Constitutional Amendment: Delegate's Power, gameside controls

[Guy]

Currently, our Constitution only really specifies the WFE and WA resolutions as areas on which the Delegate may act. This is now out-of-date, with new additions (such as the regional flag and RMB suppression) added to the game, in addition to any features which may be added to the game in the future.

I believe it would generally be a good idea to subject the Delegate's use of such powers to regional law, as passed by the Assembly. I think it is important to stress that I do not suggest passing legislation regulating the use of these tools at the moment (with the exception of the flag, see below), I think it is a good idea for the Assembly to be able to make up policy on these areas - say, for example, adspam suppression or WA voting.

Currently, clause B of Article 4 reads:

B: The Delegate may change the regional World Factbook Entry and act on WA proposals and resolutions as they see fit.

My proposal is that it'd be amended to something along the lines of:

B: The Delegate may use the Regional Controls and act on World Assembly proposals and resolutions as they see fit, subject to regional law.

Concurrently, I suggest codifying the regional flag:

Flag of the Rejected Realms Act

Flag of the Rejected Realms Act 1. The official flag of the Rejected Realms is hereby set as the flag in Annex I of this Act.

2. The flag shall be maintained by the Delegate as the flag of the Rejected Realms region, as defined in Article 1 of the Constitution.

3. The flag shall be used in all official occasions requiring its use.

Annex I

(Keep in mind that I'm writing this very late at night - it's probably far from perfect. The Flag Act especially is very much a WIP.)

[frattastan]

I believe it would generally be a good idea to subject the Delegate's use of such powers to regional law, as passed by the Assembly. I think it is important to stress that I do not suggest passing legislation regulating the use of these tools at the moment (with the exception of the flag, see below), I think it is a good idea for the Assembly to be able to make up policy on these areas - say, for example, adspam suppression or WA voting.

Agreed. I wouldn't want to legislate on most of the above, but the Assembly should retain the power to regulate the use of RC (even if here the consequences of their abuse aren't as severe as in the other feeders/sinkers - with the lack of eject/bans).
Hopefully it will also be a deterrent to prevent a repeat of this.

I support the amendment. Less convinced on the bill, but I can live with it.

[Libetarian Republics]

I suppose we should fix this technicality. Nothing wrong I see.

Support

[frattastan]

Better now than when we need it (and it won't be a 'technicality' then).

[Libetarian Republics]

Yeah cause who knows what frattastan would do

[Christian Democrats]

Will someone please create a larger and less pixelated version of the current flag?

Or we could discard the old flag and create a new one . . .

[Campinia]

I agree with someone creating a larger version, and very much do not volunteer

[frattastan]

Or we could discard the old flag and create a new one . . .

No.

I'm rubbish with graphics so am not going to do it, but if someone wants to create a higher quality version of the current one, they're welcome to.

[Felasia]

I notice that there are a consensus that Delegate's authority over regional control must be regulated, but not with regional law. This is rather confusing. As such, I propose that the use of regional control by the Delegatel may be appeal by the Assembly if at least 3 citizens (or whatever number that is deem appropriate) request for it.

B: The Delegate may use the Regional Controls and act on World Assembly proposals and resolutions as they see fit. If citizen believes that the use of Regional Control is unjustified, they may appeal to the Assembly to reverse the action. The appeal requires the support of two other citizens.

I have no objection with the flag and agree that a higher quality picture of the flag is needed. Alas, I'm useless in this case.

[Thought Transference]

I think I'm generally in favour of this, and very much in agreement with the idea of doing it before it becomes an issue and is no longer just a technicality.

The amendment feels especially apt to me since it addresses something that has been a major bone of contention before now, the Delegate's right to vote as (s)he sees fit without reference to the will of the region. It even was an issue in election debates, when the question was raised over whether or not a certain candidate, if elected, would vote his own opinion or the majority opinion on a particular question, or if he could abstain from voting in such cases.

I'm not altogether sure how to do the flag thing. OTOH I really like our current flag (although I also would like to see a less pixelated version of it --- drunken equines are never a pretty sight); I'd like to see it enshrined in law. OTOH I'm not sure what form such a law should take. Also, might it be an idea to add, in good vexillological tradition, a verbal description of the flag?

The one thing I'm sure of is that I'd hate to see us go for a new flag design. TRR's flag has been since its beginning one of the most memorable and most beautiful of NS flags. It's not broken, I don't think we should try to fix it.

[frattastan]

I notice that there are a consensus that Delegate's authority over regional control must be regulated, but not with regional law. This is rather confusing.

I think the consensus is that Delegate powers shouldn't be regulated in detail yet, but that in principle the Constitution should reserve such matters to regional law (and not to Delegate discretion).

[Guy]

I'm not altogether sure how to do the flag thing. OTOH I really like our current flag (although I also would like to see a less pixelated version of it --- drunken equines are never a pretty sight); I'd like to see it enshrined in law. OTOH I'm not sure what form such a law should take. Also, might it be an idea to add, in good vexillological tradition, a verbal description of the flag?

The one thing I'm sure of is that I'd hate to see us go for a new flag design. TRR's flag has been since its beginning one of the most memorable and most beautiful of NS flags. It's not broken, I don't think we should try to fix it.

I do not believe that a higher-res version exists, and if anyone is able to create one it would be very much appreciated.

I would usually be very much in favour of a verbal description of the flag, but keeping in mind how visually complex this one is... I'm not sure one is feasible.

Changing a flag which has been in use for just about as long as this region has been around for is not a good idea, plain and simple.

[Thought Transference]

I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who'd hate to see the flag changed. As for describing it, I suppose we'd need someone familiar with the technical language required. Otherwise we'll have to find someone who does good flag graphics and see if they would be willing to do an appropriate high resolution version. I'm aware that there are players capable of doing this, if not in TRR then in other regions, and perhaps we could approach one and ask nicely?

[frattastan]

I will ask Milograd next time we both are on IRC to see if he can do it.

[Guy]

Unless anyone has any objections... Could we perhaps move the Constitutional amendment to a vote?

[frattastan]

Seconded.

[sedge]

Will do, tomorrow.

[sedge]

http://s8.zetaboards.com/The_RR_and_RRA/topic/8434538

[frattastan]

I will ask Milograd next time we both are on IRC to see if he can do it.

The results are here.

This is how one of them looks on a nation.

Almonaster also made a couple of flags and sent them to me a few days ago (here and here).

Comments/thoughts?

[Thought Transference]

Thanks for this. I'll comment over on that thread so as not to hijack this one completely. :-)

[Guy]

Is there still interest in passing the Flag Act? We could have a poll as to the options.

[Thought Transference]

Is there still interest in passing the Flag Act? We could have a poll as to the options.

Guy, if you mean an act to revise the flag, it looks to me as though we talked this one out when we got sidetracked with the rather important discussion of whether and how to revise the flag.

To answer your question, I think the Flag Act is a good idea but I guess we have to restart the discussions now. Since the Flag Act codifies the appearance of the flag it seems that unless we want to be amending the Act, possibly in the near future, we need to settle first what the flag should look like. As indicated above, that conversation got moved to here: TRR Flag. Then it was dropped too, unfortunately.)

Maybe the way the whole thing got shelved because not enough of us were able to get behind a single course of action regarding the flag, or maybe we just need to restart the conversation in a more focused fashion; i.e., either accepting that we'll have to amend the Act after we have an unhurried discussion of the design and forging ahead with passing the Act, or else deciding that we want to finish the discussion of flag design properly, even at the cost of suspending progress on the Act itself.

[Guy]

If the current designs are not to everyone's satisfaction, I'm happy to pass the Act with the current regional flag, until we have an agreeable alternative.

[Thought Transference]

That certainly has the time of helping us to avoid rushing a design. I'm in favour; anyone else want to comment?

[Libetarian Republics]

I don't mind of course.