Other website?

MIKE OSSIPOFF nkklrp at hotmail.com
Sat Feb 8 23:24:53 PST 2003


Matt--

I'd said:

Isn't that a margins Condorcet program at a margins Condorcet website?

You replied:

The default configuration, which is the focus of some of the documentation,
does not comply with your definition of winning votes Condorcet. However, 
the
program provides many alternative configurations including your preferred
winning votes approach.

I reply:

I didn't know it allowed either defeat-measure.

You continued:

One of the documents has a paragraph explaining how to
run the program to achieve the result you prefer. The idea is to avoid 
having
the program choose for the user what approach is best.

I reply:

Even if a program only uses one defeat-measure, that doesn't
mean that the program is deciding anything for the user. The user
is the one who decides what program to use, and if the program he
wants isn't available anywhere, then he can write it or ask someone to write 
it.

Just as a store isn't obligated to stock things that its owner considers
inadequate or lacking in quality, a count website has no obligation
to do rank-counts that the website's owner doesn't consider useful
and adequate.

Of course it's commendable that Blake includes a variety of configurations 
anyway, but no one is obligated to do so, and if I owned
a count website, it wouldn't count methods that I don't consider any
good.

I suggest that Eric not add margins-counting to his website, because
, for one thing, having it would create some doubt for the user about
which to use, requiring the website to add discussion about the relative
merits of the 2 defeat-measures. The user would have to study the difference 
and relative merits of the 2 defeat measures, and answer an extra question 
at the input form. Also there's the unnecessary work of adding that 
meritless option to the programs. Simpler to just not have it.

If someone wants an interactive count program to count margins Condorcet, 
they can use Blake's program.

Mike Ossipoff








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