Yahoo Forum Archive

Hey guys and esp. Ainae,

I know we still have over a month in voting season, so this isn't a
concern at the moment but I think I should bring it up.

What happens if the MEFA2005 site is unavailabel for whatever reason
near the end of voting season? It could be a local problem with Ainae's
computer or internet, or it could be that there's some bug in the site
that we don't uncover until then. Though I think it's a great site and
we're doing a good job of finding issues now, something may pop up.
Murphy's law and all that.

I think it's bad PR and counter-productive to have people ready to vote
but not be able to. Therefore I suggest, if for some reason you can't
vote, you can post your reviews to this Yahoo group like you did last
year *along with* a reason why you couldn't enter them into the site.
This has to be more than "I was running short on time and wouldn't be
able to enter them one-by-one." An error message or something like
that.

Now, this wouldn't be an official review. It would just be proof of a
good-faith effort to cast a review. What you would have to do is watch
the list for when the problem was resolved, then you'd have 48 hours to
cast your review. If anyone out there has worked for a non-profit, you
might be familiar with the problem of collecting donations before the
end of the fiscal year. My mum manages a customer service department
for a local charity and they use a system similar to this: if for some
reason the web or call center is "down" at the turn of the year, you
can call their business number and leave your credit card number and
amount of donation on their answering machine, and you'll still be able
to deduct it from that year's taxes -- even if the charge isn't handled
until the next business day.

Anyway, I sincerely hope we won't need anything like this, but I
thought it might be helpful to have something in place in case we do.

Marta
*****
Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

<snip plan>

That seems like a very reasonable contigency plan to me, Marta. I'd
adopt that or something similar against Murphy's Laws.

I don't know how many more ballots I'm going to be able to complete
before the deadline, but I certainly wouldn't want to lose any of them
to an inopportune site outage. Not after so much reading!

Dwim, looking at Romance next

In general, I think it's a bad idea to offer too many options as it
tends to confuse people (ok-ok, I'm one that's easily confused), but
in this case, it might not be a bad idea. -if I understand what you
are proposing, - that if the site is down, the votes could be posted
to the list????

then - ???

how would that work?

if reviews are posted here, is the the authors responsibility to
either later paste them in the mefa database or be sure that admin
does? I think that would work if there was a delay (one week?)
between closing the votes and tallying the count. - that would give
poeple a chance to verify the ones that were post to this list within
the timeframe made it to the database. -

but on the other hand, while I'm one that sometimes squeezes in at the
last minute, - that's part of life, and maybe we should all be aware
of the outages and take special care to get those reviews in in a
timely manner. I've been doing along as I can, more some days, some
days not, but I don't have any saved in the background. I'm posting
them as I go.


--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, "dwimmer_laik" <dwimmer_laik@y...>
wrote:

> <snip plan>
>
> That seems like a very reasonable contigency plan to me, Marta. I'd
> adopt that or something similar against Murphy's Laws.
>
> I don't know how many more ballots I'm going to be able to complete
> before the deadline, but I certainly wouldn't want to lose any of

them

> to an inopportune site outage. Not after so much reading!
>
> Dwim, looking at Romance next

I think it's good to have a contingency plan.

How about this: If on the last day (Sept 30th), you can't reach the site,
paste the URL and Page Not Found message into a new post to this group and
put your review(s) (clearly marked as to where they go) underneath that.
Please also note the time at which you're posting. Yahoo sometimes delays
posts and we need to know that votes made it in under the deadline. Then we
can probably open the site back up for only those votes to be entered and
counted. (We'll check, too!)

That sound doable?

--Ainaechoiriel
MEFA Admin and Founder

"This evil cannot be concealed by the power of the Elves," Elrond said, "for
it is Windows-compatible, and freeware at that." --H.F.

http://gabrielle.sytes.net/mefa The Middle-Earth Fanfiction Awards

Blog: http://www.ainaechoiriel.blogspot.com

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Marta Layton
> Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2005 11:46 AM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [MEFAwards] voting "contingency plan" necessary?
>
> Hey guys and esp. Ainae,
>
> I know we still have over a month in voting season, so this
> isn't a concern at the moment but I think I should bring it up.
>
> What happens if the MEFA2005 site is unavailabel for whatever
> reason near the end of voting season? It could be a local
> problem with Ainae's computer or internet, or it could be
> that there's some bug in the site that we don't uncover until
> then. Though I think it's a great site and we're doing a good
> job of finding issues now, something may pop up.
> Murphy's law and all that.
>
> I think it's bad PR and counter-productive to have people
> ready to vote but not be able to. Therefore I suggest, if for
> some reason you can't vote, you can post your reviews to this
> Yahoo group like you did last year *along with* a reason why
> you couldn't enter them into the site.
> This has to be more than "I was running short on time and
> wouldn't be able to enter them one-by-one." An error message
> or something like that.
>
> Now, this wouldn't be an official review. It would just be
> proof of a good-faith effort to cast a review. What you would
> have to do is watch the list for when the problem was
> resolved, then you'd have 48 hours to cast your review. If
> anyone out there has worked for a non-profit, you might be
> familiar with the problem of collecting donations before the
> end of the fiscal year. My mum manages a customer service
> department for a local charity and they use a system similar
> to this: if for some reason the web or call center is "down"
> at the turn of the year, you can call their business number
> and leave your credit card number and amount of donation on
> their answering machine, and you'll still be able to deduct
> it from that year's taxes -- even if the charge isn't handled
> until the next business day.
>
> Anyway, I sincerely hope we won't need anything like this,
> but I thought it might be helpful to have something in place
> in case we do.
>
> Marta
> *****
> Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
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On 18 Aug 2005, at 17:51, Ainaechoiriel wrote:

> I think it's good to have a contingency plan.
>
> How about this:  If on the last day (Sept 30th), you can't reach the
> site,
> paste the URL and Page Not Found message into a new post to this
> group and
> put your review(s) (clearly marked as to where they go) underneath
> that.
> Please also note the time at which you're posting.  Yahoo sometimes
> delays
> posts and we need to know that votes made it in under the deadline. 
> Then we
> can probably open the site back up for only those votes to be entered
> and
> counted.  (We'll check, too!)
>
> That sound doable?
>

That sounds like a very good idea. I honestly hope we don't need it,
but I think we'd rather have it in place than have to deal with needing
ti afterwards, if something goes wrong at the last minute.

My only comment is that not everyone has access every day. How do we
handle it if, for example I'm going out of town on the 28th and on the
27th there's a problem with the site? Is it okay if I do the same type
thing on the last day I'll be able to vote?

Marta

PS- This is hypothetical. I don't expect to be away from my computer
the last few days or anything like that.
*****
Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, Marta Layton <melayton@g...> wrote:

>
> On 18 Aug 2005, at 17:51, Ainaechoiriel wrote:
>
>> I think it's good to have a contingency plan.
>>
>> How about this:  If on the last day (Sept 30th), you can't reach
>> the site,paste the URL and Page Not Found message into a new post
>> to this group and put your review(s) (clearly marked as to where
>> they go) underneath that.
>> Please also note the time at which you're posting.  Yahoo
>> sometimes delays posts and we need to know that votes made it in
>> under the deadline. 
>> Then we can probably open the site back up for only those votes
>> to be entered and counted.  (We'll check, too!)
>>
>> That sound doable?
>
> That sounds like a very good idea. I honestly hope we don't need
> it, but I think we'd rather have it in place than have to deal with
> needing ti afterwards, if something goes wrong at the last minute.
>
> My only comment is that not everyone has access every day. How do
> we handle it if, for example I'm going out of town on the 28th and
> on the 27th there's a problem with the site? Is it okay if I do the
> same type thing on the last day I'll be able to vote?

Another note: I do live in a different timezone, so how detailed do
you want the date? Do I have to calculate an US time when I post it?
or my own local time?

I sometimes think that I want to try the mefa site when there is
maintance planned with Ainea's ISP, because 80% of the time when I do
want to login, I can't. Oh well.

Rhapsody

> Another note: I do live in a different timezone, so how detailed do
> you want the date? Do I have to calculate an US time when I post it?
> or my own local time?

There's a time zone map in the MEFA yahoo group database, I do
believe, although it's not complete--just some of the more obvious
time zones. Just put what time zone you're in, and surely it can be
looked up.

Dwim

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, "dwimmer_laik" <dwimmer_laik@y...>
wrote:

>
> > Another note: I do live in a different timezone, so how detailed do
> > you want the date? Do I have to calculate an US time when I post it?
> > or my own local time?
>
> There's a time zone map in the MEFA yahoo group database, I do
> believe, although it's not complete--just some of the more obvious
> time zones. Just put what time zone you're in, and surely it can be
> looked up.

Germany. But even so: you have to establish a date with this. Mention
it somewhere, otherwise I can say: well according to my time it was...

Rhapsody

> Germany. But even so: you have to establish a date with this. Mention
> it somewhere, otherwise I can say: well according to my time it was...
>
> Rhapsody

Hi Rhapsody.

Ainae wrote:

>If on the last day (Sept 30th), you can't reach the
> site,
> paste the URL and Page Not Found message into a new post to this
> group and
> put your review(s) (clearly marked as to where they go) underneath
> that.
> Please also note the time at which you're posting. Yahoo sometimes
> delays
> posts and we need to know that votes made it in under the deadline.
> Then we
> can probably open the site back up for only those votes to be >entered
> and
> counted. (We'll check, too!)

When Reading Season rolled over into Voting Season, it happened at
12:01 a.m. August 16, between the 15th and the 16th. So if, by 12:01
a.m. September 30th (which would be something like 7:01 in the morning
in Germany, iirc) you can't reach the site because of an error
message, start posting your votes. Make sure to include the time on
your clock and your time zone, I guess, just in case Yahoo, in its
infinite evilness, decides to eat or delay the posts.

That, at least, is what I take the proposal to be. Does that work?

Dwim

> That sounds like a very good idea. I honestly hope we don't need

it, but I think we'd rather have it in place than have to deal with
needing > ti afterwards, if something goes wrong at the last minute.

> > My only comment is that not everyone has access every day. How do

we > handle it if, for example I'm going out of town on the 28th and
on the > 27th there's a problem with the site? Is it okay if I do the
same type > thing on the last day I'll be able to vote?

>
> Marta
>
> PS- This is hypothetical. I don't expect to be away from my computer
> the last few days or anything like that.

I don't mean to be the proverbial wet blanket, but I think at some
point we have to take responsibility. It's been so long since I've
been in an office - I'm trying to remember the PC term - "Take
ownership of the issue."

I think that if we are going to adopt this that reviews should only be
allowed to be posted to the yahoo list on the single final day of
voting and (if I understand what you're proposing - that they will be
counted in the tally of points) that a screen dump should be required
to be pasted with the review.

I see an enormous amount of potential for abuse and confusion on this
issue. - hurt and hard feelings if a 'win' hangs in the balance over a
questionable post. I wonder if it is worth it.?

> I think at some point we have to take responsibility.

sorry - replying to myself to be sure I'm clear.

I mean that I feel that reviewers need to take responsibility for
getting their reviews in. I know there have been some problems with
the site, but also that it has been up for months at a time, and we
have ?? another fives weeks (I think) to enter votes.

Everyone has a life, me included - I haven't done near as many reviews
as some people, but I'm making an effort and will do as many more as I
can in the remaining time. I've bumped it up on my priority list and I
know I can't get to it every day, but I'll do what I can.