Suggestion for election instructions

Hi all,

I've had to "do a mulligan" on election email instructions in the past, and have gotten some comments that the instructions were sub-optimal.

Could people give me some feedback on the following instructions email, please?

http://vcs.maemo.org/svn/maemo2midgard/maemo-elections/scripts/instructions.txt

Possible criticisms & the trade-offs involved:
* It'd be nice to have a list of candidates, but that does make the mail a lot longer
* Electioninstructions are OK, I think - does anyone have suggestions for improvement?
* Including candidacy statements: Not a fan. If listing the candidates makes the email long, then including declarations makes it too long.

Any other bits of feedback or suggestions, or is this good to send out next weekend?

Cheers,
Dave.

I would delete this paragraph:

The election has 4 steps - first, you must identify yourself using the
voting token above. Then select your preferred candidates in order of
preference. A third step will show you your choice, and ask you to
confirm or return to the previous step. Finally, after confirming your
choice, a unique identifier will be given to you which will allow you to
verify after the election that your vote was counted correctly. To ensure
anonymity, no link will be kept between this token and your identifiers,
so please keep this token safe.

And tell them what they're doing right WHEN they're doing it. First
reading: oh, four long steps... that's too much... bye bye potentional
voter...

2010/3/17 Dave Neary <dneary@maemo.org>

> Hi all,
>
> I've had to "do a mulligan" on election email instructions in the past, and
> have gotten some comments that the instructions were sub-optimal.
>
> Could people give me some feedback on the following instructions email,
> please?
>
>
> http://vcs.maemo.org/svn/maemo2midgard/maemo-elections/scripts/instructions.txt
>
> Possible criticisms & the trade-offs involved:
> * It'd be nice to have a list of candidates, but that does make the mail a
> lot longer
> * Electioninstructions are OK, I think - does anyone have suggestions for
> improvement?
> * Including candidacy statements: Not a fan. If listing the candidates
> makes the email long, then including declarations makes it too long.
>
> Any other bits of feedback or suggestions, or is this good to send out next
> weekend?
>
> Cheers,
> Dave.
>

Hi,

ext Dave Neary wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I've had to "do a mulligan" on election email instructions in the
> past, and have gotten some comments that the instructions were
> sub-optimal.
>
> Could people give me some feedback on the following instructions
> email, please?
>
> http://vcs.maemo.org/svn/maemo2midgard/maemo-elections/scripts/instructions.txt
>
>
> Possible criticisms & the trade-offs involved:
> * It'd be nice to have
> a list of candidates, but that does make the mail a lot longer

Still, I think it makes it more interesting and inviting to click
further (as opposed to "I'll look at this later").


> * Electioninstructions are OK, I think - does anyone have suggestions
> for improvement?

Just a numbered list, to ease readibility:

The election has 4 steps:

1. Identify yourself using the voting token above.
2. Select your preferred candidates in order of preference.
3. Your choice will be presented with an option to confirm or return to
the previous step.
4. After confirming your choice, a unique identifier will be given to
verify after the election that your vote was counted correctly.

To ensure anonymity, no link will be kept between this token and your
identifiers, so please keep this token safe. Once you have voted, you
will not be able to vote again.


> * Including candidacy statements: Not a fan. If
> listing the candidates makes the email long, then including
> declarations makes it too long.

Indeed.


> Any other bits of feedback or suggestions, or is this good to send
> out next weekend?

Looks good to me.


> Cheers, Dave. _______________________________________________
> maemo-community mailing list maemo-community@maemo.org
> https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-community

--
Quim Gil

On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 06:08, Quim Gil <quim.gil@nokia.com> wrote:
> ext Dave Neary wrote:
>>
>> Possible criticisms & the trade-offs involved:
>> * It'd be nice to have a list of candidates, but that does make the
>> mail a lot longer
>
> Still, I think it makes it more interesting and inviting to click
> further (as opposed to "I'll look at this later").

Agreed. 10 lines, plus a bit of whitespace, isn't too much.

>> * Electioninstructions are OK, I think - does anyone have suggestions
>> for improvement?
>
> Just a numbered list, to ease readibility:

Agreed.

>> * Including candidacy statements: Not a fan. If
>> listing the candidates makes the email long, then including
>> declarations makes it too long.
>
> Indeed.

Agreed.

>> Any other bits of feedback or suggestions, or is this good to send
>> out next weekend?

I'd possibly include a paragraph on what the council is, and why
voting is important: currently the email reads as if you know
everything already, and that might not be the case. I'd rather have
something longer but clearer, which increased participation, than
something which was short and didn't appear to be important/urgent.

--------8<--------
Dear <member>,

The election for the next Maemo Community Council is now open and you
have received this email as you are eligible to vote. The Maemo
Community Council consists of 5 members who serve on a 6 month term,
representing the community to Nokia and helping facilitate community
activities. You can learn more about the Community Council at:

http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_Council

With the changes to Maemo which will be inevitably caused by the
merging of Maemo and MeeGo, this representation will be more important
than ever.

CANDIDATES
~~~~~~~~~~
The following candidates are running:
* ...
* ...

A full list, including their declarations and answers to community
questions, can be found at:

http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_Council/Candidate_declarations_for_March_2010

HOW TO VOTE
~~~~~~~~~~~
Voting will run from March 23rd until March 30th 2010, 23:59 UTC. Your
anonymous voting credentials are:

URL: http://maemo.org/vote/
E-mail:
Vote token:

1. Go to the voting website and identify yourself using the
voting tokens above.
2. Select your preferred candidates in order of preference.
3. Your choice will be presented with an option to confirm or
return to the previous step.
4. After confirming your choice, a unique identifier will be
given to verify after the election that your vote was
counted correctly.

To ensure anonymity, no link will be kept between this token and your
identifiers, so please keep this token safe. Once you have voted, you
will not be able to vote again.

...
-------->8--------

HTH,

Andrew

--
Andrew Flegg -- mailto:andrew@bleb.org | http://www.bleb.org/

Hi,

Quim Gil wrote:
>> * It'd be nice to have
>> a list of candidates, but that does make the mail a lot longer
>
> Still, I think it makes it more interesting and inviting to click
> further (as opposed to "I'll look at this later").

On principle, the email will be plain text, not html - so if I include
links, the list will look like this:

1. Ryan Abel / GeneralAntilles:
http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_Council/Candidate_declarations_for_March_2010#Ryan_Abel_.2F_GeneralAntilles
2. Randall Arnold / Texrat:
http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_Council/Candidate_declarations_for_March_2010#Randall_Arnold_.2F_Texrat
3. Andrew Black / andrewfblack:
http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_Council/Candidate_declarations_for_March_2010#Andrew_Black_.2F_andrewfblack
4. Attila Csipa / achipa/attila77:
http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_Council/Candidate_declarations_for_March_2010#Attila_Csipa_.2F_achipa.2Fattila77
5. Andrew Flegg / Jaffa:
http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_Council/Candidate_declarations_for_March_2010#Andrew_Flegg_.2F_Jaffa
6. Andrea Grandi / andy80:
http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_Council/Candidate_declarations_for_March_2010#Andrea_Grandi_.2F_andy80
7. Cosimo Kroll / zehjotkah:
http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_Council/Candidate_declarations_for_March_2010#Cosimo_Kroll_.2F_zehjotkah
8. Javier Pedro / javispedro:
http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_Council/Candidate_declarations_for_March_2010#Javier_Pedro_.2F_javispedro
9. Arek Stopczynski / hopbeat:
http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_Council/Candidate_declarations_for_March_2010#Arek_Stopczynski_.2F_hopbeat
10. Steven Yeager / YoDude:
http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_Council/Candidate_declarations_for_March_2010#Steven_Yeager_.2F_YoDude

Which is ugly, in addition to being 20 lines. I could use is.gd or
tinyurl.com but that makes the links less attractive to click...

Cheers,
Dave.

--
maemo.org docsmaster
Email: dneary@maemo.org
Jabber: bolsh@jabber.org

Dave Neary wrote:
> Could people give me some feedback on the following instructions email, please?
>
> http://vcs.maemo.org/svn/maemo2midgard/maemo-elections/scripts/instructions.txt

I am missing the voting method mentioned somewhere. There is the "Then
select your preferred candidates in order of preference." sentence but
no explanation how the preference actually affects the result. I would
add something like

The voting method is single transferable vote (STV) so in the end only
one of your candidates gets your vote (in the order of your preference).

Anyone else thinks it is important enough to be included or is it too
complex and would confuse the matter? I am trying to prevent possible
confusion. Without knowing the method people might think that by making
the list of candidates the vote would somehow be proportionally counted
for more/all candidates on the list or whatever.

Frantisek

If we just put information

*The voting method is single transferable vote (STV) so in the end only one
of your candidates gets your vote (in the order of your preference)*.

For 99% of people it won't mean anything. This info, in my opinion, belongs
to wiki as technicality, not in general voting instructions.

Best regards / Med venlig hilsen / Z poważaniem,

Arek



On 18 March 2010 13:37, Frantisek Dufka <dufkaf@seznam.cz> wrote:

> Dave Neary wrote:
>
>> Could people give me some feedback on the following instructions email,
>> please?
>>
>>
>> http://vcs.maemo.org/svn/maemo2midgard/maemo-elections/scripts/instructions.txt
>>
>
> I am missing the voting method mentioned somewhere. There is the "Then
> select your preferred candidates in order of preference." sentence but no
> explanation how the preference actually affects the result. I would add
> something like
>
> The voting method is single transferable vote (STV) so in the end only one
> of your candidates gets your vote (in the order of your preference).
>
> Anyone else thinks it is important enough to be included or is it too
> complex and would confuse the matter? I am trying to prevent possible
> confusion. Without knowing the method people might think that by making the
> list of candidates the vote would somehow be proportionally counted for
> more/all candidates on the list or whatever.
>
> Frantisek
>
>

Hmm, maybe the mail is not good place for such message after all. The
message is already too long and will be forgotten by the time user gets
to actual voting steps anyway. Better would be a link and/or short
summary directly on the 2010 council voting page (the one followed from
http://maemo.org/vote/ start page).

Maybe there already is something like that.

Frantisek

On Thursday 18 March 2010 12:17:54 Dave Neary wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Quim Gil wrote:
> >> * It'd be nice to have
> >> a list of candidates, but that does make the mail a lot longer
> >
> > Still, I think it makes it more interesting and inviting to click
> > further (as opposed to "I'll look at this later").
>
> On principle, the email will be plain text, not html - so if I include
> links, the list will look like this:
>
> 1. Ryan Abel / GeneralAntilles:
> http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_Council/Candidate_declarations_for_March_20
>10#Ryan_Abel_.2F_GeneralAntilles 2. Randall Arnold / Texrat:
...

We don't need a link per candidate. How about just listing the names and then
saying:

All candidate declarations, nomination emails and other campaign material can
be found can be found at:
http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_Council/Candidate_declarations_for_March_2010

Graham