Voting In The Challenges

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I have been filling in points on my berated spreadsheet since the first story was posted. I do not guarantee I'll be totally impartial, but I do attempt to keep a consistent standard over each category; then go back over all of them when the poll is up. It's only by cutting enjoyment into little slices (knock off two for grammar, and at least two more for not staying in genre…) that I succeed in separating such diverse (and generally high quality) submissions.

The attitude of an SF person, rather than fantasy, true; but it works for me.

(Or at least it will as soon as I've got round to classing the last four or five so I can start with the final sequential read.)
 
As I am next to never in the running for a winning story I can't say this has applied to me. But I will say this: I am pleased by the level of integrity which the forum displays. It makes this place very attractive to me. My guiding moral principle is quite simple (to say hard to live) "What would Jesus do?" Added to that I am completely convinced that there can be joy in winning if there is no honor in the competition.

:mad:Good Grief!!!! I wanted to say "there can be no joy in winning if there is no honor in the competition." :eek:
 
Voting really early works best for me, otherwise I find myself influenced by the way other people vote. If there are stories I think deserve votes even if I'm not sure they're the absolute best, I wish I'd voted for them -- so I like to remove temptation and get my votes in as quickly as I can.

I've only ever had any votes in the 75 challenge once, so it's not a common problem for me to vote (or not) for my competitors. I have to say the time people voted for me it didn't occur to me to worry because I'd already fallen in love with a story and knew I was going to vote for it.

I did once vote for a story in the 300 that I liked as much as someone else's but I thought would probably get fewer votes in the end. As it turned out, the other story only got one vote even though I'd thought it was so brilliant everyone would vote for it, so that showed me the uselessness of my powers of prediction.
 
I try to vote early, although I'm still dithering about who to vote for this month. Having never been in a position where voting for someone else would affect my chances, so I don't think it would influence my choice
 
I've voted in every challenge that i've entered, but I don't feel an obligation to vote. This "How could people enter a competition and not vote" thing is strange to me. You don't vote because you don't vote. Is it that big of a deal? Maybe some people just like to write stories and couldn't care about who wins.

And the issue of voting trends and temtation to look at results. Simply read the stories and vote for your favourite. Can you really be influenced by votes and opinions of people you don't know?

This is probably putting me offside, but I don't see how this is a difficult thing.
 
I've voted in every challenge that i've entered, but I don't feel an obligation to vote. This "How could people enter a competition and not vote" thing is strange to me. You don't vote because you don't vote. Is it that big of a deal? Maybe some people just like to write stories and couldn't care about who wins.

And the issue of voting trends and temtation to look at results. Simply read the stories and vote for your favourite. Can you really be influenced by votes and opinions of people you don't know?

This is probably putting me offside, but I don't see how this is a difficult thing.


I think there can be a temptation when you see what others have voted for to go along with the crowd; if 10 people have voted for a story then it must be a good entry regardless of what you think. Either it was too subtle/clever and you didn't 'get' it or it was in a format you didn't usually like (ie a poem); whichever, the one you we're going to vote for no-one else has - and you don't want to stand out from the crowd - do you?

I'm not saying anyone on the forum does this , but it is human nature to 'go with the flow'. And if any occasional visitor decides to glance through the thread , and is faced with several pages of entries , which are they most likely to read first? Surely the ones people have already voted for?

Personally I don't think you should be able to view poll results until you have voted ; and I don't think that (mods aside) anyone should be able to see who has voted for which story. There's no reason for anyone to know this , and it shouldn't be allowed to influence which entries will be voted for.
 
Personally I don't think you should be able to view poll results until you have voted ;

I can understand your thinking on that, PM.

and I don't think that (mods aside) anyone should be able to see who has voted for which story. There's no reason for anyone to know this , and it shouldn't be allowed to influence which entries will be voted for.
But I'm not sure I understand your thinking on that, PM. Where does 'influence' come in?
 
Knowing who voted for you can produce bias, especially in situations where there are several worthy contenders for your vote. I'd prefer the voting to be blind and in secret, although there is nothing to prevent contributors stating who and why they voted, as is the case now.
 
Unfortunately it's all or nothing - everyone sees who voted for who, or no one sees. Both have their benefits and their drawbacks. Obviously blind voting can be manipulated by those who lack morals and ethics, so the decision was to go with the open system for sake of fairness.
 
Aren't these challenges for fun only? I like to win as much as nearly anyone, but why would I compromise my morals to win one? Or why would I vote for a story I thought was unworthy? Granted there are a lot of months when the difference between the story that got my vote and those which got only short listed, but I still believe that almost everyone here would only vote for their choice without regard for manipulating the results of letting other voters determine their vote.

Lighten up and have some fun. That's what this is all about!!
 
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