Actually, in that case I would probably propose a Veronica Mars thread, because more people want that than want no new threads at all, and it could still be voted down. But yes, you have the general idea.

Actually, actually, in Cindy's example, there were only 100 voters, so some of the VM fans also voted for no new threads. Those people were presumably saying "If we have to have a new thread, I'd like it to be for VM, but I'd rather have no new threads at all."

That's not to say you couldn't still propose a VM thread, but under Cindy's example, if everyone voted as they did in the poll, it would certainly lose.

If 60 people indicate that they do not want any new threads, it doesn't really matter if all 60 who select "no new threads" are among those 75 who choose Veronica Mars.

Lyra Jane, this is the approach I am taking so far. I am keeping track of how many people vote "no new thread", and of those, how many also vote for any show. I am not however tracking it any further than that, so I will not know (for example) how many of the people who voted for Lost did so after they voted for no new threads.

Is that okay?

From the notice in Press, I didn't realize No New Threads was an option for the informal poll, so I hadn't bothered to go and vote (because I didn't want to vote for anything I didn't want). Catching up in this discussion made me realize that it was an option, so I went and clicked and scrolled dooooown, then voted.

I missed the "No new threads" part of the poll, and simply voted for the show(s) I'd be interested in discussing.

I don't feel particularly strongly yea or nay on new threads, I'll bow to the wisdom of the coders and the will of the majority of posters on that.

That's not to say you couldn't still propose a VM thread, but under Cindy's example, if everyone voted as they did in the poll, it would certainly lose.

Not necessarily. You're assuming the overlap was voting to say, "I don't want any new threads, but if we're going to have them, one should be for Veronica Mars", when it's possible some people might have meant "I want a thread for Veronica Mars, but nothing else," or "I don't watch anything but Veronica Mars, so I'll pick none as my other choice." There's no way of knowing which unless we propose and vote on the thread.

Is that okay?

Sounds fine. All I want to see at the end is the totals for each option and a list of the "others." If you want to send me the spreadsheet, I can go from there.

"I want a thread for Veronica Mars, but nothing else," or "I don't watch anything but Veronica Mars, so I'll pick none as my other choice." There's no way of knowing which unless we propose and vote on the thread.

But aren't the people who mean the latter getting over complicated? I mean -- a vote just for Veronica Mars means the same thing...

It's a poll, and non-binding, and judging from comments here not everyone assumed the same thing. But if you're going to parse the results, there needs to be a common ground.

It's a poll, and non-binding, and judging from comments here not everyone assumed the same thing. But if you're going to parse the results, there needs to be a common ground.

Exactly, which is why we need to see the results before we start talking about what should be proposed from them. But yes, if any show gets more votes than "none," even if "none" is still a majority, I probably will propose a vote for it. It can be voted down, and I'll have wasted nothing but time.

You're assuming the overlap was voting to say, "I don't want any new threads, but if we're going to have them, one should be for Veronica Mars"

This is what I assumed.

However, because I am pedantic, I decided that any vote of mine for specific shows would indicate interest in those threads that might override my vote for "no new threads." So I just voted "no new threads" and didn't indicate any interest in specific shows. I figured if the poll passed, and the vote to add passed, then I could (if I had to) vote for specific threads then.

I can't really see that it matters which way people took the vote.

We will be able to see that out of 100 voters, X voted for no new threads, regardless of what else they might have checked. If that is a pretty high number, I'm guessing this will end here.

If it's not, or for whatever reason we do go ahead with proposals for additional threads, then those people will be able to then decide that my No-Thread opinion is stronger than my ThisShow opinion or my ThatShow opinion. Or not. What the poll will help us avoid is going through the voting process for shows that nobody, wherever they stand on thread creation in general, has much interest in.

If 75 out of 100 people voted No Thread but also checked ThisShow as the one they'd least object to, but don't really want to establish it, that will come out when we have a straight up-down ballot. OTOH, if only 7 of those 75 plus only a dozen others indicated that they would be okay with a thread for ThatShow, then we likely won't have to bother with the actual voting.

Voting is now closed, according to Lyra Jane's schedule, and I have sent her the results.