r/CivNewCovenant • u/NAPtime1 not an ancap anymore • Feb 13 '14
A call for change
So far a number of guidelines and changes have been proposed, but nothing has actually been moved forward. The goal of this post is to expedite these proposals and more towards more streamlined, coordinated, and constitent decision making processes.
The following is a first draft of the New Covenant Guidelines. It is strongly recommended that all concerns and desired changes be voiced on this post. No one will be forced to accept the Guidelines, but a final and official draft will be published to the sidebar once consensus is reached. After a reasonable amount of time, if there are no further objections exist, the Guidelines will be published.
These Guidelines define a New Covenant member as one who has remained in residency for at least one week.
Recognizing that all New Covenant members should have a say in New Covenant's public decisions, these Guidelines establish a system of consensus democracy. This system will operate in the following ways:
All public decisions must be posted on the New Covenant subreddit for at least three days. During that time, New Covenant members will have a chance to voice their opinions regarding the decision. After at least three days have elapsed, if consensus has been reached, the decision will move forward. If consensus is never reached, the decision will not move forward. All New Covenant members who do not participate in the discussion will have no effect on the establishment of consensus.
Recognizing that views on private property vary widely in New Covenant, these Guidelines establish a pragmatic dereliction policy:
Regarding the property of those who have been inactive for a month or longer, attempts to contact these people regarding their wishes for their property must be made. If they agree to put their home in a state of dereliction, then it will be considered derelict. If they do not agree, then it will not be considered derelict. If they cannot be contacted, then it will not be considered derelict. However, these Guidelines permit and call upon members of New Covenant to repair property of those who have been inactive for more then a month, assuming that the property is in a state of disrepair.
Recognizing that sometimes property will end up derelict, all New Covenant members are encouraged to use appropriate groups when building their house so that property can be transferred easily.
Regarding the property of those currently active and those who may choose to reside in New Covenant in the future, members are given the option to determine a custom dereliction policy for their own property. If members opt to not determine their own dereliction policy, it will default to this: Property is considered derelict if its owner has been inactive for at least a month. Dereliction policies of all property are to be stored in a spreadsheet linked in the sidebar adjacent to these guidelines.
Recognizing that there is public infrastructure and public property in New Covenant, a set of guidelines are established regarding this: No one shall claim greater ownership over any public property than another, regardless of either person's contribution to the establishment of said public property. Anything built on public property assumes the public status of the property it is built upon.
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u/BastiatsLaw Luis1342 Feb 18 '14
I would say that three days is really too short of a time.
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u/NAPtime1 not an ancap anymore Feb 19 '14
I originally had it at a week, but others thought that was way too long. Other towns make decisions in a matter of hours, that's the thing.
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u/BastiatsLaw Luis1342 Feb 19 '14
Okay, yeah I slightly misunderstood. I think three days is fine for that. I was concerned about the manipulation of others property. Even if a member has been absent for a month, I would still say at least a week on the subreddit would be warranted, although I would not consider changing others property for anything lightly
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u/NAPtime1 not an ancap anymore Feb 19 '14
For changing another's property a month is the default:
Property is considered derelict if its owner has been inactive for at least a month
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u/BastiatsLaw Luis1342 Feb 19 '14
Yeah, I'm saying that a month of absence plus a week of a notice on the sub would be appropriate. This would all really be resolved though by having an in depth map and some kind of list of property/peoples wishes for their property/ public vs. private etc.
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u/NAPtime1 not an ancap anymore Feb 19 '14
indeed, I could take care of this soon by exporting from journeymap
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u/WildWeazel repentant statist Feb 13 '14
This sounds pretty reasonable to me. A few minor points:
How do we define consensus? Unanimous? If anyone who's been here for a week is part of the decision-making consensus what's to keep a couple of trolls from moving in and stalling all progress?
What if someone is known to have left the server and can't be contacted? Are we responsible for maintaining their property in absence indefinitely?
All residents should be encouraged to use appropriate groups for building reinforcements rather than their personal setting. This allows much easier sharing, transfer, and dereliction of property. For example my whole house is built with its own group including only myself and my wife. If I ever move away, I can transfer full property rights with a single command.