Voting


RPG Superstar™ General Discussion


The way you are conducting the voting for RPG Superstar 2013 is confusing and it sucks.


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Well, that's informative. :/

Paizo Employee PostMonster General

Sorry to hear that. It was the best we could come up with to handle the sheer volume of entries we received. Is there anything specific that we could improve?

Scarab Sages

I'm not sure about the OP, but I stopped voting for two specific reasons:

1. None of the entries gave the name of the person.
2. I found the time between seeing the entries and being able to cast a vote too long.

Those were my reasons. Other people may not have a problem with those things, but I'm old and cranky and they bug me. Still, I appreciate the consideration you Paizo Folk showed in allowing us to help judge this first round.

And, good luck to all the participants.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Aberzombie wrote:

I'm not sure about the OP, but I stopped voting for two specific reasons:

1. None of the entries gave the name of the person.
2. I found the time between seeing the entries and being able to cast a vote too long.

Those were my reasons. Other people may not have a problem with those things, but I'm old and cranky and they bug me. Still, I appreciate the consideration you Paizo Folk showed in allowing us to help judge this first round.

And, good luck to all the participants.

We're discussing the timer here, and are open to the possibility of changing it in the future.

The anonymity of entries, though, is fundamental to the contest, and will not be changing. We want votes to go to the best entries, not the most beloved posters.

Star Voter Season 6

You know this is only how the voting is going to work for this round, right?

Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Vic Wertz wrote:
Aberzombie wrote:

I'm not sure about the OP, but I stopped voting for two specific reasons:

1. None of the entries gave the name of the person.
2. I found the time between seeing the entries and being able to cast a vote too long.

Those were my reasons. Other people may not have a problem with those things, but I'm old and cranky and they bug me. Still, I appreciate the consideration you Paizo Folk showed in allowing us to help judge this first round.

And, good luck to all the participants.

We're discussing the timer here, and are open to the possibility of changing it in the future.

The anonymity of entries, though, is fundamental to the contest, and will not be changing. We want votes to go to the best entries, not the most beloved posters.

Vic, a suggestion.

Don,t change the selection code, you need the speed as described earlier but you might get away with flagging entries as seen already once selected and then having a three tier timer

Seen neither before 60 seconds
Seen one before 40 seconds
Seen both before 20 seconds

Just a suggestion, but one that shouldn't increase table count much or physical I/o costs

Liberty's Edge Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7

Aberzombie wrote:

I'm not sure about the OP, but I stopped voting for two specific reasons:

1. None of the entries gave the name of the person.

Why would the name of the submitter be material to the voting process?

RPG Superstar 2014 , Dedicated Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7 aka Belladonna Blue

Sulaco wrote:
Aberzombie wrote:

I'm not sure about the OP, but I stopped voting for two specific reasons:

1. None of the entries gave the name of the person.

Why would the name of the submitter be material to the voting process?

I don't get this either. It's not like the names of the winners won't be revealed, and anonymous submissions allow for a lot of people who ordinarily wouldn't have bothered to enter to give the contest a try (like me).


If an entrant were a remarkably antagonistic poster typically, anonymity assures their entry can be judged on the merits (or lack thereof) of the entry rather than the tone of their posts.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16 , Marathon Voter Season 6 aka Core

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As for the timer, I know why it exists but I can't say I enjoy watching the count down much. This has perhaps restricted my own voting.

Instead of a timer, perhaps a limited number of votes per day.

Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8

1 person marked this as a favorite.

when I can make a judgement quickly enough for the timer maters (ei they are both items I have seen before and already know the relative merits of)... I simply open a nnew window and come here to read the message boards, or check my email, or check facebook, or go to cracked.com, or... you get the picture, reopening the voting window every so often to cast my vote.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 aka motteditor

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Dal Selpher wrote:
If an entrant were a remarkably antagonistic poster typically, anonymity assures their entry can be judged on the merits (or lack thereof) of the entry rather than the tone of their posts.

Or they're not penalized if they simply don't post much (other than the Superstar forum, I mostly hang out in my PBP games, for example).

As for the timer, I have the voting open in one window and the Superstar forum in the other. When I have to wait, I simply switch windows and participate in the message boards.

Scarab Sages

Belladonna Blue wrote:
Sulaco wrote:
Aberzombie wrote:

I'm not sure about the OP, but I stopped voting for two specific reasons:

1. None of the entries gave the name of the person.

Why would the name of the submitter be material to the voting process?
I don't get this either. It's not like the names of the winners won't be revealed, and anonymous submissions allow for a lot of people who ordinarily wouldn't have bothered to enter to give the contest a try (like me).

Sadly, I have the curse of giving extra love and attention to folks I consider friends. But that's just me. Those are usually the only real life names I'd recognize.

Mostly though I guess it just bugs me for completeness sake. I'm weird like that.

RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32 , Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7 aka Standback

Gary Teter wrote:
Sorry to hear that. It was the best we could come up with to handle the sheer volume of entries we received. Is there anything specific that we could improve?

Gary, this has come up in other threads, but since you're reading here:

  • Some gradual trimming of the bottom of the item pool. Once an item has been firmly established as being in the lower percentiles, precise ranking isn't necessary, and we can let people focus on the items that are (A) better, and (B) haven't been placed so solidly in the ranking.
  • Eric Morton's suggested a "Never show me this item again" button, which basically creates a "pool" of a voter's "least-liked items", with arbitrary internal ranking. That way, when a voter comes across an item he solidly rejects, he doesn't need to re-rank it over and over against other items. Again, the ranking of the bottom of the pool is not important, so an arbitrary ranking among these items should (I think) not be disruptive.

RPG Superstar 2013 Top 4 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7

Gary, if it's of any worth, despite our suggestions, I'm finding the voting system fun, insightful and somewhat educational, even if it takes a certain level of dedication and persistence. It's just that we're a tough crowd to please. :)


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Aberzombie wrote:
Belladonna Blue wrote:
Sulaco wrote:
Aberzombie wrote:

I'm not sure about the OP, but I stopped voting for two specific reasons:

1. None of the entries gave the name of the person.

Why would the name of the submitter be material to the voting process?
I don't get this either. It's not like the names of the winners won't be revealed, and anonymous submissions allow for a lot of people who ordinarily wouldn't have bothered to enter to give the contest a try (like me).

Sadly, I have the curse of giving extra love and attention to folks I consider friends. But that's just me. Those are usually the only real life names I'd recognize.

Mostly though I guess it just bugs me for completeness sake. I'm weird like that.

At the point that names, whether forum or RL, are provided with entries, this stops being a "find a good designer" contest and becomes a popularity contest.

It's not really a question of "completeness," as the first round of RPG Superstar has always been anonymous, even when it was Sean or Neil or Clark or whoever judging it; they never knew who had submitted which item, as they're not immune to bias creeping in when they see a favorite or non-favorite poster's name attached to an item either. They were always just as surprised as everyone else to see who designed the advancing items (and, sometimes, to see that they had panned an item from a past advancer they had championed and expected to do very well).


Aberzombie wrote:
Sadly, I have the curse of giving extra love and attention to folks I consider friends. But that's just me. Those are usually the only real life names I'd recognize.

And some 94.99% of people on the world. 0.01% are capable of being honestly objective. The remaining 5% have no friends they could give extra love or attention.

Scarab Sages

Drejk wrote:
Aberzombie wrote:
Sadly, I have the curse of giving extra love and attention to folks I consider friends. But that's just me. Those are usually the only real life names I'd recognize.
And some 94.99% of people on the world. 0.01% are capable of being honestly objective. The remaining 5% have no friends they could give extra love or attention.

Too true. Being objective is very difficult.

Star Voter Season 6

Vic Wertz wrote:
The anonymity of entries, though, is fundamental to the contest, and will not be changing. We want votes to go to the best entries, not the most beloved posters.

Thanks for that. Not to be a blank about it, but I appreciate the anonymity of the process if not the whole process itself (1 week means drop the bottom 33% but I digress :) ). If I make it on my merits as a creator... sweet! If I make it because I've been an active participant on the message boards for years... not sweet.

By the way, I'm the silent observer type until I'm sitting here casting votes for and against people. Most of you don't have a clue who I am. Bwahahahaha *cough cough* bwaha. *cough cough*... Okay. I'm giving up the evil laugh now.

Star Voter Season 6

Drejk wrote:
Aberzombie wrote:
And some 94.99% of people on the world. 0.01% are capable of being honestly objective. The remaining 5% have no friends they could give extra love or attention.

95.457% of statistics are made up anyway... I'm assuming that was a joke by my passive aggressive identity.

Scarab Sages

CouncilofFools wrote:
If I make it because I've been an active participant on the message boards for years... not sweet.

I'd like to think no one has ever made it for those reasons, especially once the contest moves beyond the first few rounds. The top guys every year always prove to be a talented bunch.

Besides, just being around here for a long time doesn't mean people won't see you in a favorable light. Long or short time, it always depends on how you post.

For example, I'm so lovable and cuddly. Then there's that Sebastian fellow.....

Owner - House of Books and Games LLC , Marathon Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7

And then there's those of us that, perhaps, live up to our name. Though hopefully not our avatar :)

Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8

As a casual voter (a few votes at a time, a few times a day- as I have a break, etc.) I think the process is very reasonable.


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Considering the OP has only this one post to her name, it's possible she wanted to directly vote for a specific item on behalf of a friend.

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