Nomination Validations and Voting Steps

[Audra Allen]

Ok, we've got roughly 35 nomination lines in (I'm throwing out Flippers first as that was just a test and my two "test" entries; scoobsters said she wanted her first attempt deleted -- but don't delete it if you see just one)   I actually think we should not delete anything, but just create a column that says "delete" in case we need to revert.

It is best to "download" the responses to your own spreadsheet rather than work on the live google doc (could risk dumping it and breaking the form preventing more nominations from coming in)

Being the main person to handle the nominations form and voting form last year, I know what the next steps are:

1) The "write-in" nominations need to be validated:

     a) are they in South Australia?

     b) were they hidden between 1/1/2012 and 31/12/2012?

     c) if nominated in a size or type category, are they nominated in the correct one?

     d) are the "Best Of" nominees nominated elsewhere?  If so, in what categories and how many --- we can use the frequency of nomination for determining which category it stays in.

 2) The Voting form needs to be built

    a) it can be started now but can't be finalized until 18 March to ensure all nominations have been submitted

    b) Yes, it needs to be an online form; now that everyone has used Google to nominate, probably best to stay with Google -- I can provide lessons :)

 3) We need to finalize the algorithm to determine Geocacher of the Year award (we can call it anything you like)  

    a) What statistics will be used to determine eligibility?

    b) how many cachers will it be limited to?  (the stats may give us a nice neat list -- I'd say maximum 10)

    c) when it is placed on the form it needs to have a description to describe the statitics used

  4) we need to finalize what the rules for voting will be

    a) do we limit geocachers to be able to vote only for caches they have found?  

    b) do we limit to one vote per geocaching team name?

    c) what other rules?

I am over-committed and need to not volunteer for anything but putting in my 2 cents above.  So, any volunteers?  

The items above need to happen quickly so we can publish the voting form very soon after Nominations are finalized.  We want the South Australia geocachers to have the maximum time available to vote on their favourite caches, right?  We need to be able to give them at least two weeks to vote, so there's a small window to work with the data --- we can't forget to give ourselves a day or two AFTER the votes are closed to review the votes.

Once the voting form is up it will be very important to VALIDATE each submitted form

   1) are they eligible to vote?

    2) are they a genuine geocacher?

   3) and if we put in the rule to limit votes to only caches the submitting geocacher has FOUND we need a very systematic way to verify it

Then I leave the rest to Gayle to head-up because she's the queen of the Awards event and knows how to keep it FUN!

[sef]

Great minds must be thinking alike as I was just writing some stuff as well.

First of all I would like to post the following on facebook. Can you let me know before tonight if you object:

" Here’s a reminder that nomination for the SA Geocaching awards close next Sunday, March 17.

The event itself will be announced very shortly on geocaching.com.

Just to clarify (as there have been some comments of confusion in previous threads), the form is for nominations only. We have suggested the most popular caches to be nominated, but you may have other caches you wish to nominate. Once nominations close we will compile your submissions and create a voting list. Caches on the initial nomination list, that do not receive any nominations from you will not be included on the final voting form.

So if you haven’t done so already, get crackin’!"

In reply to your queries:

* I am happy to do the compilations, validations and vote counting. We do need to decide how many entries we will have in each category.

* Can you do the form building?

* Are we definitely doing 'Hider of the year"? I'll compile some of my stats and will send them over the next couple of days. Is this a slippery slope for which we may cop some flack?

* I don't think we can enforce that in order to vote you will have to have found the cache. Logically this will be the case anyway. I think it'll be way to much work to check every entry

* Each team can only vote once, even teams that consist of more than one cacher (eg Burtons, scargoes, wibbles etc)

* Lastly..... happy 40th Birthday and enjoy your weekend down South.

Sef

 

 

[gayledolphin]

I think the Cache of the year is Kudos for the hider, but it was down to a geocache that had the most votes that got the gurnsey

If people want to give their one vote per category to one that they have not found, well, as we don't disclose the voting numbers I am not interested in checking, last year we just printed a chart that had no numbers, but showed voting levels, no one asked for exact numbers, and after all.. we are not asking them for anything apart from coming along and celebrating the past year of cache placements.

The thing I did, and even then I did not get it all finished was when the voting form was finalised, I went and put as many notes on geocaches as I could about being nominated, I think I even uploaded the nomination graphic I created. I would like to per-prepare the certificates in publisher, ready to add the names, I need to make sure I have enough ink & lamination pouches for the certificates. I think the last 2 path tags have now been shipped, they should be here in about 10 days.All the little öscar"prizes were all purchased by us when we were in the States, nothing fancy this year. There will be a certificate.

I will help check stuff where I can but the web stuff is outside my brain at present.

Gayle

[chillibutts]

I'm volunteering for some "behind the scenes" work. As I have said a few time .."just tell me what to do".  I am expecting an email that says "Darren, we need you to ...".

I am flat out with work and travel, but those lonely nights away could easily be filled with data verification ... Ooooh, the excitement!! LOL.  

But seriously, count me in. I know nothing about google functionality tho. And, if I am doing data verification I assume someone will email me a data set to verify etc.- I know how to use surveygizmo/monkey etc, so imagine it must be similar - surely.

On Friday, March 8, 2013 4:16:10 PM UTC+10:30, Audra Allen wrote:

[chillibutts]

btw, I agree with Sef's responses below.  I would think you could have only 5 or 6 caches max to vote on, picking the top 5 or 6 nominated caches in each category.

How many entries do we get? and I assume we get a datafile (in excel or similar) to work with? Is that tight?