Sunday, June 30, 2024

Mentorship of djf1107 by Trapdoorspyder

djf1107 to be mentored by Trapdoorspyder until the Fifth Dynasty of JonathanDark has ended and the date is past the 30th of July 2024.

Proposal: End of the Plank

Timed out, 1-2. Failed by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 02 Jul 2024 14:05:44 UTC

Add the following to Satisfaction

A Fragment Satisfies an Element of type End if the last two words of the fragment are “The End”

Add the following to “Drawing” right above the step “Replace the contents of the Current Elements with the Elements chosen in this instance of the Drawing.”

If at least one storyteller has 100 or more points, add an Element with type End as a Category Element

Makes it so that once someone reaches 100 points, we get one more round but then we all need to end the story.

Sunday, June 30, 2024

Story Post: Drawing Deadline: 01 July 2024 01:06

Last call for Creative Writings

Friday, June 28, 2024

Intent to join game

I declare my intent to join.

Open Call for more Mentors

The list of Mentors on the Mentorships page is a bit short right now, and we may have one or two more incoming new players, so we will need another Mentor or two to step up. Would anyone be willing to be added to the list of Mentors? It requires an Admin to add to the list of Mentors, so Clucky or I will have to add your name if you’re willing.

Link to Mentors rules for reference on what is required.

Mentorship of ChaosGoblin by JonathanDark

ChaosGoblin to be mentored by JonathanDark until the Fifth Dynasty of JonathanDark has ended and the date is past the 28th of July 2024.

Thursday, June 27, 2024

Proposal: Quick Response Time

Popular, 6-0. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 29 Jun 2024 01:18:44 UTC

In the rule “Scoring”, add the following step just before the last step in the Fragment Scoring atomic action:

* For each Storyteller whose most recent valid Scoring Response received by the Publisher was sent 48 hours or less after the the most recent Judging was posted and while it was Open, give that Storyteller 5 Points. The Publisher should privately inform each Storyteller of the Points they received this way.

Similar to “Early Submission Bonus”, an incentive to send Scoring Responses early. If this gets enacted soon enough, it could apply to the current Judging.

Proposal: Early Submission Bonus

Popular, 4-0. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 29 Jun 2024 01:17:00 UTC

After the first paragraph in the rule “Fragments”, add the following text:

When the Publisher resolves a Creative Writing, if the Creative Writing is valid and successful, and it was initiated fewer than 48 hours since the most recent Drawing atomic action, the Storyteller who sent the Creative Writing receives 5 points. The Publisher should then privately inform the Storyteller of any points received this way.

My goal is to hopefully speed up the game a bit by encouraging Storytellers (including myself) to get their Creative Writings in before the 48 hour reminder.

Story Post: Judging: 27 June 2024

June watched in horror as the shop quickly went up in flames, and the yells for help grew louder.

  1. As the thugs ran off with their loot, June leapt into action. She didn’t have long; the flames had already started creeping up the walls. Dashing inside, she saw smashed shelves and ruined merchandise. And a growing pool of blue liquid? No time to investigate! Her brother was doubled over in pain. His scrawny frame—not unlike Eddie’s, though he lacked the latter’s black hair—seemingly did not stand up as well to a gut-punch as June’s own stocky, squat stature.  She helped him up, and saw their escape thwarted by hot, crimson tongues. Their only option lay upstairs.
  2. June leapt out from behind the cart, her auburn hair shining like gold as she hit the first pirate with a solid THWACK! One quick spin and the second pirate fell to her frying pan as well. She kicked the door to the shop open; the cries still ringing in here ears. The smoke made it hard to investigate, but she soon saw a figure in the corner. “Owen, is that you?” she asked, racing to the figure. The old man’s face was already blue, so she quickly picked him up and carried him to the church.
  3. Natasha, head cocked, listened as the little village at the top of the cliffs fell. With the ocean to her back and stone cliffs to her front, she seemed to have an advantageous cover, but something about this still felt wrong. Every so often, about 50 paces away, bags of supplies thudded down from the dark cliffs into the sand. Crew members were taking bags of supplies from shore to the ship when she heard, “Captain! We have it!” She turned to investigate and momentarily forgot about her worries as she saw the pale blue glow of the jewel.
  4. She had to act fast. The entrance was already dangerously ablaze. With her long arms, June brandished her frying pan and swung at the nearest window, smashing it to bits. “Everyone, out! NOW!” she yelled. Her heart pounding, June investigated each person’s face as they climbed through the opening. There was Eddie, his black mop of hair immediately recognizable. Her little brother, clutching a basket of blueberries, looking terrified but uninjured. Her father, the patrons… “Where’s Ma?” June asked, her eyes frantic. June’s father faltered; he looked dazed. “The pirates, they… they took her. They took your mother.”
  5. June ran into the burning shop. “Mom, where are you?” She yelled. “June! Help!” Racing towards the back room, June found her mother under an overturned table. Knowing they had no time to waste, June lifted it up just enough for her mom to crawl out. Rushing out the back door, the two collapsed to the ground. “Are you ok mom?” June asked “I am now hon” her mom sighed. “One of them did drop a note. All it said was ‘meet at the pit; bring the ingredients’” June’s blue eyes flashed with determination, she’d have to investigate Hell’s pit.

Thursday, June 27, 2024

Story Post: Drawing Deadline:28 June 2024 01:58

Last call for Creative Writings

Call for Judgment: [Appendix] Take It To The Limit

Popular, 5-0. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 27 Jun 2024 17:51:30 UTC

Uphold each Fragment that has been included in each Judging from the beginning of the dynasty to the Judging on 20 June 2024 as valid Fragments received in Creative Writings sent to the Publisher, and uphold those Judgings in that same range as valid.

In the rule “Numbers and Variables” located in the Appendix under the “Clarifications” section, add the following bullet point:

* A range of numerical values stated to be “between” one value and another value is treated as an inclusive range unless otherwise explicitly stated.

After seeing My kingdom for an extra sentence!, I realized that I had in fact received one or more Fragments that were exactly 100 words that were subsequently posted in a Judging, and thus if “between 5 and 100” is not explicitly inclusive, those Fragments and the Judgings in which they appeared might be considered illegal. The easiest way forward is simply to uphold them, add the language to make the range inclusive, and move on.

Proposal: My kingdom for an extra sentence!

Popular, 5-0. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 27 Jun 2024 17:49:21 UTC

In rule 2.1.2 “Fragments,” replace “A Fragment is a flavor text string of between 5 and 100 words” with:

A Fragment is a flavor text string of at least 5 and at most 150 words

I severely underestimated how wordy my writing tends to be. Also, thought I’d make sure we can use the exact cap, as RAW 100 words be illegal.

Proposal: Efficient Turnaround Time

Popular, 4-0. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 27 Jun 2024 17:44:02 UTC

In the rule “Proofreading”, replace the text “A Proposal whose only effect is to directly change the contents of The Story is known as a Proofreading” with the following text:

A Proofreading is a blog post with the category Story Post - Votable Matter where the contents of the post body only contains instructions on changing the contents of The Story.

and in the same rule, add the following text:

A Proofreading is resolved in the same manner as described in Resolution of Proposals, by interpreting the term “Proposal” to mean “Proofreading” for the purposes of resolving a Proofreading.

It’s awkward that a Proofreading may be Pending while Storytellers are writing their Fragments, because currently that Proofreading can be held up by Proposals ahead in the queue. If the Proofreading is a Story Post - Votable Matter, then it’s in its own queue and can be resolved independently of Proposals, usually more quickly.

Tuesday, June 25, 2024

I would like to play

Please unidle me for I am no Eric :D

Proposal: Proofreading: No Passive Heroines

Popular, 3-0. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 26 Jun 2024 22:31:43 UTC

In the story replace

“the yells for help inside grew silent.”

with

“and the yells for help grew louder.”

Not a fan of how the current story makes June essentially sit back while people are burned to death. This change would allow her to leap into action to save them!

Proposal: Clarifying Remarks

Popular, 4-0. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 26 Jun 2024 22:28:19 UTC

In rule 2.2 “Categories,” replace “As a Weekly Action, a Storyteller may add one entry, which must consist of a Name and Description and the default value for Expiration, to a Category.” with:

As a Weekly Action, a Storyteller may add one entry, which must consist of a Name and Description and the default value for Expiration, to one Category.

Replace the first paragraph of rule 2.9 “Challenges” with:

There exists a publicly tracked list of Challenges. Each Challenge is a statement sentence that a Fragment may or may not Satisfy. The statement should be objective, and should only regard either the Fragment itself and/or its relation to the rest of the Story. (So, “The Fragment does not contain the letter ‘e.’” or “The Fragment only contains words already included in the Story.” are valid Challenges, but “The Fragment is relaxing to read.” and “The Fragment contains the name of its author.” are not.)

Add the following to rule 2.1.2.1 “Satisfaction:”

A Fragment Satisfies a Challenge if the statement is true for that Fragment.

In the final paragraph of rule 2.9 “Challenges,” replace each instance of the word “met” with “Satisfied.”

What even is a “determinist” determination anyway? It makes no sense in its context, though I’m sure we all knew what was meant.

Proposal: Rising Action

Timed out, 1-2. Failed by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 26 Jun 2024 22:27:28 UTC

In the rule “The End”, replace the sentence

If the last two words in the story are “The End” the Story is Complete.

with

The number of words in The Story is publicly tracked. If The Story ever contains at least 1,500 words, as counted by wordcounter.net, or if the last two words in The Story are “The End”, then the Story is Complete.

This will give us a basic guide for the flow of our story and give us a goal to keep in mind. Currently we are at 264 words (17.6% of 1500). I’m not attached to the specific number, and we can always change it later.

Sunday, June 23, 2024

Proposal: The Whole Fragment

Popular, 4-0. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 24 Jun 2024 14:04:04 UTC

In the rule “Scoring”, before the first paragraph, add the following text:

In this rule, a Fragment is the entire block of text contained within a list item in the numbered list of the body of an Open Judging post.

Uphold all performances of Fragment Scoring between the beginning of this dynasty and the Publishing atomic action completed on 14 June 2024 as valid.

Just to cover any rule confusion about what should be Scored.

Thursday, June 20, 2024

Proposal: Gambling Debts

Timed out, 1-2. Failed by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 22 Jun 2024 19:12:35 UTC

Copy the section “Reinitialisation” from the Building Blocks wiki page to the “Building Blocks” rule in the ruleset.

Now that the default for a Storyteller’s Points is the average of all other Storyteller’s Points, it might be advantageous for a Storyteller to reset their Points to this average. This would also allow Storytellers who idled out earlier in the dynasty to come back and catch up. Since Storytellers are not aware of each others’ Points, it’s also a gamble if you perform this reset because you might come out worse off if your Points are currently above the average.

I will be voting DEF to remove myself from the quorum for this, since there’s an argument to be made on either side for fairness.

Story Post: Judging: 20 June 2024

“Pirates.”

  1. With the sickening smell of smoke on the wind, June raced as quickly as she could towards the village. Nearing the family shop, she ducked behind an over turned cart as a pair of pirates stepped out, arms loaded with stolen goods. “Hey, thanks for the supplies buddy.” one of the pirates called out over his shoulder “Here’s the receipt back though.” With a laugh, the other pirate tossed a torch back through the doorway. June watched in horror as the shop quickly went up in flames, the yells for help inside grew silent.
  2. Using her trusty telescope, June zoomed in on the ship anchored by the port. The orange flower on the black flag that flew in the wind was unmistakable. “Natasha!” June cursed. “I should’ve known she’d be back.” Unfortunately, the frying pan wouldn’t cut it against pirates, and her home was out of the way. She’d have to swing by Paulo’s. To make matters worse, upon arriving at the blacksmith, the shop was closed. “Desperate times,” June muttered. A swift kick later, the door was open. She grabbed a weapon and hastily scribbled a receipt—“I owe you one Tri-Sword - J.”
  3. June hurried toward the source of the smoke, leaping from tree to tree. Her parents had always warned her to run and find help if she ever encountered pirates, but she had to make sure that Eddie was okay. As she approached the garden, June heard a voice from below. “My patience is dwindling. On receipt of your food, clothing, and valuables, we will leave you and your home intact, but if you try anything else, my crew will not hesitate to burn this all down. Do you understand?”

Tuesday, June 18, 2024

Nad Is No Longer With Us

Nad has been Idled on the shorter 96-hour timer due to going Idle earlier in this dynasty. Quorum remains unchanged at 3.

The dynasty is now On Hiatus due to the Dormancy rule.

Proposal: End of Days

Popular, 3-0. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 20 Jun 2024 16:37:07 UTC

Add a new dynastic rule called “The End”

If the last two words in the story are “The End” the Story is Complete.

If the Story is Complete no additional Story Actions can be taken, nor can any actions be taken which modifies the story.

If the Story is Complete the Publisher should at their earliest convivence publish a list of each Storyteller and how many Points that Storyteller has. Upon doing so, the Storyteller with the most points achieves victory.

Monday, June 17, 2024

Story Post: Drawing Deadline: 18 June 2024 13:41

Last call for Creative Writings

Proposal: Some Stories Are Better Than None

Popular, 3-1. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 20 Jun 2024 16:34:48 UTC

Copy the section “Low-Player Mode” from the Building Blocks wiki page to the Building Blocks rule in the ruleset..

We’re close to going into Dormancy mode, but I think we can still have a viable dynasty if we wind up dropping down to 3 Storytellers and the Publisher, so let’s make sure we don’t go into Dormancy mode before it happens.

Idling again

An upcoming period of at least partial unavailability + not much inspiration for writing = I’d like to be idled

Monday, June 17, 2024

Proposal: Challenging

Popular, 4-0. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 20 Jun 2024 16:31:37 UTC

Add a new dynastic rule called “Challenges” and give it the following text

There is a publicly tracked list of challenges. Each challenge is a statement that a fragment may or may not meets such as “The fragment does not contain the letter e”. That determination must be determinist and depend solely on the text of the fragment in question and/or the text of the story (So, “The fragment only contains words already included in the story” is fine but “The fragment contains the name of its author” or “Roll a DICE100 if the result is 1, the fragment meets this challenge” is not).

As a Story Action that can only be performed when there is an open Open Judging, a Storyteller may add a new challenge

When the Publisher posts a new judging, each Storyteller receives one point for every challenge which is met by the fragment they authored they authored for that challenge (the Publisher should privately inform each Storyteller of the points received this way). Then, any challenge which at least one fragment met is removed from the list of challenges.

Proposal: Connecting the Dots

Popular, 3-0. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 17 Jun 2024 17:46:55 UTC

Add the following to the first paragraph of “Scoring”

A scoring response may also contain, for each Fragments in that Judging post other than the one which they authored, a guess of which Storyteller wrote that Fragment (only one Storyteller may be guessed by a given Storyteller per Fragment). Idle storytellers are considered to be storytellers for the purposes of these guesses.

Add the following step to Scoring, above “Privately communicate to each Storyteller their current Points value.”

Give each Storyteller one point for each Fragment in the current Judging for which they successfully guessed the author (according to their most recent valid Scoring Response)

Friday, June 14, 2024

Proposal: Is Receipt Out Of Place?

Unpopular, 0-3. Failed by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 15 Jun 2024 01:15:19 UTC

Replace the word “receipt” in the Current Elements with a randomly selected Common Word using DICE2760.

Receipt feels like it might be hard to fit The Story, but if you’d rather keep it for the challenge of it, feel free to vote AGAINST this.

Proposal: Rounding Up The Score

Popular, 4-0. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 15 Jun 2024 01:14:28 UTC

In the rule “Scoring”, replace “which is a number between 1 and 10 inclusive” with “which is an integer between 1 and 10 inclusive”.

Since Points is by default an integer, Score seems to be expected to be integers as well, but it actually isn’t, because the rule on numbers only requires numbers “that don’t have a specified valid range” to be integers, and Score has a specified valid range of 1-10, which allows non-integer Scores like 3.333.

I actually don’t feel that strongly about this, but I thought it would be worth bringing it to everyone’s attention out of fairness in case anyone wanted to use non-integer Scores, or if people expect everyone to use integers. If people are ok with non-integers, the next thing to consider is rational numbers, so that someone doesn’t use 𝜋 for example, since it’s technically a number between 1-10.

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Proposal: Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

Popular, 4-0. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 13 Jun 2024 21:35:35 UTC

Add a new rule called “Credits” with the following text:

When a DoV has been Enacted after the beginning of this dynasty, at any time during the Interregnum the former Publisher before that DoV was Enacted should make a Story Post with the title “Credits:” followed by the current date, and with a body that contains the contents of The Story where the author of each Fragment in The Story should be identified by some means chosen by that former Publisher. This dynastic action is permitted to be carried out during an Interregnum.

If anyone is curious about who wrote the Fragments that made it into The Story, this allows that info to be published at the end of the dynasty. I’m tracking all of that, so I have the info to share, but after the dynasty is over it will remain private unless there’s a means to share it.

Proposal: Location is Everything

Popular, 5-0. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 13 Jun 2024 21:34:14 UTC

Replace the table “Fictional Countries” from the publicly tracked set of Categories with a table named “Locations”.

I don’t think Fictional Countries mesh well with the story to date.  Lets get another Category open that could be more general and track locations or scenes in the story:  Swamp, June’s Garden, etc.

Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Proposal: Rise of the Machines

Timed out, 2-3. Failed by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 13 Jun 2024 21:33:34 UTC

In the rule “Judging”, after the text “the Publisher should resolve all unresolved Creative Writings and make a Story Post called a Judging” add the following text:

, performing the Generate Filler atomic action for each Storyteller who did not submit a Creative Writing since the most recent Drawing

In the same rule, add a subrule named “Fillers” with the following text:

A Filler Template is the text “Write the next 5 to 100 words for a story using the words X that starts with the text Y”, where X is the contents of the Current Elements separated by commas (the Publisher may choose the Name of any entry of a Category Element) and Y is the last 3 sentences of The Story (or last 2 sentences and last incomplete sentence if The Story ends on an incomplete sentence).

Generate Filler is an atomic action with the following steps:
* Log in to ChatGPT at https://chatgpt.com/
* In the field to message ChatGPT, enter the Filler Template, substituting the values for X and Y as described in the Filler Template definition.
* Take the response from ChatGPT and privately track that as a Fragment as if it were received from a Storyteller from a successful Creative Writing since most recent Drawing, except that the author for that Fragment is tracked as ChatGPT. Multiple Fragments whose author is tracked as ChatGPT are allowed.

In the rule “Scoring”, after the text “if its author submitted a Scoring Response during the Judging” add “or if the author is ChatGPT”, and after the text “if its author did not submit a Scoring Response during the Judging” add “and its author is not ChatGPT”, and after the text “Add the Total Score for each Fragment in that Judging to the Points of the Storyteller who authored that Fragment” add “unless the author of that Fragment is ChatGPT”.

If Storytellers don’t get their Fragments in, ChatGPT takes over the missing ones and could potentially have written the Fragment that is added to The Story if one of its Fragments scores high enough. If everyone gets their Fragments in, there’s no change, and ChatGPT is thwarted.

Story Post: Judging: 11 June 2024

“Skunk flies,” June muttered to herself “Anyone who claims they aren’t harmful should come out here and try gathering swamp beets from their nest and then tell me they just smell bad.”

  1. Her prize secured, June placed the swamp beets into her bag and began the hike back home. She would have to stop by Eddie’s garden on the way back in order to gather the last of the ingredients that she needed. As June neared the garden, a sudden acrid smell stopped her in her tracks. Something wasn’t right. She climbed the nearest maple for a better look. Between the treetops, June immediately saw the choking green smoke rising into the sky. Her eyes widened. “Pirates.”
  2. As another swamp fly descended upon her, only to meet it’s demise with a satisfying SPLAT, June reasoned she had to make her way to the garden. From there she could climb the sycamore tree and deal with their nest once and for all
  3. As June climbed over the rocky embankment of the creek bed, her thoughts began to wander. “I hope the garden can grow these beets. The shop could really use something new to sell. Mother’s age certainly hasn’t….” Suddenly June stopped and took a deep breath in. Her heart skipped a beat. The smell of arid smoke hung in the air.
  4. June sighed, picked up the remaining beets, and headed back towards her garden.

    June’s so-called garden had become famous throughout the small country of Globb for dividing philosophers into two competing schools that had frequent arguments about whether it actually was a garden at all. Those supporting its garden status pointed to the fact that everyone called it a garden. Others insisted that it simply didn’t meet any reasonable definition of a garden, claiming that anything planted in its slimy mud would be so offended that it’d just uproot itself, climb over the old fence, and flee outright.
  5. Looping the pan over her gear, she stooped to grab the mangy swamp beets at her feet. A ripple broke the swampy ooze. Slowly, a pudgy beaver climbed up, shuddering sending water in a spray.

    “Hey Clyde”, cocking her head towards the beaver.
    “Hi June”, replied the beaver settling on its haunches.

    His black eyes eyed the beets.
    “Those are good lookin’ swamp beets you have.”

    June smiled tossing one over.

    “One day Clyde, I’ll figure out how I ended up sharing a swamp beet with a sentient beaver in an infernal swamp.  It ain’t exactly the Garden of Eden.”

Proposal: Waiting Until The Last Minute

Popular, 4-0. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 12 Jun 2024 14:24:13 UTC

In the rule “Judging”, replace the text “followed by the time of the current Drawing” with “followed by the date and time 24 hours from the time of the post”.

In the rule “Scoring”, replace the text “Judging Deadline” with “Scoring Deadline”.

There’s one place in the new Deadline rules where the reference to the deadline for Scoring was called “Judging Deadline” by mistake and made that part of the rule not match correctly with the rest of the rule text. This is just a fix for that to allow Scoring Deadlines to work properly, plus a little tweak to the title of a Drawing Deadline to make it more clear when the Deadline will occur.

Monday, June 10, 2024

Story Post: Drawing Deadline: 09 June 2024 08:10

Last call for Creative Writings

Note that the post title is the date of the Drawing, not the date of the deadline itself. I’m just following what the rules require for the post title.

Proposal: Out With The Old

Popular, 3-0 with 1 DEF and Publisher voting FOR. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 11 Jun 2024 20:48:29 UTC

In the rule “Categories”, replace the text “each items in a Category consists of a Name and a Description which describes the item in a categories” with the following text:

each item in a Category consists of a Name, a Description (which describes the item in a Category), and a number named Expiration which defaults to 3

and in the same rule, after the text “a Storyteller may add one entry, which must consist of a Name and Description” add the following text:

and the default value for Expiration

In the rule “Judging”, add the following step just before the last step in the Publishing atomic action:

* For the Category that is in the Current Elements, subtract 1 from the Expiration of each entry in that Category that was not contained in any Fragment in that Judging. If that entry’s Expiration is 0 after this operation, remove that entry from that Category.

An automated way to remove entries in a Category that don’t get used, to make way for newer ideas, or if anyone really wants to keep an entry, to make sure that entry gets used somehow.

Proposal: Expand Your Horizons

Withdrawn. Failed by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 11 Jun 2024 14:28:08 UTC

In the rule “Categories”, after the text “a Storyteller may add one entry, which must consist of a Name and Description, to a Category.” add the following text:

When a Storyteller does so, they gain Points according to the formula P = S - N, where P is the number of Points gained by that Storyteller if P is greater than 0, S is the number of Storytellers (not counting the Publisher), and N is the number of entries in that Category before that Storyteller added a new entry. If P is 0 or less, no Points are gained by that Storyteller for this action..

An incentive to add more entries to Categories, with a bias towards adding entries to Categories that have fewer entries at the time.

Sunday, June 09, 2024

Juniper Journeys Far Away

Per the dynastic rule “Timing Out”, Juniper has been made Idle after not posting an entry or comment in the past 96 hours (4 days), and the Publisher receiving no Creative Writing or Scoring Response from Juniper in that time period. Quorum drops to 4.

Saturday, June 08, 2024

Proposal: Deadline

Timed out, 2-0. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 10 Jun 2024 21:57:39 UTC

In the section named Drawing, replace:

The time which the most recent Drawing was conducted is publicly tracked on the dynastic tracking page

With:

The time which the most recent Drawing was conducted is publicly tracked on the dynastic tracking page

The most recent Drawing is considered Open until the Publisher has posted a Judging after that Drawing has been Open.

In the section named Judging, replace:

If, since the most recent Drawing action, the Publisher has received Creative Writings from all Storytellers, whichever comes first, the Publisher should resolve all unresolved Creative Writings and make a Story Post called a Judging:

With:

If, since the most recent Drawing action, the Publisher has received Creative Writings from a quorum of Storytellers, the Publisher can announce a Drawing Deadline by making a story post with:

- the title “Drawing Deadline: ”, followed by the time of the current Drawing . 
- body text of “Last call for Creative Writings”.

If, since the most recent Drawing action, if any of the following are true:

- The Publisher has received Creative Writings from all Storytellers.
- The Drawing has been open for 24 hours after the Publisher has announced a Drawing Deadline, as measured by the timestamp on the Drawing Deadline story post

The Publisher should resolve all unresolved Creative Writings and make a Story Post called a Judging:

In the section named Scoring, replace:

When the Publisher receives at least one valid Scoring Response from every Storyteller for an Open Judging, at their earliest convenience the Publisher should perform the Publishing atomic action.

With:

If, since the most recent Open Judging post, the Publisher has received a valid Scoring Response for an Open Judging from a quorum of Storytellers, the Publisher can announce a Judging Deadline by making a comment to the current Open Judgement with:

- the text “Scoring Deadline.  Last call for Scorings”

If, since the most Open Judging post, if any of the following are true:

- The publisher has received a valid Scoring Response for an Open Judging from every Storyteller.
- The Judging has been open for 24 hours after the Publisher has announced a Scoring Deadline, as measured by the timestamp on the Scoring Deadline comment.

at their earliest convenience, the Publish should preform the Publishing atomic action.

 

A suggestion to keep the dynasty moving.  This will allow the Publisher an opportunity to establish a deadline after a majority of Storytellers have replied to a Drawing or Judging.  If we can’t get a quorum to reply rather quickly that’s a different problem.  I’m hoping this will serve as a call to get posts in and as way to move things forward.

Happy for any comments around that text above, I gave it my best shot.

Proposal: Ghost Writers

Popular, 5-0. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 09 Jun 2024 07:53:24 UTC

Enact a new rule, “Timing Out”:-

The Publisher may render a Storyteller Idle if that Storyteller has not posted an entry or comment in the past 96 hours (4 days), and if the Publisher has also received no Creative Writing or Scoring Response from that Storyteller in the past 96 hours.

Lowering the idle timeout to 4 days this dynasty, in situations where the player also hasn’t submitted the game action that we’re waiting for either. (If Juniper is reading, we’re still waiting for you to score the fragments that were posted on Tuesday; everyone else responded within 24 hours.)

Friday, June 07, 2024

Proposal: Mantle Shelf [Core] [Building Blocks]

Reached quorum 5 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 08 Jun 2024 14:42:05 UTC

In “Victory and Ascension”, replace “the new Publisher must either Pass the Mantle (by making a post naming a Storyteller who was not the last dynasty’s Publisher, in which case the passing Storyteller ceases to be the Publisher and the Storyteller so named becomes the Publisher) or start a new dynasty” with:-

the new Publisher must start a new dynasty

Remove the “Passing the Mantle” keyword entry.

Repeal the “Mantle Limitations” rule from the ruleset.

Rename the “Mantle Limitations” Building Block to “Mantle Passing”, and reword it to:-

During an Interregnum, the new Publisher may Pass the Mantle by making a post naming an Storyteller who was not the last dynasty’s Publisher; the passing Storyteller then ceases to be the Publisher and the Storyteller so named becomes the Publisher.

In the “Malign Emperors” Building Block, replace “The Publisher may be recipient of the Mantle, as if they were a Storyteller, during an Interregnum, as per the rule Victory and Ascension.” with:-

If “Mantle Passing” is active, the Publisher may be recipient of the Mantle as if they were a Storyteller.

In the “Declared Alliances” Building Block, replace “If “Mantle Limitations” is also active” with “If “Mantle Passing” is not active” and after “may pass the Mantle to a Storyteller” add:-

(as if “Mantle Passing” were active)

Then remove “, nor does the prohibition on deals in “Mantle Limitations” (if it is active) apply to Storytellers who have each other’s names in their Alliance” from that rule.

Mantle passing was made default-off from September 2022 to February 2024, after mantle rolling had started to overshadow too many endgames — during those 17 dynasties, no Emperor turned it on. In February this year mantle passing was flipped to default-on as part of an overhaul of some Building Blocks — and in the four dynasties since, every Emperor has either switched it off or blocked it with the stronger No Cooperation.

If this is a block which nearly always gets switched off, let’s put it back to default-off.

Thursday, June 06, 2024

Proposal: Vox Populi

Timed out 3 votes to 3. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 08 Jun 2024 13:03:13 UTC

Add a new rule named “Popular Words” with the following text:

There is a publicly-tracked list named Popular Words that defaults to an empty list and where each entry in the list is a Common Word and a number named Popularity.

At any time as a Virtual Action, any Storyteller may send a request to the Publisher to add to the Popular Words with a positive amount of their Points and a Common Word, which can optionally be one that is already in the Popular Words but is not required to be. When the Publisher receives this request, at their earliest convenience, the Publisher should spend that amount from that Storyteller’s Points and do one of the following:
* If that Storyteller chose a Common Word that is in the Popular Words, add the Points spent from that Storyteller’s request to the Popularity of that Common Word.
* If that Storyteller chose a Common Word that is not already in the Popular Words, add a new entry to the Popular Words with that Common Word and a Popularity equal to the Points spent from that Storyteller’s request.

In the subrule “Drawing”, add the following steps before the last step in the Drawing atomic action:

* If the Popular Words is not empty, select the Common Word in the Popular Words with the most Popularity as a Word Element, randomly selecting among the Common Words that are tied for the most Popularity if there are any.
* Set the Popular Words to an empty list.

Another idea for using Points, this time to bid on having a specific Common Word be in the next Current Elements.

Proposal: More Words

Timed out 2 votes to 3. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 08 Jun 2024 12:08:43 UTC

Add the following words to the wiki page titled “Oxford 3000”:

beaver, cat, cow, dog, fox, rabbit, raccoon, squirrel, tiger, wolf, wombat,

crow, dove, duck, eagle, flamingo, goose, hawk, owl, pinguin,

eel, crab, octopus, shark, whale,

ant, bee, beetle, butterfly, caterpillar, fly, scorpion, slug, worm,

cactus, lawn, liana, moss, mud, mushroom,

darkness, lightning, rainbow, sun, thunder,

cave, hideout, hut, lighthouse, mansion, sea, sky, skyscraper, swamp, temple,

cut, die, dodge, punch, run, swing,

axe, bow, granade, gun, shield, sword,

alien, galaxy, gravity, laser, plasma, spaceship, warp,

apprentice, burglar, captain, god, monster, ninja, pirate, smith, traitor, witch, wizard,

galactic, magical, mechanical, murderous, slimy, suspicious

From the same wiki page, remove all words that begin with “some”, “every”, “with” or “wh”, except for the words “wheel”, “whisper”, “white” and “whole”.

Wednesday, June 05, 2024

Let’s try

I’d like to be unidled

Proposal: On A Roll

Withdrawn. Failed by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 07 Jun 2024 04:57:33 UTC

In the rule “Judging”, add a subrule named “Bonus” with the following text:

Each Storyteller has a number named Bonus that is privately tracked by the Storyteller and defaults to 0.

As a Virtual Story Action, a Storyteller may send a request to the Storyteller to spend an amount of their Points to get additional Bonus at a rate of 10 Points for each additional Bonus.

In the subrule “Scoring”, replace the text “Set the Total Score for a Fragment to be either one plus the Pending Score for that Fragment” with this text:

Set the Total Score for a Fragment to be either one plus the Pending Score for that Fragment plus that Fragment Author’s Bonus

and in the same rule, add the following step to the end of the Fragment Scoring atomic action:

* Set each Storyteller’s Bonus to 0.

The more successful you’ve been with getting Score for your Fragments, the more influence you can have over your next Fragment being picked to be the one added to The Story, at the cost of losing some of your Points progress. You also get 10% of your Points back that you spent, so it’s not a complete loss.

Wednesday, June 05, 2024

Proposal: $3,000 Words

Popular, 3-0 with 1 DEF and Publisher voting FOR. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 05 Jun 2024 14:12:54 UTC

Remove each word with a length of three or fewer characters from the contents of the wiki page titled Oxford 3000. Set any Sparks that are now invalid to their default value.

Especially in light of the fact that Fragments can “contain” words followed by other letters, this will remove some of the more boring words from the Common Words list, including words like “and”, “of”, and so on.

Proposal: Oh Yeah, Where Was I?

Popular, 2-0 with 2 DEFs and Publisher voting FOR. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 05 Jun 2024 14:08:25 UTC

In the rule “Judging”, replace the text “The body of a Judging must be a numbered list” with the following:

The body of a Judging must be the last sentence from the contents of The Story (or last partial sentence if The Story does not end with a complete sentence) followed by a numbered list

If there is an Open Judging, edit the Open Judging post and add the last sentence from the contents of The Story (or last partial sentence if The Story does not end with a complete sentence) just before the numbered list.

It might help Storytellers in Scoring the Fragments if they can easily see the sentence that would come just before that Fragment if it were added to the end of The Story. Yes, they can just look at the sidebar, but having it conveniently in the Judging might be more helpful.

Story Post: Judging: 04 June 2024

Clearly, the frying pan was the most suitable weapon of choice for this situation.

  1. Lazaro kept a gun in his desk drawer, but if things got out of hand the rounds would cut through a whole corridor of these cheap office walls, and he’d grown to like some of the tenants here. A blunter and less harmful instrument would clean this up. He put down his coffee and stepped calmly to the kitchenette, a stove and refrigerator between two dented filing cabinets. “Sure, I still have the Juneau dossier here.” he lied, “Is that what your boss is so fired up about?”
  2. The throwing knives didn’t have enough raw power. The plasma grenades were too harmful, and she couldn’t risk extra casualties. The shotgun would draw too much attention. But nobody would expect a frying pan. Her weapon chosen, June flung open the doors of the armory and entered
  3. With a mighty swing, June brought her pan down upon the bigger skunk fly with a wet crunch. As she shook the remains of the fly off, June watched its mate retreat, its panicked buzzing echoing in the distance. “Skunk flies,” June muttered to herself “Anyone who claims they aren’t harmful should come out here and try gathering swamp beets from their nest and then tell me they just smell bad.”
  4. The sheer power it had was amazing, even without harmful intentions. With one hit, the intruder’s body fell to the floor. June took a step back and examined the windows. With almost a perfect circle cut through the glass, this was no ordinary break-and-enter. The thief’s limp body on the floor z beneath her was still warm, so she tied it up with a conveniently placed string of sausages and threw it out the front for the police force to find when they did their daily drive-by.
  5. As the giant chicken decendened upon the village, June picked up the skillet and stared down the fowl beast. “Hey buddy” she called out to the harmful monster, raising the weapon to attack. “How bout you… break an egg”

Proposal: The Shame Ghost

Popular, 3-0 and Publisher voting DEF. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 04 Jun 2024 23:31:48 UTC

In both places in the ruleset, replace “publicly track the number of Storytellers who have sent” with:-

publicly track the names of Storytellers who have sent

In Scoring, replace “the count of Storytellers” with “the list of Storytellers”.

Proposal: Blue Pencil

Popular, 4-0. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 04 Jun 2024 21:01:07 UTC

In “Fragments”, replace “A Fragment is a string” with:-

A Fragment is a flavor text string

In “Categories”, after “Each Category itself has a name and a list of items, and each items in a Category consists of a Name and a Description which describes the item in a categories.” add:-

Category Names and Descriptions are flavor text.

In “Sparks”, replace “A Storyteller’s Spark is publicly tracked.” with:-

A Storyteller’s Spark is flavor text, and is publicly tracked.

Putting all of the free text creation stuff into flavour text.

Monday, June 03, 2024

Proposal: Minor Corrections

Popular, 4-0 with 1 DEF and Publisher voting FOR. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 04 Jun 2024 20:58:50 UTC

In the rule “The Story” add the following text:

At any time, the Publisher may correct any spelling errors, grammatical errors, typos, uppercasing/lowercasing errors, and add, change, or remove any punctuation as the Publisher deems necessary in the contents of The Story.

Just allowing for cleanup of The Story when Fragments are added to it that may have some issues.

Story Post: Unnapping

Sorry, but I was away a bit last week.  Could a kind Admin Unidle me?

Story Post: Waking Up from the Nap

Sorry, I was offline line for some travel this past week.  Could a kind Admin unidle me?

Sunday, June 02, 2024

Proposal: Strictly Satisfying

Timed out, 2-2. Failed by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 04 Jun 2024 18:04:36 UTC

In the subrule “Satisfaction”, at the end of each of the text “if it contains that Word” and “if it contains the Name of an entry in that Category”, add the text “as a complete word surrounded by whitespace or punctuation in the Fragment”.

How strict do we want Satisfying to be? This is codifying the more strict interpretation.

Proposal: The Prize is Right

Withdrawn. Failed by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 03 Jun 2024 21:21:48 UTC

In the subrule “Drawing”, add the following text:

The number of Drawings performed since the beginning of the dynasty is publicly tracked as Total Drawings.

Add a new rule named “Prizes” with the following text:

Each Storyteller has a publicly-tracked list of Prizes, which defaults to empty and may contain one or more of the Prizes listed in the table below, but not more than one of each named Prize. Each Prize has a Condition.

When a Storyteller has first met the criteria listed in the Condition of a Prize, the Publisher should privately randomly roll DICE3 and privately track the result plus the current Total Drawings as the Award Delay, tracking it with that Prize and Storyteller combination. When the Total Drawings is equal to the Award Delay for a combination of Prize and Storyteller, at their earliest convenience the Publisher should add that Prize to that Storyteller’s Prizes if they have not done so already.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Prizes
|-
! Name !! Condition
|-
| Ovid Prize || The Storyteller has had their Fragment added to The Story 3 times
|}

A public way to see how Storytellers are progressing without revealing their Points or which Fragments they authored. The random delay between meeting the Condition of a Prize and receiving the Prize prevents backtracking to try to determine which Fragments that Storyteller authored.

Saturday, June 01, 2024

Proposal: Cliffhangers

Popular, 4-0. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 02 Jun 2024 17:15:20 UTC

In “Fragments”, replace “A Fragment is one or more complete sentences that must contain between 5 and 100 vernacular English words” with:-

A Fragment is a string of between 5 and 100 words

Ending a Fragment mid-sentence seems fine, maybe even preferable.