VOTE NOW: The Future of Bonus Polls

TL;DR - Do you want to...

A) Keep the current poll system (2 normal polls + 2 bonus polls)

B) Simplify it to 1 weighted poll for Monthly Images and 1 weighted poll for Monthly ZSE packs (higher tiers have their votes doubled at the end)

C) Abolish bonus votes– do 1 simple poll for Images and 1 simple poll for ZSE packs, and unlock commission discounts or another perk for the $2 and $5 tiers

Vote and comment with your feedback! I might try a simpler poll system in September.

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Hi, everyone!

For the past couple of years, one of the perks for the higher tiers on my page has been allowing them to vote twice in polls. My intention was that higher tiers ($2 and $5) could put 2 votes toward their preferred options vs. lower tiers ($1 and $3) only being able to put 1 vote toward theirs.

How I've handled this is by running two separate polls: one Standard poll open to all paid tiers and one Bonus poll available to the higher tiers. This is to give 1 ballot for the lower tiers and 2 ballots for the higher tiers for the same contest.

For reference, the winner each month has been whichever model/character had the HIGHEST TOTAL # OF VOTES between the two polls.

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THE PROBLEM(?)

I've noticed that some options get way more votes in the Bonus poll, where fewer people vote, even though you'd expect equal or fewer votes for each option compared to the Standard poll, where more people will vote. This has happened several times including in this month's poll, which I'll use as an example.

Mother Gothel won the August Image Poll with 6 total votes while Lois Lane and Kimiko tied for second with 4 total votes. But take a look at the vote split for MAWS Lois Lane.

Lois had only 1 vote in the August Image Poll vs. 3 votes in the Bonus August Image Poll. The higher tier patrons who voted for her in the Bonus poll generally didn't vote for her in the Standard poll.

In my mind, there are a few explanations for this

1. People don't know that the winner is whoever had the highest combined total between the two polls, and they only voted in one poll when they could have voted in two

2. People don't know that both polls are multiple-choice and that they could have voted for Lois Lane on both

3. People just felt like splitting their votes for whatever reason. Maybe they decided they might want Lois when the Bonus poll unlocked, but they forgot/didn't bother to go back to vote for her twice. Maybe someone voted for Gothel twice but Lois only once since Lois was their second favorite.

No matter the reason why, it makes me think that I could make these polls a LOT simpler for you guys. So here's my proposal.

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A POTENTIAL SOLUTION

Instead of running 2 Character Image polls and 2 ZSE polls every month, I could run 1 of each and weigh the results based on your tiers' voting power.

• $1 Art tier = vote is worth 1

• $2 Art+ tier = vote is worth 2

• $3 Resources Only tier = vote is worth 1

• $5 Art+ & Resources tier = vote is worth 2

So when each poll concludes:

1. I download the results and export them to a calculator in Excel

2. I apply 2x multipliers to the votes from higher tiers ($2 and $5)

3. I declare a winner based on the newly weighted results and show you the data for transparency

Here's what it would look like if I did this with the August Character Image Poll.

The main problem with this is that it makes your votes less flexible.

For example, if Option A in a poll was your favorite character but you might like B as a consolation, you couldn't give 2 votes to A and 1 vote to B so that you support both but prioritize A over B. But I don't know how common that situation really is.

You also won't be able to see who's actually in the lead until it's over and I display the results because the multiplier won't be visible to you when you vote.

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THE OTHER POTENTIAL SOLUTION

I can remove the bonus vote perks from the $2 and $5 tiers and offer commission discounts

I'd consider this one the extreme option, haha. But if you guys would like it, we could simplify the polls to 1 for Images and 1 for ZSE pack and leave it at that.

$2 and $5 tier patrons would receive a different perk in the future.

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I would really appreciate everyone's feedback on this. That includes Free members! You can vote and comment below with your thoughts on the issue.

I'll keep this up for at least the rest of this month and consider trying out a new system for September if you guys don't strongly dislike changing the system.