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Getting more people to vote during demoparties

category: parties [glöplog]
For a while, I've been looking at the result.txt-files from parties (my own included), and it occurs to me that while attendance seems to go up or hold steady, the amount of votes cast isn't exactly matching up to the vibe of the party or attendees. In short: more people should vote in the compos.

So I wanted to start a discussion around this: What have other party organizers done to increase the amount of votes cast? Did it work? What ideas do people have? As an attendee: why did you vote during the party, or more importantly: if you didn't vote; why?
added on the 2013-08-19 11:53:15 by gloom gloom
We have increased voting participation at Revision and tUM after abolishing the old "exchange your wristband for a votekey" rule, which gave a very reasonable boost. Revision 2012 and 2013 had an about 20% increase of voting participation (counted as sold tickets vs. unique users voting). I can make a analysis over the past ~10 years if anybody's interested.

What also helps is if you don't have that much delays or compos which are very late (like at 2 in the morning or something) Since some/most people only vote once everything's over - they might be too tired/drunk and not motivated to vote at all.

What I'm planning to do for quite some years is to introduce Live-Voting in Partymeister so people can vote once the entry is on screen. That will enable mobile/tablet users to vote when the memory is still fresh and they can do it sitting in front of the screen, watching. Needs good wifi to be effective though :)

It could also be a very good idea to have some voting terminals/PCs standing around where people without a computer can participate. (e.g. at the infodesk).

Voting for me personally depends on some factors:
- Weather: if it's too hot I don't like to sit inside at the computer (or outside with a computer for that matter)
- Space: If it's too crowded at the Partyplace, I also have problems motivating me to squeeze into my seat and use the computer at all.
- Participation: I'm more eager to vote if myself or somebody I like/know has entered in one of the competitions, but I guess that's quite normal.
added on the 2013-08-19 12:18:52 by D.Fox D.Fox
I find it really hard to vote for some of the non demo/intro compos, usually due to entries being submitted without screenshots. Even the demo/intro compo entries can be hard to vote for if there are a lot of entries in a compo. I think stricter rules that won't allow a prod to be submitted without an accompanying screenshot would help with this.

Allowing a video of applicable prods to be submitted along with the prod itself would also be really handy when voting, as these could be viewed during voting and 'go live' as soon as the compo has finished. Of course, this is probably going to be totally impractical in a lot of instances, especially when people are working on entries up to, and beyond the deadline. Having it as an option would at least reward those who got things sorted well in advance though. You're never going to overcome the problem of tiredness/drunkenness though, which I would imagine is one of the main reasons people don't submit their votes (especially when a compo ends late).

Just my two cents...
added on the 2013-08-19 12:19:08 by raizor raizor
Quote:
What I'm planning to do for quite some years is to introduce Live-Voting in Partymeister so people can vote once the entry is on screen. That will enable mobile/tablet users to vote when the memory is still fresh and they can do it sitting in front of the screen, watching. Needs good wifi to be effective though :)

I like this idea. But, would it then be measured as an "applause-meter"? Basically: everyone can say "I like this!" for as many prods as they like, and the ones they don't like will get less "digital applause"? If so, having this as the only measurement of voting would be a little dangerous in terms of the "intoxicated joy-factor" :) Perhaps as a secondary vote that gets weighted into the main vote? Dunno.

Quote:
- Space: If it's too crowded at the Partyplace, I also have problems motivating me to squeeze into my seat and use the computer at all.

So, what about mobile voting then? A simple responsive site with just a PIN to log in and vote?
added on the 2013-08-19 12:39:02 by gloom gloom
Quote:
Allowing a video of applicable prods to be submitted along with the prod itself would also be really handy when voting, as these could be viewed during voting and 'go live' as soon as the compo has finished. Of course, this is probably going to be totally impractical in a lot of instances, especially when people are working on entries up to, and beyond the deadline.

Video will probably be impractical, yes. But - all prods should have proper screenshots I think.
added on the 2013-08-19 12:39:48 by gloom gloom
Quote:
I like this idea. But, would it then be measured as an "applause-meter"? Basically: everyone can say "I like this!" for as many prods as they like, and the ones they don't like will get less "digital applause"? If so, having this as the only measurement of voting would be a little dangerous in terms of the "intoxicated joy-factor" :) Perhaps as a secondary vote that gets weighted into the main vote? Dunno.


How about just opening up the entries in Partymeister/wherever during the compo itself?

When it comes to voting, there is always the context of the compo itself (it's hard to put the entries in relative order if you don't know what's coming) that would make it kind of hard, plus requiring the visitors to own devices that are capable of this would disqualify at least me from voting.
added on the 2013-08-19 12:43:37 by Preacher Preacher
Quote:
But - all prods should have proper screenshots I think.


Doesn't work for music compos though. I have to vote for music compos as soon as possible, or I just can't remember which were the top entries :/

Same goes for the demo compos too, if there's no screenshot. Luckily there usually is, and if it's missing for a few I can figure out which is which because it's only a few, not 20+ :)
added on the 2013-08-19 12:44:50 by psonice psonice
Perhaps leaving the voting-window open for only 15-30 min right after the compo would motivate more people to vote?

Personally I never cared much about voting, dunno why?!?! - pure laziness I guess.
added on the 2013-08-19 12:47:36 by maytz maytz
a somewhat aggressive answer: publishing the names of those that voted. I contribute little enough as it is, and giving people the feeling that every little bit of contribution counts could perhaps be cool. I dont want to publish the names of those that didn't vote for whatever reason - there can be many reasons for not voting, most of which have been listed already.

Another suggestion could be to have a live-count of the total number of votees on the bigscreen in intermissions, which of course is a double-edged sword.

An even later suggestion could be to have the partysystem compile a zip of the top-three entries I voted for in all compos and provide a download url for those afterwards :) I know that is probably not practical for more reasons than I can count, but the main idea is giving you something in return for voting, which I think is important for all the same reasons that even voting for whatever party in political elections is important - it lends legitimacy to things :)

I know I dont always vote in all compos - for instance I have no idea about ASCII or ANSI and would probably just vote for the entry with the prettiest colours. But I do try to make an effort to at least vote for the compos I saw and feel I could have some kind of opinion on.
added on the 2013-08-19 12:48:42 by nic0 nic0
Since Outline is relatively small, besides making announcements etc I've seen a lot of people asking others if they have already voted. I think the best way to increase votes is to raise the level of participation and involvement of the audience by making them understand the essence of it all.

Quote:
I think stricter rules that won't allow a prod to be submitted without an accompanying screenshot would help with this.
This will limit the amount of releases and therefor is not a solution. I would suggest auto-generating screenshots instead. Based on the textures or nfo file as a fallback.

Quote:
What I'm planning to do for quite some years is to introduce Live-Voting in Partymeister so people can vote once the entry is on screen.
Yeah, that would be awesome and will generate a massive boost I guess. Technically challenging but worthwhile for sure.

Along the same lines are other ways of connecting the voting process to the actual compos. Giving entries an arbitrary number and forcing people to remember them might not be the best solution.

Other ways to increase the amount of votes:
-handing out free beer or other perks per vote
-increase the amount of points for your own release(s) if you vote
-making voting not optional anymore (hey it works in some countries)
added on the 2013-08-19 12:48:53 by numtek numtek
Quote:
Doesn't work for music compos though. I have to vote for music compos as soon as possible, or I just can't remember which were the top entries :/


Since I'm a musician, I tend to be able to remember my favourite tracks, however the above statement just begs for the possibility of adding a "small listening clip" to the entry (similar to the screenshot), which you can upload along with the full tune.

Say that you should upload a 15 second mp3, that was playable directly from the party interface. You would instantly recognize which tune it was and make up your mind.
added on the 2013-08-19 12:50:53 by Puryx Puryx
Quote:
Perhaps leaving the voting-window open for only 15-30 min right after the compo would motivate more people to vote?


... none of which could get through the wireless, and heavens forbid if you'd need to borrow someone's computer to actually vote.

Quote:
publishing the names of those that voted.


This is actually a good idea, though it would bring its own set of problems.

Quote:
I would suggest auto-generating screenshots instead. Based on the textures or nfo file as a fallback


This would be completely hilarious, but so, so wrong. I wonder how my demos would look then...
added on the 2013-08-19 12:56:01 by Preacher Preacher
at assembly it was possible to watch all entries of the compos via pms, with youtube videsos for demos etc which was great.
added on the 2013-08-19 12:56:03 by nosfe nosfe
Perhaps have a 'naughty list' on screen listing the names of those that haven't voted? ;)
added on the 2013-08-19 12:56:49 by raizor raizor
Quote:
How about just opening up the entries in Partymeister/wherever during the compo itself?

When it comes to voting, there is always the context of the compo itself (it's hard to put the entries in relative order if you don't know what's coming) that would make it kind of hard, plus requiring the visitors to own devices that are capable of this would disqualify at least me from voting.


This would not replace the normal voting procedure. Just open up an additional voting option.

Opening up voting during the competition will be a bad thing since everybody knows what comes next. That would at least take the fun out for me - I like being surprised.

Quote:
Quote:
What I'm planning to do for quite some years is to introduce Live-Voting in Partymeister so people can vote once the entry is on screen. That will enable mobile/tablet users to vote when the memory is still fresh and they can do it sitting in front of the screen, watching. Needs good wifi to be effective though :)

I like this idea. But, would it then be measured as an "applause-meter"? Basically: everyone can say "I like this!" for as many prods as they like, and the ones they don't like will get less "digital applause"? If so, having this as the only measurement of voting would be a little dangerous in terms of the "intoxicated joy-factor" :) Perhaps as a secondary vote that gets weighted into the main vote? Dunno.


Not sure if that will really increase voting participation if it doesn't really "count" in the end. Sure there's a problem putting things in perspective when you don't have all the entries right in front of you. But maybe votes like these are less biased on the overall quality if we can vote like this but more about the individual entries...

Quote:
Quote:
- Space: If it's too crowded at the Partyplace, I also have problems motivating me to squeeze into my seat and use the computer at all.

So, what about mobile voting then? A simple responsive site with just a PIN to log in and vote?


I'm sure I would vote more if a proper mobile option is available. But quoting all network teams all over the world: Providing a stable wifi at the partyplace for lots of people is HARD.

Another possibility would be to move voting back to a live server so people can use their 3G/LTE connections to vote. We did that for tUM 2004 and it was working fine, although we did abolish the idea because it was too much work back then merging the votes. Nothing unsolvable though...


Quote:
I find it really hard to vote for some of the non demo/intro compos, usually due to entries being submitted without screenshots. Even the demo/intro compo entries can be hard to vote for if there are a lot of entries in a compo. I think stricter rules that won't allow a prod to be submitted without an accompanying screenshot would help with this.


I guess this comes down to personal preference. If somebody is too lazy to provide a screenshot they will be "punished" during voting. So I guess it's up to the participants to decide how important that is for them.

Quote:
Allowing a video of applicable prods to be submitted along with the prod itself would also be really handy when voting, as these could be viewed during voting and 'go live' as soon as the compo has finished. Of course, this is probably going to be totally impractical in a lot of instances, especially when people are working on entries up to, and beyond the deadline. Having it as an option would at least reward those who got things sorted well in advance though.


Chaos Constructions had Youtube and Audio-Previews for people who submitted additional files. You can be sure that this feature will pop up in Partymeister rather sooner than later :)
added on the 2013-08-19 12:57:23 by D.Fox D.Fox
nosfe: Yes, however most "normal" parties does not have the compo-recording pipeline which Assembly does (and they probably wont get that pipeline ever)
added on the 2013-08-19 12:57:45 by Puryx Puryx
Quote:
Doesn't work for music compos though.
No, but a short MP3-snippet ought to be enough.

Still, when we're talking about "how to best present the entries for voting inside Partymeister" I think we've moved a bit a way from the issue, since if you're already inside the voting system, chances are you're going to vote anyway. I want to reach the 50+ people at Solskogen this year who didn't cast a single vote.
added on the 2013-08-19 13:07:55 by gloom gloom
Quote:
Quote:
I would suggest auto-generating screenshots instead. Based on the textures or nfo file as a fallback


This would be completely hilarious, but so, so wrong. I wonder how my demos would look then...


There's usually somebody (usually called m0d) recording the compo with a video camera. Take stills from the video (or even just shoot a few with a phone during the compo), and you have a useable screenshot :)

puryx: short audio clips would be perfect. (I can normally remember the best entries, but often only 1-2.)
added on the 2013-08-19 13:09:26 by psonice psonice
I like the idea of showing who has not yet voted, AND who voted for them selves :)

and we could re-introduced some medieval usage of the bonfire for those self voting sons of bitches :)
added on the 2013-08-19 13:10:01 by maytz maytz
I'd highly appreciate live voting as well (or at least as soon as the compo ended) - ideally with a smartphone-capable version of the voting page. And ideally it shouldn't be obvious from a distance what you've voted for (election secrecy).

Also, computers for guests who didn't bring a computer on their own are always a good idea.

Both taken together would avoid the following situation I had a while ago: 2 or 3 people gave me their votekeys with a message "I like your entry, take this and vote as you like, because I need to go". Of course I asked them what exact vote to give for what entry and then did exactly that (anything else wouldn't feel right for me).

And another issue that should be clarified: what happens with entries in a category you don't vote for? IIRC some parties already force you to vote for all entries of any category you're casting even a single vote within. But if not it should be clarified what's going to happen (I assume not voting is like voting "sucks" or "meh").
added on the 2013-08-19 13:16:04 by Kabuto Kabuto
First, take a look at all the hoops people willingly jump through to enter an entry. Staying below filesizes, escaping on pressing mouse etc. So the screenshot (where applicable) is definitely not that big an issue. It could be a smartphone's picture from an alternative platform running the intro/demo or whatever the author think would make people remember the actual prod better than just a title.

So simply add it to compo rules, that entries MUST be submitted with a proper screenshot or (for music) a 15 second mp3-snippet of the song. Every participant would be able to do that, and at least in the executable music compo, it's already suggested that you provide an mp3 of the entry as well.

With the above changes to the rules, you'll heavily increase usability of the voting, but it wouldn't actually make people vote.

To achieve that, at least have announcements after each compo. Make sure voting for a compo is opened just after the compo was run! In general, take a look at how much attention the compo organizers pay to get guests to vote, and I think you might have some of the answer. Providing solutions that would work for tablets, phones etc. would be convenient, but probably only for those who would already vote. Instead, underline the importance of everyone voting after each compo, show slides on the big screen urging people to vote.

I don't really like the idea of providing gifts for voting. It would definitely lead a load of people randomly throwing votes just to receive a free beer or whatever. Instead, appeal to everyone, that people usually have spent countless hours, days or months working on their releases, and the LEAST you could do to show your grattitude for them providing you all this great entertainment, is to let them know how well they did.

So bottom line - I'm definitely with Nic0 on the visibility/attention of the importance of voting. The more people are exposed to requests to go vote and the REASON it's so darn important, the more people would actually understand it and hopefully go vote.
added on the 2013-08-19 13:17:01 by Punqtured Punqtured
puryx, maybe one solution could be to get some shared hardware to be used as a compo-recording pipeline for different parties...
added on the 2013-08-19 13:19:25 by nosfe nosfe
Quote:
Providing a stable wifi at the partyplace for lots of people is HARD.

Not for the super team at Solskogen. :) But yeah: I mean - the idea would be that the page is so light there would be no problem voting on a regular 3G or even EDGE connection. The results would be tallied down from the internet-accessible voting server to the local server.
added on the 2013-08-19 13:29:59 by gloom gloom
Quote:
And another issue that should be clarified: what happens with entries in a category you don't vote for? IIRC some parties already force you to vote for all entries of any category you're casting even a single vote within. But if not it should be clarified what's going to happen (I assume not voting is like voting "sucks" or "meh").

There are a few different voting styles in the different systems. I'm not sure which is the most prevalent right now though.

Perhaps doing a simple "The More You Know"-infomercial spoof before each compo will remind people how the voting works and where to do it. :)
added on the 2013-08-19 13:31:29 by gloom gloom
Quote:
I want to reach the 50+ people at Solskogen this year who didn't cast a single vote.


I was one of those. It was too hot and crowded inside (especially after the compos) and I didn't feel like schlepping my laptop outside because there wouldn't be enough space for it anyway.

I'm pretty sure that I would have used a mobile option since I've checked stuff like emails and facebook a couple of times per day. So I was on the phone anyway.

Another thing might be to abolish votekeys and the necessity to register altogether. I myself find it tedious to create an account with a password AND entering a votekey just to click around and vote for a couple of entries.

Maybe a PIN based votekey & registration might be a good idea: just enter your handle + a 5 number PIN and you can vote. Sure abusing that might be easier than typing a 15 letter votekey but it might still be a better solution.

There are many other ideas, like preregister your account or force people to create on during entrance - but that won't work for every party.
added on the 2013-08-19 13:32:23 by D.Fox D.Fox

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