Originally Posted by
intuition
Not defending the math, but it is possible to view it like this:
In a group of 100 people, 50 voted against and 50 for in the first vote. In the second vote, 9 people "changed sides" and thus the second vote resulted 59-41. That is the way I read the "9% change" comment.
It's a nice effort
but the post was completely incorrect.
If a referendum in real-life (as opposed to here) is held and it passes 51-49-- it "won" by 2%.
If the result was 59-39-- it passed by
20%. Which would then be described as a "landslide."
We can most definitely disagree about if this whole this means much of anything; % of FTers that participated, do they even understand what they're voting on, are people opposed more likely to just not vote-- all valid issues and none I'd really argue. Maybe it should be like a totalitarian republic where everybody is forced to cast a vote.
But, I
would argue, that at least be honest and accurate about the results as they stand-- meaningless or meaningful as they may be. If the vote is to be ignored or dismissed-- fine, there may be excellent reasons to do exactly that, or to just use it as one of many factors, or to simply decide "this feature is foolish, better for FT if we -don't- implement it at this time-- but accuracy about the results shouldn't be optional.