|
|
[Please snip when replying to this posting! - Thank you.]
I propose the start of the Pricelessware 2008 list (hereinafter referred to
as PL2008) selection process.
In continuation of preceding Pricelessware lists, this years selection shall
again provide a synopsis of the freeware programs most popular among those
alt.comp.freeware (= acf) participants, that take part in the election.
Before we go into the details of the Pricelessware selection process, I'd
like to use the opportunity (doubtless on behalf of all participants of the
PL2008 election) to thank *all* freeware authors for their time and efforts
spent to create the programs and for the generosity of releasing them as
freeware! Regardless of whether a program is nominated or even selected as
Pricelessware, or not - we deeply appreciate your work! :-)
The success of each Pricelessware election heavily depends on contribution.
Programs, that are not nominated (or that are not accompanied by a minimum
set of information, including a second) are not eligible for voting...
Programs, nobody votes for, can not be chosen as Pricelessware...
Although I hope for a lean selection process, there are quite a few matters
that need consideration. In the following text I'll address some of them.
(And usually propose a solution, as well...)
1. According to the preliminary discussion of the last couple of days, the
preferred reference year for the current Pricelessware selection is 2008.
If enough posters voice a different opinion in the upcoming discussion,
the matter will be decided by an additional question in the vote thread.
We'll nevertheless stick to the [PL2008] tag *during* the selection.
2. Proposed Timeline (YYYY-MM-DD):
2008-09-01: Begin of the PL2008 process; general discussion
2008-09-03: Start of program nominations (+ seconds); program discussion
2008-09-24: End of program nominations
2008-09-27: Last chance for seconds and discussion
2008-09-28: Start of voting period
2008-10-05: End of voting period
2008-10-06: Preliminary list and start of final discussion
A couple of days later: PL2008 - Final List
Start events are ready before 12:00 am Central European Summer Time (CEST).
End events will be closed at 12:00 pm Central European Summer Time (CEST).
3. The following threads will be created during the PL2008 process:
* [PL2008] Pricelessware 2008 - Proposal and General Discussion
* [PL2008] How to filter Pricelessware 2008 threads
* [PL2008] Program Nominations
* [PL2008] Program and Category Discussions
+ [PL2008] Program and Category Discussions - Program AB
:
+ [PL2008] Program and Category Discussions - Program YZ
* [PL2008] Pricelessware 2008 - Votes
* [PL2008] Results Discussion
* [PL2008] Final Pricelessware 2008 List
Subject changes are discouraged - with the exception of the program and
category discussion thread, where those changes seem to be necessary to
simplify reading and ignoring of subthreads.
4. The following main categories have been used for previous Pricelessware
elections (*examples* for subcategories in parentheses):
* BUSINESS-HOME (e.g. Calculator: scientific | Database | Office Suite)
* DESKTOP (e.g. Desktop Manager | Clipboard: Extender | Magnify)
* FILE UTILITIES (e.g. File Analyzer | File Manager | File Viewer | Search)
* GRAPHICS (e.g. Editor 3D | Viewer | ASCII Art | Exif Tool | Color Picker)
* INTERNET (e.g. Browser | Content Filter | Email Client | Newsreader)
* MULTIMEDIA (e.g. Audio Editor | Audio Player: Midi | DVD Player)
* ORGANIZERS (e.g. PIM | Diary | Reminders: Scheduler | Calendar | Clock)
* PROGRAMMING (e.g. Editor: Hex | Compiler | Resource Tool: Extractor)
* SECURITY (e.g. Anti-Virus | Firewall | Packet Sniffer | Password Manager)
* SYSTEM UTILITIES (e.g. Tool Collection | Hardware Monitor | RAM Disk)
* TEXT (e.g. Editor: Code | Text Stats | PDF Tool | Convert Text To Speech)
* WEB DESIGN (e.g. Editor: HTML | Wiki | Image Dicer | HTML Parser)
Neither categories nor subcategories are fixed, at the moment. Everybody,
who nominates a program, can suggest a categorization. Posters with
other suggestions should put this matter in the "Program and Category
Discussions" thread. Matters of continuing dissent will be subject of an
additional question in the "Vote" thread.
5. Any posting of a program description in the "Nominations" thread (even if
it is not the complete minimum set) will count as nomination. People ought
not post descriptions of programs they don't want to nominate.
Posting additions/corrections to an existent program nomination does *not*
automatically count as second, i.e. one poster needs to explicitly declare
to be a second for a program.
6. Proposed minimum set for a program description:
- PROGRAM_NAME: <Generally used name; shorter/longer form in parenthesis)
- VERSION: <As formatted by the program author>
and/or
- RELEASE_DATE: <YYYY-MM-DD; don't use the download date of an archive>
- HOMEPAGE: <Website (if existent; else a download is required)>
- CATEGORY: <See above>
- SUB-CATEGORY: <See above>
Other information that *should* be provided:
- DOWNLOAD: <Http or Ftp address; may be a page or a direct archive link>
- WINDOWS_OS: <Windows or detailed list like Windows 9x,2000,XP,Vista>
- OTHER_OS: <DOS, Mac OS X,...>
- DESCRIPTION: <Purpose of the program, some important pro's and con's>
Suggestions for additional useful information tags can be found on
Little Girls Freeware Description Creator page:
http://acfwiki.pbwiki.com/f/ProgramDescriptionCreator.html
Hover the mouse over a tag to see a detailed description of its meaning.
7. Eligible for voting will be all posters (identified by their pseudonyms),
that ever posted to alt.comp.freeware until 12:00 pm CEST of the 27th
September 2008. Everybody is urged to vote only *once*. Corrections of
unintended wrong votes have to be clearly marked. Supersedes/Cancels are
seriously discouraged.
Obvious fake votes and justified surmises of double-votings (by means of
different pseudonyms) will be discussed in the "Final discussion" thread.
Abuse notifications to the ISP of the poster may be filed in such cases.
8. Programs will be eligible for voting, when they receive a nomination and
a second (regardless of the *ware type). If at least 2 posters declare
a program not being freeware (ant-nomination, anti-second), the issue
will be included as an additional question in the vote thread. If the
program gets enough votes for being Pricelessware, but a majority of the
voters says the program is *not* freeware, then the program gets a
footnote in the final list stating the additional vote result:
"[**] Freeware status questioned by a simple majority of Pricelessware
selection participants"
(Suggestions for better wording are welcome.)
The first program with unquestioned freeware status in a subcategory will
*also* be listed, as long as it got the minimum vote count necessary for
selection.
Obvious fake nominations and votes, as well as unseemly promotion of
payware will again be dealt with in the "Final discussion" thread.
9. The rules for the final selection need to be discussed in the next couple
of days. During the last years, the limits were set rather empirically.
As one possible scheme I interpose the following procedure into the
discussion (Ceil = Round *up* to the next integer):
* x1 = Ceil(number_of_valid_voters/10) ... ~10 %
* x2 = Ceil(number_of_valid_voters/20) ... ~5 %
* Any program that has at least x1 votes and got the maximum number of
votes in a subcategory is selected.
* Any other program of the same category is selected, as well, as long
as it also has at least x1 votes and not fewer than "the number of
votes of the best program in the subcategory" minus x1 votes (~90 %
of the best programs votes).
* Special treatment for "successor" programs will be done according to
the suggestion in point 8.
* Any subcategory that receives less than x1 overall votes after excluding
all programs that have fewer than x2 number of votes has to be regarded
as niche. A program from a niche category will be selected, when it
receives at least x2 votes.
* According to the previous paragraph, there can only be one program
selected for every niche subcategory. This way, a subcategory may
stay empty with 2 or more programs locking themselves with about
5 to <10 %. But since a category with at least ~10 % of the overall
vote count can hardly be considered a niche, this could, IMHO, be
regarded as normal vote result.
10. There will be a separate thread to show those readers of acf, that are
not interested in the PL2008 election, how to filter such messages out.
11. Some acf posters objected against the heading of the last Pricelessware
lists, which could be read, as if all posters of acf had participated in
its creation. I suggest, we include the number of voters in the heading
of the PL2008 results list:
PL2008 - "... selected by XX alt.comp.freeware participants"
Depending on the discussion in this thread, the above change will be
applied without vote or decided by an additional question in the vote
thread.
12. At least one poster mentioned a means to declare non-participation as
(in his opinion) necessity for a ballot like the PL2008 election. There
will be an option to do so in the "Vote" thread. I will *not* put this
matter to a majority decision, because I regard this as a case of
"freedom of speech", which *must not* be controlled by majority votes.
We'll see, how many posters make use from this possibility...
The number of posters explicitly dissociating themselves from the
PL2008 will be shown in a footnote to the list:
"[*] YY alt.comp.freeware posters wished to note, that they did not
take part in the Pricelessware selection."
(Suggestions for better wording are welcome.)
I wish our Pricelessware selection process success and a good deal of new
interesting information around freeware programs for anybody participating
(or just reading the posts).
BeAr
|
|