STV again (was Re: PEP 308 vote type (was Re: Update to PEP308: if-then-else expression))

[Erik Max Francis]

Bengt Richter wrote:

> Ok, just let approval values vary from -1 to +1 ;-)

As someone else pointed out, one problem with this suggestion is that it
seems much more likely to make a typo and write the wrong thing when you
meant something else, whereas it's very hard to mistype YES, NO, or
ABSTAIN (for instance).

> Keep in mind, we are doing this to communicate with the BDFL,
> not to present him with a predigested decision run through some
> formula. Why not make specific-choice disapproval visible?

Yes, but the results are going to have to be digested in some form and
turned into statistical figures that are presented; certainly you
wouldn't buld a huge matrix with voters on one dimension, forms
(including "no change") on the other, populated by floating point values
clamped between -1.0 and +1.0 and hand _that_ over to the BDFL; it needs
to be converted to some kind of statistical result.  As such, it _will_
be processed through "some formula[e]."  The full results will be
included in the accounting (so that everyone can review them and verify
their authenticity), but presumably the BDFL will judge the decision on
a summarized form of the voluminous data.

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