Though maybe 'therefore aliens' would be more appropriate. I dunno.
These are two of the answers we got to the survey:
I see nothing much wrong with how it's organized.
The current organization is fine. Maybe put OT back together.
The first discloses no opinion on a remerge, and the second would be in favour of a remerge. It would be fanciful to say, though, that the first answer can be interpreted as support for a remerge, and the second is an active proponent of it. That is not to say that the first would
oppose a remerge, and the second certainly wouldn't. But there's shades of opinion between being an active proponent demanding a remerge and being happy to accept whatever happens. The results do not disclose a majority of people as being active proponents of a remerge. Simple as that. There is no way to read the results and come to that conclusion. Thus, we cannot take from these results the message that a vast majority of people want a remerge; something that would certainly shape how we move forward.
I think what you're trying to get at is whether or not people would
oppose a remerge. As stated above, the first answerer would not necessarily oppose a remerge. There's no way to tell from the answer; no way in which to draw an inference. But that doesn't mean that their lot should be thrown in with those who are active proponents of change (nor should the second answerer), and doesn't detract from the point that opinion is divided on the issue.
So when we are making an inference about those who are not actively supporting a remerge, that is not to make an inference that those people would oppose change (or are active opponents diametrically opposed to the active supporters). Rather, it is to make an inference that they are not supportive of change. This is a pretty important distinction. Please note what Atticus said on the first page:
Atticus said:
On the merge issue, I think the only way to read the results is that if a person didn't in some form say that the OTs should be merged, he doesn't support (actively) the idea. Of course that doesn't mean that they are against it either.
Actively support. It could be that 80% of people would not oppose a remerge, and 80% of people would not oppose a continuation of the split. These are not mutually exclusive results, because lots of people are ambivalent (even amongst those who answered in favour of a split, as seen in the second answer above). So we may be talking past each other when we say that we infer that those who didn't mention a remerge aren't active supporters, and you say that a vast majority would not oppose a remerge. If you are arguing that the results make clear that a vast majority of people are active supporters of a remerge, then no, that is simply wrong. The results tell us nothing of the sort.
Also don't conflate opposition to the split with support for a remerge. Some saw the split as tainted by its timing or the lack of prior consultation, but may not necessarily oppose the continuance of the existing system. Similarly, some prefer the current situation to that existing before the split, but would like a remerged OT with different standards even more.
Your conspiracy theory is cute, but I don't get where it comes from, when the two of us answering questions in this thread have specifically said that we are in favour of a remerge. I'm perplexed by your logic, which seems to suggest that Atticus and I decided to wilfully misinterpret the results of the survey because we enjoy more people disagreeing with us, and making our job harder for ourselves. For if everyone was in favour of a remerge, that would make our job easy. We could just do it and everyone would be happy, ourselves included. You seem to be looking for us to ignore the opinions of people you disagree with by classing them as irrelevant and insignificant, and I don't know why you would seek to do that when you could just argue for the merits of a remerge instead, to convince people that that is the best way to proceed.
On the wording of the question itself, I drafted it, and Atticus disagreed with it. There wasn't any further discussion on it beyond Atticus expressing his disagreement, because we decided to just post the survey, which had already been delayed. Both Atticus and I were about to be a little inactive, so no discussion could take place without even further delay. I drafted it broadly because I wasn't just interested in an OT remerge. The status of A&E and S&T have been important topics too. Moreover, I was interested in gauging people who are active proponents of a remerge, rather than those who are simply happy to go along with it. A question not specifically mentioning a remerge captures the former rather than the latter.
