[ANSTHRLD] Conflicting with a non player.

[Jay Rudin]

Radei responded to me:

Robin> Your *proposed* device was returned for conflicting with somebod
Robin>  else's.  That's the reason for the return, totally independent
Robin>  from that person's level of activity. 

> Conflict of an inactive persona.  no one has heard from in 20 years. 
> If you can't find someone that is 20 years out of play then it is conflict due to a non-player conflict. 

No, it is simply conflict.  The rules make no distinction based on activity level.  The heralds aren't even tracking activity level.
  
> the point is.  if the inactive person's device was considered inactive and therefore not an "ACTIVE" conflict.
>
>So your "note of precision" is a moot point.  It is the topic at hand.  

You are continuing to blame the rules for something not caused by the rules, but by your desire to have something that breaks the rules.

The crucial note of precision is this -- we are each supposed to come up with a proposed device that is clear of anybody else's.  That's the basic rule, and that's the issue here.  And it doesn't have anything to do with the person's activity level.

Heraldry means something.  My arms mean a peer and a noble (and some other things).  Even if I go inactive, they will mean that.  Therefore nobody else can use them.

Occasionally, a submittor can get around this rule by being granted an exception, but the general rule is to be free of conflict. Your proposed device was not returned for non-player conflict; it was returned for conflict.  You cannot get around this rule because you can't find the person.  That's a logistical problem for you, but that doesn't change the fact that this return, like any other, was for simple conflict.

I understand that it would be convenient for you if there were a defined difference in the rules between an "active" conflict and an "inactive" one, but there isn't one.  I think this situation will be easier for you when you realize that the rule is no conflicts.  Some people can get exceptions, but the basic rule remains no conflicts.

By the way, just as one should never fall in love with a house until after the closing, one should never fall in love with a proposed device until after it passes.  (I had to change mine to clear conflict with the city of Cologne -- another case of a conflict for which no permission was possible.)

And by the way, it's not necessarily true that somebody leaving the SCA means that their arms are inactive.  We haven't seen Richard of Mont Royal since the mid-seventies, but his arms are active -- on display each year at Steppes Warlord, as the first Warlord of the Steppes.  If somebody were allowed to carry his arms because he's "inactive", I would recognize them instantly, and assume the person carrying them was a duke.  And so would many others.

Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin

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