Elite Designer acceptance voting system

[resurepus]

Introduction:

This post is a brief overview of how the "Attention All Members: _____ needs your votes!" threads work. You may have already seen them in this section and there may actually be several of these up right now. What follows is a breakdown of the system being implemented with these threads.

Basic Idea:

Motivated by our recent "nice work" discussion, we’ve decided that it would be fair for Design Team applicants to be voted upon in terms of their (hopefully meaningful) interaction with others on the forum. Therefore, once a designer has applied to the Design Team via the usual application form and has proven to meet or exceed our standards for Design Team members with his/her portfolio, that designer will be subject to the voting system described below.

More Details:

The voting begins when a thread titled, "Attention All Members: _____ needs your votes!", is posted in the Announcements section; naturally, the blank will be replaced with the username of some DC forum member. Within this newly created thread, users will find a poll-question along the lines of, “Has this forum member contributed positively to your DC experience?” If you believe that the answer is yes, then vote “Yes”; otherwise, you should vote “No” given, of course, that you’ve seen at least a few of the member's posts and strongly believe that there has been no such positive contribution.

In order to pass this voting process, the total number of "yes" votes must exceed the total number of "no" votes by at least two (2) votes . Further to that, if the number of "yes" votes does not exceed the number of "no" votes by at least three (3) votes, then the pass/fail outcome of the poll remains at the full discretion of the administrator running the poll. The administrator may inspect the applicant's profile and/or consider any other relevant information to determine the outcome of the poll.

Please Vote:

The results of these polls will strongly affect the final decision about the Design Team application in question. Therefore, we stress the following:

a. Voting is vital – If you’re not already on the Design Team, then chances are that you too may be voted upon at some point. Please extend the courtesy of voting to others, remembering that you would surely have them do the same for you!

b. We encourage all applicants to keep this voting system in mind at all times; not just before and during, but also after the application process – If your skills are enough to get you through the Design Team door, then we would certainly appreciate it if you could share some of those skills with the rest of the forum members. Be it in the form of an occasional critique or a bit of inspirational work, your contributions to DC will help make it a better place.

Best of luck to all applicants, and thank you for voting!

Important:_______
Please note that, while this voting process is vital to becoming a Design Team member, it does not serve to undermine the required skills that are presented in a designer's portfolio. One should not expect to enter the Design Team based on forum participation alone.
note: the original thread was flooded with offtopic messages and it had to be closed, but if you are still interested you can find it here.

[magaly]

I hope this is the right place to post a question but - I was interested in joining this site for the contests. It wasn't until I saw heavy forum participation was a requirement that I sort of lost myself.

I thought you just needed forum posts to guarantee the person trying to join isn't a bot. Now seeing this confuses me a little. The requisites on the principal site say you need to have 10 recent forum posts but here it says members vote depending on whether or not the person has affected the community in a negative or positive way since they've been here. If you are required to post to the point where you affect someone's experience on the forum, why is the post requirement to join the DT so low on the main page? Shouldn't the minimum say something closer to "a minimum of 100 total posts, 10 being within the past 2 months" to both guarantee recent activity and know they've been here long enough to make a mark?

I hope all that made some sense and someone can answer that for me. :{
If forum participation weighs that heavily, I don't know if I'll ever be able to join contests here haha. I am not too good with post consistency on forums, I am on too many.

[guetizo]

Magaly,

yes it makes sense what you wrote, but 100 posts is too much.
A 10 quality posts is enough for us (mods and admins) to verify if the user qualifies or not to become a DTM (DesignTeam member)
Remember that a strong quality portfolio counts too.
Who have all those factors combined has a good change to be a DTM and particpate in the paid contests.

Oh... also, there is some CC's (Community contests) and Non-Profit/Charity Contests where you can participate. Not one at the present moment but they will come soon.

Feel free to browse around..

Paulo

[machineman]

I'm ready to start voting.

[fusion-girl]

I'm confused too, I'm not a bot, but I dont know what to talk about and where. And now voting on people?

[sharie]

I'm confused too, I'm not a bot, but I dont know what to talk about and where. And now voting on people?

Do what you just did on one of my posts (peeves) that is participating in the community. Read through the forums there will be many threads that grab you and you will just have to add your opinion and experience.

Pretty soon you kinda get to know the forum regulars and then you start seeing new names in the forums, the more activity in the forums the more experience and help will show up. There is a lot of info to read and learn in the forums.

sharie

[Coy]

I'm confused too, I'm not a bot, but I dont know what to talk about and where. And now voting on people?

maybe this link will help.
http://www.designcontest.com/forum/a...plication.html

[illumina]

To let everyone know: I am going to be stuck on dialup internet access for a few months, so the application process will not be as quick as I'd like. Please remember, each application is thoroughly reviewed, manually, and portfolios will take quite some time to load on my extremely slow internet connection, it is this that will slow the process down most. Please bare with me and have some patience, I'll be getting back up to speed by the end of fall

[Coy]

Thanks for the update Illumina. I'm sure everyone here appreciates all that go's into this process and for taking the time for doing it.

I'm sure it's pretty much a thankless job and I for one would like to say:
A BIG HUGE.. THANKS

And another big thanks to the other moderators who make this site work.

[mikefortuna]

quick tip -

being a new user on the site, it took me a bit to figure out this whole system. maybe you guys should consider having just one page where a new user visits that provides you the entirety of your site rules/requirements and what exactly an 'Elite Designer' is - just to make this whole process a little less of a mystery to figure out...

although, i do love mysteries

[Coy]

quick tip -

being a new user on the site, it took me a bit to figure out this whole system. maybe you guys should consider having just one page where a new user visits that provides you the entirety of your site rules/requirements and what exactly an 'Elite Designer' is - just to make this whole process a little less of a mystery to figure out...

although, i do love mysteries

I didn't think it was all that difficult. But yeah when searching the forum for the information it's a bit more difficult.
Usually people will stop at the front page and click on "love to design" (i think) There DesignContest.net | For Designers it gives a little over view w/ a link.

The stickies at the top also helps. Maybe I'll post that to all new members instead of the meaningfull post link.

[mikefortuna]

I didn't think it was all that difficult. But yeah when searching the forum for the information it's a bit more difficult.
Usually people will stop at the front page and click on "love to design" (i think) There DesignContest.net | For Designers it gives a little over view w/ a link.

The stickies at the top also helps. Maybe I'll post that to all new members instead of the meaningfull post link.

ya it may have been the way it was presented to me - since i got it from my intro post, i probably didn't see that first thing. thx!

[Euphoria]

It could be worth having a graphical representation of the path through the site (i.e. a flow chart) to make it clearer for people without there being a load of text for people to get through. I'd expect a lot of people who come here to be more responsive to something graphical rather than text, so it'd get the info across faster.

[Coy]

something more illustrative. I'll see if I can come up with a solution.

[scorpionagency]

Just a curiosity question, but first i would like to say that making the acceptance aspects more of a democracy & having voting for community members available is a great idea & i support it.

Now onto the question - Has there ever been a problem (that anyone's noticed) with "NO" votes being casted even though the applicant is qualified & has participated simply because other members may feel intimidated by their skill level & feel that adding them to the community roster would lessen their own chances of winning future contest? I ask because I've seen it happen other places & it's really the only flaw i see in this type of democratic system.

Again, I do support this type of system & think its Great, just curious how those situations are handled if & when they arise.

[sharie]

Just a curiosity question, but first i would like to say that making the acceptance aspects more of a democracy & having voting for community members available is a great idea & i support it.

Now onto the question - Has there ever been a problem (that anyone's noticed) with "NO" votes being casted even though the applicant is qualified & has participated simply because other members may feel intimidated by their skill level & feel that adding them to the community roster would lessen their own chances of winning future contest? I ask because I've seen it happen other places & it's really the only flaw i see in this type of democratic system.

Again, I do support this type of system & think its Great, just curious how those situations are handled if & when they arise.

I think almost all or most all of the DC members are adults and very profesional. As far as malicous type "no" voting ..it happens, but you see the good always wins over the bad. Those immature members don't last long, it always comes back and hits them in the no-seeum areas.

sharie

[scorpionagency]

I think almost all or most all of the DC members are adults and very profesional. As far as malicous type "no" voting ..it happens, but you see the good always wins over the bad. Those immature members don't last long, it always comes back and hits them in the no-seeum areas.

sharie

Thanks for the reply, good to know & I agree that no matter what type of system anyone uses for checks & balances that it will always have a few that try to manipulate it. The most important thing is that it's something that is not tolerated & is actively policed, which is a great reassurance for any potential future applicants

[Coy]

Just a curiosity question, but first i would like to say that making the acceptance aspects more of a democracy & having voting for community members available is a great idea & i support it.

Now onto the question - Has there ever been a problem (that anyone's noticed) with "NO" votes being casted even though the applicant is qualified & has participated simply because other members may feel intimidated by their skill level & feel that adding them to the community roster would lessen their own chances of winning future contest? I ask because I've seen it happen other places & it's really the only flaw i see in this type of democratic system.

Again, I do support this type of system & think its Great, just curious how those situations are handled if & when they arise.

Great question an my $.02 -
I think for the most part that designers enjoy being around other great or better designers since it brings out the best in us with good competition. Not saying that anyone has cast a no vote because they are intimidated, but it could be possible. BUT for the most part I think everyone here tries to vote appropriatly no matter what the skill level. The only way to bring in more contests is to have the best pool of designers available and the designers that participate in the site I believe feel the same way.
It's like picking your football team; you want the best to work with.

[scorpionagency]

Great question an my $.02 -
I think for the most part that designers enjoy being around other great or better designers since it brings out the best in us with good competition. Not saying that anyone has cast a no vote because they are intimidated, but it could be possible. BUT for the most part I think everyone here tries to vote appropriatly no matter what the skill level. The only way to bring in more contests is to have the best pool of designers available and the designers that participate in the site I believe feel the same way.
It's like picking your football team; you want the best to work with.

Thanks for the added insight, I just noticed that voting is not restricted to current Elite Designer & Moderation staff, but is also available to every member (even those with zero post counts). With this in mind I think i can agree for the most part that the current "Elite members" would be less likely to vote based on strategic chances of future winnings, However it might be more likely that new general members & or members that have been repeatedly declined on their application, may harbor a little animosity from the rejection that could effect a vote.

Would you think that the site (in whole or in part) would have a more accurate vote count if the poll was limited to existing staff & elite, kind of like most other membership clubs where it's only the actual inner circle members that have the power to bring in another?

[Coy]

Thanks for the added insight, I just noticed that voting is not restricted to current Elite Designer & Moderation staff, but is also available to every member (even those with zero post counts). With this in mind I think i can agree for the most part that the current "Elite members" would be less likely to vote based on strategic chances of future winnings, However it might be more likely that new general members & or members that have been repeatedly declined on their application, may harbor a little animosity from the rejection that could effect a vote.

Would you think that the site (in whole or in part) would have a more accurate vote count if the poll was limited to existing staff & elite, kind of like most other membership clubs where it's only the actual inner circle members that have the power to bring in another?

nice point to ponder for sure.

Something I've notice is that some registered non elite members that get rejected dissapear quickly after they've been rejected. Only a few of us* that enjoy the site will wait the 60 days to reapply and try to better themselves. Those that don't make it I've seen on sites that have no such structure.

Not saying that it doesn't happen since I cant see who votes but if you look at the lower number on the votes around 8 i believe is an average and 16 or so is high. That would suggest that more of the OG's and those willing to hang around actually take part in the voting.

*My first application was turned down and I found that as an opportunity to better my self and what I was producing. Sent PM's to alot of the elite members to see where I was lacking and worked on those (still working on it actually) areas. I think that this site can be/is more than just a contest site like alot of others.