In case you haven’t already heard, voting is now open for the 2008 Rails Rumble! Rumble team members already have the ability to vote and just need to log into their accounts to get started. If you weren’t competing but are interested in judging applications, just sign-up for a new account and you’ll be off and running.

How It Works

We’re doing something a little different this year. Voting is not being conducted via the typical free-for-all, anything goes ratings system. For the 2008 event, voters are issued ballots for a limited number of competition apps each day. Each ballot consists of four criteria to rate an app on a five star scale:

• Appearance — The professionalism of the app’s design, aesthetics, usability
• Completeness — How finished does this app feel? Is it missing key features that make it unusable? Is it buggy?
• Innovation — How original and innovative is the app? Is it new, unique, and different or just a rehash of an existing idea?
• Usefulness — Is there an audience for this app? Will it be useful to them? Something they can really use? Or is it superfluous?

This system is designed to evenly distribute ballots for each competition app and only allow each voter’s ballot to count once — though a voter can revise their ratings at any time. Finally, voters will receive new ballots each day, but only to replace the ballots cast.

Why?

It’s understandable that some might be frustrated by this system — especially if they are unable to vote on their favorite apps right away. Remember that the Rumble is not just about winning prizes, but promoting Rails, the Rails community, and all the apps built within the 48 hour event. By going with a ballot system, we’re seeking to level the playing field between apps as much as possible, eliminate ballot stuffing, and ensure that apps are judged based on their individual merits rather than being a simple popularity contest.

In Summary

In summary, getting your vote on is simple:

1. Sign-up for an account if you don’t already have one
2. Check out each of the apps identified in your freshly minted batch of ballots
3. Rate each app on Appearance, Completeness, Innovation, and Usefulness
4. Come back tomorrow and use your next batch of ballots

Voting ends at Midnight GMT on 1 Novemember, 2008. Get out, check out those apps, and cast those ballots! Make sure to tell your friends, your family, and especially your fans. Anyone can vote — the more voter diversity we have, the better.