I have enjoyed the technical discussions around the design of the voting mechanism, and I think it is quite worthwhile for us to continue learning and thinking about these things. There are several tradeoffs here, and the choice is not easy.
But additionally I think we should think about what the purpose of the elections is, and what the appropriate design should be. This should be part of a broader analysis of what the purpose of the board should be, and what the overall design of the process of board selection (including elections, appointments, etc.) should be in order to achieve those goals.
The possibilities open to us are endless. And there are strengths and weaknesses to various approaches.
A quick list of some of the things that I think are important:
1. Diverse representation - and I mean diversity in the sense of geography, languages, projects, gender, skills, etc.
2. Professionalism - part of diversity, we don't want or need all the board to be "good editors" but rather to have as well people who have technical experience, nonprofit governance experience, legal experience, big business experience, dot-com experience, public charity fundraising experience, foundation grant application experience, political experience/contacts, etc.
3. Harmony - the current board is filled with good people who do not always agree but who -- to my great pleasure -- work together in an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust (mostly, we are human of course :) ) -- approval voting is good for this, it generates candidates who have broad support. Some voting systems would be much more likely to allow a "troll candidate" to concentrate attention and get elected in a partisan split, etc.
4. Responsiveness - that the board listens to the community
5. Independence - that the board has the moral authority to make unpopular decisions at times, so that the board does not end up being too beholden to internal politics of the moment and can feel the strength to stick to principles even in cases where those principles might not be so popular
(Yes, 4 and 5 are in tension and therefore have to be balanced.)
--Jimbo