1 |
On 12/05/2011 02:13 PM, Chí-Thanh Christopher Nguyễn wrote: |
2 |
> Zac Medico schrieb: |
3 |
>>> 2011/12/4 Chí-Thanh Christopher Nguyễn <chithanh@g.o>: |
4 |
>>>> I already stated that I would leave the call to zmedico as lead |
5 |
>>>> developer of portage. Giving him the arguments and the data to make the |
6 |
>>>> decision, but watching whether his reasoning is sound. That means |
7 |
>>>> clearly saying where it is based on fact and where it is based on opinion. |
8 |
>>>> (I wouldn't mind if he made an entirely opinion based decision, as long |
9 |
>>>> as he didn't claim it to be fact-based) |
10 |
>> |
11 |
>> I think it's difficult or impossible to get an reasonably unbiased |
12 |
>> sample of the population of Gentoo users as a whole. Voting is only fair |
13 |
>> when you can get a reasonably unbiased sample of the whole population. |
14 |
> |
15 |
> This is something I can agree with. |
16 |
|
17 |
Yeah, I think anyone with a cursory knowledge of statistical sampling |
18 |
can agree with this. On the other hand, it seems apparent that lots of |
19 |
people are completely oblivious to the challenges involved in obtaining |
20 |
reasonably unbiased statistical samples. |
21 |
|
22 |
>> Due to human nature, people who are unhappy with the change in defaults |
23 |
>> are more likely to express their opinion publicly than people who |
24 |
>> welcome the change in defaults. This tends to bias statistics in favor |
25 |
>> of the unhappy people. |
26 |
> |
27 |
> But this is precisely what I meant above and in my older post. You have |
28 |
> no idea to which extent this effect is present, much less whether other |
29 |
> effects which could introduce bias in the other direction outweigh your |
30 |
> "unhappy with the change in defaults" group. |
31 |
> You keep on repeating this as if it were fact, but have no data to base |
32 |
> this claim on. |
33 |
|
34 |
One person's common-sense behavioral model is another person's baseless |
35 |
claim. |
36 |
|
37 |
> One way to investigate would be to sample statements in the forum |
38 |
> thread, and determining how many responded with personal preference and |
39 |
> how many with practical arguments. It would still have to be accounted |
40 |
> for those who try to rationalize their pre-conceived opinion with ad-hoc |
41 |
> arguments, but better than nothing at all which is the current case. |
42 |
|
43 |
Sure, but that seems like more of an academic exercise than a practical |
44 |
one. I think we'll better of with a judicial approach, where a group of |
45 |
judges weighs a set of pros and cons. Gentoo's council is the closest |
46 |
thing to that we have to a judiciary. |
47 |
-- |
48 |
Thanks, |
49 |
Zac |