Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
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[2017] Voting for 1st Mini-Poll [Closed]
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Can we vote for our own suggestion? Maybe that's a dumb question but I wasn't here last year for the voting.
Mimmi, you vote for your top 4 (the ones you like best) and bottom 4 (the ones you dislike the most). You're free to vote for whatever you want, choosing your own suggestion or not :)Suggestion for everyone: keep track of your choices in a file, after 1 week usually we didn't really remember all our votes.
Good 1st batch, I'd a hard time choosing my top 4 as I'm interested in more than 4 of them. I tried to select some variety, but I'll be fine with half the list. For the bottom 4 it was easier as several seemed too complicated to fill.
Same here Zaz. My bottom four were much easier to choose than my top. Great suggestions though! I'll be happy no matter what wins, as sometimes I've found some favourite books through my least favourite challenge topics.
Debra wrote: "Love the new survey format!"I thought the same! It's easier to answer than the one of last year :)
What a great batch of suggestions, I noted down the ones I want so see again in a poll :)
Some very interesting suggestions, and it was actually a very tough choice. I may have missed it among the threads, but what exactly is the purpose of voting for a bottom 4? Does it affect the final list in some way?
Mod
Laura wrote: "Rachel, there is frequently a close call between #4 and #5. So if there is a vote for the bottom then I can look at that in order to take into account what people don't like. If 20 people don't lik..."That's a good way of doing it, I think! Makes it easier for yourself and also makes it fairer.
I agree, we had a great start with this list! It was tough to pick a top 4.
Francesca wrote: "I agree, we had a great start with this list! It was tough to pick a top 4."I had a tough time too! I kind of had a top 6, lol
I'm eager to see the results of this poll, my bottom four were ones I hated, just absolutely hated and were easy to pick. It would be interesting to see if other people loved those.But of the rest, there were a lot of good ones and picking the Top 4 was much harder.
I agree, picking my bottom 4 was easier than picking my top 4! There were 4 I knew I disliked but the others were tough to pick which ones I liked the most.
I agree with everyone else, there were 4 that I disliked a lot, and about 5 I really liked.Just reminder for everyone voting, especially people who didn't partake last year; if there is a topic you really like that doesn't end up getting chosen in this poll, you can always resubmit it in a future poll, even if it wasn't you who oiginally posted it. It very well may be a topic that most other people liked but was just beaten out by 4 other really good choices. Each poll is very isolated from the others so just because a topic doesn't get chosen in one vote doesn't mean it won't get chosen in a different one
Laura wrote: "Rachel, there is frequently a close call between #4 and #5. So if there is a vote for the bottom then I can look at that in order to take into account what people don't like. If 20 people don't lik..."It makes sense. Actually, I was going to ask if there was some kind of +/- system the the voting, where a suggestion earns 1 point for getting in the top 4, and loses one each time it in the bottom 4. Then the 4 that receive the highest overall score make the final list.
Also, as a suggestion for the future -- is there a way we could combine similar suggestions into a single topic? Instead of just taking the first 20 that come in, we would then take the first 20 unique suggestions. When I voted yesterday, and especially in last year's list, I found there were some suggestions that were very, very similar and easily could have been combined into a single topic. It would leave room for more people to get their suggestions on the list, especially when quite a few are posting simultaneously. Hopefully that makes sense...
Rachel wrote: "Laura wrote: "Rachel, there is frequently a close call between #4 and #5. So if there is a vote for the bottom then I can look at that in order to take into account what people don't like. If 20 pe..."I agree with Rachel. The one that jumped out at me was "An Author you haven't read before" and "An author you feel you should have read by now".
Both are great suggestions, but essentially the same thing.
^I voted for the former, since the latter is already a topic for this year. But I am a bit concerned that they will split the vote.
I guess there's always a bit of a debate about how similar something needs to be in order to be combined with something. I agree with Peter. Those were the categories that jumped out at me too as being similar, especially since at least one of them is already in the current challenge. Sometimes it's a little more subjective. For example, from last year's reject list there was "a book set during a time of war" and "a book set during WWII". They are similar, but not exactly the same either, so in that kind of case, I wouldn't really know how to decide which makes the list...I guess just by which was suggested first.
Also, this may be a stupid question, but I would assume that we are only allowed to vote once? I clicked on the poll again to show someone the list, and it seemed like it would allow me to vote again if I chose to. I didn't, but I'm just wondering what's to prevent someone from "stacking" the votes? Or is it fine to vote more than once?
I voted for the first one too (I think....now I can't remember), just because the other one is in this year's challenge, but I didn't even think about them splitting the vote - that's a fair point because essentially, votes for either are for the same thing, it's just the wording that is slightly different.Rachel - You're right about some of the differences being much more subjective. That's a good example of suggestions that are at the same time, similar enough to be grouped together, but different enough to be considered separate from each other. I guess that would end up coming down the the mods discretion? I believe there were a few cases last year where something was submitted as a topic, but was ultimately deemed to be too similar to a previous topic by the mods to be counted as it's own in the poll.
Everyone is only allowed to vote once. But there is nothing stopping you from voting more than once, it's an honour system.
That said, I believe Laura has a way to differentiate between voters and is able to identify votes from the same user, at least she was able to last year.
For me, the 2 are different, I've plenty of new authors on my TBR but few I think I should read because they are well known, etc.In theory, people have to read the suggestions already posted before posting, so we shouldn't have things too much similar. Last year, we allowed people to change their suggestion when they posted something that was already there.
No point in voting several times, Laura will take only the last one into account but she has other things to do than to delete 20 votes, so a second vote is allowed just in exceptional circonstances and should be mentioned in the topic.
I agree Zaz, they are different to me too, but I can also see how they could also be viewed as being very similar.
Thanks for setting this up and for suggestions made! I just voted and found the alternatives fairly easy to navigate.
Mod
In general, I hesitate to eliminate suggestions because I think we are really a member-run group. I like to keep the power within the group rather than stepping in and taking away a suggestion. But the concern over splitting the vote is definitely valid so I'll be on the look out in the future.
The current software does not allow me to look for repeat votes. If you feel the need to vote for a second time, please tell me your original vote and what you changed it to.
EDIT: My previous response (if you saw it) was apparently based on one of the survey sites we used last year. The current site does not allow me to look for repeat responses. I can still disregard a previous vote, just be sure to tell me if you do vote again.
Laura,What service are you using for the survey? I missed it when I voted and it doesn't show up until you submit your it (at least on mobile). I think this is something I may be able to use at work.
Mod
Laura, I also really appreciate how much this is a member-run group and I like that we get a say in our own challenge. My concern was more with missing out on great suggestions because of the "first come, first serve" nature of the current system. I guess those people could always resubmit to the next poll, if they are available when the next suggestion topic is posted. I was just thinking of it in terms of splitting the vote, like others have said.
I would have to agree that topics for new-to-me author and a should have read by now author are very different. There are tons of authors I haven't read, but only a few that I feel I SHOULD have read by now because everyone else has (bestseller), the author is on their 25th novel, it's a classic I "should" have read in high school, or my son/friend/family member has been BEGGING me to read such-and-such an author for years, etc. I wouldn't mind at all having both options on the final list.
Mod
I didn't post one of the rules at the top since it was the first poll but there is a rule that you have to wait 2 days if you posted a suggestion in the previous polls. So oftentimes people only post every other poll. We didn't want to completely punish the very active members but also understood that some people can only visit once a while. I also alternate between starting suggestions on Wednesday and Saturday and during different times of day in order to attempt to reach more people.
Amy wrote: "I would have to agree that topics for new-to-me author and a should have read by now author are very different. There are tons of authors I haven't read, but only a few that I feel I SHOULD have re..."I posted the "should have read" topic, thinking along the lines Amy wrote above, and that it's a much stricter condition, but now I think I should have waited for another mini poll so that votes wouldn't be split.
If that ends up being the case though and they don't get chosen they can always be suggested again for another vote.
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The 2017 Reading Challenge will continue the concept of this year's challenge, with 52 weekly topics. Users then choose a book fitting each topic in order to complete the challenge.
The Process:
The topics for the 2017 RC list will be determined through around 13 mini-polls. Suggestions for each poll will be open until 20 suggestions are received and then opened up for voting for one week. Each user will vote for their top 4 and bottom 4 topics in each mini-poll, resulting in 4 challenge entries from each (13 polls x 4 topics/poll=52 weekly topics). This timeframe allows for a completed list in October-November.
The Rules:
- Voting ends June 8
- One vote per poll per user
Survey Link