Voting & Rating Systems

EndOfThisWorld uses instant-runoff voting (IRV) as its voting system. During the Voting Period, voters rank the candidate Chapters in order of preference (1 to 5). If no candidate receives majority of first choices (i.e. above 50%), the least voted candidate is eliminated and its votes are redistributed to the remaining ones, according to the received rankings. This process is repeated until the leading candidate achieves majority.

Compared to the usual plurality vote, where voters select a single candidate, IRV is very nicely suited for EndOfThisWorld, as it avoids making 'black and white' decisions, and, in particular, allows voters to express their opinion on multiple submissions.

Rating takes place during the Submission Period. When a writer submits a candidate Chapter, the Chapter becomes immediately available for viewing by members of the community. Whoever reads the Chapter then has the option (and is strongly encouraged) to assign a score ranging from 1 to 5, according to how much they liked the Chapter. Readers can also provide textual comments and feedback. We will nominate the Chapters that receive the highest scores, but reserve the right to exercise discretion, e.g. in cases where more than five submissions receive high ratings, or an exceptionally good candidate was submitted late in the Submission Period.

As for the duration of the periods, this is nominally two weeks for both Submission and Voting, but we'll be tweaking it according to the number of candidates and/or votes we receive. Of course, we'll be notifying the community well in advance of a period's completion.