Perhaps there should be some sort of round setup.

Log in to see images!For the first 3-4 days, new ideas can be submitted. It would mainly function the way it does now, except instead of showing the higher-voted threads first, it would show threads with fewer total votes (up or down) first. After the first few days it seems like most of the submissions are either duplicates or not as good, and I doubt very many of them would ever make it to the final selected ideas.

Log in to see images!After that, all ideas with less than a certain calculated threshold (of the up/down vote score, not total votes – and it would be calculated based on standard deviations from the max or what-have-you) disappear, and the voting starts over on the remaining threads/styles. Often times I find myself upvoting something I later see as inferior to an idea that hadn’t been submitted yet, and I wish I could have downvoted it – this two-phase voting system would let people view most or all of the items through once before making a final decision.

Log in to see images!I think for this second phase of voting, it would be nice to have a bigger range available to vote on (1-5, I think someone suggested something like this) so you could order them better from your most to least favorites. You should be able to change your vote after you’ve already voted, and the rating should not be shown at all during the second phase. Once again, I think sorting items by total votes would be the best approach, though towards the last 2 days it would be better to switch it to the higher rated items showing first so ties could be broken.

Log in to see images!With a submissions deadline like this, I think it would give everyone the opportunity to vote on all the potential items, as the number of items you haven’t voted on yet would only go down after the first phase cutoff.

Log in to see images! Corion edited this message on 03/07/2008 12:50AM