lawguide/lawguide.tex
Wolfgang Müller 8faa64e183 Mention that each person can only vote once
It is an important detail that legislation can only happen when a
minimum of three different people vote on the active proposal. This has
always been well-defined in the core laws, but for some reason was
missing from here.
2021-07-15 13:11:14 +02:00

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\begin{document}
\section{\#offtopia law guide}
This document is merely a summary of our most important laws.
The first two sections, \textbf{Behaving} and \textbf{Logs}, detail laws that must or should
be followed. The latter sections detail how laws are made and miscellaneous laws.
\subsection{Behaving}\label{behaving}
Only four\footnote{Excluding the \emph{unbreakable} laws that spell out what
\emph{unbreakable} laws are.}
of our thousands of laws are \emph{unbreakable}. If an \emph{unbreakable} law is broken,
the following progression of actions takes place after each transgression:
1) a warning is issued, 2) a \texttt{+q} for an hour, and 3) a temporary (24 to 48 hours) or permanent ban,
decided upon in a case-by-case basis. Any trusted person (you know who you are!) can enforce this. Steps may be skipped in cases of bad faith actions or spam. However, before any
punishment is enacted, the reasoning behind it must be explained.
Here's two crucial unbreakable laws. The final two are in section two.
\begin{itemize}
\item No bigotry, including but not limited to racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, or misogyny.
No telling people to kill themselves.
\item If someone lays out a boundary to you, you are to respect it. No ``jokes'' where you
repeatedly violate it after being specifically told so. If you violate a boundary by accident,
apologise.
\end{itemize}
Here's a smattering of other (new ancient or not) laws to keep in mind:
\begin{itemize}
\item Mark nsfw content. Linked nsfw content should be marked, preferably with
\texttt{nsfw} or \texttt{[nsfw]}. Feel free to tag music with \texttt{[music]} and
relevant tags too. Tag everything!
\item Funkicking---where you kick someone just for fun, or for some insignificant reason
---is only acceptable if the person being kicked is explicitly okay with it. Do not
funkick idlers.
\end{itemize}
\subsection{Logs}\label{logs}
There is a public log at \url{gopher://yurie.smar.fi:7070/hofftopia.html}
that logs the last hundred lines of the channel, except those that
begin with \texttt{nolog:} or \texttt{[nolog]}. \texttt{nolog}
messages cannot be ratified.
An \emph{unbreakable} law says that messages intended to be \texttt{nolog}
mustn't be shared publicly and must be treated as if they were shared in confidence.
An \emph{unbreakable} law says that publishing channel logs otherwise without explicit agreement from the channel is
prohibited.
The gopher server serving the public logs is allowed to collect IPs, requested paths,
and user agents of connecting users; these are not retained for over a month except in cases
of abuse. Full contents of requests the server is unable to parse can be collected too, with
the same restriction of a month.
\pagebreak
\subsection{Voting}\label{voting}
We vote on things. We make laws. This is how.
\subsubsection{Basics}\label{voting-basics}
At every moment, there is an active proposal and a vote count. Each person can only vote once on the active proposal.
If a vote is cast that doesn't refer to the current active proposal, the active proposal
changes to the new proposal, and the vote count resets to 0. A filibuster resets the vote count to 0. Bar a few exceptions detailed below, it also sets the active
proposal to itself.
A vote increments the vote count by 1 after change of proposal (if required).
When the vote count reaches 3, the active proposal becomes a law\footnote{Why 3? nortti, shikhin, and sortie.}.
\subsubsection{Syntaxen}\label{voting-syntaxen}
There are several different kinds of syntaxes for voting on laws. They're all based
on the original syntax of \texttt{:D}, with various modifications.
\texttt{:D} is the most basic form of a vote. It votes for the current active proposal.
\texttt{:D\~{}N} votes N proposals back. This is 0-indexed, so \texttt{:D\~{}0} is equivalent to \texttt{:D}. If you want to be esoteric,
you can also use \texttt{:D\^{}\^{}\^{}...}---this is equivalent to \texttt{:D\~{}N}, where N is the number of \texttt{\^{}}s.
Prefixing your vote with \texttt{nick:} or \texttt{nick,} instead makes it refer to the relevant proposal
made by nick.
\subsubsection{What counts as a filibuster/proposal?}\label{voting-filibuster}
We get it. It's hard to determine what filibusters and what is a legitimate proposal. Here's
a handy table:
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\begin{tabular}{p{0.6\linewidth} | p{0.15\linewidth} | p{0.15\linewidth}}
\textbf{Message} & \textbf{Filibusters?} & \textbf{Proposal?} \\ \hline
\texttt{:D} and its variants. & No. & No. \\
\texttt{:D:} or \texttt{D:} and their variants. & Yes. & No. \\
Messages redacted in the public logs or messages intended to be redacted. & Yes. & No. \\
Automatic bot messages. & No, unless disruptive. & No, unless disruptive. \\
First join. & Yes. & Yes. \\
Kicks and mode changes on users. & Yes. & Yes. \\
Other network messages such as joins, parts, kills, nick changes, or channel mode changes. & No, unless disruptive. & No, unless disruptive.
\end{tabular}
\pagebreak
\subsection{Miscellaneous}\label{miscellaneous}
\begin{itemize}
\item The person who starts the vote on a proposal must provide the law to a lawrememberer,
if requested to do so.
\item In cases where there is disagreement on whether something passed, the
authoritative log's point of view is used.
\item Zero-width spaces in votes are to be ignored.
\item It is good custom to vote on one's own proposal last.
\end{itemize}
\subsection{Terminology}\label{terminology}
\begin{itemize}
\item \texttt{filibuster}: Anything that is sent on the channel and can stop a
law from being passed is known as a filibuster. This is in line with the literal meaning,
``obstructs progress in a legislative assembly''.
\item \texttt{inner party}: A loosely defined group of people who are more active
with channel work, and have additional rights with ChanServ. Find out who it consists of
by knocking on the nearest secret door.
\item \texttt{law}: A proposal that passed.
Laws need not (and mostly do not) affect active behavior on the channel, and can be passed because of
Rule of Funny.
\item \texttt{lawrememberer}: The people responsible for maintaining the lawlog,
currently notably nortti, shikhin, and wolf, but anyone can sign up.
\item \texttt{lawspeaker}: The person who interprets and clarifies the law,
currently nortti.
\item \texttt{malcompliance}: The act of complying in the worst possible manner. Or,
as the Finnish define it, ``following the letter of the law while pissing on the spirit''.
Examples:
\begin{quote}
``Hey could you test sortix?'' ``test -f sortix.iso \# Yep. It's a file.'' \\
``I'll have something strong to drink'' \emph{*gives aqua fortis*}
\end{quote}
\item \texttt{new ancient law}: A law that has always been true,
but was only recently discovered and either ratified or recognized.
\item \texttt{proposal}: Anything that can be ratified as a law is a proposal.
\item \texttt{triminority}: The three required to pass a law. Can be used to refer to
an actual group, or a hypothetical group.
\item \texttt{vote}: Anything described under \hyperref[voting-syntaxen]{\textbf{Voting.Syntaxen}}.
\end{itemize}
\end{document}