Voting System trial run

Flyingroc Chung · Post by **Flyingroc Chung** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 9:48 pm

Hi,

I've been working on a voting system for nburg recently, and I think it's ready for a beta-test. I'd like everyone to participate!

There is an SL component to the process, but most of it is via the web. I put a red prim by the church; all you need to do is click it and follow the instructions. When you log in to the website, you may be asked to choose an election to participate in, please choose "MOCK ELECTIONS 2" though you may want to go back and try "MOCK ELECTIONS 1" as well.

In this trial, I've setup 3 hypothetical factions XMEN, JLA, and TITANS. Every citizen was either randomly placed in one of these factions, or was not placed in a faction at all. Of those placed in a faction, some were were flagged as "willing to serve," and some not. The process is totally random (well, ok, pseudo-random, since it was done using a script).

The mock elections are ongoing now, and will be over by Monday. I'll give out a report on Tuesday.

Comments and suggestions are welcome. Please especially report any bugs you encounter.

Thanks,
Flyingroc

Patroklus Murakami · Post by **Patroklus Murakami** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 12:45 am

Hi FR

First of all, many thanks for doing this. I never fail to be impressed by the talents of people in SL who are able to set up things like this. Scripting is a closed book to me I'm afraid!

I touched the red block in world and was given a password and a web page. I IMd you inworld to let you know that the web link doesn't seem to work and shows up a 404 error. Brian tried this at the same time and it didn't seem to work. Hope the bug report helps.

As I say I'm no use for scripting but, as a Political Science geek I can get my head round complicated voting system. I'm happy to help out with this side of things if needed (though I'll need to refresh my memory of Saint-Lague etc)

Flyingroc Chung · Post by **Flyingroc Chung** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 6:27 am

Ack! Sorry for that, I think I rezzed a slightly older version of the voting booth, with the wrong URL. I've fixed it now, it should have been http://flyingroc.org/nburg/vote/login.php

Thanks!

Dianne · Post by **Dianne** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 9:08 pm

I tried it and it seemed to work, but I am not so good with statistical things like this. Is it supposed to be that one *must* rank all three factions? And is it supposed to be that one must also rank all the members?

I tried only voting for my favorites at first (JLA of course), and it would not let me. I also tried just filling in Gwyneth on all the name rankings and it wouldn't let me. I am not sure if that is right or wrong.

Patroklus Murakami · Post by **Patroklus Murakami** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 10:10 pm

Thanks for updating it FR.

I tried the voting system and it worked okay despite my attempts to break it

It *didn't* allow me to:
-choose only one faction or the same faction twice. I had to rank all three though which I assume is a feature of the voting system in use.
-choose the same candidate two or more times.
-vote twice! I also tried logging in with other people's names and a new password and the system wouldn't let me.

So far so good.

Aliasi Stonebender · Post by **Aliasi Stonebender** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 12:52 pm

That's the way Borda count works, folks. It's on Wikipedia, you can look it up.

You rank all factions/candidates and each is assigned "points". (If you attend Zonax Delorean's show and tell on Sundays, his voting system is kinda like that.)

The idea is, rather than the most "popular" candidate who merely happens to have the most votes of multiple possiblities (leading to something like the American system) a Borda count is biased in favor of the most generally acceptable candidate/party, encouraging compromise.

Does it work? Well, one may argue one way or another with our own experiences, but I've not a better idea for once.

Dianne · Post by **Dianne** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 1:25 pm

Thanks for clearing that up. I just wasn't sure.

Statistical notions seem to just create a fog in my brain that stops thought processes altogether.

Flyingroc Chung · Post by **Flyingroc Chung** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 6:45 pm

Hi, I set up the voting prim near the church again, after it was inadvertently deleted. Please help me test the system. So far, 10 people have already voted.