Q: How do I vote?

A: Go to http://www.nten.org/ntc-session-list.

Each page displays 20 session proposals. Under the box with session details ("Track", "Theme", and "Level") is a voting widget that says "Vote this session up or down".

Click the up arrow if you would want to attend this session, the down arrow if you would not. Easy! You can always change your vote later.

Q: There are so many sessions. Do I have to vote for them all?

A: There are more than 450 session ideas this year, a new record. While we'd love it if you could review and vote for all of them, we know you're busy. This year, you can use the multiple filters in the righthand sidebar to find only the sessions you're most interested in.

If, say, you'll be focused on improving your website in 2012, you should go to the "Tags" filter and click "Websites". That will get you down to fewer than 100 options. You can continue to filter – by "Track", "Theme", even "Level" – to find only the sessions you'd be most interested in attending. This year, for example, there are only 4 proposals on "Websites" for "Communications Staff" at the "Journey-level".

You can always remove filters by clicking the "X" next to it, under "Current search", to re-expand your options.

Q: Wait, back up. "Journey-level"? What the heck does that mean?

A: We wanted to move beyond the standard "Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced" classifications, but that's the rough correlation. Here's what we mean by each level.

Novice - This session assumes attendees have no experience in the specific technologies to be presented. This means that there will be no jargon and all acronyms will be clearly spelled-out and defined.

Apprentice - This session's participants have some experience in specific tools or technologies to be presented. They are generally looking to fill in the gaps in their knowledge or deepen their understanding of a specific tool or concept. Jargon should be minimized and well defined when used.

Journey-Level – This session’s participants are often considered by their colleagues to be experts in the topic to be presented. They assume a high level of discourse that includes the jargon and acronyms common in the field.

Q: Okay. What if I have something to say about the session idea?

A: Click the session title or the "Leave a Comment" link to be taken to the session's detail page. You can leave comments there. Try to be nice, though. Our comments are moderated, and mean and/or inappropriate comments will be laughed at by NTEN staff, then promptly deleted.

Q: Why can't I vote?

A: If you're unable to vote a session up or down, or it looks like one of the voting options isn't working, it's likely that somebody else in your office has already voted using a shared IP address. We allow only 1 vote per IP as our rudimentary security against ballot stuffing. Try voting from home or using your mobile's 3G connection.

Q: How long will voting be open?

A: Until Midnight Eastern Time on September 23, 2011.

Q: Why does it take the pages so long to load?

A: We had to disable caching on our site so that the average votes would show up for you as the votes rolled in. This has dramatically increased the load on our database server during the session voting period.

Q: Will the highest rated sessions or the ones with the most votes be the ones featured at the 2012 NTC?

A: Probably not all of them. If we did it that way, we'd have 70 sessions on social media, 37 on websites, and a score on e-mail. Yes, we're "How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?" folks, so the community voting will count for 33% when we sit down to determine the final agenda.

Q: I wanted to submit a session idea. Is it too late for that?

A: I'm afraid so. We closed session submissions on August 12th, so it's too late to get in on the voting. If you have an unprecedentedly awesome idea, you should still let us know about it. The agenda will be firm after November 1st.

Q: I'd be a terrific speaker at [x] session. How can I get added to the panel?

A: If you'd like to speak at a session, leave a comment (by going to the individual session page) and let us know. We don't promise you'll get to join the panel, but we'll certainly consider it.

Q: When will I find out if my session made it in?

A: Session designers will be contacted by November 1, 2011.

Q: This takes a really long time. Will you hate me if I don't vote for every session?

A: We could never hate you. We appreciate that you've taken time at all to help us out. In fact, may we just say, "You rock."