Wiki Stone Charter

This page is a good place for discussing what kind of Charter would suit at WikiStoneSociety.

Maybe something based on the American BillOfRights?

I've thought about this a little, but don't have anything concrete yet. My main thought is that it should be based on the NonInterference pattern. -- PeterMerel.

NonInterference seems completely negative to me. That path leads to becoming a hermit or committing suicide. Wiki is positive. It is about contributing and giving.

We interfere with other people every time we drive a car, which destroys petroleum and increases greenhouse gases. There is no way to lead a "normal" western life without interfering with other people in some way, which makes non-interference completely useless as a basis for our society.

-RalphJohnson

Excellent points, though I'm not clear on how NonInterference could lead to suicide ... perhaps then a WikiStoneCharter could be nothing but procedural standards - how long is a Term, how many kinds of Commission should there be, and so on. Leave the principles to form by convention. This would be a good application of UnknownRulers.

It seems to me that NonInterference in the StarTrek sense may be unworkable, but in a more limited sense we could get benefit from it. The definition of restitution on the Stones Website is only concerned with interference in the Stone social mechanisms themselves: if you flout a Quantum, disrupt a Service or stop social access to a Commissioned Officer/Resource, you'd be liable to the extent specified by your own Commission and the price allotted the disrupted mechanism in the market. If your mayhem exceeded your Commission's requirements to repay, the Society could legitimately boot you out, presumably by a CTA.

The StarTrek version seems to be as much about social security as it is about concern for others; their PrimeDirective stops the barbarians getting access to the Photon Torpedoes. How it serves the interests of "less evolved" societies is up for grabs.

-- PeterMerel.

A little structure is called for here. The Charter needs to cover the following:

Granting of Commissions
- Who gets them
- How they get them
- How many Stones an Officer gets

These details are mostly already provided for in the Stones CDA/CRA mechanism I think.

Auctions
- Types of Auctions permitted
- Creation of Auctions
- Modification of Auctions(???)
- Term length

Term length is a good question. Seems to me that a week is about right for a wiki, and maybe a day for some of its subsocieties. Antes for creations of Auctions need some sort of criterion relative to the number of Stones in circulation. Modifications of Auctions ... well, the outcomes of most Auctions can change from Term to Term - the exception being Auctions that do irrevocable things like commit the Society to various contracts and other extra-social relationships.

Well, it's a start.

And a good one. I should make a comprehensive list of Stones wildcards by reviewing the StoneSociety stuff.

Regarding Auctions

It seems to me that the Preferences in a "base Auction" (that is, an Auction which is not intended to modify the Charter or grant a Commission) should be for the various versions of the page itself. Anyone can submit a version of the page as a Preference in the Auction. Whatever Preference has the current Quantum becomes the "official" version of that page for the Term.

Yes, that's what's proposed on WikiStoneSociety. Pages (gateways?) that mirror or transclude external material seem an obvious exception to this.

Another alternative would be to submit changes as individual Auctions of their own. At the end of the Term, the winning change becomes part of the "official version" and the Auction vanishes. This seems not to be quite the Stones model, however. --BillTrost

Yes, disappearing Auctions aren't in it at present. I couldn't really see a good purpose for them. Nevertheless, not using a Stone Society, this could be done. I'm not certain I see the benefit. --PeterMerel

It's how we evisaged SpikeWiki working. Ie not a Stone Society. Unfortunately that project is being pre-empted by lack of finance.- RalfAndDave? (May, 1998)