Proposals & Voting
Every binding decision an Orbit makes runs through one path: a proposal, a window, a recorded vote. No chairs, no executives—just the membership and the math.
Nobody in an Orbit rules. So when the Orbit needs to decide something—admit a member, hand someone a role, change its own name, amend its kernel, pull a role from someone who’s abusing it—it doesn’t fall to whoever shouts loudest or typed fastest. It goes to a proposal: a written question, an open window, and a recorded vote. That’s the only way binding power moves here.
Who files, who votes
- Full members file proposals and cast votes. One member, one vote.
- Probationary members witness, they don’t wield. During the read-only window you can see everything and weigh in by talking—but you don’t vote. Voting eligibility tracks your standing in the Orbit, not how long you’ve been around.
The pool of eligible voters is snapshotted when the proposal is filed, so the bar to pass can’t drift mid-vote as people come and go.
What you can put to a vote
| Kind | What it does |
|---|---|
| Admission | Promote a probationary member to Full. |
| Member into role | Vote a member into a standing role (facilitator, logkeeper, sentinel). |
| Role recall | Pull a role from whoever holds it, early. |
| Membership recall | Remove a member from the Orbit. |
| MVOS | Ratify the governance kernel, amend a core article’s terms, or add a supplement. |
| Orbit identity | Change the Orbit’s name or demand. Identity belongs to the cell, not to its founder—so even a rename is a vote. |
| Custom | Any other binding decision the Orbit needs to make. |
How a vote resolves
Every proposal carries two dials, set when it’s filed:
- Threshold—how much agreement it takes. Default is a simple majority (50% + 1 of the snapshotted Full members). For weightier questions you can raise the bar to three-fifths or two-thirds.
- Window—how long voting stays open. Default 48 hours; extendable to 1 week or 2 weeks for things that need real deliberation.
A proposal settles the moment its outcome is no longer in doubt: it passes as soon as the yes-votes clear the threshold, fails the instant enough no/abstain votes make passing impossible, and otherwise closes when the clock runs out. Resolution is checked whenever someone opens or votes on it—so deadlines are enforced on next view, not to the exact second. When it passes, the change is applied automatically (the member is promoted, the role assigned, the name changed), and the outcome is written to the transparency log. Your vote is logged the moment you cast it. No takebacks—that’s what makes the record worth anything.
Why it’s built this way
A fast, boring, always-available recall is what stops a “temporary steward” from quietly hardening into a boss. Because removing power is cheap here, hoarding it is expensive—and rarely worth trying. The point of routing every real decision through a proposal isn’t bureaucracy. It’s that power you can see and revoke on 48 hours’ notice is power that can’t calcify.