The way I voted in the prior rounds of the contest:
I would open the group in a new window and open all the stories in individual tabs.
I'd move the story to the left of the poll if I liked it. I'd close it if I didn't.
Then I would read the comments to help me narrow my choices down to three.
How have all of you been voting?
I read the story, then I read the comments,
Most of the time I go, "Yeah, I agree" or "What the hell are they all thinking?"
Then I vote and find out that nobody has the same tastes as I do.
Have I been affected by group think? It's a possibility that I can't rule out, but I have had many instances where I have disagreed with the comments and voted my own way.
I like the commenting, and I think that it's sometimes a good thing. For instance, I have learned a ton about banshees, and I know that group think DOES effect me. I'm very careful therefore when I'm reading the stories not to read the comments right away. I keep a notepad by me while I read and give all of the stories a score and a brief couple of notes about my impression. It's only after that that I go ahead and read the comments.
I'll vote for whichever stories get the highest score regardless of what the comments say or how they influence me. On a scale of 1 to 10, so far nothing has been lower than a 4 or higher than a 9.5. Lots of 9.5s though. This has been a great contest so far.
Uhh oh...