[Licom-l] Abstain?

Wed Mar 18 05:25:34 UTC 2009

I've always viewed the "abstain" option as the choice who feel to make a
comment and provide reasoning, but do not feel like voting either way.
Others choose to abstain pending a decision, but wish to state their
thoughts beforehand. That's just my take. However, if the voting is being
done through software where there is no chance to make comment, "abstention"
does seem quite pointless since its numerical value counts toward nothing.
Josh ('Anonymous Dissident')

On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 2:57 AM, Robert Rohde <rarohde at gmail.com> wrote:

> For the honor of second post, I have a question.
>
> What is really meant by the abstain voting option and is there perhaps
> a better word?
>
> Nominally abstain means someone who doesn't participate, so it is
> potentially confusing to use that term as an explicit option for
> people who DO choose to participate.
>
> Is the intended meaning something like "no preference" or do you have
> something else in mind?
>
> -Robert
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 12:25 AM, Erik Moeller <erik at wikimedia.org> wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > welcome again and thanks for joining the licensing update committee.
> >
> > You may have seen that I've added links to several "key pages" at the
> bottom of:
> > http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Licensing_update/Committee
> >
> > These are the pages that are essential to the process. Of these, only
> > the Q&A has been widely translated, because we've waited to give the
> > final go-ahead on the others.
> >
> > I would appreciate your review and cautious editing of these documents.
> >
> > - Is the Q&A clear? (The attribution section needs updating to be
> > consistent with the current proposal at [[licensing update]]; if
> > anyone wants to take a first crack at this, that would be great.) Are
> > key questions from the talk page and the mailing lists answered?
> >
> > - Is the proposal at [[licensing update]] itself understandable? Can
> > it be more cleanly formatted? Should it maybe have a small info or
> > navigation box?
> >
> > - Is the timeline realistic? Are all key milestones covered? Can it
> > usefully be elaborated to be more understandable?
> >
> > As per the timeline, I would like to wrap up these documents _later
> > this week_ :-). So your help in getting them up to snuff is much
> > appreciated.
> >
> > Let me know if I can help clarify anything.
> >
> > All best,
> > Erik
> >
> > --
> > Erik Möller
> > Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation
> >
> > Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Licom-l mailing list
> > Licom-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/licom-l
> >
>
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