Hack of the Month Voting - January 2009

[Thrace]

Introduction
A bit late but at least its here right? If you read the recently updated Hall of Fame thread you would have known that the ROM Hacking mods have decided to restart Hack of the Month. Theres a description in the Hall of Fame thread about how it'll work but I'll write it here anyway. At the start of each month the moderators of ROM Hacking will have 10 days to nominate a hack for Hack of the Month. On the 10th day of each month a poll will be created for the community to vote on which of the 3 hacks it thinks should win Hack of the Month. The winner will have their hack's thread stickied the following month and have their hack added to the official PokeCommunity ROM Hacking Hall of Fame. Only hacks in either the Progressing Hacks forum or the Hack Showcase forum are eligible for nomination.

Eligible Hacks

• Pokémon Ruby Destiny - Life of Guardians
  destinedjagold
• Pokémon Light Platinum
  Wesley FG
• Pokémon Mystical Version
  ~Gary

Rules

• You may vote once per month, per hack
• Asking or bribing others to vote for your hack is not allowed
• Creating new accounts to vote multiple times is not allowed and will be dealt with accordingly
• Voting is done via the poll not by posting in this thread, votes in the form of posts will not be counted
• Don't complain that your hack wasn't chosen this month

[Tropical Sunlight]

Hey... do we vote in post or on the poll?
I voted for Light Platinum (sorry DJG)
It has amazing graphics, scripts and everything.

[Thrace]

Originally Posted by Tropical Sunlight

Hey... do we vote in post or on the poll?
I voted for Light Platinum (sorry DJG)
It has amazing graphics, scripts and everything.

You vote in the poll. I wrote that in the first post. ~_~

Posting in the thread is for general (within reason) discussion about the nominees and suggestions for HotM.

[Darthatron]

Are winners of Hack of the Month going to be the hacks eligible for HotY?

[12345]

I voted for Light Platinum.
I like this hack.

[The Scarecrow Toxin]

I Vote for:
Light Platinum!
It has great Graphic, and Story...It is realy playable and worth of winning the HOTM!

[Megiddo-san]

I vote for Light Platinum.
Great graphics and scripts. Decent maps.
Reason
Voted in poll

[Eeveon]

I voted for RR: LoG.
Reason why, is because, djg has really made this hack look more sophisticated than his last two. :)

[Thrace]

Originally Posted by Darthatron

Are winners of Hack of the Month going to be the hacks eligible for HotY?

Oh yeah, of course. We wouldn't have many good hacks eligible for HotY if they weren't.

[пзо]

I vote for Pokemon Light Platinum.
Why? You would think the hack was of Fire Red, the Graphics are Stunning.
And It looks playable.

[balkj06]

I vote for
Pokémon Ruby Destiny - Life of Guardians
reason the maps are awesome
sprites are awesome
and stroyline is awesome
and it's awesome

[~Teh Panda~]

I sort of object with the poll system and the thin amount of hacks available. I think that people should have a pre screening thread for the communities top 3 then they vote on those so it is solely community choice. I think that these hacks are good but a fairer system should be in place

[Vrai]

Originally Posted by TehTehTehTeh

I sort of object with the poll system and the thin amount of hacks available. I think that people should have a pre screening thread for the communities top 3 then they vote on those so it is solely community choice. I think that these hacks are good but a fairer system should be in place

Colcolstyles had an idea about that that he should be putting up here soon. I think it was something along the lines of including previous HotW winners into this. (Although, they'd have to be from the previous month. But because they would, people can also vote on how much they've improved since then.)

Uhm, it was his idea, so I'm going to leave it up to him to explain it more.

[Hiroshi Sotomura]

Originally Posted by Vrai

Colcolstyles had an idea about that that he should be putting up here soon. I think it was something along the lines of including previous HotW winners into this. (Although, they'd have to be from the previous month. But because they would, people can also vote on how much they've improved since then.)

Uhm, it was his idea, so I'm going to leave it up to him to explain it more.

Well really, I've always seen Hack of the Month as a moderator-based thing. This year it's probably better to give the members some involvement, but really, unless the other moderators deem Hack of the Week as an "official" PC ROM hacking forum event, then your suggestion ain't going to happen.

And guys, you're just voting; you don't NEED to provide your reasons for your vote.

[colcolstyles]

Okay I was on MSN with some people and we were discussing the new Hack of the Month (which will be referred to as the HotM henceforth) competition. I wasn't entirely sure how the eligible hacks were chosen and I began brainstorming ideas. After proposing them to dshayabusa, he asked me to put them here so that's what I'm doing. My idea will incorporate the Hack of the Week (HotW) into the process of nominating hacks and it will require a reformatting of the HotW to make sure everyone gets a fair shot at winning as well as the nationalization (?) of the HotW.

The HotW would be held each week as it has been for nearly a year now. However, the sole purpose of the HotW would be for hacks to compete for a "bid" into the HotM competition. As a side note, perhaps the moderators could also choose a candidate for the competition as the "wild card", if you will. In the actual HotM, things would remain pretty much the same: the regular users would vote for their favourite hacks from the list of eligible hacks. My idea is primarily a reform of the process by which hacks are designated as "eligible" as I recall there was some quarreling over that aspect of the HotM.

As I stated in my MSN conversation, the HotW has always been an unofficial competition here at PC (to which Megiddo took offense). This proposal would mean that the HotW would become an official part of the PokéCommunity, although I don't see what's so wrong with that. One issue is the the fact that only newer hacks would be able to win. To deal with this, we could set aside the previous winners and they could keep their awards. However, people could vote for any of the previous winners as though they had never won an award before. Although the voting would be awfully dispersed among many, many hacks if people could vote for any hack they wanted. Perhaps there should be some sort of system for narrowing down the choices by how old it is? By popularity?

Another issue is what to do with hacks that have won the HotW but didn't win the HotM. Should they be able to be voted for again in the HotW? Should they somehow be incorporated into the next HotM competition? I only got so far in my brainstorming so there is still a lot left to be decided. I suppose people can post their ideas in this thread (given that the administration permits that).

Another issue (yes, another) is the time constraints. We would somehow have to coordinate the timing of the voting (the HotM voting, mind you) so that people had plenty of time to vote. With my current idea, people would only have a couple of days to vote before the next month started, unless we allowed the voting to continue into the next month. On a similar note, there are more than 28 days in a month so there would actually be roughly 4.3 weeks each month. It would seem like nothing at first but slowly things could start to get off track.

— — — — — — — —

For those of you who are too lazy (for lack of a harsher word) to read anything longer than three sentences, here's a brief summary: I think that the hacks which should be eligible in the HotM should be the four winners of the HotW for that same month.

Yours truly,
Colcolstyles

[Hiroshi Sotomura]

If the ROM hacking staff agree to officialising Hack of the Week, sure; you'd have to bear in mind, though, that he'd be ceding the ownership of the event to the ROM hacking mods. However, I'm not sure your idea works; it's cumbersome - is it really going to be that representative of a hack that appeals in the month? (There's a few other things that would need to be formalised; if you guys are intent on it, I can help you out with what you'll need to do.)

Though personally, I'm pretty comfortable with how the format works as-is: the Hack of the Month remains mostly staff-based with staff selections, where the Hack of the Year has a major call on members of the community; heck, the judges too, will be a selection of members.

[colcolstyles]

True, although my idea is simply a suggestion; it's still full of loopholes. Yes, the HotW would become official which I don't mind although Megiddo might think otherwise. Indeed a lot of work would have to be done in order to ensure that everything works smoothly but if people like the idea, it might be worth it. Although it really comes down to what the ROM Hacking moderators decide as it is their forum. If you prefer the current system, then go ahead and keep it. I was just throwing my opinions out there.

[EBAiscool]

I vote for RD-LOG
I love DJG's hacks ;D

[destinedjagold]

why not do it like this:
The month of February, another poll is up for voting.
The winner of the poll should be declared by the end of the month and will be the hack of the month for the next month. which in my example, in March.

Or are you doing that now? :\

Anyways, good day~

[Hiroshi Sotomura]

On the 20th, the winning hack will be stuck. It is until the 20th of the month after that it remains, while on the 10th of that month voting starts again.

[destinedjagold]

Ah... That's very well planned, I should say.
Thanks for that info~

[kid1513]

I vote for: Ruby Destiny Life Of Guardian
Why? I know that DJG is very creative and he came up with a new idea!
Beside, he hasn't finished his hack yet...
But Light Platinum is cool, too! Really...

[colcolstyles]

Is it at all possible to lock a thread but keep its poll open for voting? I'm not very familiar with the vBulletin system but if it was possible, perhaps people (kid1213, EBAiscool, пзо) would actually VOTE IN THE POLL</subtlety>

[Thrace]

Originally Posted by colcolstyles

Is it at all possible to lock a thread but keep its poll open for voting? I'm not very familiar with the vBulletin system but if it was possible, perhaps people (kid1213, EBAiscool, пзо) would actually VOTE IN THE POLL</subtlety>

I don't think its possible, I may be wrong. Its important for the community to have a place to have discussion so even if it were possible I wouldn't do it. Besides if people aren't taking the time to read the thread then its pretty hard to imagine they'd put a lot of time into their decision on who to vote for. Overall I think it works out quite nicely.

EDIT: I'll reply to your other suggestion a bit later.

[colcolstyles]

Originally Posted by Thrace

I don't think its possible, I may be wrong. Its important for the community to have a place to have discussion so even if it were possible I wouldn't do it. Besides if people aren't taking the time to read the thread then its pretty hard to imagine they'd put a lot of time into their decision on who to vote for. Overall I think it works out quite nicely.

EDIT: I'll reply to your other suggestion a bit later.

Right, a discussion area would be nice. However, most of the posts in this thread have been people simply stating who they are voting for and why, quite unnecessarily. I haven't seen much discussion yet; more on the system of the HotM, not the hacks themselves. However, I'm not even sure that this is possible. Still, you bring up an excellent point about the types of people who aren't voting in the poll. If they choose not the read the first post, their votes shouldn't be counted in the first place.

Oh and take your time with the other idea. It's not something that can be implemented instantly; it'll take quite some time to work things out (if you decide to even use it).