Tim A2 wrote:
corneaboy wrote:
Well I do think the scoring system works pretty well but that doesn't mean it can't be improved. After my initial post I thoought about it some more and it seemed to me the best approach was to encourage better voting. Then I thought, if people are cheating by downgrading other entrants it would be revealed by showing the histogram of each entrants personal voting in that challenge along with the voting results. One of the advantages would be that you wouldn't have to accuse anyone of cheating, as it would be obvious to all. Accusing someone of cheating could bring about its own set of problems, which I'm sure dpr woulld want to avoid.
I don't seem to be getting any support for my idea so think I will go do some photogrphy.
Don't feel bad about not getting support for your idea. That is pretty rare around here. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I'm just sayin. I do think it may be naive to think dpr would ever reveal how individuals vote. The best we can hope for is to see the same histograms the hosts see now. Enjoy your photography and enjoy the challenges, just avoid the ones where unqualified entries get out of hand. My experience is that you get a fair shake by the majority of voters.
Tim
Maybe I failed to explain it clearly.
The hosts see the voting patterns of individual voters, and it's not usually hard to spot when someone among the voters cast their votes in an illogical way. Comparing entry quality, conformance with the rules etc. shows it right away (unless hosts know nothing about photography).
Whether entrants see how the individual voters cast their votes is not so relevant, since it suggests that one can tell how well each voter understands what s/he is doing. This not being possible, it's enough if hosts see that the voting was fair and honest, thus ascertaining that the challenge runs as it should. This, in turn, depends upon the hosts' responsibility.
All the proposed changes have been suggested in order to uniform the hosts, entrants and voters behavior, as the challenges will only work properly if all involved did their part responsibly. Since this can't be merely wished or expected, some segments have to be enforced - by challenge system reconstructions, as many unguarded spots have been found and used by "morally challenged" to their advantage. These required changes are quite extensive, and have all been discussed elsewhere.
The host's problem is in the anonymization code. Hosts alone should be able to see that voter's ID in order to remove such a manipulation.In other words, obvious vote slanting should be removed.
For that, hosts need some efficient tools. We've been waiting for challenge changes which will allow hosts ro really moderate their challenges, and not just sit and feel helpless when they see how the dishonest turn their best intentions to garbage.
My advice to all entrants would be to
watch for hosts who allow entries outside of their own rules to run without any timely intervention, so as to be able to
avoid those. Also,
avoid all challenges run by the hosts which have been found cheating. That way, everyone can reduce the manipulators' field of play.
Use the available tools (complaint, feedback, mail, Forum, etc.) to let hosts / DPR know about improper behavior. In short, do whatever you see fit to make challenges fair and straight (again).
