Mike's Motions

[Mike Ossipoff]

The following 3 motions have been seconded:

1. To vote on standards, to determine the order in which to use the
standards to discuss, compare & evaluate the proposed methods.

2. To only discuss, in SWC, methods that are being proposed & offered
as being the best one(s) to offer to the public.

3. To close discussion on a) definitions of Pairwise; b) the most
philosophically aestetic ways of wording the instructions for determining
the Smith set; & c) the many possible ways of defining Condorcet's
method (unless of course someone wants to seriously claim that his
new definition is the best method to offer the public).


***

These all seem reasonable proposals. We, SWC, have a task to do,
and we'd all like to make some progress on it again. All 3 of these
proposals are about that goal.

***

The motion to vote could, in fact, be considered to have 2 seconds,
since Steve has implicitly seconded it by proposing a method for
the vote. To propose voting by a particular method is to approve
the idea of voting.

The motion to vote has had one "nay" vote, but with 2 in favor of
voting, or 3, if Steve's proposal to vote by Approval/Disapproval
can be counted as an approval of voting, the motion seems to carry
so far. I suggest that, therefore, we start voting. I've sent
my vote out, approving 2 standards & disapproving 1 standard.
Steve wasn't certain about whether disapproval was a good thing
in this election. I don't know, but I expressed one in my vote.
Voters, of course, needn't disapprove anything, but could only
approve standards if they so wish. Whether to count & use the
disapprovals is something that could depend on how Steve,
the proponent of Approval for this election, feels about that
question, and about whether people use disapproval. Of course
if no standard gets more disapprovals than approvals, the question
is academic, and that's likely to be the case.

Anyway, I urge people to at least approve 1 or more standards,
as a way of getting us back on track toward our committee's goals.

***

Mike


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