I picked "Other" because I might join. I vote for anonymity, since I don't think the projected contestants are self-absorbed enough to influence the votes in the way Roy described.

I have updated the OP:

Please be aware that to participate you must send your post to me and I will post it anonymously. As such I might participate but I will not vote. You will be forced to vote before looking at the poll totals.

Roy came up with a good idea about the voting, posted in Skype. Basically that there's an extra option, like "Other (Contestants must choose this to qualify)" or something. That way the contestants and judges will be different people, and no one can figure out who wrote each story based on their votes Plus, they all know which story is theirs, so their vote would suffer from bias anyways lol.

So I shared some minor details about my story with others before the anonymity rule was even suggested; am I disqualified because of that?

No you're not DQ'd. This isn't rocket science it's just a forum game... you'll be fine.

I don't see any reason for the other option. If everyone votes for their own submission then everyone has +1 to their score anyways. The only person that would put at a disadvantage is me, because I'm not voting, and I'm okay with this.

If everyone votes for their own submissions, then everyone else will know whose story is whose, and that'll defeat the purpose of the anonymity.

We should do this.

No, if you read the post it says the system forces the vote before you can view the votes, and also that talking about who you voted for is not allowed until after the competition.

Oh, right, I forgot that you could do that with the polls. I still don't think the participants should be allowed to vote, though. It's incredibly lame to vote for your own work.

Then vote for your favorite. I'm not above it.

It's generally accepted that contests don't have the contestants also be judges, as "conflict of interest" would be putting it lightly. I'm wondering what the benefit of permitting that would be, especially when it seems like no one wants it to be allowed.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Apr 14 2013, 6:19 am by Azrael.

Anonymity to remove any subconscious bias.

Even if we think we're being objective we're not. Also contestants should not be permitted to judge or grade other submitted works.

The cost is too high for the benefit it could provide. Soz, if you want to enter but don't want to vote or comment you don't have to.

Besides as a result of anonymity there won't be any grading or reviewing until have the winner has been chosen.

I'm not sure what the hassle is about not allowing participants to vote. If they vote, just disqualify them. It's so easy.

No.

She does have a point. There needs to be a lot of voting and honestly who here is going to take the time to read a 500 to 1500 story?

I like to read

True, true. After I vote for the one with the best title, I'll help get votes for whichever one you voted for, so be sure to vote for yourself

So because nobody is willing to read a long story, we should just turn this into a popularity contest instead? That's fucking retarded. Take me out of the contest if you don't use anonymity.

Hmm, I think I have a workable compromise which meets the desires of everyone involved.

"Votes for yourself don't count."

This would keep anonymity intact, even to people who could view the results, while still allowing contestants to vote freely.

Let me know what you think

---

Edit: Roy has let me know what he thinks, and has pointed out that my idea is flawed, since it's still most beneficial for people to vote for themselves lol.

His first recommendation was to force contestants to vote "Other", but I informed him that I'd posted that idea the last time he suggested it, and it'd been denied by the thread creator for undisclosed reasons

After telling him that, the revised recommendation was to include an optional "Other" option instead, and then make the rule:

"You cannot vote for yourself."

That way contestants who want to vote for other authors can, and authors (and other people) who want to view the poll results without voting can; voting for yourself would never be necessary, so disallowing it wouldn't negatively impact anyone.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Apr 16 2013, 12:55 am by Azrael.