[MUD-Dev] Guilds & Politics [was Affecting the World]

[Matt Chatterley]

On Sun, 11 Jan 1998, Ola Fosheim Gr=F8stad wrote:
> JC Lawrence <claw at under.Eng.Sun.COM> wrote:
> >On Wed, 7 Jan 1998 17:19:57 PST8PDT=20
> >stad <Ola> wrote:
>=20
> >
> >>>>> The admin is tha ultimate authority, should know that...
> >
> >>>> [Not?] neccessarily. Look at IRC.
> >
> >>> Nahh, that's where the aspect of consent mentioned above comes in.
> >
> >> world vs segment (channel on irc) system owner vs player
> >> Quite a big difference.
> >
> >Nope.  The channel ops are the owners of their channels, such (until
> >they get kicked off by any of the standard robot attacks), but they
> >are also there by the sufferance and consent of the server owner.
>=20
> Server owner?  It is distributed, do you mean the university?
> Actually, they only pulled it down for a week or two to make it look
> good because the newspapers wrote about pedophile exchange during
> christmas.

But still, the analogy stands if rephrased slightly. The 'distributed
network' of IRC servers is made up of a number of machines, each of which
has an owner (in context of organisations which own a machine, either the
organisation or the specific individual given responsability for said
machine can be considered 'owner'). When you connect to a specific
machine, you are using the facilities there upon the sufferance of the
owner, as are the channel operators - the network would be one step
smaller without that machine, and the owner may remove it should be wish.
=20
> The big difference is local government by peers.

Its also interesting to note that from what I hear server owners are often
channel operators, and can override them whenever they wish (as seems
fitting). Government by peers is an interesting concept (attempted where I
live by an 'honorary police' system to supplement the regular police
force) - but one can argue that when members of a muds administrative team
are also players, this is also 'government by peers' in some fashion.

> >> Owner =3D designer =3D programmer =3D janitor =3D JCL.  Implies total
> >> control. =20
> >
> >Agreed.
> >
> >> Implies blurred roles. =20
> >
> >False.  The ability for blurring is just as present as when the roles
> >are embodied in seperate individuals.  A person amy "collude" or
> >"conspire" with others almost as easily as he may with others.
>=20
> Of course. But you can't avoid that _communication_ when one individual
> holds all roles.  You may avoid that in other "configurations".

I don't think its desirable to avoid it! If you have three separate teams
(administrative, R&D, and maintenance) all working very independantly,
they'll end up treading on each other far more than if they communicate
frequently and *do* blur their roles.

"You want me to investigate this bug? But thats a maintenance job!"
"Yes, but given project X, R&D are in a far better position to do it
well."

etc.
=20
> >Consider the standard bitch sessions which go on in most companies
> >break rooms over coffee.  In its more innocuous form:
>=20
> You assume a "configuration".

Surely this is the only alternative to an individual head?
=20
> >> If the owner is an user owned (and run) organization...
> >
> >I won't bother argueing againt the idiocies of democracy.  However
>=20
> That was not the main point.  The main point is that those that make
> the laws and those that execute them should be separated.  And there
> should be formal rules for the janitor.  This is rather basic.

Hmm, we are still keeping to an OOC context here, though? I'll assume so:

Anyone will be welcome to give input towards the OOC regulations on my
mud, but very few will ever be added simply because the OOC regulatory
core *must* be compact and enforceable. "No bug abuse!" will not be stated
(since I cannot stop people abusing bugs), but it will be stated that
"Repeated utilisation of a bug for gain is frowned upon.".

To veer off on a slight tangent; I will not offer in-game punishments to
bug abusers (as far as the game world is concerned what they did was fair
- since it allowed it, quite literally), but rather OOC punishments (as is
fitting). This means suspension and ultimately removal from the game. Bug
'finders' (You know what I mean, I think), are useful in that they do find
bugs and cause strange things to appear in system logs from which you can
begin tracking (especially if they send a report - unlikely with things
that benefit them, though).

Regards,
=09-Matt Chatterley
=09ICQ: 5580107
"We can recode it; we have the technology."