Voting changes + thoughts (!)
Hey fellas!
The Changes:
So, in some minutes, February's poll will be up, and with it, there'll be some updates to the tiers, specifically 5USD+.
Now you 5USD+ fellas will have a keener edge on the voting process (was gonna do it starting 2025 but here we are now):
Your vote now adds +2 points to your chosen lady (instead of just +1).
Usually, while the high tiers have more voting power, it's sometimes not enough to make a significant difference in the end. This is an experiment as of right now, I need to see if it needs tweaking along the way so bear with me <3
The Thoughts:
This change comes from a place of confusion, tbqh.
Lately I've been reading some sentiment with the polls that I somehow put forth the candidates with favoritism in mind, or baby cough vs hydrogen bomb scenarios.
Fine, I'll take the L with that. I'll try to do a bit more research for it, so apologies if it's unfair for the other suggestions/candidates.
Now, at the same time, please do know it doesn't come from favoritism or anything like it. I don't know how to explain it to anyone without sounding mad about it, but hey, if anyone wants an explanation, sure.
I literally don't consume enough media to know what's popular or not. I just see a character in the suggestions, I think to myself "oh neat" and put em in the poll. I don't watch anime, I don't play many videogames (including gacha) anymore, I don't watch cartoons either. Most I know of what's popular comes from osmosis. I don't know about the flavor of the month lady because most likely I haven't played or watched where she's from. And if I do it's because I wiki-dive before drawing them (it's the least I can do show some respect to the character). The design catches my eye, I do a little research and bam, to the poll with you. That's it.
So when folks tell me I'm putting a lady hard carried by the media she's in or her fanbase or whatever? I don't know about it, I don't interact with it. I'll do my best to draw each and every one of the characters I put in the poll, I can assure you that. But don't throw me under the bus and claim I'm putting favoritism when I know nothing of it. Hell, if something's really popular and it catches my eye, I'll skip the poll altogether (see: Squirrel Girl's design in Marvel Rivals (which I don't even play cuz I'm happier playing single player stuff)).
I'll do my best to make the polls balanced, I've tried before. Many folks still complained. So I can only ask for understanding. Hopefully the changes help along with some more observation on my part.
That's all, fellas.
Hope you're all doing well. And happy early Valentine's!
Cheers!
Comments (5)
Everyone's gonna get salty when their waifu of choice isn't chosen, myself included, some are just more vocal than others. It doesn't help that any given character's popularity is very much a double-edged sword, in more than one direction; more popular characters are, naturally, likelier to catch the vote, but also likelier to have a better repository of fanart to begin with. Moreover, you do such an outstanding job with every chosen subject that while it's like Christmas morning to see you do stuff of more niche characters for their more niche audience, the argument could equally be made that it's more wasted on the broader audience. Well, as "broad" as that audience is to begin with. I'm not sure how many consecutive niches one needs to go down the rabbit hole to end up here. You can't please everyone, and I doubt there's any way to balance the voting power that's "fair" to everyone either. It is what it is. I think I'd second the suggestion of eventually doing away with polls and having some kind of suggestion box instead. Offhanded idea: maybe one persistent entry per patron; name, series/property, and what about them specifically makes you want to see them get the CoffeeSlice treatment. Then just trawl it for inspiration, and maybe make a heads-up post for when it's about to become relevant, so everyone can double-check that their entry is up to date. I guess that version has the drawback of not as much user engagement, though.
Try not to let the complaints get to you. Even if the poll was "balanced" popularity wise, there would be biased based on the audience you've got here that's practically unknowable. Even if my favorite in a poll loses, I always look forward to new art from you no matter what. You could do away with the polls and just draw designs you like from suggestions and I'd be down with that.
I’m in the same state of awareness for these characters, myself. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. There’s simply too much media to be aware of, and too little time in a day.
It's okay caffeine, I always thought the higher tiers had an extra vote on the polls anyway. I'm still happy with all the artwork you've made regardless if my vote won or not.
There's a limit to what you can do about it as far as research goes, you can't know if your subscriber base happens to have a huge intersection with a given character and not with a second one on the same poll until the vote is run.