My take on the second thing is to prevent some random person who has been on the site for 2 seconds proposing us to discuss and vote on changing the board to Czecheslovakian. And since they proposed a vote and such, we will just have to waste time AND remember to vote against it.
There are cockroaches in Mexico big enough to own property.
Cordelia ,'Lessons'
Bureaucracy 1: Like Kafka, Only Funnier
A thread to discuss naming threads, board policy, new thread suggestions, and anything else that has to do with board administration and maintenance. Guaranteed to include lively debate and polls. Natter discouraged, but not deleted.
Current Stompy Feet: ita, Jon B, DXMachina, P.M. Marcontell, Liese S., amych
Sophia Brooks - Mar 13, 2003 3:17:04 pm PST #7490 of 10001
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here
Wolfram - Mar 13, 2003 3:56:51 pm PST #7491 of 10001
Visilurking
I think what Laura, Katie and Sophie are saying are what most of us are thinking. Now if we require a large number of seconds, say 15, then instead of limiting discussion, we increase discussion in Bureaucracy to garner the requisite 15 seconds necessary for the first "official" discussion. This is counter-productive IMO. What we need to do is prevent Joe newbie from proposing the czech turnover, and I think requiring just a few seconds on that will prevent the discussion. And if Joe can get 2 or 3 people to second his foolish idea, the discussion will be minimal and the vote probably won't even approach MVT even at a low MVT number, and certainly won't win.
Quite frankly, I don't think we want to make each proposal a lobbying effort at the "seconds" stage of the game.
John H - Mar 13, 2003 4:24:44 pm PST #7492 of 10001
Maybe I now think we shouldn't even suggest to people the range of numbers they should vote for.
I mean, if some goose puts "10,000,000,000" into the box, then we can just ignore it, not let it skew the results to 99999999999, surely?
It might be seen as biased to say "pick a number, but here are some suggestions either side of fifty"...
Wolfram - Mar 13, 2003 4:39:27 pm PST #7493 of 10001
Visilurking
If we allow any number then, to be fair, we need to allow fractions. Like .00000000000001.
John H - Mar 13, 2003 4:42:45 pm PST #7494 of 10001
Any whole number! There's no such thing as Eric the half a Buffista!
Gandalfe - Mar 13, 2003 4:43:21 pm PST #7495 of 10001
The generation that could change the world is still looking for its car keys.
I'm voting for -10000000000000000000000i.
John H - Mar 13, 2003 4:44:40 pm PST #7496 of 10001
OK then I'm going to vote for an imaginary number. The number of Buffistas needed is the square root of minus one.
Gandalfe - Mar 13, 2003 4:48:13 pm PST #7497 of 10001
The generation that could change the world is still looking for its car keys.
Well, yeah. I voted for a large, negative imaginary number.
§ ita § - Mar 13, 2003 4:52:34 pm PST #7498 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
I vote for 6AF3.
I mean, we haven't specified base 10 yet, have we?
John H - Mar 13, 2003 4:53:15 pm PST #7499 of 10001
Sorry. Missed the i on the end.
I now vote for a fractal number of Buffistas.
It wriggles around forever between zero and one, and no matter how much you ask it for more detail, keeps wriggling for ever.
Vote for Fractal MVT! Join the Mandelbrot Set!