[spielfrieks] Introducing the New MCA Voting Application!

[[e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

Well, we're getting started later than usual, but the voting application is finally ready for prime time. The delay is totally on me. My plan was to get together with Wei-Hwa in early May, so that we'd have plenty of time to code and test the new app. Unfortunately, Real Life blasted me in a big way at that time and that pushed everything else to the back burner. Even after things subsided a bit, with everything going on in my life, the MCAs just slipped my mind. My bad. However, the nice thing about having a small, indie game award is that our deadlines are all self-imposed ones. So if we wind up announcing our winners a couple of months late, no one in the gaming world will probably even notice. The only tangible effect is we had a few more weeks to play last year's titles and that can't be bad. So even if things are a bit late, no harm, no foul.

And I think you'll all agree that the new voting app was well worth the wait. Wei-Hwa was able to put a nice number of features into it. Naturally, we're open to any suggestions that anyone makes. But let me tell you how the application works right now.

In order to vote, go to the following website: http://meepleschoice.win. You'll see the Home screen, which contains buttons that say "Vote" and "See Results". But before you can do anything, you'll have to sign up to the database. There are 5 menu headers on the top right of the screen. Click on "Sign Up" and you'll be asked to create a Username, provide your Email address, and create a Password. You can also log in using either your Google or Facebook accounts. Once you've filled out the fields, click on the Sign Up button and you'll be entered into the database.

Anytime you want to sign in to the application, click on the Sign In menu on the upper right. The screen will ask you to Login with your Username and Password. Once you're signed in, the application will keep you logged in until you choose to Logout. Logged in users will see a Logout choice in the menu, which lets you logout with a single click. The other menu choices are an About option, which will list information about the award whenever I get the time to provide it, and a Contact option, which gives users a form to fill out if they have any questions or suggestions about the application.

In order to vote, get to the Home screen (you'll either start there or, if you're somewhere else in the app, just click on the Home menu option). On the Home screen, click on the Vote button. This will show you all the games you can choose from in the current round of voting. Right now, we're in the Preliminary Round and there are 194 games you can vote for, arranged alphabetically in four columns. Voting is dead easy: just find the game you want to vote for and click the green field to its left which says "Add Vote". The field will be replaced by a red field that says "Remove Vote", which is the indicator that you've voted for that game. You may choose as many games as you wish, up to the maximum number for each round. In the preliminary round, you can only vote for 10 or fewer games. If you select your tenth game, all the text in the green fields (for the games you haven't chosen) will change from "Add Vote" to "vote limited", to show that you've reached your vote limit. If you change your mind about your selections (or made a mistake), go to the game you no longer want to vote for and click on the red field that says "Remove Vote". It will be replaced by a green field which says "Add Vote", showing that your vote for that game has now been removed. Obviously, if you've voted for 10 games and you want to change your votes, you'll have to remove your vote for the game you no longer want before you can add your vote for the game you do want to vote for.

That's it. There's no button to register your final vote, because the system records your votes automatically as you vote for games. The app remembers your votes after you leave the screen and/or logout. When you return to the application, you'll see all the choices you've previously made. Because there's no formal way to finalize your vote, make sure you're happy with the selections on the screen before the voting deadline comes and I shut down the voting.

Pretty darn easy, huh? Hopefully, there won't be any hiccups, but it's brand new, so it won't shock me if something goes wrong. If there are any problems or questions about how to use the app, just post it to the user group. Alternatively, you can email me at huzonfirst AT gmail DOT com, or fill out the page on the Contact menu option.

We'll give everyone a week to make their preliminary round selections. That should be plenty of time, but if anyone needs more time, just let me know. But assume that I'll be shutting down the voting some time next Thursday, July 28. I'll send out a notice, along with the details for the final round of voting. Once that last round of voting is over, I'll announce the results and everyone should be able to use the application to check out the details of both rounds of voting.

Just in case you want to analyze the games away from the voting screen, I've continued my practice from previous years and uploaded an Excel spreadsheet to Spielfrieks that shows all 194 games from the preliminary round. The various tabs show the games listed alphabetically and sorted by Geek rank. Feel free to download this spreadsheet if you think it'll help you make your selections.


I'm very excited about this new voting app and I hope you are as well. Wei-Hwa has been very responsive to all my suggestions, so if by chance some issues arise, I'm sure he'll be able to get things fixed quickly. My thanks go out to him for duty above and beyond, as well as to all of you for your patience with us. The Meeples Choice Awards have zoomed into the 21st century and things will never be the same again! Now, go out and vote and pick some great award winners!

[Jonathan Franklin [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

Fantastic job!

As an aside, I think you could create a recommendation system. For those
who had the highest correlation with your responses, where did they deviate?

Could you then take the top 10 or 20 with the highest correlation and
aggregate those you did not list to come up with recommendations?

Jonathan

Post by ***@comcast.net [spielfrieks]
Well, we're getting started later than usual, but the voting application
is finally ready for prime time. The delay is totally on me. My plan was
to get together with Wei-Hwa in early May, so that we'd have plenty of time
to code and test the new app. Unfortunately, Real Life blasted me in a big
way at that time and that pushed everything else to the back burner. Even
after things subsided a bit, with everything going on in my life, the MCAs
just slipped my mind. My bad. However, the nice thing about having a
small, indie game award is that our deadlines are all self-imposed ones.
So if we wind up announcing our winners a couple of months late, no one in
the gaming world will probably even notice. The only tangible effect is we
had a few more weeks to play last year's titles and that can't be bad. So
even if things are a bit late, no harm, no foul.
And I think you'll all agree that the new voting app was well worth the
wait. Wei-Hwa was able to put a nice number of features into it.
Naturally, we're open to any suggestions that anyone makes. But let me
tell you how the application works right now.
In order to vote, go to the following website: http://meepleschoice.win.
You'll see the Home screen, which contains buttons that say "Vote" and "See
Results". But before you can do anything, you'll have to sign up to the
database. There are 5 menu headers on the top right of the screen. Click
on "Sign Up" and you'll be asked to create a Username, provide your Email
address, and create a Password. You can also log in using either your
Google or Facebook accounts. Once you've filled out the fields, click on
the Sign Up button and you'll be entered into the database.
Anytime you want to sign in to the application, click on the Sign In menu
on the upper right. The screen will ask you to Login with your Username
and Password. Once you're signed in, the application will keep you logged
in until you choose to Logout. Logged in users will see a Logout choice in
the menu, which lets you logout with a single click. The other menu
choices are an About option, which will list information about the award
whenever I get the time to provide it, and a Contact option, which gives
users a form to fill out if they have any questions or suggestions about
the application.
In order to vote, get to the Home screen (you'll either start there or, if
you're somewhere else in the app, just click on the Home menu option). On
the Home screen, click on the Vote button. This will show you all the
games you can choose from in the current round of voting. Right now, we're
in the Preliminary Round and there are 194 games you can vote for, arranged
alphabetically in four columns. Voting is dead easy: just find the game
you want to vote for and click the green field to its left which says "Add
Vote". The field will be replaced by a red field that says "Remove Vote",
which is the indicator that you've voted for that game. You may choose as
many games as you wish, up to the maximum number for each round. In the
preliminary round, you can only vote for 10 or fewer games. If you select
your tenth game, all the text in the green fields (for the games you
haven't chosen) will change from "Add Vote" to "vote limited", to show that
you've reached your vote limit. If you change your mind about your
selections (or made a mistake), go to the game you no longer want to vote
for and click on the red field that says "Remove Vote". It will be
replaced by a green field which says "Add Vote", showing that your vote for
that game has now been removed. Obviously, if you've voted for 10 games
and you want to change your votes, you'll have to remove your vote for the
game you no longer want before you can add your vote for the game you do
want to vote for.
That's it. There's no button to register your final vote, because the
system records your votes automatically as you vote for games. The app
remembers your votes after you leave the screen and/or logout. When you
return to the application, you'll see all the choices you've previously
made. Because there's no formal way to finalize your vote, make sure
you're happy with the selections on the screen before the voting deadline
comes and I shut down the voting.
Pretty darn easy, huh? Hopefully, there won't be any hiccups, but it's
brand new, so it won't shock me if something goes wrong. If there are any
problems or questions about how to use the app, just post it to the user
group. Alternatively, you can email me at huzonfirst AT gmail DOT com, or
fill out the page on the Contact menu option.
We'll give everyone a week to make their preliminary round selections.
That should be plenty of time, but if anyone needs more time, just let me
know. But assume that I'll be shutting down the voting some time next
Thursday, July 28. I'll send out a notice, along with the details for the
final round of voting. Once that last round of voting is over, I'll
announce the results and everyone should be able to use the application to
check out the details of both rounds of voting.
Just in case you want to analyze the games away from the voting screen,
I've continued my practice from previous years and uploaded an Excel
spreadsheet to Spielfrieks that shows all 194 games from the preliminary
round. The various tabs show the games listed alphabetically and sorted by
Geek rank. Feel free to download this spreadsheet if you think it'll help
you make your selections.
I'm very excited about this new voting app and I hope you are as well.
Wei-Hwa has been very responsive to all my suggestions, so if by chance
some issues arise, I'm sure he'll be able to get things fixed quickly. My
thanks go out to him for duty above and beyond, as well as to all of you
for your patience with us. The Meeples Choice Awards have zoomed into the
21st century and things will never be the same again! Now, go out and vote
and pick some great award winners!

[Doug Orleans [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

Is it too late to add nominations? I just noticed that Bottlecap Vikings
isn't on the list.

Post by ***@comcast.net [spielfrieks]
Well, we're getting started later than usual, but the voting application
is finally ready for prime time. The delay is totally on me. My plan was
to get together with Wei-Hwa in early May, so that we'd have plenty of time
to code and test the new app. Unfortunately, Real Life blasted me in a big
way at that time and that pushed everything else to the back burner. Even
after things subsided a bit, with everything going on in my life, the MCAs
just slipped my mind. My bad. However, the nice thing about having a
small, indie game award is that our deadlines are all self-imposed ones.
So if we wind up announcing our winners a couple of months late, no one in
the gaming world will probably even notice. The only tangible effect is we
had a few more weeks to play last year's titles and that can't be bad. So
even if things are a bit late, no harm, no foul.
And I think you'll all agree that the new voting app was well worth the
wait. Wei-Hwa was able to put a nice number of features into it.
Naturally, we're open to any suggestions that anyone makes. But let me
tell you how the application works right now.
In order to vote, go to the following website: http://meepleschoice.win.
You'll see the Home screen, which contains buttons that say "Vote" and "See
Results". But before you can do anything, you'll have to sign up to the
database. There are 5 menu headers on the top right of the screen. Click
on "Sign Up" and you'll be asked to create a Username, provide your Email
address, and create a Password. You can also log in using either your
Google or Facebook accounts. Once you've filled out the fields, click on
the Sign Up button and you'll be entered into the database.
Anytime you want to sign in to the application, click on the Sign In menu
on the upper right. The screen will ask you to Login with your Username
and Password. Once you're signed in, the application will keep you logged
in until you choose to Logout. Logged in users will see a Logout choice in
the menu, which lets you logout with a single click. The other menu
choices are an About option, which will list information about the award
whenever I get the time to provide it, and a Contact option, which gives
users a form to fill out if they have any questions or suggestions about
the application.
In order to vote, get to the Home screen (you'll either start there or, if
you're somewhere else in the app, just click on the Home menu option). On
the Home screen, click on the Vote button. This will show you all the
games you can choose from in the current round of voting. Right now, we're
in the Preliminary Round and there are 194 games you can vote for, arranged
alphabetically in four columns. Voting is dead easy: just find the game
you want to vote for and click the green field to its left which says "Add
Vote". The field will be replaced by a red field that says "Remove Vote",
which is the indicator that you've voted for that game. You may choose as
many games as you wish, up to the maximum number for each round. In the
preliminary round, you can only vote for 10 or fewer games. If you select
your tenth game, all the text in the green fields (for the games you
haven't chosen) will change from "Add Vote" to "vote limited", to show that
you've reached your vote limit. If you change your mind about your
selections (or made a mistake), go to the game you no longer want to vote
for and click on the red field that says "Remove Vote". It will be
replaced by a green field which says "Add Vote", showing that your vote for
that game has now been removed. Obviously, if you've voted for 10 games
and you want to change your votes, you'll have to remove your vote for the
game you no longer want before you can add your vote for the game you do
want to vote for.
That's it. There's no button to register your final vote, because the
system records your votes automatically as you vote for games. The app
remembers your votes after you leave the screen and/or logout. When you
return to the application, you'll see all the choices you've previously
made. Because there's no formal way to finalize your vote, make sure
you're happy with the selections on the screen before the voting deadline
comes and I shut down the voting.
Pretty darn easy, huh? Hopefully, there won't be any hiccups, but it's
brand new, so it won't shock me if something goes wrong. If there are any
problems or questions about how to use the app, just post it to the user
group. Alternatively, you can email me at huzonfirst AT gmail DOT com, or
fill out the page on the Contact menu option.
We'll give everyone a week to make their preliminary round selections.
That should be plenty of time, but if anyone needs more time, just let me
know. But assume that I'll be shutting down the voting some time next
Thursday, July 28. I'll send out a notice, along with the details for the
final round of voting. Once that last round of voting is over, I'll
announce the results and everyone should be able to use the application to
check out the details of both rounds of voting.
Just in case you want to analyze the games away from the voting screen,
I've continued my practice from previous years and uploaded an Excel
spreadsheet to Spielfrieks that shows all 194 games from the preliminary
round. The various tabs show the games listed alphabetically and sorted by
Geek rank. Feel free to download this spreadsheet if you think it'll help
you make your selections.
I'm very excited about this new voting app and I hope you are as well.
Wei-Hwa has been very responsive to all my suggestions, so if by chance
some issues arise, I'm sure he'll be able to get things fixed quickly. My
thanks go out to him for duty above and beyond, as well as to all of you
for your patience with us. The Meeples Choice Awards have zoomed into the
21st century and things will never be the same again! Now, go out and vote
and pick some great award winners!

[[e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

Normally, I'd say no, it's too late, but hey, I got a new toy to play with! So let's see if I can add an additional game on the fly...

Son of a gun, it worked! Okay, folks, there's a 195th game on the list: Bottlecap Vikings. Thanks for inadvertantly helping us to check the features of the system, Doug!

[Mark Johnson [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

Very slick, thanks! I've voted, and was about to tweet that with the link. Though maybe I should hold off? With this new tool, anyone can vote. That's a good thing, but perhaps folks who aren't familiar with the tradition on spielfrieks would need more background & introduction on the web page first?


(I've also got a niggling, little worry about ballot-stuffing through creation of multiple accounts. Though I sincerely hope we're all adult enough to avoid that nonsense for a purely fun award.)

-Mark

In order to vote, go to the following website: http://meepleschoice.win. You'll see the Home screen, which contains buttons that say "Vote" and "See Results". But before you can do anything, you'll have to sign up to the database. There are 5 menu headers on the top right of the screen. Click on "Sign Up" and you'll be asked to create a Username, provide your Email address, and create a Password. You can also log in using either your Google or Facebook accounts. Once you've filled out the fields, click on the Sign Up button and you'll be entered into the database._

[[e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

Thanks, Mark. My preference would be that we still require people to join Spielfrieks in order to vote. (And it is NOT impossible to join, or even particularly difficult--just have the interested party send an email to spielfrieks-owner AT yahoogroups DOT com.) I realize with the new app that this is no longer necessary, but it keeps it a Spielfriek award and has the side benefit of growing the group. So I'd appreciate it if folks didn't publicize the name of the voting website in other forums. If anyone is interested in voting, just tell them how to join Spielfrieks and that should be sufficient. Thanks!

Larry

[Mark Johnson [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

Done & done!

Post by ***@comcast.net [spielfrieks]
Thanks, Mark. My preference would be that we still require people to join
Spielfrieks in order to vote. (And it is NOT impossible to join, or even
particularly difficult--just have the interested party send an email to
spielfrieks-owner AT yahoogroups DOT com.) I realize with the new app that
this is no longer necessary, but it keeps it a Spielfriek award and has the
side benefit of growing the group. So I'd appreciate it if folks didn't
publicize the name of the voting website in other forums. If anyone is
interested in voting, just tell them how to join Spielfrieks and that
should be sufficient. Thanks!
Larry

[Clay Blankenship [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

I would concur...this group has a known style and a certain amount of
expertise, I think. Open it up to as a free-for-all and you are likely to
get Twilight Monopoly, or Cards Against Humanity, or who knows what.
(Resisting urge to make political commentary.)

Post by ***@comcast.net [spielfrieks]
Thanks, Mark. My preference would be that we still require people to join
Spielfrieks in order to vote. (And it is NOT impossible to join, or even
particularly difficult--just have the interested party send an email to
spielfrieks-owner AT yahoogroups DOT com.) I realize with the new app that
this is no longer necessary, but it keeps it a Spielfriek award and has the
side benefit of growing the group. So I'd appreciate it if folks didn't
publicize the name of the voting website in other forums. If anyone is
interested in voting, just tell them how to join Spielfrieks and that
should be sufficient. Thanks!
Larry

[Ronald Tin [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

Nice job! Could I provide some comment?

1. It is a bit difficult to count how many votes I have cast until hitting
the limit.
2. Since there are a large number of games, maybe we could have a sort /
search feature (by publisher, name, etc)
3. I believe people are no longer able to join this group. Maybe a comment
box on the web site?

Post by ***@comcast.net [spielfrieks]
Well, we're getting started later than usual, but the voting application
is finally ready for prime time. The delay is totally on me. My plan was
to get together with Wei-Hwa in early May, so that we'd have plenty of time
to code and test the new app. Unfortunately, Real Life blasted me in a big
way at that time and that pushed everything else to the back burner. Even
after things subsided a bit, with everything going on in my life, the MCAs
just slipped my mind. My bad. However, the nice thing about having a
small, indie game award is that our deadlines are all self-imposed ones.
So if we wind up announcing our winners a couple of months late, no one in
the gaming world will probably even notice. The only tangible effect is we
had a few more weeks to play last year's titles and that can't be bad. So
even if things are a bit late, no harm, no foul.
And I think you'll all agree that the new voting app was well worth the
wait. Wei-Hwa was able to put a nice number of features into it.
Naturally, we're open to any suggestions that anyone makes. But let me
tell you how the application works right now.
In order to vote, go to the following website: http://meepleschoice.win.
You'll see the Home screen, which contains buttons that say "Vote" and "See
Results". But before you can do anything, you'll have to sign up to the
database. There are 5 menu headers on the top right of the screen. Click
on "Sign Up" and you'll be asked to create a Username, provide your Email
address, and create a Password. You can also log in using either your
Google or Facebook accounts. Once you've filled out the fields, click on
the Sign Up button and you'll be entered into the database.
Anytime you want to sign in to the application, click on the Sign In menu
on the upper right. The screen will ask you to Login with your Username
and Password. Once you're signed in, the application will keep you logged
in until you choose to Logout. Logged in users will see a Logout choice in
the menu, which lets you logout with a single click. The other menu
choices are an About option, which will list information about the award
whenever I get the time to provide it, and a Contact option, which gives
users a form to fill out if they have any questions or suggestions about
the application.
In order to vote, get to the Home screen (you'll either start there or, if
you're somewhere else in the app, just click on the Home menu option). On
the Home screen, click on the Vote button. This will show you all the
games you can choose from in the current round of voting. Right now, we're
in the Preliminary Round and there are 194 games you can vote for, arranged
alphabetically in four columns. Voting is dead easy: just find the game
you want to vote for and click the green field to its left which says "Add
Vote". The field will be replaced by a red field that says "Remove Vote",
which is the indicator that you've voted for that game. You may choose as
many games as you wish, up to the maximum number for each round. In the
preliminary round, you can only vote for 10 or fewer games. If you select
your tenth game, all the text in the green fields (for the games you
haven't chosen) will change from "Add Vote" to "vote limited", to show that
you've reached your vote limit. If you change your mind about your
selections (or made a mistake), go to the game you no longer want to vote
for and click on the red field that says "Remove Vote". It will be
replaced by a green field which says "Add Vote", showing that your vote for
that game has now been removed. Obviously, if you've voted for 10 games
and you want to change your votes, you'll have to remove your vote for the
game you no longer want before you can add your vote for the game you do
want to vote for.
That's it. There's no button to register your final vote, because the
system records your votes automatically as you vote for games. The app
remembers your votes after you leave the screen and/or logout. When you
return to the application, you'll see all the choices you've previously
made. Because there's no formal way to finalize your vote, make sure
you're happy with the selections on the screen before the voting deadline
comes and I shut down the voting.
Pretty darn easy, huh? Hopefully, there won't be any hiccups, but it's
brand new, so it won't shock me if something goes wrong. If there are any
problems or questions about how to use the app, just post it to the user
group. Alternatively, you can email me at huzonfirst AT gmail DOT com, or
fill out the page on the Contact menu option.
We'll give everyone a week to make their preliminary round selections.
That should be plenty of time, but if anyone needs more time, just let me
know. But assume that I'll be shutting down the voting some time next
Thursday, July 28. I'll send out a notice, along with the details for the
final round of voting. Once that last round of voting is over, I'll
announce the results and everyone should be able to use the application to
check out the details of both rounds of voting.
Just in case you want to analyze the games away from the voting screen,
I've continued my practice from previous years and uploaded an Excel
spreadsheet to Spielfrieks that shows all 194 games from the preliminary
round. The various tabs show the games listed alphabetically and sorted by
Geek rank. Feel free to download this spreadsheet if you think it'll help
you make your selections.
I'm very excited about this new voting app and I hope you are as well.
Wei-Hwa has been very responsive to all my suggestions, so if by chance
some issues arise, I'm sure he'll be able to get things fixed quickly. My
thanks go out to him for duty above and beyond, as well as to all of you
for your patience with us. The Meeples Choice Awards have zoomed into the
21st century and things will never be the same again! Now, go out and vote
and pick some great award winners!

[Jacob Lee [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

This is great!

Jacob

Post by Ronald Tin ***@gmail.com [spielfrieks]
Nice job! Could I provide some comment?
1. It is a bit difficult to count how many votes I have cast until hitting
the limit.
2. Since there are a large number of games, maybe we could have a sort /
search feature (by publisher, name, etc)
3. I believe people are no longer able to join this group. Maybe a comment
box on the web site?

Post by ***@comcast.net [spielfrieks]
Well, we're getting started later than usual, but the voting application
is finally ready for prime time. The delay is totally on me. My plan was
to get together with Wei-Hwa in early May, so that we'd have plenty of time
to code and test the new app. Unfortunately, Real Life blasted me in a big
way at that time and that pushed everything else to the back burner. Even
after things subsided a bit, with everything going on in my life, the MCAs
just slipped my mind. My bad. However, the nice thing about having a
small, indie game award is that our deadlines are all self-imposed ones.
So if we wind up announcing our winners a couple of months late, no one in
the gaming world will probably even notice. The only tangible effect is we
had a few more weeks to play last year's titles and that can't be bad. So
even if things are a bit late, no harm, no foul.
And I think you'll all agree that the new voting app was well worth the
wait. Wei-Hwa was able to put a nice number of features into it.
Naturally, we're open to any suggestions that anyone makes. But let me
tell you how the application works right now.
In order to vote, go to the following website: http://meepleschoice.win.
You'll see the Home screen, which contains buttons that say "Vote" and "See
Results". But before you can do anything, you'll have to sign up to the
database. There are 5 menu headers on the top right of the screen. Click
on "Sign Up" and you'll be asked to create a Username, provide your Email
address, and create a Password. You can also log in using either your
Google or Facebook accounts. Once you've filled out the fields, click on
the Sign Up button and you'll be entered into the database.
Anytime you want to sign in to the application, click on the Sign In menu
on the upper right. The screen will ask you to Login with your Username
and Password. Once you're signed in, the application will keep you logged
in until you choose to Logout. Logged in users will see a Logout choice in
the menu, which lets you logout with a single click. The other menu
choices are an About option, which will list information about the award
whenever I get the time to provide it, and a Contact option, which gives
users a form to fill out if they have any questions or suggestions about
the application.
In order to vote, get to the Home screen (you'll either start there or,
if you're somewhere else in the app, just click on the Home menu option).
On the Home screen, click on the Vote button. This will show you all the
games you can choose from in the current round of voting. Right now, we're
in the Preliminary Round and there are 194 games you can vote for, arranged
alphabetically in four columns. Voting is dead easy: just find the game
you want to vote for and click the green field to its left which says "Add
Vote". The field will be replaced by a red field that says "Remove Vote",
which is the indicator that you've voted for that game. You may choose as
many games as you wish, up to the maximum number for each round. In the
preliminary round, you can only vote for 10 or fewer games. If you select
your tenth game, all the text in the green fields (for the games you
haven't chosen) will change from "Add Vote" to "vote limited", to show that
you've reached your vote limit. If you change your mind about your
selections (or made a mistake), go to the game you no longer want to vote
for and click on the red field that says "Remove Vote". It will be
replaced by a green field which says "Add Vote", showing that your vote for
that game has now been removed. Obviously, if you've voted for 10 games
and you want to change your votes, you'll have to remove your vote for the
game you no longer want before you can add your vote for the game you do
want to vote for.
That's it. There's no button to register your final vote, because the
system records your votes automatically as you vote for games. The app
remembers your votes after you leave the screen and/or logout. When you
return to the application, you'll see all the choices you've previously
made. Because there's no formal way to finalize your vote, make sure
you're happy with the selections on the screen before the voting deadline
comes and I shut down the voting.
Pretty darn easy, huh? Hopefully, there won't be any hiccups, but it's
brand new, so it won't shock me if something goes wrong. If there are any
problems or questions about how to use the app, just post it to the user
group. Alternatively, you can email me at huzonfirst AT gmail DOT com, or
fill out the page on the Contact menu option.
We'll give everyone a week to make their preliminary round selections.
That should be plenty of time, but if anyone needs more time, just let me
know. But assume that I'll be shutting down the voting some time next
Thursday, July 28. I'll send out a notice, along with the details for the
final round of voting. Once that last round of voting is over, I'll
announce the results and everyone should be able to use the application to
check out the details of both rounds of voting.
Just in case you want to analyze the games away from the voting screen,
I've continued my practice from previous years and uploaded an Excel
spreadsheet to Spielfrieks that shows all 194 games from the preliminary
round. The various tabs show the games listed alphabetically and sorted by
Geek rank. Feel free to download this spreadsheet if you think it'll help
you make your selections.
I'm very excited about this new voting app and I hope you are as well.
Wei-Hwa has been very responsive to all my suggestions, so if by chance
some issues arise, I'm sure he'll be able to get things fixed quickly. My
thanks go out to him for duty above and beyond, as well as to all of you
for your patience with us. The Meeples Choice Awards have zoomed into the
21st century and things will never be the same again! Now, go out and vote
and pick some great award winners!

[[e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

Hi, Ronald. One of the additional featues I've asked Wei-Hwa to think about is a field on the voting page which lists the number of games he or she has currently selected. We wanted to get started on the voting as soon as possible, so there wasn't time to implement it this year, but hopefully, he'll be able to add it for next year.

You can download the 2015 MCA Games spreadsheet from the Files section to get a list of the games you can sort. It doesn't include designer or publisher information, but it does show each game's Geek ratings and rank. Hopefully, that will assist you.


Larry

[Ronald Tin [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

Thank you for the reply. I already completed my vote and my comment was
just minor inconveniences...

To go a bit OT, I have been a (passive) spielfrieks member for many years
and it is sad to see it dwindle. It is also quite difficult to persuade
people to join a group just for voting.

Since we now have a web site, would you think we can migrate to a web forum
on that site so Meeples Choice will be a medium to promote Spielfrieks?

Post by ***@comcast.net [spielfrieks]
Hi, Ronald. One of the additional featues I've asked Wei-Hwa to think
about is a field on the voting page which lists the number of games he or
she has currently selected. We wanted to get started on the voting as soon
as possible, so there wasn't time to implement it this year, but hopefully,
he'll be able to add it for next year.
You can download the 2015 MCA Games spreadsheet from the Files section to
get a list of the games you can sort. It doesn't include designer or
publisher information, but it does show each game's Geek ratings and rank.
Hopefully, that will assist you.
Larry

[Jacob Lee [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

Is Spielfrieks dwindling? It seems like the board game hobby is exploding
which would mean the number of people interested in joining a group like
Spielfrieks should increase as well. I don't know what the numbers
actually are, but I feel privileged to be a part of this group whereas I
feel like just another peg on BGG's wall.

Jacob

Post by Ronald Tin ***@gmail.com [spielfrieks]
Thank you for the reply. I already completed my vote and my comment was
just minor inconveniences...
To go a bit OT, I have been a (passive) spielfrieks member for many years
and it is sad to see it dwindle. It is also quite difficult to persuade
people to join a group just for voting.
Since we now have a web site, would you think we can migrate to a web
forum on that site so Meeples Choice will be a medium to promote
Spielfrieks?

Post by ***@comcast.net [spielfrieks]
Hi, Ronald. One of the additional featues I've asked Wei-Hwa to think
about is a field on the voting page which lists the number of games he or
she has currently selected. We wanted to get started on the voting as soon
as possible, so there wasn't time to implement it this year, but hopefully,
he'll be able to add it for next year.
You can download the 2015 MCA Games spreadsheet from the Files section to
get a list of the games you can sort. It doesn't include designer or
publisher information, but it does show each game's Geek ratings and rank.
Hopefully, that will assist you.
Larry

[Ronald Tin [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

The boardgame hobby is exploding, but this group isn't. In 2004 - 2006 we
had a monthly message count of 500+. In recent years, the yearly message
count was like 200-300.

I do enjoy being here (I read much more than i write) but it is also nice
to be a peg on a very, very large wall.

Post by Jacob Lee ***@gmail.com [spielfrieks]
Is Spielfrieks dwindling? It seems like the board game hobby is exploding
which would mean the number of people interested in joining a group like
Spielfrieks should increase as well. I don't know what the numbers
actually are, but I feel privileged to be a part of this group whereas I
feel like just another peg on BGG's wall.
Jacob

Post by Ronald Tin ***@gmail.com [spielfrieks]
Thank you for the reply. I already completed my vote and my comment was
just minor inconveniences...
To go a bit OT, I have been a (passive) spielfrieks member for many years
and it is sad to see it dwindle. It is also quite difficult to persuade
people to join a group just for voting.
Since we now have a web site, would you think we can migrate to a web
forum on that site so Meeples Choice will be a medium to promote
Spielfrieks?

Post by ***@comcast.net [spielfrieks]
Hi, Ronald. One of the additional featues I've asked Wei-Hwa to think
about is a field on the voting page which lists the number of games he or
she has currently selected. We wanted to get started on the voting as soon
as possible, so there wasn't time to implement it this year, but hopefully,
he'll be able to add it for next year.
You can download the 2015 MCA Games spreadsheet from the Files section
to get a list of the games you can sort. It doesn't include designer or
publisher information, but it does show each game's Geek ratings and rank.
Hopefully, that will assist you.
Larry

[Mark Johnson [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

Email lists are only for dinosaurs now.

(Like me!)

Post by Ronald Tin ***@gmail.com [spielfrieks]
The boardgame hobby is exploding, but this group isn't. In 2004 - 2006 we
had a monthly message count of 500+. In recent years, the yearly message
count was like 200-300.
I do enjoy being here (I read much more than i write) but it is also nice
to be a peg on a very, very large wall.

Post by Jacob Lee ***@gmail.com [spielfrieks]
Is Spielfrieks dwindling? It seems like the board game hobby is
exploding which would mean the number of people interested in joining a
group like Spielfrieks should increase as well. I don't know what the
numbers actually are, but I feel privileged to be a part of this group
whereas I feel like just another peg on BGG's wall.
Jacob

Post by Ronald Tin ***@gmail.com [spielfrieks]
Thank you for the reply. I already completed my vote and my comment was
just minor inconveniences...
To go a bit OT, I have been a (passive) spielfrieks member for many
years and it is sad to see it dwindle. It is also quite difficult to
persuade people to join a group just for voting.
Since we now have a web site, would you think we can migrate to a web
forum on that site so Meeples Choice will be a medium to promote
Spielfrieks?

Post by ***@comcast.net [spielfrieks]
Hi, Ronald. One of the additional featues I've asked Wei-Hwa to think
about is a field on the voting page which lists the number of games he or
she has currently selected. We wanted to get started on the voting as soon
as possible, so there wasn't time to implement it this year, but hopefully,
he'll be able to add it for next year.
You can download the 2015 MCA Games spreadsheet from the Files section
to get a list of the games you can sort. It doesn't include designer or
publisher information, but it does show each game's Geek ratings and rank.
Hopefully, that will assist you.
Larry

[Fraser [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

We will rule over all this land, and we will call it... This Land.

Cheers,

Fraser

Post by Mark Johnson ***@gmail.com [spielfrieks]
Email lists are only for dinosaurs now.
(Like me!)

[[e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

Voted!


Mike C. --

[Michael Wayne Chapel [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

The same spielfrieker's are still around, they are just not actively
discussing on here. But I hardly ever ask, "I wonder what happen too", I
still see them online in varying places. I treat Spielfrieks as a
repository of the people, no longer their content.

Spielfrieks forever!(And nigglybits)

Post by Fraser ***@gmail.com [spielfrieks]
We will rule over all this land, and we will call it... This Land.
Cheers,
Fraser

Post by Mark Johnson ***@gmail.com [spielfrieks]
Email lists are only for dinosaurs now.
(Like me!)

[Wei-Hwa Huang [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

I just pushed a feature that tells you the number of votes you have left to
cast, as well as putting that number in parentheses on the "Add vote"
button.

Post by ***@comcast.net [spielfrieks]
Hi, Ronald. One of the additional featues I've asked Wei-Hwa to think
about is a field on the voting page which lists the number of games he or
she has currently selected. We wanted to get started on the voting as soon
as possible, so there wasn't time to implement it this year, but hopefully,
he'll be able to add it for next year.
You can download the 2015 MCA Games spreadsheet from the Files section to
get a list of the games you can sort. It doesn't include designer or
publisher information, but it does show each game's Geek ratings and rank.
Hopefully, that will assist you.
Larry

[[e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

Now that's service! Great job, Wei-Hwa. In my line of work, they talk about "building the airplane while you fly it". When my co-workers say it, it's meant to be a pejorative, but for us, it's a great strength. Definitely makes voting easier. Thanks!

[Christopher Dearlove [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

Anyone got the voting to work on an iPhone? I've done the signup successfully (slightly surprised you enter password once, twice is normal). But I seem completely unable to vote, which I would assume touching on the green box - but on the game name doesn't work either.

--
Christopher Dearlove

Post by ***@comcast.net [spielfrieks]
Well, we're getting started later than usual, but the voting application is finally ready for prime time. The delay is totally on me. My plan was to get together with Wei-Hwa in early May, so that we'd have plenty of time to code and test the new app. Unfortunately, Real Life blasted me in a big way at that time and that pushed everything else to the back burner. Even after things subsided a bit, with everything going on in my life, the MCAs just slipped my mind. My bad. However, the nice thing about having a small, indie game award is that our deadlines are all self-imposed ones. So if we wind up announcing our winners a couple of months late, no one in the gaming world will probably even notice. The only tangible effect is we had a few more weeks to play last year's titles and that can't be bad. So even if things are a bit late, no harm, no foul.
And I think you'll all agree that the new voting app was well worth the wait. Wei-Hwa was able to put a nice number of features into it. Naturally, we're open to any suggestions that anyone makes. But let me tell you how the application works right now.
In order to vote, go to the following website: http://meepleschoice.win. You'll see the Home screen, which contains buttons that say "Vote" and "See Results". But before you can do anything, you'll have to sign up to the database. There are 5 menu headers on the top right of the screen. Click on "Sign Up" and you'll be asked to create a Username, provide your Email address, and create a Password. You can also log in using either your Google or Facebook accounts. Once you've filled out the fields, click on the Sign Up button and you'll be entered into the database.
Anytime you want to sign in to the application, click on the Sign In menu on the upper right. The screen will ask you to Login with your Username and Password. Once you're signed in, the application will keep you logged in until you choose to Logout. Logged in users will see a Logout choice in the menu, which lets you logout with a single click. The other menu choices are an About option, which will list information about the award whenever I get the time to provide it, and a Contact option, which gives users a form to fill out if they have any questions or suggestions about the application.
In order to vote, get to the Home screen (you'll either start there or, if you're somewhere else in the app, just click on the Home menu option). On the Home screen, click on the Vote button. This will show you all the games you can choose from in the current round of voting. Right now, we're in the Preliminary Round and there are 194 games you can vote for, arranged alphabetically in four columns. Voting is dead easy: just find the game you want to vote for and click the green field to its left which says "Add Vote". The field will be replaced by a red field that says "Remove Vote", which is the indicator that you've voted for that game. You may choose as many games as you wish, up to the maximum number for each round. In the preliminary round, you can only vote for 10 or fewer games. If you select your tenth game, all the text in the green fields (for the games you haven't chosen) will change from "Add Vote" to "vote limited", to show that you've reached your vote limit. If you change your mind about your selections (or made a mistake), go to the game you no longer want to vote for and click on the red field that says "Remove Vote". It will be replaced by a green field which says "Add Vote", showing that your vote for that game has now been removed. Obviously, if you've voted for 10 games and you want to change your votes, you'll have to remove your vote for the game you no longer want before you can add your vote for the game you do want to vote for.
That's it. There's no button to register your final vote, because the system records your votes automatically as you vote for games. The app remembers your votes after you leave the screen and/or logout. When you return to the application, you'll see all the choices you've previously made. Because there's no formal way to finalize your vote, make sure you're happy with the selections on the screen before the voting deadline comes and I shut down the voting.
Pretty darn easy, huh? Hopefully, there won't be any hiccups, but it's brand new, so it won't shock me if something goes wrong. If there are any problems or questions about how to use the app, just post it to the user group. Alternatively, you can email me at huzonfirst AT gmail DOT com, or fill out the page on the Contact menu option.
We'll give everyone a week to make their preliminary round selections. That should be plenty of time, but if anyone needs more time, just let me know. But assume that I'll be shutting down the voting some time next Thursday, July 28. I'll send out a notice, along with the details for the final round of voting. Once that last round of voting is over, I'll announce the results and everyone should be able to use the application to check out the details of both rounds of voting.
Just in case you want to analyze the games away from the voting screen, I've continued my practice from previous years and uploaded an Excel spreadsheet to Spielfrieks that shows all 194 games from the preliminary round. The various tabs show the games listed alphabetically and sorted by Geek rank. Feel free to download this spreadsheet if you think it'll help you make your selections.
I'm very excited about this new voting app and I hope you are as well. Wei-Hwa has been very responsive to all my suggestions, so if by chance some issues arise, I'm sure he'll be able to get things fixed quickly. My thanks go out to him for duty above and beyond, as well as to all of you for your patience with us. The Meeples Choice Awards have zoomed into the 21st century and things will never be the same again! Now, go out and vote and pick some great award winners!

[Christopher Dearlove [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

It's patchy. Get some PHP errors (sorry, couldn't forward). But some things work delayed (fail, but there when you come back) and some succeed immediately.

And it turns out there are eleven games is vote for. Currently picked ten but might revise.

--
Christopher Dearlove



--
Christopher Dearlove

Post by Christopher Dearlove ***@gmail.com [spielfrieks]
Anyone got the voting to work on an iPhone? I've done the signup successfully (slightly surprised you enter password once, twice is normal). But I seem completely unable to vote, which I would assume touching on the green box - but on the game name doesn't work either.
--
Christopher Dearlove

Post by ***@comcast.net [spielfrieks]
Well, we're getting started later than usual, but the voting application is finally ready for prime time. The delay is totally on me. My plan was to get together with Wei-Hwa in early May, so that we'd have plenty of time to code and test the new app. Unfortunately, Real Life blasted me in a big way at that time and that pushed everything else to the back burner. Even after things subsided a bit, with everything going on in my life, the MCAs just slipped my mind. My bad. However, the nice thing about having a small, indie game award is that our deadlines are all self-imposed ones. So if we wind up announcing our winners a couple of months late, no one in the gaming world will probably even notice. The only tangible effect is we had a few more weeks to play last year's titles and that can't be bad. So even if things are a bit late, no harm, no foul.
And I think you'll all agree that the new voting app was well worth the wait. Wei-Hwa was able to put a nice number of features into it. Naturally, we're open to any suggestions that anyone makes. But let me tell you how the application works right now.
In order to vote, go to the following website: http://meepleschoice.win. You'll see the Home screen, which contains buttons that say "Vote" and "See Results". But before you can do anything, you'll have to sign up to the database. There are 5 menu headers on the top right of the screen. Click on "Sign Up" and you'll be asked to create a Username, provide your Email address, and create a Password. You can also log in using either your Google or Facebook accounts. Once you've filled out the fields, click on the Sign Up button and you'll be entered into the database.
Anytime you want to sign in to the application, click on the Sign In menu on the upper right. The screen will ask you to Login with your Username and Password. Once you're signed in, the application will keep you logged in until you choose to Logout. Logged in users will see a Logout choice in the menu, which lets you logout with a single click. The other menu choices are an About option, which will list information about the award whenever I get the time to provide it, and a Contact option, which gives users a form to fill out if they have any questions or suggestions about the application.
In order to vote, get to the Home screen (you'll either start there or, if you're somewhere else in the app, just click on the Home menu option). On the Home screen, click on the Vote button. This will show you all the games you can choose from in the current round of voting. Right now, we're in the Preliminary Round and there are 194 games you can vote for, arranged alphabetically in four columns. Voting is dead easy: just find the game you want to vote for and click the green field to its left which says "Add Vote". The field will be replaced by a red field that says "Remove Vote", which is the indicator that you've voted for that game. You may choose as many games as you wish, up to the maximum number for each round. In the preliminary round, you can only vote for 10 or fewer games. If you select your tenth game, all the text in the green fields (for the games you haven't chosen) will change from "Add Vote" to "vote limited", to show that you've reached your vote limit. If you change your mind about your selections (or made a mistake), go to the game you no longer want to vote for and click on the red field that says "Remove Vote". It will be replaced by a green field which says "Add Vote", showing that your vote for that game has now been removed. Obviously, if you've voted for 10 games and you want to change your votes, you'll have to remove your vote for the game you no longer want before you can add your vote for the game you do want to vote for.
That's it. There's no button to register your final vote, because the system records your votes automatically as you vote for games. The app remembers your votes after you leave the screen and/or logout. When you return to the application, you'll see all the choices you've previously made. Because there's no formal way to finalize your vote, make sure you're happy with the selections on the screen before the voting deadline comes and I shut down the voting.
Pretty darn easy, huh? Hopefully, there won't be any hiccups, but it's brand new, so it won't shock me if something goes wrong. If there are any problems or questions about how to use the app, just post it to the user group. Alternatively, you can email me at huzonfirst AT gmail DOT com, or fill out the page on the Contact menu option.
We'll give everyone a week to make their preliminary round selections. That should be plenty of time, but if anyone needs more time, just let me know. But assume that I'll be shutting down the voting some time next Thursday, July 28. I'll send out a notice, along with the details for the final round of voting. Once that last round of voting is over, I'll announce the results and everyone should be able to use the application to check out the details of both rounds of voting.
Just in case you want to analyze the games away from the voting screen, I've continued my practice from previous years and uploaded an Excel spreadsheet to Spielfrieks that shows all 194 games from the preliminary round. The various tabs show the games listed alphabetically and sorted by Geek rank. Feel free to download this spreadsheet if you think it'll help you make your selections.
I'm very excited about this new voting app and I hope you are as well. Wei-Hwa has been very responsive to all my suggestions, so if by chance some issues arise, I'm sure he'll be able to get things fixed quickly. My thanks go out to him for duty above and beyond, as well as to all of you for your patience with us. The Meeples Choice Awards have zoomed into the 21st century and things will never be the same again! Now, go out and vote and pick some great award winners!

[[e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

I love the new screen for voting along with the countdown of how many votes left to be cast. Great work Larry and Wei-Hwa.
Cheers,
Simon.