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)