Voting and the challenges

[nixie]

I've noticed we have fewer votes than entries in the challenges.
I find this very sad and disappointing, it lessens the feeling of competition.
I know the greatest accomplishment is entering but getting a vote or mention makes it worthwhile.

if you take the time to enter; please also take the time to read and vote, others do it, would be nice if everyone did.

Also if anyone can think of ways to get people to vote please let us know.

And remember ANYONE can vote.

 

[Cathbad]

Perhaps it is as simple as stressing, at the beginning of each challenge, that Entrants will be judged by other Entrants, and each will have the chance (responsibility?) to vote for the stories they perceive best?

And by seeing how other writers perceive talent, they might improve their own writing?

 

[Ursa major]

Perhaps it is as simple as stressing, at the beginning of each challenge, that Entrants will be judged by other Entrants

We can't stress this as it simply isn't true: any member of the Chrons can vote.

 

[Ihe]

Make an event out of it. Out of the voter pool, a few lucky random winners can get something for taking the time, like choosing either the theme or the genre for the next challenge (it can be something else, ofc, maybe a vote that counts double for the next challenge?). If the challenge winner only gets to choose theme OR genre, this can also prevent winners from picking themes and genres tailored to their tastes or to a half-finished story they already have tucked in their drawer (not that winners do this; I'm just fishing for positive things about my suggestion).

I do understand that sometimes it can be a heavy task reading all entries (specially if you don't have a horse in the race, and more so if it's the 300-worder), but when the entrants don't vote, that is kind of tipping the scales in their favour, the way I see it. If they get a vote, but don't bother in voting someone else, the results come out skewed, as the non-voting entrants are being rewarded while at the same time weakening the competition (this also counts for mentions, in my eyes). This can lead to other entrants also not caring to vote, as it's like handicapping yourself.

I don't care about winning, but I do care about fair results. This might not be that big an issue, but I would suggest having a simple rule along the lines of: if you're an entrant and you don't vote, your story will not be considered. I have no idea how to make this work, maybe have a voting period where the partial results are not shown, then a day or two to scratch non-voters from the race and try to redistribute any votes they got somehow? Admins might have better ideas.

Just a thought.

 

[mosaix]

Strange isn’t it? I can’t understand it. Surely entrants would visit the poll thread just to see how they had fared themselves and take the opportunity to vote whilst they were there.

Maybe the task of reading all the stories is just too much for some.

Perhaps a mod could PM a random sample of entrants who didn’t vote to see if there is a common reason.

 

[Cathbad]

We can't stress this as it simply isn't true: any member of the Chrons can vote.

Yes, but that doesn't prevent you from stressing the above facet?

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Perhaps a mod could PM a random sample of entrants who didn’t vote to see if there is a common reason.

Careful. We're big fans of delegation.

 

[Shyrka]

I get the impression that folks intend to vote but often miss the deadline to do so. Is there anything that can be done with notifications (maybe even email notifications?) to remind entrants when the challenge is ending? You wouldn't want to spam all the members but if the cost of entry was an email reminder telling me to vote, I wouldn't mind that.

 

[Danny McG]

Careful. We're big fans of delegation.

Aren't we all
Delegation (band) - Wikipedia

 

[nixie]

I understand it is easy to forget the deadline, it's when people enter on a regular basis but never vote I find unfair.

 

[Shyrka]

I understand it is easy to forget the deadline, it's when people enter on a regular basis but never vote I find unfair.

That's understandable. I'd be wary of anything too draconian though - we don't want to scare off potential new entrants.

 

[nixie]

We'd never stop anyone entering, what I'd like is for more people to vote to give them a more competitive feel

 

[Ihe]

Without accounting for non-entrant voters, it should be competitive enough if at least all the entrants vote, IMO. I'm also guilty of missing a few voting deadlines myself, so, you know, whoever is free of sin throw the first stone and all, but with the entrants admins do have more control to enforce voting. It should be made clear: if you know you're not gonna have time to vote, don't post a story. If you do, make sure you vote. I gave an example on how we could go about enforcing this in my previous post, but I also like @Shyrka's notification idea. In the notification you can also add the reminder about having your story scratched off if you fail to vote. It would only be fair. Redistribution of given votes to erased stories will be a pickle though.

PS: another way to enforce voting among entrants is to penalise the entrant with vote subtractions or not being allowed to enter next month's challenge. Just throwing ideas out there.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I don't think we want to penalize people for not voting. We'd rather find a way to encourage them, if such a way exists and is feasible.

 

[Cathbad]

Perhaps only a small penalty? -1 vote if you enter but don't vote?

 

[Parson]

I'm a fan of grace not law. The first breeds love, friends and comrades, the second breeds hate, opponents, and enemies. So, no penalties. I think we have to live with the fact that not everyone is going to take the time and effort to vote. --- I doubt that there's anyone so anxious to win that they would decide not to vote because their vote might lead to someone else winning the contest.

Another thought about why people don't vote. ---- One of the requirements by my denomination is that the board has a formal evaluation of the pastor at least once a year. It is like pulling teeth to get my board members to participate, usually less than 50% of the board turns in a simple evaluation (there are questions, examples and asks for a letter grade, and if possible some explanation of why the grade). I've talked to non voting members a few times and the theme that runs through the board members is that they don't feel qualified to make such an evaluation. Could something like this be running through some folks minds?

 

[Cathbad]

I'm a fan of grace not law.

~hopes @Parson hasn't seen my recent "Paulinian vs. Christian" post on Facebook~

But honestly, I fully agree with your post.

 

[Parson]

A further thought on why authors of the stories do not vote.... If I am taking a fully self-centered view of the competition and I am an author, this kind of thinking makes sense: "I am honing my craft by writing a 75 word story. If I win the competition I have something positive to show publisher/agent/fan about how well I'm writing. But spending the time to judge each story does not give me much in the way of help in my endeavors to write and be published and is therefore largely a waste of time."

Makes some sense to me anyway.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I doubt that there's anyone so anxious to win that they would decide not to vote because their vote might lead to someone else winning the contest.

No, people actually have said this, that they didn't want to vote for that reason. And if some have said it, I can imagine that others have thought it. I would say they are a very small minority, but they do exist. On the other hand, we've often seen the opposite, when someone voted for a story that was tied with their own in the lead, which I like to think is more representative of the kind of people who participate in these challenges.

But I am sure that there are a variety of reasons why people don't vote: because they forget, because they get busy, because they don't particularly like any of the stories in a given month, and so forth. I think that a useful thing this thread might do is help us determine what is the most common reason, and if it's something we can mitigate, then determine how we could go about doing that in a positive way.

(And for those who think of a win as a useful writing credit, I might point out that it's a more meaningful credit if more people enter stories and more people vote, not just in that month but throughout the year.)

 

[Cathbad]

But spending the time to judge each story does not give me much in the way of help in my endeavors to write and be published and is therefore largely a waste of time."

This thought would be just dead wrong. Reading the stories, seeing which are judged "best" by their peers, I feel, would only enhance one's chance of writing something worthy of being published!