proj-branchDemocracy-bylaws-forumRules

NOTE: this page is no longer current. Please see Self:notes-massAsynchronousOnlineParliamentaryProcedure.

This page describes the rules of order for the Forum.

Forum Rules for larger groups: introduction

Token contests

We want to generate a set of proposals and speeches that every person hears, but there are too many people to allow each person to make everyone else listen to them. Therefore, there must be a mechanism to choose which proposals and speeches to "post" out of a larger pool of "candidates".

The mechanism used by this protocol is called a "token contest". Each person is given an equal number of tokens. Any person may write a candidate speech or proposal. Any person may place any number of their tokens on any candidate. When it is time for the next proposal to be posted, the candidate with the most tokens is chosen. Speeches are treated similarly, except that there is a penalty for long speeches. We say that one candidate "wins the token contest" and is "posted" at that time.

When a topic wins, the difference between the number of tokens on it, and the number of tokens on the second-place candidate is refunded to the supporters of the winning topic, in proportion to their support. The remaining tokens on the winning topic are taken away.

The losing candidates don't go away, however, and they don't lose their tokens. The next time that a post is due to be made, perhaps one of the previous "losers" will win.

Once you place tokens, you can only move them after some time period has elapsed (1 month for topic tokens, 1 week for debate tokens). If you see a better candidate that you think should "replace" a candidate that you have placed token(s) on, however, you can indicate that you "would like to move" your token(s) from the old candidate to the new one; other people looking at the old candidate will be able to see a list that lists the new candidate along with how many tokens "would like to move" to it, perhaps inspiring them to place their tokens on the new candidate rather than the old one if they have free tokens.

For each token contest, there is a threshold that determines a minimum number of tokens that are needed to be posted (the Post Minimum Strength Threshold). If the candidate does not have at least that amount of tokens, then there is no winner and nothing is posted.

"Fractional tokens" may exist.

Participants are encouraged to discuss and debate the issue, comment upon posted speeches, and plan, coordinate and jointly edit candidate speeches outside the formal forum, in public and in private. Rather than think of the posted speeches as the entire debate, think of them as an distillation of the most salient and persuasive points of that debate, most of which takes places outside of the formal forum. The posted speeches are important as summaries because many people will not have the time or the inclination to read more -- the speeches may be your only chance to persuade these people. The speeches are also important because they provide a broadcast medium where speaking time is divided in a fair and principled way.

Multiple discussions at once; subdiscussions

There are 5 proposals up for discussion at any one time. However, within each of these discussion topics, there is a linear thread of discussion. Sometimes a subproposal will be be made WITHIN a discussion (Amends and Commits); this creates a subdiscussion within the discussion.

There is one kind of token used for choosing which topics to discuss in the 5 discussion slots ("topic token"). Each discussion has its own kind of token for choosing which speeches and proposals to post within that discussion; these "debate tokens" are handed out at the beginning of the discussion. Similarly, each subdiscussion has its own kind of token.

Each time a discussion ends, the topic tokens that were taken away upon the selection of that topic are distributed back to all assembly members equally.

Standing motions

During a discussion, there are a number of "meta proposals", that is, proposals to alter the flow of the discussion in some way. If enough people vote in favor of one of these, it is executed. The voting for these is happening constantly, and you may cast or change your vote at any time; hence these are called "standing".

The current tallies for each Standing Motion are publically displayed. Most Standing Motions give you five alternatives: Yes, Leaning Towards Yes, Neutral, Leaning Towards No, No. Only Yes and No "count"; tallies of the other options are displayed, but don't affect the result. The motion to Change Post Minimum Strength Threshold is done differently (see below).

Multiple-choice proposals

Rather than being yes/no, proposals may offer a list of multiple alternative choices; however, one choice is always "reject", meaning that the proposal is simply rejected and the status quo prevails.

Typical lifecycle of a discussion

The selection of a discussion topic:

The discussion itself:

Subdiscussions (Amends and Commits) follow a similar lifecycle; when the subdiscussion begins, its Opening Speech is posted. Every 4 days another speech or subproposal is posted. At the end of debate, Closing Speeches are selected, and then there is a vote.

Proxy voting

You can delegate your vote on a given set of topics to someone else. They can cast the vote for you, or they can pass it on to a third party. The vote can continue to be re-delegated. You can always "undelegate" a delegated vote, meaning that you can choose to cast it yourself on any given issue, regardless of how far it has been re-delegated.

Only the votes at the end of subdiscussions, and the Final Votes at the ends of discussions, can be delegated (proxy votes also show up in the Straw Poll). Tokens cannot be given away or delegated.

Votes are secret. Whether your vote is delegated, or who you delegate it to, is secret. If you delegate your vote, you do not get to see which way your vote was ultimately cast. This is to prevent intimidation or vote buying targeting people who have collected a large number of delegated votes.

Although, if you cast your own vote, your vote is secret, if you delegate your vote, you can always see which way your vote was cast, and you may tell other people about this if you wish, although the system will not be able to confirm it publically (todo: is this enough to prevent vote-buying? couldnt the mafia plant delegators to find out how you voted them?). When you delegate your vote, this is secret.

Holders of proxies do not know whose proxies they hold, or even how many they hold, except approximately (order of magnitude, with some noise? but with a noise floor around P votes). Holders of proxies may vote their personal vote differently from their proxy votes.

These secrecy measures are to prevent vote-buying and voter intimidation by preventing any two voters A and B to conspire for A to prove to B how he voted, or to prove that A delegated his vote to B.

Groups for which the prevention of voter intimidation and vote buying are particularly important should require that anyone who holds more than a certain large number of delegated votes (actually, since people don't know exactly how many proxies they have, then in addition to a strict cutoff above which this requirement applies to you, some people below that cutoff but above some other cutoff should randomly be selected for this requirement to apply to, to prevent people from learning the exact number of proxies that they hold) may only vote in public voting booths, into which recording devices are not allowed (if this is infeasible, then make the ballot casting inside the booth happen in such a way that it would be difficult for a recording device to see the contents of the ballot). In this way it can be made more probable that such people will be unable to prove to anyone which way they voted, thereby protecting them somewhat from intimidation, and preventing vote buying. However, if it becomes technologically infeasible to prevent people from proving which way they voted, then the votes of people who hold large numbers of proxies should be made public.

Perhaps some sort of anonymized trace should be publicized afterwards to allow some sort of verification? How should this be done? Perhaps temporal ordering should be skewed to prevent de-anonymizing?

Standing motions

Close debate

Ends the debate immediately and moves to the selection of Closing Speeches (or, if there are no speeches to select from, directly to the Final Vote). This motion requires a 2/3s supermajority (because it deprives the right to speak from those groups of people who have enough tokens remaining to sponsor another speech).

Interrupt with Urgent Business

Replaces the current discussion topic with another, specified one. The current discussion topic will automatically come back the next time a discussion slot is vacated.

Postpone

Puts the current discussion topic temporarily on hold.

Object to the Topic

Sometimes a small faction might sponsor a topic whose proposal(s) or Opening Speech are considered incoherent or offensive or out-of-bounds by almost everyone else. In this case, the assembly might want to indicate for the record that it considers the topic to be out-of-bounds and not worthy of debate. If this motion succeeds, the topic is immediately abandoned without a debate or further vote, and all proposals in it are considered to have failed.

Only available during the Opening Speech.

Give Out More Speaking Tokens

Gives one new speaking token to each assembly member. Requires a 2/3s supermajority.

Change Post Minimum Strength Threshold

Each person may at any time indicate a range of values that they would like the Post Minimum Strength Threshold to fall within. If the current value falls outside of more than 2/3s of participants' ranges, and there is a different value that satisfies more than 2/3s of participants, then the Post Minimum Strength Threshold is changed.

The Straw Poll

The proposal(s) under discussion also has a standing poll throughout the discussion. Unlike standing motions, however, this poll is merely a straw poll and has no effect (except in one special case; when a motion to Amend which only adds an alternative is under discussion, and more than 1/3 of the people vote for it in the Straw Poll, the Amend passes). However, if you cast a vote of "yes" or "no" in the straw poll, this will used as your default vote in the real vote unless you cast a different one later. Similarly, in multiple-choice proposals, there is an option to use your straw vote as your real vote if you choose.

More on Amends

Sometimes you think that the proposal under discussion should be rewritten or modified or split into multiple proposals that will be discussed and voted on separately. The way to do this a Motion to Amend (just Amend for short).

An Amend may not change the meaning of the proposal so radically that it is effectively a new topic for discussion. Parliamentarians annul such Amends if they are made.

An Amend sub-sub-discussion can be started within an Amend sub-discussion. However, an Amend sub-sub-sub-discussion cannot be started. In other words, amendments to amendments cannot themselves be amended.

More on Commits, and Elections

Sometimes a formal assembly is just too inefficient for gathering or summarizing information or for editing a proposal. When this happens, the topic can be Referred to Committee.

The committee will work on the proposal and then generates a Report. The Report is treated as a new discussion topic which automatically fills the next vacant discussion slot. The Report is then discussed like any other topic.

If a new committee is being created, nominations are done via speeches in the Commit subdiscussion. The vote on the Commit then includes a vote to determine the composition of the committee.

A discussion topic can be of type Election, which means that it works like a Commit except that it is a main discussion, not a subdiscussion, and except that there is no Report.

Average proportional allocations

In addition to elections, another special type of topic is an Average Proportional Allocation. In this topic, rather than multiple choice questions, the proposals consist of a range of alternatives to which you can allocate a share of some resource. The allocations of each voter are averaged together. This can be used for creating budgets.

The averaged result becomes a new discussion topic which is then discussed and amended and voted upon as usual. In this way, the assembly can make sure that it is happy with the averaged allocation, and can make sure that the averaged allocation makes sense.

Forum Rules for larger groups: more details

Current discussions

There are 5 topics up for discussion at any one time. Each topic consists of an Opening Speech and one or more proposals. Each proposal consists of one or more multiple-choice options for action. Each proposal in addition must always contain a "reject" multiple-choice option.

During discussion, points of view can be expressed and the proposal(s) under discussion can be amended. Each of these discussions ends in a vote in which either (a) one of the proposals passes, or (b) none of them do (actually, some topics, such as the selection of people for a five-person committee, might permit more than one of the alternative proposals to succeed).

How the current discussions are chosen

Periodically, one of the discussion slots will be vacated, either because the discussion filling it ended after a vote, or because it was postponed until later. At this time, a new topic for discussion is chosen to fill the slot.

Here is how the new topic is chosen. There is a pool of candidate topics that people have suggested discussing. There is also a fixed supply of "topic choice tokens". Each person is periodically given a topic choice token (see below). They may place the token on some candidate topic (or they can suggest a new topic and place the token on that; or they can save the token for later). Once placed, a token may not be moved for 1 month. When there is a vacant discussion slot, the topic with the most tokens is automatically selected to fill the slot, provided it has at least a minimum number of tokens (and provided the Stack is empty; see below); at that time, all the tokens currently on that topic become frozen and cannot ever be moved again (until after they are recycled). People may place multiple tokens on a single topic. At the conclusion of that topic's discussion and vote, those tokens are distributed back evenly to all assembly members.

However, the person who placed each token may indicate that they "would have liked to move it" to a given topic if they had been allowed, and the "what-if" tallies are public. Next to each candidate is displayed a list of a few alternative candidates that have received the most "what-if" tokens hypothetically moved "off of" the candidate at hand. This allows people to indicate that a better worded revision of a given topic has been published. These better-worded revisions can be later implemented via amendments after a topic is chosen.

Tokens may not given to other people or proxied.

Token contests

The real end time is chosen randomly and secretly to occur sometime within 1 day after nominal end time of the contest.

At the conclusion of the contest, the candidate with the most tokens wins. When a topic wins, the difference between the number of tokens on it, and the number of tokens on the second-place candidate is refunded to the supporters of the winning topic, in proportion to their support. The remaining tokens on the winning topic are "spent" -- in the case of debate tokens, they disappear, whereas in the case of topic tokens, they are "frozen" on the topic and then get redistributed when the discussion finally ends.

Stages in a discussion

  1. Opening speech
  2. Debate
  3. Selection of Closing Speeches
  4. Final vote

The Opening Speech

After a new topic is chosen, there is a 1-week period before debate starts.

During this period, the Opening Speech associated with the discussion is on display. The Opening Speech was submitted as part of the candidate topic proposal. The Opening Speech may specify what is to be considered on-topic within this discussion. The Opening Speech may introduce the topic, give information and express opinion and may try persuade people to vote for some or all of the proposal(s).

Debate begins immediately after the Opening Speech with the posting of a speech or motion (see below).

Debate tokens distributed

At the beginning of the Opening Speech, each person is given a certain number of debate tokens. They are separate from the topic tokens. There is a distinct supply of debate tokens for each discussion and they cannot be used in place of one another. They are used similarly to topic tokens; see below. Once placed, debate tokens cannot be moved for 1 week.

Object to the Topic

2/3 standing poll which does not take effect until the end of the Opening Speech. At the end of the Opening Speech, if the yes/no of the Object to the Topic poll is greater than 2/3, the debate is skipped and the proposal immediatly fails. The proposal is not expunged from the record, however, although it is listed separately, and the topic as well as the tally of the Object to the Topic poll is publically archived as usual.

Object to the Topic is only available during the Opening Speech.

Debate

How Speeches Work

An important part of the discussion is speeches. Speeches are written pieces of text which discuss the topic at hand and try to persuade people to vote for or against the proposal(s). Normally, one speech (or other "motion"; see below) is posted every four days in each discussion. Anyone can write a candidate speech. People may place debate tokens on candidate speeches that they support. The "strength" of a candidate speech is defined as tokens divided by (character length + 1000). When it is time for the next speech or motion, the speech with the most strength is posted (ties broken randomly), provided it has at least as many tokens as the Minimum Speech Strength Threshold (and provided it is not surpassed by some Amend or Commit; see below). "per (character length + 1000)" means that longer speeches are harder to get posted -- for example, a speech with 500 characters and 15 tokens and a speech with 2000 characters and 20 tokens are equally matched. Unlike topic tokens, debate tokens do not get recycled after use; they are simply consumed.

Active participants in a discussion

An active participant is a person who votes in any standing poll in the discussion or who placed topic tokens on this topic or who places tokens on any post in the discussion. The count of active participants is used to allow some standing motions to end early by assuming that only active participants in that discussion will want to vote on its standing motions, and is also involved in blocking subdiscussions via motions' standing polls (see below).

The identity of active participants is kept secret, but the total count is displayed publically.

The active assembly

Each member of the assembly is also considered to be either "asleep" or "awake" at any given time. At the invocation of a General Recess, all members' status is set to asleep. By casting any vote, or placing any token, a member's status changes to awake. A member can also manually change their status at any time. The set of awake members is called "the active assembly". This is used to allow more important votes to end early by assuming that only awake members will want to vote.

The asleep/awake status of members is publically displayed, as are the total counts of asleep and awake members.

Motions (non-standing)

A "motion" is a formal proposal for an assembly to take some action. Some motions, when "made", begin a subdiscussion in which the assembly discusses whether it wants to execute the action indicated; this subdiscussion ends with a vote on the action. The non-standing motions are Amend and Refer to Committee. For convenience, this subsection speaks of "motions", but "non-standing motions" are what is meant.

Like topics or speeches, there is a pool of candidate motions. Debate tokens may placed on candidate motions. The candidate motions compete against each other and against speeches to be posted into the discussion (or "made"). Unlike speeches, motions are not penalized for length. Upon the posting of a motion, the tokens on it are consumed.

Here is the full procedure for deciding what happens when it is time for the next post.

The standing polls (see below) for all motions are checked. If the No votes in the a motion's standing poll total more than 1/2 of the count of active participants in this discussion, then the motion cannot be made at this time and this candidate is temporarily ignored.

Each motion's strength is calculated. A motion's strength is the number of debate tokens on it / 1000.

The speech with the most tokens per character is chosen. The number of tokens on that speech is compared to the number of tokens on all candidate Amends and Commits, and the one with the most tokens wins. If the winning post's strength is less than the Post Minimum Strength Threshold, then this cycle passes without any post being posted.

Otherwise, if a speech wins, it is posted. If an Amend wins, it is posted (i.e. "the Motion to Amend is made") and a subdiscussion is begun about whether or not to Amend. Motions may be made in this subdiscussion, and a final vote is taken at the end of it. The main discussion is on hold until the subdiscussion is complete. Similarly for a Commit.

Each subdiscussion has its own supply of debate tokens which are handed out at the start of the subdiscussion. During the subdiscussion, the "suspending motions" (see below), if passed, apply to the entire discussion topic, not just to the subdiscussion. The motion to Close Debate, if passed, applies just to the subdiscussion, not to the entire topic.

Amend

If an Amend is posted, then within the ensuing subdiscussion, the proposed Amendment may itself be Amended. However, an Amendment to an Amendment may not itself be amended, because that would just be too confusing.

An Amend may not change the meaning of the proposal so radically that it is effectively a new topic for discussion. Parliamentarians annul such Amends if they are made.

An Amend to change, remove, or add new proposals requires a simple majority. However, adding new multiple-choice options to existing proposals requires only >1/3; the logic being that these will be chosen among by a Score Voting method in the Final Vote anyhow, and hence to supress them should be considered to be a limitation on debate. Furthermore, during the subdiscussion on an Amend to add a new option, the presence of a >1/3 "yes/no" in the Straw Poll, stable for three days, ends the subdiscussion and passes the Amend.

The Opening Speech is just a speech; it cannot be amended.

If an Amend passes, a 4-day Recess is taken.

Commit

The mechanics of making a Motion to Commit is similar to Amend (see above). Whereas the content of an Amend specifies how the proposal shall be changed, the content of a Commit specifies to which committee the motion shall be referred, what the committee is supposed to do, and a deadline for the committee to report back by.

If a Commit is posted, then within the ensuing subdiscussion there cannot be a motion to Commit.

A Commit may refer the issue to an existing committee, or a new one may be created in the Commit. If the latter, the committee member selection process is as follows. The size of the committee is set in the proposal in the Commit (which may be Amended). Any number of candidates may be nominated by posting a speech in the Commit subdiscussion (they are counted towards the character limit as if each name were 250 characters long). In the Final Vote, the members are selected by the nominees via a Score Voting procedure.

A Commit motion that creates a new committee has two parts to the Final Vote; one part selects the members of the committee; the other part is to see if the Commit motion passes, that is, if a committee is actually created and if the motion is actually referred to it. If the Commit motion passes, then the discussion is immediately moved to the Table (see below). If the committee fails to report back before the deadline, the discussion reappears as if it were Postponed (see below). If the committee does report back before the deadline, a new discussion topic of type "Report" is created and placed on the bottom of the Stack (see below). When the Report is created, the topic tokens are transferred from the defunct original discussion to the Report, and the original discussion is deleted from the Table.

The Report is like a new topic -- fresh debate tokens are handled out to everyone. The opening speech of the Report is the textual report from the committee. The committee may provide reworked versions of the proposal(s) for the Report -- of course, the assembly may Amend these, perhaps right back to the old versions, if they choose.

Topics in committee may be prematurely discharged via the "resume from table" mechanism (see below).

Recess

A Recess:

A Recess follows a successful Amendment or resumption of a discussion from the Stack. A Recess gives people a chance to reconsider their position in light of changed circumstances.

A normal Recess (as opposed to a General Recess; see below) applies only to one discussion.

Standing Motions

Unlike Amend and Commit, which have to compete with speeches and among themselves before they can be posted and considered, there are motions which are always "under consideration" and which take effect without further discussion if a sufficient number of people vote for them.

For a standing motion to pass, the tally of the corresponding standing poll must show a sufficient fraction of "yes" votes over "no" votes (or the corresponding situation in an auction; see below), and this state of affairs must hold for 3 days straight, unless so many people have cast votes already that the result is determined to be affirmative (assuming that all active participants might want to cast votes). The exceptions are Interrupt with Urgent Business which needs stability for only 2 days, and Close Debate during the Opening Speech, which requires at least 1/2 of the active assembly to cast an affirmative vote in order to take effect before the end of the Opening Speech.

The standing motions are: Close Debate, Give Out More Speaking Tokens (2/3 vote), Change Post Minimum Strength Threshold (2/3 auction; see below), Interrupt with Urgent Business, Postpone.

The Straw Poll

The proposal(s) under discussion also have a standing poll throughout the discussion. Unlike standing motions, however, this poll is merely a straw poll and has no effect (except in the case of Amend subdiscussions; see above). However, if you cast a vote of "yes" or "no" in the straw poll, this will used as your default vote in the real vote unless you cast a different one later. Similarly, in multiple-choice proposals, there is an option to use your straw vote as your real vote if you choose.

The Straw Poll counts proxy votes.

Standing Polls

A standing poll is where you cast a vote on a standing motion or a straw poll. Within each discussion, there is one standing poll for each standing motion, one for each candidate Amend or Commit, and one for the straw poll. The aggregate results of each standing poll are always publically available, and tallies are updated instantly -- however, your individual vote is kept secret. You may change your vote in a standing poll at any time.

Except for straw polls on multiple-choice proposals, the format of a standing poll is as follows. There are five options: "no", "leaning towards no", "neutral", "leaning towords yes", "yes". Only "no" and "yes" votes have any effect (aside from confirming your participation, and being displayed in the public tally of votes for this standing poll).

Close Debate

2/3 standing poll.

Motions dealing with speaking tokens

    give out more speaking tokens (2/3)
    change speaking token threshold (2/3, bidir auction)

The speaking minimum strength threshold starts at the Default Post Minimum Strength Threshold and can be changed changed via standing auction. Each person can enter a range that they would like the threshold to fall within. If (a) the current threshold falls outside the ranges entered by 2/3 of all persons who have entered a range, and (b) a range of new thresholds ("acceptable range") exist which is a subset of the ranges entered by 2/3 of all persons who have entered a range, and if this situation persists for 3 days straight, then the speaking minimum strength threshold is changed to the number in the acceptable range (as measured at the end of the 3-day period) which is closest to the old threshold. If Debate is about to end due to a lack of posts, the threshold is checked and changed again without waiting 3 days, in order to see if Debate will be prolonged.

The Stack and the Table

By means of the motion to Commit or the suspending motions (see below), active discussions may sometimes be suspended. The Stack and the Table are metaphorical "places" where discussions reside while they are suspended.

The Stack is an ordered queue of upcoming discussions. Think of a stack of papers in a pile. When a discussion slot is vacant, if there is anything in the Stack, the discussion on "top" of the stack immediately fill the vacant slot and is resumed; thus, no topic token competition takes place in this situation. The only ways that discussions can be put in the Stack are Reports from committees, motions to Interrupt with Urgent Business (see below), and motions coming off of the Table (see below). Some organizations may specify in their Bylaws that external events may also inserts topics into the Stack; for example, the Stack could be used when some outside authority asks the assembly to answer some question. The Stack could also be used by an organization to force itself to consider some issues periodically or at certain times, for instance an annual budget.

The Table is an unordered set of suspended discussions. Each item on the Table is attached to a condition that, when satisfied, moves that item off of the Table and onto the bottom of the Stack. The only ways that discussions can be put on the Table are motion to Postpone (see below) and Commit.

When a discussion is resumed from the Stack, there is only a one-day Recess before discussion actively resumes (i.e. before the next post is chosen and posted). Aside from the effects of the Recess, everything is as it was when the discussion was suspended; if a Commit or Amend subdiscussion was in progress, it still is. Debate tokens are not refreshed.

When a discussion is moved to the Stack or the Table, it vacates its discussion slot; however, its topic tokens are not released.

Discussions on the Stack or the Table are treated as candidate topics. New topic tokens may be placed on them for the purpose of resuming them prematurely. Any of the frozen topic tokens already on the discussion may also be counted for this purpose, at the option of the person who placed them there. Hence, the total strength of these discussions is calculated as the number of new tokens placed on them since they were suspended, plus the number of frozen tokens whose owners want the discussion to be resumed prematurely. These discussions compete with other candidate topics to be chosen as next discussion topic. When a discussion is resumed, the new tokens are refunded to those who placed them. This is also the way that a discussion on the Table may be made the strongest motion for the purpose of choosing it with a motion to Interrupt with Urgent Business (see below).

Frozen topic tokens

By default, the topic tokens that are on a discussion topic that has been chosen act to resist its suspension, and if it is suspended, they support its premature resumption. However, if the owners of those tokens wish to support interruption, they may indicate that the tokens they placed are not to be counted for these purposes (a vote for a suspending motion on this topic is taken as such an indication). This choice may be changed at any time.

Anyone may also place new tokens on a chosen topic for these purposes. These new tokens are not frozen and may be moved at any time, and if not moved, they are refunded when the topic is disposed of.

Suspending motions

Suspending motions are standing motions that suspend a discussion, moving it either to the Stack (in the case of Interrupt with Urgent Business) or to the Table (in the case of Postpone). Suspending motions apply to an entire topic at once; you cannot suspend an Amend or Commit subdiscussion without suspending the topic of which it is a part.

The effect of a motion to Interrupt with Urgent Business is to place the discussion topic on the top of the Stack and fill its spot with a different, specified discussion topic. The new discussion topic must be specified in the motion to Interrupt. The new discussion topic must either be currently on the stack, or it must be the topic which would be currently winning in the candidate topic token competition (if the motion specifies the latter, and the winning candidate topic changes before the Interrupt motion passes, then the Interrupt motion does nothing).

There are two kinds of motions to Postpone; Postpone to a Certain Time, and Postpone until The Disposal of Another Topic. Postpone to a Certain Time specifies a time (mechanically, there are a few preset time options, such as 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months -- note the maximum of 2 months), and a vote for postponing for a longer time is counted as a vote in favor of postponing for any shorter time also). Postpone until The Disposal of Another Topic specifies another one of the topics currently being discussed; after the disposal of that topic, this one will be resumed.

Neither a motion to Interrupt nor a motion to Postpone may be made if the current topic would win in the candidate topic token competition, if the current topic were a candidate whose strength is (its frozen topic tokens whose owners disagree with suspension + its unfrozen topic tokens). This prevents an absolute majority from thwarting the wishes of a small faction to discuss a particular topic, provided that the small faction has diligently saved up sufficient topic tokens over time.

Termination of debate

Debate may be terminated in two ways:

At the close of debate, all candidate posts and standing polls (except for the straw poll and polls to Interrupt with Urgent Business) are deleted.

Selection of Closing Speeches

After the close of debate but before the beginning of the final vote, the closing speeches are selected. Each alternative that will be on the final ballot gets an associated closing speech. The closing speeches are chosen out of the previously posted speeches.

To participate in the choice of the closing speech associated with some ballot alternative, a person must irrecovably cast his or her vote for that alternative. By doing so, the person gives up the chance to change their vote later -- in addition, any proxy votes held by this person will be cast for that alternative during the final vote.

For each alternative, the closing speech is chosen by a Score Voting method among all speeches made during the discussion. Proxy votes do not count in this poll.

There are no closing speeches if there was no debate, and in this case this period passes instantaneously. Otherwise, this period lasts up most 4 days, less if the result can be determined early (assuming that the entire active assembly might want to cast votes).

Voting

When voting begins at the end of a discussion or subdiscussion, the straw poll is replaced by a standing poll for the purpose of counting the final vote. Immediately above the this poll, first the opening speech and then the closing speeches are displayed. This standing poll does not contain the "leaning towards" options. As noted above, individuals whose Straw Poll votes were set to "no" or "yes" at the beginning of the Final Vote cast these votes by default in the final vote, unless they change their vote during the final voting period. During the final voting period, votes may be changed at any time.

The vote ends early if at any time enough votes have been cast such that the result could not be affected by the remainder of the active assembly who have not yet voted (where people who have had proxy votes cast on their behalf are considered to have cast their votes, as are people who had cast "yes" or "no" in the Straw Poll as of the beginning of the Final Vote). For example, if there is a single proposal which requires a simple majority, and 51% of the active assembly have had proxy votes cast on their behalf for the affirmative, then voting immediately closes and the proposal immediately passes. Similarly, if there is a single proposal which requires a 2/3 supermajority, and 34% of the active assembly have had proxy votes cast on their behalf for the negative, then voting immediately closes and the proposal immediately fails. Note that this means you should not rely on being able to change your vote after casting it (or having it cast for you) during the Final Vote.

Conditions for winning

Three numbers are calculated in order to determine if the proposal passed: the fraction of "yes" votes divided by "no" votes (including proxy votes; see below), the number of partipicants in the discussion, and the raw number of "yes" votes (excluding proxy votes).

The Bylaws of the organization give minimums thresholds for these numbers in order for a proposal to pass. If any of these thresholds is not met, the proposal fails. These thresholds may depend on what type of topic is being discussed. The Parliamentarians determine the classification of each topic's type. Topics which include proposals to change the rules of parliamentary procedure should always have a threshold of at least 2/3 for yes/no.

Proxy Voting

transitive proxy voting

proxy votes are only counted in votes to Amend, votes to Commit, the Straw Poll, and Final Votes.

Multiple choice questions

If a topic comprises multiple proposals, the voting is carried out according to a Score Voting method (with "none of these; do nothing" as one of the options; in the case of ties, this wins).

Termination of a discussion topic

After the outcome of a topic's proposal(s) is decided by the final vote, the frozen topic tokens on the topic are recycled. The discussion is archived and deleted, any discussion on the Table which is waiting on the completion of this particular discussion is moved to the bottom of the stack, and the discussion slot is vacated.

Standing motions at the topic level

    General Recess ()
    change topic token threshold (2/3, auction)

General Recess

A General Recess is a Recess that applies to the entire assembly; in addition, it marks all members as asleep, so that they must take some action to become awake again. It can be used to give the assembly some time off, and to reduce the count of the active assembly by marking inactive members as asleep. A General Recess is initiated via a standing motion at the topic level. General Recesses can be for 3 days, 1 week, 1 month, or 3 months.

Special discussion topics

Average proportional allocations

These are topics in which some quantity needs to be divided up among alternatives (for example, budgets). Rather than starting with a proposed division coming from a single faction and then letting everyone Amend it, as is done for most topics, a better way might be to let the assembly collectively create the inital proposal.

A candidate discussion topic may be indicated to be of type "Average proportional allocation", in which case instead of voting (possible multiple choice) up or down, the voters will each specify their own ideal allocation of the quantity between alternatives (expressed as percentages), and then these are averaged. Multiple allocation proposals may be combined into one topic (i.e. in a budget, voters could divide the total money between departments, and then there could be a separate division between projects in each department, all asked in one topic).

This topic also has a set of ordinary proposals, but these are not voted on in the Final Vote, although they may be Amended during discussion. These proposals indicate what the allocation is for; for example, "Resolved, that proportional allocation (A) be set as our budget for the coming year, with a total expenditure of $10,000".

After the Final Vote, rather than vacating the discussion slot, the averaged allocation is automatically reintroduced into the same slot as if it were a prewritten proposal for a new discussion topic. In this way, the allocation can be further discussed and Amended, but the initial proposal has been developed collaboratively.

Election

An Election topic is like a Commit motion (except that no Report will be generated).

Notes/ideas for improvement

The Councils could help in upmoderating bills and summaries.