Invitation Act

Invitation Act

Osolian law passed by Assembly
Osolian Assembly
Introduced by	Speaker tz_scion Dir. Finance Hydrogen
Dates
Presented to the Assembly	11 April 2024
Commencement	14 April 2024
Other legislation
Amends	Osolian Constitution
Status: Current legislation
History of passage through the Assembly
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Invitation Act, also referred to as Constitutional Amendment 1, is a law and constitutional amendment in Osolia, passed by the Osolian Assembly with 89% approval. It was the first constitutional amendment, and the only law to be passed during Term 2. The act overhauls the process for inviting new players to Osolia, switching from a majority approval system to a referral system with a trial period for new players ("residency").

Background

On March 29, 2024, Chief Michael Webb made a proposal before the Assembly in response to an anonymous citizen's formal complaint. Webb agreed with their sentiment, stating that "the current system for approving new citizens is far too strong and stringent, preventing potential server activity and growth." He then went on to propose a system where all current citizens can invite friends to the server, a system where new citizens can be removed and the person who invited them be banned from inviting people for a while, and a restriction on new citizens' ability to invite for 1-3 months. Many of these ideas were incorporated in the final Invitation Act.

This sparked a discussion in the Assembly between multiple people, as details such as the restriction of not having new citizens invite people were ironed out amongst TriforceComet, Speaker tz_scion, Chief Michael Webb and Director of Finance Hydrogen, later a co-writer of the Invitation Act.

Hydrogen was the first one to take the ideas presented before the Assembly and put them together in a bill, at the time titled the Naturalization Reform Act, presenting this bill to the Assembly on April 2, 2024. This version required that a citizen be vouched for by more than one citizen to immediately be accepted, or otherwise face a short questioning period from the Assembly before being able to be accepted, and this proved to be controversial and was eventually removed from the Invitation Act. One concept that stayed, however, despite initial pushback, was the idea of creating residents. Residents are citizens that have the same rights and provisions as citizens, except that they are not allowed to invite anyone, and they can be more easily removed.

Speaker Scion would use Hydrogen's bill proposal to create a simplified version that same day titled the Invitation Act, which only changed five clauses in the Constitution, versus Hydrogen's proposed Naturalization Reform Act that contained multiple articles and had double the number of total clauses. The semantics and slight differences between the two bills would be debated heavily amongst the two bill writers, such as the details on how a potential new citizen or resident would be removed. A trial-style proposal was initially forming, but with some further debate, it became a simple requirement for the Speaker to put any removal to a vote, requiring the Speaker to also state the reasons for a resident or citizen's removal.

With these new changes in mind, Hydrogen then proposed a new version of his bill, titled the Simplified Naturalization Act, also on April 2, 2024. Speaker Scion replied the next day that he still felt there was too much legalese, or wordy legal language, being used in the bill, and decided to simply modify his Invitation Act, which he would once again present to the Assembly on April 11, 2024. This time, Hydrogen liked Scion's version of the bill, and with Chief Webb's approval, the bill was officially put up for a vote under the title of Constitutional Amendment 1 that same day. It passed with 89% approval amongst those who voted, and it was officially added to the Constitution on April 14, 2024.

Provisions

Invitation of new citizens

The first clause of the amendment states that current citizens may propose the invitation of one new citizen in a given week to the server, clarifying that each citizen has one invite a week, not just citizens as a whole. It calls for the server owner, Michael Webb, to carry out the invitation, except for in cases of server security issues, in which the owner must inform the Assembly of this reasoning for the denial.

Resident classification

Recently invited citizens are initially classified as Osolian residents. Residents have the same rights/privileges as citizens, except for the inability to invite new citizens, and that residents require fewer votes to be removed. Residents automatically become citizens after 21 days, gaining the ability to invite new citizens. It is the duty of the Speaker of the Assembly to ensure that the ascension from resident to citizen is performed.

Removal of a citizen or resident

The Speaker can commence a vote to remove a particular citizen or resident, being required first to provide a reason for removal, "especially if it comes from reports within the Assembly." It lays out that residents can be removed with only five votes in favor of removal, whether it's not a majority vote, while citizens must have a majority vote in favor of removal. After a citizen or resident is voted to be removed, the removal is carried out by the server owner, or someone appointed by the server owner to do so. The server owner can also choose not to act on the removal, but must specify a reason why. If a citizen or resident was previously removed from Osolia, then they may be reintroduced only with a majority vote by the Assembly to approve the invitation.