We will try to answer some of the tough big-picture questions people may ask about Voting. For answers to technical questions and other issues, contact us.

Q. Why didn't you use judges?
A. We wanted the community to choose. We went through a lot of permutations to get here but, ultimately, we choose an open voting process because:

• we wanted to make sure that our community had a strong say in deciding the top 20 projects
• we think we can best manage potential conflicts of interest by giving everyone the same voice
• we are trying to walk the talk.

Q. But that just makes it a popularity contest. The people with the biggest networks win. Don't you want something more than that?
A. Voting is a popularity contest. No denying it. We tried to mitigate the network effect (she with the biggest network wins by default) by requiring all voters to pick at least five projects. That way four other projects benefit from that big network too.

Q. But won't people just pick their project and then pick four more at random?
A. And we worried about that too. Ultimately, we decided to trust the community and ask them not to do that and, instead, to take some time and choose the projects they really are interested in. If our trust is misplaced, well, we'd rather make a mistake because we trusted the community than make one because we didn't.

Q. But 122 projects! That's a lot to sort through. My supporters just want to vote for me. They don't want to have to sort through everything. Couldn't you have made it easier?
A. We acknowledge that 122 is a lot! So, this year we provided sort options such as stars, comments and tag cloud, plus a Voter Guide to narrow down projects by cause, goals or tools that you might be interested in.