The up to date and complete explanation about voting. (Patreon)

Hey, with the changes made to my patreon this month, some of the information I'd previously written was no longer correct and what was correct was scattered over a few posts. So here is all the correct information in one place.

The basics

The process is split into two phases, the nomination phase and the voting phase.

Nominations:  Nominations are where you put forward whatever idea you want. Everything nominated is then put up for voting. Only patrons in the $5 and above tier can nominate.

To nominate an idea, just message me on patreon or discord with the Character/theme/series/whatever that you want me to make a video for, including any specifics you want.

Nominations will open on the 14th of the month (5pm UK time, midday for East Coast) and run until the 21st (Same time). I will allow some leniency on this, but don't take it for granted, if the nomination is late I have every right to refuse it.

Voting: Voting is open for all patrons. Voting chooses which one of the nominations gets chosen for a video.

Voting opens once nominations close and last until the second last day of the month, again at 5PM UK time. So for example, February it will last from 21st (5pm) to the 27th (5pm), on December it will close on the 30th, etc.

Voting results will be announced as soon as possible, I will always have the announcement made before the end of the month barring any exceptional circumstances.

When voting, rank all submissions except your own in order of favourite to least favourite. 

If you nominated a choice and don't vote it will lose 1 point. This is to prevent people gaining a tactical advantage.

For example, if six videos were nominated..

1: Sans JOI (you really want it.)

2: whatever (Other idea you really like)

3: third favourite

4: fourth favourite

5: fifth favourite

6: loli video (Idea you hate)

So how does the voting work? 

Good question. It's the single transferable vote system. If you have no idea what that is, I don't blame you.

Simply put, you rank all options from most to least liked. Whichever has least votes is eliminated. If an eliminated option was at the top of a list, the vote is then transferred to the next option down. This proceeds until there is only one option.

Here is a simple example. In this choice, voters had to choose between A, B and C.

Person 1 ranked them, A>B>C

Person 2 ranked them, A>C>B

Person 3 ranked them B>A>C

Person 4 ranked them B>C>A

Person 5 ranked them C>A>B

Counting first choice options, A and B have 2, while C has 1. Therefore C is eliminated. Person 5 had ranked C first, so their vote now changes to their second choice, which is A. This now means that A has 3 and B has 2. Therefore A wins.

There is one last thing that influences the scores. If a patron nominates a video and it is unsuccessful, it will gain a 0.5 vote bonus in future votes. This bonus stacks. After that patron wins a vote, their bonus is reset to 0.

Why this complicated system?

Simply put, it is needed. With simpler voting options you have a real risk of 

A: Tactical voting (People putting promising rival choices at the bottom)

B: Vote splitting (2 popular but similar ideas can easily lose to 1 less popular but different idea.

This system solves both problems.

What about ties?  (This gets complicated, I don't expect anybody to read this) 

Well, ties are a bit of a mess. 

Firstly I check to see if it matters which is eliminated, it only matters if votes can transfer from one tied option to the other, otherwise both are guaranteed to be eliminated.

Then I remove all non-tied options from the lists and then go through the scoring again looking only at the tied options. If one option is clearly last, that is then eliminated.

In cases where 3 or more options are tied originally, and the bottom is still tied in the tiebreaker, I'll then reapply the above criteria to tierbreak the tiebreaker in cases where not all options are tied.

If there's still a tie, I'll use a randomiser to decide.

Eg, the most simple example I can think of.

A, B and C are all tied at the bottom, option D has more than all and progresses. I then remove option D from all lists and see the scores without D. In this case, option A has more score than B and C, but B and C are tied. I then see which has the highest score if it's JUST B vs C and eliminate the loser. For this example, C loses and is eliminated. Votes on C are then transferred, these transfers can immediately end the tie if if gives A or B a lead over the other. In the case there's still a tie, then we look at which places higher in solely A vs B. The winner moves on vs D.

You may think that D wins regardless, but the transferred votes could easily allow another option to win.