Emergency Motion

Grosseschnauzer

Grosseschnauzer

TNPer
I hereby move the following in view of the ongoing issues with forum access due to DNS resolution errors:
That any and all participation or similar requirements based on the ability of any user account to access these forums be suspended until such time as forum administration can certify that access to these forums are no longer impeded by the DNS resolution error ("1001" at forums.thenorthpacific.org) and that all links within the forums using "thenorthpacific.org" whether in a public or private or otherwise restricted area of the forums have been repaired or resolved.
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I ask that debate and voting on this motion be expedited in order to prevent any unintended consequences of whatever form or nature from affecting any user account, or the ability of new users to join these forums.
 
I'm not sure this is within the jurisdiction of the RA...we have the power to make laws, change laws, and repeal laws, but not to suspend them. I certainly don't want anyone to lose government office or RA membership because of technical issues, though.

Perhaps we could pass a similar motion declaring the DNS error an "actual emergency" under clause 11, and empower the Speaker and other government officials to ignore activity requirements, etc as necessary until the emergency is over.

In RL terms, this sort of event is equivalent to a nation's entire communications network coming under attack, so I think the term emergency applies.

The motion could look something like this:
The Regional Assembly recognizes that The North Pacific is in an actual emergency due to widespread obstacles to forum access. As such, under clause 11 of the Bill of Rights, the government authorities of the region are authorized "to act in any reasonable manner that is consistent as practicable with the pertinent provisions of the Constitution," to ensure that no forum goers are penalized for being unable to access the forum.
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Would that be an acceptable revision? I think it accomplishes our goal, but goes a bit more by the book.
 
I support COE's motion. The DNS error is very annoying and almost shut me out of the Pigletville Ball.
 
I too would not want people to lose any positions that has activity/participation requirements during this DNS issue. And if there is anything inside of law the RA can pass or outside of law either with OOC Adminship or a Delegate Executive Order or sorts. To implore the speaker and other government departments to temporarily suspend activity requirements while zetaboards is experiencing DNS attacks. I strongly urge my fellow tnpers that we should aggressively pursue it.
 
Crushing Our Enemies:
I'm not sure this is within the jurisdiction of the RA...we have the power to make laws, change laws, and repeal laws, but not to suspend them. I certainly don't want anyone to lose government office or RA membership because of technical issues, though.

Perhaps we could pass a similar motion declaring the DNS error an "actual emergency" under clause 11, and empower the Speaker and other government officials to ignore activity requirements, etc as necessary until the emergency is over.

In RL terms, this sort of event is equivalent to a nation's entire communications network coming under attack, so I think the term emergency applies.

The motion could look something like this:
The Regional Assembly recognizes that The North Pacific is in an actual emergency due to widespread obstacles to forum access. As such, under clause 11 of the Bill of Rights, the government authorities of the region are authorized "to act in any reasonable manner that is consistent as practicable with the pertinent provisions of the Constitution," to ensure that no forum goers are penalized for being unable to access the forum.
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Would that be an acceptable revision? I think it accomplishes our goal, but goes a bit more by the book.
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My version, I think, is preferable because it specifies certain requirements that are directly impacted by the lack of access, and specifies the manner by which the end of the emergency situation is to be determined.

Second, Clause 11 can be invoked without any action by the R.A., what I drafted specifies certain things that need to be addressed so that there is less ambiguity with the current situation and its impact.
 
I don't think clause 11 can be invoked without some kind of referendum, either of the RA or of the region, because of the bolded part here:
11. No governmental authority of the region has the power to suspend or disregard the Constitution or the Legal Code. In the event of an actual emergency, the governmental authorities of the region, with the express consent of the Nations of the region or their representatives, is authorized to act in any reasonable manner that is consistent as practicable with the pertinent provisions of the Constitution.
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The version you've proposed remains illegal, because the RA does not have the power to suspend the law. What we can do is give authority to the government to use some common sense and prevent people from being penalized, which is what the version I've suggested does. I could perhaps add a little teeth to it:
The Regional Assembly recognizes that The North Pacific is in an actual emergency due to widespread obstacles to forum access. As such, under clause 11 of the Bill of Rights, the government authorities of the region are authorized "to act in any reasonable manner that is consistent as practicable with the pertinent provisions of the Constitution." Furthermore, the Regional Assembly directs the TNP government to ensure that no forum goers are penalized for being unable to access the forum.
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Crushing Our Enemies:
I don't think clause 11 can be invoked without some kind of referendum, either of the RA or of the region, because of the bolded part here:
11. No governmental authority of the region has the power to suspend or disregard the Constitution or the Legal Code. In the event of an actual emergency, the governmental authorities of the region, with the express consent of the Nations of the region or their representatives, is authorized to act in any reasonable manner that is consistent as practicable with the pertinent provisions of the Constitution.
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The version you've proposed remains illegal, because the RA does not have the power to suspend the law. What we can do is give authority to the government to use some common sense and prevent people from being penalized, which is what the version I've suggested does. I could perhaps add a little teeth to it:
The Regional Assembly recognizes that The North Pacific is in an actual emergency due to widespread obstacles to forum access. As such, under clause 11 of the Bill of Rights, the government authorities of the region are authorized "to act in any reasonable manner that is consistent as practicable with the pertinent provisions of the Constitution." Furthermore, the Regional Assembly directs the TNP government to ensure that no forum goers are penalized for being unable to access the forum.
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Yup, that is exactly what I think.

This is more of a forum administration matter in terms of forum security. But it is also a matter of a technical matter possibly interfering with forum access (and hence activity rules). COE's suggestion seems to dig into this in a more appropriate and effective way.
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Is all this really necessary? Suspending activity requirements is illegal, and invoking Clause 11 is like killing a fly with a sledgehammer. R3n has already updated the TNP WFE. Another way to inform RA members of the forum issue is TGs with an alternate link to the forum. The Speaker could do this methinks. Perhaps an emergency release from the Speaker's Office?
 
I don't know about necessary but I think it's certainly a good thing to do with no real downside.

Also, activity requirements for the RA isn't the only thing affected by this. I think I would actually be committing espionage if I said too much here, but suffice to say that there are some classified things that are currently broken due to this, that make it more difficult for SC members to meet their in-game requirements.
 
There are a number of links that still have to be fixed, and suffice it to say that not all of them can be fixed except by Eluvatar since some of the material is located at thenorthpacific.org.

The laws links are also broken, and this impacts the Court's ability to render any decisions since the Justices are obligated to follow prior decisions and rules of the Court in addition to the current laws and legal documents of the Region.

COE, you need to define a endgame in your version of the motion as my initial motion draft does. That's a major weakness in what you propose. And there is nothing I am aware of that prevents the R.A. from adoption legally binding motions that do not become part of the Legal Code, the Constitution, or the Bill of Rights.

Further the Regional Assembly are the representatives of the Region, and therefore they are empowered to act under Clause 11. To read Clause 11 in any other way is nonsensical.
 
Grosseschnauzer:
COE, you need to define a endgame in your version of the motion as my initial motion draft does. That's a major weakness in what you propose.
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Fair point. How about this:
The Regional Assembly recognizes that The North Pacific is in an actual emergency due to widespread obstacles to forum access. As such, under clause 11 of the Bill of Rights, the government authorities of the region are authorized "to act in any reasonable manner that is consistent as practicable with the pertinent provisions of the Constitution." Furthermore, the Regional Assembly directs the TNP government to ensure that no forum goers are penalized for being unable to access the forum. This directive shall be in effect until the obstacles to forum access and use have been completely removed.
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Grosseschnauzer:
And there is nothing I am aware of that prevents the R.A. from adoption legally binding motions that do not become part of the Legal Code, the Constitution, or the Bill of Rights.
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We can certainly do that, and in fact that is what I am proposing. However, I don't think we can make *any* legally binding motion. We could not, for instance, pass a legally binding motion to reverse a court ruling, and substitute a different interpretation of the law. Similarly, I don't think we can pass motions that contradict the law. We have to work inside of the legal framework that we have created.

Grosseschnauzer:
Further the Regional Assembly are the representatives of the Region, and therefore they are empowered to act under Clause 11. To read Clause 11 in any other way is nonsensical.
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That is correct. That is why I believe that an RA motion or regional referendum is necessary to invoke clause 11, i.e. it cannot be invoked by government officials acting alone.
 
Crushing Our Enemies:
Grosseschnauzer:
COE, you need to define a endgame in your version of the motion as my initial motion draft does. That's a major weakness in what you propose.
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Fair point. How about this:
The Regional Assembly recognizes that The North Pacific is in an actual emergency due to widespread obstacles to forum access. As such, under clause 11 of the Bill of Rights, the government authorities of the region are authorized "to act in any reasonable manner that is consistent as practicable with the pertinent provisions of the Constitution." Furthermore, the Regional Assembly directs the TNP government to ensure that no forum goers are penalized for being unable to access the forum. This directive shall be in effect until the obstacles to forum access and use have been completely removed.
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I like this version.
 
It will probably be in the a.m. my local time, but I'm going to try to come up with language that combines both. This is not a competition of either or neither, but trying to bring clarity to this unexpected mess.
 
I will likely be fine with any compromise that does not explicitly suspend any law, but rather empowers government officials to act in accordance with clause 11 regarding this matter.
 
Since this is a motion (and thus non-legislative in nature), the proposer will require a seconder if the vote is to proceed. Just a heads-up :)
 
I think it would be nice to have an emergency plan in place and everything backed up someplace if zeta crashes again. And access to the pages of laws and such can be easily switched over and accessed.

The s13 worked however alot of links had to be manually adjusted.

Call it "Forum Plan Orangutan"
 
I suppose I can try to expedite my plans to have browse-able backup(s).
Lord Nwahs:
Table in the American sense, or in the British sense? (Postpone or move to vote?)
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Postpone indefinitely. :pinch:
 
I think the issue is settled here. If the RA is interested in discussing future contingency plans, start another thread.
 
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