* * * Holiday Area Contest Announcement * * *

Would you consider setting the voting thread up as a poll? I think a portion of forum members are more comfortable voting freely if anonymous. Also, many of us have multiple neighbors who submit entries and it does get awkward.

The counting would be instantaneous. That would make it a WHOLE lot easier for whoever runs the contest.

The remainder of the thread could be filled with posts discussing what we liked especially about different towns. E.g. I could post " Entry 7, I never knew a reindeer could do that! And Entry 11, putting the Nativity scene outside Duff Brewery really works. And Fat Tony in the hot tub really ties that whole area together."

I realize there may be limits on the number of items in a poll list. Might need to break it into two groups of entries -- but we've done that before.

But seems easier to me, and may encourage some folks to come forth and vote.

Or not. ;)

As far as I know, the number of items in a poll can easily accommodate a contest. The problem is that polls can occasionally be compromised due to a glitchiness of the forum or browser, which is why contests traditionally haven't been run that way.

annettemarc wrote:
Would you consider setting the voting thread up as a poll? I think a portion of forum members are more comfortable voting freely if anonymous. Also, many of us have multiple neighbors who submit entries and it does get awkward.

The counting would be instantaneous. That would make it a WHOLE lot easier for whoever runs the contest.

The remainder of the thread could be filled with posts discussing what we liked especially about different towns. E.g. I could post " Entry 7, I never knew a reindeer could do that! And Entry 11, putting the Nativity scene outside Duff Brewery really works. And Fat Tony in the hot tub really ties that whole area together."

I realize there may be limits on the number of items in a poll list. Might need to break it into two groups of entries -- but we've done that before.

But seems easier to me, and may encourage some folks to come forth and vote.

Or not. ;)

Good idea! :thumbup:

To the OP, great poem and I'll see what I can enter.:-)

http://media.giphy.com/media/Z6f7vzq3iP6Mw/giphy.gif

HOORAY! Great poem - and contest/poll is novel.

I was wondering about

"2. Please stitch together any design with multiple screenshots prior to passing along to me."

-if an entry could have two separate Christmas areas - which wouldn't work stitched together - and two images could be used instead. Otherwise I'll just put everything together in one spot. There's always somebody with a :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: question in every thread. This time it is me! :wink:

thatdonald845 wrote:
I was wondering about

"2. Please stitch together any design with multiple screenshots prior to passing along to me."

-if an entry could have two separate Christmas areas - which wouldn't work stitched together - and two images could be used instead. Otherwise I'll just put everything together in one spot. There's always somebody with a :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: question in every thread. This time it is me! :wink:

The entry should be just one picture, but if the area is too large to fit within a single screen shot, multiple captures would be necessary, then later "stitched" together to create a single beautiful holiday area. So if your festive design takes two or three screen shots, please put them together before sending to me if you are able to. But honestly, if it's just two or three, I can easily put them together. I just hope people who are able to, don't pass the burden onto me :D

Additionally:

1. When taking screenshots, wait until the "heads up" display fades away. We don't need your donut/money count distracting us from your design.

2. Don't worry about re-sizing. I'm planning on making every entry 650 pixels wide to "fit the forums." I will also include a link below each entry to a bigger picture, so if anyone wants to see the design in full screen glory, it will be available.

@annette

First:

annettemarc wrote:
" . . . . And Fat Tony in the hot tub really ties that whole area together."

:lol: :thumbup:

I would have no problem running voting using a poll - as you describe, the entire process would be pretty slick. I didn't realize that retaining anonymity was the reason most people don't vote - I just thought they didn't care :P
But as Neuroheart said, those polls can be tricky. I'll remind you of our Forum Nerds project. I ran a poll for those who expressed interest to decide which direction we would go in (http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/10038371.page). Option A or B...with a joke for option C that originally was something like "it's too tough to decide, but maybe we should be doing something more productive with our time." Then somebody ran up the numbers on that third option. At which point I reminded that person that polls could be manipulated in more than one way.

In a perfect world, the poll would be great, but I'm not sure we could trust it. Maybe.

And if you thought the way we normally do the voting is muddled enough, wait until you hear what I was think about for voting:

Rather than just picking your favorite, I thought, in the spirit of the holiday season, that people could vote for their top three. First pick = 5 points, second pick = 3 points, third = 1 point (or something along those lines). Then the idiot running the contest would have to do some basic math to determine which one received the most "points" rather than votes.

That way, we could spread the love a little; isn't it hard to choose just one when there are so many great designs?
Obviously, this idea would complicate things a bit, but just a thought at this point.

Opinions?

I think your "pick top 3" style of voting is great. So many times people say, 'I like C but E and N were awesome too".
It would make voting much easier.

I didn't realize the poll mechanism permitted more than one vote per person. I assumed it was like other sites where once I ticked an option, I was stopped from doing it again. Yikes.

I absolutely LOVE the idea of three choices! A great solution! You'll need to be sure to assign your entries LETTERS and not numbers. And you might want to tell voters to put each vote on a separate line.

So instead of: 1 = G, 2 = K, 3 = A

1 = G
2 = K
3 = A

IMHO, I would completely avoid assigning the letters "L" and "I" (That second one is "I" as in "I am awesome.")

:)