[EM] we shouldn't call majority rule cycles "ties"

[James Green-Armytage]

Dear election-methods fans,

	I think that it is a big mistake, from a public salability standpoint, to
refer to majority rule cycles as "ties" or "circular ties". This gives the
impression that the method is either arbitrary or indecisive when there is
a majority rule cycle. Anti-Condorcet people (often IRV advocates) love to
write off pairwise methods by complaining about the frequency of "ties". I
intend to correct them on this when appropriate, and it would help if most
pro-Condorcet people could get out of the habit themselves.
	Also, aside from the salability argument, I see no logical justification
to referring to majority rule cycles as "ties" in the first place.
	I suggest that the word "tie", in the context of pairwise methods, should
be used to refer to a pairwise tie (a tie within a particular pairwise
comparison), rather than a majority rule cycle. I think that it is very
important to keep these two concepts clearly distinct from one another.
	If there are any alternative terms that might be appropriate to use in
place of the term "majority rule cycle", I'd like to hear them (as long as
they don't contain the word "tie").

Sincerely,
James Green-Armytage