IRTC Voting Rules =========================================================================== Voting in the IRTC has changed from open voting to using judges. These judges will determine the winners of the IRTC contest. Commenting on images is still open to the general, non-voting public. The change to the use of judges was spurred by the need to help eliminate fraudulent voting, increase the number of complete votes (versus partial votes) and to better guarantee that votes are cast from individuals who are willing to take an extra effort in determining the winner. The judging panel is made up of two types of Judges: Entrant Judges and Panel Judges. Each has the same voting responsibilities, described below. The term of each is different, however, as is the method used to become one or the other. HOW TO BECOME A VOTING JUDGE: ----------------------------- There are two ways to become a judge for the IRTC: 1. An entry submitted for the current round automatically registers the entrant as a judge for that round. Entrants must supply a valid email address in the entries text (.txt) file. This will be the only address from which votes will be permitted for this entrant. Judges in this category are known as "Entrant Judges" and their ability to vote spans the current round only. 2. The IRTC Admin Team can invite members of the general public to become judges. These judges have a permament voter status, revocable only by the IRTC Admin Team. Invited judges are known as "Panel Judges" and must also provide an email address to vote. An individual who wishes to become a Panel Judge can petition the IRTC Admin Team for Panel Judge status. To submit a petition the individual must fill out the Panel Judge Petition Request Form on the web, at http://www.irtc.org/view/petition.html The IRTC Admin Team will make a decision on the voters status within a week and, if accepted, the individual will be added to the Judging Panel as time permits. Notification of the petitioners status will be by email, subject to verification of the petitioners email address. Panel judges are permanent, unless they violate some ethics rule or otherwise become downright nasty. The IRTC Admin Team reserves the right to revoke Panel Judge status for any member of the Judging Panel. Panel Judges can be invited by the IRTC Admin Team but not by other non-Admin Team Panel Judges. Non-Admin Panel Judges should have candidates for the panel submit a request just as any one else might. An "invitation" means the candidate need not fill out the request form. The Admin Team will already have approved the invitee beforehand so that the invitee only need accept or reject the invitation. Admission to the Judging Panel is determined by the IRTC Admin Team and not by the Judging Panel. Acceptance is based on a majority vote of the IRTC Admin Team. Non-votes (abstention) will not count in the total count of votes. Revocation of Panel Judge status will be by a majority vote of the IRTC Admin Team. Non-votes (abstention) will not count in the total count of votes. It is possible to be reinstated. Again, this will be by majority vote of the Admin Team. The decision on whether to consider revokation or reinstatement is solely the responsibility of the Admin Team. RULES FOR JUDGES REGARDING HOW TO VOTE: --------------------------------------- 1. Neither Panel Judges nor Entrant Judges can vote for their own images. 2. Voting still requires all other images to have been voted on.* 3. All voters get only one vote. If you become a Panel Judge and also enter an image in the IRTC you still only get one vote. 4. Panel Judges and entrants are *NOT* required to vote. However, they are the only people who are authorized to vote. Judges or entrants who do not vote in a particular round will not be penaized in any way. * - The requirement to vote on all images may change in future rounds. Until then all images, except a Judges personal entry (if any), still need to be voted on in order for a Judges votes to count. THE INTIAL PANEL OF JUDGES AND DEADLINES FOR SUBMITTING PANEL PETITIONS ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Initially, the Judging Panel will consist of all the current members of the IRTC Admin Team. Additional members will be invited prior to the beginning of the January/Febuary 1997 rounds voting period. Candidates for Panel Judges must sumbit their petitions for the current round no later than 10 days before the end of the current round. There are NO exceptions. Adding a judging panel potentially adds work for the IRTC Admins and we'd like to limit how much work we have to do to keep things working smoothly. If you're petition is not received in time for the current round, the petition will be returned with a notice to resubmit after the current round ends. =========================================================================== IRTC Open Comment Period =========================================================================== Note: Comments will no longer be anonymous. Although voting is no longer open to the general public, the IRTC still welcomes comments on any of the images submitted for the current round. Anyone wishing to comment on images must register an email address, just as you used to when voting. The email address must be verifiable (email to that address does not bounce nor do we receive notices that the owner of that address did not register with the IRTC), so you must register at least 3 days before the Open Comment Period begins. The Open Comment Period runs the same time the Voting period runs, and both are the same period used for voting in previous rounds. The email address you supply will be attached to any comments you make so that the author may discuss your comments with you. This helps open the dialog up a little more than what is on the IRTC-L Mailing list and also helps prevent the silly "you're ugly and your mother dresses your images funny" comments that have shown up in previous rounds. NOTICE REGARDING THE PRIVACY OF YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS =========================================================================== The IRTC does not distribute our database of email addresses to anyone. Yes, your email address will show up in the comments to the artist for whose image you commented. And it also shows up in the text file you submit with your images. But the set of email addresses are not provided to anyone, anywhere. If anyone wants them, they'll have to grab them manually, one at a time, from the IRTC Web pages.