On Tue, 26 Feb 2002, dmdsnprls99 wrote:

> This could be a mess.
>
> The simplest interpretation is that, because Alex (probably)
> did "vote/respond" (in some sense), Alex should be active. (rule 82
> does not apply)
>
> My ruling is that Alex is active.

I have updated my players web page to reflect this judgement.

> Thoughts and concerns about this interpretation:
>
> Allowing this interpretation of the rules in every situation (correct
> though it may be) could quickly lead us into an unmanageable (even
> paradoxical) game state.
>
> This seems to indicate there is a problem with this interpretation.
> (At first, I thought this potential paradox implied that it must
> conflict with some other rule, but I could not find any rule that it
> conflicted with. (Apparently neither could Jeff.))
>
> The real problem is that this interpretation, while not conflicting
> explicitly with any of the other rules, seems to conflict with the
> ASSUMPTIONS made by several of the other rules (or players reading
> them). For example, some other rules/players appeared to ASSUME that
> votes are communicated to other players (meaning received by other
> players.) Additionaly they seem to have assumed that the gamestate
> would be the same from the perspective of each player and that it
> would not need to be laboriously merged and resolved from time to
> time.

You bring up some very good points. I've been studying how Agora
handles these types of situations (actually I've been playing Agora for
the last several weeks), and I'll try to summarize their aproach.
Essentially, they have various offices that track different bits of the
gamestate. All of the officers must issue a weekly report that contains
all of the gamestate information they are tracking. There is a system in
place for making Claims of Error to correct any errors that may occur.
There is also a ratification process, where if no players object to the
ratification of the report, it can be declared to be an official
representation of the gamestate.

While we probably don't need anything so fancy at this stage,
having all aspects of the gamestate being tracked and having regular
reports on the gamestate would be a good start. We could utilize our Rule
Judge rules to work out any errors with the reports.