Thoughts on the VFM Contest

With the SFU Voter Funded Media contest finished until September, I thought I'd offer some of my thoughts about the contest.

I'll start by noting the VFM contest was the motivation for Patrick and I to create this blog in the first place. We figured it'd be fun to do, and the almost certain promise of cash winnings at the end of every month certainly didn't hurt either. Perhaps Mark Latham can hold up Instant Blog as a success story in some small way.

However, as Patrick discussed, the contest ultimately rewarded those who could get the vote out, rather than who had the best content. Clearly, a critical mass of voters needs to be reached before the vote is any true reflection of the quality of the content. But given how few people are interested in student politics -- if SFU voter turnout patterns are any indication, it's usually 5-8% of the student population -- it's going to be difficult threshold to reach. And until that threshold is reached, it will be difficult to find contestants willing to take the VFM game seriously.

Beyond the problem of participation is the issue of voting. The voting procedure for the SFU VFM contest is too complicated, and needs to be drastically simplified to encourage people to vote. How simple? I need to be able to cast a vote with at most three clicks, period. If we want to encourage people to vote for content they find interesting, then we must make the process so simple that it's not seen as a chore. I would also suggest ditching the 1-10 ranking scale for perhaps a 5-star rating.

Finally, I think a Voter Funder Media portal should be created in order to help promote all the contestants. I'm thinking something akin to Liblogs or Blogging Tories, where blog posts can be aggregated and contestant profiles can be featured. That way, we could promote VoterMedia.org as a brand, just like Liblogs and Blogging Tories. Having a slick, one-stop web site would be a great way for new readers to get acquainted with the system, and the contestants.

2nd Place in March VFM Contest

We won 2nd place in the March VFM Contest! Here are the final standings. To everyone who voted - thank you!

We've been told that there isn't going to be another contest until September. However, Instant Blog is still going to be around in the meantime.

Photo credits: original photo by Luis Miguel Munoz-Najar and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution license. Remixed by Patrick.