Nomic:Game 2005-04-02:Is it the colour or the word that counts
From Carls wiki
All rise.
The issue we are here today to solve goes back a month or so. On 2006-02-07, I sent an email to the other players, containing the following:
- In an effort to slim down the tables, I've also normalised the vote texts to simple "yes"es and "no"s. See the changelog for details.
- I don't know what the rest of you think about this change... the rules certainly don't mention it. But people seem to vote merely by colour these days, as all of you Jo-people have been known to write other things than simply "yes" or "no" in the table. I don't want to come off as a grumpy old fart, but I think communicative messages belong in the Talk pages. Hence the change. Take me to court if you disagree. :P
No protests were raised and no discussion ensued. However, on 2006-02-10, Johan and Jonas made a funny vote on p316: Jonas voted "no" on a green background, while Johan voted "yes" on a red background. Personnally, I smiled when I saw it, because I suspected that they did it to tease me.
Nothing much happened after that, because while it wasn't obvious what each of them had voted, the net number of "yes"es in the vote was clear. The only time I had to actually think about who voted what, was when handing out points on the score page, thanks to r204. (I should point out that I'm the only one who updates the score table, and so I'm the only one who really has to think about this normally.) I decided that the most sane interpretation would be for the text to decide what the vote would be. The background is just decoration. Hence, Jonas gained 10 points.
Now he's bringing the issue to court.
I stand by my decision, which I think has been consistent all the way: the text should be only "yes" or "no", and the colours should agree. If they don't, too bad. Then the text matters. Any colours which don't agree should be changed to do so (in the voting table, at least).
Also, I suggest an automatic penalty, set to something reasonable, to anyone who willfully causes trouble in the future and obstructs the game by making a legal fuss about it.
Lastly, if anyone is found to vote with inconsistent colour/text on this judgement, you have my personal permission to slap them.
Court dismissed.
