User blog comment:EmpyrealInvective/News about PotM/@comment-25052433-20150516205635

Sadly this is an issue that may be difficult to resolve, as far as making the voitng fair and impartial anyway. Even if we eliminate the multiple account voters, the system is still somewhat biased.

For example, a story that is nominated on the first of the month has a far better chance of winning then one that is nominated on the 14th of that same month. The earlier the stories are nominated, the more exposure they get. More exposure means more readings, and more readings means more chances for voters to settle on their favorite before the ballot is even closed.

One idea that comes to mind that could remedy this to a degree is adding in a third portion of the nominating and voting process. For example, the first 5 days of the month are dedicated to nominations. The 10 days that follow are dedicated to review, with the final 10 days of the month dedicated to voting.

Now, that is just a template. We could always split the month into 10 days blocks, giving 10 days to nominate, 10 to review and then 10 to vote.

Other conerns that come to mind are the age of the stories. Now, this is more directed towards the writer than the story. For example, a story that has been on here forever and is clearly forgotten about by the author, is going to be a far less meaningful win than a story that belongs to a writer that is a functioning member of this community.

Of course, moving on that premise might restrict users from being able to vote for a story they really love, if say, the author of that story is unknown or hasn't been around in years.

With that being said, one idea that I am knocking around in my head that might carry some merit, would be proposing we have an Author of the Month contest as well. Seeing as how each story means something different to the one who wrote it, offering two means of recognition could be a large morale boost and great incentive to keep people writing around here.

I am just tossing out ideas at this point, but if anyone likes the concept, I am sure I could come up with more specifics.