Post making contest 1.0

"1 and 5 seem to be simple inclusive, and I'm pretty sure this post will pass them."



"At a glance 4 seems to be simple exclusive, as blank posts pass it. However, combining posts that pass it has produced posts that don't; see BUDDY."

"We had a theory on 2 that would be simple inclusive but it isn't working consistently."

"Another rule type is counting rules, which count something in the post and requires that count to meet some condition. Rules which require a count GREATER THAN a number are also simple inclusive; rules which require a count LESS THAN a number are simple exclusive. However, there are rules which have both GREATER THAN and LESS THAN requirements, which do not cleanly fit into either category. Additionally, there can be more complex counting-based rules, such as 'the number of e's in the post must be a prime number', which is not a simple greater than/less than comparison."

"And then, of course, there are meta rules which take into account the fact that this takes place on a forum. We have seen plenty of examples. Or perhaps the forum-specific rules should be considered separately from rules about rules? I'm not sure offhand."

"This post breaks rule 4. That's right, this is the first post to pass rule 3! "

This post breaks rules 2 and 3.

"I don't understand anything any more."

This post breaks rules 3 and 4.

"What do you guys think? Are any of Akumu's rules simple exclusive or simple inclusive? How would you categorize some of the other possible rules?"

"1 and 5 seem to be simple inclusive, and I'm pretty sure this post will pass them."



"At a glance 4 seems to be simple exclusive, as blank posts pass it. However, combining posts that pass it has produced posts that don't."

"We had a theory on 2 that would be simple inclusive but it isn't working consistently."

This post breaks rule 4.

Categories:

• Simple Rules [inclusive and exclusive]
  
• Counting rules [greater than, less than, ranged continuous, ranged sporadic]
  
• Post specific rules [Post contextual, thread contextual]
  
• Self-referential rules
  

Post specific rules are rules that take into account things that are not within the poster's immediate control. Post contextual are things within a user's post like, post number, username, date/time stamps. Thread contextual are rules that take into account aspects of posts outside of the post being evaluated: the post before this one, the first post on the page, etc.

Self-referential rules are those that reference the ruleset itself. Rules are self-referential if their condition is dependent on the outcome of other rules. Non-self-referential rules are all evaluated independently of each other. Things like rule 3 is only broken if rule five is broken and x happens. DF's "post a zero if you don't break any rules." is an example of this, and one that can be difficult to identify.


Of course, the follow up for this is to see if we can come up with a reliable litmus test for each of these categories.

This post breaks every rule!