On Fri, Oct 31, 2003 at 01:10:51PM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 31, 2003 at 04:04:05PM +1000, Anthony Towns wrote:
> >     Does Branden's pass the supermajority clause? If not, it presumably
> >     wouldn't if reasked anyway, and it fails.
> If it does, and is reasked, what's to stop a group of 6 people[1] from
> proposing an "amendment" that guts the original proposal down to nothing
               ^^^^^^^^^^^

What are the scare quotes for? Did we not already have this discussion?

> but uncontroversial cosmetic alterations?

Absolutely nothing. The question isn't how controversial the amendment is,
though, it's whether people prefer the amendment with just the cosmetic
alterations to the original proposal.

> The only real way out of this, it seems, is to advocate insincere
> voting.  ("Please rank Mr. A's editorial-only amendments below 'further
> discussion' even if you like them, because the whole purpose of this
> ballot is to decide whether we're accepting or rejecting *substantive*
> amendments to the Social Contract".)

No, that's completely wrong.

If you have the options:

        [a] Remove non-free clause, editorial changes
        [b] Don't change the social contract, support non-free more!
        [c] Further Discussion

Then the winner is elected by checking:

        Does a defeats c by more than 3:1?
        Does b defeat c?

        If one or both of these don't happen, the winner is obvious (if a
        fails, but b doesn't; it's b; if b fails but a doesn't, it's a; if
        both do, it's c)

        Does a defeat b?

The only reason to vote insincerely is if you suspect that the outcome will
be:

        B defeats A
        A defeats C
        B defeats C by N+K:N

and you can convince at least K people to swap their preferences for B and
C, and that given the choice between your proposal and the alternative,
most people prefer the alternative.

And I know we've already had this discussion. Are you going to be
spreading FUD about every resolution that passes that you don't like?

Cheers,
aj

-- 
Anthony Towns <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://azure.humbug.org.au/~aj/>
I don't speak for anyone save myself. GPG signed mail preferred.

Australian DMCA (the Digital Agenda Amendments) Under Review!
        -- http://azure.humbug.org.au/~aj/blog/copyright/digitalagenda

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