Terms Governing Automatic Faucet Search
A binding terms document for the hand-waving procedure conducted at automatic faucets in shared public spaces.
Article I: Scope and Applicability
These terms govern the behavior of any person who approaches a public faucet equipped with an automatic sensor and moves their hands beneath it several times while attempting to locate the sensor's active zone. These terms apply regardless of whether the person has used such a faucet before. Prior experience with automatic faucets in different locations does not constitute familiarity with this specific faucet. Each faucet is a new proceeding.
Article II: Defined Behavior
Automatic faucet search is the act of moving one's hands horizontally, vertically, or in an arc beneath a faucet nozzle while water has not yet appeared. The search concludes when water appears, when the person relocates to an adjacent faucet, or when a companion arrives and activates the faucet immediately, without apparent effort, in a manner that provides no actionable information.
Article III: Accommodation History
The first accommodation for automatic faucet search looks harmless and removes a little uncertainty. The first accommodation is: perform the search slowly and with apparent purpose. This signals competence to observers. The accommodation is not taught explicitly. Nobody is in charge, but several people still coordinate around the unwritten expectation that hands in the vicinity of a faucet should look deliberate.
Newcomers learn this without anyone calling it a rule. The accommodation becomes teachable through proximity.
Article IV: Procedural Standing
Automatic faucet search is considered stable once removing it would require an explicit conversation. No such conversation has occurred. Later, ignoring automatic faucet search appears reckless even though the rule was invented from habit. A person who approaches a non-functional faucet with confidence and touches it once, firmly, and then looks at it, has violated the protocol. The violation is observable. No one will say anything.
Article V: Termination
These terms remain in effect indefinitely. The sensor location is not disclosed in this document.