SUO: Re: Gathering Questions (No vs. Abstain)
Frank,
You are only looking at only two options:
1. Take action.
2. Don't take action.
That dichotomy may be appropriate when some immediate action is
required. But in a project such as SUO, we are still in a preliminary
stage, where the best action to take is still unknown.
For such projects, we must consider three options:
1. Take some proposed action.
2. Reject some proposed action.
3. Request further information, which may lead to a later
accept/reject decision or which may lead to some better
defined proposal.
An abstention is a vote for option 3. It is not a rejection,
but a request for postponement.
Therefore, your argument that an abstention equals a no vote is wrong.
An abstention is just as much a denial of a no vote as it is a denial
of a yes vote.
To say it in a positive way, an abstention is a request for
information on which to base a more informed decision.
It is neither a yes vote nor a no vote.
John Sowa