I added the polling dates. Cindy - How would you incorporate your new refinement of the intro to the existing intro? 'Cause I'd like to keep the humor of the existing one.

Jon, you have:

What do you think a "simple majority" means and how would you like it applied to determine future votes?

Maybe at the end of it, just add:

Your vote on the last poll does not commit you to vote in any certain way on this poll.

...except, Sophia, I'm not sure what you mean by:

Just want to make sure it is clear that it isn't a poll.

Actually, you don't need to explain to me. I don't want to bog everything down. This is up and running already, and I don't really need to know. But how I ended the suggested phrase up there, might be need to be tweaked to reflect whatever that means.

I don't know how to say it, but both Burrell and Rebecca asked "Is this a POLL of what I thought when I voted last time or a VOTE asking what I want now?" I think it is explained pretty clearly, except perhaps the use of the word "poll" is confusing some people?

Perhaps:

Your vote on the last ballot does not commit you to vote in any certain way on this ballot.

Oh, I was using poll not in the Burrell/Rebecca way. Yes, your wording is good, Sophia. Less confusion that way.

I've just been using poll in general, to get us back to the more casual Buffista vibe of "we're not the supreme court, we're friends deciding on issues about a posting board". Sorry for that. I like how you put it.

I don't know if this helps, but here's how I'm thinking about it: The earlier vote was between "50%" and "more than 50%," kind of. (I mean, I understand that majority is 50%+1, but stick with me.) "More than 50%" lost. Now that we're thinking about questions with more than two options, we realize we need to decide between "50%" and "potentially less than 50%."

Does that make any sense? Help anyone clarify at all?

(And yeah, big thanks to Sophia.)

Your vote on the last ballot does not commit you to vote in any certain way on this ballot.

OK. Done in Press. Now let's see if I can access the server her at work to update the poll page...

t edit Hey! It worked!

Just to prove that we're not the only ones who get a little worked up in bureaucratic discussions comes this morning's quote from the Iraqi delegate to the UN, in response to remarks made by the Kuwaiti delgate:

Shut up, monkey!

Shut up, monkey!

I'd like to nominate Saddam as an honorary Buffista.

Shut up, monkey!

but you have to know that every aghast diplomat was secretly wishing they'd said the same thing to someone they disliked at one time or another.

every aghast diplomat was secretly wishing they'd said the same thing to someone they disliked at one time or another.

I can tell you I'm going to be saying it from now on.