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From: bee@cs.purdue.EDU (Zaphod Beeblebrox)
Newsgroups: news.groups,news.admin
Subject: Re: STV new group proposal
Message-ID: <8682@medusa.cs.purdue.edu>
Date: 20 Nov 89 13:27:55 GMT
References: <2438@stl.stc.co.uk> <2440@stl.stc.co.uk> <29992@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
Reply-To: bee@cs.purdue.edu (Zaphod Beeblebrox)
Followup-To: news.groups
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Purdue University
Lines: 57

Said dave@cogsci.indiana.edu (David Chalmers): 
(in article <29992@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>)
|Assume I don't care whether the group exists or not, but I feel very
|strongly against the name "sci.aquaria".  How do I vote?  There's no
|way I can express this group preference without effectively voting
|eith "YES" or "NO" to the group itself.  Either I can vote
|
|(1) rec.aquaria (2) NO (3) sci.aquaria
|or
|(1) NO (2) rec.aquaria (3) sci.aquaria.
|
|But neither of these is right.  The first will count as an effective YES
|vote for the group, demonstrating an enthusiasm for the group which is not
|present.  Ditto for the second and "NO".

This can be solved by modifying the STV scheme to allow for ABSTAIN as
an option.  Thus you would vote as follows:

[ groups whose names you vote YES for in STV order ]
ABSTAIN
[ groups you don't care about ]
NO GROUP
[ groups you don't want to see created ]

Thus for the above you would vote

ABSTAIN
rec.aquaria
NO GROUP
sci.aquaria

Order is only important for the groups listed before ABSTAIN.  If the
current leader is one in your ABSTAIN list, your vote is neither YES
nor NO.  If the current leader is one in your NO GROUP list, then your
vote is counted as NO.  Note that your vote can change back from
ABSTAIN to NO and back depending on what the current leader is.  This
makes for a system for which the instructions to the voter read as
follows:

"First list the groups you favor in order that you favor them.  Then
type ABSTAIN.  Then list the groups for which you have no preference
(possibly none).  Then type NO GROUP.  Then list the groups you oppose
(also possibly none)."

I believe that covers all the reasonable possibilities without being
overly complicated.

Private note to a few obnoxious flaming jerks (you know who you are):
notice that I've changed my .signature.  The reason I don't go by my
first name is that I would then be confused with Mr. Templeton.

                                          B.E.E.
-- 
  Z. Beeblebrox   |  "Ich bin ein Berliner!" -- President Kennedy, 1961
(alias B. Elmore) |  "Tear down this wall!" -- President Reagan, 1987
bee@cs.purdue.edu |  
  ..!purdue!bee   |            Berlin Wall  RIP  1961-1989