Yes-- sorry, just too tired to make the changes.

REALLY going to bed now!

I think we should vote between mean, mode, and median.

Not mode, surely.

I think mean is best. It's always seemed the most averagey of averages to me.

If we get an answer of 38.63040506 and round it up to forty, I'll feel like I'm doing real math.

Wow! So statistical analysis is cool, but a preferential ballot is too complicated? <eyeroll>

We never covered preferential ballots in grade school, but averages were covered way early. t matching eyeroll

I think mean is best. It's always seemed the most averagey of averages to me.

(Mean means average, dude.)

A new version:

ITEM 1: FORMAL DISCUSSION THREAD

Do we want a separate thread for actual voting discussions?

A yes vote on this Item means you would like a new thread, that will be solely dedicated to formal discussion of future items put forward for voting. This thread will only be open during the designated days of formal discussion.

A no vote means you do not want a new thread. (Presumably in this case, all discussion will take place in Bureaucracy.)

----------------

ITEM 2: CLOSE DISCUSSION

Do we want to close the talking about a subject when the voting starts?

A yes vote on this item means that you would like to end all discussion on a given item when voting starts.

A no vote means you would like to continue discussion through the voting period.

----------------

ITEM 3: VOTER TURNOUT

How many Buffistas does it take to make a vote count? Do abstentions count toward this?

For the first question, put a number between 10 and 100 into this box, please: [  ]

For the second part, it's a simple yes or no.

If you vote yes, you would allow people to register their vote as an abstention -- that is, with no preference for either choice -- and that vote would count toward the minimum number.

If you vote no, you want only votes that prefer one option to count toward the minimum.

----------------

ITEM 4: SECONDS

a) Should more than one Buffista be needed in order to move something to formal discussion and vote?
b) if so, is there a minimum number of people who have to agree before a proposal moves to formal discussion? Put a number between 1 and 10 into this box, please: [  ]

Okay, post 7179 was more than a little snippy.

But you know what? If people say preferential balloting is too complicated for them, it is. If they say quantum mechanics isn't, it isn't.

You can't argue that away. Or snark it away.

It just is, and the implication that I'm being wilful or recalcitrant because I don't agree with the POV? Makes me snippy.

I apologise for expressing my defensiveness.

(Mean means average, dude.)

Mean is the meanest of averages. It's the average you get when you add up all the averages and divide them by themselves. "Mode" is French and means "the most fashionable number". "Median" means "strip of grass in the middle of the road" so you just pick the most boring number.

It's the average you get when you add up all the averages and divide them by themselves.

Nuh-uh. That only works if all the averages are averages of the same number of numbers.

I like the idea of using the mean.

Sorry Hil. I know nothing about math. But that's another seconding, or a vote for, the mean.

I was joking.

About the stat analysis snark. And that we would even consider using something other than "mean" to mean "average."