[conlang_learners] voting system

Sun Aug 16 08:14:25 PDT 2009

Sellamat Jim ! 

This system seems to be good (insofar my poor English knowledges allows me to understand it...), except two things about the list of "prefered conlangs" each one of us will cast into the ballot. 

1°) First of all, each vote should be reduced to, let's say, 10 conlangs or less (Imagine that everyone of us proposes a whole list of all the conlangs of the Frath list in order of preference...). 

2°) But the biggest problem may be about the computation of preferences, as already put forward by the Marquis de Condorcet: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_paradox

Thus, the solution may be to limit the number of conlangs in each vote (ex: 10); then  my choice n°1 will get 10 points,  my choice n°2 will get 9 points, etc... 
A voter is not obliged to propose 10 conlangs; if he only proposes 1 conlang, then this only choice will get 10 points and that's all. 

Of course, if the result brings conlangs with an equal number of points, then we'll revote on these propositions only. 

Spehm to est kafi clar...

Olivier
http://sambahsa.pbworks.com/ 

--- On Sun, 8/16/09, Jim Henry <jimhenry1973 at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Jim Henry <jimhenry1973 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [conlang_learners] voting system
To: conlang_learners at conlang.org
Date: Sunday, August 16, 2009, 7:51 AM

2009/7/27 Larry Sulky <larrysulky at gmail.com>:
> I was going to say that I support either method, but I think it's more
> accurate now to say that I support whichever one Jim prefers. I find he's a
> reliable thinker-through of such things. --larry

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

We've been going back and forth on this for a couple of months with no
firm decision.   I propose the following procedure; if anyone else
strongly feels some aspect of it (or the whole thing) should be
different, say so now and we'll have a straw poll on the voting
procedure.  If no one objects, we'll follow this procedure, which is
based on what looks to me like the consensus or at least majority view
in the discussions so far.

0. Let's all try to post as many reviews and comments on nominated
conlangs as we can before September 1.  I'll be busy studying Taruven
for my turn in the inverse relay, but I'll try to do at least one or
two more reviews myself.

1. We'll use instant-runoff voting.   A ballot should consist of a
list of one or more of the conlangs from the "Learners' shortlist",
listed in order of your most to least preferred conlang to learn.  You
can list as many of the conlangs on the shortlist you want.   If there
are any you have no interest at all in learning, you should leave them
off your ballot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting

http://wiki.frath.net/Learners_shortlist

2. Voters should email their ballots offlist to Philip Newton and one
or two other volunteers (we need at least one more volunteer who
doesn't have a conlang of their own nominated) not sooner than
September 1 (midnight GMT) and not later than September 8 (midnight
GMT).

3. Philip and the other volunteer(s) will independently count the
ballots sometime between September 8 and September 15.  They'll email
each other privately with the detailed results of their count to check
each other's work.

4. Once the volunteers are satisfied they've counted the votes
accurately, they'll announce the results to the conlang_learners
mailing list (and perhaps in other places; see below).

5. If we already have permission to use the chosen conlang, we'll dive
in and start using it.   If not, we'll contact the conlang's creator,
and if we don't get permission, we'll go to the runner-up from the
voting and use it if we already have permission, ask permission if we
don't, and iterate if necessary.

Does that suit everyone?  In particular, does the date range for
voting suit everyone (I'm a little concerned that it includes a major
U.S. holiday weekend) and does the date range for vote counting suit
Philip and whoever else is willing to volunteer to count votes?

Another idea I thought of is that the vote counters could announce to
the list that they've finished counting the votes, and will announce
the result live on a certain IRC channel at a certain date and time.
In that event, they should privately contact the creator of the chosen
conlang, get their permission if we don't already have it, and make
sure the date and time for the IRC meet suits the conlang creator as
well as all the vote counters, before making an announcement.

The vote counters might, depending on the patterns they see in the
voting, recommend a split into two groups studying different
languages, or not.  If they don't recommend a split but a significant
minority of list members are unhappy with the conlang chosen by the
vote, said minority should probably get together to organize another
vote, by whatever method and criteria for eligibility they choose, a
little later on.

I'm liable to be out of town with intermittent Internet access
sometime between September 14 and September 26 (not sure exactly what
days yet).

-- 
Jim Henry
http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/
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