I just had one of those "wait - did I post that to my personal account?" moments. Yes. Yes I did. :)

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Week 8 has started   therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1159092.html

But Week 7 still has some serious unfinished business that needs to be resolved.   therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1158893.html

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The closer we get to the end, the more it's going to hurt to lose people. But honestly, that's how it is for me every single week of these things. I never want to see people go, but it's the entire point of the exercise.  It's what keeps us moving forward. 

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Speaking of moving forward - let's look back on a couple questions I received today about the voting. It echoes something I thought about a few weeks ago about the votes, so I figured I'd touch on both topics. 

(1) This is the one from my own head:  Just to remind people that encouraging your friends and family to show up to support you is fantastic. Not a single problem with it. BUT if you know that your Uncle Joe set up a DW account to vote, LET ME KNOW so when I see that account I will know "Oh, that's Uncle Joe and not flag it as a potential problem" (someone setting up fake accounts) That's something that hasn't been an issue in a very long time - and this mini season has only had a couple "Uncle Joe" accounts and none of them (thus far) has impacted the results. But I haven't said anything in a really long time either and some people weren't here the last time I said it. So just as a reminder of the existing rule- LET ME KNOW. 

(2) This is the one I've been asked a couple different times, both today and a few weeks back - Why are votes disappearing? "I had 11 votes a few minutes ago and now I have 10!"   I have not seen anything from DW support about a potential issue with polls. So I did the next step and checked it myself.  I was able to click "Edit your votes" and it listed ALL of the votes that I had cast.  Which answers the number one suspect - "The LJ Glitch", which is something that happened on Livejournal (which, DW code is the same, so that was definitely a potential culprit)  where if you hit 'edit my votes" it took you back to the voting screen but deleted all of your previous votes. You had to remember everyone you had supported the first time and hope you got it right. But in the meantime, those old votes were gone. 

So that didn't seem to be an issue. 

HOWEVER, there is a button right next to it that says "Clear Vote" (paraphrased, but let's go with that) which deliberately does what that glitch did - takes away all of your votes and gives you a clean slate.  If someone were to accidentally hit that button, that would eliminate 1 vote from everyone they voted for... it would also impact the list of voters (and when they voted) that DW keeps for admins. So if I saw a name originally and then didn't see it again, that would be my best guess.  However, to the best of my knowledge, I don't see that has occurred, at least not in the last couple of weeks. (it is something to watch out for when you vote in the future)
Which leads  me into the more straightforward reasons why your vote might change - someone liked your entry, but your votes are pretty close to someone else's and they liked their entry better. You see that shifting toward the end, I know at least one person who LIKES ties, and some who hate them.  If you and I are about to go into a tie-breaker, I'm probably not going to want to give you my vote any more.  Especially if another person might decide to break the tie by giving you an extra vote... all of a sudden I've just voted myself out of the game!!

(Hint: No one ever wants to vote themselves out of the game) 

There's the school of thought that votes early and for everyone they like all at once and doesn't edit a single vote. There are the people who come late and votes for everyone they like all of once and doesn't even have the time to edit their votes even if they want to.. and then there is the majority of people in between those.  Some will only vote for themselves early on - but then add votes as they read other people's entries, one or two at a time. And yeah, there will be a time when someone has put a "I usually like their work" vote and then decides that this week didn't quite live up to it.  (Note: I haven't had that conversation with a voter THIS week, or even this mini season. But I have had it before, where they just couldn't vote for that person that week and it was weird  but they wanted to make sure it was OK to edit their vote.) 

My answer to them - and anyone else - is YES. You can edit your vote, for any reason you want to edit your vote.  This is a function of a poll, it's not locked down to a "final answer"... regardless of where it is located, most polls have an edit function where your responses can evolve right up until they close. DW is no different. 

It can be confusing, and more than a little emotional at times to think you have more votes and then suddenly you have less. It can be easy to take it personally. The *most* personal thing about it though, is the scenario of where they want to support keeping someone else.  And even that isn't about you, it's about that other writer. (easier said than internally processed. I definitely understand that!! But I wanted to put it out there.) 

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There's my soapbox and/or answers for the weekend. Any more questions? 

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Oh, my hanging out with a former coworker....yeah, it was weird. Not him. He was fine. ME. I was being weird about it. It really did feel like he was friends with my abusive ex. I want to hang out more, but probably not anytime in the near future. I need more space to continue to grow and process.  (I'm sure it's nothing that getting my unemployment check wouldn't heal... IF that ever happens!) 

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Who has ideas for bycatch already? Who is having difficulties?