Should Contest Voting Be Anonymous or Transparent?

[420]

Contest voting was always anonymous, until people started cheating. Members were getting caught, disqualified, upset and leaving the site.

So we made the voting transparent to allow the community to help monitor, so it wouldn’t be our word against theirs anymore. This resolved the issue, we’ve had hardly any problems since.

However, we feel that transparent voting may have impacted voter turnouts, because people don’t want others getting upset about who they voted for.

Requiring a fifty post minimum to vote, has also minimized cheating and we’ll always be watching in the back to make sure things remain ethical and legit.

We’d like to hear your feedback on the situation, in order to make any changes to improve the quality and credibility of the contests.

Please cast your votes now

 

[Absorber]

I think transparency is a good thing and if someone is cheating they should be called out .
If some is getting upset about who someone voted for thats their problem . Everyone has a vote to do with as they please!

 

[Absorber]

Maybe if you made it transparent after your vote is cast .

 

[Ke0ncp]

Is there a way so that you can see on the backend who voted for who yet it remained anonymous to the general public?

This might help if your concern is voter turn out due to the transparency yet keep it honest.

To be on the up and up I personally voted for the transparency option

 

[Absorber]

I find it odd staff can vote when they can't enter the contests , something about staff voting is a bit off

 

[420]

I find it odd staff can vote when they can't enter the contests , something about staff voting is a bit off

We stopped staff voting this month actually. You can check the contest guidelines, all have been updated.

Nobody ever had a problem with it until last month. Many even encouraged it and said it made them feel good to get a vote from staff. At the end of the day we just want you all happy, so we listened and acted.

 

[Absorber]

We stopped staff voting this month actually. You can check the contest guidelines, all have been updated.

Nobody ever had a problem with it until last month. Many even encouraged it and said it made them feel good to get a vote from staff. At the end of the day we just want you all happy, so we listened and acted.

It does feel good but could also be seen as a bit sus .
Im not complaining in any way , I love the site and the way you run it

 

[420]

Is there a way so that you can see on the backend who voted for who yet it remained anonymous to the general public?

This might help if your concern is voter turn out due to the transparency yet keep it honest.

To be on the up and up I personally voted for the transparency option

Yes

 

[Regrowth]

Some of the contests are hard to vote for because there's so many worthy entries.

The of the year ones especially. Maybe allowing multiple votes would help. Like pick your top three.

There would still be a winner at the end and any ties would be settled the same way they are now.

But maybe it would also have a way of making things more fair and less bias. Just some thoughts.

 

[Absorber]

Some of the contests are hard to vote for because there's so many worthy entries.

The of the year ones especially. Maybe allowing multiple votes would help. Like pick your top three.

There would still be a winner at the end and any ties would be settled the same way they are now.

But maybe it would also have a way of making things more fair and less bias. Just some thoughts.

That's not a bad idea not just pretty spaced

 

[Absorber]

Some of the contests are hard to vote for because there's so many worthy entries.

The of the year ones especially. Maybe allowing multiple votes would help. Like pick your top three.

There would still be a winner at the end and any ties would be settled the same way they are now.

But maybe it would also have a way of making things more fair and less bias. Just some thoughts.

Only problem i see is if some people don't use their 3 votes and only use 1 while others use their 3

 

[HashGirl]

I like the transparent voting but I do like @Absorber 's idea of making it transparent after you vote.

 

[DeltaDubie]

we cant have cheaters trying to steal are elections away. lock him up. so add 1st 2nd and 3rd place winners
and send out more 420 t shirts!!!! that be sweet !!!

20240205_225157.jpg

• DeltaDubie
• Feb 5, 2024

 

[420]

Maybe if you made it transparent after your vote is cast .

That is possible, however we’re still stuck with the issue of poor voter turnouts because people can see who voted for who. Honestly, I’ve never seen this anywhere else but here. It’s weird and awkward and divides the community in my opinion. As strong as people claim they are, true colors come out from these contests and I’ve seen countless people lose themselves over it.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

My Thoughts: I am for keeping them private

Keeping the votes private would prevent hard feelings from one member to another, friendships would not be weakened, and it would also help to prevent public outbursts about it.

After some of the contests, with all the negativity shown publicly, we probably lost followers and participation to some journals because of hard feelings. We may have lost some members to it as well.

Now that staff can't vote, it will just get directed to others. There will always be sore losers, and their comments after the contests are over can be pretty nasty. I say don't give them a direct fuel line in which to lead the way.

Letting the members know about the 50 posts or more takes a lot of the tension off, and they should know that the backroom has numerous ways to identify cheating, without saying specifically what methods.

The goal is community participation which leads to more journals, which leads to more active members, and that leads to helping the mission. There is no participation if one feels they will be looked down on or left in the dust by followers because of who they cast their vote for.

 

[OGpapa]

My Thoughts: I am for keeping them private

Keeping the votes private would prevent hard feelings from one member to another, friendships would not be weakened, and it would also help to prevent public outbursts about it.

After some of the contests, with all the negativity shown publicly, we probably lost followers and participation to some journals because of hard feelings. We may have lost some members to it as well.

Now that staff can't vote, it will just get directed to others. There will always be sore losers, and their comments after the contests are over can be pretty nasty. I say don't give them a direct fuel line in which to lead the way.

Letting the members know about the 50 posts or more takes a lot of the tension off, and they should know that the backroom has numerous ways to identify cheating, without saying specifically what methods.

The goal is community participation which leads to more journals, which leads to more active members, and that leads to helping the mission. There is no participation if one feels they will be looked down on or left in the dust by followers because of who they cast their vote for.

Very well said. I'd like to change my vote

 

[Ke0ncp]

Very well said. I'd like to change my vote

I’m with @OGpapa on the vote changing. Very solid logic there @Lady Cannafan

 

[Lady Cannafan]

One more thought,
Having the votes private removes the "obligation" factor. I'm sure there are many members who feel obligated to vote for a particular person, because they know that person and their friends will see the vote.

 

[420]

Very well said. I'd like to change my vote

Poll is set to allow votes to be changed. There should be a button that’s says CHANGE VOTE bottom right under the poll. I usually do this for polls with discussions because the more we learn, the perspective often changes.

 

[420]

Yet another perspective is this poll itself. Notice how we got 20 votes in 12 hours without even adding it to the notices at top of the forum, or the alerts, or even tagging anyone. We sometimes go 2 weeks to get that many votes in a contest. I believe this has been a thorn in our side for a long time that needs extraction and healing.