A countdown that ends in another countdown is a lie with a clock on it. Every one of these nine ends with something you can read, inspect, argue with, or apply to.
The order matters. The laws are published before anyone is recruited. The recruitment happens before land is announced. The land is announced before a date is set. Nobody is asked to commit to a thing that has not been decided yet.
The rule we put on ourselves
If a transmission has nothing real in it, it does not go out.
A date will slip before its contents do. If Transmission 005 arrives and we have two candidate territories instead of three, you will get two territories and an explanation — not a delay and a teaser.
When something fails, that goes out too. A city assembled by strangers runs on trust that was earned before anyone arrived.
