Moving to the Univesal ## Format - Discuss

[Oman]

Im still confused as to how this is suddenly a problem when it wasn't five years ago?

In the first game people just said "I nominate X" but then they changed to Vote: X. Then to bold voting. Its a progression that makes things clearer.

If a mod required this in a game I was interested in, I probably wouldn't play in said game.

Thats just childish.

I am surprised that so many people are willing to join or not join games based on two hash signs.

Holy shit I agree with Gurgi...+

Refusing to put ## in front of your votes is either incompetence or sloth.

AHHHH! AGAIN

ITT Oman tied a bunch of panties in a bunch.

Use it. Don't. Don't play in games with it. Skip games that don't use it.

ITT the Kat gets in my panties...

To steal an old Vulcan philosophy, The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

Communist. Not to mention minority.

I agree that I did not mean it to be such a big issue. I swear I'm shocked this hit 4 pages.

[CallMeLiam]

I'm lazy enough that two extra characters waaaaay over on the other side of the keyboard feels like more effort that voting is worth. I reckon I'd just end up playing as a zero vote townie due to my unbridled and crippling levels of sloth.

[IH]

There is absolutely NOTHING onerous about searching for the word

vote

in bolded text.

Mods these days need to grow a pair. If they don't have one, they can borrow mine.

eheheheheheh

gross.

[Kmd4390]

Not sure why this is such a big conversation...

The way I see it...Mod's rules go, so it's up to the mod.
If you don't like the Mod's rules, don't play their games.

[Dasquian]

I don't get the mindset which searches for vote changes with the "search" function. Just read the posts, if you do vote-counts regularly enough there'll never be more than 25 vote-changes between each count

That said, mod's the boss, do what the mod asks, blah blah, not

actually

a major issue, etc.

[Mr. Flay]

How the hell is this topic up to 5 pages in a day, AND caused us to exceed our CPU Quota??!?

3) When appropriate, I update the vote count. By searching for ##. So I don't read "vote" 25 fucking times 1/3 of the way through the page to find the one vote that updated.

Update your vote count every page. That way, you'll never have too much to read at one time. [/protip]

My eyes have no trouble distinguishing between

vote

,

vote

,

vote

, and VOTING. You might want to see an optometrist.

Oh, right- I should require "vote

:

" because that's the way it has been done for 5 years and it can't

ever

change. Except there's variation there on the requisite colon, so people might get confused on whether or not they need to use it, and if they need to unvote.

That's right, you

should

follow convention and make it easier on your players when possible. The colon is a straw man (as is unvoting requirements), because not everymod requires it.

This site has used bolded votes the vast majority of the time for the last 7 years, and I'm pretty sure GL did it before then. You're trying to buck a tradition that has the force of law.

Repeat after me:

1. Get Firefox or an equivalently competent browser.
   
2. Quote last Vote Count.
   
3. Ctrl-F.
   
4. Highlight all. Make sure Match case is unchecked.
   
5. Scan page; note that this will catch both "vote" and "unvote", regardless of the presence or absence of the colon, capitalization, or a space between the colon and the player's name.
   
6. Update Vote Count.
   
7. WHILE UNREAD>0 GOTO
   10
   5.
   
8. Post Vote Count.

I have a better than 98% success rate with this method

(I can literally think of 2 times I've missed a vote/unvote, usually when it's broken at the end of a line, within a paragraph, etc)

I think that you can do it too!

Question for those on IRC: Does this ## convention come from there or something?

[Incognito]

If a mod required this in a game I was interested in, I probably wouldn't play in said game.

Thats just childish.

I don't see why it's childish; to me it's just a matter of preference. It's like how some players won't play in games that have cults, I'm a player who won't play in games that require this ## format.

[cicero]

Community is curmudgeonly and intransigent.

## is a smart innovation and should be widely used. But we will not use it because we do not use it. Get off our lawn.

[Kmd4390]

What is the CPU quota thing? It is annoying.

Mr. Flay, I have seen the ## format used on GNE and I believe SA uses it as well. I could be wrong about SA. I can't think off the top of my head if they use it. I know GNE does though.

[Korts]

Community is curmudgeonly and intransigent.

## is a smart innovation and should be widely used. But we will not use it because we do not use it. Get off our lawn.

Damn you! I had to google those words.

Also, I agree with the sentiment Elmo voiced.

Not that my irrelevant opinion counts anywhere.

[armlx]

I think the issue is the effort to implement it is greater then the effort it saves competent mods.

[Megatheory]

FYI I didn't read the whole thread, but anyway...

I don't enjoy playing with anal retentive mods who absolutely have to have some silly format in votes to get them counted. Every vote should count. Not counting votes out of mod convenience violates the spirit of the game. If you really don't have time to do accurate vote counts without a system like this, you should have a back up mod.

[Xdaamno]

## faces opposition. Arguing to make it widespead is now pretty stupid.

[gorckat]

Every vote should count. Not counting votes out of mod convenience violates the spirit of the game.

I think a specific format allows additional tactical options, like fake hammers that look legit.


I see this as really no more significant than sitting down to a game of monopoly with folks and figuring out if the local house rules:

-have a free parking jackpot
-have auctions if a property isn't bought
-give out a couple properties at the beginning of the game
-let you sell "Get out of jail free" cards to the bank for $1000 (really not sure why we started playing this one when I was a kid...)
-allow houses and hotels on any property after a certain number of passes, even without a set
-pay $200 for 'take a ride on the Reading' and the $200 for passing go, etc...

Any game I ever mod will always have the rules posted up front. Feel free to pass them over for any rule you dislike.

[Max]

Auctions are actually in the standard rules /offtopic

[ZONEACE]

Im still confused as to how this is suddenly a problem when it wasn't five years ago?

In the first game people just said "I nominate X" but then they changed to Vote: X. Then to bold voting. Its a progression that makes things clearer.

Except, in my reference, to 5 years ago, the vote making standard was EXACTLY the same as it is today. I didn't mention the first game.

[mith]

Vote: XXXX

was standard by the end of Day 1 in Game 2. That was 8 years ago.

I don't mind mods having whatever formatting rules they like (I certainly do, mostly for aesthetic reasons), but this seems unnecessary as a universal rule. I could see it being useful for automated vote counting, but we don't have that in place yet, and when we do it will be more elegant that placing an additional requirement on players.

[Tekkactus]

Vote: XXXX

was standard by the end of Day 1 in Game 2. That was 8 years ago.

I don't mind mods having whatever formatting rules they like (I certainly do, mostly for aesthetic reasons), but this seems unnecessary as a universal rule. I could see it being useful for automated vote counting, but we don't have that in place yet, and when we do it will be more elegant that placing an additional requirement on players.

This. If a mod thinks it's something he wants I'm cool with it, but I see know reason why it needs to become a required standard.

[Simenon]

Thank you for your consideration. Next time I mod I'll alert MeMe that I'm slothful, incompetent, and curmudgeonly because I don't like a particularly rule about voting.

I really don't get why it absolutely has to be "##", one of the ugliest symbols on the keyboard. That sounds intransigent to me.

[cicero]

If a mod thinks it's something he wants I'm cool with it, but I see know reason why it needs to become a required standard.

That's pretty much how I see it too. I don't think the idea was ever seriously to mandate it anyway though, was it?

Generally, I think it's a useful thing. I've avoided doing it though because I felt there would be some negative blowback from it. I don't see it as something a mod should *need* to introduce, because it's for the benefit of the mod in the first place.

I just am shocked at seeing any vociferous objection to its use. I guess that stems from people not wanting to have to remember to type ## primarily. I hear the arguments that a mod SHOULD read his game and never miss a vote but really, we all need efficiency tools sometimes and this is a helpful one. Basically my thought is, if a mod chooses to use the double hash no one should give her/him a hard time. Just go with it. It is a pretty commonly used forum mafia tool after all.

[Megatheory]

Every vote should count. Not counting votes out of mod convenience violates the spirit of the game.

I think a specific format allows additional tactical options, like fake hammers that look legit.

This is precisely the kind of thing that I think violates the spirit of the game. If someone is trying to pseudovote strategically, than it should appear in vote counts and cause a lynch if there are sufficient votes. Otherwise, vote have less meaning and will probably have less weight in analysis.

And since you brought it up, I tend to dislike house rules for games, especially when I play Magic with someone who hasn't played since Alliances or something and thinks the 6th edition rules changes never happened, so I can't mulligan unless I have all lands or no lands, or I can't block with a Sakura Tribe Elder and sacrifice it for a land because "you shouldn't be able to do that."

[Tekkactus]

Does it really need to be ##, even? I think #Vote is uncommon enough as it is.

[shaft.ed]

I think in my next game I'm going to have people vote by typing

luxaryyatch: PlayerName

. It's pronounced throatwobblermangrove however.

[charter]

Here. For added bonus, For the same game.

Anyone who hasn't tried needs to stop whining, suck it up, and take it like a man.

What?

Why?

Apparently if you post a MD thread and a few people agree with you, it becomes official policy and anybody whining about it needs to suck it up and take it like a man.

Have you (or any of you bitching about doing it) been in a game where you had to? If not, I don't see how you can say it's the end of life as we know it. If you have, then I guess I simply disagree on this matter. All I'm saying is, as a player, it's no skin off my nose, and if the mod wants us to do it, we should. It should be up to the mod. If they want to make it so you have to post in red size 30 font, don't sign up for the game. Simple as that.

[Atlas]

Who cares if the mod is a lazy sloth? Typing ## won't kill you, and votes don't occur so frequently that they will "make the thread ugly". I don't see any problem with it.