ternary operator vote

[James J. Besemer]

Aahz wrote:
> 
> Thing is, if I run the vote, I'm using YES/NO/ABSTAIN to ensure lack of
> typos in votes.  No way a voter can mix those up unless zie makes a
> mistake with cut'n'paste rather than typing each vote individually.

I've been reading with interest all these complicated voting schemes.  Isn't 
it just like engineers to make things as complicated as possible?  ;o)

I find myself agreeing with Aahz's proposal, if I understand it correctly. 
Whether yes/no/abstain or some similar +1 through -1 notation is used I think 
this is the RIGHT way to go.

After all, we are NOT actually determining the winner here but we are 
indicating preferences to the BFDL.  After all, no matter how the votes 
tally, Guido is still free to, say, pick instead the second most popular 
solution (cause it's his favorite), or decide to do nothing at all even if 
there is a clear majority.  Right?  We're not DECIDING anything, merely 
trying to PERSUADE our fearless leader.  So why complicate matters?

Keep it simple: N alternative proposals, including none of the above, with 
some kind of thumbs-up, thumbs-down or thumbs-left for each one.  I further 
would discourage (for formal voting) fractional votes, such as +0.8.  Yer 
either fer'it or again'it or you doan care.  That's pretty comprehensive.

Then simply tally and publish the number of pros, cons and don't cares for 
each alternative and let Guido do what he does best.  The summary should 
include each voter's name and his vote so everybody can see that their vote 
counted as they wished.

Only other thought, is the vote should be well publicized in advance and a 
non-trivial period should be given for people to vote, e.g., to include 
members who don't have time to keep up with the list every day.

Regards

--jb

-- 
James J. Besemer		503-280-0838 voice
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