Alternative decorator syntax decision

[Istvan Albert]

David Fraser wrote:

> Thats because the point of this vote is to try and gather a consensus 
> about what the best alternative is,

But what if the alternative is that you don't need a best
alternative? There lies the crux of the problem.

 > not to try and out-vote the original contender.

If you cannot out-vote the original contender than what
is the whole point of the poll? Why would this proposal be
accepted  if it cannot outclass the original one?

Voting is an extremely tricky business. Arrow's theorem
proves that there is not voting scheme that could provide
a proper selection whenever there are more than two candidates
(in the two candidate case the scheme is simple majority).

Yet there are better and there are worse ways to reduce
the field to two candidates. What this poll attempts to do
(going only after the second place) is incorrect. It is bad
not just from the inherent unreliability of internet
polling but from design perspective.

Istvan.