Not to steal the thunder of 319, but I can't plan my available time for now. So here's my proposal for discussion early:
Absentee voting
A player may specify his/her voting behavior in advance. His/her vote will be cast in accordance with his or her instructions based on the conditions existing at the time the vote is called. If the instructions are unclear, a judgment may be invoked (if it matters to the outcome of the vote) or an abstention entered. The judge, if judgment is necessary, must consider abstention the preferred option when the instructions are ambiguous. A player's explicit vote always takes precedence over a vote by standing order
Furthermore, a player may designate another player, or combination of players, to cast his/her vote, analogous to a MeFiNo power of attorney. Such designation must have a stated reason for absence and a reasonable expiration date.
A MeFiNo wiki page will be created to record players' standing voting orders and stand-in designations. No player may edit another player's standing orders or designations.
All rules proposed after this rule must have a title that is not the same as any current rule in effect. Rules may be referred to by title as well as by number.
This is now unlocked.
I don't think there is a good reason to let players who aren't actually around pre-vote or give their vote to someone else. Nothing terrible will happen if you don't get to vote on one or more proposals. I'm particularly concerned that one or more players can leave instructions that they will vote no on every proposal and then not come back (or stay away for a very long time). With this rule in place, I don't think a reasonable judge would be able to conclude that the player wasn't playing anymore, so we could be stuck with a no vote on every proposal.
I tend to agree with ssg. What distinguished the ctmf situation from the usual situation is that ctmf's stated votes were barriers to getting things done (perpetually voting NO), whereas the earlier people had tended to announce they were voting YES on everything until further notice.
A perpetual YES vote is all right, a perpetual NO vote is an annoyance we'd be better off without. I think I'd be more inclined to support this if the in-advance votes were YES-only.
Transferable vote / power-of-attorney strikes me as a good idea.
Good points - I may change the standing order clause to allow pre-specifying conditions under which a yes vote should be entered, with the only other option being auto-abstention (under other rules). Or I may drop that clause altogether.
I don't like the indefinitely aspect either, but would be happy for a set number of votes to be precast. Maybe three or four? After that the player either abstains or is no longer playing. This could also tie in with the clause I dropped from my previous proposal where if someone abstains for a series of votes they automatically get removed from the players list. I still like this idea and this could be a place to out it back in.
Am I correct that ctmf can put this to vote at any time?
Indeed, he can.