Subject: A Friendly Thought on the “Abstain” Voting Option
Hey everyone,
I’d like to share a thought regarding the “Abstain” option in our voting process.
While I understand that sometimes it’s hard to decide, I believe removing the “Abstain” option and encouraging everyone to vote Yes or No could really benefit The Sandbox project in the long run.
Here’s why:
- Clear direction: The project needs clear, collective decisions to move forward. When too many choose “Abstain,” it becomes harder to understand the community’s stance.
- More involvement: Voting is one of the key ways we, as a community, help shape the future of The Sandbox. “Abstain” can sometimes be a sign of hesitation or unwillingness to dive into the topic — and we all have valuable perspectives to contribute!
- Faster progress: Decisive answers help the team take quicker and more confident actions, which is crucial in a fast-moving environment like Web3 and gaming.
I’m not saying everyone must always have a perfect answer — just that encouraging more active engagement (even when we’re unsure) will make the project stronger and more united.
Thanks for reading, and as always — excited to keep building this amazing world with all of you! 
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Not a good idea sorry.
Forcing someone to take sides when they have no opinion on the matter will lead to people not voting instead of being forced to choose ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. We’ll end up having difficulties hitting quorum instead, not a problem we want to resurface again.
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I am not stating a personal opinion on this idea…
But, just for clarity, vote can be SPLIT between yes and now. So, it’s not “either or.”
For example, as I understand the mechanics of Snapshot, if someone is mostly in favor of something, they could vote 60% yes and 40% no (or some other ratio).
That said, “abstain” is a pretty common option for board votes.
Yeah definitely, you can lean towards one without actually being 100% “in” on that decision.
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I agree you can do this, but you need to be a bit familiar with the voting system to figure this out. Which might not be the case for new joiners or people that are less present and if too complicate you might lose votes.
I found the Abstain button clearer than a split vote 50/50 Y/N. Along those lines the person that is coming even to vote abstain for me is engaged, because that person cares about the TSB and the SIPs reaching quorum.
@AlexST03 , thx for your message, even if today you and me are not from the same opinion all questions are valuable to the DAO community.
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I would be supportive of this if the 50/50 split vote mechanic was a bit more obvious on Snapshot. As it stands it’s a little difficult to know that it exists and even what it does. I was massively confused the first time I used it, I thought it was a bug giving out extra voting power… Like a super delegate lol!
That said, some voters want to just contribute to quorum. Or instead of voting 50/50 would prefer to take a neutral stance
I think the reason for removing it is reasonable, but the alternatives are a bit uncertain
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