Besides, I think we have the same people being voted for because their style and story appeals more to some, in a small community of voters. The more newbies arrive, the more tastes we'll have, the fairer the judgement. It's a matter of making ourselves bigger, not more restricted!
so totally this! we're inclusive around here, not exclusive.
personally, this is what i think about the options here:
1)
we leave it the same -- voting feels sort of self-correcting with multiple winners. i don't know for a fact, of course, but i would guess that voters are like "oh, they've already won a couple months now so, even tho i would totally vote for them, i'm going to vote for other people."
i can't predict the future, but i would hazard a guess that it'll be a while before tebakutis wins another. just like jmack and rukaio haven't won another.
but, from a voter standpoint, it sure would be nice if there was no mental overhead to voting for stories based on fairness. (because we LOVE all our writers! not just the 'usual suspects' and want to see the succeed!) we could just pick the ones we liked.
2)
we don't let the winners participate -- this totally disincentivizes our best writers to participate or write quality stories. if they aren't on the voting page, their stories won't be in the official annals of the contest, they might as well just post them to the critiques section of the site.
or, just not write them at all.
which, of course, will kill entry inertia which will hamper the contest over time -- especially if you acknowledge that we're basically saying, at two months
penalty, "each contest will have two fewer entrants".
i predict eventually dwindling to zero entries.
also, what if we try it, and it turns out we hate it? what happens to the stories we'll have missed out on? what if a winner would have gone two or three in a row, but doesn't because
rules?
3)
we do everything anonymously -- sure, there are a few writers that have a strong, consistent voice and are pretty recognizable, but that's part of the fun. i love reading the "no authors" version of the ebooks BECAUSE i like to guess at who wrote which. (even tho my success rate is probably a miserable 1-in-5)
to me, this is the most interesting one. especially now that we have the mechanism (the anonymous user) to support it. tho, selfishly speaking, it'd mess up my automated ebook thing by making everything anonymous and making me want to re-generate the books with the correct names.
also, it's interesting because it's pretty easy to test in isolation -- just for a month -- unlike the other options, which take a few months to see how they shake out.
and, a BONUS THOUGHT!
4)
eligible for voting, just not winning -- so, what if we kept all the entries, everyone could vote for whatever they wanted, but we just ignore the previous month's winner if they're in the first spot?
this has a couple effects: a) it allows the top-vote-getter
inner kudos even if they don't
technically get the win and b) doesn't artificially inflate "down ballot" stories because our voting biases typically take a vote away from a popular writer and give it to a story we don't
technically like more.
BONUS THOUGHT TWO!!
5)
incentivizing the rest of the board to vote -- what if we offered coins to voters? what if we bumped the member's post count for voting? what if, for every contest you voted in, you were entered in a drawing for a book to be given away once a quarter?
even crazier? what if all of that happened only if you picked the winner?
game theory insanity!
anyway . . .
for me? none of the above really matters. i look at the contest differently than lots of our writers, i'd bet. i like the fun, the camaraderie, and especially the practice. looking back over the past 18 months (the time it's been since i decided i was going to give this writer thing a legit try) and my writing has improved
dramatically. i've learned so very much and it's been almost exclusively due to the writing contest, the writing groups, and the rest of you writerly people.
however, this is my favorite place on the internet ever -- and i've been on the internet since 1992, back before the www and we were all about gopher and bbs -- so, i don't want any permanent changes messing things up permanently. (tho, i honestly don't see that happening)
that being said, i
love trying new things. let's try something new and fun! let's see what happens!
this could be
exciting!
edit: bonus thought three! what if we enabled the facebook group to vote in the contest?
