Loomio
Sun 1 Nov 2015 4:53PM

Abstention - Do Loomio voting options foster participation ?

FB Fabio Balli Public Seen by 280

Today, a proposition may be read by 50 people, but only 20 vote. What if the other 30 were made visible ? Would that not increase the sense of belonging in the community, acknowledging the commitment of both the proposer and the readers of the proposal ?

The "orange light" resulting of "abstain" is not representative of very different voting intentions (undecided, not caring, blank cheque, no legitimacy, etc.). Comments, while helpful, do not impact the interpretation of the charts.

To solve this, I propose to 1) change the orange icon title to "undecided", and 2) create a white icon "abstain".

FB

Poll Created Sun 1 Nov 2015 4:54PM

Change the orange icon title to "undecided" and create a white icon "abstain" Closed Tue 3 Nov 2015 11:58PM

Results

Results Option % of points Voters
Agree 37.5% 3 LF O FB
Abstain 12.5% 1 RJ
Disagree 50.0% 4 RG JK JK GC
Block 0.0% 0  
Undecided 0% 891 JV JL RDB NW MT JC AT BK AC MB CWH RW MS N AR AC HM C SZ DB

8 of 899 people have participated (0%)

RJ

Raphaël Jadot
Abstain
Sun 1 Nov 2015 5:21PM

Interesting but i guess the low rate is more a global Internet syndrom than due to anything in loomio… i may change my vote later but still am not certain :)

JK

James Kiesel
Disagree
Sun 1 Nov 2015 5:30PM

This complicates the simple premise of the software, in my humble opinion.

I may be able to be talked into clarifying what the positions mean per proposal (which has been suggested a few times before), but not changing this core tenet of Loomio.

GC

Greg Cassel
Disagree
Sun 1 Nov 2015 7:52PM

Low 'voter turnout' is prevalent in most online communities, even for rare scheduled events such as elections of annual officers, etcetera. There are many reasons for low participation, which can be addressed both generically and per-community.

O

Ohrar
Agree
Sun 1 Nov 2015 9:02PM

Why not just test it? The rate of undecided people seems an interesting figure to me.

JK

Joop Kiefte (LaPingvino)
Disagree
Sun 1 Nov 2015 11:43PM

No real need. I would go for a FB-like option x people read this proposal, and you could mark that as white in the chart, but not with a new button. Conscious choise for this would be Abstain.

LF

Luke Flegg
Agree
Tue 3 Nov 2015 12:03PM

Seems to me the main resistance is people don't like too many colours because it doesn't look as pretty. I think white is smart, because it's a lack of any colour (because it's a lack of any opinion) while orange becomes an active expression of :-S

RG

Robert Guthrie
Disagree
Tue 3 Nov 2015 7:10PM

What a great proposal. This has generated some really good ideas. Thank you OP. I love the idea that whitespace on the pie represents people who've read the proposal and did not vote

FB

Poll Created Wed 4 Nov 2015 12:06AM

Include people who viewed a tread but did not vote as a white slice in the pie chart. Closed Sat 7 Nov 2015 12:08AM

Results

Results Option % of points Voters
Agree 36.8% 7 RJ Z CE JK KL DU FB
Abstain 0.0% 0  
Disagree 63.2% 12 BK MB DS NK CZ TT MDB PF JW DU GC DM
Block 0.0% 0  
Undecided 0% 880 RG JV RDB KC NW MT JC AT CWH BH G JG DS RW G RF N DB J DMA

19 of 899 people have participated (2%)

DU

William Asiata
Agree
Wed 4 Nov 2015 12:36AM

This is actually a very good idea.

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