[Election-Methods] Proposing a Delegable Proxy poll: best place to host forum?

[Jan Kok]

(To those not familiar with Delegable Proxy (DP), FA/DP, etc., please
check out metaparty.beyondpolitics.org , beyondpolitics.org and the
FAQs at http://www.beyondpolitics.org/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=BeyondPolitics
.)

Let's try a DP poll! Several reasons:

- I really am interested in the results of the poll, which I will take
as advisory.
- Practice. Let's see what really is involved in doing a DP poll.
- A demonstration. I hope this exercise will be of interest to some
people on this list, and will get more people to become interested in
FA/DP organizational technology.

Abd has suggested that polls be discussed first before being voted.
That makes sense to me. It can avoid stupid poll questions, stupid,
incomplete, etc. allowed choices, stupid polling technique, etc.

I propose that
- The discussion of the poll take place on the RangeVoting yahoo group
(reason: we have some FA/DP infrastructure set up here).
- The votes be recorded in a new table (similar to the Bylaws poll
table) at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RangeVoting/database
- The polling method be 0-10 Range with Delegable Proxy.
- The votes be expanded according to the Proxy Assignments table at
the aforementioned URL.

That means that if you want to participate in the DP poll, you will
have to join the RangeVoting yahoo group, and you will have to record
your vote directly in the new poll table, or you will have to ask
someone to be your proxy, and if they agree, get that recorded in the
Proxy Assignments table. Your proxy will vote for you in all future
polls, as long as the proxy relationship exists, but you can always
vote for yourself directly, which overrides your proxy's vote for you.

This is the proposed poll topic and title:

*** What is the best place to host the US-Iraq Conflict forum? ***

To explain a bit more the purpose of this poll, i.e. why I'm asking
this particular question, I suspect that the present location of the
forum may be discouraging participation. It's presently a forum on a
tiki-wiki. That is probably unfamiliar to most potential participants
(political activists, not necessarily computer-savvy people); it may
hard to learn and use. So, before the discussion on that forum gets
very far, I'm wondering whether to leave the forum where it is, or
create a forum somewhere else for discussing the US-Iraq Conflict
topic.

Before I go on and discuss some alternative places for hosting the
US-Iraq Conflict discussion, let me pause and see if there is interest
in continuing this discussion about the DP poll here. I suggest that
if you are interested in continuing, suggest one or more alternative
places for hosting the US-Iraq Conflict forum. Or, if you object to
holding a DP poll, or you object to the poll topic, suggest an
alternative.

Cheers,
- Jan