The Ace of Spades Contest

This is an HTML-ised copy of the Application to Create an Organisation that Player Goethe submitted on 6 March 2002:

Regulations for the Ace of Spades

Regs 101-114
Immutable Regs for a "general" contest that includes a voting mechanism.
Regs 115-125
Immutable Regs for Cards
Regs 200's
Mutable Regs for Card distribution
Regs 300's
Hand Marking Regs

Immutable Basics

101.
This is a Champion's Contest called the Ace of Spades. Regulations 101-125 are Immutable and may only be changed by the unanimous consent of all Members. Regulations with any other number are Mutable. Immutable Regulations have precedence over all Mutable Regulations. Within the Immutable or Mutable Regulations, lower numbered Regulations shall have precedence over higher numbered ones unless a Regulation specifically claims or defers precedence to another. If any Regulation conflicts with the Rules of Agora, the Rules of Agora shall have precedence.
102.
The Contestmaster is Goethe. A Player may become a Contestant at any time by informing the Contestmaster, with no Entry Fee.
103.
Contest-related communications are considered Public if they are sent to all current Contestants (not all Players). Objection and Support are as in the Rules except that only Contestants may give Objection or Support for Contest actions. If these Regulations define a Fee, that Fee is payable to the Contest Fund rather than the Bank.
104.
If a class, instance, or value for an instance of information is designated by these Regulations as Public, the Contestmaster shall reveal it to any or all Contestants upon request or in required Reports. Undesignated information is Public by default. If information is designated as Secret, the Contestmaster shall not reveal it to any Player. If information is designated Private, a subset of Contestants shall be defined by these Regulations as having Need To Know status (NTK) for that information. The Contestmaster shall reveal that information upon request to those with NTK for the information, and to no others.
105.
The designation of a piece or type of information as Public, Private or Secret, and the NTK status of Contestants with regard to particular information, may be changed only as specifically allowed by the Regulations. Such changes may not be retroactive in terms of past information. NTK status refers to the most limited scope of information unless otherwise specified.
106.
Mutable Regulations may be designated as Secret or Private, in which case, the existence and Number of the Regulation shall be Public, but the content of the Regulation shall be revealed only as designated by the Regulations. All Immutable Regulations are Public.
107.
Any Member may submit a Proposal to the Contestmaster for a single new Mutable Regulation. The Proposal must include a proposed number for the Regulation and the proposed contents of the Regulation. The Proposal may specify that the the Proposal is private. If the proposal is private, initially only the proposer is NTK for its contents. The proposed Regulation number must be 200 or greater, and less than 1000. The Contestmaster may propose Public or Secret Regulations.
108.
The Contestmaster may choose to place any received Proposal Up for Vote, by publicly announcing the Proposed Regulation's Number, its contents if it is Public, and that it is Up for Vote. The Contestmaster is urged to refuse placing Proposals Up for Vote only if they are fundamentally against the spirit of the Contest or would make the Contest utterly unplayable if adopted.
109.
Every Contestant may submit one vote to the Contestmaster for each Proposal that is Up for Vote. This vote may be either FOR or AGAINST. Votes may not be retracted once placed.
110.
At any time starting 72 hours after a Proposal is placed Up For Vote,
112.
If a Proposal is Adopted, the proposed Regulation takes effect with the given Regulation number, at the moment that the Contestmaster publicly announces that it has been Adopted. If the number of the Proposed Regulation is the same as the number of an already existent Mutable Regulation, the older Regulation is automatically repealed and ceases to have an effect on play.
113.
The Contestmaster shall publish a weekly Report containing useful or requested information relevant to the Contest, as e sees fit.
114.
A Player may file a request for judgement with the Contestmaster, who has the authority to adjudicate all conflicts arising from these Regulations, although final judgement authority may lie with the Rules of Agora. As the result of a request, a Contestmaster may judge, among other things, the interpretation of a Regulation, whether a Contestant has broken a Regulation, or whether a Contestant has broken a Private Agreement made binding by the Contest. In response/redress to a request for judgement, the Contestmaster may perform the following actions without 3 Objections or with Majority Support:

Immutable Play Rules

115.
There exists a currency-like set of Property-like entities called Cards. Each Card may have one or more descriptors as allowed by these Regulations. Cards which have an identical set of descriptors are fungible. The possession or descriptors of particular cards may be public, private, or secret. The Contestmaster is the Mintor and Recordkeepor of Cards. The Contestmaster may modify the ownership or existence of any Card, but only as allowed by the Regulations.
116.
The Cards in a Player's possession are known as eir Hand. The Contest Fund is known as the Deck. A Player may transfer any Card from eir Hand to another entity by informing the Contestmaster, unless other Regulations specifically prohibit the transfer.
117.
If the Contestmaster "deals" a Card to an entity, e acts on behalf of the Contest to transfer said Card from the Deck to the entity. If a Card is dealt "at random" it shall be chosen by the Dealer from all Cards in the Deck with equal probability. Cards are dealt at random unless otherwise specified. If, at any time, more than one card is required to be dealt to a subset of Contestants, cards shall be dealt, one to the first member of the subset, one to the second member, etc. until all required cards are dealt. The sequence of the Deal shall be in ascending order of the Contestants' first joining dates for the Contest.
118.
A Hand's worth is a real number of Marks associated with the Cards in a Contestant's Hand, and in the Hands of other Contestants. At any given moment, a Hand's worth may only depend on the current disposition of Cards among Contestants. In particular, it may not depend on past dispositions of Cards, or Agoran Properties not defined by these Regulations. If for some reason a Hand's worth is undefined or uncalculatable, its worth is zero.
119.
The Marking Regulations are all Regulation with a number of 300 or greater. A Hand's worth is calculated by the Contestmaster applying the lowest-numbered Marking Regulation to all hands simultaneously, followed by the next highest Marking Regulation, and so on until the highest numbered Marking Regulation is applied. This calculation procedure shall not change the possession of actual Cards in a Player's Hand, although it may cause other Marking Regulations to act as if hands were changed for that calculation only. Regulations that are not Marking Regulations may mandate changes in Card possession but this is not a part of this calculation.
120.
The Regulations shall define that a Moment of Reckoning occurs. At that moment, all Regulations and Contest Properties become Public. ASAP after the Moment of Reckoning, the Contestmaster will calculate each Contestant's Hand Worth based on the Regulations and Hands at the Moment of Reckoning. Any Contestant with a Hand worth equal to the highest (positive real) Hand Worth becomes a Finalist. There is no other way to become a Finalist.
121.
If there are one or more Finalists, the Contestmaster will select one Finalist at random from the set of Finalists (with equal probability). E will then post, to the Agoran Public Forum, a Notice of SemiGeniosity awarding, to the selected Finalist, the Patent Title Semigenius. If 72 hours have passed since a Finalist was made a SemiGenius, and no Player has Won the Game as defined by the Rules of Agora, another Finalist shall be so selected.
122.
A Moment of Reckoning shall not occur before April 15, 2002. If a Moment of Reckoning has not occured before the beginning of June 10, 2002, a Moment of Reckoning occurs.
123.
Cards with the descriptor Mauve shall always be defined. Mauve Cards shall have no other Descriptor. There shall always be at least one Mauve Card in the Deck. If at any time this condition ceases to be true, a Mauve Card shall be created in the Deck. If a descriptor of a Card ceases to be defined, all cards of that descriptor become Mauve with no other descriptor.
124.
When a Player becomes a Contestant for the first time, two Mauve Cards will be created in eir Hand before any Mutable Regulations are applied to the Player. An instant before each Moment of Reckoning, a Mauve Card shall be created in the Hand of every Contestant that possesses zero Cards.
125.
Cards may be exchanged simultaneously between Contestants via Offers communicated to the Contestmaster. An Offer is made when an Offerer expresses desire to the Contestmaster to exchange Cards of certain descriptors, with other identified Contestants, for Cards of other descriptors. The identity of the Offerer may be Private (anonymous), the Offerer may request that the Contestmaster forward the Offer to the identified Contestants without revealing eir identity. The Offerer may withdraw the Offer at any time before it is accepted. A Contestant to whom an Offer is made may accept the Offer (anonymously or not) by communicating acceptance with the Contestmaster. If, at the moment of acceptance: then the effect of the acceptance is to cause the Cards constituting the Offer to be simultaneously exchanged. If the indicated conditions are not fulfilled, the Contestmaster will communicate the reason for the failure to all involved parties.

Mutable Card Setup/Dealing

200.
A Moment of Reckoning shall occur at the beginning of May 15, 2002.
205.
Every Card shall have exactly one of the following descriptors, also called Suits;
210.
When this Regulation takes effect, 20 Cards of each defined Suit are created in the Deck. If the number of cards in the Deck ever drops below 10, then 4 Cards of each Suit shall be created in the Deck before any more Cards are Dealt.
215.
When a Player becomes a Contestant for the first time, e shall be dealt 7 cards randomly from the Deck.
220.
Two or more Contestants may form an Alliance by mutual agreement forwarded to the Contestmaster. A Contestant may leave an Alliance by informing the Contestmaster, who shall then inform all other members of the Alliance. If two or more Alliances have the same membership, they shall be considered the same Alliance.
225.
The following classes of information is Public:
230.
The following instances of information are Private:
235.
The following values of information are Secret:
240.
There are two types of NTK defined, Full NTK and Limited NTK. Both types of NTK act as NTK defined in the Immutable Rules, however, they differ as follows: If the type of NTK is not set by the Regulations, it is Limited NTK.
245.
If a particular Regulation is secret, a Contestant may make its current value Private, with emself alone having Full NTK, by a publicly naming the requested Regulation and paying a Fee equal to one of each defined type of Card. If the Regulation is not secret at the time of this transferrence, the Contestmaster shall return the paid Fee from the Deck.
250.
The Contestmaster may make a Secret Regulation Public, or give a public hint about a Secret Regulation, without Objection.

Marking Instructions

310.
The Hand worth of every Contestant's Hand is set to zero.
320.
For every non-Mauve Card in a Contestant's Hand, 1 Mark is added to eir Hand worth.
330.
For every Mauve Card in a Contestant's Hand, 4 Marks are subtracted from eir Hand worth.
340.
[This Regulation is Secret].
350.
[This Regulation is Secret].
360.
[This Regulation is Secret].
370.
[This Regulation is Secret].
380.
[This Regulation is Secret].
390.
[This Regulation is Secret].
400.
[This Regulation is Secret].

[ First hint: None of these initial Secret regulations directly reduce the value of a hand. Some increase hands more than others. ]
410.
The lowest Hand Value among the Contestants in each Alliance is calculated (one value per Alliance). After these calculations, the lowest hand value for each Alliance is added to the Hand Value of each Contestant in that Alliance.
999.
If, after the preceeding Marking Regulations are applied, two or more Contestants are tied for the highest Hand Worth, those tying hands are rescored as if three more cards were dealt to each of them from the Deck, unless one or more of the tied Hands have already been so rescored.

Michael Norrish <Michael.Norrish@cl.cam.ac.uk>
Last modified: Tue Apr 9 10:40:20 BST 2002