On 10/17/05, Ben E. bratsche1@gmail.com wrote:
The thing is that, since AFD is deleting the crap that most of us want deleted (garage bands with no songs, the dead-end road down a block from my house), we can say that it works most of the time. To prevent it failing in cases where "save" articles deserve an keeping, but might recieve "nn del" votes, all we have to do is spend more time on AfD. If more dedicated users/inclusionists spend a bunch of time "voting" for articles that need keeping, then the votes of the AFD clique will effectively be canceled. A "no consensus" decision is better than a "delete".
I think there are a lot of people with differing opinions who aren't interested in getting into such an arms race. Even if you think that AFD works most of the time, I think you still have to admit that it'd be nice if we could reduce the amount of time people spend on it. I think it was in elementary school that I first learned that a pure democracy was unsustainable because it'd require people constantly voting on every little issue. I was skeptical back then (thinking "that's just what the man teaches you to keep you down"), but I think AFD is a good example of how true it is.
Just throwing out another idea, but what if we appointed a certain number of representatives to debate on AFD for us? It'd lessen the waste of time, all but eliminate the sockpuppetry, foster compromise and discussion among the representatives, etc. The appointment of representatives could use STV or some other proportional scheme, so all significant factions would still be represented. Any user could still comment on a proposal and present evidence to be considered by the representatives. A quorum could be set - if there aren't say 6 voters then the time is extended until there are.
I don't really like the fact that AFD has become all about voting and not about consensus, but I don't think that's going to change. If it isn't, then let's at least streamline the voting process.
Even if you think AFD provides good results, think about how well it scales. It doesn't, and ultimately this is a problem which is going to need a solution.
--[[:en:User:Bratsche|Ben]]
Anthony