*sigh*
You try and make it clear
- If you want to change your vote then add the “un” prefix to the front of the word Vote and unbold the text. Example: un-vote Bill Aurion
- If a player has not correctly followed the un-vote procedure then their new vote will not be vaild until it is corrected. Example: a player unbolded their previous vote of “Vote Khushrenada” and then posted Vote Bill Aurion. Even though it was unbolded, the un was not added to the word vote so neither the old vote nor the new vote are valid.
And then you get this....
Hey guys! I think I found a Boo already!
vote Stevey
Honestly, the whole unvote thing feels like it become overly complicated because of a situation from a game awhile ago in which a player messed up their change at a critical time. To absolve the host from being accused of favoring one result of the vote over another, it seemed like clearly stating out the only way a new vote can count in the rules and then using and pointing to whatever rule was there would be the way to separate the Host from accusations of impartiality. Unfortunately, it results in something like this where clearly the player has decided to undo their previous vote as they are now casting a new one. But because it was done in the only manner the rules state, an obvious change like this cannot count.
I don't want to be chasing players down or hoping they show up minutes before a vote ends to properly correct something that's kind of obvious. And yet, I also don't want to see the game end up in situations where some player forgot to change their past vote and then they have two votes in the thread at a critical time leaving the host stuck to decide which vote to count or if they toss them both.
And maybe there is. What if we no longer worrying about editing a previous vote? Just let it be. Rather, if a player casts a new vote, it automatically invalidates their previous vote. When tallying the day vote, I use an Excel sheet with all the players listed and mark that Day's vote to their name. Thus, if I start from the end of the day thread and work back to the start, I will see the most recent vote a player made and if I come across when they made earlier, I'll know to skip it and not count it because there is already a vote I've got next to their name from later in the thread.
That said, there's no harm in a player going back and editing their previous vote to strike it out or unbold it or say unvote whoever. But at least even if they forget to do so or are rushing at the end of day, this new rule of only counting the vote posted closest to the deadline resolves that issue. Does that sound like a better plan to everyone or should I just be a stickler about how to unvote?