Throwdown Voting Blind Poll

OK... I want to preface this by saying that this is Ronelle the Brethren member speaking, and NOT Ron_L the Brethren moderator.

There have been a lot of things tossed around in here and some great feedback. I'd like to add my thoughts on some of them. I am also NOT addressing these to anyone in particular, so please don't read any of this as targeted at any Brethren member.

1. The TDs, prizes and fun - When these crazy things started it was done to have fun and to give us a way to show off our cooking and photography skills. Yes, cooking is most important, but a good picture can make a huge difference. Anyway, Somewhere along the way the much-sought-after, highly-collectible Throwdown Certificate was introduced for the winner and that became something that we could use to brag about our wins. I still have the certificate from my first win in a frame! A couple of years ago the participation was dwindling so the idea of prizes came up and one of our Brethren Ventures members was asked to become our first TD sponsor (Thanks, Big Brother Smoke!). The response was very positive so the prizes continued. But, I agree that things started getting serious once prizes were introduced, especially when the prize was red meat :-D But, our members outside of the US typically aren't eligible for the prizes, and they continue to participate, so it can't just be for the prize. They must still be having at least some fun :-D

2. The TD Forum and Separate Threads - The TDs started out in QTalk. A few years ago (2010, I think) threads related to the TDs were taking over QTalk. I'm not talking about cook threads, but lots of folks were posting "Check out my entry" type of threads. These were getting out of hand so the TD management at the time requested that the Forum Management create a separate forum inside of QTalk dedicated to the TDs. When this was done the agreement with the TD Management was that only the TD Moderators would post "Check out the TD" threads. Anyone is free to post their cook threads in QTalk (that's what QTalk is for, after all) and link to the TD, but multiple "Check out my entry" threads are not allowed. All other TD-specific threads belong in the TD forum.

At that point we still had one thread for entries and "banter". Unfortunately, the banter evolved into some serious whackadoodling and feedback from the members was that the whackadoodling was intimidating and keeping them from entering the TDs. In an effort to encourage more folks to enter, the separate on and off topic threads were created. We did discuss keeping the entry thread restricted to only entries and no discussion but the consensus at the time was against that.

3. Campaigning for votes - Campaigning, or shilling or whatever you want to call it, is NOT against the rules. But, through the course of the TDs it has become frowned-upon and considered bad form, just like voting for yourself. I don't remember when this occurred but it was before prizes were involved, so the addition of prizes did not cause this. It must be that certificate . It may have been a byproduct of the posting restriction in QTalk, but, again, I don't remember. Even though this was frowned-upon, is has still gone on, but typically in private using PMs. There have been times in the past where members were called out for this, the most recent being in the Grand Master TD poll where two members were called out for using the PM system to shill for votes. They claim that they were just trying to get more folks to participate in the TDs, but unless they send out these bulk PMs for every TD and not only the ones where they have an entry, that motive is suspect . But since this is NOT against the rules, there is nothing that the TD or Forum mods can do about it. They are here to enforce the TD and forum rules, and if there is no rule violated they cannot take action.

4. Recruiting new members solely for the purpose of voting - This is another area where the TD and forum mods hands are tied. There is nothing in the TD rules that prohibits this. In addition, this can be very hard to prove. Circumstantial evidence suggests that this happened, but the member allegedly involved claimed that he was inviting friends to join the forum, and once they join he has no control over what they do once they join and how much they participate. Is this practice unethical? If it was done for the sole purpose of getting votes to win a TD and the prize, then I believe it is. But, we want everyone to recruit new members so we continue to grow, so it is a fine line. Either way, no rules have been broken, so no action can be taken. BUT, things can be done to prevent this in the future, and new restrictions have been put in place regarding who is allowed to vote in any poll, not just the TDs. These restrictions affect all new members, so someone who just joined may find themselves locked out of voting, but if they are here to become part of our family they will be able to vote before they know it.

5. The polls and visibility - This has been discussed in the past and at the time the consensus was to keep the polls transparent. That meant that once you voted you would be able to see the vote totals and who voted. Since the debacle in the 2014 Grand Master poll the TD management decided to try an experiment and keep all poll results secret until after the poll closes. Hence the reason for this thread and Bill's poll :shock:. There are really three options for polls...

• Public Polls - this is what we used to do.
• Hidden results - what we have in the current TD votes threads
• Private Polls - the results are hidden until you vote. After that you see the vote totals, but not who voted.

Any of these options can be selected on a per-poll basis so there is some flexibility.

6. Anonymous Entries - The idea that Jeanie posted about entries being submitted in secret and identified by a number, or something similar, has been discussed in the past. This is only anonymous until the entry pictures are posted. Once posted, the entrant can easily send a PM to his/her friends telling them which entry is theirs, and the anonymity is lost, so while this may appear to stop favoritism, in reality it doesn't change anything.

This turned out to be longer than I thought, so if you made it this far, thank you for your attention.

Let's try to get past all of this drama and make the Throwdowns fun again! I would love to see 20 - 30 entries in every TD, as we had in the past! If you've never entered a TD, give it a shot! I've prodded some of our members to enter and the response is that they wouldn't have a chance to win. Winning is cool, but entering and showing others your creations is where the real fun is, so enter! You never know what type of entry will win! Heck, some guy won recently with a bowl of soup! :becky: