[EM] IRRV as best popular name for Condorcet voting

[RLSuter at aol.com]

Steve Eppley wrote:

>> I agree with Jan Kok's suggestion that IRRV 
>> ("Instant Round Robin Voting") be used as
>> a popular name for Condorcet voting. 
> -snip-
>
> Why not drop the 'V'?  Three-letter acronyms
> are better than 4, I think, and the 'V' is 
> redundant given the context.
>
> I do have some concern about the potential for
> confusion if we use an acronym like IRRV or IRR
> that's so similar to IRV.  Will some people 
> believe that advocates of IRR are really 
> advocating IRV?  Will people believe the
> methods have similar properties?

It's really a question of practical rhetoric, and the only
way to find out what works best is to experiment with
different names and acronyms or ask people which
ones they find most helpful. Therefore, nothing like
a proof based on logic is possible. Marketers often
have found that the most effective language isn't what
they thought it would be and that what intuitively seems
like it would not work well actually works best (e.g.,
longer multi-page direct mail letters generally are
more effective than short one-page letters).

That said, one argument for keeping the V and using
a 4-letter acronym is that it would make the acronym
for Instant Round Robin Voting structurally consistent
with the one for Instant Runoff Voting and therefore
might be easier for people to remember (i.e., both terms
end with "voting" so both acronyms end with V). As for
confusion, mentioning two different acronyms when
talking about voting reform as opposed to mentioning
only IRV, as now usually happens, would remind people
that there are alternatives to IRV, while having the two
acronyms similar would help remind people that the
two methods are the same except for how ballots are
interpreted to decide election winners. So I'm inclined
to think that IRRV would work well, But that's only my
best guess at the moment.

I should add, Steve, that I think it was you who first
brought the name Instant Round Robin Voting to my
attention back when we were both on the Alliance email
list for a while back in 1996. At that time, instant runoff
voting was still one of several alternative names being
used to describe what nearly everyone now refers to
as IRV.

-Ralph Suter