administrators

@sarawolk We tried a few things, including creating a new account and changing the email and none of that worked.

It looks like emails from the forum are not being received. Jameson was unable to log in, and I expect others may be having the same issue.

@bternarytau
It appears that the forum's email sendgrid is currently down so Jameson is unable to log in to post.

The following is from Jameson Quinn:
"Like Sara, for me the exact events right before submitting this paper are a blur for me, as we were meeting for long hours to get it done. However, this is clearly a mistake, and clearly our fault. I’m deeply sorry. We're working to get the correction to the appendix and bibliography made."

@bternarytau I do remember that exchange as you said as well and I was also in a blur with a number of things happening all at once (I submitted that first draft on my way to the airport to get surgery cross country,) so my apologies for not following up as I should have or remembering that we'd left this a loose end.

My memory is still a bit foggy on what exactly we ended up using as the formal definition, since it was almost a year and a half ago, so I'm going to take a closer look at it right now and see what I can do.

I can say that since the definition in the hard printed part of the issue is Mark Frohnmayer's, and the more rigorous definition you'd been working on is in the appendix, which will be hosted online, we should still be able to put in changes and credit or cite you, so please give some thought to what you would like that citation to be exactly and email me at sara@equal.vote to follow up.

FYI: I posted a new thread with a When To Meet for scheduling a council meeting, and reposted our past decisions and resources as well for reference.

Attn All: VotingTheory.org Board Meeting Coming Up!

When To Meet: Please put in your availability here!

@rob said in Opportunity to either make this forum good, or just let it die:

controlling the forum.

Again, Equal Vote doesn't "control the forum". The forum decided to "coalition" with Equal Vote, like dozens of other orgs have done. It wasn't even my idea. This community has repeatedly asked for help. I and the Equal Vote team of volunteers has always done our best to answer and has done our best to pull our weight every step of the way. We have done a lot, and Jack did pretty much all the rest of the work. Again, the independence and autonomy of the forum has never been in question.

That said, I personally stepped up to plan and facilitate every meeting that led to this forum being created, including chairing all the meetings about it's creation (though I always asked if anyone else would like to. They didn't.) It would have been a lot easier to just do it all myself (with the help of Equal Vote's volunteers,) without getting input and agreement from the existing forum community (who tend to not volunteer for much,) but that wasn't the intention.

So, we created an autonomous group, the Voting Theory Forum, convinced CES to pass along the archives, I recruiting an Equal Vote volunteer (Jay Cincotta) to take on importing the archive, we co-designed the structure, Jack set up the Node BB server, I set up all the categories, we tuned the settings on the back end, I created a logo/homepage, and we got consensus agreements from everyone who cared to weigh in every step of the way.

There is tons of room to improve on any or all of that, and there's room for more leadership and engagement, so why is your focus here to oust me or do away with the council entirely? Or am I misunderstanding?

I did all that in my spare time, after work, and in a personal capacity because I care about creating a non-toxic and inclusive space for the electoral science community so it's ironic that you personally attack me and my contributions every chance you get. We clearly still have a long way to go.

To date, nobody who has ever wanted to join the forum council or volunteer has ever been turned down. I've promoted the opportunity to others to get involved repeatedly, but one reason people often are hesitant is that this is a historically hostile and entirely male dominated community whose reputation proceeds it.

If you want more engagement, I suggest you make the space less hostile to those of us who are showing up and putting in the work, and to newcomers. I would personally feel more comfortable promoting it to less thick skinned people if it were a more accessible and welcoming space.

@jack-waugh I'm so sorry for your loss.

I think it's important that you be there, but we're looking at scheduling roughly a month out so we can make it inclusive and find a time that as many of the council members as possible (current and prospective) can make it. I know you are usually fairly flexible so hopefully we can find a time that will work for everyone.

@keith-edmonds Thanks for your support of the general idea of it being run independently of EqualVote (and potentially by me). To be clear, I don't intend to bash EqualVote as an organization, but I am against them controlling the fate of the forum, especially given the lack of response when we want to make positive changes, and considering that we are not even listed on their web site. I just don't understand the logic of them, or anyone, having a big say on such things when they aren't actively participating.

And it isn't just them. There is apparently a member of the "forum council" that has posted once on the forum 2 years ago and never returned and doesn't reply to emails. How did that happen? Regardless, going forward, if you want to have a say, you should contribute.

As for EqualVote, I don't see what they have to gain by being in such a role. If they are spending money on it, it can't be a lot, and I am happy to cover the costs going forward.

I don't think I have said anything negative about EqualVote in any of the 5 hundred some posts I've made here, beyond a couple times mentioning that I wish we didn't have them controlling the forum.

I have nothing against EqualVote as an organization, beyond that. I've always said I like STAR Voting, etc. While I have opinions on voting methods, I believe that people running forums should studiously avoid seeming biased in ways that affect the forum, and should go out of their way to model diplomatic discourse, an open mind to different views, etc. (as an aside, I think Elon Musk does the opposite with Twitter....I don't think he should use the platform as a place to post divisive opinions while simultaneously running it..... one or the other, not both)

I would prefer the forum run democratically, and yes, I have high ideals for what I consider democratic. I've already done a ton of work building voting widgets and visualizers, and figuring out how to build them into this forum, but I haven't put anything in because I'd have to get permission from people who don't respond on a timely basis. (note that anyone who wants to join me in building them would be welcome to, although I'd insist upon the code being clean, modular, secure and loaded on demand so it doesn't slow things down)

I personally see no need for meetings in which decisions are made. We have a forum, made for discussions, right here. There is nothing that needs to be discussed that can't be discussed here. That's my opinion, but I am open to other opinions.

I am always ready to put anything concerning the forum to a public vote, with the only requirement for voting being that you have to participate in the forum with some regularly to vote.

@Andy-Dienes @Marylander @cfrank @Toby-Pereira @multi_system_fan @masiarek @BetterVoting @Keith-Edmonds @Marcus-Ogren @Jameson-Quinn @Sass @cfrank @BTernaryTau @robla @JonathanSummers @paretoman @Parker-Friedland @Psephomancy @BlainCellars @nealmcb

I don't know the handles for the following people who have expressed interest in the past, but will email them to notify them that this is happening: David Hinds, Johnathan Bright, Evans Tucker, Arthur Sintef, Kevin Connelly, Nels Olson, Felix Sargent

For reference, I'm reposting the key info from out post on leadership, potential volunteers, and decisions made at past meetings reposted from the leadership channel, which is private. https://www.votingtheory.org/forum/topic/103/decisions-and-leadership-for-reference

Key Motions Passed in Council Meetings (all unanimous!):

Motion 1, v2: “To establish an independent organization with the purpose of owning and maintaining the online discussion forum.”
Motion 2 v2: “Move to establish and try to publish an online discussion forum based on the “NodeBB” forum software.”
Motion 3: “To do due diligence and apply best practices to protect and minimize the storage of PII of users, with these responsibilities explicitly delegated to specific responsible individuals trusted by the council/board.”
Motion 4: “Create a tech committee empowered to make non-controversial “technical decisions” on behalf of the group as needed, with the understanding that the council could revisit those decisions later if needed. The committee should consult the council on questions where the decision may be controversial.”
Motion 5: “Order of operations. 1. Pass bylaws. 2. Elect board. 3. Launch website.”
Motion 6: “Adopt categories list”
Motion 7: “Adopt Code of Conduct, Terms of Service, Privacy Policy.”
Motion 8: “Motion passed unanimously to coalition with Equal Vote and receive donations and pay expenses through Equal Vote account.”

Updates:

Bylaws, procedural manual, and categories/tags list, privacy policy, code of conduct, terms of service, all adopted
Site live: https://votingtheory.org/forum
Next meeting will be called as needed
Ivan and Eric have both volunteered to be a back up admin on the tech team and will get a follow up from Jack to get the run down on what that looks like.
Motion passed unanimously to coalition with Equal Vote and receive funds and pay expenses through Equal Vote account.

Resources:
Bylaws: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1obwaF82x5022V_K-gifdv7Why-O5LzqFAiB_d4EwqAw/edit?usp=sharing
Procedure Manual: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TCRbEXuBqY8N1glKf7YHNWMVIWD7blgZQhwomfteigY/edit?usp=sharing
Privacy policy. Ready for review. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QzZp2QAsP60Ti1WWPk29Q8dInGIM2l438rcJDZLd2Ug/edit?usp=sharing
Terms of Service: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AlnP1gvvc986n0iiYYkA0Tc9L33erbxDftM7sX5ypz4/edit?usp=sharing
Code of Conduct: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ExGrryHIFOjSfPiTtHYBRPw7GQY8lRsCfWiWsLEsImc/edit?usp=sharing

Current Interim Council Members:
Sara Wolk sara@equal.vote
William Waugh aq29vu2quk@liamekaens.com
David Hinds deh9999@gmail.com
Connor Frankston con.frankst@gmail.com
Micah Fitch fitchmicah@gmail.com

Moderators:
Sara Wolk
Connor Frankston
William Waugh
David Hinds
Connor Frankston
Micah Fitch
Gary Litke

Hi Everyone,
It's been a busy time for all of us and we had a lot to do and discuss in the world of electoral reform, but it's past time for us to reconvene, put some energy into internal matters and have another board meeting.

Please put in your availability here!

We're overdue for council member elections, and we have a variety of opportunities and need for volunteers and moderators (who don't have to be council members) as well. We'd also love to hear your ideas for what our goals for this forum are over the next couple of years.

If you're interested in joining us, please put in your availability on the When To Meet poll below. The days and times proposed are far enough out that we can have a couple weeks to get as many people's availability as possible and then still announce it far enough out to comply with our bylaws and then have time to promote it so we get some good attendance and people can plan to be there.

Please put in your availability here!