MY mouse is completely spastic today. or possibly my finger. geez.

I don't get *not actually wanting something to pass* but voting for it anyway

Is that how you interpret "no preference"? I think of it as "not caring how things go; just wanting them to fucking go (or to ensure the discussion is verboten for a while either way)."

I think I've only ever voted NP on sub-votes, i.e., "IF we create Thread X, the whitefont policy should be a,b,c, or NP. If there's an issue where I don't care about any of it, I just don't vote.

Part of what I like about no preference is that it doesn't skew votes. A lot of us come into these discussions just wanting people happy. Someone mentioned earlier that they weren't really invested, but would vote with the majority so the most people were satisfied. I hate that.

Not because I don't want anyone happy - but because we don't know what the majority wants. We know what the majority of people posting in this thread want. We know, dare I say, what the fourteen most ardent people on any one topic want. And hello, isn't that how we got here in the first place?

[ETA: Just to be clear, I'm talking about always, on any proposition, whatever fourteen are present and however many viewpoints they represent.]

No preference allows people to weigh in to say "yes, this is something that should probably be hammered out" without requiring them to pick a side if they're not already so inclined. I think that's a good thing.

(Personnally, I'd say the reason that you rarely see a vote failiing for lack of a quorum is because those kinds of things tend to die on the vine before they get here.)

hah! that was Liese, actually.

I guess I can listen to two conversations at once, but sometimes can't even read one properly.

As for "no preference" I'm sure I've voted that way in the past. And I would probably vote that way re: the current proposal because I think voting is important, but I don't read Boxed Set and don't watch Supernatural.

Is that how you interpret "no preference"?

I understand that no preference is like a vote for a moratorium. But if you want something to pass, then vote yes. If you don't care what happens, abstain. I would prefer a separate moratorium vote than smaller and smaller majorities enacting thread after thread.

ETA:

Someone mentioned earlier that they weren't really invested, but would vote with the majority so the most people were satisfied. I hate that.

This is what no preference is in practice, though.

This is what no preference is in practice, though.

I don't think so, one is guessing what the majority is, the other is allowing the majority to reach a quorum.

But I thought the NP votes weren't counted towards the decision, just the quorum. So a NP vote is not the same as voting yes or no by default. Am I right?

I don't see how the result is different. The more I think about it, the more I think no preference voting obviates the requirement of a quorum. Isn't the purpose of the quorum to prevent small majorities from enacting preferences? No preference voting defeats the point.