[conlang_learners] Now or in September?

[Jim Henry]

On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 11:13 AM, Philip Newton<philip.newton at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 16:49, Jim Henry<jimhenry1973 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> That leaves 40+ other people who could count votes.   Do any of y'all
>> volunteer?
>
> I volunteer to count votes.

Thanks.

>> If you're thinking of volunteering, take a look at the Wikipedia page
>> on "Instant-runoff voting",
.....
> if I've understood correctly.

Right.

> What to do about ties -- for example, if two or more conlangs tie for
> "last" place? The text above implies that all are eliminated rather
> than just one of them.

I think so, yes.


> Also, what if two or more conlangs tie for first place?

Hmm... I think the structure of IRV makes that unlikely, but it's
still possible.    The Hugo Awards use IRV among a shortlist of five
or six nominees in each category; there have been eleven ties since
they started awarding them in 1953, and there are (I guesstimate) an
average of ten categories of award given over the last 57 years, so
that's less than one tie in 50 elections.   With our larger shortlist,
I think a tie is even less likely.

In the unlikely event there's a tie, let's deal with it when it
happens.  We could just split into groups learning each of the
conlangs tied for first place, as we've already talked about doing
with the two conlangs that finish in first and second place.

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