Voting on the panel

Getting on

You get an email inviting you. Follow the link and sign in.

There is no password to invent and none to forget. There are two ways in, and the sign-in page shows whichever the club's site has switched on.

With an account you already have — Google, Microsoft, and possibly others. The app never sees a password; it asks the provider whether you are who you say you are.

With a code, emailed to you. Type your address, and a code arrives — six to ten digits, depending on how the club's site is set up. Type it in and you are signed in. Nothing to install, no account anywhere else, and no password.

That second one exists because plenty of people do not have a Google account, or have one and would rather not hand it over — and because the address the club invited is often a work or council one that has nothing to do with either.

The same email carries a link as well as the code. Tap the link if you are reading the email on the device you asked from and it is one tap. Read it on your phone with the laptop in front of you and the link will not work there — type the digits into the laptop instead. That is deliberate: the link only works in the browser that asked for it, which is what makes it safe to be a link at all.

Sign in with the address the invitation was sent to, and it will only be claimable by somebody who has confirmed that address. If you sign in with a different address, the invitation stays pending — see Troubleshooting.

Voting

Your awards are on the front page once you are signed in. An open round has a Vote link.

Pick your players in order — best first. How many picks and what each is worth is set by the club: "3, 2, 1" means three picks and three points for the best. You cannot give two picks to the same player.

Submit. That is the whole thing.

You can change your mind until the round closes. Go back in and resubmit; the last version before the deadline is the one that counts.

After it closes you cannot. If you genuinely missed the deadline, ask whoever runs the award — they can grant a late vote for a closed round, and it will be recorded in the club's audit log that they did.

What other people can see

The club can see whether you have voted. It cannot see what you voted.

The participation grid an admin uses to chase stragglers shows a tick per voter per round and nothing else. No screen anywhere in the app puts a name against a ballot.

The running count is sealed. It is not visible to you, and it is not visible to whoever set the award up either — seeing it is a separate permission the club grants to a named person. Every look at it is recorded by the database in the same operation that reads the votes, so it cannot be looked at without leaving a mark, and the club's admins can read that record.

Once the season is finished, the whole record opens to everyone on the panel.

Emails you might get

• The invitation, once.
• A sign-in code, each time you ask for one, if you sign in that way.
• A note that you signed in, each time you get in by typing a code. Short, and it carries nothing anybody could sign in with. It exists so that if it was not you, you find out in seconds. (Clicking the link in the same email does not send one — that link only works in the browser that asked for it, so there is nothing to warn about.)
• A reminder, if voting is open and you have not voted. Somebody may send one by hand, and the club's site may send one automatic "voting closes tomorrow" nudge per round.
• A receipt each time you submit or change a ballot, listing exactly what you voted, with a link back to change it while the round is open. It goes to you and to nobody else — no copy to an admin, because only you are ever allowed to see your own picks.
• The season recap, if an admin sends one after the season is finished.

And one you can ask for: if you are among the people allowed to see the tally at all, you can turn on the standings by email once a round is counted. That is something you choose for yourself rather than something set for you.

Nothing else. The app never emails anybody on your behalf and never copies your ballot to anyone.

Deadlines

Every deadline belongs to the club, not to your phone. "Votes in by 9pm Sunday" means 9pm where the club is, whether you are reading it at the ground or on holiday somewhere else. The screen tells you the closing time and the zone it is in.

Rounds open and close on their own times. Nobody has to press anything, so a round closing at 9pm closes at 9pm.