It has been our general policy in the code and graphic challenge voting to put up only the best three entries for voting. The reason for that was so that the voting would not become diluted if there were many entries. That has not proved to be the case, and so in recent contests, we have put up all the entries submitted.

Our question to you is....do you think it is better to vote on all entries, no matter how many there are, or to stick to the 3-best rule? We would like to do the thing that members find most encouraging and useful. Another thing I would like input on: Do you think that limiting the number of voting slots discourages people from making submissions?

Do you have any ideas on how to encourage BB members to vote? This last coding challenge had only 4 votes. It seems to me we should be able to mobilize more than four members to vote. What do you think is the problem with that?

I miss the votes a lot. maybe there is a way to make them stand out a little more

I personally think it is better to vote on all entries, no matter how many there are.

I do think limiting the number of voting slots may discourage people from making submissions. I think it could also possibly limit the number of people who vote. It’s possible someone might have wanted to vote for one of the discarded submissions but decided they didn’t want to vote if they couldn’t vote for that particular one. Who knows?

I agree with wissaboo – you need a way to make the voting stand out more so that it’s easier for members to access and remember to vote.

Have you considered having a separate area just for the challenges – to make them stand out more? Also – have you possibly considered making the challenges last longer? That may encourage more people to enter and possibly more people to vote.

I realize the site I run is still quite small and one of our biggest complaints among staff is low activity – so maybe I’m not the best person to be giving advice. But, we have Seasonal/Holiday Writing Challenges – and I always try to make sure when it’s time to vote to put a link in our challenge area to the voting, a message in site news that voting has opened /when it will end, and also a message in our marquee. Basically, members would pretty much have to be purposely trying to avoid it not to see it.

In the almost year since the site started we’ve completed 4 writing challenges and the number of votes we’ve had for those challenges has been from 5 to 8 votes. No, certainly not something to brag about (and I’d love to have more people vote, not to mention reply) but considering we have only 5 to 8 actively posting members usually – it’s not too bad in terms of voting. My point is basically that I think it helps to make the voting stand out more – even if it does seem like overkill.

I also think that it’s a little discouraging to have members posting who they specifically voted for. I’ve always thought it was better to have voting be as anonymous as possible – so members who don’t get any votes or very many votes aren’t discouraged. But maybe that’s just me. :unsure:

Probably more feedback then you wanted. (Although on my site, I’d be thankful to get feedback…)

Hope it helps,
tis*me!

no, it's not more than we wanted. this is all very good feedback. I am puzzled though, that the colored, bold changing text link on the index page isn't enough notice that it's time to vote, or time to enter. Maybe we should make it a flashing link? Also, I've started putting the voting link in my signature when it's time to vote. Has anyone noticed that? Perhaps we need a dancing girl with a sign that does high kicks as she scrolls across the logo.......

I noticed. I also have always noticed the colored, bold changing text link on the index page.

But some people may not. I'm amazed how I can completely change the design of my board and only one person seems to notice (or at least only one person cares enough to say something about it). Or how I clearly post the rules of my site and have a message in my marquee and in the site news to please read the rules and yet people still act like they don't know they should read the rules!

That could work... ^_^ Plus it would just be really cool! :D

I like the dancing girl lol


maybe a symbol in the thread title that remains consistant?

Voting on all entries got my vote :lol:

I'm agreeing with tis*me! on the part it seems hardly anyone sees updates made to the board.
It happened on my board to I spend days enhancing the Theme but hardly anyone noticed it..blah.

And for me personally the* the colored, bold changing text link on the index page*
is good enough for me maybe you should add 'size=10 ' to it.

Agreed.


I noticed that you enhanced the theme :P I just don't make topics about it.

I agree ith this

Seems like the consensus is that we should vote on all entries. We'll start doing that with the graphics challenge with the current challenge in progress right now.

(Still trying to work out that dancing girl thing....maybe I'll put her in my signabure. :D )

Maybe something like a code that pops up a box saying "The voting stage of the Graphics and Coding contests are in place, would you like to vote?" You can click either Yes, or No. And once you have voted/viewed the challenges the code no longer pops up?

Or something similar. But I usually don't miss the voting stages anyway.

OK...so what do y'all think about the glowing VOTE on the index? (it's in my sig right now too). does it make the vote announcement enough more obvious? Does it motivate you to vote? :)

Yes, I meant to comment on that, Helena. I noticed it immediately. It's eye-catching without being annoying. Nice job. :)