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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 1723502" data-attributes="member: 177">Oh, a popularity contest is fine.  I think, though that we don't want it to be a marketing contest.  Would we not prefer to be looking at popularity that is based upon the product's quality rather than the advertising budget of the company?This is one reason why I respect WotC for staying out this year.  They have such a massive edge in marketing that it might seriously skew the results.  Merely the question of that arising could tarnish the reputation of the awards.  Their staying out keeps our awards cleaner.It seems to me that the Hugo Award voting procedure fits the bill.------------In summary - You have some candidates in a cateegory.  Let us say there are 5.You may rank them in order of priority.  You give priority 1 to the product you think is most deserving, priority 2 to the product next most deserving, and so on.  I you are unfamiliar with a product, you don't have to vote for it at all.  Just rank the ones you know.  You tally the votes for first preferences.  If one product gets more than 50% of the votes, it wins. If no product gets more than 50%, you go to the product that had the least first preference votes.  You sort these by second preference, and those second preference votes are added to the previous first preference totals.  If the ballot doesn't list a second preference, it is discarded.Now, if one of the products has more than 50% of the remaining ballots, it wins.Otherwise, we repeat the process, eliminating the least popular, and redistributing votes.  If a ballot's 1st and 2nd preference have both been eliminated, you go to the 3rd preference, and so on.Eventually, when you get to only two candidates, oen of them wins.  Unless there's a dead heat, in which you give both products the award.That all sounds complicated.  And if you were dealing with the votes by hand, it'd be a pain.  But electronically, it can be automated.  The Hugos also have a "No Award" candidate in each category, if you feel none of them are winners, or feel that the category shouldn't exist at all.------------The upshot of all this is that it is impossible to vote against a candidate, as our current system effectively allows.  The worst you can do is vote for them less strongly.</blockquote>

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