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We the users of the free and open source community, in order to form a more perfect network, establish justice, ensure chat tranquility, provide for our network defence, promote open source software, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and future users, establish this constitution for IRCNow.
Article I
Rules and policies will be created by a congress, which shall consist of a senate and house of representatives.
Each year, subnets will choose representatives for the house in proportion to the number of verified, active users in each subnet. No person may represent a subnet unless he has been an active, verified user on that subnet for at least 2 years. The house has the sole power to impeach the president.
In the senate, each subnet will choose two senators. Each senator gets one vote. Each senator serves for three years. Each year, one-third of the senators will be elected. No person can be a senator who has not been an active, verified user on that subnet for a minimum of 4 years. The vice president shall lead the senate.
The senate has the sole power to try impeachments. A two-thirds majority in the senate is needed.
Senators and representatives must report any gifts or income received from competing businesses.
All rules and policies for raising money must begin in the house and later passed in the senate. The president has veto power, but this can be overturned by a two-thirds majority in the house.
The congress has the power to:
Charge fees for network-wide transactions
Tax subnets based on active user count.
Spend network funds
Decide upon services, software, and protocols used across the network
Make deals with competitors and other networks
Train and admit new subnets
Punish abusers and criminals
The network council is not allowed to vote to ban users
Each subnet reserves the right to decide:
how it spends its own revenues
its own policies, including for membership
the specific software it runs within its subnet
A financial report of all revenues and expenses from the network must be published each year.
Users who are banned or frozen have the right to appeal to a higher court except during times of emergencies as approved by vote in the network council
Amendments to this constitution can be passed by 3/4ths majority vote of the senate.
Any other powers not mentioned here which are not forbidden are reserved to the subnets.
Article II
A president will be elected once every 2 years. He must have been a registered user for at least 4 years. No religious test will be required. The president must agree to uphold this constitution.
The president has the power to make deals with competitors and other networks provided he has 2/3rds support of the senate.
If the president is unable to fulfill his duty, the vice president will take his place. If the vice president is unable, then the house will vote for the president.
Article III
Judges shall be appointed by the Christian church.
The judges, who must be Christians of good standing, decide on content moderation policy in accordance with the Bible.
Article IV
New subnets may be admitted by the congress into the network, but not as a result of a split.
Each subnet is guaranteed a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against ddos attacks
Article V
Amendments to this constitution can be made if 3/4ths of all subnets agree.
Each subnet has the right to decide:
how it spends its own revenues
its own policies, including for membership
the specific software it runs provided that they are for the public interest and follow the open source principles above
Users who are banned or frozen have the right to appeal to a higher court except during times of emergencies as approved by vote in the network council
User Bill of Rights
IRCNow is a Christian network. No rule can be passed to prohibit the free exercise of the religion of the Bible, and censorship policies will be decided by the judges.
Free and open source software, being necessary to the liberty of a free network, the right of the users to software used by the network shall not be infringed. Users have the right to use, modify, copy, and distribute any and all of the software used on the network, for any purpose and at any cost without needing to ask for permission.
The right of the people to privacy shall be respected. Manual, non-automated searches of user data by sysadmins cannot be performed without probable cause.
All permanent bans and account freezes must be accompanied by evidence (logs, screenshots, witnesses) as proven in court. If an account is permanently frozen, all purchases and credits must be refunded to the user
Members can appeal a decision and should receive a fair trial by jury of other users.
Punishment must fit the crime and must not be excessive or cruel
Any other powers not mentioned here which are not forbidden are reserved to the subnets.