The Sticky Pen Voting System

Sticky Pen's voting system has been designed to eliminate intentional negative voting on stories.

Every user has the option to cast from one to three votes for each story. Only registered users may vote on stories. Anonymous users must register to vote.

When a user votes on a story, the votes are added to the story’s current vote total. The votes are used to calculate a percentage or “grade” for the story. Grades are used to place stories into one of five levels.

• Level 1: 15% - 59%   
• Level 2: 60% - 69%   
• Level 3: 70% - 79%   
• Level 4: 80% - 89%   
• Level 5: 90% - 100% 

All percentages are calculated on a 50 point scale until a story surpasses 50 votes. At this point, the story with the most votes becomes the basis for calculating grades.

1. A user submits two votes for story A.
2. Story A currently has 35 votes.
3. These two votes are added to story A, totaling 37 votes.
4. Story A’s grade is now 74% (37 / 50 = .74) placing it in level 3.

1. Story B has the most votes: 85.
2. Since this is greater than 50, story B is now the basis for calculating grades.
3. Story A’s grade is now 59% (37 / 85 = .588) placing it in level 1.

Note that story A’s grade went down when story B’s 85 votes became the basis for the grading scale. It is possible for a story’s grade to drop, though in practice the drop would not be as dramatic. Anytime the highest rated story gets more votes, every story’s grade may drop slightly.

In theory, a user may repeatedly vote on one story to try to lower everyone else’s grade. In practice this would be nearly impossible. Since a user can only vote once per story, they would either have to sign up for multiple accounts or coordinate their malicious voting with other users. Site administrators will be watching for this kind of activity.

The Stickiest Stories

This list contains ten randomly selected, level five stories. All these stories have a grade of 90% and above. The listed stories will change whenever a user views the Sticky Pen front page. If your story was listed before, but now it’s not, don’t worry. This is no reflection of your grade.

Some final thoughts…

Remember, there is no way to lower a story’s votes. If you hated a particular story, move on. If you liked it, support it by voting. If you are disappointed with your grade, get your story out there: email the link to people you know or talk it up in the chat room. Sticky Pen’s voting system should be fair, while providing writers with the merit they deserve and the spirit of competition.