Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!xanth!mcnc!uvaarpa!hb
From: hb@uvaarpa.virginia.edu (Hank Bovis)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: Proposed Guidelines Change
Summary: On the effects of controversy...
Keywords: Salzenberg, no clue
Message-ID: <1601@uvaarpa.virginia.edu>
Date: 22 Nov 89 22:00:15 GMT
References: <1989Nov10.045531.4549@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu> <36393@apple.Apple.COM> <1626@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> <2562D3D9.16489@ateng.com> <5289@ncar.ucar.edu> <1530@uvaarpa.virginia.edu> <25683F82.25276@ateng.com>
Reply-To: hb@Virginia.EDU (Hank Bovis)
Organization: University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Lines: 41

In article <25683F82.25276@ateng.com> chip@ateng.com (Chip Salzenberg) writes:
>According to hb@uvaarpa.virginia.edu (Hank Bovis):
>>... the larger the vote ... the harder it will be to get a 2/3 [majority.]
>
>Oh, piffle.  Two-thirds is a _fraction_ of the _total_ vote.  If 200 people
>vote, you need 133 YES votes.  If 2000 people vote, you need 1333 YES votes.
>No scaling problem, no matter how big the net becomes.

Not the point.  I was referring to the effect of _controversy_, _not_
scaling.  If you stir up a controversy, otherwise disinterested people
will tend to take sides.  

But the nature of debate, even on USENET, or maybe even especially on
USENET, lends itself to equal time for pro and con, regardless of the
number of posters taking one postion or the other.  (If you don't believe
that, take a look at alt.flame some time and see how easy it is for one
or two people to match the volume of a veritable horde of people.  Scale
that up, increase the intelligence of the minority and the coherence of
the minority position just a bit, and it is very easy to see how a 1/4
or 1/5 minority can _appear_ to represent about 50% of the population.)

Into this mess wanders the casual reader, who sees reasonable arguments
on both sides and an apparent 50-50 split in volume.  I submit that
the "disinterested" readers in such cases will split about 50-50.
So essentially, the more "disinterested" people become "interested", the
closer the vote will get to 50-50.

And btw:

>Keywords: bovis, paranoia

This was uncalled for, I think.  No offense, but I don't know you from
a hole in the wall, Chip, and I rather doubt you have any qualifications
to comment on my mental state... if on the other hand, you simply want
to have a flame war with me, I invite you to x-post to alt.flame......

;-)

hb
-- 
Hank Bovis (hb@Virginia.EDU, hb@Virginia.BITNET)