Vote Thread for Ack's Omake Corner

[mouse]

[X] Recoil - 6
[X] Hostage Situation - 5
[ ] One More Trigger

[ ] Afraid of the Dark
[ ] Another Way
[ ] Earning Her Stripes
[ ] Snek is a Good Boy
[ ] Yet Another Way

User Errors: None (woo!), though @mouse - you had One More Trigger in your vote list with no number attached, so I gave it 4 vote points.

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Please remove those points, it was very intentionally left without a vote indicator or number.

 

[Mr_Rose]

[X] Reality Intrudes - 6
[X] Wyvern - 5
[X] Recoil - 4
[X] War Games - 3
[X] Alea Iacta Est - 2

 

[Neko Tamo]

[X] Slippery Slope - 6

[ ] MirrorVerse
[ ] Entanglement
[ ] Prodigal Daughter
[ ] Snek is a Good Boy
[ ] Earning Her Stripes
[ ] Identity Theft

 

[Ack]

[X] Recoil - 6
[X] Hostage Situation - 5
[ ] One More Trigger

[ ] Afraid of the Dark
[ ] Another Way
[ ] Earning Her Stripes
[ ] Snek is a Good Boy
[ ] Yet Another Way


Please remove those points, it was very intentionally left without a vote indicator or number.

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Will do. 4 points going off again.

However, this has reminded me of a minor issue that's been bugging me for quite some time. Not enough to speak out about, until now.

But now I'm going to say something.

The issue is that of single-vote and partial-vote posts.

Instead of putting the full six votes in and maybe giving an obscure story a chance to jump into the limelight more quickly, more than a few people on this board are going, "No, I just want those stories," or even "I just want this story."

Which is fair. You've only got an interest in one or two (or three) stories. That's fine.

Not gonna stop you from voting that way.

However.

I am considering changing the way votes go in.

The potential change (which will not be implemented until I've heard from everyone who wants to weigh in on this subject) goes like this:

The smallest vote you can cast for any story is 1 point.

You can still cast up to 6 votes, certainly. Largest vote you can cast for any given story is 6 points; that's not changing.

BUT: when you're putting your votes in, you will be starting at 1 for the story that's lowest on your priority list, that you still want to vote for. 2 for the next highest, and so forth.

If you want to vote for one story, your vote will be 1 point. Vote for three stories, you'll get 1, 2, and 3 vote points.

Now, a good chunk of voters (possibly most of you) will not have to worry about changing. You still put in 6 votes, and good for you.

But those of you who've been taking advantage of the loophole and jamming your votes in for just your favourite story and none for all the others ... your vote will count for less if you keep voting the same way. Throw more votes into the stories, and your favourite tales will still get the full 6 points. Choose not to ... and they won't.

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So, that's the change I'm considering.

To perhaps offset this, for those who just don't like the current selection, I'm also considering dropping a chunk of my on-hiatus stories back into the mix. These are ones that I started but have been sidelined for one reason or another. Please indicate preferences.

This list includes:

Conflict (Early days. Fortuna managed to gank Eden properly, with pre-Doctor-Mother's assistance, and has given her the first vial, turning her into better!Eidolon.)
Earning Her Stripes (Emma, Madison and Sophia force-fed Taylor the Siberian vial. Now Monochrome is leading the Real Thing and Sophia's gone. [Was being commissioned, isn't anymore.])
Entanglement (There are two Taylor Heberts. One is in Earth Bet. The other is in a version of our Earth. They keep swapping ...)
Enter the Nemesis ([NOT related to the Nemesis story with Bumblebee.] Follows the story of a victim of the Nemesis program. All OCs.)
Journey Continues (A follow-up on Advent of a Hero. An adult Sophia Hess, life-partners with Breaker, aka Taylor Hebert, has just found a place that gives her access to the multiverse, where she can find out what's been happening to all the alternate versions of herself.)
Junior Hero (Non-Taylor-Hebert based. An OC with teleport Tinker abilities has gotten himself mixed up in teenage romance problems.)
MirrorVerse (Taylor Hebert finds herself climbing into an alternate Earth Bet that's mirror-imaged, both in reality and with the people.)
Prodigal Daughter (Taylor Hebert is Jack Slash's daughter. She's now inflicting herself on Brockton Bay as Rictus.)
Snek is a Good Boy (Snek is a giant goofy snake that has eaten the Endbringers. Also, there are cute little dragons. [Was being commissioned, isn't anymore.])

So yeah, that's what's on my mind.

Discussion is not only a good idea, it's positively invited.

The floor is open.

 

[Zackarix]

To perhaps offset this, for those who just don't like the current selection, I'm also considering dropping a chunk of my on-hiatus stories back into the mix. These are ones that I started but have been sidelined for one reason or another. Please indicate preferences.

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I fully support this. The voting list is much shorter than it was when the less popular stories were voted off, so it would be great to see them back on again.

And if I might make a suggestion, if you're at all interested would you consider reworking Bait & Switch into a SFW story? The Worm fandom is very lacking in Rule 63.

 

[Ack]

I fully support this. The voting list is much shorter than it was when the less popular stories were voted off, so it would be great to see them back on again.

And if I might make a suggestion, if you're at all interested would you consider reworking Bait & Switch into a SFW story? The Worm fandom is very lacking in Rule 63.

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It's a possibility. Nothing guaranteed. I'd have to dig up my old notes on it, and probably start fresh. But I have a TON of old stories just hanging about, as you can see.

 

[anwan7]

I would also like to see some of the other stories: Earning Her Stripes, Entanglement, Journey Continues, Prodigal Daughter and espically Sneck is a Good Boy. Of course, only a few of them (or less) would be added. Right now I'm indifferent to the voting change,

 

[Zed2]

[X] Slippery Slope - 6

Instead of putting the full six votes in and maybe giving an obscure story a chance to jump into the limelight more quickly, more than a few people on this board are going, "No, I just want those stories," or even "I just want this story."

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I have voted in the above way every round for several years.

Firstly I would like to say that I enjoy all of the stories on the current voting list more or less equally (except War Games as I know nothing about the crossover universe) and I also enjoy all the other stories (except for Junior Hero as I am not interested in OCs).

I could assign them a ranking if you held a gun to my head, however the reason I have voted in this way is precisely because SS is the "obscure story".

My gut feeling is that to get it to jump into the limelight more quickly, it is actually better to spend 6 points on SS only, rather than spending 21 points and being forced to use 15 of those points to boost other stories closer to their next win.

Maybe I have misinterpreted how the voting system works mathematically. If so I would like to understand why my thinking is wrong.

Given that you are manually adding up the votes anyway, there is no reason that voters must allocate a fixed number of points in a ranked order. For example, a new system could give every voter X points to divide up how they wish instead? If you do not want people to only vote for one story, you can specify a maximum points per round that can go to one story.

If the system was changed to give 21 votes for choosing 6 stories, but only 1 vote if you choose 1 story, I probably will not participate in the voting any more *unless* all or almost all of the other stories are added to the voting list. I will still read them of course - if I stop participating my decision is effectively to accept whatever everyone else chooses.

 

[Prince Charon]

Honestly, I'm usually posting while tired (because it's either 'post while tired' or 'do not post'), and don't often have the energy or focus to put into assigning point values to more than one or two fics. If this change were implemented, I might as well not bother voting at all.

 

[Vene]

[X] Wyvern - 6
[X] Hostage Situation- 5
[X] Recoil - 4
[X] One More Trigger- 3

 

[Ack]

[X] Slippery Slope - 6



I have voted in the above way every round for several years.

Firstly I would like to say that I enjoy all of the stories on the current voting list more or less equally (except War Games as I know nothing about the crossover universe) and I also enjoy all the other stories (except for Junior Hero as I am not interested in OCs).

I could assign them a ranking if you held a gun to my head, however the reason I have voted in this way is precisely because SS is the "obscure story".

My gut feeling is that to get it to jump into the limelight more quickly, it is actually better to spend 6 points on SS only, rather than spending 21 points and being forced to use 15 of those points to boost other stories closer to their next win.

Maybe I have misinterpreted how the voting system works mathematically. If so I would like to understand why my thinking is wrong.

Given that you are manually adding up the votes anyway, there is no reason that voters must allocate a fixed number of points in a ranked order. For example, a new system could give every voter X points to divide up how they wish instead? If you do not want people to only vote for one story, you can specify a maximum points per round that can go to one story.

If the system was changed to give 21 votes for choosing 6 stories, but only 1 vote if you choose 1 story, I probably will not participate in the voting any more *unless* all or almost all of the other stories are added to the voting list. I will still read them of course - if I stop participating my decision is effectively to accept whatever everyone else chooses.

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The idea is that if I do make the change, I will also be dropping all the listed stories back into the voting round. (And maybe even if I don't, if enough people show interest in having that happen anyway.) The 'downside' of this being that more of the 'outside' stories may get votes, and thus your personal favorites might lag a little.

The problem with the current situation is that with some people, it tends to polarise their choices, so you get a bunch of people all throwing one 6-point vote into their personal favourite, and shunning the rest.

However, I hope I've proven that I will finish stories, and I do finish stories. So if you keep voting, and stories keep coming up on the voting round, I will write chapters for them until they are done.

All that said: even if I do bring this change in, I'm not going to do it without listening to what everyone who wants to have a say, has had a say. So maybe another voting round or so.

@Zackarix ,@anwan7 , @Prince Charon , @Zed2
EDIT: Here's an idea that's just occurred to me. Would it sweeten the pot if I wrote up a chapter for the top two stories in the voting round, instead of the top one?

 

[Zackarix]

I'd support it, but I'm not sure how much it would change things.

If you're updating the top two stories, the voting rounds would presumably last twice as long. And the runner-up would have presumably won the next round anyway.

Functionally, it's just combining two rounds into one.

 

[Ack]

I'd support it, but I'm not sure how much it would change things.

If you're updating the top two stories, the voting rounds would presumably last twice as long. And the runner-up would have presumably won the next round anyway.

Functionally, it's just combining two rounds into one.

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No, I'd still do it month by month.

 

[Zackarix]

No, I'd still do it month by month.

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So it would basically be a return to bimonthly updates for this thread?

That would sweeten the pot a great deal.

 

[Ack]

So it would basically be a return to bimonthly updates for this thread?

That would sweeten the pot a great deal.

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Specifically, instead of having a vote every two weeks, I'd collect the votes every month and post up the top two.

If it turned out I couldn't keep up the pace, I'd walk it all back, including the voting procedure changes. Got to keep things fair.

 

[mouse]

Honestly, I don't understand the problem that this change is intended to resolve? People who only want to see one story are already waiting 6+ months (at the absolute minimum) before getting something they want to read, vs those who like a greater variety getting at least *something* they want much more frequently.

I'm with Prince Charon on this one. If only liking 2-3 stories means my votes for things I actually want to see only count half as much (or less) as someone who can fill out a full set, I probably wouldn't bother.

If your issue is with people not spreading their vote out, why not just give every vote a value of 1 (and people can still vote for up to 6 things)? In comparison to the proposal, this doesn't specifically devalue the 'top' vote(s) of someone with fewer preferences; instead they only lose out on spreading things (which is a sacrifice already being intentionally made in the current system).

 

[Ack]

Honestly, I don't understand the problem that this change is intended to resolve? People who only want to see one story are already waiting 6+ months (at the absolute minimum) before getting something they want to read, vs those who like a greater variety getting at least *something* they want much more frequently.

I'm with Prince Charon on this one. If only liking 2-3 stories means my votes for things I actually want to see only count half as much (or less) as someone who can fill out a full set, I probably wouldn't bother.

If your issue is with people not spreading their vote out, why not just give every vote a value of 1 (and people can still vote for up to 6 things)? In comparison to the proposal, this doesn't specifically devalue the 'top' vote(s) of someone with fewer preferences; instead they only lose out on spreading things (which is a sacrifice already being intentionally made in the current system).

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Would it change your stance on this if I brought in the extra stories and bumped it to the top two chapters per month instead of the top one?

Two chapters per month means less chance of a given story being bypassed repeatedly as other stories overtake it with votes (I swear, I saw one story lose out four times in a row).

 

[Necrovore]

I don't vote here often, I like enough of them that I am generally content with anything winning, but I am fairly sure I have seen a few situations where those who only voted for less then 6 did so because the others they wanted were not available for voting. I would suggest adding the other stories back into the voting pool for a few rounds and see how things change in the voting spread then revisiting the topic if it is still an issue.

 

[HearthBorn]

To be honest, I'm not seeing the issue with focused votes, single or partial. Yes, it does bump up the vote effectiveness on specific stores for of a minority of participants. But seeing Recoil chapters every five votes annoys the heck out of me. I'd love to see some sort of 'cooling off' period for recent chapter stories. And with a gaggle of new options, our votes on low end items become even less focused.

But at the end of the day, it's your stories you're willing to give to us, and whatever you're willing to give, is greatly appreciated.