Ruleset 201

Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Researchers 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.

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

If the Ruleset does not properly reflect all legal changes that have been made to it, any Researcher may update it to do so.

Researchers

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 a Researcher may make a blog post making clear their wish to be a Researcher (plural form Researchers); in response, an Admin shall add them to the roster in the sidebar, at which moment they become a Researcher.

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

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

Idle Researchers

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

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

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

An Admin may render a Researcher Idle if that Researcher has asked to become Idle in an entry or comment from the past 96 hours (4 Days), or if that Researcher 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. 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 Researcher if that Researcher 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 Researcher who would be Unidled asked to become (or rendered themselves) 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 if they were not idle.

Dynasties

BlogNomic is divided into a number of Dynasties. Each Dynasty may be headed by a single Researcher, known as the Department Head. If there is no Department Head, 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 Researcher may achieve Victory. However, dynastic actions that are specifically permitted to be carried out during an Interregnum may be carried out.

Votable Matters

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

Votes

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

If a Researcher other than the Department Head casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL, then the Vote of DEFERENTIAL is an indication of confidence in the Department Head. When the Department 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 Department Head's Vote for the purposes of other rules unless otherwise specified.

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. Exception: Proposals which would change the text of a Core, Special Case or Appendix rule if enacted cannot be Popular on this basis.

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

• The number of Researchers 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 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 DoVs require the “[Victory]” tag in order to grant victory to a Researcher.

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 specifically states a rule using its number or the name of the stated rule only occurs once in the ruleset.

Proposals

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

Special Proposal Voting

When a Researcher 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 Department Head may use VETO as a voting icon to cast a Vote on a Proposal; when the Department Head casts a vote of VETO on a Proposal, this renders the Proposal Vetoed, even if the Department Head 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 immediately applied in full; the Admin Enacting it shall update the Gamestate and Ruleset, and correct any gamestate-tracking entities, as specified in the Proposal.

Calls for Judgement

If two or more Researchers actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if a Researcher feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any Researcher 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 Researcher (other than the Department 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.

Every Researcher 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 on Hiatus.

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 Department Head has Voted FOR it or it has no AGAINST Votes.
• It is Popular, 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.

If a DoV is Failed and it had at least one AGAINST vote, the Researcher 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 Researcher who posted the DoV becomes Department 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.

If the game is in an Interregnum then the new Department Head must either Pass the Mantle (by making a post naming a Researcher who was not the last dynasty’s Department Head, in which case the passing Researcher ceases to be the Department Head and the Researcher so named becomes the Department Head) 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 Department Head'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.

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 Researcher’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. Researchers 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 Researcher within BlogNomic, and should announce publicly if they control both a non-Idle Researcher and any Idle Researchers. This extends to exerting full control over the actions of another Researcher, defined here as the controlled Researcher’s game behavior being functionally indistinguishable from if the controlling Researcher was logged into their account and playing through it, over a period of more than a day.
• A Researcher 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 Researcher should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or other blognomic.com scripts).
• A Researcher should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other Researcher.
• A Researcher should not edit the “Entry Date” field of a blog post.
• A Researcher should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
• A Researcher 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 Researcher 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 Researcher must use their own name in the Dice Roller, when rolling dice.
• A Researcher should not deliberately and unreasonably prolong the performance of a game action once they have started it.
• A Researcher should not use a Core, Special Case, or Appendix rules scam to directly or indirectly cause a Researcher to achieve victory.
• A Researcher should not trade actions in BlogNomic for favors or compensation outside of BlogNomic, nor trade actions in any other game for favors within BlogNomic.

All Researchers and idle Researchers 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 Researchers are encouraged to commit to upholding them to whatever extent is possible.

Dynastic Rules

Probulator Operation

The Probulator is a pseudorandom output generator. Whenever a rule specifies that an outcome be determined by the Probulator or at pseudorandom then it must be determined as specified by this rule. No rule may specify that an outcome be determined by the Probulator or pseudorandomly without also indicating a single Probulator Function.

The Probulator has a number of Functions, which are detailed in subrules to this rule. Each Function has the following characteristics: a name (which is flavour text), an output range (which is a description of the possible outputs that Function can return), a default forecast value output, and a method.

When a Researcher uses the Probulator to determine an outcome, they must carry out the method of the specified Function as an atomic action using the result it returns as the outcome.

There is a publicly tracked table of Materials. Each Material has a name (which is flavour text), a list of Functions (which must consist only of names of Functions as detailed in subrules to this rule, and which must include at least one such Function), a forecast value output for each of those functions (which is generally the next output that the Function should return if used (though may not be, as the actual output is determined by the method)), and a Cost (which must be a non-negative integer). Some actions may specify that the performing Researcher must Use a Material as a cost of doing that action. To Use a Material, a Researcher must simply reduce their Funds by the cost of that Material. As a daily action, a Researcher may Probe one Material by Using that Material, and then determining an outcome from each Function of the Probulator associated with that Material.

If a Researcher is instructed by the rules to use the Probulator to determine an outcome or outcomes but no mention of the material to use has been made, the Researcher is first to Use a Material that has that Function or Functions in its list of Functions; and in cases where a single Material does not have all of the Functions that the Researcher is to determine an outcome for, or in cases where the Researcher chooses to use a different legal Material for one or more Functions, the Researcher can Use as many Materials as necessary to complete their instruction.

Probulator Functions

This rule details the known Functions of the Probulator.

Name: Qubit Entanglement
Output range: 0, 1
Default forecast output: 0
Method: Return forecast output and then change the forecast output to one minus the current forecast output.

Name: Quantum-Economic Indicator
Output range: A real number
Default forecast output: 4469.10
Method: Return forecast output and then change the forecast output to the most recent opening value of the S&P 500 index. (Non-authoritative values can be found at https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EGSPC/history.)

Name: Wavefunction Observation
Output range: An integer between 0 and 999, inclusive.
Default forecast output: 19
Method: Return forecast output and then change the forecast output to 1821 times the current forecast output plus 763 modulo 1000.

Name: Emotion Engine
Output Range: Happy, Sad, Hungry, Sleepy, Afraid, Surprised, Angry, Disgusted, Anxious, Excited
Default forecast output: Happy
Method: Ensure that the forecast output of this function is up to date as per this rule, then return the forecast output, and then make a post to the Blog asking the Emotion Operator how they are feeling. The Emotion Operator should respond to any such post as soon as possible with an honest impression of their own interiority; when they do so, any Researcher may update the Forecast Output field of their entry to reflect the most recent available information.

Name: LEFTMOST
Output Range: True, LOOP, ERROR, False
Default forecast output: Qubit Entanglement
Method: If this method is being run as part of another method return LOOP. Otherwise, select the Probulator Function whose name matches the Forecast Output and use it to determine an outcome, if the determined outcome is the leftmost value in that Function’s output range (or, if the range is not specified as a list, matches the default value for the output range) update the forecast output of this function it to be True, if not update the forecast output of this function to be False. Then update the Forecast Output to be the name of the Probulator Function immediately below the current one in the Probulator Functions list, or the name of the first function in the Probulator Function list if the current one is the bottom most entry. If there is no Probulator Function whose name matches the Forecast Output, return ERROR and set the Forecast Output to be the name of the first function in the Probulator Function list.

Name: Hype Machine
Output Range: Any non-negative integer
Default forecast output: 9
Method: Return the forecast output, then set the forecast output to the number of FOR votes on the most recent proposal which is over 12 hours old. The FOR votes are calculated as per the subrules of Votable Matters.

Name: Rule Changer
Output Range: {The Name of a Researcher}
Default forecast output: Josh
Method: Return forecast output, and then change the Forecast output to be the name of the Researcher who authored the most recently enacted proposal which was authored by a current Researcher

Name: Arrange the Fridge Magnets
Output Range: Any uppercase string
Default forecast output: “CAT”
Method: Return an anagram of the forecast output. Then choose two numbers or two uppercase letters or one of each and append them to the current forecast value, and store an anagram of this new value as the new forecast output. For the purposes of this method, an anagram is defined as any arrangement of the characters which uses each character exactly as many times as in the source string for the anagram. Any number of spaces are permitted in the anagram and don’t count as a character for this purpose, and the anagram is not obligated to be in English nor in any other way meaningful.

Name: Will it Blend
Output Range: Any number in the set of real numbers
Default forecast output: 0
Method: Choose 2 output forecasts that are currently numerical (here denoted as X and Y respectively), and output the average of X, Y and Will It Blend’s current forecast output. Then store the average of X and Y as the forecast output.

Name: Angel’s Clover
Output Range: any number or any string
Default Output Forecast: UNDEFINED
Method: If this Method is not run as part of another Method return UNDEFINED as a string, otherwise if this Method would be run as part of itself return Explosion; otherwise run the previous Method 4 times consecutively.

Name: Blobber Bread Box
Output range: A string in the form of “X Food Pellets” where X is a non-negative integer
Default forecast output: 55 Food Pellets
Method: Starting with the forecast output, reduce the number of food pellets by the total Blobber Quantity of all Researchers summed together, then output the end result. If this would be less than zero food pellets, output “0 Food Pellets” instead. Set the forecast output to be a number of food pellets equal to five times the number of researchers.

Name: Blobber Breakneck Barreling
Output range: The name of a researcher
Default forecast output: SingularByte
Method: For each Researcher except the Researcher named in the forecast output, calculate their Blobber’s weight as follows: work out the number of characters in that Researcher’s name (i.e. their blognomic username) and in their Blobber Imprint, then add those two numbers together to get the weight. If that Researcher performed the method called Blobber Bathing in the last 24 hours, triple the Blobber’s weight for that Researcher because their Blobbers are waterlogged. Output the name of the Researcher who has the lowest Blobber weight calculated here, and set that researcher to be the forecast output so that all Blobbers know whose Blobbers to train to beat. In cases where multiple Researchers would be outputted, the output is considered to be the first of those Researchers alphabetically.

Name: Blobber Bathing
Output range: Any string
Default forecast output:
Method: Output the Blobber Imprint of the Researcher running this method, concatenated with two characters of the Researcher’s choice from the forecast output (or all characters from the forecast output if there are less than two), then store the newly outputted string as the forecast output. Remove all values from that Researcher’s Blobber Imprint.

Name: Blobber Bedtime
Output range: A string consisting of a number of instances of the letter z
Default forecast output: zzzz
Method: Output a string consisting of a number of instances of the letter z equal to the number of methods that have been run in the last 24 hours, then set the forecast output to that string. If a method has been run more than once in that period, it is counted that number of times for this purpose. It is an illegal action for a Researcher to willingly take an action that would lead to a method being run by them if that Researcher has run already run this method on the same day. Additionally, if an atomic action lets a Researcher choose which order to run methods in, it is an illegal action to order them such that this method is run before any other method as part of that atomic action.

Money Management

Each Researcher has a publicly tracked nonnegative integer value called “funds” which defaults to 1000.

As a Daily Action, a Researcher can initiate a Transfer, which is an atomic action with the following steps:

• Select a positive amount of their own Funds to transfer to another Researcher. This amount and the target must be publicly stated, either in the #current-dynasty channel of the BlogNomic Discord, or in a non-vote comment to an open proposal
• Reduce their own Funds by that quantity
• Use the Order Slip on the Quantum-Economic Indicator function of the Probulator
• Express the difference between the returned value and the new forecast value for the Quantum-Economic Indicator as a percentage (positive if the new forecast value is higher, negative if it is lower). Amend the amount being transferred by that percentage and complete the transfer by increasing the Funds of the target Researcher by the modified amount.

Gambling

As a Daily Action, an Researcher may Play Qubit Penny Poker, which is an atomic action with the following steps:

• Use the Test Qubit Material on the Qubit Entanglement function of the Probulator
• If the returned value is 1, then increase your funds by 50. Otherwise, decrease your funds by 30.

Emotion Operator

The Emotion Operator is a (possibly Idle) Researcher, the name of which is publicly tracked.

As a weekly action, a Researcher may use the DNA Test Material with the Rule Changer function and set the Emotion Operator be the researcher whose name is the result.

Material Science

Blobber is a mysterious substance that can be imprinted with the outputs of the Probulator.

Each Researcher has publicly tracked values for Blobber Quantity (defaulting to 1) and Blobber Imprints (defaulting to blank).

Whenever a Researcher uses a Probulator function to generate an outcome they may, once per outcome, Imprint a Blobber with that outcome, by adding that outcome to their Blobber Imprints or replacing an existing outcome in their Blobber Imprints with the new outcome. A Researcher may only have a number of outcomes in their Blobber Imprints that is less than or equal to their own value in Blobber Quantity.

Once per day, provided they have at least 1000 funds, when a Researcher uses the Probulator to generate a result, if their Blobber Imprints contains a value (the new result) which is within the output range of the function they are running they may ignore the standard method for generating the output and instead use the new result as the output. Upon doing so, they must remove the new result from their Blobber Imprints and reduce their funds by 1000.

Theses

A Thesis consists of five different Probulator Functions, one output for each of those functions, and a salt which is a flavor text string which can be any value. A Thesis Hash Base is constructed by concatenating the name of each function in a given thesis with its output in said thesis, concatenating all five of those together, and then appending the salt. For example if a thesis consisted of the following:

Qubit Entanglement - Output 0 Quantum-Economic Indicator - Output: 3.14 Wavefunction Observation - Output: 136 Emotion Engine - Output: Sad Hype Machine - Output: 9

Salt - Redrum

Then the Thesis Hash Base for the example Thesis would be “Qubit Entanglement0Quantum-Economic Indicator3.14Wavefunction Observation136Emotion EngineSadHype Machine9Redrum”

The Thesis Hash is the sha256 hash of a Thesis Hash Base (for the above example thesis, it would be 734222870f7a3a832dcb1ce33a0df6c28cf4c8a4fa997b68fa5790e97475bd21).

Each Researcher may have a Thesis and may change their Thesis at any time, being sure to update their Thesis Hash Base. The Thesis Hash of a Researcher’s thesis is publicly tracked (if a Researcher has no Thesis, they also have no Thesis Hash). By Default, a Researcher has no Thesis. Thesis and Thesis hash bases are privately tracked by their Researcher. If a Thesis Hash Base is out of sync with what a Researcher claims their Thesis is, it is the Thesis Hash Base which is considered to be the proper value and the researcher’s Thesis is considered to be invalid.

If a Researcher has a valid Thesis, and their Thesis has not been changed (including setting it from having previously had no thesis) for the past 24 hours they attempt to Declare Dominion Over Randomness by performing the following atomic action:
- Make a post to the blog publicly declaring their Thesis
- For each Probulator Function in their Thesis, use the Probulator to determine an outcome
- If each generated outcome exactly matches the output for that function in the thesis, the Researcher performing the action has successfully declared dominion over randomness and achieves victory in the current dynasty
- If not, the Researcher performing the action has their Thesis set have no Thesis.

Breeding Blobbers

It is a known fact that blobbers multiply when they have had a broad set of experiences, free of repetition. At any time, a Researcher may attempt to Breed Blobbers. This is an atomic action with the following steps:

• The Researcher retrieves all previous Imprint Lists that previous legal uses of this action created for that researcher.
• The Researcher creates an Imprint List which consists of every imprinted outcome that is currently in their Blobber Imprints. There are to be a number of outcomes in the list equal to the Blobber Quantity, and any missing outcomes are considered to be BANANAS.
• The Researcher compares each item in the New Imprint List with each value in that Researcher’s previous Imprint Lists. For the purposes of value comparisons for a given pair of values, if one item in the pair is either an empty string, or zero, or BANANAS and the other item is likewise an empty string, or zero, or BANANAS, then they must be treated as if they were both BANANAS.
• If any of the checked pairs of values are the same, that researcher has failed to Breed Blobbers and finishes the action. Failing to Breed Blobbers does not render this action illegal.
• Otherwise, if the Researcher has not failed to Breed Blobbers, they add one to their Blobber Quantity and finish the action.

When the Breed Blobbers action has been performed, that researcher cannot Imprint a Blobber that day.

Breakfast

As a Daily Action, a Researcher may Make Breakfast, which is atomic action with the following steps:
- Use the Kitchen on the Arrange the Fridge Magnets Function.
- If the returned result contains any word on the Food List, they may use the “Probe a Material” action two additional times today.
- Otherwise, they may use the “Probe a Material” action one additional time today.

The Food List is “almond, apple, avocado, bacon, banana, beef, butter, cabbage, carrot, cassava, cheese, chicken, chickpea, chocolate, clam, coconut, crab, egg, eggplant, fish, fruit, goat, ham, lamb, legume, lemon, buckwheat, cherry, grape, meat, squash, pumpkin, potato, tuna, maize, maple, melon, mushroom, noodle, onion, pasta, peanut, phytochemicals, plum, pork, potato, ramen, rice, sausage, seafood, sesame, shrimp, soy, strawberry, sushi, sashimi, toast, tomato, tortilla, veal, vegetable, yogurt.”

Special Case

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.

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.

The text of a Special Case Rule that is Inactive is flavour text.

Seasonal Downtime [Active]

On the 24th, 25th and 26th of December, BlogNomic is on Hiatus. In addition, game actions defined by the core rules titled “Researchers” and “Victory and Ascension” (with the exception of Voting in DoVs) may not be taken.

Dormancy [Active]

If there are fewer than five Researchers, BlogNomic is on Hiatus.

Imperial Deferentials [Active]

If the Department Head has voted DEFERENTIAL on a Proposal, that vote is instead considered to be valid and either FOR (if more Researchers 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 Researchers on the same Proposal are not considered to be valid.

Dynastic Distance [Active]

For the purposes of dynastic rules which do not deal with voting, the Department Head is not a Researcher.

Malign Emperors [Inactive] [Rare]

The Department Head may be recipient of the Mantle, as if they were a Researcher, during an Interregnum, as per the rule Victory and Ascension. The Department Head may not cast a vote of VETO on any Proposal whose effect is limited to the dynastic rules or gamestate; any such vote is disregarded for the purposes of proposal resolution.

If the Special Case rule “No Collaboration” is Active, any Researcher may set it to Inactive. (The combo is too strong.)

Dynastic Tracking [Active]

The gamestate tracking page for this dynasty is the BN Wiki Main page page of the wiki. Unless otherwise stated, all publicly tracked gamestate information is tracked on it. An Department 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”.

No Collaboration [Inactive] [Rare]

If “Dynastic Distance” is also active, the Department Head is not considered a Researcher for the purposes of this rule.

Researchers may not privately communicate with each other about dynastic gameplay or votable matters that affect the dynastic ruleset or gamestate. Private communications are considered to be anything that any other Researcher could not reasonably be privy to, perceive, or understand. Discussion conducted in plain English on the BlogNomic wiki and blog, and Discord channels, are not considered to be private communication. Idle Researchers (or people who are not yet Researchers) also face the same restrictions if they intend to become an active Researcher during the course of the dynasty. The use of creative strategies to circumvent this rule may be considered to be a scam for the purposes of determining whether an infraction of Fair Play has taken place.

A mentor and mentee may still privately converse with each other, but should keep their conversations away from discussing specific gameplay strategy.

If information which was not allowed to be discussed is still privately discussed, the Researchers who were part of the conversation should make a post to the blog disclosing what information was discussed as their earliest convenience.

Mantle Limitations [Inactive] [Rare]

The mantle may not be passed. (Researchers should also not make deals based on being made Emperor of the next dynasty by other means than achieving victory or being passed the mantle.)

Alliances [Inactive] [Rare]

Each Researcher may have an Alliance, which is publicly tracked, and consists of the distinct names of no more than two other Researchers; a Researcher’s Alliance defaults to an empty set. A Researcher may change their Alliance as a daily action.

If "Mantle Limitations" is also active, and if a Researcher has achieved victory in this dynasty, has posted a Declaration of Victory which has been enacted, and did not change their Alliance for at least the 48 hours immediately prior to the posting time of their Declaration of Victory: then that Researcher may pass the Mantle to a Researcher who was named in their Alliance at the posting time of their Declaration of Victory.

If “No Collaboration” is active, it does not apply to communications between Researchers who each have the other’s names in their Alliance, nor does the prohibition on deals in “Mantle Limitations” (if it is active) apply to Researchers who have each other’s names in their Alliance.

Event Types [Active]

An Event is an official post that meets a type definition in the dynastic rules, if and only if that type definition is specified as defining a type of Event; the type definition must include the following:

• A type name, such as “Auction” or “Quest”. A post with the Event type’s name as a tag is an Event of that type, provided it was (legally) posted while the type had a complete definition.
• A Response Format, the format by which a comment on that type of Event is classified as a Response for that Event. While other comments are allowed on an Event, only those comments which conform to its type’s Response Format are officially considered Responses. Whether or not a comment is currently considered a Response may change according to circumstances, but comments submitted on an Event while it is Ended can never be considered Responses.

An Event type definition may also optionally stipulate:

• Creation Condition(s). Unless they are met, an Event of that type may not be posted. They may include a format for the body of the post.
• Ending Condition(s). Unless they are met, an Open Event of that type may not be Ended.
• Ending Action(s). A Researcher must do these when they End an Open Event of that type.

An Event is either Open or Ended, defaulting to Open. Except as otherwise specified, any Researcher may post or may End an Event. To End an Event is to make it Ended by submitting a comment on that post saying it is Ended or is being Ended, and then immediately taking its Ending Action(s), if any. Once an Event has been Ended, it may not become Open again, nor may any Researcher End it again.

Bounties [Rare][Active]

A Bounty Notice is a post in the Story Posts category which broadly requests a single mechanical or ruleset change. A Bounty Notice may be Open or Closed, being Open by default and being when set to the ‘Closed’ category in the post backend.

This sentence names, at the end of this sentence after a colon, a single dynastic resource or variable, which is the Bounty Reward Variable for this dynasty: Qubits

The Department Head may post a Bounty Notice, close an open Bounty Notice, or change the Bounty Reward Variable in this rule at any time.

If the Department Head believes that an enacted votable matter satisfies the demand of an open Bounty Notice then they may iterate the Bounty Reward Variable of that votable matter’s author by a single step (unless that author was themselves) and set that Bounty Notice to closed.

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 Researcher 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 Researcher 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 Researcher 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 Researcher 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 Researchers.

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 Researcher’s Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Votable Matter is that Researcher’s Comment to that Votable Matter, if any, that contains that Researcher’s Vote on that Votable Matter.

Commentary

When posting a blog entry, a Researcher 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. Researchers, as well as people who are not Researchers 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 Researchers 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. Researchers 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 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.

Post

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

Private Message

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

Quorum

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

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.

Story Post

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

Subject

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

Subrule

A subrule is a type of rule that is 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 Researcher 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 Researcher 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 by a New Researcher 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 Researcher is defined as a Researcher who has been a Researcher for fewer than seven days or a Researcher that has unidled in the past seven days after being idle for at least 3 months.

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

For gamestate which is tracked in a specific place (such as a wiki page), any alteration of that gamestate as a result of a Researcher’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 Researcher may correct the representations to comply with the Gamestate.

If a Researcher 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 Researcher, if doing so would not require the correcting Researcher to make any decisions on behalf of the original Researcher.

Instead of repeatedly reverting and re-reverting a disputed alteration, however, Researchers 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 Researcher 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, Magenta, 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 Researcher with such access. Only a Researcher with such access may Enact that Votable Matter. If that Votable Matter does not name a Researcher 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 Researcher making the roll before or while making the roll. If a selection is explicitly specified as being “secretly” random, the Researcher 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 Researcher 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 Researcher performing an Atomic Action to skip some of its steps, the skipped steps are considered to have been completed.
• If a Researcher 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 Researcher must redo the Atomic Action; for that purpose, the Researcher 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 Researcher 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 Researcher can spend or pay from only their own values, and a rule that allows Researchers to transfer or pay a numeric value to another Researcher only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to that other Researcher (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 Researcher 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”).
• 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 Department Head (including secretly random selections), then that information may only be revealed by the Department Head when the ruleset allows it. If a Researcher should already know such a piece of information (in that the Department Head has already told them it, or vice versa, and there is no way that the information could have been changed since then), the Department Head 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 the Admin enacting a Votable Matter reaches a step which cannot be applied immediately (e.g. “two days after this Votable Matter enacts, Researcher A gains 1 point”), that step is ignored for the purposes of enactment. Once a Votable Matter has been enacted, it can have no further direct effect on the gamestate.
• If a dynastic rule has no text and no subrules, any Researcher 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), Researchers may not deliberately interfere with the function of that tool except in ways explicitly permitted by the ruleset.

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 Researcher 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.
• Researchers may correct obvious spelling and typographical mistakes in the Ruleset and their own Pending Votable Matters at any time, including replacing Spivak and gender-specific pronouns with the singular “they”.
• A Researcher 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 Researcher if it is explicitly stated that it refers to a Researcher’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 Researcher’s (or prospective Researcher’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 Special Case Rule explicitly says that it cannot be overruled by a Dynastic Rule, that Special Case Rule has precedence over a Dynastic Rule, otherwise a Dynastic Rule has equal precedence as that Special Case Rule;
4. If two contradicting parts have equal precedence, the part with more limited scope applies (e.g. if the rules “Researchers may Kick each other” and “Researchers may not Kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, Researchers 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 “Researchers may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “Researchers may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then Researchers may not Punch Spacemen on Friday).

Archives

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.

Mentors

A Researcher may have another Researcher as a Mentor. Researchers 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 Researcher who has requested a change on their own behalf, from this list at any time.

If an unmentored Researcher requests a Mentor, or a new Researcher has joined the game and has no Mentor, the Department Head should select a Tenured Researcher and ask them to take that Researcher 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 Department Head should announce it in a blog post. The Department Head should take care to consider game balance when selecting a potential mentor.

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

If there is no Department Head, any Researcher who has been active in at least three previous dynasties may act as Department Head 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, Discord, and end-of-dynasty notifications through the Facebook group or Twitter;
• 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 Researcher 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 Researchers.
• 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 “Researcher” and “Department Head”.

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

• Researcher (Player)
• Department Head (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 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.