(nealhunt @ Sep. 27 2007,14:28)
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(Evil and Chaos @ Sep. 27 2007,13:03)
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More votes please.
This isn't to pick on E&C. This was just a convenient post to springboard off of.
I think there's a problem with continuing to poll and poll and re-poll and then poll some more. Results in repeats have consistently gotten more extreme with respect to the extent of changes. That's not a universal by any means but it definitely seems to be a strong trend.
If pressed to explain that I might offer up the idea that the people that don't want changes will lose interest and stop participating. "No changes" is inherently a less motivating position.
Those familiar with some group dynamics psychology will note the "group think" phenomenon. Committees actually tend to be more radical than individuals, despite the fact that it's counter-intuitive. Ideas and possible solutions get more and more extreme as discussion continues until you end up with completely idiotic ideas. You get a feedback loop where the perception of doubt leads to additional proposals which aren't accepted, which leads to more perception of doubt and more proposals, until you've proposed all the reasonable ideas and only really goofy stuff is left.
But regardless of the reasons for the phenomenon of shifting poll results, I'm doubtful that it is really reflective of the broader, non-Epicomms-posting Epic community. I think we should be taking all the polls with a large grain of "poll until I get the answer I want" salt.
Almost all polls on recently proposed changes seem to have been fairly strongly rejected (which I am rather glad about). I can't think of many changes that have been looked upon favourably, that haven't already been a hot topic for a rather long time.
Vultures is a notable exception in that there seems to have been a more recent swing of opinion on them (though it's worth noting that they have been an issue for longer with some groups (eg the French)). The reasons could be speculated about, but I wouldn't quickly leap to the assumption that some sort of instinctive crowd hysteria... especially since I personally don't see good evidence for this occurring generally.
