Okay, folks, All updates and entries are complete.
Now is the time to determine how to vote. Here are some thoughts from one individual:
"I would like to propose a change to the voting system now, before the voting starts.
As I understand it, the voting system used for the last few contests is as follows: Each voter pick 1st, 2nd, and 3rd favorites. 1st = 3 pts,
2nd = 2 pts, 3rd = 1 pt. This probably works pretty well most of the time, but I infer from your comments about the writing contest results that you had some difficulty. On contests that have a large number of entrants and a large number of prizes but not necessarily very many voters, it may be difficult to distinguish the winners, especially after the top few positions. Also, a 1st place vote counts for so much more than a 2nd, and a 2nd counts for twice as much as a 3rd -- this makes it harder for a voter to distinguish between two closely matched contestants.Proposal 1: Let the voters assign a score from 1 to 5 points to every entry. Best total score wins. This allows the voters to fine-tune their votes a little more. If the voter thinks that two entrants are equally deserving, he can give both entrants the same number of points.
Variation 1a) The total number of points that each voter may award must be no more than 3 times the number of entries (For the present 14 entries, each voter could award up to 52 points). This will prevent "grade inflation" where everybody gets nothing but 4's and 5's. If the voter wants to give one entrant a high score, he would have to lower the score for somebody else.
I don't know if your voting software is set up to handle this. If it's too difficult to change on such short notice, I would be willing to accept e-mail ballots and I would do the tallying with a spreadsheet. I would set up a new e-mail address just for ballots. I don't have an entry in the contest, so I should have no conflict of interest.
Alternative Proposal 2: To allow for more distinction, especially among the lower places, I propose we allow each voter to pick up to 5 choices. Then even out the weights so that the 1st place votes still count for more, but not by such an overwhelming amount. Example: 1st = 8 pts, 2nd =7 pts, 3rd = 6pts,
4th = 5 pts, 5th = 4 pts."With respect to the voting software, it was my intention to have a summary page so that individuals could cut-n-paste their votes and then post them on RMR with comments. Some have said they missed being able to comment.
Let's wrap up the voting discussion (this thread) by Friday so we can start voting on Sat - Fri, winners announced on 5/29... then GOWI onto Descon 14.