[EM] [CES #3566] Re: Declaration of Election-Method Experts and Enthusiasts: final stretch

[Peter Zbornik]

Dear all,

the statement would probably benefit from executive summary of length 1/2 to
1 page.

Best regards
Peter Zbornik

On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 7:01 PM, Toby Pereira <tdp201b at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> I agree that it's too long. I've had another go at culling come parts of
> it, but if anyone objects, feel free to revert some or all.
>
>  *From:* Warren Smith <warren.wds at gmail.com>
> *To:* electionscience at googlegroups.com; election-methods <
> election-methods at electorama.com>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, 7 September 2011, 16:17
> *Subject:* Re: [EM] [CES #3566] Re: Declaration of Election-Method Experts
> and Enthusiasts: final stretch
>
> this "declaration" is suffering from exactly what everybody
> most-complains about re the rangevoting.org website.
>
> I.e. it tried to cover everything and got large.  In fact, enormous.
>
> That for a website is a flaw that is not necessarily an
> insurmountable obstacle
> since one can put short "summary" pages (or try...)  and use of lots
> of hyperlinks, so it isn't just a flat document, it's
> easier to get to information.
>
> But for a "consensus statement" it is a major problem since (a) nobody
> is going to sign it and (b) nobody is going to read it.
>
> Well, "nobody" is an exaggeration. But not by much.
>
> This statement (4328 words) is now over 3 times the length of the
> USA's "Declaration of Independence" (1315 words) and also longer than
> the entire USA constitution (as un-amended) at 4318 words.
>
> Have you seen my attempt to study what election experts and/or Joe
> Public actually agree on?  The total amount of true consensus out
> there, is extremely small.  So you could have an extremely short
> statement, if you wished to summarize what is the current consensus.
> If you have the more ambitious goal of creating consensus by actually
> changing minds... well, I doubt you can do it with one single
> document.
>
> It's very hard to get people to sign statements, and the difficulty
> increases with the length.
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