2021 Challenges: Preliminary Poll Results + Planning Discussion

[sol]

Over the past seven days we have had our say about which proposed 2021 challenge ideas should be included in the final poll. We were looking for the 11 highest rated ideas to progress to the final round. Due to an eleventh spot tie, I'll be carrying over these 12 ideas to the final poll. The final poll will therefore have 33 options, of which 17 (more than 50%) will be challenge ideas not run in 2020.

I have also included a "[new]" next to the successful challenge ideas below that have never been run in an Official capacity.

Preliminary poll results:

24 - Conquer/Travel the World
23 - Mystery/Thriller
22 - Action and Adventure [new]
21 - Run the Actor [new]
19 - One Film From Each Year [new]
18 - Martial Arts
16 - One Film From Each iCM List [new]
16 - In Competition at Cannes
16 - Waves from around the world [new]
15 - Experimental/Avant-Garde [new]
14 - Long Features - over 135mins [new]
14 - War

Complete results available under this spoiler tag

13 – Miniseries
13 - Run the Film Series/Franchise
11 - In Competition at Venice
11 - Rewatches
11 - Surrealism
10 - Justice
10 - Banned Films/Video Nasty
9 - Actor/Actress Linking
8 - Birth Year
8 - Run the Writer
7 - Biopics
7 - Coming-of-age
7 - La Cinetek top movies
7 - Run the adaptations
7 - Runtime count-up
7 - Short features - under 90mins
6 - Non-human animal protagonists
5 - Kids and Family
5 - NSFW excluding XXX
5 - Run the Music Composer
5 - Starring Children
5 - Thegreatesbooks.org
4 - Food and Eating
3 - Disabilities
2 - Seven Deadly Sins
1 - Watch two cuts of the same film

The next stage of voting will be done via private message - with what everybody voted for revealed after the voting has finished. It is hoped that this private voting system will ensure that participants vote for what they want rather than strategically (looking at what has a chance of actually making it). It is also hoped that this will lead to less stress and anxiety since participants will not know which options are or are not performing well until everybody has had their say.

When I reveal the final results, I plan to release them in the following format, which will allow us to see what everybody has voted for:

4 points / In Competition at Cannes

newuser
sol
user1
user-2

3 points / Travel the World

newuser
sol
user1

2 points / Action and Adventure

sol
user1

etc

While the actual results will not be public until the voting is finished, I plan to post daily or every-second-day updates in the following format (like Angel does with the DTC updates):

Best performing options so far:

Repeat 2020 Challenge Idea
Repeat 2019 Challenge Idea
Repeat 2020 Challenge Idea
New Challenge Idea
New Challenge Idea
Repeat 2018 Challenge Idea
etc

I have two discussion points/questions though before we begin private message voting:

1. How long should private message voting last for?

Traditionally I have left voting open for an entire month, but is that too long?

2. Should we allow power voting?

With private message (rather than open poll) voting, I can actually let participants assign different points to their votes.

What I was thinking is that we could give everybody four 2-point votes (and twelve 1-point votes) in order that users could give extra backing to challenge ideas that they really like.

Or, we could everybody one 3-point vote, three 2-point votes (and twelve 1-point votes).

Or is that just way too complicated? Thoughts? Ideas?

[Lonewolf2003]

There has been an Experimental/Avant-Garde challenge before in July 2013.
And there has been Action challenges before, okay not combined with Adventure, but I doubt if that one can be called really new too.

1. How long should private message voting last for?
10 to 14 days.

2. Should we allow power voting?
Yes, I like the idea for myself (and others) to give more points to challenges I really want and surely will participate in and less points to the one I'm a bit interesting in and might participate in.

Voting wise it wouldn't be to complicated, so it should be a system that's easy for you to calculate and keep track off.



Run the Film Series/Franchise (just) didn't make it

[sol]

There has been an Experimental/Avant-Garde challenge before in July 2013.
And there has been Action challenges before, okay not combined with Adventure, but I doubt if that one can be called really new too.

In Lauren's Master List, the "Experimental/Avant-Garde" Challenge wasn't listed as Official. As for Action & Adventure, we have never had an Adventure Challenge, so that's what I was basing that on. What would you say about Martial Arts? Do you think it counts as a new idea since when it was previously run as an Official Challenge it was lumped together with Samurai?

2. Should we allow power voting?
Yes, I like the idea for myself (and others) to give more points to challenges I really want and surely will participate in and less points to the one I'm a bit interesting in and might participate in.

Cool. To be clear, I'm in favour of it, but I thought that I would float the idea first to see if there were objections.

Which Power Voting option do you prefer? 4 x 2-point votes or 1 x 3-point vote + 3 x 2-point votes?

[Lonewolf2003]

There has been an Experimental/Avant-Garde challenge before in July 2013.
And there has been Action challenges before, okay not combined with Adventure, but I doubt if that one can be called really new too.

In Lauren's Master List, the "Experimental/Avant-Garde" Challenge wasn't listed as Official. As for Action & Adventure, we have never had an Adventure Challenge, so that's what I was basing that on. What would you say about Martial Arts? Do you think it counts as a new idea since when it was previously run as an Official Challenge it was lumped together with Samurai?

Didn't notice there is a distinction between official and non-official list in the challenge index. Thought all monthly challenges all always were official and only the long running ones are unofficial. Seems I was wrong.

You're right that 'Action and Adventure' and 'Martial Arts' haven't been run in exactly this capacity. So I guess you can call them new. If " 'Action and Adventure' isn't new than 'Martial Arts' neither is and vice versa. Cause, if I understand correctly, you want to give one spot in the schedule to a new (never before run) challenge I think that spot should go to a challenge that's really completely new, and not one that has run before in a slightly different form.

2. Should we allow power voting?
Yes, I like the idea for myself (and others) to give more points to challenges I really want and surely will participate in and less points to the one I'm a bit interesting in and might participate in.

Cool. To be clear, I'm in favour of it, but I thought that I would float the idea first to see if there were objections.

Which Power Voting option do you prefer? 4 x 2-point votes or 1 x 3-point vote + 3 x 2-point votes?

One 3-point vote, three 2-point votes (and twelve 1-point votes), so I can give an extra points to one absolute favorite idea.

[St. Gloede]

First your Qs:

1. I don't think we need a month. Maybe just a week (possibly two). We should promote it in our index though, so that everyone will see it.

2. Power voting really is ideal, as we get more committed support/engagement.

I would lean toward your last option of 3 point votes, 2 point votes and 1 point votes. (You could also simplify it with giving everyone X amount of points, with a max for a single idea, and then they could spread it out as they like - i.e. if they are only passionate about 5-6 challenges they could give each of them max and not vote for anything else).

Then some quick views:

Great work, and I'm so excited two of my pushes - Experimental/Avant Garde and Waves From Around the World managed to dig their way through. I was nervous for a while so this is a very happy surprise. I hope they will make it through the next round too.

(Only 4 of the 10 I voted for made it, but that's pretty fair)

I am very disappointed rewatches lost already, but at least it came close.

[peeptoad]

1. How long should private message voting last for?
2 weeks

2. Should we allow power voting?
Yes, please.

What I was thinking is that we could give everybody four 2-point votes (and twelve 1-point votes) in order that users could give extra backing to challenge ideas that they really like.

this^


Thanks for all your work on this, sol!

[Traveller]

1. How long should private message voting last for?

Around two weeks.

2. Should we allow power voting?

Yes, I like the idea. one 3-point vote, three 2-point votes (and twelve 1-point votes) sounds good to me.

[psychotronicbeatnik]

I've lazily and shamelessly stolen Traveller's responses because I agree:

1. How long should private message voting last for?

Around two weeks.

2. Should we allow power voting?

Yes, I like the idea. one 3-point vote, three 2-point votes (and twelve 1-point votes) sounds good to me.

I'm very sad that run the Franchise and Rewatches didn't make it - my two favorites out of the newbies - but maybe they will return next year since they came so close. Happy to see my suggestion of Mystery/Thriller had a lot of popularity and made it back on the ballot for this year.

As someone already mentioned I think this poll should get anchored above so that more people will see it.

sol, and thanks for running these polls.

[hurluberlu]

Thanks Sol !

2 weeks look good to me as well

For points, I push again the idea of allocating them based on ranking ( #1=33pts, #33=1pt). To make tallying easier, we could sort options alphabetically and show ranking or points next to them (ie Action: 30... War: 20) so you can just paste values from any ballot in a spreadsheet (a bit like DtC).

Should we really consider Action/Aventure new ? Action has been run many times. I guess it matters if it ends up stealing the spot reserved for a new option.

[RogerTheMovieManiac88]

Two weeks for the voting seems about right to me.

I like hurluberlu's idea of users ranking all 33 options in ballot form. I also quite like the idea of everybody having one 3-point vote, three 2-point votes, and twelve 1-point votes. As long as we end up with an interesting, varied and intriguing final 16, I'm not too bothered.

Nice to see Experimental/Avant-Garde and Waves... make the preliminary cut. I have my fingers crossed for them in the final round of voting!

[RogerTheMovieManiac88]

And, yeah, I obviously agree with those who suggest that there should be something about the vote in the header at the top of the page. Either a reminder or a link to this thread with instructions on how to submit a vote.

[maxwelldeux]

High-five to me for nominating two of the bottom four...

[sol]

For points, I push again the idea of allocating them based on ranking ( #1=33pts, #33=1pt). To make tallying easier, we could sort options alphabetically and show ranking or points next to them (ie Action: 30... War: 20) so you can just paste values from any ballot in a spreadsheet (a bit like DtC).

It's an interesting idea, but I think that 33 points gives individual users too much power.

It it is not ideal to have a situation in which a Challenge idea with ten 32-votes (320 points) gets preference above an idea with nineteen 16-votes (304 points) for example. The purpose of the poll, as I see it, is to gauge what the majority of participants have some interest in participating in.

I do agree though that power voting gives an interesting slant, and limiting it to 1 x 3-vote and 3 x 2-vote (which seems to be the most popular option) allows us to give a little extra slant for preference without somebody's individual preference significantly impacting on majority consensus.

Should we really consider Action/Aventure new ? Action has been run many times. I guess it matters if it ends up stealing the spot reserved for a new option.

Yeah, that's true. It's a tricky issue and will only really be a problem if none of the other new ideas float to the top. I suspect multiple new ideas will, especially with power voting in place, but yep, we would definitely need to nut it out if Action & Adventure ended up being the only new idea in the top 16.

[sol]

And, yeah, I obviously agree with those who suggest that there should be something about the vote in the header at the top of the page. Either a reminder or a link to this thread with instructions on how to submit a vote.

Not this thread. I'll open another thread with instructions on how to vote. The new thread will also be where I post regular DTC style updates.

The big question now is when to open up the voting. Probably some time in the next 24 hours, especially if we want approximately two weeks of voting (Saturday October 3 would probably work best for me as an end date).

OK, let's try this. If the activity on this thread is limited --- and there aren't any objections to power voting or the two weeks deadline --- I'll open voting in the next 12-14 hours. If this thread gets a lot more activity and more issues need to be ironed out and debated, I'll wait 24-26 hours before opening voting.

[Lonewolf2003]

And, yeah, I obviously agree with those who suggest that there should be something about the vote in the header at the top of the page. Either a reminder or a link to this thread with instructions on how to submit a vote.

Not this thread. I'll open another thread with instructions on how to vote. The new thread will also be where I post regular DTC style updates.

The big question now is when to open up the voting. Probably some time in the next 24 hours, especially if we want approximately two weeks of voting (Saturday October 3 would probably work best for me as an end date).

OK, let's try this. If the activity on this thread is limited --- and there aren't any objections to power voting or the two weeks deadline --- I'll open voting in the next 12-14 hours. If this thread gets a lot more activity and more issues need to be ironed out and debated, I'll wait 24-26 hours before opening voting.

Sounds like a great plan!