[2020] Voting for 3rd Mini-Poll

[Nadine in NY]

Sophie wrote: "It's a week starting when the poll opens, but we've been talking about shortening the voting period to 5 days, what do you guys think?"


yes please shorten it

[Jill]

I am torn on this because part of me would like to shorten the time since I tend to vote right away. I also realize that people have to vote when it is convenient to their lives. Some people people may not be able to vote until the weekend or whenever they have time off of work and away from other life responsibilities. A 7 day voting period means one has a chance to vote whatever day of the week is most convenient for them.

[Bec]

Sara wrote: "I think if the statistics show that a significant number of people vote at the end we should leave it alone. None of us is likely to die from waiting. lol."
But it may be they are waiting until the end, and they would still vote towards the end in a 5 day period.
I'm in the shorten it camp.

[Sara]

I am inclined to go with Jill because I would hate to think that shortening it for my convenience meant others did not have an opportunity to vote. Of course, if it gets shortened it works perfectly for me. Just trying to consider others when making the decision.

[°~Amy~°]

Does it help to know that it doesn't matter one bit to some of us (and by some of us, I mean me)?

I am excited to know the results but I don't see that shortening the voting time would be necessary at this time. Obviously if we get to the middle of November and are running short on time, then yes, of course we should have some short votes. Right now, I think we are fine with a full week to vote. On the flip side, if we went down to 5 days, I don't see any harm in that either.

Basically my opinion is that I have no strong opinion on the matter. Very not helpful, I know. :/

[Angie]

I'm in the "shorten it" camp.

[Pamela, Arciform Mod]

°~Amy~° wrote: "Does it help to know that it doesn't matter one bit to some of us (and by some of us, I mean me)?

I am excited to know the results but I don't see that shortening the voting time would be necessa..."

i'm with you- I have no clue what the timing is. I get the notice and vote. However, is there a way to make sure at least one day of voting is over the weekend? There are some people who work who tend to do things like that on a weekend.

[Raquel (Silver Valkyrie Reads)]

Can we try shortening it to 5 days and see if it seems to change the number of voters, or if anyone mentions it making it hard on them? It seems like everyone here either has no particular preference or would prefer it shorter, and I would hate to think we were sticking with 7 days just for hypothetical and maybe non-existent voters.

[Ellie]

The wait is excruciating, I think that extra day is making a difference. But it also seems like it's taking a long time for the submissions to fill up? I thought for sure I'd miss the last one but it was open for what seemed like days.

I don't really mind if I miss a poll or two, if life gets in the way. If we're only voting in 2 or 3 each week that's plenty of chances to participate.

[dalex]

I think shortening the voting to 5 days would be a good idea. Those that are really interested in voting could easily find the time to do so since it only takes a few minutes and can be done either on a desktop or a phone.

[Avery]

At first I was for shortening the voting to 5 days but I also realize there’s not really a good reason to other than some of us are impatient. Why do we need a completed list of prompts so early? For those that like to plan, you can plan based on the prompts voted in the earlier polls.

Maybe for next year we can shorten to 5 days but just start the polls later in the year like July or August. May/June is pretty early to start thinking about the next year.

[Laura, Celestial Sphere Mod]

The mods' reasoning for considering shortening the voting period was less about the impatience (sorry) and more about the timing of the final list.

If we get only 2-3 winners from the current poll then that means our final list would not be done in time. If you look at the number of prompts in the month of June.

Of course we may have some polls that result in 4 winners but we also might not.

[Jill]

We also cut the number of suggestions, which may have made for more out-right winners. So that would seem a possibility. The more options, the more the votes are diluted.

[Ellie]

The whole process seems to be taking 10 days at the moment and I think we have 155 days until the end of November. So we need to be getting 3 or 4 prompts out of each poll (and about half would have to be 4).

[Allegra]

As someone who wants to vote but sometimes misses it (and also someone who rarely plans books more than a few weeks ahead), I still say shorten. Five days is enough. Yes, I may miss a poll when I'm busy or away, but I also hate going to a poll only to realize I've already voted and it's just dragging on.

[Sara]

Ah, if the Mods have a reason to need to shorten that is different. I would say definitely shorten in that case.

[Edie]

Sophie wrote: "It's a week starting when the poll opens, but we've been talking about shortening the voting period to 5 days, what do you guys think?"

Yes, shorten it to 5 days. A week is too long.

[Edie]

Emily wrote: "I've been thinking about it and I do think it would help us avoid burnout on the voting process if it was a bit shorter between rounds... that way, if we have to go to 16 polls like we did last yea..."

I would suggest that procrastinators always vote as late as possible, whether that is on the 5th and last day or the 7th and last day or the 10th and last day.

[Marie]

I think the important thing to get the timing right for finishing the list - not too late, obviously, but also not too early. I'd find it a lot harder to wait for two or three months between finishing the list and starting the challenge than I do waiting a couple of extra days for the voting results.

[Marin]

I’m super impatient and usually vote on the first day, but for people who are busy during the week I like that the 7-day period is guaranteed to include a weekend (or whatever day of the week is convenient), while a 5-day sometimes won’t. But I’m not sure what else would help the problem of not finishing on time.

[Laura, Celestial Sphere Mod]

Would it better to vary the length of the voting to be sure to include a weekend, determined by when the suggestions close?

[Nadine in NY]

Just shorten it. I wouldn’t mind if I missed a few votes, just get the process moving along.

Do you see a noticeable uptick of voting on the weekend?


(edited for clarity!)

[Edie]

Pamela wrote: "°~Amy~° wrote: "Does it help to know that it doesn't matter one bit to some of us (and by some of us, I mean me)?

I am excited to know the results but I don't see that shortening the voting time ..."

I agree that the voting period should include at least one weekend day.

[Ron]

Don't shorten. Our only real deadline is January 1, 2020 when we start reading the books, not everyone logs on every day, and we get a better result if we broaden the base of voters.

[Hannah]

Laura wrote: "Would it better to vary the length of the voting to be sure to include a weekend, determined by when the suggestions close?"

I think if the numbers of days you had to vote changed each time, it might lead to more people who wanted to vote missing out, as they got confused by how long they had to vote each time.

I personally would say shorten the voting time. I tend to vote late, purely because I’m waiting to see if anything is mentioned in one of the threads that might make me think about different options for a prompt. If there were only 5 days to vote, I would still be able to do this, just over a shorter timescale.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Ron wrote: "Don't shorten. Our only real deadline is January 1, 2020 when we start reading the books, not everyone logs on every day, and we get a better result if we broaden the base of voters."

There's a fair bit of work that the mods have to do before the list goes live (put the prompts in order, create the weekly discussion threads, etc.), so I would imagine that the mods wouldn't want the process to go longer than November, just to give them time to prepare.

I think, at the end of the day, whatever the mods decide will be fine. I don't think it's all that important to include a weekend... as long as the dates are posted in advance, 5 days is enough time for anyone who makes it a priority to get online and vote. And if they miss out this round, they can catch the next one.

If we see a drastic decline in voters, we can always move it to 6 days (or 7, from the close of the suggestions thread). That would guarantee a weekend day.

[Chinook]

I’d prefer five days myself.

[Jillian]

I'd prefer 5 days.

[Nicole]

Maybe we should make a poll about who wants it shortened, wants it the same or feels indifferent to accompany next voting session? Like a third section. Upvotes, downvotes, and a should we shorten the window to 5 days part with yes/no/indifferent?

I think YES we should, by the way. If we aren’t going to get enough winners each round, it’s like we’re waiting what feels like a long time (YES I’M IMPATIENT!!)and then getting only 2 winners. (Enter wah wah waaahhh sound).

The voting doesn’t take THAT long. If we can include a weekend day, great! We COULD do suggestions Sunday, discussion Monday, and then Tues-Saturday for voting. Results and new suggestions Sunday ... repeat repeat repeat.

[Kat]

I've been thinking that 20 suggestions is just too many. It makes the decision harder (for me anyway) and must be spreading votes out leaving us with the two winners each time. Reducing the number to 15 worked last year.

It might be interesting to see how it goes in the next few rounds. It is still only June so a lot of polls still to come.

I've been wondering how the change in splitting votes (8 votes to put anywhere instead of four up four down) has affected the outcome but not sure how to work that out. A lot of the comments have mentioned people voting for 6 or 7 so you would think there would be more winners not fewer.

[Ellie]

Nicole wrote: "Maybe we should make a poll about who wants it shortened, wants it the same or feels indifferent to accompany next voting session? Like a third section. Upvotes, downvotes, and a should we shorten ..."

I don't think it's a good idea to have certain things on the same day every week. If it varies from week to week at least people have a better chance of participating some of the time.

[Laura, Celestial Sphere Mod]

If it helps with people's opinions, the current poll has received 3% of the total votes since 8PM EST on the 27th. That's roughly 5 days into the poll.

I can't look at past polls or get more accurate because the software's time stamps are weird. I'm assuming it time stamps based on the time of the person who completed, not actually EST time.

[dalex]

2 days for suggestions + 1 day of discussion + 7 days of voting + 1 day for results to be calculated and posted = a very long time.

[Rachelnyc]

Agreed! The more I think of it, especially given Laura’s confirmation about such a small percentage voting after the 5 day mark, 5 days is plenty. It takes just a few minutes to review the prompts and vote so anyone who is invested and wants to participate should be able to find the time. And as others have said, if you miss one or two, it’s not the end of the world.

I also like the idea of reducing to 15 suggestions. I found that worked better last year and would of course speed up the suggestion process.

[Anastasia]

I agree with only 15 suggestions since we can use 8 votes however we want.

[Jill]

I am convinced, we should go to a 5 day voting period. I also like the idea of reducing the number of suggestions to 15.

[Martha]

I agree with 15 suggestions and a 5-day voting period.

[Edie]

Yes to 15 suggestions and 5 days of voting!

[°~Amy~°]

If the mods feel that time is going to be an issue then I think we should go to 5 days. Having only 15 suggestions might also help speed things up but I wonder if it would speed things up TOO much doing both?

Cutting back to 5 days of voting, that's approximately 8 days to complete each poll. If we continue to get three winners then we will be done voting in 21 weeks (the first of November). Only getting 2 winners per week we will need 31.5 weeks, which is obviously too long. Most likely it would be somewhere in the middle (around the end of November).

My fear is that if we ALSO cut back to 15 suggestions then we will start getting 4 or 5 winners a week. Four winners each week would be 15 weeks (mid October) and five winners only 12 weeks (end of September). That's way too early to have a complete list.

I think we should make one change or the other, not both at once. My preference would be for the five days of voting. I also like that the suggestions thread is staying open long enough for most everyone around the globe to participate. I think the quality of the suggestions have been good too so why mess with that piece?

Just my thoughts on the matter. :-)

[Pamela, Arciform Mod]

Maybe we should have a poll about the poll

[dalex]

Pamela wrote: "Maybe we should have a poll about the poll"

Maybe we should have a poll to decide if we should have a poll about the poll. Ha!