Originally Posted by Randy Petersen
What I find the most interesting? Even after posting of our sole goal of simply trying to get the vote out - do you find any posts from any members suggesting other ideas on how to do it? In my original vision of FlyerTalk, the first post about this would have been "Hey Randy, good effort to try and get the vote out. It got me thinking and here's a few other ideas i might suggest that could also help get the vote out ... "
Speaking purely for myself, I don't think that the avatars themselves are inherently bad, just as I don't think that the "I Voted" sticker is a bad idea. Putting the avatar as a default for everyone who voted is tatamount to the pollworker forcing every voter to put that sticker on. In that respect, I stand by my opinion that the system as it stands, however well intentioned it is, was implemented poorly.
In my opinion, a better solution would be a statement at the end of voting that says, "Here's a way to encourage your fellow FTers to vote also" and gives a link and directions to changing your avatar to one of the "I Voted" designs. This way, voters are given the choice of whether they want to display the avatar, and are not automatically defaulted to something that they may not wish to display without being given any notification, and without being given any knowledge on how to remove it if they really don't want it.
At the very least, if you want to keep defaulting the avatar for members after they vote, please tell people how they can remove it up front.
Mike