Tuesday, July 08, 2025

Proposal: Reform of Recuperative Break Management

enacted 4-3 with 2 def resolved to for by Chiiika.

Adminned at 10 Jul 2025 04:23:40 UTC

In the rule Idle Wordsmiths, change

unless the Wordsmith who would become Active has become Idle within the past 96 hours (4 days)

to

unless the Wordsmith who would become Active has become Idle within the past 48 hours (2 days)

Comments

JonathanDark: he/him

08-07-2025 14:44:48 UTC

for

Bucky:

08-07-2025 16:23:58 UTC

against

48 hours may be a long time in a fast-paced dynasty like this one, but in a slower dynasty this would let an admin tactically idle to avoid one event and not even miss a turn over it.

Kevan: Yard he/him

08-07-2025 16:27:42 UTC

for

Kevan: Yard he/him

08-07-2025 16:47:47 UTC

[Bucky] 48 hours seems about long enough for the group to react to an obvious tactical idling by proposing or CfJing to directly apply whatever outcome the idler dodged.

(For context if you haven’t read the Discord today, this came out of a conversation about the Yielding mechanic seeming redundant to idling. JonathanDark said that they’d assumed - understandably, from its typical usage over the past few years - that idling was something people did when they wanted to retire fully from a dynasty, not for short breaks. If Yielding was created for players who can see that they have “2-3 hectic days” ahead, I suggested we could just wind the reunidling window down to 2 days.)

Bucky:

08-07-2025 16:58:23 UTC

A fast dynasty can just have a dynastic rule for early unidling, but 96 hours is the better default.

Clucky: he/him

08-07-2025 20:33:51 UTC

against I agree with Bucky

Darknight: he/him

08-07-2025 23:51:13 UTC

against

DeactivatedUser4498:

09-07-2025 08:27:36 UTC

imperial

Josh: he/they

09-07-2025 10:01:30 UTC

@Clucky @Bucky The argument I would make here is about the distinction between the remote issue and the proximate one. The risk of an admin abusing the idle window to gain factional advantage is real and we all remember playing the game in that meta, but it hasn’t happened in ages and is easily remedied in the moment - either by using CfJs to apply the proper penalties or just by designing games where walking away from the table for half an hour doesn’t confer any read advantages (I can’t think of a dynasty from the past couple of years where a tactical sit-out would have helped). Meanwhile, we do have people sitting on quorum, and we do have a culture whereby idling out is considered to be a full quit rather than a polite stepping-away for a short window. I woke up today to see with some irritation that Darknight has just slapped a 3 on every open backronym and called it a day; as of right now, this proposal is passing instead of failing because of a shruggy def. I’d rather that players who do not have the necessary conviction to play properly can be persuaded that stepping away until they have the time to focus properly is a viable strategic move, and doesn’t imply the end of their ability to compete.

Chiiika: she/her

09-07-2025 16:05:21 UTC

for ref. Josh’s argument; I was thinking something that essentially would be reenacting all events that would have happened if the unidler wasn’t idle; taking the default choice if given a choice.

I think this is something we as a community can punish as a tactical choice via CfJ.

JonathanDark: he/him

10-07-2025 00:48:17 UTC

I’m holding off Scoring and resolving Backronyms until this is resolved and allows “Remove Rewards for Better Merit” to be resolved.

aria: she/they

10-07-2025 02:52:09 UTC

imperial