Board Thread:News and Announcements/@comment-3991308-20160412232716/@comment-3991308-20160808110722

1) COTM and SOTM have always been a popularity contest. I literally say that every week. It's also literally the first bullet point listened, so that's not a fact that any of the admins shy away from. OTMs weren't intended to be a showcase of "the best" (however you define the best), but a showcase of characters and ships we appreciate made by some of our lovely and active Wikia members. It's supposed to be fun, and enjoyable, not serious.

Likewise, voting for other people's characters show that you're actively involved in our Wikia community and care about the works other people put out.

Basically, if you want a chance to get some votes? Activity is key.

2) Originally, voting was done not so separately. In fact, it was completely transparent and occured right here in a forum thread. But then drama happened, people got bitter about not getting votes and started complaining about how "good art gets votes" and BS like that. It got incredibly savage so a blind-voting system was started up to prevent further bitterness. If it weren't for a previous lack of civility, we wouldn't have to lose transparent voting.

3) A list of close candidates is a good idea, though. We may or may not implement that in the near future.

4) Also, blind voting means that the OTMs reveals are more dramatic. After blind voting was introduced, a lot of members reported that they felt more positive in their votes and weren't swayed by what "the majority" were putting down. Forum voting doesn't have the same sense of anticipation when OTMs go up.

5) Forum voting was also incredibly messy since actual votes were sometimes lost by irrelevant discussions and commentaries.

6) Bother me with further questions if you have any.