A common method for large group decision-making facilitation is to collect ideas via a large group discussion and/or brainstorm, organize and refine the ideas to some degree, and then either vote (usually by raised hands) to see which ideas are most popular, or discuss and address concerns until a single consensus is reached.

Advantages of Brainstorm-Voting or Consensus Over Dotmocracy

• Many people are used to traditional models and thus they may have more perceived legitimacy and may be easier to facilitate.
• All the communication is face-to-face, which helps build trust and community.
• There are more opportunities to smile, laugh and cheer as a whole group.
• People can feel heard by the group.
• The final decision is a single choice that may appear to be more decisive.
• A good facilitator may draw out people and ideas that might have not been written on a dotmocracy sheet.

Disadvantages of Brainstorm-Voting or Consensus Compared to Dotmocracy

• The number and detail of ideas is limited to the facilitators' ability to record them. The facilitator is a bottleneck that does not allow the process to scale-up to large numbers of participants and ideas.
• A facilitator may not correctly interpret what a participant is trying to say and thus record the wrong idea.
• The facilitator may have a bias that affects how the ideas are discussed and recorded. For example a facilitator may subtly ignore or downplay ideas they do not like, or give extra time and attention to ideas they prefer.
• There is limited opportunity for commenting and reflection on ideas. Any time spent listening to comments reduces time for new ideas.
• Discussion may be swayed by confident public speakers.
• The final vote is public (i.e. not anonymous) and may be easily skewed by strong personalities, people with authority or status, power relationships, cliquing and cultural influences.
• The process requires participants to do public speaking in order to contribute, which many people with good ideas may be to shy to do.
• Discussions about the process can often take time away from the content of the decision-making.