[EM] Re: electionmethods website is cancelled

[Russ Paielli]

Bart Ingles bartman-at-netgate.net |EMlist| wrote:

> Seems to me it's Russ's web site.  If he wants collaborators or 
> feedback, he certainly knows where to find them.  I think most of us 
> would be willing to review and comment on anything on the site, or any 
> proposed changes to it.
> 
> Bart

I welcome corrections of any errors at http://ElectionMethods.org. Other 
feedback is welcome too, although I obviously cannot guarantee that I 
will act on it.

By the way, I designed the site myself, but I am not a professional 
graphic artist or webpage designer. I like it, but others apparently 
consider it hideous. In any case, I consider it noteworthy that I did it 
all with standard HTML and no fancy design tools (just a lot of 
experimentation).

When Mike and I started out, Rob Lanphier was also interested in 
participating. I even came up with a name for our group: the Election 
Methods Education and Research Group (EMERG). I thought it was a nice 
acronym, although it's already in use in another domain (as google will 
tell you).

Well, Rob thought I was wielding too much control and he dropped out 
very early. He had sent me an article on Arrow's theorem, and I 
completely rewrote it, which he didn't appreciate. Now that Mike has 
dropped out too, there's not much of a "group" left.

I am currently undecided about what to do with the site. I don't really 
want to spend a lot of time on it. I understand that Election methods 
are a very interesting theoretical topic, but from a practical 
standpoint I think it all really boils down to stopping IRV and getting 
Approval adopted. Condorcet is out of the question for public elections 
for the foreseeable future.

Also, I am considering pursuing another advocacy endeavor involving 
nuclear power. As explained at http://RussP.org/nucpower.htm, I believe 
that the abandonment of nuclear power by the US a couple of decades ago 
was based on incredible ignorance and is causing 40,000 Americans to die 
needlessly every year of lung disease (among several other major 
problems it is causing). I am considering co-authoring a book on the 
topic, which would leave me with approximately zero time for election 
methods.

Given all that, I am willing to consider handing over control of the 
domain to an election-methods expert who agrees, more or less, with the 
current position of the site and likes the basic layout but would like 
to develop it further. If anyone is interested, please contact me. Thanks.

Russ Paielli