Subject: Re: poll methodology

From: John Stanley <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 16:09:17 -0800 (PST)

"Charles Lindsey" <chl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

>If you include, in your list of preferences, the point at which "I could
>live with the ones above this, but not those below", ...

This assumes an implicit "above" and "below" relationship, which almost 
certainly will not exist in the kinds of options that appear in the
USEFOR working group straw polls. Examine any poll we've had, and whenever
anyone has answered "3 is the only acceptable response", you've found
such a case. If you convert that to "anything 3 or less", you are wrong.

---

From: Henry Spencer <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 19:32:20 -0500 (EST)

> such a case. If you convert that to "anything 3 or less", you are wrong.

Note that Charles's divider is to be in *your* list of preferences, not in
the list as presented in the question; it divides your list, not the
question's list, into two parts.  The way the alternatives are numbered is
irrelevant. 

                                                          Henry Spencer
                                                       [email-masked]