Ranked ballots
Players do not pick only one option. They order the whole shortlist, which exposes second and third preferences that basic polls throw away.
Tideman Voting
What the Tideman method does for group decisions
LetsDecide.games uses ranked ballots and the Tideman method because a one-click poll often produces weak winners. Tideman is designed to compare options head-to-head and preserve stronger pairwise victories.
Short version
Every player ranks the full shortlist. From those ballots, the system compares every pair of options to see which one beats the other head-to-head.
Tideman then locks in the strongest pairwise wins first while avoiding cycles. The goal is to keep the most convincing comparisons and produce a final ordering that reflects broad support.
Pairwise comparisons
Each option is compared head-to-head against every other option. That reveals whether an option is genuinely strong across the group or just has a narrow fan base.
Lock strongest wins
Tideman orders pairwise wins by strength and locks them in without creating contradictions. That is what makes the final result more defensible than a simple plurality result.
Why this matters for games and restaurants
Group decisions usually fail when similar options split support. Maybe two shooters divide one subgroup, or two taco places divide another. A basic poll can let a weaker but less-divided option win.
Tideman is useful here because it treats the shortlist as a set of pairwise matchups instead of a race for first-choice clicks only. That tends to produce a winner with stronger overall support.
Frequently asked questions
Is Tideman the same as generic ranked voting?
Not really. It uses ranked ballots, but Tideman is its own specific method based on pairwise comparisons and locking in strong victories.
Why use it in this app?
Because this app is aimed at shortlists with overlapping options, where vote splitting is common and pairwise strength matters.