NationStates Jolt Archive

Having just joined the world assembly I noticed that the number of votes for and against is displayed. Now I want to question whether this should be done as it could be biasing people into a decision that is not necessarily their own.
Also I am unsure whether this is the correct area for this.
I would go into the psycho (psychology) of all this but I can't be bothered really.

We've been doing it all along, and there's no particular reason to change it.

I would go into the tech (technobabble) of all this but I can't be bothered really.

We've been doing it all along, and there's no particular reason to change it.

I would go into the tech (technobabble) of all this but I can't be bothered really.

I get the feeling that you copied and pasted the last sentence from my post and changed it. So if you insist I will continue with technobabble. (although I see your point or what I think is the point you could have made it more obvious)
People (maybe not in this forum or in nationstates and one hell of a generalisation) have the tendency to go with the masses thereby displaying the number of votes could influence them into going either way. That is why I am suggesting that maybe you should think about changing it. As I suggested earlier I am unsure whether this is the right area, but thanks to you I am even less sure.

I might as well have not posted the last post as their was no point.

An argument could be made for a 100% secret ballot, a split secret/public ballot, or a 100% public ballot. Max went with the split ballot on the theory that Regional Delegates are accountable to their region and thus should have their voting records made public ... but individual nations still have a secret ballot. It's worked for us for six years, and there's no particular impetus to change it.

I see your point, I just don't think it's relevant to anything.

An argument could be made for a 100% secret ballot, a split secret/public ballot, or a 100% public ballot. Max went with the split ballot on the theory that Regional Delegates are accountable to their region and thus should have their voting records made public ... but individual nations still have a secret ballot. It's worked for us for six years, and there's no particular impetus to change it.

I see your point, I just don't think it's relevant to anything.

Thankyou, for a post I can understand
Well how do you know it works perhaps you could all be being influenced and not know it. And if you never try how on earth are you going to know what is right. After all one person said "failure is the mother of success". But if you don't know what failure is, then how the hell are you ment to know what success is. So how can you be so sure unless you try? I have just given you a reason (unless of course you think the reason is wrong).

Why is not relevant to anything? Explain? As you did to me earlier I put a comment and you replied making me realize that unless I explain why its just a statement and means nothing to nobody (contradiction there, it then means something to somebody, double negative :) it probably should be nothing to anybody)

Are people influenced by vote totals? Probably. There's certainly a known "lemming mentality" amongst the voters.

Is it important to have accountability for Delegate voting? Certainly. They are the voice of our little representative democracy, so making their votes secret goes against representational principles.

Is it important to have vote totals when Delegate votes are visible? Probably. If not, some script kiddie would come up with an hourly page scrape script and post them somewhere anyway. They always do.

Has this been asked before? Yes. Many times. Always turned down, too.

Did Max set it up that way for a reason? Yep. Whether he's chosen to explain it or not, that's how it did it. Your vague suppositions aren't sufficient reason to even take your suggestion back to the admins, much less bother Max about it.

Can you have a choice of secret or public balloting in NS2 elections? Yep. Yet another reason why we're not planning on changing the way NS1 works.