Timetable for the 2006 vote.

September 15 -October 14, 2005 - Candidate program description submittals. Category and ware discussion.
October 15 - October 31, 2005 - Program nominations, seconds and program discussion.
November 1 - November 7, 2005 Voting period
November 8, 2005 - Vote Results Posted
November 9, 2005 - Preliminary Pricelessware List Posted
November 9 - November 15, 2005 - Final Selection Discussion
November 16, 2005 - Final Pricelessware List Posted

Criteria for Selection

The program should be one of the best Freeware programs available. The Pricelessware List is a compilation of the favorite Freeware programs of the readers of alt.comp.freeware. The goals of the Pricelessware List do NOT include selecting programs to fit every subcategory. The programs picked are not meant to be an exhaustive list of the best available Freeware, but rather an answer to the often asked "which _____ is best?"

Eligibility for Nomination

Games are not eligible for the Pricelessware List.

Webware (online software) is not eligible for the Pricelessware List.

The software must be available for download.

Programs must have acceptable ware descriptions to be eligible for nomination.
See the Ware Glossary for definitions of ware types.

The following ware types are acceptable for nomination:

Freeware
Abandonware (non-Warez Abandonware is acceptable)
Betaware
Donationware
Liteware
Orphanware (non-Warez Orphanware is acceptable)
Registerware
Requestware

The following ware types are not acceptable for nomination:

Abandonware (Warez Abandonware is not acceptable)
Adware:
CDWare
Commercial Software
Crippleware
Demo-ware
Malware
Nagware
Orphanware (Warez Orphanware is not acceptable)
Shareware
Spyware
Trialware
Warez

The glossary's ware descriptions don't cover all situations. In special cases programs may be placed on a Ware Ballot to determine if the program's ware description is acceptable to newsgroup participants. The Ware ballot is used only to determine elegibility.. A two-thirds majority in favor of acceptance is required for a program to be eligibile for the Pricelessware List. Voting on Pricelessware and Ware Ballots is done in the same time period.

Program Description Submittals

Program descriptions must be posted for ALL candidate programs. Verify and update Pricelessware 2005 descriptions before posting them. Comments and questions relating to program categories and subcategories and issues regarding ware status should be posted during this period..

Programs descriptions should include the information shown in the Notes on preparing program descriptions.

Last minute nominations are permitted during the nominations period. A separate thread will be used to submit program descriptions during the nominations period. Program descriptions must be verified before a program can be nominated.

Nomination Procedure

Programs that are eligible for nomination will be listed in the first post in the Pricelessware Nominations thread. When programs descriptions are submitted after the start of nominations verification of eligibility for nomination will be posted in the nominations thread. Nominations of ineligible programs will not be recognized.

Nominations are made by posting the names of the programs you wish to nominate/second.

Voting Procedure

A program must be nominated and seconded to be placed on the ballot. These programs will be listed in the first post in the Pricelessware Voting thread.

Ballots are cast by posting the names of the programs you wish to vote for. Multiple ballots are permitted. If you wish to vote for additional programs after your first vote is cast you may cast another ballot with the names of your additional choices.

You may not withdraw a vote once it has been cast. Write in votes will not be recognized.

Preliminary Selection procedure

Ware ballots are counted first. Programs that lose on this ballot are removed from further consideration.

Votes are the primary consideration in the Pricelessware selection process.. Programs that received the most votes are selected first. A limited number of programs are selected for a category. A "minimum" vote count is chosen to avoid "overfilling" categories (more than 3-4 selections). All programs that received this "minimum" number of votes are selected.

Secondary consideration is given to subcategories. Pricelessware selections are made in unfilled subcategories to broaden the range of programs. Only one selection is made in a subcategory. Tie votes will be discussed in the final selection thread. When several unfilled subcategories have similar programs one program is selected and the other subcategories are eliminated.. A second "minimum" is chosen to minimize the disparity in vote count between selections in the high vote subcategories and these selections in the less popular subcategories. Subcategories are eliminated when they do not have any programs that received the required minimum number of votes.

Final Selection Procedure

This is the "juried" part of the Pricelessware selection process. The group as a whole has more expertise than one person.

After the preliminary Pricelessware List selections are made the list is presented to acf participants for review. The final Pricelessware List is determined by this discussion.

If you feel that a program of exceptional merit has been overlooked post a request for inclusion.
If you feel that a program is not a good choice for the Pricelessware List post your objections.

Removal Procedures

Programs are removed from the Pricelessware List. if they do not meet the eligibility requirements. If it is learned that the program's ware type is ineligible or it becomes ineligible the program is removed from the Pricelessware List.. If a program becomes shareware and a "last Freeware version" is not available for download the program is removed from the Pricelessware List. If a program is not available for download the program is removed from the Pricelessware List.

Notes on preparing program descriptions.

See this web page first:: http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/acf/P_ProgramIndex.php

If there is a link to an existing short description for the program VERIFY that information..

If the short description has a desc. link it will take you to a long description is on this web page: http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/acf/P_programs.php This description may be outdated. The most recent information I have is shown in the short description.

If there is a existing long description for the program COPY it, VERIFY it and REVISE it as necessary. The goal here is to revise the things that have changed. Update the descriptive text if the author has, update ware descriptions as necessary (note: donation requests may not be on the same page as the author's description of the app), versions, links etc. Please tell me WHAT you revised - a word by word comparison takes a long, long time.

If the above web pages do not have information about the program create a new long description. Include the items of information shown in long descriptions of other programs.

See this web page for examples of the formatting of ware descriptions and OS descriptions:: http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/2006/PL2006ProgramIndex.php Sort the table on the ware description or OS columns to group similar descriptions.

Check your description to ensure it contains all necessary items of information.

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