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      <br>
      On 9/8/2016 5:01 AM, Jameson Quinn wrote:<br>
      <br>
      <blockquote type="cite">I am completely baffled by the idea that
        IBIFA is less complicated than U/P.</blockquote>
      <br>
      C: I never said that it was. I just said that U/P  is "quite
      complicated", meaning that it is a lot more complicated than
      Approval (and more complicated than MTA). Its extra complexity
      over<br>
      those methods doesn't seem to buy much.<br>
      <br>
      if you include in U/P 's explanation all the palaver about the
      default ratings it becomes quite long and complex. 3-slot IBIFA
      can be defined fairly succinctly, but I'm<br>
      not sure how well the "man in the street" would understand it.<br>
      <br>
      <blockquote type="cite">I also don't agree that .. U/P "nearly
        always simply elects the Approval winner".</blockquote>
       <br>
      C:  Again, I'd be interested in seeing a plausible example of when
      it doesn't.<br>
      <br>
      <blockquote type="cite">Condorcet versus Majority Condorcet: I do
        not believe in the concept of "irrelevant ballots", or that we
        should "simplify" a scenario by removing a balanced set of
        ballots. </blockquote>
      <br>
      C: Why not?<br>
      <br>
      <blockquote type="cite">Dominant in top-ratings: taking this as a
        strong argument for who the correct winner is, is inherently
        subject to clone effects</blockquote>
      <br>
      C: I never used the phrase "dominant in top-ratings".  These are
      supposed to be ratings (instead of simply rankings). In that case
      clones are technically supposed to be rated the same.<br>
      <br>
      At one point I said that C would be "positionally dominant" if all
      C's supporters truncated, meaning C would have both the highest
      Top Rating score and the highest Approval score.<br>
      <br>
      <blockquote type="cite"> After all, as long as we're making up
        arbitrary scenarios, we can arbitrarily assume that the 3 A
        voters are in fact attempting strategy.</blockquote>
      <br>
      C: No, you have to be able to justify the result on the assumption
      that all the votes are sincere, or at least are all equally likely
      to be sincere. Otherwise you'd be able to argue<br>
      that in this or that scenario the most ridiculous method  "gave
      the best result".<br>
      <br>
      Chris Benham<br>
      <br>
    </div>
    <blockquote
cite="mid:CAO82iZz=bX74M5sc4TbnubGi+=-_S9Q_ZEq2VzUSBLi8dr+Y5Q@mail.gmail.com"
      type="cite">
      <div dir="ltr">Once again, I'm going to stand behind my view that
        U/P is a better practical reform proposal than IBIFA, and that
        there are cases where U/P gets the right answer and IBIFA
        doesn't. But once again, I'm going to preface it by saying I
        think IBIFA is a great method overall.
        <div><br>
        </div>
        <div>So. Remaining debates.</div>
        <div><br>
        </div>
        <div>Condorcet versus Majority Condorcet: I do not believe in
          the concept of "irrelevant ballots", or that we should
          "simplify" a scenario by removing a balanced set of ballots. </div>
        <div><br>
        </div>
        <div>Dominant in top-ratings: taking this as a strong argument
          for who the correct winner is, is inherently subject to clone
          effects. My "unserious" example was a (serious) attempt to
          show this.</div>
        <div><br>
        </div>
        <div>"<span style="font-size:12.8px">It seems that you want a
            quite complicated method with a nearly as strong as possible
            truncation incentive and that nearly always</span></div>
        <span style="font-size:12.8px">simply elects the Approval winner
          (while somehow "tending to respect" majority Condorcet without
          actually meeting the Majority</span><br
          style="font-size:12.8px">
        <span style="font-size:12.8px">Condorcet criterion)."</span>
        <div><span style="font-size:12.8px"><br>
          </span></div>
        <div><span style="font-size:12.8px">I am completely baffled by
            the idea that IBIFA is less complicated than U/P. If you
            want to, we can each post a 3-minute video where we explain
            our method to a random "person on the street" and then ask
            the person to explain it back to us. I'll bet that this
            would show U/P as far simpler to understand. If you agree,
            I'll let you set any reasonable procedure for each choosing
            our subject/explainee.</span></div>
        <div><span style="font-size:12.8px"><br>
          </span></div>
        <div><span style="font-size:12.8px">I also don't agree that the
            U/P has a "nearly as strong as possible truncation
            incentive" or "nearly always simply elects the approval
            winner".<br>
          </span>
          <div>On the first point: I think that in a chicken dilemma
            situation, U/P would lead to less truncation than many other
            methods, including things like MCA or MJ, because in U/P,
            chicken truncation is only helpful precisely insofar as it's
            risky. On the second: I think that there is a
            not-insignificant subset of voters who strongly want to cast
            a ballot that's expressive enough to distinguish their
            favorite from their preferred frontrunner. In approval, such
            people would bullet vote; in U/P, they could still rate the
            compromise frontrunner as acceptable. This could easily lead
            to different (and better) outcomes.</div>
        </div>
      </div>
      <div class="gmail_extra"><br>
        <div class="gmail_quote">2016-09-07 15:01 GMT-04:00 C.Benham <span
            dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
              href="mailto:cbenham@adam.com.au" target="_blank">cbenham@adam.com.au</a>></span>:<br>
          <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
            .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
            <div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
              <div><span class="">On 9/7/2016 10:15 PM, Jameson Quinn
                  wrote:<br>
                  <br>
                  <blockquote type="cite">C: C is the clearly voted
                    Condorcet winner
                    <div><br>
                    </div>
                    <div>But not the majority Condorcet winner. I regard
                      majority Condorcet as something any good voting
                      system should tend to respect, but non-majority
                      Condorcet as only a weak signal.</div>
                    <div> <br>
                    </div>
                  </blockquote>
                  <br>
                </span> C: The Majority Condorcet winner is always the
                Condorcet winner.  It is ridiculous to suggest that
                failing to elect a Condorcet winner is a step in the<br>
                direction of  "tending to respect the majority Condorcet
                winner".<br>
                <br>
                The "Majority Condorcet" concept is vulnerable to
                Irrelevant Ballots, and to put it forward as some
                especially desirable criterion is nonsensical. <br>
                <br>
                In our example, would removing 3 plumping ballots from
                each of the candidates really turn C into a stronger
                candidate?  Because the effect would <br>
                be to change C from a mere Condorcet winner (who you say
                should lose to the approval winner) into a fabulous 
                Majority Condorcet winner (who you<br>
                say the method should "tend" to respect).<br>
                <br>
                (The only point of the criterion is that some methods
                happen to be able to meet it, but not the normal
                Condorcet criterion.)<span class=""><br>
                  <br>
                  <div>20: A>B </div>
                  <div>25: B>A</div>
                </span>
                <div>20: C>B </div>
                <div>26: C<br>
                  <br>
                  91 ballots.  Majority threshold = 46.   <br>
                  <br>
                  C > B  46-45,    C > A 46-45.  <br>
                  <br>
                  Or of course the question can be posed the other way:
                  does giving each candidate 3 extra plumping ballots
                  really make C a weaker candidate?<span class=""><br>
                    <br>
                    <blockquote type="cite">
                      <div>Whoops... I'm sorry. Those were the averages
                        over a large number of polls, but then a week
                        before the election, A had a heart attack. The
                        actual scores, with 3 ballots still to count
                        from A's former stronghold precinct, are:</div>
                      <div><br>
                      </div>
                      <div>48: B</div>
                      <div>49: C</div>
                      <div><br>
                      </div>
                      <div>I guess C wasn't so dominant in top-ratings
                        after all. Once we count those last three
                        ballots, we'll have a clear winner here, and
                        there's every chance it could be B.</div>
                      <div> </div>
                    </blockquote>
                    <br>
                  </span></div>
                C:I take it this is Jameson not being serious (and
                perhaps trying to shift goal-posts).<br>
                <br>
                One of  IBIFA's obvious advantages over  "U/P" and MJ
                and the other Bucklin methods is that it has a <br>
                much weaker truncation incentive.  In the example (with
                100 ballots)  U/P penalised the 20 C>B voters<br>
                for not truncating. Had they done so C would have won.
                (Unsurprising, since that would have made C positionally<br>
                dominant as well the Condorcet winner).<br>
                <br>
                It seems that you want a quite complicated method with a
                nearly as strong as possible truncation incentive and
                that nearly always<br>
                simply elects the Approval winner (while somehow
                "tending to respect" majority Condorcet without actually
                meeting the Majority<br>
                Condorcet criterion).<br>
                <br>
                BTW, I'd be mildly interested in seeing one or two of
                your realistic examples where U/P doesn't elect the
                Approval winner.<br>
                <br>
                Given from what I can make of your method goals, why
                don't you simply propose  Majority Condorcet//Approval ?<br>
                <br>
                Chris Benham<br>
                <br>
              </div>
              <blockquote type="cite">
                <div>
                  <div class="h5">
                    <div dir="ltr"><br>
                      <div class="gmail_extra"><br>
                        <div class="gmail_quote">2016-09-07 8:17
                          GMT-04:00 C.Benham <span dir="ltr"><<a
                              moz-do-not-send="true"
                              href="mailto:cbenham@adam.com.au"
                              target="_blank">cbenham@adam.com.au</a>></span>:<br>
                          <blockquote class="gmail_quote"
                            style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px
                            #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
                            <div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
                              <div><span><br>
                                  <div>3: A</div>
                                  <div>20: A>B</div>
                                  <div>25: B>A</div>
                                  <div>3: B</div>
                                  <div>20: C>B</div>
                                </span>
                                <div>29: C<br>
                                  <br>
                                  C > B  49-48,   C > A 49-48,   B
                                  > A 48-23.<br>
                                  <br>
                                  Top Ratings scores:   C 49,   B 28,  
                                  A 23<br>
                                  <br>
                                  Approval scores:      B 68,   C 49,  
                                  A 48.<span><br>
                                    <br>
                                    On 9/7/2016 7:09 AM, Jameson Quinn
                                    wrote:<br>
                                    <blockquote type="cite">IBIFA elects
                                      C. U/P elects B. It's clear to me
                                      that B is better. The 3 A-only
                                      voters are likely attempting a
                                      chicken strategy.</blockquote>
                                    <br>
                                  </span></div>
                                C: C is the clearly voted Condorcet
                                winner</div>
                            </div>
                          </blockquote>
                          <div><br>
                          </div>
                          <div>But not the majority Condorcet winner. I
                            regard majority Condorcet as something any
                            good voting system should tend to respect,
                            but non-majority Condorcet as only a weak
                            signal.</div>
                          <div> </div>
                          <blockquote class="gmail_quote"
                            style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px
                            #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
                            <div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
                              <div> and by far the most top-rated
                                candidate.</div>
                            </div>
                          </blockquote>
                          <div><br>
                          </div>
                          <div>Whoops... I'm sorry. Those were the
                            averages over a large number of polls, but
                            then a week before the election, A had a
                            heart attack. The actual scores, with 3
                            ballots still to count from A's former
                            stronghold precinct, are:</div>
                          <div><br>
                          </div>
                          <div>48: B</div>
                          <div>49: C</div>
                          <div><br>
                          </div>
                          <div>I guess C wasn't so dominant in
                            top-ratings after all. Once we count those
                            last three ballots, we'll have a clear
                            winner here, and there's every chance it
                            could be B.</div>
                          <div> </div>
                          <blockquote class="gmail_quote"
                            style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px
                            #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
                            <div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
                              <div> The suggestion that "B is better"
                                because of<br>
                                some guess that 3 truncators are
                                "likely" attempting some strategy is
                                absurd.<br>
                              </div>
                            </div>
                          </blockquote>
                          <div><br>
                          </div>
                          <div>No, B is better because B has majority
                            approval where C is rejected by a majority.
                            The argument about likely truncation is
                            merely how IBIFA went wrong, not how U/P got
                            it right.</div>
                          <div> </div>
                          <div>...Again, I don't regard this as a
                            knockdown argument against IBIFA. It's only
                            one scenario; a roughly plausible one, but
                            not particularly likely. I think we should
                            probably drop this. But I do think it
                            demonstrates pretty conclusively that IBIFA
                            at least isn't strictly dominant. After all,
                            as long as we're making up arbitrary
                            scenarios, we can arbitrarily assume that
                            the 3 A voters are in fact attempting
                            strategy. Punishing strategy might not be
                            the worst thing in the world, but rather
                            than punishing 48 voters for the strategy of
                            3, it would be better to ignore the 3.</div>
                          <div><br>
                          </div>
                          <div>I'll write a broader response in a
                            minute.</div>
                        </div>
                      </div>
                    </div>
                  </div>
                </div>
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