Loomio
Wed 10 Apr 2013 5:10PM

Number of users in a group

I iacocoba Public Seen by 238

Which is the affordable number of users wich make discussions work? Do we need a limit? Usually tools gets overwhelmed by comments overdose.

I

iacocoba Fri 12 Apr 2013 10:36AM

First of all @richarddbartlett :) I don't want to limit loomio group members i just what to debate around "effective number of users".
I understand discussions are not practical with infinity users. If you start a discussion and then you have 8 comments, that's affordable. If you have 25 it starts to be difficult to manage and if you have 75 that's really impossible.
If you have 100 members and just 25 participate that's not cool. Only "very active people" are taking part in decisions: that's bureaucracy, that's not representative.
From my point of view Loomio is very usefull for groups of "active people" around 3 to.. 40? just as normal assemblys.
For more people i prefer mixed systems with delegation.
:) some thing between "Loomio" and "Agora Voting".

I

iacocoba Fri 12 Apr 2013 10:40AM

@richarddbartlett there is no problem with Loomio. I love loomio. But i want to understand the limits. I know people don´t like limits but i think is very usefull to know where limits... to fight against them! :). I'm shure there is a limit of people where everything gets impossible to manage. That's the question!!!

I

Poll Created Fri 12 Apr 2013 10:44AM

What is the limit of active participants for which a discussion is manageable? 30? Closed Sat 13 Apr 2013 9:35PM

That's not about limiting loomio.. that's about understanding the limits. Just debate!

Results

Results Option % of points Voters
Agree 25.0% 1 I
Abstain 0.0% 0  
Disagree 75.0% 3 RG Z FS
Block 0.0% 0  
Undecided 0% 896 JV KC NW SW MT AC MB CWH G JG DS MS RF AR AC C J SZ DB CR

4 of 900 people have participated (0%)

I

iacocoba
Agree
Fri 12 Apr 2013 10:44AM

I think is around 30 ...

RG

Rafael Gomes
Disagree
Sat 13 Apr 2013 3:13AM

IMHO We don't need limit for discussion.

I

iacocoba Fri 12 Apr 2013 10:45AM

Please we need multiple options!! :) (not always ..Yes, No, abstain) :)

PB

Petru Botnaru Fri 12 Apr 2013 10:47AM

15

RDB

Richard D. Bartlett Fri 12 Apr 2013 10:49AM

@yago there are lots of problems with Loomio, it is our job to figure them out together and make it better :)

I don't necessarily agree that 25 participants out of a group of 100 is a 'bureaucracy'. For me the important thing is that people have the option to engage meaningfully with the decision-making process. To me, enforced participation is not much better than enforced disenfranchisement.

In fact, in a highly-functioning group, low engagement can indicate a high degree of trust between the members. That doesn't mean you want to remove the non-active members!

I agree that there is a natural limit to the size of an effective horizontal organisation, but I don't feel like it is a problem I've seen in any Loomio groups yet.

FGP

Francisco George PP-ES Fri 12 Apr 2013 12:04PM

@yagoabati If you ask our PP-DE friends LqFB has become totally unmanagable. Indeed they are looking for a new platform right now that would be able to manage over then 10.000 party affiliates.

Exactly the same will happen with Agora Voting.

Plus, personally I'm against any form of delegation of vote. Especially In Spain people have to be educated to participate in democracy and not continue with the bad habit of thinking "What the heck someone will vote for me"

It is this attitude that helped actual spanish politicians to be in control of what they call "Democracy"

Z

zack Fri 12 Apr 2013 6:32PM

even with a large number of users, Loomio shows discussion summary and decision at the top of the page so new joiners have information needed for a vote without needing to read all comments. And the votes are aggregated by the pie chart. one question which I have for a long time regarding all systems is how comments and replies can be aggregated more efficiently and linked to each other.

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