On Apr 14, 2004, at 22:24, Arvind Narayanan wrote:
Brion, this looks like hair splitting to me. Since it
isn't possible
to have a poll in which every single wikipedian casts their vote, what
Eric meant was that the poll should be comprehensive enough as to leave
no reasonable doubt that as to which option would be the winner if
everyone who had an opinion did express it. In this respect the poll
was entirely satisfactory. What's the problem?
The difference is authority of the outcome, and that difference is
relevant to how the process is presented and handled. It's the
difference between an informative survey, which gives developers some
data points to work into our decisions on how to implement the
software, and a formal election which determines what the developers
must do (unless there are "profound reasons").
Erik's votes are shams. <strawman>Can I just unilaterally *call a vote*
and declare the winner to be president of [insert country here]? You
don't think the winner should be president? Well, you'd better have a
*profound reason* why he's not good enough!</strawman>
A survey, an informative straw poll to gauge preference and relative
interest is fine, but *treat it as such*. Don't call it a *vote* with a
*deadline* yadda yadda. For goodness' sakes, Erik sent the announcement
of this little poll to the Wikimedia Foundation list -- the list that
has replaced wikilegal-l.
By not being honest about the real nature of these surveys (that they
are just straw polls which will either be ignored completely or will
just be a footnote to the implementation), a lot of people get worked
up that they "missed the vote" or that the offered choices weren't fair
or that yadda yadda. Self-selected poll responses are not going to give
accurate samples, either... Software development is not driven by
votes; real people have to do real work.
Erik, if you really do mean these polls to be informal surveys to
gather ideas and get a general sense of what's well-liked, please do
something about the way you present them because they *look* like
official votes which will formally bind the entire development team
under the sole authority of your having declared there to be a vote.
-- brion vibber (brion @
pobox.com)