[EM] Efforts to improve on CR's strategy

[Gervase Lam]

> Date: Sat, 22 May 2004 23:26:40 -0500 (EST)
> From: Adam H Tarr <atarr at ecn.purdue.edu>
> Subject: Re: [EM] Efforts to improve on CR's strategy

> 1) Identify the two frontrunners, and pick your favorite among them.
> 2) Give your favorite frontrunner a 10, your less favored frontrunner a
> 0, and everyone else a 5.
>
> This maximizes your impact on the important contest - the one between
> the frontrunners.

After initially misreading the above, I realised that going to 3-level CR 
could be very worthwhile.  I'll reword the above into a 3-level CR context 
and also change the strategy slightly:

1) Identify the two frontrunners, and pick your favorite among them.
2) Give your favorite frontrunner plus the runners who you think are 
better than your favorite frontrunner a score of 2.
3) Give your less favored frontrunner plus the runners who you think are 
worse than your favorite frontrunner a score of 0.
4) Give the other runners a score of 1.

Step 4 is the "major" bit.  I had missed out the runners who are in 
between the two frontrunners.

However, I don't think 3-level CR is as useful in a 0-info context.  For 
the situation I was thinking of using a voting method on, which is why I 
joined this mailing list, I think the context is practically a 0-info 
situation.

In the 0-info case, the middle level is useful only for runners who are 
exactly in the middle or at least near the middle.  For the other runners, 
you want to maximise or minimise their score in order to ensure your 
ballot gains something.  But how near the middle is near the middle?

Hmmm.  Thinking about the full-info case, wouldn't it be better to give 
the runners identified in step 4 a score of 2?  This reduces the 3-level 
CR method to just 2 levels (i.e. Approval method).

I suppose it depends how desperate you are to make your less favored 
frontrunner lose.  However, giving a 2 to the runners who are in between 
the two frontrunners means that they are more likely to defeat your 
favorite frontrunner, who you think is better, or worse your favorite.

Hmmmm,
Gervase.