Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Fun with Polls How do you vote?

Since we have no ceremonies coming up in the near future, I thought I could ask you this:

How do you vote for the L&C awards, i.e. the Kerths?

1) Let's assume that there are two stories nominatd. One of them is written by a friend of yours and the other one written by someone else. You liked more the second one. Which one do you vote?

2) Let's assume YOU are nominated in a category. You'd prefer vote your story, vote a friend's story, vote the best story no matter who wrote it, or not vote at all?

If you think that this is something private, you can just answer the questions in the poll and not comment.

Thank you.
AnnaBtG.

P.S.: I didn't answer because I have never voted.

I think it's important to be honest and vote for the best story no matter who it's written by. Friendships shouldn't get it the way, and neither should the fact that you were nominated.

Anyway, that's just my two cents.

Caroline

I said that if I were nominated in a category, I'd vote for whichever story I felt was the best, regardless of whether it was written by me or a friend. I've had to make this choice a few times in the last few years... sometimes I've voted for a different story, sometimes I've decided that my story was the best (I try to be objective here but it might not be possible) and voted for myself, sometimes I've refrained from voting at all.

When I'm voting, btw, I notice that the names of my friends do keep coming up... but I think it's just the opposite of voting only for people I like. I think it's that the authors whose work I most admire are the ones I want to be friends with in the first place -- and if I like his/her writing so much, it's likely that we share similar views of the characters, etc, and would have a good basis to become friends.

But when an utter unknown comes in and writes a brilliant story, I'm the first in line to vote for that story. Heck, I've sometimes voted for stories written by people whom I actively disliked at the time <g>

You guys know I've been around FOLCdom for a long while, and I know a lot of other FOLCs -- some of whom are my friends, most of whom I generally like, and a small minority who piss me off royally. But I do try to keep my Kerth voting focused on the stories, not my feelings toward the authors.

PJ

I would definately vote for the best story, because what would be the point of the awards if the best man didn't win? I would probably never vote for my own story, because in the past, whenever I've written a story, I've thought it was horrible afterwards!

Good thinking questions.

The first one was a no-brainer for me; I'll always vote for the best story. Who wrote it just doesn't come into play when I make a decision.

I had to think about the second one for a bit, and I finally decided I wouldn't vote at all if I was nominated for something. I mean, let's say it was a close race or something. I wouldn't want to be the deciding vote in my own category. I'd rather let the rest of FOLCdom decide what they think is the best story, and there are plenty of other categories for me to participate in.

Jen

Pam pretty much sums it up for me. Who wrote a story just doesn't figure in my voting pattern and quite often I've bypassed stories written by friends because I felt that someone else's story was better in the category.

Of course, I can't say I never vote for a friend's story - because I'm good friends with a lot of authors there's been more than a few times when all the eligible stories in a category have been by friends.

But, always, it's the story that counts, not who wrote it.

On the second question - I've never voted for myself; I simply find the thought of that embarrassing enough, never mind doing it. At some point I did decide that voting against myself was taking things a tad too far, so mostly in the past I've just abstained from a category I've been nominated in. Now and then though I've voted for someone else, if I've been really impressed by their story and want them to win something for it.

LabRat

1) I would vote for the story I liked best, no matter who wrote it. After all, that's why the Kerths are held, right? To determine which is the best story / which is the best author. We don't want to know who has the most FoLC friends.

2) This question was a bit hard to answer, but I finally decided that I would not be able to vote honestly when I myself was nominated. I would like my story best of course. After all I have invested lots of time in it. But, as I said under 1), the best is to win...and it wouldn't be fair if I voted then.

I have to admit that I have never before voted in a Kerth ceremony. So let me explain why I took the poll, still.
Voting in general has IMO certain characteristics: most of the time there are ppl there who you know, who are your friends. Then, too, it's important to vote for the person best fit for the job, even if that means voting against your friend.
The same applies when you yourself are nominated. At least in my opinion. Of course, there have been people in history who won an election by one vote. The one they gave themselves. Still, *I* wouldn't vote for myself in such a case, nor for my competitors.

~Sira

True... and it's even more common in the Kerths, probably due to the much smaller number of overall votes; some of those races are extremely tight.

A year or two back, a story of mine won... and I was told that it had beat the nearest competitor by only one vote, and that story itself was only one vote ahead of the third in line... When I heard that, I had a retroactive panic attack <g> because that was one of the years where I'd decided not to vote in that category. And I have to say, that if I had *lost* by one vote -- the vote I *didn't* cast for myself -- I would have been hitting myself upside the head <g> But on the other hand, it was pretty cool to know that it won without my vote...

PJ

Sira, perfectly put. Couldn't agree more.

LabRat

I would vote for the best story, of course! Regardless of who wrote it. But if I liked several stories and would rate them the same, then I'd probably vote for an author I know and like and still feel good about it.

I'd never vote for my own story. Somehow that would feel like cheating. Anyway, I can't imagine I'd ever regard one of my stories as the absolute best on the noms list. But for argument's sake: let's say I'd honestly feel that way - then I would not vote at all; I'd rather let other FoLCs choose.

Ursie

I'd vote for the best story. Otherwise, what's the point? And even though I don't write fanfic, I would never vote for my own story. It's just the way my brain works, I guess.

I don't like the Kerths. And I wont vote for anyone anymore.

It just makes me want to quit my hobby.
I don't like the Kerths!