[EM] Intro to list (etc)

[Rob Brown]

At 11:26 AM 10/26/2003, Paul Kislanko wrote:
>Not a bad interface, but how do I vote? I got to order my candidates, but
>there was no "submit" button....

Thanks.  I added a submit button (still at 
http://weblogz.com/voting/2000pres.html ), but clicking it doesn't do 
anything yet.  (sorry, I am doing the back end stuff independently of the 
html interface....I will hook them together in a few days so you can 
actually vote)

>As to displaying the results, I don't think you should until the voting is
>closed.

Hmmm, I don't think that's an option here.  This is going to be used in a 
message board context, as an alternative to the (plurality) polls you see 
on many boards.  (I should probably explain...I do some contract work for 
ezboard, a message board company with millions of -- mostly non-tech-savvy 
-- users ...and they are interested in offering this on their site).  They 
hope to use this for things like feature requests, as well as allowing 
anyone to do their own "fun" polls for favorite tv show, who you think is 
going to win survivor, who is the hottest actor/actress, or whatever....

If given a choice between a standard plurality poll that shows current 
results as soon as you vote, vs. one that does Condorcet style ranking, but 
you have to wait until the end to see results....this type of user will 
choose the plurality one any day.  (at least that is my prediction)

My little agenda here is to see if I can make a mainstream audience 
comfortable with Condorcet style voting....hopefully people who use it for 
little meaningless web polls and realize its benefits, people will warm up 
to it for "real" elections.

>Then you should present a choice - "results according to..." and
>then a choice (or table of all choices' results) with Condorcet, IVR,
>Approval, Ranked-Pairs, etc.
>
>Forget the bar graphs and analysis of who voted for whom, that's a different
>question.

Well, actually that was this question. :)  I just think that a bar graph -- 
or something equally straightforward -- is what people expect to see.  My 
feeling is that a condorcet table and all those other things are not really 
very interesting to most people, who don't care about voting theory and 
such -- they will look at such things and their eyes will glaze over.  The 
simplicity of something like this 
http://polls.slashdot.org/pollBooth.pl?qid=1013&aid=-1 counts for a lot.

If it is impossible to show a simple graph, ok, I'll have to accept that, 
but I suspect there is something I can show that will be meaningful to a 
mainstream audience.

-rob