IMC

From Minesweeper Wiki

IMC is an acronym for the International Minesweeper Committee, an elected group that seeks to evaluate new records and to establish rules for the Minesweeper community.

Contents 1 The Idea 2 Creation 3 Mandate 4 First Term 5 Second Term 6 Timeline

[edit] The Idea

The idea of a committee for resolving disputes had been suggested earlier, resulting in creation of the Winmine Congress. A year after Congress disbanded Roman Gammel posted anonymously in the Guestbook, 4 Sep 2005, suggesting the creation of a new International Minesweeper Committee:

From the point of view of last events [...] minesweeper community showed itself as an organization which is unable to make decisions what is considered as a cheat and what is legal. Existing methods of decision making (guestbook, yahoo group polls) are not enough effective. The suggestion is to create elective International Minesweeper Committee. This committee will make decisions in situations when public discussion is useless and inefficient, sometimes to prevent claims of unrealistic results. IMC will be composed of seven players with sufficient experience. Elections will be annual, all sweepers of community can vote. Any of elected IMC members can refuse his membership at any time, community will choose another player to replace him. Discussions within IMC are nonpublic, but all decisions will be published."

Roman stated results of voting would be made available 15 Sep 2005.

[edit] Creation

The announcement sparked intense discussion in the Guestbook.

Aryeh Draeger advised people to research the views of potential candidates before voting, but Dennis Lütken wanted deserving players to be elected regardless of opinion. Rodrigo Camargo refused to vote until the anonymous IMC revealed itself. Several players asked Damien Moore to trace the IP from the post. Yeoh Wee Pin noted that someone who did not want to participate might get elected. Dmitriy (Rilian) did not like the secrecy, and believed the community could discover cheaters more efficiently than a selected group. Gergely Nagy stated that the community should assign rights to the group before creating it. He suggested the IMC should register and become the official organisation for the community, decide on world records but consult the community on larger decisions. Dmitriy created an IMC discussion channel in his forum. Christoph Marx wrote a letter supporting Gergely. Elmar Zimmermann reminded people that the voting would soon finish.

16 Sep 2005 the anonymous IMC announced a tie for the final position and extended the voting. Two days later Roman revealed himself and announced the seven members of the IMC:

Christoph Marx Damien Moore Dan Cerveny Elmar Zimmermann Gregoire Duffez Rodrigo Camargo Roman Gammel

Austria Scotland USA Germany France Brazil Russia

[edit] Mandate

The IMC began its first term without a mandate and limited support. Gergely Nagy offered an important critique 23 Sep 2005 in the Guestbook:

"Hello and congrats to who have been elected into IMC [...] No-one will ever treat IMC as a serious board except from this community (if it will). First, there weren't any restrictions about voters. Who voted? How many times? Who checked the votes? Maybe a registration process should have been inserted first. Just think about it: the election was open through less than one month [...] the candidates could have registrated themselves, too, so all of us could have had a clear picture of them. And then, finally (and again), the committee should have some kind of "constitution", which determines its rights and duties. Until these things will be put to rights, the respect of the committee is not more than of a bunch of schoolboys" [...]

Several people agreed with this assessment. However, the community eventually took the view offered 26 Sep 2005 by Robert Benditz in the Guestbook:

"In many points I agree with you Gergely. The election of the committee did not happen in a very organized and democratic way. You are right, everybody was allowed to vote, even people who have never swept before and many people did not vote because they did not read about in time. But that does not make the IMC unnecessary. It's a first step into the right direction, a direction which leads to important decisions and which will hopefully keep the community from breaking apart and prevent cheaters from entering the world rankings. I am sure that the next election will be much better but for now I am pretty satisfied with the chosen members and I am convinced they will do a good job."

[edit] First Term

Members of the first term limited the IMC to verifying records and trying to establish rules for new clones.

The following decisions were made:

• Created IMC mailbox.
• Set 3BV limits for Beginner, Intermediate and Expert to 2-30-100.
• Accepted Arbiter for rankings.
• Accepted Manuel Heider's 11 on Intermediate, as it was made before limits.
• Rejected Antonio Poppo's 1 on Beginner as a fake.
• Accepted Levente Jakab's 72 on Expert, as he had demonstrated skill on other levels.
• Ignored speed advantage of Clone 0.97 over Clone 0.96: Clone 2006 released.
• Christoph and Rodrigo announce new personal records of 51 and 62, but later realise a Clone error has put them in UPK mode with 86 mines on Expert. Both scores rejected.
• Andrew McCauley sets Intermediate record on illegal 3BV 29. Proposes penalty system, IMC rejects it, Clone2006 integrates 3BV limits.
• Rejected as illegal having timer beep when on track to break a record.
• Sriram Sridharan allowed to keep his records without video evidence.
• Rasmus Jensen allowed to keep Expert record of 53 although video is corrupted.
• Arbiter bug declared illegal: releasing left button last after chording opens a square.
• James Custer allowed to keep Beginner record of 1 although video lost in computer crash.
• Rejection of all new sub15 Intermediate games completed on Winmine.
• Rejected Levente Jakab's Intermediate 14 as used illegal Arbiter bug.
• Accepted Alex Poehner's Intermediate 19 as he did not have knowledge of Arbiter bug.
• Rejected Rob Lovett's Expert 35 video as an obvious fake.
• Allowed records made on ViennaSweeper only to be accepted during the Vienna II tournament.
• Rejected Vazgen Geghamyan's Intermediate 11 due to Arbiter bug.
• Temporarily banned new scores from Levente Jakab pending evidence after a NF 10 on Intermediate.
• Accepted Jonathan Conto's Expert 49 after he submitted a 53 video to Damien.
• Rejected Loic Bouillon's Intermediate 12 as a fake.

The following ideas were suggested but were not carried:

• Christoph suggests universal video format.
• Attempts by several members to create a mandate.
• Attempts by several members to propose rules for records.
• Christoph makes temporary IMC website.
• Attempt to ban Arbiter after chording bug discovered.
• Attempts to make rules on what constitutes a clicking bug.
• Damien suggests registering the IMC and organising tournaments.
• Christoph proposes meeting on Skype instead of in a forum.

[edit] Second Term

IMC announced the second election 26 Nov 2006 in the Guestbook:

Authorities of the first elected International Minesweeper Committee are coming to the end. Now we should elect another 7 sweepers who will take care of minesweeper community, fight against cheating and define the common rules. Members of new IMC will work from January 1, 2007 till December 31, 2007, after this period another elections will be organized. From this moment till December 8, 2006 you can propose candidates, discuss them, protest against them. Each candidate should be in BestEver. Then full list of the candidates will be created and published on December 9, 2006. If there would be no protests the election will take place from December 11, 2006 till December 24, 2006 you can vote for 7 (or less) players from the list. In case of a tie sweepers who didn't submit their votes get two additional days to vote. Results of elections will be published on December 31, 2006.

[edit] Timeline

• 4 Sep: Roman Gammel anonymously suggests creation of IMC in the Guestbook.
• 4 Sep: Christoph Marx votes.
• 4 Sep: Dmitriy (Rilian) argues against secrecy, suggests community can detect cheats.
• 4 Sep: Rodrigo Camargo refuses to vote until IMC reveals itself.
• 5 Sep: Dennis Lutken votes.
• 5 Sep: Sergey Polienko votes.
• 5 Sep: Aryeh Draeger asks Damien Moore to trace the IMC post.
• 5 Sep: Aryeh suggests voting for views, Dennis Lutken suggests voting for deserving players.
• 6 Sep: Alain Rousseau votes.
• 6 Sep: IMC states all votes are secure.
• 6 Sep: Yeoh Wee Pin notes some candidates may not want to be elected.
• 8 Sep: Gergely Nagy states members should be chosen after the community decides its jurisdiction.
• 12 Sep: Christoph Marx agrees with Gergely that the IMC should become official.
• 12 Sep: Dmitriy writes article stating views on the IMC, creates IMC channel in his forum.
• 15 Sep: Elmar Zimmermann reminds people about last day of voting.
• 16 Sep: IMC announces that there is a tie for the final position, extends voting.
• 18 Sep: Roman announces elected members.
• 23 Sep: Gergely offers a critique of the IMC creation process, several agree.
• 26 Sep: Robert Benditz admits errors, but notes the new IMC is a step in the right direction.