[aur-general] voting period: Brad Fanella

[Loui Chang]

On Fri 03 Sep 2010 09:03 +0000, Xyne wrote:
> > >> > Out of curiosity, has anyone who's reached the voting period
> > >> > ever failed to get the majority of yes votes?
> > >> >
> > >> > Just a 'historical'-type query, idle curiosity on a holiday.
> > >>
> > >> There was a guy that recently tried to help out as a TU, but he needed
> > >> more experience and know-how, he wasn't lacking in motivation or cause
> > >> though.
> > >> He didn't officially apply though.
> > >
> > > Well yes I remember that guy. I was more wondering about whether a vote
> > > has failed before.
> > 
> > Yes. I can't find it right now but it certainly happened. IIRC it was
> > some guy who just came to Arch Linux.
> 
> Looking through past votes on the AUR, only 2 have failed to gain a majority.
> It's not a surprise though as 33% can be enough to pass (simple majority of
> quorum, i.e. > 0.66 * 0.5). That may well be by design and it seems to work
> well.
> 
> While we're on the subject of voting, what is the point of having both
> "no" and "abstain" if they amount to exactly the same thing? It would
> make more sense to simply have two options: "vote", which would mean
> you feel confident that the person would make a good TU, and
> "abstain", which would mean that you don't.

I had thought this at one point, but they actually don't amount to the
same thing. An abstain vote counts for quorum but it doesn't count
against the majority. As long as quorum is met a proposal could pass
with one yes vote, and all the rest abstains, but it could not pass with
one yes vote and all the rest no votes.