Open Activity: Animagus Voting Discussion

[caesaria.livejournal.com]

Activity: Animagus Voting Discussion
Points/Knuts: Participation Only - 10 points/5 knuts (2 points for additional comments, 30 points cap)
Deadline: December 28th, 5pm UTC

We know that Animagus Voting can be a time-consuming, complicated thing, with so many animals and species to choose from and so many places to check. It can be especially hard when you really don't know much about animals at all. But it's really, really not that scary! We promise ;-)

So this activity is all about Animagus Voting! If you vote on Animagus apps regularly, tell us how you go on about it! Where do you start? Do you get a ~vibe from an applicant and then go off that? Do you look at their preferred weather or time of day? Do you take their appearance or pictures into consideration? And where do you look? Do you go to wiki straight away or do you know some animal resource pages we might not know about yet?
And if you DON'T vote for Animagus, if you've never tackled it before, tell us what kept you from it and what we could do to help you try it. If you're new at HiH, tell us what you WOULD do, maybe check out some apps for ideas.

Please make your initial comment at least 250 words long, so it can count for points. 10 points per initial comment, 2 points for any substantial additional comment (30 points cap). Don't forget to sign with your name & house! (you don't have to sign with your animagus form, since this is an activity open for everyone).

We know that voting can be intimidating (I didn't vote for Amimagus either at first, until I had former Animagus mod peyton07 help me through my first voting, which made it so much less complicated :D) and hope that this post will result in a lively discussion about how to vote on Animagus, what your different strategies are and what tips you can share. We hope that it helps you and that more of you will tackle Animagus voting in the future :D

(and don't forget to check out the current batch of applications here and apply your new-found voting knowledge that you will hopefully gain from this activity to them :D)

Comments

[pickle-breath.livejournal.com]

I'm going for a awesome list form here. It's the only way to keep my thoughts in order.
1. The voting system is confusing for new-ones, specially with all the applications being smooshed together in "batches". I imagine there is a reason behind it (keep it anon for one) but I'd rather have each separate application be it's own entry like with stamping and sorting. (again, I have no mod duties, so I have no idea how much work that would add and/or save)

2. No set defined list of what we can vote them as (such as the stamping guides) The instructions provide one or two sites to start with then push you on to google to figure out how to find different species of general animal names. If you don't know animals outside the song "old Mcdonald" it can be hard to figure out ANYTHING to start with. Even if we could have a few pre-set definitions for types of animals (such as "Horses: look for free spirited, nature loving, possible domesticated applications") then we'd have a good base for our own google research.

3.Terminology- I have no problem with it now, but maybe a little glossary for terms that may confuse newbs to the voting process (as well as for the application)

other than that it's pure laziness keeping me from voting on applications (and applying....)

Tracy::Hufflepuff

[klef.livejournal.com]

We actually have everything for #2 in the Gryffindor Common room. We had a former mod put it together for us and it links us to wiki pages. It works wonders. It just has a few key words and then we can kind of pick and choose what we want out of it.

I will admit though, it's really fun to think you're going to come out of it with 4 dog choices or something and then find that one of the animals fits you so perfectly you can't figure out why you didn't think of it yourself!

Kerri//Gryffindor

[pickle-breath.livejournal.com]

you greedy gryffs- we totally need that to be HiH wide! :) I don't need someone to tell me about all the sub-species, just give me a little push in the right direction! :)

[klef.livejournal.com]

Not greedy! The person who made it was the Animagus mod at the time and she was ~bribing us into voting! It worked. lol