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Who was that masked man ?

Speaking of Kai ....
I vote to bring back 2015.

sinjin7 wrote:I will donate a brick (the contents TBD until a thread is put up where people can list their prizes they're donating). I will ship for free to the winner if (s)he is located in the U.S. and I will split the cost of shipping if the winner is outside of the U.S.

In the past, I didn't think many people tried to game the contest and rig their answers to maximize their chances of winning instead of voting for their actual favorite decks. My opinion has changed since last year, however. The only way to get a "true" result is to make the prizes independent of the voting, which means to award the prizes by random draw. Based upon the discussions last year, this didn't seem to be a popular solution. I would not be in favor of some hybrid method where our voting would be weighted in some way or by casting multiple votes, that's just too technically complex. Either keep it as is or make the prize distribution completely random.

So the issue is do enough people think the current system is broken? I'm not at that point yet. We have some damn awesome prizes in this contest, so I can see why some (maybe even subconsciously) may skew their votes in hopes of landing a great prize. But I don't think it's blatant to the point of overhauling the voting system. Having said that, if Mike and the Mods conclude the contest has become more about winning prizes than voting your conscience, then I am putting it out there that I wouldn't be opposed to randomizing the prize distribution to achieve fair and accurate voting.

I kind of like the idea where you vote on what you liked best in each category. Then, random draw!

I am firmly in the camp that we vote for the actual best deck in each category and each vote gets you a random ticket for a prize. For the people that really like the ability to guess what the winner will be, perhaps have an additional prize and additional vote for most popular deck of the year. Thus all vote for their real favorite deck in all categories, including deck of the year. However, you then also vote for what you think the masses will vote for deck of the year.

I always tried to vote with what I felt, but for categories I didn't care as much about or when it was a tie, the one I thought was more popular would get the nod. I would like to avoid that this year. The downside of this method is there is no open audit-ability, but I trust the mods. There's also a number of sites to outsource the leg work for free.

I am hoping to sort through my box of decks in the next few days and see what I may be able to offer as a prize this year.

vasta41 wrote: I agree that it would be nice for there to be a way for people to actually vote for their favorites and not everyone else's favorites. Unfortunately your proposal doesn't solve the problem. In fact there's no way to solve this problem because the "honor system" leaves a human element that just can't be accounted for. So I like where your head's at but I feel like "if it's ain't broke don't fix it." Changing the voting presents just as much room for "lying" and "juking the stats" as the current model so why not just keep the current model?
I for one have always voted with my heart and will continue to do so.
*NOTE* In the past Kai used to post everyone's votes after the drawing so if someone put "Legal Tender" for every single category (... ) to try and cheat, at least they would be held accountable afterwards.

You are correct, I concede that my suggestion still has a 'conflict of interest' problem, thereby not really solving the issue. Does it lessen the problem? Yes. Does it really fix it? Not really. It was the first fix that I could think of that popped into my head, I realized it had a flaw but was hoping to brainstorm a fix. Doesn't seem like there's an easy solution, and it does seem that others have thought about this before.

I will say that I'm not a fan of the "random draw" for the prize winners, it kind of feels like it cheapens the efforts of the voters. Someone who spent their time carefully voting will get the same chance as someone who voted the same deck in every category or just voted hastily. My experience on other collectors forums tells me that if free prizes are given to minimal effort, we'll start seeing dozens/hundreds of silent non-contributing accounts start voting randomly to get a chance at a prize, and those are the exact people we don't want to get a prize, people who only speak up when they can get something for free. I also in general like that a voter has some control over their outcome, which makes it like a game instead of a sweepstakes or lottery.

So my suggestion was a dud, but I'm hoping that if nothing else, as things proceed with this years votes, we can think of ways to improve 'the game' as I originally brought up. Maybe a weighted point system, or finding a way to give more points for voting for an underdog like with "vegas odds" or something, I know these suggestions might also be duds, but I'm again just hoping others can get on my wavelength and help find a better way.

I don't get the aversion to random drawing, people should be able to just vote for what deck they think is best. If there's a concern for scamming the system then since this is supposed to be from UC members then we can have eligibility requirements (such as must have been member since July 1 or other date and/or have at least 20 posts, etc). That would remove concern about somebody joining and voting, but is that a realistic problem??? Just state that admins have the right to refuse any entry based on their discretion as needed which will be published for transparency. Somebody votes for the same deck in every category, that's OK, but any entry where it doesn't fit can be pulled. Somebody joined last week and wants to participate, that's fine too.

We want actual input from as many as possible, the prizes are supposed to be a bonus and not the primary factor anyhow. By making the system benefit those who pick the winner just shuts out designers who took a chance and just increases the 1% vs the others.

Whatever, I'm starting to feel this isn't worth arguing over, but do think random better than current. I will just say maybe let the person/company donating the deck get to choose (random vs most popular). Of course the more complicated it gets the more work it is for those running it and then it will die off from lack of support. Another reason I prefer the random approach, with eligibility requirements if needed.

Well, I have just listened - so far.

We have been through the efforts to "fix" the contest or rather the way we vote, and I am still waiting to hear anything that truly fixes the problem without having to completely revamp the entire process.

I have been absent again with major family issues, including my mother and my mother in law being in and out of the hospital multiple times over the past few months and I don't forsee me having a resolution to those problems with my MIL now in rehab/rest home since prior to Thanksgiving. I am dealing with it pretty well, but the wife - not so much.

Anyway, Allan has volunteered to take up the mantle and coordinate the Decks of the Year 2017 contest for us this year, so please coordinate prizes and things through him..

I will put out a request using the mass mailer to artists and designers requesting they contribute to the prize bank, and aa always we truly appreciate those of you who can adding to the stack of goodies.

We're behind to start with, just like with getting Rick's DeNovo (UC2018 Sixth Annual Decks) going, so expect that to get moving very soon as well.

Joe has built a great spreadsheet to fairly track votes in our 1st, 2nd, 3rd point based scoring, and I am going to ask everyone to hold off on suggestions for fixing things until we are done so both are not trying to keep up with a moving target and then we can get into a serious discussion about what, where and how to make changes that are fair to the people voting and the artists without losing the overall flavor of the contest process and outcome.

If you want to help out, please volunteer with Allan ("rousselle" here).

Joe: is there some way to get him more room for personal mail storage? I created two new archives to keep things straight, but it seems like there should be a better solution, maybe?

I will contribute, too. Figuring out what I can offer. Definitely 1-2 SANCTUS decks and maybe something on top of that.
Happy new Year to everybody!

Bruno wrote:Baby, that was years ago .... **
(You shoulda been there, Tom)

Young Brad is onto it ....
Purely poetry and license, not neccessarily entwined ....

.... for those un-australians, ** 'Cold Chisel - Cheap Wine'
Chisel second only to AckerDacka !*
See *Powderfinger-*INXS-*Midnight Oil *&co*&co*&co

But enough of this guff, back to our theme ....

Settle in to play "do you remember so and so?"
Number three is never say her name.

I'll give away a brick for the contest. Will contain at least 1 or 2 pairs of Turku's Castle decks, 1 pair of L&H decks, 1 or 2 unopened Grimauds plus some more "mainstream" stuff.

Sorry to be radio silent the last few days; been crazy busy here.

I'll get the ball rolling this weekend to kick off the awards/contest. Details coming Very Soon Now!

Shhhhhhh! There's prizes on offer now!

We'd love to offer up some prizes. Still got a couple Launch editions in the vault. Would also love to be considered for marked deck of the year for our 101 backs.

We can offer 10 x £25 vouchers for our site if that's something that would work.

So, is this like happening sometime? Don't want to rush but I just want to get to vote And the upcoming finnish presidential elections just don't cut it.

Räpylätassu wrote:So, is this like happening sometime? Don't want to rush but I just want to get to vote And the upcoming finnish presidential elections just don't cut it.

Allan ("rouselle") is working on it. I know that he's busy with work.

I'll be posting info very soon. We did, for what it's worth, vote in February last year, too.

But, yes, it's coming. Very soon. Sorry for the delay.

Hi everyone, I would like to contribute a brick of Limited edition Ace Treasure Pirates plus another brick of standard edition Ace treasure pirates and 2 Uncut sheets. This is the least we can do for the incredible support everyone has showed us. Thanks so much. Will see what else we can add.