It's not the Action card's instructions that make us play the Duration. But it is the Action card's effect.
Semantics discussion are never helpful. A card has
effects when played, these are given in the form of
instructions. I like to call the whole set of instructions that happen when you play a card (or at other times, like Reaction instructions) for the card's
ability (which is also used in several rulebooks). As such, Diplomat has two abilities, each consisting of several effects/instructions. If you want to use other terminology, fine, but then explain it to me, and then explain what you mean by differentiating between instructions and effects.
As Donald says above, a Way is something an Action card can do when played.
Donald just said you do what the Way says instead of what the Action says, which is the same phrasing that exists in the game (rulebooks, Enchantress's card text). It doesn't say that the Action card's effects, ability or instructions have now changed.
Ingix quoted you the text from the rule book that implies this and you dismissed it out of hand for no readily apparent reason.
I wrote why I dismissed it. Have you missed all those times people have asked why something in a rulebook isn't describing some corner case in a technically accurate way? Donald always answers that the rulebooks are written to be understandable by humans for the general cases. "Play it do what the Way says" is not specific and doesn't tell us one way or the other. You
play the Action card, and as a result of that you do the Way, and that's what it says in short form.
Compare the interpretation of the word "this" on a Way. "Return this to its pile" on Way of the Horse doesn't mean you return Way of the Horse to its pile.
True, and this is why that is not accurate without a special rule. You need a rule to say that it actually applies to the Action card, not the Way card. On all other cards, including Landmarks, "this" means the card itself.
I don't understand your reasoning here at all. Given that Ways work exactly as Donald said now, that means that the "Tracking for the former shapeshifters" rule applies to the Action card played according to the Way of the Mouse. I play Necropolis, Necropolis plays Fishing Village, and so Necropolis stays in play.
I think I replied to this above in this post. Also, I think it would be helpful if you instead went back in the thread and replied to the arguments I made (or my responses to the people disagreeing), so I don't have to keep repeating this stuff.