BoM/TWS Message Forum

Thanks for explaining in detail - while keeping the actual system in relative secrecy - about the influence of GP on free votes. I know you explained it on the blog previously, but having this explanation at a place where it can be pinned and discussed openly can help prevent further discussions like this.

I'll admit that my comment was done out of frustration - particularly since there were so many choices from which to expand the story and yet it remained too close for comfort - but it unwittingly made me consider just how much weigh the GPs have over Free Votes and how it parallels to real-world situations.

Ideally, the system should allow the proliferation of minority choices over majority choices, but I felt that adding any sort of currency to weigh the influence of those Free Votes could mean that the majority could still win. This bit in particular is what still keeps triggering me:

> And if popularity were the only determinant in a poll, the easy and popular would always win.

I feel this isn't entirely true. There *are* undeniably popular characters, and those will always get the most votes. (*coughcoughChelseacoughcough*) However, when all the choices are relatively unpopular, that shouldn't be the case. I feel the greatest example is the Poll where Yumi won over the other choices. I'm pretty sure I'm definitely wrong on this, but if Stephanie has been impersonated by someone other than Will, it's exceedingly rare. However, it's more likely to have Will impersonate Yumi than Stephanie, and because of the cheerleader status, Yumi enjoys a degree of popularity over the other options. My choice was out of story potential more than anything else - and it seems most of the Free Votes thought the same way, or perhaps they prefer Stephanie over Yumi.

When I made the specific comment that "perhaps not just everyone wants to dump GPs", I did it out of frustration, but it exposes one thing to consider within the system. What if someone is passionate about their choice but unable to contribute? (I'd dare say "unwilling" but then it challenges the idea of being passionate.) While some people aren't interested in subscriptions and thus can feel free to contribute at their leisure, some may want to snatch at least a 3-month sub because they want to benefit from the storage space for their own content. (I know - exceedingly rare, but possible.) Perhaps they feel they don't want to commission because it's too costly, and as the poll appears, they become interested in influencing the outcome, but they don't want to spend GP because they're close to purchasing one of the subscriptions. That doesn't make them any less passionate, but it makes their choice harder to consider.

Of course, it's important to notice this is a very fringe case (too many convenient variables), but it's not the only possible case. Maybe the voter is a complete newbie that has no way to spend GPs, or probably spent too many GPs before and can't spend in this case. What I want to point out is that it assumes people have the means to express their passion at all times - and that people that have GP to spare have an advantage over those who don't.

And what I really appreciate is that your explanation delves into how the GP donations could also be detrimental - i.e., the element of uncertainty on how the weight of GPs can upset the choices that would otherwise be "popular". I just feel that it doesn't align exactly with the intention - if people that are too passionate about something eventually end up ruining their vote because they spent far too much GPs and therefore tilted their weight towards other choices - potentially even to the choice that would be considered "popular" - then the system isn't fulfilling its objective. It's important to point out that no system is perfect - that these fringe cases aren't indicative of the system being flawed as a whole. It has led to some interesting upsets, which conforms to its purpose, so the system works. However, it can get wonky when it's not addressing the problem it was meant to deal with - and I feel this is one thing to address. Is it fair to apply this system when the choices aren't the "easy and popular"?