B$ Help: Voting - Basic Information

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Basic Information

This page contains basic information explaining voting, the different types of votes, the rewards for voting as well as the consequences of bad voting.

What is voting?
Voting is the categorisation of blogs into various industries. After a blog is first voted into a particular industry it then goes into the vote moderation queue to be moderated by a player who has a Karma level above 750.

Voting by Industry
As explained elsewhere in the Help, Industries (http://blogshares.com/help.php?node=11) are the various categories into which blogs are voted. There are two basic kinds of industries in BlogShares. Blog Demographics industries categorize bloggers -- by their gender, the language(s) in which they write, and the places where they live. Content industries make up the majority of the over 6,200 industries in the BlogShares Index. These industries categorize, naturally enough, what bloggers write about -- the content of their blogs.

More detailed information follows about voting Blog Demographics (http://blogshares.com/help.php?node=96) and voting Content (look for this new page soon). Industry descriptions, which we used to determine whether or not a blog belongs in a particular industry, are included on each Industry�s page. They can also be found using the Industry Description page.

All the industries in BlogShares are arranged in hierarchies.

Here�s an example of a hierarchy in a Blog Demographics industry, from top-level down: Place>Europe >UK>England>West Midlands Region>County of West Midlands>Coventry.

Here�s an example of a hierarchy in a Content industry, from top-level down: Politics is a top-level industry; one of its subindustries is National Politics; a subindustry of National Politics is Zambia Politics.

Here are two major difference between Blog Demographics industries and Content industries:

1. No votes may be cast in the first two levels of the Blog Demographics industries (i.e., no votes may be cast for Blog Demographics or its first-level subs: Gender, Language, and Place). There is no such voting restriction on top-level Content industries.
2. A correct vote anywhere on the hierarchy in Place, the Blog Demographics sub-industry, automatically makes all the industries up the hierarchy correct votes (with the exceptions of Place and Blog Demographics themselves, as just explained). This is not true for Content votes. Only those industries up the hierarchy that actually apply to the contents of a particular blog are considered valid Content votes.

Why vote
By voting, you help to build the largest, best and only hand-cleaned blog index available. You also earn chips and Karma and, by reporting dead blogs, you not only earn chips but Sigma as well. In addition, voting has strategic purposes for the more advanced game player. For more information on chips, Karma and Sigma, see Rewards for Voting (below).

Types of votes
There are four types of votes on BlogShares, each worth a different point value: New Voter, Moderating Voter, Moderator/Owner, and Admin/Index Manager.

New Voter: These votes are worth 1 point each. It takes a minimum of 2 points for a blog to recognize the specific Industry, so this is an opportunity for new voters to get acquainted with the voting system without being in a position to skew the index.
Moderating Voter: These votes are worth 3 points. Anyone who has reached 750 Karma will automatically have votes worth 3 points. This makes a blog instantly recognize the Industry it has been voted into and causes it to start producing ideas.
Moderator/Owner: Moderator and Owner votes are both worth 5 points. Owners should note that they are expected to vote their own blogs accurately, just like votes for any other listing. Moderators visit the moderation tool and decide whether or not votes are appropriate. Owners simply have more power over the categorization of their own blog as they are assumed to know the content better than anyone else.
Admin and Index Managers (IM): Admin and IM votes have the most power. They are worth 10 points each. It is this way because they have the ultimate say as to whether or not a vote is correct. This allows them to erase not only a bad vote, but a bad moderation as well.

Rewards for voting

Rewards from the voting and moderation of blogs come in various forms. Not the least of these is a thorough and accurate Indexing system.

KarmaWhile Karma has no monetary value and does not affect your net worth, it does have a status value. Generally, those with high Karma values have dedicated a lot of time to increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of our indexing system. A lot of time is required to reach the list of top Karma holders, especially if you are truly adding value to the system. Players reaching 750 Karma can moderate votes. To do so, click on the Moderate Industries link in the Members Area box on the right-side menu. When a player reaches 750 Karma, s/he is entitled to double Artefact usage.
Chips There are many ways to buy or use Chips, but only three things earn them: voting, moderating amd reporting dead/spam blogs. The high value of chips often causes people to jump into improper voting and shady moderation. Voting carelessly for any reason will lead to the administration or BSEC conducting an investigation and fines or other penalties may be assessed. *Scaled Chip Rewards: Chips are awarded based on a vote's depth in the index. Level 1 industries, such as Politics and Music, when moderated as correct, will yield 5 chips. Political Systems or 50's Music will bring 10, and so on. Each deeper level is worth 5 chips over the previous level. Moderation chips are based on number of moderated votes.
Sigma Like Karma, Sigma has no monetary value and does not affect your net worth; however, it does have a status value. You earn sigma by reporting errors such as dead blogs, spam, and non-blog listings. Basically, all the legitmate uses of the Report Error link found on blogs.php, except the "report incorrect title" function, for which Sigma is not currently awarded. Currently, Sigma scores provide no additional game capabilities or advantages, though they are taken into account in the overall composite score on the Blogshares Leaderboard. When an error report is approved, the player who submitted the report receives 20 chips and one Sigma point.

Consequences of bad voting
The consequences of bad voting are that you lose Karma and Chips when your votes are rejected by a Moderator. For every vote that is rejected, you lose 1 Karma and 5 Chips.

Excessive and repetitive bad voting can and does lead to players being brought before the BlogShares Exchange Commission (BSEC).

This can result in penalties ranging from loss of additional Karma and Chips as well as suspension of voting and moderating abilities to an complete account reset.

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