[WikiEN-l] Voting and "!voting", what's the difference?

[Steve Bennett]

Tony Sidaway<tonysidaway at gmail.com> wrote:
> Shortly after I thought we'd finally killed off the habit of excessive
> polling, an apologetic, humorous and evidently quite common meme
> appeared on Wikipedia: the "!vote".
>
> Unlike the "vote", the "!vote" seems to afford the author the latitude
> to falsely claim that he is opposed to polls and is not in fact
> engaged in a polling exercise.

Seems to me the !vote is a way of recognising the fact that the
process is very much like a poll, without actually submitting to it.
If you vote and lose, you have to accept the outcome. If you !vote and
lose, you are entitled to demand a determination of consensus.

Part of me thinks the !vote thing is retarded, but part of me sees
some sense in it. It's not a real vote, but it's not genuine consensus
building either.

Steve