Ambrosia Software Web Board: Chronicle of the month rules - Ambrosia Software Web Board

Now that we've seen how things worked the first month, I'd like to propose these official rules for chronicle of the month voting. I encourage everyone who reads these rules to offer input on them.

All chronicles posted(Not submitted, mind you) during a given month are eligible to receive the honor of being named Chronicle of the Month for that month. All members of the web board are entitled to one and only one vote. Individuals with more than one account are still only allowed one vote. All authors of chronicles are assumed to vote for their own chronicle, unless they unambiguously specify otherwise. If an author submits multiple chronicles, the author is assumed to vote for the chronicle which receives the most votes from other members. After one week of voting, the chronicle that has gotten the most votes is named Chronicle of the Month.

In the event that votes are tied after one week of voting, one additional member is allowed to vote. This voter must vote for one of the chronicles that is tied. After this vote is cast, the winner is decided.

Any voting member may call for a runoff vote to be held any time before the winner is announced. In a runoff, the voting is extended one additional week. During the runoff week, only the top two ranked chronicles are eligible for consideration. All members who had voted for chronicles that are no longer eligible are allowed and encouraged to change their votes to one of the eligible chronicles. Calling for a runoff is frowned upon if it would be unlikely to overturn the results of the first week's voting.

------------------
Slayer's guide to Cythera:
[url="http://"http://www.macclassics.com/cythera/cythera.htm"]http://www.macclassi...era/cythera.htm[/url]

I don't think we need the runoff vote, though maybe I am just not seeing the reason for it.
Also, I think there should be a provision for the same member not winning more then twice a year. Otherwise cache will be winning every month (If everyone evaluates the chron on actual merit), as his writing outclasses mine by about 40% and Kat's by about 15%.
Why not make it 'You can't win twice in a row'?
Becasue then you'll have a pattern:
cache
kat
cache
kat
ect...

Make it 'you can only win every two months', then:
cache
kat
bryce
cache
kat
bryce
ect...

Months needs to be at least one greater than the number of consistantly skilled writers. I propose 'you can only win once every six months'

------------------
"Why do these candles say T-N-T?" - (famous last words 104)
     
Where do you want to [url="http://"http://www.macclassics.com/cythera/tricks/rJade.htm"]teleport[/url] today?
  

Then again, an example of a problem here: what if in a given month only cache, Kat, and Bryce submit chronicles? This would normally be fine, except that cache won three months ago, kat won two months ago, and Bryce won last month. Who wins this month?

Seeing as how the members vote for the chronicle of the month, if we all get tired of seeing cache's name every two (or three) months, we'll probably stop voting for him.

------------------
"I hate that! Your answers are always short, precise, and utterly useless!"
"Yes."

You forgot Heidel and Rogan, Bryce - if they ever come out of chronicle-hibernation again.

Actually, at my recent posting rate, I'm only getting one in every 2 to 3 months; that might alter your sequencing a bit. Mind you, I'm also trying not to write such lengthy pieces, so the rate might improve.

------------------
The e-mail of the specious is deadlier than their mail

Quote

This is easiest to understand with an example. Let's suppose that there are three major contenders for Chronicle of the month, call them A, B, and C. A has had 6 votes, B 5 votes, and C 4 votes. All the people who voted for C think that B is better than A, so in the runoff, B would win instead of A because most people think that B is better. Without the runoff A would win, even though the majority of voters don't like it. Runoffs should be fairly rare.

Quote

I think we should wait to see how things actually turn out before instituting this rule. If, in fact, it turns out that the same person wins month after month, we can change things around.

------------------
Slayer's guide to Cythera:
[url="http://"http://www.macclassics.com/cythera/cythera.htm"]http://www.macclassi...era/cythera.htm[/url]

These will be the official rules, unless someone has something else to say.

------------------
Slayer's guide to Cythera:
[url="http://"http://www.macclassics.com/cythera/cythera.htm"]http://www.macclassi...era/cythera.htm[/url]

Hm, maybe we should insitute [url="http://"http://electionmethods.org/Condorcet.htm"]Condorcet voting[/url]...

------------------
Bronze: the other gold metal.   | |   And so the space toaster hardened the outer layers of the doughy, ooey-gooey ancient Earth...
Bacchus Publishing: [url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evo&category=guides&display=date&file=ChroniclesByJake101.sit.hqx"]Chronicles by Jake101: the unposted chapters[/url].

While Condorcet voting has obvious advantages, I believe a number of factors make it unsuitable for our board. For one thing, with such a small number of chronicles(and, indeed voters) per month, it wouldn't really be necessary, especially with the option for the runoff. The logistics of Condorcet voting would seem to be unnecessarily complex for such an informal voting process. One of the most serious objections, in my opinion, is that Condorcet voting could lead to hard feelings on the part of the authors("We're sorry CandidateX, but everyone agreed that your chronicle was the worst!"). That, I believe, would have the potential to discourage chronicle submissions rather than encourage them, as was intended by the whole "chronicle of the month" idea.

------------------
Slayer's guide to Cythera:
[url="http://"http://www.macclassics.com/cythera/cythera.htm"]http://www.macclassi...era/cythera.htm[/url]

I dont get it. Is this an independant story page, or is this whenever you post in a team story? Posted but not submitted? Clearify this and I might have a chance.

------------------

We were the first political party to advocate renaming the Washington Monument the Big Stone U.S. Penis and putting big, orange foam testicles at the bottom.

What it means is that these are the rules for the chronicle of the month, as in the Cythera Chronicles board. These are the rules for a chronicle posted within a given month entered in the contest.

------------------
Ash nazg durbatulûk,
Ash nazg gimbatul,
Ash nazg thrakatulûk,
Agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.

[This message has been edited by Mr. Somebody (edited 08-16-2002).]

Every week, a chronicle is posted on [url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number=52&SUBMIT=Go"]this[/url] page. You can submit chronicles by clicking the "Submit Article" link that is prominently displayed near the top of that page. Each week I choose among the chronicles received, usually based on the order they arrived. If the same person submits multiple chronicles in quick succession, I try not to release them back-to-back(people are encouraged to submit multiple chronicles, though). If you're quick, DF, I'd say that you'd have a decent chance of winning this month.

It is expected that chronicles are noticeably longer than ordinary TS posts. Authors are also encouraged to carefully proofread their chronicles before submission.*Glares at Bryce* Although most chronicles are parts of multi-chapter stories, this need not always be the case. One-shot stories are perfectly welcome. Poetry has also been accepted in the past, as well as other non-story chronicles. Many chronicles are rewarded with a karma point, as they typically represent a good deal of time, effort, and thought on the part of the author. I hope this clears things up for you, DF.

------------------
Slayer's guide to Cythera:
[url="http://"http://www.macclassics.com/cythera/cythera.htm"]http://www.macclassi...era/cythera.htm[/url]

It has been recently suggested that we should award an "Honorable Mention." This would be awarded at the moderator's discretion, or in the case that there is a significant call for such a mention among the voting members. Initial response to this idea has proven highly favorable, so I have decided to retroactively implement this rule. Chronicles made ineligible for first place by potential future rules(see Bryce's post), would still be eligible for an honorable mention.

Congratulations to Katerei for earning an Honorable Mention for the month of July, for her chronicle [url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/newsdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number=52&forum=*Cythera+Chronicles&DaysPrune=25&article=000091&startpoint="]The Shadow Prophecies, Chapter 4[/url]!

------------------
Slayer's guide to Cythera:
[url="http://"http://www.macclassics.com/cythera/cythera.htm"]http://www.macclassi...era/cythera.htm[/url]

I'd just like to say that it's nice to see that the Chronicle of the Month system hasn't completely died out on these boards. When I introduced in on the Coldstone boards I had sufficient chronicles in the queue to make it worthwhile, but recently most of my material has dried up, making the competition more or less irrelevant.

Also, since the Coldstone Chronicles were not originally rewarded with karma, I made karma the 'reward' for the monthly competition winner.... as well as a perk for people with Honourable Mentions. (Two were worth a karma point).

Well anyway, I wish your competition the best of luck here. I might bring mine back on the odd occasion when I have sufficient material (I'd like to anyway) but until then I wish you guys all the best.

And incidentally, if you'd like the write outside the Cythera Square, so to speak, there's a rather nice location for it [url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number=49"]here[/url].


-Andiyar

------------------
"Any good that I may do here, let me do now, for I may not pass this way again"

The official rules are now on my site, linked at the bottom of the winners [age.

[url="http://"http://www.macclassics.com/cythera/cotmrule.htm"]http://www.macclassi...ra/cotmrule.htm[/url]

------------------
Slayer's guide to Cythera:
[url="http://"http://www.macclassics.com/cythera/cythera.htm"]http://www.macclassi...era/cythera.htm[/url]

I am relatively new here and have no particular interest in the Chronicles per se but do have some interest in the voting ideas.

Coming from a country that has preferential voting I would sugest that its really quite straightforward (I haven't digested the Condorcet fully I think its very similar to what we use in Australia). It has also been called "instant runoff" which relieves people of the need for a further delay in finding out the result. These preferential methods are usually distinguished from first past the post voting systems similar to the one you have proposed (and implemented given the tardiness of my contribution here).

Each type has its problems but I like the preferential system. So, a summary for you:
1. Each vote is a ranking of preferences from 1 to n (you don't need to enforce that people completely rank things but when people don't have lower preferences you need to remove their vote completely from the calculations if their candidate is eliminated)
2. If one person has the majority of the first preference vote (people who numbered their contribution 1) in the first round they win and no further rounds are necessary.
3. If no one has more than 50% of the vote the person with the fewest votes is eliminated and their preferences are distributed. That is, you look at who the people prefered 2nd of those that voted for the eliminated candidate. These second preference votes are given to the remaining candidates.
4. If one person now has more than 50% of the vote they are declared the winner.
5. Repeat this process until someone wins.

An example:
Suppose there are 3 candidates and the votes are (in order):
A B C; A C B; B C A; B C A; C B A

A and B have 2 first preference votes and C has 1. Noone has a majority so the person with the fewest votes is eliminated ©. His preferences are distributed to B (as the persons second preference was for B over C). Now B has 3 votes and A has 2 so B wins.

This is an instant runoff because we know that if a runoff were run the people who voted for A and B would not change their vote while the person who voted for C would vote for B.

Anyway, for your consideration.

------------------
Its amazing how "tsk, tsik, nik" can mean anything from "There's a bomb in the bus, get help!" to "I'm hungry, feed me"
In case of ambiguity about anything I say - choose the nicest interpretation.

In terms of voting, I wasn't really serious when I suggested Condorcet... it's a very complex method and we're a very little board. :¬)

The voting site I linked to dislikes IRF highly, I don't quite remember why... it seems reasonable to me. However, I think simple plurality voting would be best for the board, and that's what's been decided.

------------------
Bronze: the other gold metal.   | |   And so the space toaster hardened the outer layers of the doughy, ooey-gooey ancient Earth...
Bacchus Publishing: [url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evo&category=guides&display=date&file=ChroniclesByJake101.sit.hqx"]Chronicles by Jake101: the unposted chapters[/url].

Quote

*glares at proofreader*

------------------
In general, what exactly makes a game good isn't that easily
quantified - perhaps the absense of things that make it bad? - Words of Wisdom from Glenn Andreas
     
Where do you want to [url="http://"http://www.macclassics.com/cythera/tricks/rJade.htm"]teleport[/url] today?