[sun surfer]

I am really not sure where the best place to post this is, but I’ll do it here since I don’t want to confuse the poll threads still open and the “administration” thread is mostly about category months.

There are a few things I think we should discuss now.

Number One: Tiered Voting

There’s been a good bit of discussion about various voting schemes over the months. Most aren’t feasible (ranked voting, etc.) because they’d require polling features that we don’t have.

But the idea of “tiered” voting has come up again and again, and it is feasible. “Tiered” means we’d have a poll just like the one now, with ten nominations. However, that poll would be to decide the top two. Then, once the poll is over and the top two are decided, we’d have a run-off poll just between those two.

A concern for many about this idea is the extra work for the leader (now Tom). This is true; it is extra work. This is why, before bothering to write this post, I talked with Tom and he said it was fine to bring up the idea of tiered voting.

I’m bringing this up because I’m seeing it being discussed already, and if we’re going to discuss it, I think it’s better now than later. If we did ever decide to try it, better now at the start of a year rather than bringing it up again like in April.

Here are two posts from the newer hidden/open poll thread:

Originally Posted by Billi

As always here, it's not about the devices, it's not about brands, it's not about polls, it's about reading. So let's see how many people actually will read the chosen books and participate in the discussion afterwards. If there is a significant difference...<snip>

Billi is referring to open vs hidden polling, but the post speaks very well about tiered vs non-tiered as well. ”How many people actually will read the chosen books.”

With the way we do it now, the winning book usually receives support in the teens. The other 80-something percent of the club may or may not choose to go along and read the book. As we’ve seen in some discussion threads, apparently sometimes they choose not to.

With tiered voting, the winning book will always have at least more than fifty percent support - a majority. This may lead to more people reading and discussing the winning book each month.

Originally Posted by issybird

<snip>In any case, this is just an instance of two-tier voting, where the top two options have a run-off. An entirely legitimate and FAIR method of voting. There's a faction that would like to see two-tier voting for the selection each month, too.

And here are three posts from this thread:

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

<snip> If we really wanted the book most people would want as a first choice to achieve this with the current polling software limitation the procedure would be a preliminary vote as is done now (open or closed) and then a head-to-head contest between the top two in the first poll. <snip>

Originally Posted by narflet

<snip> after more thought this stv/run-off type vote would actually be my first preference.<snip>

Originally Posted by Kevin8or

We could have hidden vote, followed by a runoff vote of the top two choices. The runoff vote would mitigate the "wasted vote" problem. OTOH, adding a run-off might be a case of "making a mountain out of a molehill."

In a way I agree with Kevin8or about the molehill, but as it is, we’ve already been on that molehill mountain anyway before this even came up. I personally think leaving it as one poll of ten like it is now is fine enough, but since we’re already talking about this and since tiered voting does seem like it could be better, and since if we don’t discuss this now then it will surely come up again (and again) later anyway, so why not let’s settle it now?

So I propose a discussion and poll on the idea. If more are in favour of it, we could try it a year and see how it goes, and if more people are against it, then fine, but at least it’ll be settled so we won’t have need to discuss it again, at least for a a year. And that brings me to my next point of discussion...

Number Two: I Propose A Moratorium On Changes For A Year

Right now seems like a good time to make any changes we may want being that the new year is right around the corner, but I think most will agree that it seems like we’ve discussed and debated club mechanics a lot this year. And if able to, we may discuss and debate and have polls on them a lot next year too.

So I propose that once the new year starts, there will be no changes until the end of next year at the earliest. This will make things much easier for Tom (he won’t be having to deal with people requesting something about the club changed every other month) and I hope will be a welcome relief for members.

Of course, I suppose anyone could still really discuss/debate at any time if they wanted, but there’d be the security and ease of knowing that there’s no need to worry about any actual changes (or polls on changes) happening, at least for a year.

So what does everyone think?