Advice from some Pros

[cmscritic]

Good Morning Everyone!

As you know, we're a proud Processwire website that (thanks to this awesome CMS) hasn't looked back since moving from WordPress. We're so pleased, we're launching a couple of new sites also based on the same feel that Mr. Amazing (Ryan) developed. (For future reference, he shall now henceforth be referred to as Mr. Amazing whenever I write a post).

I'm planning out the upcoming 2014 Critics' Choice CMS Awards and would love to hear some creative thoughts as to how to use Processwire (or some other method) to come up with a creative voting and nominations process.

Last year, I used FormBuilder and made a simple form that people needed to submit and while it worked fine, I'm wondering if there's a better solution that might be a bit more engaging. I'd love to hear anyone's ideas / thoughts as to what options might be out there.

Thanks in advance for your time!

~Mike

(ps: processwire rocks)

[Joss]

The first thing you should probably define is how much data you want to wade through. The more information you ask people about their nominations and votes, the more you have to collate; too much data and the result becomes unmanageable and possibly meaningless.

So, maybe start by mapping out what data you need from the forms (however they are presented) and what of that data can be collated automatically and which needs to be read and judged.

Once that is established, then there are a ton of creative minds on here who will gladly come up with probably far too many alternatives!
 

[cmscritic]

A good suggestion, thanks for the input.

[bcartier]

Hey Mike,

If you're looking for a more engaging way to collect info, I highly recommend TypeForm. Although not a ProcessWire solution, it's really a great service that's easy to embed.

Have a look at some of their sample forms - I think you'll be impressed. They also make it easy to view, download and filter the data collected as well. 

-Brent

PS: I don't work for TypeForm - I just really like it ;-)

[apeisa]

For voting I would require fb, google, twitter (etc...) or email authentication. Makes it harder to cheat the system.

[cmscritic]

Hey Mike,

If you're looking for a more engaging way to collect info, I highly recommend TypeForm. Although not a ProcessWire solution, it's really a great service that's easy to embed.

Have a look at some of their sample forms - I think you'll be impressed. They also make it easy to view, download and filter the data collected as well. 

-Brent

PS: I don't work for TypeForm - I just really like it ;-)

Cool! I'll go check it out, thanks for the suggestion.

For voting I would require fb, google, twitter (etc...) or email authentication. Makes it harder to cheat the system.

This is a good idea as well. Thanks.

[felix]

We've just implemented a voting functionality for a site which is currently under heavy development (i'll post it here, soon).

Users can send in Videos/Photos and win prizes. Every entry can be voted.

The way we've done it is like this:

- Users can vote via FB and Twitter without any further authentication (social network id, origin + timestamp stored in db)

- Users can Vote with their E-Mail Adresses. To avoid fake votes they can vote for as much entrys as they want but their votes aren't counted until they click a link in an opt-in mail. After the adress is validated they are handled the same as twitter/fb users. E-Mails Adresses are Checked against a list of disposable/trash-mail services before storing them (E-Mail Users got a seperate table with a is_confirmed flag)

We've also discussed using a service like https://www.rafflecopter.com/ or http://www.voycer.biz/en to use their (very cool) social voting features (tweet to win...) but most of them are either created explicitly for raffles that are based on a single question/item or just support facebook as sign-on mechanism.

[Joss]

Heh, just reading Felix's post, maybe you should require all voters to send a video vote so you can see who they are and who is in disguise!

(joke)

[cmscritic]

Good idea! Video or no vote! I like it.

Felix: Thanks for sharing your methods, much obliged.

[MatthewSchenker]

Greetings,

First, let me say that I am always very impressed with CMS Critic.

As for ideas, I think it would be great to shed some light on who votes most for which CMS. Of course, there are limits to this, and as Joss said you can easily ask for too much data. But within reason it might be nice to ask questions like this:

Considering the ways you use a CMS, how do you view yourself:

1. I am more of a designer

2. I am more of a developer (coder)

3. I am a designer/developer

It would be great to present some kind of visualization that (hopefully) shows how (if) certain people cluster around particular CMSs. I have always wanted to parse out the data on CMS use. I think most comparisons on the web leave out the fact that not all systems can be compared because they appeal to very different people. It is the rare syatem that appeala across the board.

Since you're doing the vote, you have people's attention. It seems you could use this to creatively get some more insights.

Thanks,

Matthew

[diogo]

1. I am more of a designer

2. I am more of a developer (coder)

3. I am a designer/developer

4. I am a end user

[kongondo]

4. I am a end user

5. I am a technology enthusiast

[felix]

6. 

[Joss]

7. I am not a number!

(Damn, I wanted that to be number 6....)

[cmscritic]

LOL.

8. I like pictures of cute animals and surf them all day while pretending to be working.

[Joss]

You surf cute animals?

Is that legal where you are? 

I would think using a surf board would be kinder.

[Martijn Geerts]

Block his ip on http://www.pebblesthepuppy.co.uk/

[cmscritic]

You surf cute animals?

Is that legal where you are? 

I would think using a surf board would be kinder.

It's -18C at the moment. The only thing I'm ever going to be surfing is an icy highway

[Joss]

Ah, unseasonably warm round here - my allotment is sprouting too early, which is a nuisance since after all the rain we have had in the UK, it is also too muddy to dig!

Oh well, back to the typewriter then!