Competition type and voting options guide
Choosing competition type and voting options influence not only winners choice, but also reliability and even stats!
This table will help you choose best option for you.
| Choosen option |
How it works? |
Profits |
Risks |
Recommended for |
| traditional voting |
- users have to sign up to vote.
- voting by clicking in "vote" button
voting limits:
- set number of voters per contest, category, day, hour
- decide if user can vote on the same entry more than once
|
- greater reliability, while votes are mostly added by real people,
- more sign ups
- good traffic
|
- less votes in comparison to anonymous voting
- big bounce rate (unless voting is limited)
|
competitions, where winners are choosen by community (most popular author may be choosen) |
| anonymous voting |
- sign up is not required for voting
- users vote by clicking on vote button
voting limits:
- As above, but cookie based.
- Additionally restrictions per single IP address: number of votes per contest, category, day, hour
|
- Much more votes then in any other option,
- therefore more Page views and Unique Visitors
|
- there is risk of cheating by using bots and random proxy
- huge bounce rate
- little reliability
|
competitions, where final decision is made by Jury or competition organizer |
| social interactions/without voting, only counting sharing content on Facebook |
There are FB Like buttons and during voting round are separately counted Facebook interactions as opposed to FB likes that are available and counted all the time. It's should not be literaly treated as voting, due to FB policy.
voting limits:
- set number of counted likes per contest, category, day, hour
|
- big reliability, much confidence, that votes are real,
- good promotion in social media,
- which improves stats also
|
- limitations in FB policy
- it's just third party solution,
- Number of votes may differ from what is shown in number next to the Like button on the website because Facebook adds other stuff like comments, shares, etc.
|
competitions, where final decision is made by Jury or competition organizer |
| jury voting |
Jury votes by starring entries in special judges panel |
- great reliability
- many judges can vote simultanously
|
|
competitions that tends to be seen profesional and more then one person judges |
| competition organizer's choice |
Competition Organizer (admin) approves winners |
- entries stats may help with the choice
|
|
competitions that tends to be seen profesional and one person judges |
Best practices
If you allow users voting then you can expect some kind of cheating as some users will try to get as many votes as possible. Even with strongest protection options and voting statistics (IP and cookies)you won't be able to prove cheating. After all it's even likely that most voted entry will be not the best one, but rather a weaker one. So our tip is:
Tip: If you allow any kind of users voting, then we recommend organizer to choose winner among most voted entries (instead of just approving most voted entries). State it clearly in competition rules.
Tip: If you choose winners by committee (jury or organizers) we recommend choosing chairman first.