Vote Thread for Ack's Omake Corner

Okay. This isn't Wyvern (I'm working on that) but my last chapter of I, Panacea had a moderately large plot hole in it, so I wrote a new chapter to double down and plug said plot hole (because I could have retconned the chapter, but where's the fun in that?)

Work on Wyvern continues.

 

Okay, I'm having to make a very difficult decision here.

It's been made clear to me that I have too many fics on the go. So many of them are basically piling up that it's far too long between chapters.

So I'm going to have to pare down the active fics that I'm writing.

Each time I post a chapter, I'm going to drop the fic with the lowest number of vote points for that round off the voting choices.

Once I get down to a manageable number, I'll leave the rest of the list as is.

And once I've finished a few more, I might add some back.

Sorry, but that's the way it's gotta be.

 

Welp there goes Junior Hero.

 

Does that mean when you post Wyvern Junior Hero is coming off the list (with its measly 41 votes), or does this start with the next vote?

Also, I'm probably going to be fine with this, right up until something I like gets taken off the list, at which point I'll call foul, and say it should be an average of the last 3 votes lowest vote total to get removed or something, lol.


When you get to a manageable number... maybe set up a rotation? Each vote lowest vote total gets taken off the list, and one of the fics not currently on the voting list gets added on?

 

Next vote.

When I get to a manageable number, I'm going to settle down and try to finish some of them.

 

Ack said that he'd drop the story with the lowest number of points for the round, so Really Bad End or Bait & Switch (the stories with the lowest average points per round) will probably be first on the chopping block, with Junior Hero not far behind unless someone starts a voting campaign for it.

Hopefully Nemesis squeezes in one last update before it falls off the voting list.

 

Emphasis mine.

So I'm going to guess that this means that if Junior Hero doesn't get enough votes to put it above Really Bad End, but Really Bad End only gets 7 points that round to Junior Hero's 36, it's going to be Really Bad End that gets temporarily eliminated?

 

That's a great idea, and in theory I agree with it perfectly (assuming that the initial whittle-down is inevitable - for obvious reasons I rather dislike that particular part).
However, in practice it would be a bit hard to figure out which one to add each time (it would pretty much require its own voting, which at best will confuse everyone else, and might well need a separate thread).

One unfortunate consequence is also that, since NSFW stories appear to generally get a bit less votes (perhaps because of the lesser audience), it is not too unlikely, random fluctuations aside, that the "manageable number" will not include a single NSFW fic.
(Which is likely to be a bad thing, because then the NSFW writing juices might end up funneled into otherwise SFW fics.)

In fact, looking at @Starluck's spreadsheet, if the "manageable number" is 10, most likely, we will lose all six NSFW fics, All Alone, Nemesis and Junior Hero.
Which, ironically enough, wouldn't really include any of my personal favorites (though I'd be out a trade deal), but it will still significantly diminish the remaining variety. (And one more dropping fic and I'd be out of War Games, which is among my favorites.)

Fun fact: four of the probable drop-out fics - Nemesis, MirrorVerse, NSW and All Alone - are predicted to disappear off the list sometime within measurement error of their next would-be win. (In all four cases, most likely just after rather than just before, but random fluctuations can make it either way.)
As such, I wonder - can a fic still win a round if it's already off the voting list but still has more overall total points than anything else? (For example - I'm basically making this up - if we remove Nemesis with 1600 points, and then five votes later the highest ranked fic still on the list has 1550, will Nemesis win that round?)

 

I believe Ack would be able to get over writer''s block more often if more people vote for the underdog stories.

It's been almost an entire year since it won the vote and He didn't spend time polishing the chapters of any of the stories in his head in the meantime?

Does this hold any weight?

 

This whole announcement is about getting rid of the underdog stories. And Ack has updated stories without them winning votes before (Nemesis most recently,) so if he really has inspiration to write a chapter I doubt that he'll let it not being on the voting list stop him.

 

It gets dropped from the 'voting' list to the 'stories I'll finish writing sometime' list, yes.

Once I've finished enough of the ones on the voting list, I'll pull more back on to the voting list and start on them.

If I find that happening, then I'll do an NSFW chapter to sort that shit out.

Nope. If a fic drops off the list, it's not longer in the voting roster.

Not really. Sorry. I've had more taking up my time.

True. But I want to actually finish some more fics, so ...

 

That's unfortunate, because we're somewhat likely to see at least one case of "this fic is the most likely to win next time, but it can't because it dropped off this round". If it does end up like that, can you at least try to make an update for said fic anyway?
(Incidentally, can the same fic win and drop off the list in the same count [if it gets both the most overall votes and least votes in the round]? And if so, does that still count as a victory? Because that scenario is even more likely.)

EDIT: just figured out how to fix the "elimination just before win" issue - add an extra rule that, if (after the nullification of the current victor's points) the fic due to be eliminated is also the fic with the largest remaining overall point total, then nothing is eliminated this round. It shouldn't delay the whole thing that much (once we take care of Nemesis, anyway).
EDIT 2: incidentally, how does this system handle improper vote points going to the lowest-ranked fic? Do those points go the the eliminated fic (which then still goes off the voting), do they go to the lowest-ranked before elimination is calculated (which could result in some rather unexpected eliminations), or do they just disappear entirely?

 

You are all overthinking things.

In all cases whatever Ack feels like is the tiebreaker/solution to these dilemma's. No need to overwork and overthink how its going to work out.

As for the NSFW lovers out there, it's probably a self rectifying issue. As some drop off the list, then people who still want one will start voting higher for the remaining ones.

 

I agree, but it would be rather inconvenient if Really Bad End (or, even worse, Bait and Switch*) ends up staying right through the eliminations because all the assorted votes for the already-eliminated options funnel down to it as the lowest-scoring story.

*) which admittedly I'd never actually read, so maybe it's better than I thought it was...though for all I know it might actually be even worse instead

 

If a story gets to the top but has the least votes, I'll write the chapter then excise it from the list.

But this is not to say that I'll be abandoning those stories. Once I've finished a few of the more popular fics, I'll be looking at bringing some of the others back on board.

If people insist on voting for stories no longer on the voting list, I will change that rule and nullify said votes.

 

I, for one, am happy with the change to the voting system if it means we'll see more completed fics.

 

As long as Alea Iacta Est stays on the list, I'm fine with it.

 

What if we also add a rule that the wining story is out of the vote for one turn as well?

To spread the love (votes) around.

Or that all 6 votes must be filled.

 

It's a nice idea for those like me who would still have most of their favorites left, but someone else might well end up having to choose more fics than they actually like.
In fact, since Recoil and Slippery Slope are among the most popular even though I rather dislike them, I myself will be having that problem if we slip down to 7 or lower.

 

I mean, I'm likely to be filling out votes for the new few rounds, to increase the chance that 'ambivalent' stories are kept over 'actively dislike', but forcing similar vote manipulation to continue after this phase seems like an incredibly ill-advised idea.

Especially with Ack already noting a possible out in switching 'mis-applied' votes from 'least popular story' to 'not counted'. Given that's a strict upside, in my book, I'd be quite happy to encourage that, leaving the end result identical (after running out of stories I actually want updated, switch to non-existent stories that'll nullify that vote, rather than just straight out nullifying that vote by, you know, not voting) but with more work required to find said end result.

 

[X] Slippery Slope - 6

 

Everybody votes in a complex and ever-changing voting system, complete with tangled vote-trading and arbitrary conditions on which stories are eligible for voting... and then Ack writes whatever he feels like writing anyway. (Well, it's not like we're paying him or anything...)

 

e1

 

It's more that we're the darts he throws at the dartboard when he doesn't know what he wants to write next.

 

[X] Slippery Slope - 6

 

[X] Meet the Heberts - 6
[X] NSW - 5
[X] Hostage Situation - 4
[X] Trump Card - 3
[X] Wyvern - 2
[X] Confrontation II - 1

 

Okay then. Looks like Wyvern is up.

Gonna do a quick vote count, to see how things are going.

 

Yup, is good enough.

Voting is CLOSED.

 

[X] Trump Card - 6
[X] Wyvern - 5
[X] Alea Iacta Est - 4
[X] I, Panacea - 3
[X] Hostage Situation - 2
[X] War Games - 1