in the ruleset except in any of the parentheses in the above list.
  
 
</div>
 
</div>

Latest revision as of 16:25, 27 March 2024

Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Seekers shall obey it.

It comprises four Sections: 1) the “core rules” of BlogNomic, covering the essential elements of gameplay; 2) the rules of the current Dynasty; 3) rules which set metagame parameters for the current dynasty; and 4) the appendix, which complements and clarifies the Ruleset.

The Ruleset and Gamestate can only be altered in manners specified by the Ruleset. This document is considered to be, in effect, the only Ruleset for BlogNomic, so long as it is located at at the URL https://wiki.blognomic.com/index.php?title=Ruleset.

If the text of the Ruleset document does not reflect all legal changes that have been authorised to be made to it, any Seeker may update it to do so.

The gamestate tracking page for this dynasty is the Photo Gallery page of the wiki. Unless otherwise stated, all publicly tracked gamestate information is tracked on it.

Seekers

A human with access to the blog who is not already a Seeker may make a blog post making clear their wish to be a Seeker (plural form Seekers); in response, an Admin shall add them to the roster in the sidebar, at which moment they become a Seeker. (See the FAQ for guidance on how to apply for access to the BlogNomic blog.)

A Seeker may only change their name as a result of a Proposal approving the change.

Some Seekers are Admins, responsible for updating the site and the Ruleset, and are signified as such in the sidebar. Seekers 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. Seekers may be made Admins through Proposal or CFJ.

A Seeker may cease to be a Seeker at any time by posting an entry to the BlogNomic weblog requesting such an action. A human who has ceased to be a Seeker in this way may not become a Seeker again within the following two weeks.

Idle Seekers

If a Seeker is Idle, this is tracked by their name being removed or concealed in the list of currently active Seekers in the Sidebar. For the purposes of all Gamestate and the Ruleset, excluding the core and appendix Rules “Ruleset and Gamestate”, “Seekers ”, “Dynasties”, “Fair Play”, "Mentors" and any of those Rules’ subrules, Idle Seekers are not counted as Seekers . The combined term “Idle Seeker” can be used to refer to Seekers who are Idle even in rules that do not treat them as Seekers.

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

When a Seeker 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 Seeker Idled in a different Dynasty), the Seeker is given the default value for new Seekers, if such a value exists.

An Admin may render a Seeker Idle if that Seeker has asked to become Idle in an entry or comment from the past 96 hours (4 Days), or if that Seeker has not posted an entry or comment in the past 168 Hours (7 days). In the latter case, the Admin must announce the idling in a blog post, and the 168 Hour idle timeout is considered to be reduced to 96 hours for that Seeker during the current and subsequent dynasty. Admins may render themselves Idle at any time, but should announce it in a post or comment when they do so. An Admin may Unidle a Seeker if that Seeker is Idle and has asked to become Unidle in an entry or comment from the past 96 hours (4 Days), and Idle Admins may Unidle themselves at any time, unless the Seeker who would be Unidled has become Idle within the past 96 hours (4 days), and within the current Dynasty.

Admins who are unidling themselves should, in their first vote following each unidling, highlight their changed idle status and any changes to Quorum to have come about as a result of it.

Idle admins can resolve Votable Matters as a non-idle admin would.

Dormancy

If there are fewer than four Seekers (not including the Observer), then BlogNomic is on Hiatus.

Dynasties

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

An Interregnum is the period between dynasties, after a DoV has been enacted and before an Ascension Address has been posted. During an Interregnum the game is in hiatus; additionally, no DoVs may be made, and no Seeker may achieve Victory. However, dynastic actions that are specifically permitted to be carried out during an Interregnum may be carried out.

Unless otherwise stated by a dynastic or Building Blocks rule, then for the purposes of dynastic and Building Blocks rules, the Observer is not a Seeker.

Votable Matters

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

Votes

Each Seeker 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 Seeker'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-Seeker never has a Vote, even if they were a Seeker previously and had cast a valid Vote.

If a Seeker other than the Observer casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL, then the Vote of DEFERENTIAL is an indication of confidence in the Observer. When the Observer has a valid Vote other than VETO on a Votable Matter, then all votes of DEFERENTIAL on that Votable Matter are instead considered to be valid and the same as the Observer's Vote for the purposes of other rules unless otherwise specified. When the Observer themselves casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL, it indicates an indication of confidence in the votes of the other players; please see the Rules and Votable Matters section of the Appendix for more information on how this is resolved.

A Votable Matter is Popular if any of the following are true:

  • It has a number of FOR Votes that exceed or equal Quorum.
  • It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours, it has more than 1 valid Vote cast on it, and more valid Votes cast on it are FOR than are AGAINST.

A Votable Matter is Unpopular if any of the following are true:

  • The number of Seekers who are not voting AGAINST it is less than Quorum.
  • It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and it is not Popular.

Enacting and Failing

Votable matters have a status, which can either be Pending, Enacted, Failed, or Illegal. When a votable matter is first put forward it is considered Pending (which is tracked as having no status in the current blog software), and it remains Pending until it is Resolved.

A votable matter is resolved by an admin setting its status through use of the “status” field in the blog post editing form. When an admin resolves a votable matter they should mark their name, and are highly encouraged to report the final tally of Votes (or the fact that it was withdrawn or vetoed). Comments cannot be made on resolved Votable Matters.

A votable matter may not be resolved except as directed by the ruleset, and the status of a resolved votable matter, once resolved, is determined by the votes cast upon it, as assessed by the rules that govern the specific kind of votable matter (as well as any other considerations regarding the legality of the votable matter, such as the stipulations put forward in the Appendix rule Official Posts). When a Failed proposal has been Vetoed it may optionally have the Vetoed status upon resolution, which is considered to be the same as Failed for the purposes of all other rules.

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

Tags

Votable Matters have zero or more tags. Tags are represented in the title of a Votable Matter with the format “[X]” (e.g. “[Core] Wording Fix”, where “[Core]” is the tag).

Votable Matters making changes to the Core Rules, the Building Blocks Rules or the Appendix Rules require any of the following to be true for each such change in order to make that specific modification to the ruleset:

  • The Votable Matter has the appropriate Tag or Tags for that change: [Core] for Core Rules changes, [Building Blocks] for Building Blocks Rules changes and [Appendix] for Appendix Rules changes.
  • The modification is preceded or followed immediately by an unambiguous statement of which section of the ruleset it takes place.
  • The modification specifically states a rule using its number or the name of the stated rule only occurs once in the ruleset.

Proposals

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

Special Proposal Voting

When a Seeker casts a vote AGAINST their own Proposal (which is not in the form of a DEFERENTIAL vote), this renders the Proposal Withdrawn, even if the author later changes their Vote. The Observer may use VETO as a voting icon to cast a Vote on a Proposal; when the Observer casts a vote of VETO on a Proposal, this renders the Proposal Vetoed, even if the Observer later changes their Vote.

Resolution of Proposals

The oldest Pending Proposal may be Enacted by any Admin if all of the following are true:

  • It is Popular.
  • It has been open for voting for at least 12 hours.
  • It has not been Vetoed or Withdrawn.

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

  • It is Unpopular.
  • It has been Vetoed or Withdrawn.

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.

When a Proposal is Enacted, its stated effects are applied by treating the text in the Proposal as a series of steps starting from the beginning of that Proposal’s text and performing each step until reaching the end of that Proposal’s text, except that if the Admin Enacting it reaches a step which cannot be applied immediately (e.g. “two days after this Votable Matter enacts, Seeker A gains 1 point”) or at all (e.g. applying to a rule which does not exist), that step is ignored for the purposes of Enactment; the Admin Enacting the Proposal shall update the Gamestate and Ruleset, and correct any gamestate-tracking entities, as specified in each step that was performed.

Calls for Judgement

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

A Pending CfJ may be Enacted by any Admin if all of the following are true:

  • It is Popular.

A Pending CfJ may be Failed by any Admin if any of the following are true:

  • It is Unpopular.
  • It specifies neither changes to the Gamestate or Ruleset nor corrections to any gamestate-tracking entities.

When a CfJ is Enacted, the Admin Enacting it shall update the Gamestate and Ruleset, and correct any gamestate-tracking entities, as specified in the CfJ.

This Rule may not be overruled by Dynastic Rules.

Victory and Ascension

If a Seeker (other than the Observer) believes that they have achieved victory in the current Dynasty, they may make a Declaration of Victory (abbreviated “DoV”) detailing this, by posting an entry in the “Declaration of Victory” category.

A Seeker's vote on a DoV is encouraged to reflect whether or not they agree with the proposition that the poster has achieved victory in the current Dynasty. If there is at least one pending DoV, BlogNomic is on Hiatus, no Idle Seeker may be made unidle, and no new player joining requests may be administered.

A Pending DoV may be Enacted by any Admin if any of the following are true:

  • It has a number of FOR Votes greater than 2/3rds of the number of Seekers, it has been open for at least 12 hours, and either the Observer has Voted FOR it or it has no AGAINST Votes.
  • It has a number of FOR Votes greater than 2/3rds of the number of Seekers, and it has been open for at least 24 hours.

A Pending DoV may be Failed by any Admin if any of the following are true:

  • It is Unpopular, and it has been open for at least 12 hours.
  • It is more than 48 hours old and cannot be Enacted

If a DoV is Failed and it had at least one AGAINST vote, the Seeker who posted it cannot make another DoV until after 120 hours (5 days) have passed since the time their DoV was Failed.

When a DoV is Enacted, all other pending DoVs are Failed, the Seeker who posted the DoV becomes Observer, and the game enters an Interregnum. When a DoV is enacted then all game actions that led up to it are considered to be upheld.

If the game is in an Interregnum then the new Observer must either Pass the Mantle (by making a post naming a Seeker who was not the last dynasty’s Observer, in which case the passing Seeker ceases to be the Observer and the Seeker so named becomes the Observer) or start a new dynasty by completing the following Atomic Action:

  • Make an Ascension Address by posting an entry in the “Ascension Address” category. This should specify the Observer's chosen theme for the new Dynasty, and it may optionally specify new dynasty-specific terms as outline in the rule "Synonyms", and/or list a number of dynastic rules to keep (if none are specifed then the entire Dynastic Ruleset is repealed).
  • Optionally specify any number of Building Blocks rules to remove or insert, as per the instructions in the Building Blocks section.
  • Update the Ruleset to reflect any changed terms, repeal any dynastic rules which were not listed to be kept, and make any specified or automatic changes to the Building Blocks section of the ruleset. Update the Building Blocks page to reflect any changes to the terms outlined in the rule Synonyms.
  • Optionally change the gamestate tracking page referred to in the rule “Ruleset and Gamestate” to a different page that does not exist and does not start with the word “Ruleset”.

Once this Atomic Action has been completed the Interregnum ends and the new dynasty begins.

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 Seeker'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. Seekers should vote against any DoV that relies on having broken a fair play rule.

  • A single person should not control more than one non-Idle Seeker within BlogNomic, and should announce publicly if they control both a non-Idle Seeker and any Idle Seekers. This extends to exerting full control over the actions of another Seeker, defined here as the controlled Seeker's game behavior being functionally indistinguishable from if the controlling Seeker was logged into their account and playing through it, over a period of more than a day.
  • A Seeker 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 Seeker should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or other blognomic.com scripts).
  • A Seeker should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other Seeker.
  • A Seeker should not edit the “Entry Date” field of a blog post.
  • A Seeker should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
  • A Seeker should not do any action meant to make the game unplayable (for example, changing multiple keywords to the same word in an Ascension Address).
  • A Seeker should not roll dice that are clearly associated with a particular action in the Ruleset, but with the intention to not use these rolled values to the best of their ability to resolve that action. a Seeker must use their own name in the Dice Roller, when rolling dice.
  • A Seeker should not deliberately and unreasonably prolong the performance of a game action once they have started it.
  • A Seeker should not use a Core, Building Blocks, or Appendix rules scam to directly or indirectly cause a Seeker to achieve victory.
  • A Seeker should not trade actions in BlogNomic for favors or compensation outside of BlogNomic, nor trade actions in any other game for favors within BlogNomic, nor trade actions or favours in one Dynasty of Blognomic for actions or favours in another Dynasty of Blognomic.
  • A person with administrative, moderation, or other heightened access to the software running or supporting BlogNomic should not take any action using such heightened access for the purpose of causing any Seeker or Seekers to gain, receive, maintain, or preserve gameplay advantage unless any of the following is true:
    • Such action is required or explicitly permitted by the rules or required to implement an action required or explicitly permitted by the rules.
    • A reasonable, impartial, and prudent external observer would deem such action necessary or reasonable for the purpose of supporting, moderating, or administering BlogNomic or such software.

All Seekers and idle Seekers should be aware of the BlogNomic Community Guidelines. The contents of this page are not ruletext and are nonbinding as pertains to the ruleset, but Seekers are encouraged to commit to upholding them to whatever extent is possible.

Dynastic Rules

Shots

Seekers may create Shots by taking photographs (or having photographs taken on their behalf) and hosting them through the image hosting functionality offered by the BlogNomic wiki.

A Shot is confirmed as Authentic if it includes an appearance of a hand-written note (as part of the Shot) which includes the name of an active Seeker and the Merriam Webster Word of the Day for the day on which the Shot was taken, or the preceding day (per http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day). Such a post is known as a Snap. A typographical error does not prevent the Shot from being Authentic, as long as it’s obvious what the intended word is.

Criteria

There exist a number of Public Criteria, which are a type of Criteria, and which are listed in this rule. Each Seeker has a set of up to five Private Criteria, which are a type of Criteria - defaulting to blank. Each Private Criteria is privately tracked by its seeker, and publicly tracked by its sha256 hash which includes the Private Criteria plus a salt of 5 characters or less. Each Private Criteria also has a publicly-tracked count of satisfying Shots and unsatisfying Shots, both defaulting to 0. At any time a Seeker may change any of their Private Criteria while also resetting its satisfying and unsatisfying counts to zero.

An Authentic Shot’s Criteria Score is equal to the number of Criteria it meets.

The following Public Criteria exist:

  • The Shot was taken in an outside location.
  • A Snap which includes a specific named entity that had its own Wikipedia page at Mon 18/03/24—09:00 UTC
  • A Snap in which at least one article of clothing worn by the posting Seeker at the time that the Snap was taken is visible
  • A Snap that contains a message to the viewer

Two Criteria are considered to be equivalent if any shot which meets the first criteria also meets the second criteria, and any shot which does not meet the first criteria also does not meet the second criteria. None of a Seekers private criteria can be equivalent to another of that Seekers private criteria.

A Private Criteria is considered Saturated if its satisfying count or its unsatisfying count is greater than or equal to five (or half the number of seekers, whichever is greater).

A Private Criteria’s Exposure is equal to its Unsatisfying Score plus its Satisfying Score.

The date and time (to nearest minute) a given Private Criteria was last changed should be tracked on the gamestate tracking page in a column called “last modified”.

Reasonable Limits

A Criteria must have the following characteristics:

  • May be no longer than 50 characters in length
  • Must be expressed in vernacular English

Audit

As part of a Declaration of Victory, the Seeker posting the DoV must include a history of their Private Criteria and corresponding salt in the body of the DoV post. Any DoV which does not contain this information is not considered a valid DoV and should be marked as illegal.

Scoring

Each Seeker has a Development Interval, which is a publicly tracked number that defaults to 5 which is at least 2, and a Score, which is a publicly tracked number defaulting to 0.

No more than once per number of days equal to their Development Interval, a Seeker may make a post in the story post category with the title of their choice which includes a single Authentic Shot.

Within 48 hours of such a Shot having been posted, each Seeker (including the poster) may at most once respond to it stating which of their own Private Criteria that Shot satisfies and does not satisfy, provided that none of their Private Criteria has been changed since that Shot was posted and provided that there are no other Shots that were posted before the shot in question, within the last 48 hours, and which the Seeker in question has not already responded to in this manner. Upon doing so:

  • For each non-Saturated Private Criteria in the response that the Shot satisfies, that Private Criteria’s satisfying count is incremented by one, and its owner’s Score is incremented by that Private Criteria’s unsatisfying count.
  • For each non-Saturated Private Criteria in the response that the Shot does not satisfy, that Private Criteria’s unsatisfying count is incremented by one, and its owner’s Score is incremented by that Private Criteria’s satisfying count.

Each Seeker has a Development Bonus which is publicly tracked and defaults to 0. Whenever a Seeker posts a Snap, they gain an amount of Score equal to three times their Development Bonus.

Editing Disclaimer

Any new post that contains a Shot must include a description of any edits or changes made to the photograph prior to it being made a Shot, with a lack of such a description indicating that no editing was done. If a post is found to have broken this rule, the Seeker responsible or any Admin should replace the Shot in the offending post with this image, no scoring may be performed for that post (and any scoring already awarded to the poster should be reverted), and the responsible Seeker may create a new post as if they had not made the offending post.

Guesses

As a Weekly Action, a Seeker (the Guesser) with a score of at least 3 guess a private criteria of another Seeker (the Target) who is not currently Targeted by performing the following Atomic Action known as Initiating a Guess

  • Reduce the score of the Guesser by 3
  • Make a story post to the blog clearly declaring the name of the Targeted Seeker, and what the guesser thinks one of their Private Criteria are

The Target is now considered Targeted, and may not take any other dynastic action until they perform the following Atomic Action known as Resolving the Guess

  • If the guess is equivalent to one of their private Criteria, respond to the post with a :FOR:, reduce their own Score by the Exposure of that private criteria, and increase the score of the Guesser by the same amount, and then remove that Private Criteria from the Target’s private criteria list (resetting its satisfying and unsatisfying counts to zero in the process)
  • If the guess is not equivalent to any of their private Criteria, respond to the post with a :AGAINST:

At this point, the target is no longer considered targeted

Upgrades

If a Seeker believes that a Shot that they have previously posted (but which has not previously been the subject of an Upgrade Request) meets an Upgrade Benchmark then they may make an Upgrade Request.

An Upgrade Request is a post in the Story Post - Votable Matter category which indicates a single Snap posted by the same author and a single Upgrade Benchmark that it purports to meet, and nothing else.

An Upgrade Request is voted on and resolved in the same manner as a Proposal, with the exceptions that it does not need to be resolved in chronological order (nor does it count as a proposal for the purposes of determining the oldest pending Proposal). Seekers should vote FOR on any Upgrade Request where they believe that the specified Snap does meet the specified Upgrade Benchmark. When an Upgrade Request is enacted, the Development Interval of its poster is reduced by 1 (if it is three or higher) or their Development Bonus is increased by one (if their Development Interval is already 2), unless the same Seeker has already had a Upgrade Request enacted for the same Upgrade Benchmark previously in the dynasty, in which case their development interval is not reduced and their development bonus is not increased. (Which Upgrade Benchmarks have been enacted for which seekers should be tracked on the gamestate tracking page for easy reference).

Upgrade Benchmarks are listed in this rule and are as follows:

  • A Snap that was taken in the same place as another Snap taken by a different Seeker.
  • A Snap on which, after 48 hours, every Private Criteria claimed by another Seeker was Unsatisfied
  • A Snap which meets every Public Criteria
  • A Snap which includes a found instance of the BlogNomic username of another Seeker

Catching up with the Photos

While a Seeker has exactly 0 Score and has more than one Private Criteria having a non-null value, a Seeker may perform the following Atomic Action once per week:

  • For the previous three Shots in chronological order, perform the following bullet points:
    • Respond to the Shot stating which of their own Private Criteria that Shot satisfies and does not satisfy.
    • For each Private Criteria in the response that the Shot satisfies, that Private Criteria’s satisfying count is incremented by one, and increment their Score by that Private Criteria’s unsatisfying count.
    • For each Private Criteria in the response that the Shot does not satisfies, that Private Criteria’s satisfying count is incremented by one, and increment their Score by that Private Criteria’s satisfying count

Awards

Each Seeker can have a number of Awards, which is publicly tracked and defaults to zero.

At any time, if a Seeker has met the Standard for an Award then they may claim it by making a blog post announcing as such and then incrementing their Awards by 1. A Seeker may only claim each individual Award once in the dynasty.

Any Seeker who has claimed 5 Awards has achieved Victory.

The possible Awards and their Standards are as follows:

Award Standard
Fine Art Photographer of the Year Have more than 200 Score
Excellence in War Photography Have a Development Bonus of at least 3
Outstanding Composition Have five private Criteria, each of which has an Unsatisfying score of 0 and a Satisfying score of 5
Grand Prix in Advertising Photography Successfully Guess (i.e. post a Guess and have the target respond with a FOR mark to that Guess)


Building Blocks

Building Blocks are rules that can be substituted in and out of the ruleset as needed, usually as a result of an Ascension Address. All rules in the Building Blocks section are ruletext.

Potential Building Blocks rules can be found at the Building Blocks page of the wiki. That page is gamestate and may not be altered except as specified by the ruleset or through the passage of a Proposal or CfJ; however, its contents are not rulestext. When the contents of the Building Blocks page are referred to as ‘rules’ by the ruleset or by a votable matter, it should be assumed that said contents are being referred to as potential rules rather than actual rules.

When a Observer specifies the Building Blocks rules in use for a new dynasty in an Ascension Address, they should specify (by name) the rules from the Building Blocks page that they would like to be included in this section of the ruleset; these rules must then be transcribed faithfully to this section of the ruleset, and any Building Blocks rules not so named must be removed from the Building Blocks section. Some rules on the Building Blocks page are listed as being Recommended; if the new Observer makes no statement on Building Blocks rules to be included in their Ascension Address then the Recommended Building Blocks are considered to have been selected. There are currently no Recommended Building Blocks.

Low-Player Mode

The Core Rule Dormancy is flavour text.

Everyone's Playing

For the purposes of all dynastic and Building Blocks rules, the Observer is a Seeker.

No Cooperation

In this dynasty, Seekers are expected to avoid co-operating to achieve Victory, except through the use of co-operative mechanisms defined in the Dynastic rules.

If a Seeker feels that another Seeker has gone against this expectation in some way during the current dynasty, then they are encouraged to vote against all DoVs from that Seeker during that dynasty. This overrules the encouragement to vote according to the perception of a victory in the rule “Victory in Ascension”.

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. (e.g. 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.)

Imperatives

Can
“is able to”
Shall
“is required to”
Should
“is recommended that”

Time

Daily Action
If a game action is a Daily Action, each Seeker able to perform it may take that action once each day, but not more than once every ten hours.
Daily Communal Action
A Daily Communal Action is a Daily Action that can only be performed by one Seeker per day.
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.
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 Seeker able to perform it may take that action once each week, but not more than once every twenty-four hours.
Weekly Communal Action
A Weekly Communal action is a Weekly Action that can only be performed by one Seeker per week.

Other

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 Seekers.
Dice
References to “DICEX” or “YDICEX” refer to X-sided dice and Y amount of X-sided dice, rolled using the Dice Roller.
Dynastic Action
An action that is defined in the Dynastic rules.
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 Seeker's Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Votable Matter is that Seeker's Comment to that Votable Matter, if any, that contains that Seeker's Vote on that Votable Matter.
Commentary
When posting a blog entry, a Seeker 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.
Discord
The BlogNomic Discord can be accessed at https://discord.gg/J7kP9KuHQK and is also linked to on the sidebar. Seekers , as well as people who are not Seekers but are interested in learning more about BlogNomic, may join the Discord by clicking the button in the sidebar.
Discord Channel
A Discord Channel is any channel on the BlogNomic Discord in the BlogNomic Discussion category. All Seekers who are in the Discord should have the ability to access all of these channels. To reference a Discord Channel, use a hash (#) followed by the name of that channel (e.g. #random).
Flavour Text
If a part of the ruleset or gamestate is defined as being “flavour text”, it retains its context, but is not considered to have any meaning beyond being a string of characters. Seekers are not required to obey flavour text and may not perform any action defined by it, and any statements that flavour text makes about gamestate are ignored.
Gamestate
Any information which the Ruleset regulates the alteration of. All wiki pages that the Dynastic Rules explicitly mention (except for dynastic histories and discussion pages) and any images or Templates contained within (or indirectly invoked by Templates contained within) those Wiki Pages are assumed to be Gamestate.
Hiatus
If BlogNomic is on Hiatus, Dynastic Actions may not be taken (except where the rule defining the action explicitly requires it to be taken during Hiatus), and Proposals may not be submitted or Resolved. If multiple rules require BlogNomic to be on Hiatus at any given time, BlogNomic will continue to be on Hiatus until no rules require it.
Pass the Mantle
Passing the Mantle is a mechanism by which, during an Interregnum, a Observer may nominate another Seeker to become the Observer in the upcoming dynasty.
Post
A blog post published to the BlogNomic weblog at blognomic.com
Quorum
Quorum of a subset of Seekers is half the number of Seekers in that subset, rounded down, plus one. If the word Quorum is used without qualifying which subset of Seekers it is referring to, it is referring to a Quorum of all Seekers.
Resolve/Resolution
If used in a context of a Votable Matter, the word “Resolve” means to perform the act, as an Admin, of enacting, failing, or marking illegal 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. The resolution of a votable matter is tracked by reference to its status in the blog post edit form. If otherwise legally applied, the application of any status through the blog post editing form is sufficient to consider that votable matter to have been correctly resolved, but a resolved votable matter should have the correct status wherever possible; if any admin believes that a resolved votable matter has an incorrect status then they may correct it.
Rule
Each individually numbered and titled block of text (using the wikimedia section heading formatting) of the Ruleset is a rule, including rules that are subrules of other rules; with the exception that the top-level headings defined as ‘sections’ in the rule “Ruleset and Gamestate” are considered sections but not rules themselves.
Sticky Post
A blog post where the “Make Entry Sticky” option has been enabled. Changing the state of this option is not considering altering or modifying the post with regards to the rules on Official Posts. The sticky status of posts should generally be left to the discretion of the Observer.
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.
Seasonal Downtime
On the 24th, 25th and 26th of December, BlogNomic is on Hiatus. In addition, game actions defined by the core rules titled “Seekers” and “Victory and Ascension” (with the exception of Voting in DoVs) may not be taken.
Subrule
A subrule is a type of rule that is hierarchically ordered beneath another rule. Rules and proposals that refer to a rule do not also refer to its subrules, unless otherwise specified.
Table of Contents
The directory of section headings that is generated by the MediaWiki software for most pages in the wiki.
Uphold
To Uphold an illegal action is to retroactively declare the attempt to take it to have been successful, and to declare that all attempted game actions taken after it were attempted as if the Upheld action had been successful.
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, a DEF http://blognomic.com/images/vote/imperial.gif shall represent a Vote of DEFERENTIAL, and a crossed-out circle http://blognomic.com/images/vote/seal.gif shall represent a vote to VETO.
Wiki
The BlogNomic Wiki at http://wiki.blognomic.com

Gamestate Tracking

Official Posts

Votable Matters and other official posts, as well as specific gamestate information, shall be tracked by the BlogNomic blog at http://blognomic.com. Any Seeker 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. Any single official post cannot be of two different types of official post unless a rule explicitly states otherwise. Dynastic rules cannot define posts in the “Call for Judgement” category to be a type of official post other than a Call for Judgement, and this restriction cannot be overridden by dynastic rules.

An official post may only be removed as allowed by the Ruleset. An official post may be altered by its author if it is less than 4 hours old and either no Seeker has commented on it or (if it is a Votable Matter) if all comments on it contain no voting icons; 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. An official blog post that has the status of Enacted or Failed cannot change categories, except that a votable matter’s illegal resolution may be overturned. An official blog post’s status may never be altered except in accordance with the rules that define that official post.

A non-official post may not, through editing of the blog or otherwise, be changed into an official post, with the following two exceptions: Firstly, 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. Secondly, if a post is less than six hours old and appears to the Observer to have been intended as a Proposal, and if its author does not already have two Proposals pending, then the Observer may move it into the Proposal category, causing it to be considered to have been open for voting since the time that the post was first posted.

Any post that is or is made illegal as a result of an infraction against any of the prohibitions set out in this rule, except for a votable matter’s illegal resolution that has been overturned, continues to be an Official Post but may no longer have any effect on the ruleset or the gamestate. If it is a Votable Matter then it is Unpopular, regardless of any other performance against criteria set out in the core rules. When it is resolved it may be marked as Illegal by the resolving admin. A post that is illegal in this manner cannot subsequently be made legal by any means, except for the legal enactment of a CFJ. An illegal CFJ cannot cause itself to become legal.

Representations of the Gamestate

If authorised by the rules as a result of a Seeker’s action, changes to gamestate which is tracked in a specific place (such as a wiki page) do not take effect until the representation of that gamestate has been updated to match the authorised change. One wiki update may contain one or more alterations, or one alteration may be split over multiple updates, as long as it is clear what is happening and the alterations are otherwise legal. The wiki merely represents the Gamestate tracked there, and is not the same thing. In the event that the Gamestate and its representations are different, any Seeker may correct the representations to comply with the Gamestate.

If a Seeker feels that a representation of the gamestate (such as a wiki page) does not match the gamestate, they may either:

  • Undo the effects of any alteration that led to it, if that alteration did not follow the rules at the time it was made.
  • Alter the representation to match what they believe to be the correct application of an incorrectly-applied alteration. This may include completing incomplete actions on behalf of the original Seeker, if doing so would not require the correcting Seeker to make any decisions on behalf of the original Seeker.

Instead of repeatedly reverting and re-reverting a disputed alteration, however, Seekers are encouraged to raise a Call for Judgement. The historical fact of the occurrence of a defined game action is itself considered to be gamestate, tracked in the history of whatever resource is used to track the gamestate modified by that action, where possible, or in the wiki page Gamestate Modifications if this is not possible.

Orphan Variables

An Orphan Variable is a dynastic gamestate variable which has neither a location in which it’s tracked, nor a reasonable manner in which it can be determined from other gamestate variables, specified in the Ruleset.

A Seeker may not take any dynastic actions that are contingent on the specific value of an Orphan Variable.

Random Generators

The Dice Roller at https://blognomic.com/dice/roll.php 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, MSeekera, Orange, Purple, Black.
  • The CARD command will return a card with a random suit (either Hearts, Diamonds, Spades or Clubs) and a random value (either Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King). A card with a value that is either Jack, Queen or King is a face card.
  • A list of comma-separated values in curly brackets (eg {x,y}) will return one of the values at random.

Any changes to the potential outcomes of the Dice Roller’s random result commands must be made by Votable Matter.

If a Votable Matter proposes a change to this rule that would require server-level access to the BlogNomic site to fully enact its effects, that Votable Matter must name a Seeker with such access. Only a Seeker with such access may Enact that Votable Matter. If that Votable Matter does not name a Seeker with such access, that Votable Matter is Illegal.

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. This value must be determined by an appropriate roll in the Dice Roller, unless otherwise specified, and which value the roll result corresponds to must be reasonably inferable from the nature of the roll and any comments supplied by the Seeker making the roll before or while making the roll. If a selection is explicitly specified as being “secretly” random, the Seeker making this determination may do so using a private method of their choosing, instead of the Dice Roller.

Atomic Actions

An Atomic Action combines otherwise separate game actions into a single action.

  • All steps of an Atomic Action are considered one action, including the steps of an Atomic Action that is itself a step of a parent Atomic Action.
  • When a Seeker performs an Atomic Action, they must complete all its steps; they must complete them in order; and they may not take any other dynastic action, or achieve victory, until all the steps are complete.
  • If a rule allows the Seeker performing an Atomic Action to skip some of its steps, the skipped steps are considered to have been completed.
  • If a Seeker arrives at a step in an Atomic Action and they cannot perform that step, they undo all the steps they have performed of that Action and are considered never to have performed that Action.
  • If one or more steps of an Atomic Action were done incorrectly, the Seeker must redo the Atomic Action; for that purpose, the Seeker uses any legal steps that have already been completed in the illegal Atomic Action and only redoes the illegal ones. (For example, if an Atomic Action consists of rolling a dice and then doing steps based upon its result, the Seeker would have to reroll the dice only if they rolled the wrong one in the first place, and would then have to repeat any steps that depended upon the result of that dice; however, if they rolled the dice correctly but took an illegal step later on, the result of the original dice roll would still be used in the redone step.)
  • For the purposes of determining the ordering or legality of game actions, the time of an Atomic Action shall be the time that it is completed. For Atomic Actions that are redone, the time of completion is the last redone step.

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,” “pay” 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” or “pay” 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, paid, lost, gained, or transferred, a Seeker can spend or pay from only their own values, and a rule that allows Seekers to transfer or pay a numeric value to another Seeker only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to that other Seeker (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
  • If a Dynastic Action is defined as having a cost X of numeric value V, or defines a requirement to spend, pay, or lose X of numeric value V to accomplish an effect or multiple effects, then the arithmetic effects of spending or payment and the act of carrying out those effects are considered to be subsequent steps in an Atomic Action, with the spending or payment step taking place before the effects step unless stated otherwise.
  • A Seeker 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 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 game variable has a default value but no defined starting value, then its default value should also be considered a starting value. If a game variable has neither a default value nor a starting value, then both may be considered to be the nearest legal value to zero that it may take (for numerical variables, defaulting to positive if tied), blank (for a text string or list that may be blank), the alphabetically earliest legal text string it may take (for a text string which may not be blank, with the digits 0 through 9 considered to precede “A”), or the list which is alphabetically earliest from the set of lists with the fewest elements (for lists which may not be blank, and considering each list to be a single unpunctuated text string, with the digits 0 through 9 considered to precede “A”). For the purposes of this bullet point, the names of Seekers are not considered to be legal values for game variables, nor for list items within game variables.
  • If the rules that define a game variable are amended, and some previously valid values become invalid as a consequence, any existing variables whose current values would become invalid are instead set to their starting value.
  • Invalid values for game variables can never be used, even if the values stored in a gamestate-tracking entity 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)
  • DICEN cannot be rolled in the Dice Roller if N is greater than one million.
  • If a piece of information is described as being tracked secretly or privately by the Observer (including secretly random selections), then that information may only be revealed by the Observer when the ruleset allows it. If a Seeker should already know such a piece of information (in that the Observer has already told them it, or vice versa, and there is no way that the information could have been changed since then), the Observer may repeat it to them.

Rules and Votable Matters

  • If a new rule is created by a Votable Matter and its location is not noted in that Votable Matter, that new rule is to be placed in the Dynastic Rules.
  • If a wiki page becomes gamestate as a result of a Votable Matter enacting, that page shall – unless otherwise specified – be reverted to whatever state it was in at the time of that Votable Matter’s submission (and if the page did not exist at that time, it shall be blanked).
  • Where a Votable Matter would amend the effects of Votable Matter Enactment, this does not apply to its own enactment unless explicitly stated (e.g. a Votable Matter proposing that enacted Votable Matters 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 dynastic rule has no text and no subrules, any Seeker may delete it from the ruleset.
  • A rule may be accompanied by one or more illustrations, and an illustration may have a caption. In all situations, unless otherwise explicitly stated, an illustration and a caption to an illustration must be treated as flavour text.
  • When the ruleset calls for the use of a specific tool (such as the dice roller, or an off-domain website, or a specific piece of downloadable software), Seekers may not deliberately interfere with the function of that tool except in ways explicitly permitted by the ruleset.
  • If the Observer has voted DEFERENTIAL on a Proposal, that vote is instead considered to be valid and either FOR (if more Seekers have a valid FOR vote on that Proposal than have a valid AGAINST vote on it) or AGAINST (in all other cases). However, in either case, votes of DEFERENTIAL made by other Seekers on the same Proposal are not considered to be valid. If there are six or fewer Seekers, then the Observer’s vote of DEFERENTIAL on a proposal is only affected by this rule if all Seekers who are not the Observer have cast a vote on that proposal.

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 (e.g. “04/10/09”), it shall be assumed that the date is in a day/month/year format.
  • A Seeker may not take more than one dynastic game action at the same time (excluding any actions which have been ongoing for more than three hours).

Spelling and formatting

  • 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.
  • Seekers may correct obvious spelling, punctuation, and/or typographical mistakes in the Ruleset and their own Pending Votable Matters at any time, including replacing Spivak and gender-specific pronouns that refer to Seekers with the corresponding forms of the singular “they”.
  • A Seeker may reformat a list of items in the dynastic ruleset to have bullet points or other appropriate list markup, if doing so would not change the order of that list, nor how any rules interpreted its content.

Names

  • Within the Ruleset, a word only refers to the name of a Seeker if it is explicitly stated that it refers to a Seeker's name.
  • If a rule would ever have no name, it is instead given the name of the Votable Matter that created it, or (if this is not possible) the name “Unnamed Rule”.
  • The names of rules and wiki pages (other than the Ruleset) are flavour text.
  • Subrules can be referred to by a name which incorporates name of the rule they are a subrule of. Example: a subrule of the rule “Gin” is a “Gin Rule”, however the rule “Gin” is not a “Gin Rule” because it’s not a subrule of the rule “Gin”.
  • When referring to a Votable Matter, the name used in reference to a specific Votable Matter may be simplified by not including braces and any text between the opening and closing braces. i.e. a Votable Matter named “Changes [Core]” could instead be referred to by the name “Changes”.
  • When referring to a Rule, the name used in reference to a specific Rule may be simplified by not including braces and any text between a pair of opening and closing braces, as long as such a reference would be unambiguous.
  • Where a Votable Matter refers to a second Votable Matter by name, it is assumed to refer to the most recently posted Votable Matter of that name which pre-dates the first Votable Matter.
  • When changing their name or joining the game for the first time, a Seeker's (or prospective Seeker's ) new name must be between 4 and 30 characters in length, and may only include the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, numbers, underscores, hyphens, full stops and apostrophes.

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 other Rule;
  2. If a Core Rule explicitly says it cannot be overruled by a Dynastic Rule, that Core Rule has precedence over a Dynastic Rule, otherwise a Dynastic Rule has precedence over that Core Rule;
  3. If a Building Blocks Rule explicitly says that it cannot be overruled by a Dynastic Rule, that Building Blocks Rule has precedence over a Dynastic Rule, otherwise a Dynastic Rule has equal precedence as that Building Blocks Rule;
  4. If two contradicting parts have equal precedence, the part with more limited scope applies (e.g. if the rules “Seekers may Kick each other” and “Seekers may not Kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, Seekers may not Kick each other);
  5. If two contradicting parts have the same scope, or have scopes that only overlap where they contradict each other, the negative rule applies (e.g. with “Seekers may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “Seekers may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then Seekers may not Punch Spacemen on Friday).

Mentors

A Seeker may have another Seeker as a Mentor. Seekers who are willing to act as a Mentor are listed on the Mentorships wiki page, and are said to be “Tenured”. An Admin may add or remove their own name, or the name of a Seeker who has requested a change on their own behalf, from this list at any time. The Mentorships page is also used to list the names of players who are prohibited from becoming Tenured; this list may only be amended by the effect of a votable matter.

If an unmentored Seeker requests a Mentor, or a new Seeker has joined the game and has no Mentor, the Observer should select a Tenured Seeker and ask them to take that Seeker on as a Mentee; if they accept, then such a Mentorship is established. The members and starting dates of all active Mentorships are tracked on the Mentorships wiki page, and whenever a new Mentorship is established, the Observer should announce it in a blog post. The Observer should take care to consider game balance when selecting a potential mentor.

A relationship between a mentor and a mentee is a Mentorship. A Seeker may dissolve a Mentorship they are part of at any time, by announcing this in a blog post.

If there is no Observer, any Seeker who has been active in at least three previous dynasties may act as Observer for the purposes of this rule.

Things that a mentor must do

A mentor must do the following:

  • Make pro-active contact with their mentee when appointed, and explain the dynamics of the Mentorship system;
  • Be available to answer any questions that their mentee may have about the game, including explaining the rules, common standards and etiquette of play, proofreading posts and clarifying game events;
  • Introduce their mentee to the various platforms of the game, including the wiki and Dice Roller, and optionally the game’s Discord and social media feeds
  • If possible, give their mentee a nudge if it appears that they are at risk of becoming Idle;
  • If they themselves go idle, communicate with their mentee to either continue to support them as an idle Seeker or arrange a handover to another mentor if requested.

Things that a mentor should do

The following sets out suggested best practice for Mentorship relationships:

  • The Mentorship lasts for four weeks or until the next Ascension Address, whichever occurs latest. It can continue informally for longer but after this threshold the mentor is no longer bound by any of the conditions set out in the parent rule to this rule, or any of its subrules.
  • The mentor can and should advise the mentee on how to proceed in the mentee’s own best interests. This can include making connections with other Seekers .
  • The mentor should consider copying the mentee in on private, game-related communications, where it does not unfairly prejudice their own interests. The mentee should keep this information private without explicit consent from the mentor.
  • The mentor and mentee may work together to achieve victory. If a mentor achieves victory with support of their mentee then they should, if the mentee wishes it, pass the baton to the mentee.

Things that a mentor should not do

The following sets out a list of things that a mentor should not do in their relationship with their mentee. All of these are considered to be Fair Play rules, as per the rule Fair Play.

  • The mentor should not sock-puppet, bully, coerce or otherwise manipulate the mentee into performing any game actions.
  • The mentor should not seek to dissuade the mentee from pursuing other alliances.
  • A former mentor should not seek to use the fact of a prior Mentorship to influence the former mentee on an ongoing basis.

Synonyms

A dynasty may provide extra theming by using alternative terms for words like “Seeker” and “Observer”.

Each term in this list is synonymous with the term in parentheses

  • Seeker (Player)
  • Observer (Emperor)

When a new Dynasty is started, the Ascension Address may specify new terms for each entry in the above list, provided the newly chosen term does not appear anywhere in the Building Blocks page or the ruleset outside of this rule (though if it only appears in rules which are being removed as part of the Ascension Address, it is fine), and that doing so would not cause two terms in the above list to become synonymous with each other. Doing so causes the old corresponding value (including regional spelling variations) to be replaced by the new value everywhere in the ruleset except in any of the parentheses in the above list.