More on 'No Votes'

[sffl.livejournal.com]

We had a very good point brought up in the Ravenclaw common room regarding no votes. One of our members stated that when they got no voted, and members asked them to elaborate, they had a hard time telling what people wanted them to elaborate on.

So this brings me to my next request -- when you do no vote someone, and ask for elaboration, try to be a little more helpful. :) Offer them hints as to which questions they can add more to, and if it's the whole application, don't hesitate in saying so (politely, of course).

Thank you,

Kristi, Ravenclaw
Voting Manager / Appeals Mod

Comments

[loved-gamgee.livejournal.com]

good idea. i'll make sure i elaborate on what i want them to elaborate on...lol

Jill//Puff

[weemumlessmngrl.livejournal.com]

...hahaha.

Nice way to put it. XD

~ Melinda o' Ravenclaw

[timydamonkey.livejournal.com]

Thank you for that. ^^ It'll be easier for anyone who is no voted, and will give them a fair chance in being able to modify their application. ^^

No votes, voting, and turtles.

[karinablack.livejournal.com]

Can you screen this? I seriously don't feel like being flamed today. (or tomorrow. Give me 'til the 25th to be ok for flames again ;) )
This isn't very well explained on the userinfo.

1) Does a "no" vote mean no house or NO you can't join, you SUCK go away? Coz I took it to be the latter and wondered why people would be rude just for fun until I saw they got points for voting.

2) There's no clear perimeters on length of application or what was good. I was *shocked* to find my original was "too short!" Me- the self-titled queen of verbose :) too short. It amused many, muchly. You were great to tell me via email, but if I had been someone who wasn't particularly creative, or brave enough to resubmit, or if I was in THAT mood (which does happen that I do get discouraged, throw up my hands, roll my eyes, stomp and make PFFT PFFT sounds LOUDLY before giving up completely) I would have just figured I shouldn't even bother.

3) We're not supposed to reply to comments, and I did get blasted for this, but I was at a lack of a better way to inform people my application had been modified and reposted to get revoted. A few thanked me for doing so, as they normally wouldn't have known to look or bothered looking *frown*

4) You can't reply to comments, flame war reasoning is understandable... but sheesh- some votes were flat-out RUDE. Is there anyone that moderates or keeps track of comments? Is this an exclusive community, or a popularity community? Do you want new applicants or not? This thought isn't coming out right, but I don't know how to rephrase.

5) If more elaboration is required, it'd be helpful to know what one did CORRECTLY or WELL, not just what they did horribly. More elaboration... on WHAT? (I had felt my answers were succinct and to the point, I somewhat struggled coming up with MORE to say- for once. It was recorded on the calendar as a remarkable day, trust me :) )

6) What now? What happens after you're voted in and sorted is somewhat lost. I signed up for houses, waiting for approval... need to write an intro but no perameters and I'm quite nervous about getting "NO VOTED," kicked out, or slammed for length by members again, even now that I'm approved. Is there a set of instructions for after one is sorted posted somewhere?

Thanks :)
ps turtles was a ruse. They don't really exist. Sorry to disappoint!
~Karina Black, Ravenclaw initiate

Re: No votes, voting, and turtles.

[timydamonkey.livejournal.com]

For the first one - from what I gather, no votes generally just mean people didn't feel a particular pull to any house - rather, that they're finding it difficult to place you, so people ask if you can elaborate on anything that would make them be able to see what house they think you would fit in. At least, that's how I see it. It's not a 'you suck, go AWAY!' type thing, it's more of a 'we'd like to place you but need a little more information before we can do so' sort of thing. :)

Hope that helped.

-Chloe, Ravenclaw.

Re: No votes, voting, and turtles.

[karinablack.livejournal.com]

It helps, and I understand it a bit better now...
It isn't explained from the get-go. I had to ask and get some major reassurance before going ahead. I'm the awkward avoidance type anyway :)

that does help though :)
So uh
now what? :)
I REALLY need a distraction.
Karina

Re: No votes, voting, and turtles.

[tangerinesidhe.livejournal.com]

1) No votes are used either because someone didn't get a vibe, you've house bashed, or your formatting is WAY messed up. They aren't intended to be rude.

2) The length thing isn't specified. That may be something we'll discuss in the officials community (It's been raised already)

3) When applications have been edited and don't have enough votes on them to be sorted, Kristi makes an announcement here, asking people to please give it another shot.

4) If you ever feel that someone is being rude, you need to contact Kristi, Bunny, or Juppy ASAP. If they are not available, try to find a prefect or other official. We all try to look out for those sorts of things, but sometimes we simply miss comments.

5) That's what Kristi is saying in this post. So, in the future, I think that we'll see a bit more of that. *hopes*

6) Once you are in, you're in. You will be admitted to your common room, and you can join affiliate communities. There will be contests, discussions, random silliness. We do have minimum participation expectations (one activity per month--voting on 10 applications, entering an icon challenge, doing an herbafind at the clubs community, etc). But even then, you'll be put on probation before being kicked out. This is only because we want to be more than simply a "sorting community" where someone applies, gets stamped, and disappears.

We try our best to be welcoming and inviting. There's always a lot of discussion among the officials about how to make sure we don't end up being some sort of exclusive or elite community.

Hopefully that helped some. :)

Destiny//Gryffindor Prefect

Re: No votes, voting, and turtles.

[karinablack.livejournal.com]

ohhhkay :)
Nods, thanks especially for #3.
Hopefully they'll put it on the intro to platform 934 someday, if there's room :)
So once we're admitted, um. and get assigned and sign up for everything, what next?
Just... wait? or .. I'm supposed to post a hello to the common room, are there unspoken or suggested parameters for that at all? :)
Thanks :)

Re: No votes, voting, and turtles.

[tangerinesidhe.livejournal.com]

Well, as I'm in Gryff and not Claw, I don't know exactly what people expect on the intro. But, I don't expect anyone will jump on your case. It's intended to be a way for your house mates to get to know you better--that way people will be able to see if you share common interests. It makes it easier for them to find ways to start conversation with you.

As for what next--once you are a member of the communities, you're welcome to start participating. Just look for activities that interest you. hh_clubs has a number of clubs for you to join, and there are new activities and contests there each week. If you prefer to write fanfic or draw, hh_sugarquill is our fic/art community. And then there are about 5 icon/graphic challenges that you can enter if that's more your thing.

Just make sure you read the community/contest rules carefully. I'd also recommend reading the HiH FAQ and the Newbie Guide, which are both linked on the hogwartsishome user info.

Re: No votes, voting, and turtles.

[karinablack.livejournal.com]

ooh neat!! Didn't notice the newbie guide.
Thanks a lot :`)

Re: No votes, voting, and turtles.

[jissa.livejournal.com]

heyla! tangerinesidhe has covered most of these questions better than I could but I would like to put my two cents in regarding no votes.

As I understand it (from much reading of sorting guides after I was sorted) no vote is used when the voter just can't a house vibe from the to be sorted. Hence all the requests for elaboration. We actually do have a vote that is more along the lines of " NO you can't join, you SUCK go away?" called "muggle" that is reserved for people who "push" for specific houses and/or house bash.

Since you didn't get any muggle votes, take that mean that we all love you. Plus, meli_p has already expressed her undying affection to you for participating in the debate.

Re: No votes, voting, and turtles.

[karinablack.livejournal.com]

*blushblushblush*
Thanks for clarifying :)

I feel wuved.