could we get that with 42 if we eliminated the NP vote?

Did you understand my previous comment? In every single thread creation vote we've had, if all the people voting NP had instead not voted, the vote would still have met the quorum of 42 votes.

I guess what I don't get is that if people seriously do want whatever the majority of the yes/no voters want, and vote np in order to pledge their vote that way, why we want to discount that?

I agree.

I understood your previous comment, Jon. You asked me to clarify what I said, and I tried. I'm posting from work, and in a hurry, and probably making even less sense than usual, so I'll stop posting now.

If I'm not mistaken, it had to do with wanting a quorum number, not knowing what the number should be, and us being geeky enough to be amused by Hitchhiker's Guide.

No, there was actual math involved -- people submitted numbers via a poll and the average came out to 42.

Right. The question was "How many Buffistas does it take to make a vote count?" and people could enter whatever number they wanted. Then we took the mean of that, and it was 42.

I'm still catching up, but:

there was actual math involved

The original proposal that ended up with 42 is Sophia Brooks "Sunnydale Press" Mar 16, 2003 12:01:37 am PST (results in Laura "Sunnydale Press" Mar 19, 2003 12:06:31 am PST ) And there are several arguments in Sophia Brooks "Bureaucracy 1: Like Kafka, Only Funnier" Mar 15, 2003 10:51:05 pm PST regarding the reasons to vote either way, from that time.

Sophia, by the way, rocks. As is everybody who worked for this poll.

t Back to catching up

Okay, I can understand why people don't think we should change anything.

Our primary area of concern and contention is over thread creation. Clearly, very few people think the system is broken, but at least some people think maybe thread creation voting needs to be looked at some more. Not necessarily changed, but looked at.

First, thanks again to the people who worked on the poll.

The survey question was worded, "If we do create a check on thread creation, what should it be?" (emphasis mine). Someone could easily be against changing the rules, but IF the rules are to be changed a greater threshhold is the way to go. Also, fewer people answered that question, so the 53% is misleading.

Except that the question just before that one was: "Do we need to have some kind of check on thread creation to maintain the cultural center?" and a plurality answered "Yes."

Yes, but almost the same number (38.5%) said they were unsure, so I don't really see a mandate for changing the rules.

From the comments:

This poll seems to be founded on the assumption that the so-called "cultural center" of the Buffistas is the most important thing about the board, which marginalizes anyone who doesn't care to participate in the social threads. Not everyone is interested in talking about fashion, which Buffistas are PMSing, and/or how cruel the networks are to Tim Minear.

I really didn't see anything that said to me that "cultural center" equals "social threads." I thought by cultural center we meant the ineffable something that make this board different than other boards.

I want to speak up for the lurkers, since I was one for quite a while. I think most lurkers mean to post, sometime, but a lot of the time jumping into a conversation here is like jumping from a horse onto a moving train. I don't think I'm really a core Buffista, but this board is very important to me.

I really didn't see anything that said to me that "cultural center" equals "social threads." I thought by cultural center we meant the ineffable something that make this board different than other boards.

Well, I think there have been statements that Natter/Bitches are the heart of the board, and one of the reasons I was interested in seeing the poll results was to see to what extent that was true.

I don't think I'm really a core Buffista

@@ You traveled halfway across the country and survived a random cat attack and a chipped tooth to hug Nilly in person. That's hard-core core!

I think I am vaguely reactionary, because I sort of think Buffy is the heart of this board-- the one thing we all have in common.