Writing Challenge Comments, Questions, Answers

[Dave]

As far as the voting system goes I'd say keep it as simple as possible - and the most simple is one Chron = one Vote. However, if we only have 20 Chrons voting on 20 stories, we may not get any clear leaders (just a few people with 2 votes) and so maybe some slightly more complicated system would be better. Ideally, we should have announced the voting system first, but this is a learning curve.

Since it was decided only one story per person, that shouldn't be changed now. If we do allow more next time then the votes should be for a story, not a member. I thought that went without saying. Same goes for voting for oneself.

I also think you might get burn out if you hold more than one competition at the same time. It will do no harm if people have to wait for the next one.

[Ursa major]

I don't think we ought to get too bogged down in the competitive attributes of the competition. No-one is going to post the culmination of their life's work. Six people "winning" with two votes each simply shows that in strong competiton, each is equally (though, propbably, differently) appreciated.

To wheel out that saw: It's the taking part that counts.

[The Judge]

I'd go with a fortnightly comp, Teresa, but it looks as if I'm in a minority here.

I'd also agree with the easiest voting possible. The trouble is with such a lot of entries, there could well be a tie, as Dave mentions. While that's no bad thing in the credit stakes, it makes it difficult to decide who gets the honour of setting the next month's theme - unless we have a penalty shootout among the leaders eg a story in 10 words!

[Devil's Advocate]

Heh. I like that...

[Culhwch]

Unfortunately the software only allows for one vote per person, or infinite votes per person, so it looks like it will be as Dave says, one Chron, one vote. As for ties, they're no big - we only ever get a small number of votes in the photo challenge, and ties are actually rare. If it is a tie, we could always run a second, shorter, tie-breaking poll with only the winners...

[Parson]

Who would have thought a fun exercise could get bogged down in so much minutia? Or is it competition that brings out the "fair" questions?

But I would not agree that it was just assumed that you should not vote for yourself. It is certainly bad form in a friendly election, but mostly done in the world where there is something riding on the outcome. --- Do you vote your shares for your idea in a shareholders meeting? Can you imagine Reagan voting for McGovern?

[mygoditsraining]

Or, in the event of a tie, the mods could have a swift vote amongst themselves between the tied stories to avoid dragging things out with multiple public votes.

It doesn't really matter though; just a bit of fun for everyone.

With regards to timing, I'm happy with whatever. Monthly, bi-monthly, whatever the consensus is I'm happy to go along with. it's nice to have something to do as a warm-up that doesn't get deleted once I'm done.

[HareBrain]

Wow, some really good ones so far. Choosing one is going to be tough.

And Peter Graham has been lured into posting something creative that's not an illustration of a point about technique! I never thought I'd see the day.

[Ursa major]

Originally Posted by HareBrain

And Peter Graham has been lured into posting something creative that's not an illustration of a point about technique!

Well, not a point we're equipped to notice, let alone deal with.


As to voting for oneself, why do it? The entry is there for all to see (and thus whether it may deserve a lot of votes or not) and the prize is one of esteem. The person to whom this matters most is the story's author, the one person who will know whether it garnered less honest votes than will have been reported.

Where votes really matter (in terms of the importance of the result to the public at large, e.g. elections for Parliament/Congress/etc), we assume that all of the candidates vote for themselves (if the live in the constituency, that is).

[The Judge]

Originally Posted by Parson

Who would have thought a fun exercise could get bogged down in so much minutia? Or is it competition that brings out the "fair" questions?

Parson, have you never sat on something like a church committee?!

Originally Posted by mygoditsraining

Or, in the event of a tie, the mods could have a swift vote amongst themselves between the tied stories to avoid dragging things out with multiple public votes.

I'm happy for Teresa herself to choose the winner, except this might put her in an invidious position if she is one of the tied-toppers. What about inviting someone like I, Brian or jd worthington (if they haven't entered, that is) to act as a kind of guest of honour to choose a winner if there is a tie?

Ursa, you're absolutely right about esteem. It might be an idea to remind people, though, before voting starts.

We don't know how much support months 2 and 3 will garner, but if it seems this stupendous turn out isn't a fluke, and the numbers preclude multiple entries from one person, perhaps we could have an overspill thread where people can post without the entry counting for votes, and on which others could comment. (Those who didn't want to be critiqued could make this clear.)

[Boneman]

By Ursa
As to voting for oneself, why do it? The entry is there for all to see (and thus whether it may deserve a lot of votes or not) and the prize is one of esteem. The person to whom this matters most is the story's author, the one person who will know whether it garnered less honest votes than will have been reported.

Actually the main reason I won't vote for m'self is that I've already seen too many that are betterer than wot mine is!

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Originally Posted by Boneman

Actually the main reason I won't vote for m'self is that I've already seen too many that are betterer than wot mine is!

That's how I felt about mine. And also, I AM too honest to vote for myself. Cheating is just not fulfilling.

[TheEndIsNigh]

Can we at least have one that ends on the 6th of May so we can revel in the joys of election night too.

[Teresa Edgerton]

But then, TEIN, people might not vote here at all, having already been voted out ...

I don't see anything wrong with people contributing more than one story, except that we might end up swamped with too many stories. We'll have a better idea of whether two is a good idea at the end of this month. I imagine that there will be a big decrease in the number of entries in May and June, when this initial burst of enthusiasm wears off, but a decrease from what?

If the polls are actually set up to allow infinite votes, is there a way that it could say at the beginning that people are only to vote for two stories? If there is a way to avoid confusion on that point, I'd trust people to abide by the rule and only vote the prescribed number of times, just as I would trust them to not vote for themselves. But I don't know that I would trust everyone to understand that it's only two if the heading says something like "Check all that apply."

[ctg]

Can you lock the thread, and set-up a mandatory 2 votes per a unique IP-address at the end of the month?