From: Steve Gardner (gardner_at_sng.its.monash.edu.au)
Date: Thu May 22 2003 - 18:40:11 PDT
On Thu, 22 May 2003, Richard S. Holmes wrote: > > That last restriction is such a brilliant stroke that I am left almost > > speechless. How could it possibly be improved upon? Oh, I know: let's > > *require* each future rule to include ad hominem remarks. What could > > possibly be more fun than spending the Round insulting each other? > > Validity: Quotes not the previous rule but the rule before the > previous rule. The previous rule was Steve's own, so Steve could > hardly be unaware of it, so a ruling of UNSUCCESSFUL cannot be made. > INVALID. > > Style: Invalidity is always unstylish. In addition there's the fact > that this rule fails to obey the restriction of Steve's previous rule; > maybe Steve anticipated the latter's UNSUCCESSFUL ruling, but that > seems dubious. The quoting of the entire previous rule may have been > due to the ambiguity of 209:3. To forestall inflationary future > rules, I will interpret 209:3 as requiring only that a (significant) > portion of the previous rule be quoted. -1.5. With his usual insouciance, The Great Carpenter Holmes manages to hit the wrong nail squarely on the head. In fact, I did anticipate the UNSUCCESSFUL ruling, but in the same breath managed to forget the reason for it: that 209:3 preceded mine, hence mine succeeded it, hence my own Rule was the one I should be quoting. What a genius I am! That's what I get for messing with Murphy's Law. Still, since the proposed restriction of the INVALID and oh-so- tremendously unstylish 209:5 is manifestly of superlative quality, I'm going to repropose it here, and Mr. Arbiter-of-all-that-is-Sarcastic can do as he pleases: future Rules are required to include ad hominem remarks. -- Steve Gardner | School of Computer Science | I've only just realized and Software Engineering | how self-conscious I am. gardner_at_sng.its.monash.edu.au | -- Rule Date: 2003-05-23 01:52:39 GMT
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