Mosts 2016 Preparation

[Zha Hong Lang]

The end of 2016 is approaching, and with that, the mosts are coming up. However, rather than making rushed decisions at the last minute like was done last year, this year we're going to (hopefully) more clearly define how the mosts are going to be run.

Without further ado...

anomaly is doing the mosts now

old stuff:

The Schedule
In this schedule, the discussion for mosts is split up into topics, each topic lasting an allotted time of one week. Depending on the situation, a topic could either be shorter or longer than one week. What's important is that everyone either comes to a reasonable decision, or if a poll is created, there are enough votes cast to select a generally favoured option.

• October 1st - 7th : Who will host the Mosts for 2016?
  During this week, the event organizer will be decided. Just because I've made this topic doesn't necessarily mean that I might run the mosts, if anyone else is interested, then they can have the opportunity to host. (This topic doesn't have to be managed by me either, I've just made this schedule as guidelines for how discussion could go)
• October 8th - 14th : Mosts Creation, Topic 1: How will the mosts be created?
  Will the mosts be created during the voting process, or will the topics be created by a bot at the start of the voting season, à la mosts 2014? Or, will something else never done before be decided?
• October 15th - 21th : Mosts Creation, Topic 2: What will be the content of the mosts?
  Last year's rules regarding the content of mosts will be shown, and people will discuss what changes they'd like (if any) to be added this year. Things that might be discussed are whether or not meta mosts can be made, what sort of quality or negativity might be allowed, and whatnot.
• October 22nd - 28th : Mosts Creation, Topic 3 : Caps on how much people can create mosts
  Mostly an issue if people can create their own topics for voting in. However, if an alternate system is put into place, then this may or may not have relevance.
• October 29th - November 4th : Decide what constitutes a vote in a mosts topic
  Can't get much more straightforward than this. Decide on what people are allowed to use in their vote, and in what format their vote can be in.
• November 5th - 12th : Mosts banner design
  How will the mosts be created and designed? Discuss different possible methods here, and which design might look best.
• November 13th - 19th : Voting Period Scheduling
  If people want to vote for four weeks, they can. Or four days. The specific starting and stopping date will be discussed here.

- ADDITIONAL TOPICS -
(you don't really have to care about these if you don't want to)

• Showrunner split into multiple roles?
• Ties referendum? (again, doesn't have to happen)

Again, this is just a quickly fabricated guidelines schedule that doesn't have to represent absolutely everything which goes down. After the first week, it should only really matter that all the subjects that need to be addressed, are addressed.

And with that, let the discussion begin.



Topic One: Who will Run the Mosts for 2016?

Update: I've decided not to be showrunner anymore. Whoever is interested in filling this position, please post here to run the mosts.

Here's what I used to have written here:

Given the fact that I was voted into the position of running for mosts last time, I think it should be more than fair enough for the same to happen this time, especially if someone else may want to be showrunner this year. (it's been a while since I last heard people discuss about mosts, so I don't know things for sure)

Once at least one person besides me expresses interest in running the mosts, I'll create a list of candidates here.





Now, I'll discuss what I would be like as showrunner this year.

Things that would be the same from last time

• I can still count votes and create mosts as easily, if not more easily than last time.
• I would still generally give people the same amount of freedom they had last time, although maybe do so a tad bit more wisely due to mistakes I made in 2015.
• I enjoyed making the mosts last year, so I'll still carry the same enthusiasm I did before, hopefully.

Things that might be better than before

• I'm a better programmer than I was last year, and I could codify a solution to count votes in each topic.
• Due to having done this already, I could manage the mosts with better performance than before.
• The font kerning in visitor-outline (the font we use to create mosts) is FINALLY fixed, meaning that the text in the mosts won't look so awkward anymore!
• If I have time, I might be able to codify a solution to create mosts bars in addition to counting votes. (note: probably not though)

Things that will be worse than before

• I'm much busier this year than last year. Before, I was a homeschooled Junior with nothing better to do, now I'm a Senior in an international school with multiple responsibilities stemming from that alone, as well as having to apply to college, and pay attention to other vested interests of mine. The Talkhaus mosts will be only one of all these other priorities.
• Although I still have a three-week vacation over holiday season, more time of it will be spent on other things. I have friends, relatives, many other people coming over during this time that I normally wouldn't be able to meet, and I wish to spend the time I can with them.
• If I'm elected, I will not make changes on how the mosts are handled during the voting/post-voting periods. Once we come to conclusions about how the mosts will be run, those conclusions will be final. Unless serious malfunction occurs, this principle will be very firmly held.
• I've been out of the talkhaus loop for a while, so I haven't really gotten to know recent memes, events, or other sorts of things. Frankly put, I'm not much of a talkhauser. Would this matter to you?

If you'd like to run the talkhaus mosts, feel free to post! I can also place your details for being showrunner here as well.[/spoiler]

[ano0maly]

If I'm elected, I will not make changes on how the mosts are handled during the voting/post-voting periods. Once we come to conclusions about how the mosts will be run, those conclusions will be final. Unless serious malfunction occurs, this principle will be very firmly held.

Why is this a bad thing? The prime complaint in past Mosts (especially 2013) was last-minute changes after voting finished. Win criteria changes, and threads that people thought had winners not getting their wins. Basically, people feeling stiffed and misled that their votes didn't count the way they thought.

As for userbars, this site's available.

[Zha Hong Lang]

If I'm elected, I will not make changes on how the mosts are handled during the voting/post-voting periods. Once we come to conclusions about how the mosts will be run, those conclusions will be final. Unless serious malfunction occurs, this principle will be very firmly held.

Why is this a bad thing? The prime complaint in past Mosts (especially 2013) was last-minute changes after voting finished. Win criteria changes, and threads that people thought had winners not getting their wins. Basically, people feeling stiffed and misled that their votes didn't count the way they thought.

The main reason that I put this under bad is because it's a double-edged sword. It can lead to a very straightforward, no-surprise Mosts session, or some people might wish something was done differently at the last minute, like last year. In this year's case, people who do something like that won't be listened to.

As for userbars, this site's available.

If worst comes to worst, I might use that site. Although right now I don't really want to, since I find it rather time consuming in comparison to creating my own mosts generating tool beforehand. (one that I can feed a data sheet, and come out with all the mosts in a matter of seconds)

[FusionWarrior]

Would I qualify for most inactive or most sickly? Lol idk

[AUS]

I don't even care about the Mosts, I won the best one back in 2013.
edit: for context, I even faded the background color out to transparent slowly over most of the next year (like a bit every month) just to let it sink in.

[nothobz]

i hope i win

[InsaneIntentions1]

The mosts were always dumb

[Mata Hari]

The mosts were always dumb

why have you got them in your sig then

[InsaneIntentions1]

The mosts were always dumb

why have you got them in your sig then

Because it's stupid :^)

[Zha Hong Lang]

So, after some hard thinking, I've decided not to be the showrunner this year. As fun as it'd be, I think that most of the enjoyment comes from being an involved member in the community, and I don't really feel like one. I might consider doing the mosts if I ever became involved enough with the talkhaus again, but for right now I'd rather spend my time elsewhere.

[Willhart]

Update: I've decided not to be showrunner anymore. Whoever is interested in filling this position, please post here to run the mosts.[/b]

I think it'd be nice if the mods could organize the mosts. I think they know best how to make these things happen, and are the ones with the power to make new forums and such. I also don't think it needs anything too complicated.

[Mata Hari]

Allow me to state categorically that I ain't doing it

[ano0maly]

To be honest I've been having interest in hosting a mosts, but I don't know if I should given less available time per week this year.

If a mod is hosting it I would suggest Jesuiscontent to host it since he's been around long and he knows how it works well (and tell him to give raocow access this time)

[AUS]

Jesuiscontent does know how to run community events. Though mostly just guessing music.

[ano0maly]

Seeing as how no one has posted anything here in over a month, and I'm basically the only one that indicated interest when there were posts, I think I will share how I would like to host the Mosts for 2016.

Having said this, I'm considering co-running the Mosts with someone else, although I'm not sure yet what that would mean.

Duration

It will begin sometime in December. It could be as early as the 1st if people want.

Voting will last for at least 10 days, maybe for two weeks.

Wins

The threshold for a thread to have a winner is 7 votes, per 2012 standards. That's at least 7 votes for the whole thread, not for a winner.

Ties will be co-winners of course, with a separate userbar for each winner. I'm wondering if we should have some kind of an indication of co-wins. Something like having "c-2016" in the userbar so people can recognize that this is not the sole winner.

Voting

• Vote Format: As in the past two years, it would be a good idea to have the vote at the top of the post, by itself, before the rest of the post. I may PM people that don't follow this properly, and I may decide to not count votes that don't adhere to the format. No need to ping me in the posts.
• No self-voting, of course. Joke self-votes can be made, but will not count.
• Don't make your vote too ambiguous, please.
• Vote for one candidate. You can have honorable mentions and whatnot elsewhere in your posts, though they won't count as votes. But please don't say "A or B" or the like. Which one am I even supposed to count?

Threads

I'm considering a cap on the number of voting threads a member can start per day, if I can figure out how to implement that in the Mosts forum. I might need assistance from mods on this, or not. No caps on posts and votes per day.

Some guidelines on making threads:

• I'm leaning no on meta threads. Example of one.
• As for negative threads, I would allow 'worst' threads as long as they're playful and light-hearted, instead of inciting drama. If I see such drama generated by the thread, I'll probably close it.
• If applicable, please make it clear in the thread whether you're supposed to vote for an attribute or a candidate that has the attribute. This caused some confusion in the past.
• Keep it relevant to the year 2016 somehow. No "Best Anime 1998" please.
• Keep it related to talkhaus or at least something of interest to talkhaus. This was a bad idea, I have to note.

raocow's Picks

This is an optional idea I originally had after we found out that raocow didn't get to see the 2015 Mosts forum at all while the event was ongoing.

In an effort to get more participation from raocow, I think it would be nice if there's a recognition for things and people raocow voted for, separate from the winners. Maybe not a userbar, but a small icon?

So, thoughts?

[Zha Hong Lang]

The threshold for a thread to have a winner is 7 votes, per 2012 standards. That's at least 7 votes for the whole thread, not for a winner.

After thinking about it for a little while, it might not be a bad idea to have both a requirement for votes per thread and votes per winner. (so that we don't have something like "Best Writer" last year, which had 4 winners) I was thinking something like 5 votes per thread, 3 votes per winner. Up to you, though.

I'm considering a cap on the number of voting threads a member can start per day, if I can figure out how to implement that in the Mosts forum. I might need assistance from mods on this, or not. No caps on posts and votes per day.

Although I don't believe it's a native function of phpbb3.1, (could be wrong though) there may be an extension that provides a flood restriction in the form of limiting threads per day. Can't verify this, (because I don't use phpbb3.1) but otherwise it shouldn't be that big of a deal. Moderation is what that's for otherwise.

[Bean]

[*]Keep it related to talkhaus or at least something of interest to talkhaus. This was a bad idea, I have to note.

I thought that one would've gone better than it actually did since I think we had it before. Maybe I'm wrong on that. Oops.

[Mata Hari]

raocow's Picks

This is an optional idea I originally had after we found out that raocow didn't get to see the 2015 Mosts forum at all while the event was ongoing.

In an effort to get more participation from raocow, I think it would be nice if there's a recognition for things and people raocow voted for, separate from the winners. Maybe not a userbar, but a small icon?

If raocow is the kind of guy I think he is - and I think he is - I don't think he'd be down with that, but you can just ask him, so my opinion on it doesn't matter

[ano0maly]

After thinking about it for a little while, it might not be a bad idea to have both a requirement for votes per thread and votes per winner. (so that we don't have something like "Best Writer" last year, which had 4 winners) I was thinking something like 5 votes per thread, 3 votes per winner. Up to you, though.

Although I don't believe it's a native function of phpbb3.1, (could be wrong though) there may be an extension that provides a flood restriction in the form of limiting threads per day. Can't verify this, (because I don't use phpbb3.1) but otherwise it shouldn't be that big of a deal. Moderation is what that's for otherwise.

I thought about that too, but I feel that requirement for a winner would make people limit their own choices and bandwagon more. And I think requirement for the threads is enough. 3 per winner isn't that high though, I will admit.

I don't really want to have to enforce thread caps unless it can be set up in the forum system. Although, I suppose there can be use of moderating if there's obvious cases of someone making 12 threads in one hour.



So one question is, when should the Mosts start? Personally I really want to start early December, partly because I don't want this to just sit and wait when it can be ready to start soon. The starts of past Mosts have switched between early December and late December, and I thought we could try early December again this year, since the 2015 Mosts began rather suddenly in the middle of the month with little planning.

[RedMageSusie]

Early Dec would be good if you think you can be ready in time.

[ano0maly]

I've tentatively decided that Mosts will begin on December 8th.

One more thing I want to ask. Should co-winners have indications to distinguish from sole winners? Maybe something as simple as two asterisks around the title? The reason I ask this is because when you see a winner userbar, it doesn't tell you whether there are any other winners for that category.

[Rixithechao]

Sounds like a neat idea, though folks unaware of the fact that there'd be cowinners wouldn't know that's what the asterisks would represent.

A possible alternative could be making a single animated gif that cycles through all the winners of that category, though it'd be extra work when it comes to making them.

EDIT: Whipped up an example in a few different colors.





The templates I made for it (including Paint.NET and Aseprite source files):
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-w32 ... ld4YlkxRHM

[ano0maly]

That would be nice, but the idea was that each winner would get a separate userbar with just that winner shown, and if it's a .gif cycling through winners, it's not really a separate userbar.

Maybe we can just have both separate and cycling versions.

I really like the design of your examples. Maybe we can talk about how you made them? Userbars are something people can continue to discuss during the Mosts.

[Zha Hong Lang]

Man that's the best userbar design I've ever seen

I'm with anomaly on the "one bar per winner" though, because it honestly just feels a little too dense to put them on one bar. That gif looked sweet though.

[Willhart]

I think that movement is kind of distracting.