Thursday, June 08, 2006

Call for Judgment: Good Faith

Passed 8-2, due to a large number of misunderstandings on both sides.  Adminned by Bucky

8-1, actually.  Fixed a typo by Bucky, too.  Admin flag un-set. —Excalabur

Adminned at 08 Jun 2006 13:34:37 UTC

If this Call for Judgment passes, Bucky is no longer an Administrator.

Our game requires administrators that are trustworthy and have a sufficient moral character. Bucky’s behavior since he has joined our community has consistently demonstrated a lack of good faith, trustworthiness, and a propensity to abuse his position as a game administrator for his own gain.

Last month I added an account named ‘Anonymous’ to the GNDT as a game experiment—I had intended to pen a proposal to allow anonymous action in the GNDT by use of this account, and publicly distribute the password. Much to my amusement, I noticed several days later that the Anonymous account was being used, and that I had not distributed the password to any other player. The Anonymous account made plays that would be under color of legality if they were done by any other player’s account—moving Bucky around and then decreasing his points, and so on. However, at least three of these moves are of highly dubious legality, generally by increasing Bucky’s points out of context.

16/05 00:22 (UTC) - Bucky
  Bucky's Fitness = 32(19) (was 31(19))
(Trimming tree@B-0N)

16/05 00:22 (UTC) - Bucky
  Bucky's Moves = 5 (was 11)
(Trimming tree@B-0N)
16/05 01:38 (UTC) - Anonymous
  Bucky's Moves = 15 (was 5)
16/05 01:39 (UTC) - Bucky
  Bucky's Location = B-1O (was B-N1)

16/05 01:39 (UTC) - Bucky
  Bucky's Moves = 14 (was 15)

  
  22/05 23:37 (UTC) - Bucky
  Bucky's Knowledge = 9 (was 8)
(Studying botany)

22/05 23:37 (UTC) - Bucky
  Bucky's Moves = 9 (was 15)
(Studying botany)
23/05 02:22 (UTC) - Anonymous
  Bucky's Fitness = 25(10) (was 15(10))
(1/2 of previous value)
23/05 15:05 (UTC) - Bucky
  Bucky's Location = A-22X (was C-E2)

23/05 15:05 (UTC) - Bucky
  Bucky's Moves = 6 (was 9)

24/05 23:16 (UTC) - Bucky
  Bucky's Moves = 26 (was 60)
26/05 15:59 (UTC) - Anonymous
  Bucky's Items = Wand of Digging (was Virus)
26/05 16:31 (UTC) - Bucky
  Bucky's Fitness = 30(12) (was 30(11))

 
See the GNDT log for context.
 
Interestingly, in this last case, the Wand of Digging was requested from a Story Post (Story Post: Oopsie, posted by Bucky at 29 May 2006 04:05:19 UTC), which was stamped AGAINST by the Abbot. Later the Monastery Map was altered to reflect tunnels being dug, which I do not recall approving in a Story Post, which is the necessary condition for those changes to be made by Rule 2.9.

In all of these edits (both legal and dubious) the IP for the Anonymous login is identical to the IP for Bucky’s prior logins. The logs confirm this—the inquiring reader is referred to the full GNDT logfile for this game to look at the IP addresses. One only need search for ‘Anonymous’ to see that the IP of Bucky agrees with the IP of that account. It is worth noting again that this password was held only by myself and that Bucky had to get it from the GNDT password file to employ it for his own use.

Additionally, we have the current issue of Bucky’s latest scam. This scam required that he administer a proposal in order to bring it to fruition to take advantage of a poorly worded rule. Although such a thing is legal in itself, his actions to complete the scam are both illegal and distasteful (namely, enacting proposals out of order and then raising a CfJ to legalize his scam). As an isolated incident, such a thing might be of less consequence, but Bucky’s history confirms that he is an opportunistic scammer who will only continue to exploit his position as an administrator for his own gain.

For those players who are new, I advise you to review the archives before voting on this and read over the end of the First Dynasty of Elias IX—Bucky’s scamming almost singlehandedly drove that game to a crashing halt. The easiest solution to the can of worms which Bucky opened was to end Elias’s game and start a Metadynasty. Given his history and current plays, there is no reason to believe that Bucky will not continue to exploit his administrator’s position.

Bucky’s first proposal to become an admin staff was made during Elias’s games, in the middle of all of his scams—Proposal: Adminify Bucky, which failed 2-7, at 05 Apr 2006 02:25:11 UTC. The comments here are also worth reading—most players were not convinced of Bucky’s general trustworthiness. His second proposal (finalized at 29 Apr 2006 07:30:04) passed, 6-0, after a period of good behavior. It is my claim the pause in the scams was to gain enough good faith from our community to be able to become an administrator, after which he could use that position for scams which a non-admin is incapable of performing.

Furthermore, Bucky made two anonymous Calls for Judgment in February titled ‘The Final Solution’, both of which called for his banning. The comments are worth reading—most players found this title and proposal extremely offensive, and it failed 0-10. The anonymous poster was advised by consensus to consider why this kind of behavior was unacceptable. Bucky later reproposed the same anonymous CfJ with identical title later that day, which failed 0-11. Bucky’s comments are worth reading on those CfJs. We know that that Bucky posted both Call for Judgments as his IP address was identical with the anonymous poster. Here’s a screencap. At the time his account was named Captain, to perpetrate a scam.

Bucky’s history and recent plays as an administrator show a tangible lack of good faith. Any one of the above actions would have been forgivable, but this continued pattern of abuse seems to show no signs of stopping any time soon. It is my contention that this behavior is not fitting for a game admin, and that Bucky should no longer be an administrator. Our game is not served by having opportunistic admins who are constantly on the lookout for ways to gain by any method. We do not want administrators who abuse their privileges to gain access to GNDT accounts for exploitation, or those who use their powers of enactment to further their own private scams.

Comments

Angry Grasshopper:

08-06-2006 04:36:47 UTC

for

Excalabur:

08-06-2006 04:38:43 UTC

for

“Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
“Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.”

Psalm 51:1-2.

Not neccessary for a CfJ, but I feel it is appropriate here. 

We need to write in a gentlemanliness clause to the admin rule, but that’s a mission for another day.

Bucky:

08-06-2006 04:47:00 UTC

Explicit imperial due to obvious biases.

I’d like to point out, however, that several of the charges, including the CfJs back in February, have nothing to do with my admin status.

Bucky:

08-06-2006 04:48:47 UTC

Oh, and the Monastary map was edited BEFORE the Story Post.  The Story post was an attempt to rationalize a move I later found out was illegal and lacked the authority to undo.

zorenathres:

08-06-2006 04:55:27 UTC

for


nothing is equal, but still, be true to others and try and set an example, thats what leaders do

Greth:

08-06-2006 05:14:04 UTC

for

Hix:

08-06-2006 05:34:30 UTC

for

Thelonious:

08-06-2006 10:14:08 UTC

I haven’t heard a fair and balanced view from both sides here, and I don’t know the history, and to be frank - I’m not really that interested in personal matters.

So, since it isn’t reasonable to vote “imperial” on this one (it’s AG’s CfJ in the first place), I’m going to abstain.

Elias IX:

08-06-2006 14:16:23 UTC

for

Rodney:

08-06-2006 16:07:36 UTC

for

Rodney:

08-06-2006 16:19:01 UTC

I find it sad, that after trying to have a dynasty without loopholes or juntas and this sort of thing, we end up with it happening anyway. I don’t have anything against loopholes, I discovered the MAO loophole way back in Truman Capote’s Dynasty. Nor do I have anything against playing to win in general. It’s just that general idea of “Act nice for a bit and scam later” seems more suited to Diplomacy than Nomic.

Bucky:

08-06-2006 16:34:06 UTC

against
I have a proposal in place to fix the relevant issues raised by this CfJ.

And, I note that Quazie is an admin.

Excalabur:

08-06-2006 16:52:56 UTC

Quazie doesn’t use his adminhood to exploit, and rarely ventures into grey areas.  He’s just good at writing loopholes that are obvious in retrospect and not beforehand, and playing ‘creatively’.

Quazie’s also a participant (or was) in Agora, the nomic with Too Many Rules (TM).

——————————————

Also, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:

You cannot vote imperial on a Call for Judgment.  Votes using the imperial icon will not be counted.

Excalabur:

08-06-2006 18:13:27 UTC

The corollary of imperial votes not counting is that you cannot change an affirmative vote to an abstention—only to another affirmative vote.

Purplebeard:

08-06-2006 18:25:28 UTC

I had assumed the anonymous user was added to the GNDT by an encrypted rule, and that its actions were therefore legal as well. In my belief, the adding of the account was just as illegal as its use by Bucky. I must admit, though, that there doesn’t seem to be a rule specifically governing the adding of NPC players in the GNDT.

No harm was meant by AG, of course, but I wish I could safely say the same for Bucky. E does seem to be reverting to eir scams.

against Bucky seems to see his adminship as a means to advance in the game rather than an opportunity to help out. I feel it necessary to mention that e has adminned eir share of proposals during eir adminship, and has certainly helped out more than I have recently.

(sorry if any of this is incoherent; I lack the sleep and time I need to gather my thoughts.)

TAE:

08-06-2006 18:46:26 UTC

I am not going to vote since I have neither the time nor the patience to go through the evidence presented by AG as to what Bucky is alleged to have done.  I will say that if Bucky did do what he is alleged to have done my instinct would be to vote for the CfJ.  Admin status, while effectively a game state attribute and thus open to “play”, is really in my mind meant to be a part of the game mechanic (I recognize that this distinction is not neccicarily viable in Nomic, but hear me out).  Abusing the position of administrator is like hacking the blog itself or stacking a deck of cards- it alters the apparent outcome of the game but is not part of the game.  I think we would all agree that if I were to propose a rule that I had achieved victory, vote for it, and then alter the functioning of the blog such that no one could vote against it, I would not have won, I would merely have altered the mechanical attributes of the game so that they looked like I had won.  Administrative abuse is similar, and I don’t think it is good policy to allow it to happen.

Purplebeard:

08-06-2006 19:37:05 UTC

I meant to vote for . (thanks AG)