I noticed that today, right before the cash prize was announced, my caption, Crocodile Undie, was the top one, but then when the prize was announced, my caption disappeared off the list. I wonder what happened.
Yes I was intrigued by this too, as great as Mr Dome’s caption was, surely the caption with the most votes from people (and therefore liked the most by more people) should win?
Yep, it may seem unfair, and I do feel bad for Scrijjy, but the short list has always been just that, a short list.
Back in the day, Chris, as the sole funder of the prize money, would choose his favourite caption from the short list, which would be the month’s winner. It was never necessarily the caption with the most votes for the month.
Nowadays the prize is still significantly funded by Chris, but also by cash contributors to the site. As such, Chris runs a poll allowing these contributors to pick their favourite/s from the short list. The top choice of the prize contributors is awarded the prize.
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I wonder if it’s worthwhile making this a bit more transparent, that the winner will be selected from the top voted captions, to avoid confusion in the future? (Eg where is says ‘this months shortlist’, saying something like, ‘the winner will be selected from the shortlist’)
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Yeah, it’s kind of been common knowledge, Kate, but you’re probably right that it should be made more transparent for those who haven’t been informed of it in the past, or have read past discussions.
As an aside, a second place prize is sometimes awarded if the funds are there to do so. At present, they probably aren’t. Had they been, Scrijjy would likely have received a second place prize this month. More contributors would help in these cases.
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Why have a second vote at all when the first vote is much more democratic? (‘blind’ instead of ‘open’ and many more voters).
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Yeah, fair point Dave. My opinion has always been that back in the day, Chris was the sole prize contributor and had the right to give that prize to whomever he saw fit. Now, with numerous contributors, the same logic applies.
There are also factors such as picture selection, early Finds, even time of day, that will see some captions on one photo get more votes than other captions of equal quality on another photo. Choosing a winner from the short list somewhat negates these factors.
Personally, I wouldn’t mind if the short list was opened up to everyone to vote on, but at the same time, the Contributors are funding the prize, so I don’t think them choosing who receives that prize is unfair either.
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I didn’t know that either. That sounds really good that contributors can help choose the winner. Chris says somewhere that the winner isn’t necessarily the caption with the most votes. I remember reading it years ago. Squjji’s caption was excellent though but at least this way gives any of us in the top 5 in with a chance which is more exciting. I’ve been there once. 2 of us had 27 points but I was pipped at the post. I was just thrilled to get a score over 16 at the time lol. It’s taken me 9 years to get a couple of good ones here and there but I just love it when you let a lol supervote. That’s my prize.
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The first round of voting is open to anyone, including people that signed up minutes ago. There’s no cost for signing up an account, so I could sign up dozens. If there was only one round of voting, I could use my multiple accounts to vote my own caption to the top of the leaderboard.
On the other hand, it’s nearly impossible to defraud the system now it has two rounds of voting. The only voters allowed to vote in the second round are cash contributors. So, if you want to fraudulently win £50 you’d probably have to spend more than £50. And we’d be able to spot dodgy votes in the second round much more easily because it’s a smaller group of voters.
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I had no idea anyone could open multiple accounts (My internet skills are zero). In that case I suppose we must stick with the present system.
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