Thanks for everyone's candor and feedback. I can certainly appreciate how annoying it is to deal with someone like myself that 1) is often asking questions that everyone else had heard many times before and knows the answer by heart, and 2) someone who may not be able to understand the explanations when they are given.
I am running into #2 a lot, so much that I am wondering if this list is really mostly for people who are already trained, steeped, and comfortable with concepts like utlity and Batesian regret, with high level math and set theory, and so on. It may simply require more time and effort than I have to give to understand the answers to these questions, I certainly do not have the option presently to take courses in these advanced subjects. I was hoping there would be a more down-to-earth way to "get" this stuff, but whether there's no way to "dumb" this stuff down, or whether it's just not something that people here are interested in, either way I can appreciate it. Finally, while I was surprised that erudition didn't eliminate the "churlishness", my best approach to that fact is probably to get a thicker skin. I'm not promising to be a punching bag, mind you, but I can probably be a little less sensitive and just assume that these groups are more pugnacious than I had imagined. Thanks everyone. I'm going to keep my subscription to these groups for now (if I may), and I will try to be mindful of all of the above if and when I continue interacting with them. -Benn Grant eFix Computer Consulting b...@4efix.com 603.283.6601 ---- Election-Methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info