Category:Component pipe

A component pipe represents a variable unit in the composition of a text.¹ The component need not be contiguous in the composition, such as a particular section of a legislative bill; it may instead be scattered throughout the text. Nor need it be a structural component; it may instead be functional, such as a on-going judicial review.

Creating a component pipe

Each component pipe declares itself by a template call in the following form. This is the minimal wikitext essential to a component pipe:

{{component pipe
 | is active = Property:Is active value.
 | minder = Property:Minder value, but without the "User" namespace.
 | nominee = Property:Nominee value, but without the "User" namespace.
 | poll = Property:Poll value.  Encoded in the page under id "pipePoll".
 }}

Certain restrictions of placement and form are necessary for this to work correctly. The template call must precede any section headings that are written to the same page. And the template parameters must be assigned in the order shown above.² Violating these restrictions may cause the component pipe to fail. To create a component pipe:

1. Follow the instructions of Category:Pipe to create a basic pipe, or to reactivate an existing one.

2. Ensure the wikitext of the pipe declaration is in component form:

   {{component pipe
    | is active = true
    | minder = YOUR USERNAME
    | nominee = Pipe-1138-ZeleaCom
    | poll = Sys/p/sandbox
    }} <!-- must precede any section headings, parameter order matters -->
   

   You may want to copy from an existing component-pipe page. In any case insert your own mailish username, the username of the nominee, and the correct name of the poll.

3. Test the component pipe by using the draft redirection service:³ http://reluk.ca:8080/v/w/Draft?u=Pipe-ID-ZeleaCom.

   Substitute the correct ID for your component pipe. The link should take you to the nominee's draft, not the newly created pipe page.

Variant nomination and genetics

A component pipe has no actual draft content of its own, instead its content is nominated. The nominee is ordinarily chosen from among the direct voters of the component pipe whose positions are known as a "variants". By changing the nominee property, the pipe minder may switch from one variant to another. Normally the minder will choose the variant with the most votes.⁴ Then patch flow will tend to propagate the draft content of the chosen variant downstream and throughout the larger branch or tree, thus establishing that variant as the normal, or "wild" variant. A given variant may contain component pipes among its own upstream branches and these may nest indefinitely. The drafts in the tree may therefore be composed of a large number of nested wild variants, each controlled more-or-less independently its own component pipe somewhere in the tree. A component pipe therefore defines a gene in a population of recombinant texts. Often it is a complex gene. The variants of the component pipe are the alleles of the gene.⁵

Notes

1. ^ Component pipes are therefore restricted to textual issues. Issues of power structures (executive elections) are instead composed with the help of office pipes. That leaves only assembly elections, which tend to be purely personal, and therefore pipeless.
2. ^ See ComponentPipeRevision.TEMPLATE_CALL_PATTERN.
3. ^ http://reluk.ca/project/votorola/_/javadoc/votorola/s/wic/WP_Draft.html
4. ^ Normally the minder of a component pipe is appointed by the pipe voters and is replaceable.
5. ^ This form of genetic encoding is not well documented yet. See the discussion thread Social structure as genetic encoding. See also Stuff:Votorola/p/position space rationalization.