Monthly Fanfiction Challenge #2 - "The Safe House" - July 2009 - Winner: lexie

[Julie]

Seems like the anonymous poll is working nicely, looks like more people have voted this time around

Then comes the question, should the author of the story be able to give their one vote to themselves? Because they technically can now, because the poll is anonymous... Now, I can see who's voted what, but that's because I'm the admin.

IF the author has voted for their own story, should that one vote be removed?

Most probably wouldn't vote for themselves, but some might

[Ultra]

I don't suppose it really matters if the author votes from themselves. Personally, I couldn't do it because I personally would feel I'd cheated the system, but I suppose if you genuinely think your fic is better than everyone elses you could vote for it and it wouldn't really matter. Thats just my opinion

[Booksketeer]

Well, I don't think it shouldn't be allowed, but I'd consider it kinda tacky for someone to vote for their own story, just because the author is bound to be a little biased- that's my opinion. On another note- I think everyone did a great job this time around! I'm really impressed with the quality of the stories submitted, even though there wern't as many submissions as last time. Lovely job, guys!

[kimbo]

why wouldn't one vote for their own story? that's like running for president and then not voting for yourself. All of the stories are great, but i see nothing wrong with voting for yourself.

[westwingwolf]

I think the vote should count regardless of whatever the person is thinking when they vote, we don't judge other voters on why they voted for what they voted for so why should we judge an author who voted for their own story.

[ChloeLovesLex]

While I don't believe I would ever vote for my own fic I certainly don't see a problem with an author voting for their own fiction. Nothing wrong with a little shameless self promotion.

[lexie]

To make things fairer next time, I think a rule should be included before launching the voting not to allow those who have submitted a story to vote. Since this time nothing was said from the beginning, I believe they should be allowed to vote for whichever fic they wanted or even to abstain themselves altogether if they chose to do so.

[westwingwolf]

To make things fairer next time, I think a rule should be included before launching the voting not to allow those who have submitted a story to vote. Since this time nothing was said from the beginning, I believe they should be allowed to vote for whichever fic they wanted or even to abstain themselves altogether if they chose to do so.

Do you mean that next time submitting authors don't vote at all because I don't think that's fair. I like reading the other authors stories and I want to show my support in which fic I thought deserved a vote (even if the author may never know I voted for them.) I don't want to be left out of the voting process just because I also chose to contribute.

So you choose to vote for your own fic, if someone doesn't think that's fair, there are other ways to rig voting by asking friends to vote for your fic, and there is no way to determine what's going through a person's mind when they vote (save for asking and that doesn't guarantee an honest answer), so then we'll never honestly know the fairness of the win, we just have to trust that everyone is voting for the fic they truly believe deserves to win. It's that or do away with the Challenge all together and no one wants that.

The point of the anonymous voting was to encourage people to vote if for whatever reason they didn't want to out their choice and we have to accept that the voters know what they want and accept the outcome. We can't ask people to explain their choices to ensure some sense of honesty because it defeats the purpose of the anonymous vote.

[lexie]

Do you mean that next time submitting authors don't vote at all because I don't think that's fair.

Well, it was a suggestion. It´s common practice in contests for participants not to be allowed to vote.

I like reading the other authors stories and I want to show my support in which fic I thought deserved a vote (even if the author may never know I voted for them.) I don't want to be left out of the voting process just because I also chose to contribute.

I´d much rather have the right to vote even when participating than not, I agree. Last time I contributed a fic (so have I this second time around) and, even though the vote wasn´t anonymous and I could have very well refrained from casting a vote, I DID vote for the two stories other than mine which I enjoyed.

So you choose to vote for your own fic, if someone doesn't think that's fair, there are other ways to rig voting by asking friends to vote for your fic, and there is no way to determine what's going through a person's mind when they vote (save for asking), so then we'll never honestly know the fairness of the win, we just have to trust that everyone is voting for the fic they truly believe deserves to win. It's that or do away with the Challenge all together and no one wants that.

We all know that there are ways to cheat even in the best- organised event in the world and here we´re just dealing with an amateur just-for-fun contest.So... trust in what others will do is the only thing we have, yes.

The point of the anonymous voting was to encourage people to vote if for whatever reason they didn't want to out their choice and we have to accept that the voters know what they want and accept the outcome. We can't ask people to explain their choices to ensure some sense of honesty because it defeats the purpose of the anonymous vote.

I myself suggested the anonymous voting and the poll, Mindy, so I can´t very well say I´m against it, can I? Because I´m certainly not. I believe it has boosted participation amongst voters.

Who´s said anything about asking anyone to explain their choice? So far those who have voted this time have decided whether to make their choice overt, to just leave feedback on all fics like you did, to abstain or simply to tick their choice on the poll.

[Julie]

Seems like most find it OK that an author can vote for their own story if they feel like it, so we'll keep it that way - An author CAN vote for their own story if they want to.

Also, authors who have sent in a submission may participate in the voting.

Thanks for a good discussion on the topic you guys!