Collaborative Worldbuilding Threads

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Observation:
As the thread is moving onward, I'm seeing my voting pattern/direction as more and more different from the more popular one. As my preferences thus turn out to be further and further from the setting that is being made, I'm more and more tempted to say "Been fun so far, but I'm too different from you to keep going. Good luck and have fun" and bow out.

Which made me think of two things:

1. That maybe at this point voting becomes more self-reinforcing as other people who bow out are likely to be the ones who find their tastes to be different from the majority.
2. That maybe where the thread goes is heavily based on its elevator pitch (since it influences what sorts of voters it tends to attract in the first place).

My observation was that the conservative, middle answer was getting more of the votes. That is, the voting process moderates the extremer ideas, or the more creative ones, which would've gained more of a foothold in a question-style thread.

To your points, I think any thread is going to lose the interest of some participants as things progress- I don't think that's unique to a voting thread. A voting system is a form of compromise, and a definition of a compromise is a result where everyone is equally unhappy. So while you might feel your preferences are different to the outcome, I think everyone else might also be having the same feeling to some extent.
ETA: That sounds a bit more negative than I intended. I think the point is that whatever the voting outcome has produced, the more interesting part is working with that outcome to produce something creative from it. (/ETA)

And I think that a thread going the direction of its elevator pitch is a given- first, that's what the OP is seeking to achieve in his thread. It'd be pointless to say "I want a biopunk space setting" but end up with robots fighting space elves because of some weird voting outcomes. And as you say, those interested in that pitch are going to be the people posting. But I'm afraid I've missed your point on this, as I can't see how that's unexpected or a valid complaint.