LEGISLATION STANDARDS ACT 2017   An Act to define the standard of all legislation in the Coalition of the South Pacific.   1 — Preliminary   I. Status This Act is a General Act and further amendments to it must meet general amendment requirements. II. Table of Contents 2 — Scope 3 — Structure 4 — Amendments 5 — Reformatting of Existing Legislation Appendix A — Template for New Legislation Appendix B — Template for Amendments to Legislation Appendix C — Template for Repeals of Legislation   2 — Scope   (1) No bills may be brought to a vote in the Assembly unless it follows the formatting outlined in this Act. 3 — Structure   (1) The components of all bills should be as follows: a. Title of the Act; b. Preamble of the Act; c. Preliminary information of the Act. This includes a statement on the status of the Act (whether it is a Constitutional or General Act). Should the Act have four or more articles (including appendices), it should provide a table of contents; d. The main component of the Act should have a heading followed by the body of the text. Where approproate, sub-headings may be used; and, e. Where appropriate, appendices should be provided last. 4 — Amendments   (1) The standard format for an amendment will be to note which law, article, and section is being amended, and to quote only that part of the law. (2) Standard coloured text indicates the existing text. (3) Green text indicates words to be added. (4) Red text with a strikethrough indicates words to be removed. (5) Ellipses placed within square brackets will be used to indicate an intentional omission of a whole article, section, or sub-section. 5 — Reformatting of Existing Legislation   (1) For the purpose of this Act, the Chair of the Assembly will bring all previously written laws into compliance with the standards outlined by this Act. (2) The Chair of the Assembly may bring proposed legislation into compliance with the standards outlined by this Act before bringing it to vote. (3) The Chair of the Assembly may renumber articles, sections, and sub-sections where appropriate. Appendix A — Template for New Legislation   Example of new legislation CURRENCY RESERVE ACT 2020   An Act relating to the legal tender of the South Pacific.   1 — Preliminary   I. Status This Act is a Constitutional Act and further amendments to it must meet constitutional amendment requirements.   2 — Currency   I. Monetary unit (1) The monetary unit of the South Pacific is the Dramatic Llama. (2) The abbreviated form of the Dramatic Llama is "DL". II. Denomination (1) The denomination of money is the Drama Llama and the Pensive Llama. a. One Drama Llama is the equivalent worth of two Pensive Llamas. b. The NationStates equivalent is the Maxtopian dollar. One Drama Llama is the equivalent worth of five Maxtopian dollars. III. Use of the Dramatic Llama (1) All monetary transactions in the South Pacific shall be recorded, expressed, and settled in Dramatic Llamas. (2) Monetary transactions in the external territories of the South Pacific may be recorded, expressed, and settled in Dramatic Llamas. Code for new legislation Code: TBA Appendix B — Template for Amendments to Legislation   Example of bills to amend legislation TBA Code of bills to amend legislation Code: TBA Appendix C — Template for Repeals of Legislation   Example of bills to repeal legislation TBA Code of bills to repeal legislation Code: TBA

(This post was last modified: 09-23-2020, 08:03 AM by Amerion.)

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The logo feels really unnecessary and just takes up space. It tells people absolutely nothing they don't already know, while artifically expanding the visual size of a law. In the case of amendments, this would push the amendment itself off the top of the screen, when it should be the most prominent thing!

(This post was last modified: 09-22-2020, 09:04 AM by Nakari.)

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The logo feels really unnecessary and just takes up space. It tells people absolutely nothing they don't already know, while artifically expanding the visual size of a law. In the case of amendments, this would push the amendment itself off the top of the screen, when it should be the most prominent thing!

Cheers for the feedback:

(1) I've removed the seals from the bill
(2) I gather you're referring to the amendment text going before the preliminary information of the amendment's status?

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We really shouldn’t be hard-coding fonts into our posts, across the board. This limits our ability to have theme font stacks apply to posts.

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We really shouldn’t be hard-coding fonts into our posts, across the board. This limits our ability to have theme font stacks apply to posts.

Duly amended.

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The logo feels really unnecessary and just takes up space. It tells people absolutely nothing they don't already know, while artifically expanding the visual size of a law. In the case of amendments, this would push the amendment itself off the top of the screen, when it should be the most prominent thing!

Cheers for the feedback:

(1) I've removed the seals from the bill
(2) I gather you're referring to the amendment text going before the preliminary information of the amendment's status? 

1) thank you <3

2) Both the seals and the text, but yeah. It places so much emphasis on "this is an amendment, this is how amendments work, this is what we are amending" than on the actual amendment text. The current method - placing the amendment in a quote box and putting extra necessary information outside - at least visually separates the text of the amendment itself. 

Though I guess this will also depend on where you expect this to be used:
- debate threads? (urgh, the focus should be on the amendment, not on fluff to make it fancy, and it seems like a lot of code to expect from baby legislators)
- voting threads? (again, focus should be on the amendment itself, and the chair would still need to add stuff like the time of voting and voting information, so it doesn't really make it less messy)
- the law threads where the chair documents amendments? (okay I'm totally fine with this, and with the changes to bills themselves, because at this point formality is kind of expected, and the amendment has done its job)

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"This Act is a Constitutional/General Act and further amendments to it must meet constitutional/general amendment requirements." could we maybe do "This Act is a <Constitutional or General Act (pick one)> and further amendments to it must meet constitutional/general amendment requirements." or something?

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We really shouldn’t be hard-coding fonts into our posts, across the board. This limits our ability to have theme font stacks apply to posts.

Adding onto this, I just added [h1], [h2], etc., and it wouldn't be hard to add more markup of the sort. That way, the theme dictates how things look.

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Cheers for all the feedback. I'll work to enact the changes over the next few hours.

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Version 1

LAW STANDARDS ACT 2017   An Act to define the standard of all laws in the Coalition of the South Pacific.   1 — Preliminary   I. Status This Act is a General Act and further amendments to it must meet general amendment requirements. II. Table of Contents 2 — Scope 3 — Structure 4 — Amendments 5 — Reformatting of Existing Legislation Appendix A — Template for New Legislation Appendix A — Template for Amendments   2 — Scope   (1) No bills may be brought to a vote in the Assembly unless it follows the formatting outlined in this Act. 3 — Structure   (1) The components of all bills should be as follows: a. Seal of the Assembly b. Title of the Act c. Preamble of the Act d. Preliminary information of the Act. This includes a statement on the status of the Act (whether it is a Constitutional or General Act). Should the Act have four or more articles (including appendices), it should provide a table of contents. e. The main component of the Act should have a heading followed by the body of the text. Where approproate, sub-headings may be used. f. Where appropriate, appendices should be provided last. 4 — Amendments   (1) The standard format for an amendment will be to note which law, article, and section is being amended, and to quote only that part of the law. (2) Black text indicates the existing text. (3) Green text indicates words to be added. (4) Red text with a strikethrough indicates words to be removed. (5) Ellipses placed within square brackets will be used to indicate an intentional omission of a whole article, section, or sub-section. 5 — Reformatting of Existing Legislation   (1) For the purpose of this Act, the Chair of the Assembly will bring all previously written laws into compliance with the standards outlined by this Act. (2) The Chair of the Assembly may bring proposed legislation into compliance with the standards outlined by this Act before bringing it to vote. (3) The Chair of the Assembly may renumber articles, sections, and sub-sections where appropriate. Appendix A — Template for New Legislation   Example NAME OF THE ACT YEAR OF THE ACT   The preamble of the Act.   1 — Preliminary   I. Status This Act is a Constitutional/General Act and further amendments to it must meet constitutional/general amendment requirements. II. Table of Contents 2 — HEADING   2 — HEADING   SUB-HEADING (1) BODY OF THE BILL Code Code: [box][table=100][tr][td][blocktext] [align=center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Ez02u3e.png[/img][/align] [align=center][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=x-large][b]INSERT_NAME INSERT_YEAR[/b][/size][/font][/align]   [align=center][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=medium]INSERT_PREAMBLE_OF_ACT.[/size][/font][/align]   [align=center][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=large][b]1 — Preliminary[/b][/size][/font][/align]   [align=justify][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=small][b]I. Status[/b] This Act is a Constitutional_General Act and further amendments to it must meet constitutional_general amendment requirements. [b]II. Table of Contents[/b] [url=#2][color=#019AED]2 — HEADING[/color][/url][/size][/font][/align]   [anchor=2][/anchor][align=center][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=large][b]2 — HEADING[/b][/size][/font][/align]   [align=justify][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=small][b]SUB_HEADING[/b] (1) INSERT_TEXT[/size][/font][/align] [/blocktext][/td][/tr][/table][/box] Appendix B — Template for Amendments   Example AMENDMENT TO XYZ ACT YEAR OF THE AMENDMENT   An Act to amend the XYZ Act.   1 — Preliminary   I. Status This Act is an amendment to a Constitutional/General Act and must meet constitutional/general amendment requirements.   Appendix A — Amendment   Explanation of format (1) The XYZ Act shall be amended as follows — a. Black text indicates the existing text; b. Green text indicates words to be added; and c. Red text with a strikethrough indicates words to be removed. [PROVIDE THE TEXT OF THE AMENDMENT HERE] Code Code: [box][table=100][tr][td][blocktext] [align=center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Ez02u3e.png[/img][/align] [align=center][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=x-large][b]AMENDMENT TO INSERT_NAME YEAR OF THE AMENDMENT[/b][/size][/font][/align]   [align=center][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=medium]An Act to amend the INSERT_NAME Act.[/size][/font][/align]   [align=center][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=large][b]1 — Preliminary[/b][/size][/font][/align]   [align=justify][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=small][b]I. Status[/b] This Act is an amendment to a Constitutional_General Act and must meet constitutional_general amendment requirements.[/size][/font][/align]   [anchor=2][/anchor][align=center][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=large][b]Appendix A — Amendment[/b][/size][/font][/align]   [align=justify][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=small][b]Explanation of format[/b] (1) The [i]XYZ Act[/i] shall be amended as follows — a. Black text indicates the existing text; b. Green text indicates words to be added; and c. Red text with a strikethrough indicates words to be removed. [quote=Text of the Amendment]INSERT_TEXT[/quote][/size][/font][/align] [/blocktext][/td][/tr][/table][/box]

Version 2

LAW STANDARDS ACT 2017   An Act to define the standard of all laws in the Coalition of the South Pacific.   1 — Preliminary   I. Status This Act is a General Act and further amendments to it must meet general amendment requirements. II. Table of Contents 2 — Scope 3 — Structure 4 — Amendments 5 — Reformatting of Existing Legislation Appendix A — Template for New Legislation Appendix B — Template for Amendments   2 — Scope   (1) No bills may be brought to a vote in the Assembly unless it follows the formatting outlined in this Act. 3 — Structure   (1) The components of all bills should be as follows: a. Seal of the Assembly b. Title of the Act c. Preamble of the Act d. Preliminary information of the Act. This includes a statement on the status of the Act (whether it is a Constitutional or General Act). Should the Act have four or more articles (including appendices), it should provide a table of contents. e. The main component of the Act should have a heading followed by the body of the text. Where approproate, sub-headings may be used. f. Where appropriate, appendices should be provided last. 4 — Amendments   (1) The standard format for an amendment will be to note which law, article, and section is being amended, and to quote only that part of the law. (2) Black text indicates the existing text. (3) Green text indicates words to be added. (4) Red text with a strikethrough indicates words to be removed. (5) Ellipses placed within square brackets will be used to indicate an intentional omission of a whole article, section, or sub-section. 5 — Reformatting of Existing Legislation   (1) For the purpose of this Act, the Chair of the Assembly will bring all previously written laws into compliance with the standards outlined by this Act. (2) The Chair of the Assembly may bring proposed legislation into compliance with the standards outlined by this Act before bringing it to vote. (3) The Chair of the Assembly may renumber articles, sections, and sub-sections where appropriate. Appendix A — Template for New Legislation   Example NAME OF THE ACT YEAR OF THE ACT   The preamble of the Act.   1 — Preliminary   I. Status This Act is a Constitutional/General Act and further amendments to it must meet constitutional/general amendment requirements. II. Table of Contents 2 — HEADING   2 — HEADING   SUB-HEADING (1) BODY OF THE BILL Code Code: [box][table=100][tr][td][blocktext] [align=center][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=x-large][b]INSERT_NAME INSERT_YEAR[/b][/size][/font][/align]   [align=center][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=medium]INSERT_PREAMBLE_OF_ACT.[/size][/font][/align]   [align=center][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=large][b]1 — Preliminary[/b][/size][/font][/align]   [align=justify][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=small][b]I. Status[/b] This Act is a Constitutional_General Act and further amendments to it must meet constitutional_general amendment requirements. [b]II. Table of Contents[/b] [url=#2][color=#019AED]2 — HEADING[/color][/url][/size][/font][/align]   [anchor=2][/anchor][align=center][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=large][b]2 — HEADING[/b][/size][/font][/align]   [align=justify][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=small][b]SUB_HEADING[/b] (1) INSERT_TEXT[/size][/font][/align] [/blocktext][/td][/tr][/table][/box] Appendix B — Template for Amendments   Example AMENDMENT TO XYZ ACT YEAR OF THE AMENDMENT   An Act to amend the XYZ Act.   1 — Preliminary   I. Status This Act is an amendment to a Constitutional/General Act and must meet constitutional/general amendment requirements.   Appendix A — Amendment   Explanation of format (1) The XYZ Act shall be amended as follows — a. Black text indicates the existing text; b. Green text indicates words to be added; and c. Red text with a strikethrough indicates words to be removed. [PROVIDE THE TEXT OF THE AMENDMENT HERE] Code Code: [box][table=100][tr][td][blocktext] [align=center][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=x-large][b]AMENDMENT TO INSERT_NAME YEAR OF THE AMENDMENT[/b][/size][/font][/align]   [align=center][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=medium]An Act to amend the INSERT_NAME Act.[/size][/font][/align]   [align=center][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=large][b]1 — Preliminary[/b][/size][/font][/align]   [align=justify][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=small][b]I. Status[/b] This Act is an amendment to a Constitutional_General Act and must meet constitutional_general amendment requirements.[/size][/font][/align]   [anchor=2][/anchor][align=center][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=large][b]Appendix A — Amendment[/b][/size][/font][/align]   [align=justify][font=Avenir, Segoe UI][size=small][b]Explanation of format[/b] (1) The [i]XYZ Act[/i] shall be amended as follows — a. Black text indicates the existing text; b. Green text indicates words to be added; and c. Red text with a strikethrough indicates words to be removed. [quote=Text of the Amendment]INSERT_TEXT[/quote][/size][/font][/align] [/blocktext][/td][/tr][/table][/box]

(This post was last modified: 09-23-2020, 02:58 AM by Amerion.)

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