A Poll About Polls

Alright, folks. If you haven't read the Poll Results post, the short version of my ramblings there is that I'd like to make some changes that make the polls less...lopsided. Since this Patreon first started, the polls have ended up always being utterly dominated by a single story. First, it was Displaced Hero. Then, when that was made a permeant story as I got a bit more writing time and finished Final Error, Halfway Broken swooped in and started utterly dominating despite being brand new at the time.

Having said that. The polls exist to give YOU a say in what gets updated. So I'm not going to change them up without a fairly hefty amount of input from Patrons. I did immediately get some feedback when I talked about this in the poll results. But I'm also well aware that the most likely people to speak up were the ones that didn't like how things were going! So, I've come up with a couple of possible solutions to making the polls a bit less one-dimensional. With a third option of just letting them be, if that's what the majority would prefer.

Options:

1) Keep them as they are: Currently, the polls reflect almost directly on supporter interest. That isn't a bad thing, really. So we can just leave them how they are. This has the negative side effect of other stories only very rarely getting updates. But, well, popularity is king. If you like that being the case, you can just vote for the status quo staying as it is with this option!

2) Progressive Weighing: Currently, the only weighing that I do to polls is reflective of the extra tier rewards. That is, that people who choose to donate more get more votes, and thus a slightly larger say in the polls. Frankly, I don't think it's ever actually flipped a poll, though it has ensured the wide gap between Halfway Broken and the other stories stays wide. With this option, I'd also start adding a percentage boost to stories that haven't been updated recently. Stories that aren't updated for at least 2 months running would start getting a +20% boost, then gain an additional +10% every month afterward. This still doesn't guarantee any story will win often. But it does mean that they will, almost inevitably, win eventually.

3) Switch Out an Automata Update: Currently, My Hero Automata gets two updates a month. These updates, together, are aimed to total 15k words. Displaced Hero and Halfway Broken also get 15k words, but it's all at once in their case. Frankly, that's currently all I have the time for, as I'm still working another job that eats up 35+ hours a week. Automata has always been split so that I can get a first-week release out, despite that meaning I have to work on it during the last week of the previous month, which is crunch-time for my other job.

I can't currently add more raw word count to the month. I just don't have the time. But I could change out that first week release from My Hero Automata to the Poll Winner. This is the most complicated option, which would involve another poll afterward, as there are three ways I could do this. Any of which would, admittedly, end up cutting Automata from 15k words a month to just 10k. That's the downside.

The upside would depend on a follow up poll. Either I would permanently lock Halfway Broken as getting its own release every month, and put the other three current stories (Pandora's Box, Eridum Dreams, Confused Pokemon Adventure) into their own poll, updating the winner. This, admittedly, risks a repeat of the current problem if one of them turns out to be super popular. Alternatively, I could keep the poll as-is, but update the top two stories. So, if Halfway Broken takes first place, but Pandora's Box takes second, then I would update 15k for Halfway Broken and 5K for Pandora's Box. The final possibility under this banner is a hybrid with option 1. That Halfway Broken gets it's on perma-spot, and the three smaller stories go up in a monthly poll, but that I start applying the percentage boost to losers of the poll, making it more likely each story eventually has it's time in the sun. If option #3 wins this poll, I'll run a second one to determine the most preferred option for how to determine how the replacement of the extra Automata update works...

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Note: This poll is not weighted. Everyone gets just one vote! Make it count!