Okay, so that I might understand the next few days of discussion, is it possible for me to view the web site? Is it too late to be a judge? I didn't mean to bash you or anything, I just wondered why everyone wasn't included in the mock contest. Jenn -- "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it." ---------------------- > If you saw my invitation, which was open to _everyone_, you haven't missed > anything. Everyone is here of their own free will, so all I can do is _ask_ > that people get involved. Anyone who choses not to is free to do so. We all > have varying amounts of time and energy to devote to this and I realize that > not everyone would care to get involved with the mock contest. > > The mock contest, in order to be done as realistically as possible was set > up on a _separate_ website. Due to the fact that the owner of _some_ of the > images which are on that web-site and which were used for the Mock Judging > specifically requested that they NOT be put on general display, I have not, > and will not, be making the URL of the site publicly available. I have > permission from the owner to use them for the mock judging and that is all. > Once we have discussed the results of the mock judging and settled on our > procedures in that regard, the other web-site will be taken off-line. > > As for feeling excluded, I don't know why anyone should feel that way - I > invited _anyone_ on this list who cared to do so to try the mock testing. If > you had wanted to get involved you could have. It is true that the > discussion for the next little while is probably not going to make sense to > anyone who wasn't a mock judge, but those are the breaks - the issue of > judging guidelines and the policies and procedures surrounding them are > important. I want them discussed throughly and settled before we can move > beyond them. > > Hope this makes things clear for you Jennifer, and I hope that you jump in > with your comments when you feel able. > > James Purchase > Toronto > > ------------------ > To unsubscribe from this list, e-mail majordomo@aquatic-gardeners.org > with "unsubscribe aga-contest" in the body of the message. > To subscribe to the digest version, add "subscribe aga-contest-digest" > in the same message. > Old messages are available at http://lists.thekrib.com/aga-contest > > ------------------------------ > > Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 17:08:00 -0400 > From: "Ken Guin" <kenguin@homemail.com> > Subject: Re: Mock Judging results Part I > > James wrote: >>>>Submission Guidelines Explicit statement that altered/faked > entries are NOT eligable for the contest. (Do we allow them in the > showcase???)<< > > Ken writes: I think we could be chancing it if WE decided to exclude ANY > entry without first doing some investigation into a questionable entry. A > simple telephone call or email to the entrant to ask him/her a few questions > about the authenticity of the entry should resolve the matter. Several > volunteers could easily handle the few that would be questionable (I would > volunteer to do this). However, we should make it VERY explicit that > altered/fake entries will not be acceptable. > > James wrote: >> Clear guidelines provided on the number and viewpoint of > individual images in each submission.<< > > Ken writes: Yes, definitely. To keep things simple, I suggest two, maybe > three photos at the most (with only one encouraged). One overall, frontal > shot and maybe two angled, front shots which some of the sides showing. All > photos should be within a short time frame of minutes, not days or months. > > James wrote:>>- Tank details that should accompany entries. > > Ken writes: I would make this optional. There is a current thread on the APD > concerning a tank that is supposedly doing great with somewhat unusual tank > parameters (e.g., low light, high phosphorus and nitrate levels). If the > tank looks great, why should we get into an argument over which are the best > parameters? However, I do think that tank details would be very educational > for the viewers. So, for that reason, I would encourage the entrants to > include them, BUT I would ask the judges to not take them into account > during judging. > > James wrote: >>Judging Guidelines. Should entries be pre-screened for > altered/faked images BEFORE being passed to Judges?<< > > Ken writes: If we go the route of sending the judges CDs, there is going to > have to be a some sort of pre-screening done along the way. I would hate to > think that we would dump everything on Erik and ask him to produce some > judgeable CDs from it all. I think we will need to have some sort of panel > to review (pre-screen) the entries. I really don't think we are going to get > that many altered/fake entries though. I just don't see that as being a > really big problem, and if it is, I think my earlier suggestion about > contacting the entrant would be reasonable. However, I do think we need > someone (a panel?) to organize everything before it is burned onto a CD. I > see this as being our biggest coordination problem. We will need to decide > who receives them, how we centralize them (after being scanned, etc.). We > will also have to decide what we will do if we receive entries that don't > meet established criteria. For example, what happens if we ask for two > photos and we get four?. What do we do? Send them back, or pick the best of > the four? I see a lot of problems arising that will make good coordination > imperative. If we don't do this part right, I am afraid the whole thing will > collapse under it own weight. However, I don't see this as something we will > not be able to handle. > > James wrote: >>- Should Criteria points be expanded upon so that ALL > Judges know exactly what we expect to be consided under each main point? > (Jose posted something regarding this last week (see message 00512, Aug. > 4).<< > > Ken writes: Absolutely. > > James wrote: >>- Should we clarify how the Judges are to calculate their > "point scores"? Two of the test judges used non-standard schemes - to be > fair, ALL Judges should be working from the same base and using the SAME > yardstick. It is _my_ view that in anything rated like this, the scoring > range starts at 0 and ends at 100, not 0 to 10 or 50 to 100.<< > > Ken writes: If the judges' scores are to be published, I think it would be > important that they judge on a 100 point scale. If a judge decides to rank > from 50 to 100, then they should have that option. I mean, how much worse > could an entry be than 50 points? I noticed on the mock judging, when the > obvious fake entry is eliminated, there was only one entry by one judge that > rated a score lower than 50 points. So, I don't see this as a problem. If we > decide for the judges to keep their scoring to themselves and just pick the > first, second, etc., it makes no difference what point scale they use. > > James wrote: >> -The alternative might be to throw out "points" all together > and > just request the Judges to rate things as "Unacceptable", "Acceptable", > "Good", "Very Good", "Excellent". However, this could present problems with > deciding a clear winner in any particular Category.<< > > Ken writes: I agree. And, for that reason, I suggest a 100 point system. > (part II to follow - I am having problems with my ISP). > > Ken Guin > Arlington, VA > > ------------------ > To unsubscribe from this list, e-mail majordomo@aquatic-gardeners.org > with "unsubscribe aga-contest" in the body of the message. > To subscribe to the digest version, add "subscribe aga-contest-digest" > in the same message. > Old messages are available at http://lists.thekrib.com/aga-contest > > ------------------------------ > > Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 17:09:37 -0400 > From: "Ken Guin" <kenguin@homemail.com> > Subject: RE: Mock Judging results Part II > > Part II (Continued from previous Post) > James wrote: >>Categories We have to decide what kind of Categories we want > to set up, keeping in mind that this is NOT a typical fish show.<< > > Ken writes: This ain't gonna be easy. I realize that the mock judging we > just did was VERY limited, but how would you have grouped those five (six) > entries into categories? From the beginning, I believe we all agreed that we > would have to decide on categories once we receive all the entries. I don't > know why we should decide that now. The categories will probably fall into > place once we get all of the entries. If there are some entries that are > really oddballs, we would have the flexibility of including them into a > separate category ourselves, or melding them into the more traditional > categories that will surely reveal themselves as we examine the entries. > Again, this is going to be part of the VERY hard > receiving/sorting/coordination phase. > > James wrote: >>Do the Judges look at ALL of the entries in each Category or > do we have specific experts/judges examine and rate only those entries in > particular Categories?<< > > Ken writes: I believe each entry should be examined by each judge, > regardless of category. Unless, I am wrong, I am not sure we are going to > have the luxury of having enough judges to have specialized judges in > particular categories. However, if we anticipate that there are more than > enough judges to do this, I think it would probably work. > > James wrote: >>- How many entries are required before a Category can be > examined and a winner declared? > Ken writes: If we wait until we see how many entries there will eventually > be, I think this will fall into place. When we announce the > showcase/competition, I think we should encourage all types of aquascapes to > be entered. We could tighten down the definition of "aquascape" to eliminate > things like "reef tanks", fakes, etc., but if we get some beautiful examples > of aquascapes we didn't have the foresight to predict, why should we exclude > them from the competition? In subsequent competitions/showcases, we should > have a much better feel for what the categories will be. I just think it > would be more prudent to wait to see what we are dealing with before the > categories are decided. > > James wrote:>>- Is only First Place to be awarded, or do we award 1st, 2nd > and 3rd Place? What about Honourable Mentions for tanks which are nice but > don't place?<< > > Ken writes: I would go along with 1st, 2nd and third places, with honorable > mentions in categories that have enough entries and deserve to be mentioned. > I would also like to see the Best of Show award too. > James wrote >>General How feasible is it to provide Judges with all entries > on CD-ROM for judging? This is really up to Erik. How much would each CD-ROM > cost?<< > > Ken writes: If Erik can do it, I think this is the only way to go. If each > judge reviews each entry and they have to review it via the Internet, we > might lose some judges along the way unless they have high speed access. > Although I realize that the mock judging was our first attempt at this, and > James you did a heck of a job doing it, I found the process to be confusing, > problematic and time consuming. Given the same circumstances, and I were a > judge with the responsibility of reviewing 100 or so entries, I believe I > would be looking for a way out. AND, I have high speed access. > Ken Guin > Arlington, VA > > ------------------ > To unsubscribe from this list, e-mail majordomo@aquatic-gardeners.org > with "unsubscribe aga-contest" in the body of the message. > To subscribe to the digest version, add "subscribe aga-contest-digest" > in the same message. > Old messages are available at http://lists.thekrib.com/aga-contest > > ------------------------------ > > Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 19:37:49 -0500 > From: "James Purchase" <jpurch@interlog.com> > Subject: RE: Mock Judging Results - Ken's Points > > Ken recently made some excellent points - > > Re: Screening out Fakes - I agree that we are going to have to be very > careful about screening out something without first doing some > investigation. The first part of the investigation could be to require > people to give us a list of materials, plants and fish in the tank. If we > see something in the photo which is not on the list.....or vice versa..... > that is at least a start. Again, I don't know if this will even be a > problem, but it is a _potential_ problem and we should have a policy on how > we want it dealt with _should_ it arise. > > Re: Submission Elements, number of Images per submission - I definately want > to see more than one image of a tank and less than 5 but that is more to be > fair to the aquascape and the aquarist who submitted it than anything else. > It is very difficult to judge a tank with only one picture and having too > many can lead to problems like we had with Entry 005. > > Submission Elements - like a listing and description of how the aquascape > was put together, i.e. materials used, plant and fish list will not only > help screen out potential fakes, it will help us place tanks into Categories > for Judging and display. It isn't always obvious in a picture that that > beautiful piece of driftwood just right of centre is in actuallity printed > on a commercially made background, or even that those nice red plants are > 100% plastic. We can ask for those sorts of details in the Submission > elements. > > Contest Entries which come in without the required elements should be placed > in the Showcase but not the Contest (this shouldn't cause concern - life has > certain rules, if we set a few and people choose to ignore them, they can't > complain about the consequences. I am tired of pandering.). > > Re: Point Scores and consistency between judges - I can see the point that > Ken (and earlier Erik) makes about it being nearly impossible to force > Judges to ALL play by our rules - they are going to have their own ideas and > nothing we can do or say will change that. I found it fascinating to look at > how the individual Judges scored the various entries and also to real their > comments. This has the potential to be VERY educational for everyone. > > But I have to tell you, while I was putting the scores and comments into > the web-site, in some cases it was MURDER trying to figure out how some of > the mock judges arrived at their scores or in translating what they passed > to me into the numbers which appear on the web-site. If numbers from > different judges appear side by side, they should at least be on the same > order of magnitude. > > I think we will have to tell them that the scale for each Criteria is 0 - > 100. Once they arrive at their decision, they multiply it by whatever > percentage value the particular Criteria point carries, and then report THAT > value. If someone wants to start at 50, and mark upwards to 100 that's cool > with me - at least they will be consistent with themselves. But we had some > judges do this on the basis of 1-10. I was getting very confused, jumping > back and forth between their e-mail, an Excel spreadsheet, and the web-site > opened in Front Page. Sometimes, a 17" monitor is just NOT big enough! Once > I got them all sorted out and in place, they all made sense, but it was NO > FUN doing the sorting out and trying to figure out how they got their > numbers - in one case, I just had to leave out a judge's individual criteria > points because I was just too tired to worry about it anymore. This isn't a > crack at the judges - or how they did this, I'm just saying that without > specific guidelines provided up front which we ask each judge to adhere to, > I'm going to be bald before this is over. > > Re: Categories - I can see the validity of what Ken says about Categories, > and I think I had suggested long ago that we forego that kind of discussion > until later or until we actually get the images. We'd look awfully stupid to > pre-announce 50 to 100 specific Categories and then only get 10 entries for > the whole Contest. But the kinds of Categories I was thinking of here, and > now, are really rather wide ranging and general, as in the following: > > Underwater Gardens - only natural materials allowed > Underwater Gardens - natural and man-made materials allowed > Biotope Tanks - only natural materials allowed, and the tank must be an > attempt to re-create a specific natural environment. > - - Planted > - - Non-Planted > Rift Lake Tanks > Community Tanks - plastic and man made materials allowed > Fantasy Tanks - anything goes, so long as the image is REAL. > etc. > > These are _only_ suggestions and I'm putting them forward now because I can > forsee major logistical problems for Erik if he has 200 entries of all types > and he has to try sorting them out himself before he burns a CD-ROM without > having at least _some_ idea of general categories to go by. > > We _could_ have them sorted like that, burnt onto CD-ROM, distributed to > several people for screening and sorting into more specific Categories (as > numbers warrant, I venture) and then just the Entry numbers would have to > traverse the Internet, as the pre-screeners sorted out among themselves how > the Entries should be grouped for Judging and Display. > > Once the pre-screeners have reached a concencus - a "master list" could go > to Erik and the appropriate Entries could be placed into specific > subdirectories on the CD-ROMs which we pass to the Judges. > > This is just me thinking out loud about the co-ordination/logistics bit that > Ken mentioned. > > Re: Categories and 1st, 2nd and 3rd Place - one thing that we have to keep > in mind is that when we announce this publicly and invite people to submit > entries, if it is a Contest they are going to expect to know what the Prizes > are going to be (even if there ARE going to be prizes). Again, it would look > dumb to pre-announce all these ribbons and certificates in a zillion > Categories and not have the entires to pin them to. Conversly, without a bit > of incentive, we might not get a lot of entries unless we DO tell folks what > they could stand to win (I was never a fan of "Door Number Three, Please"). > > Re: Judges getting the entries on CD-ROM - I got to cheat on this, I know - > I have all of the images on my hard-drive so I didn't have to wait for > things to download (of course, it DID take a while to get the web-site set > up...). One test judge told me that it took most of her afternoon to review > the small number of images that we had, primarily because of Internet > delays. Having these things on CD-ROM's will be the only way that we can get > Judges to do this. > > Great feedback Ken! > > James Purchase > Toronto > > ------------------ > To unsubscribe from this list, e-mail majordomo@aquatic-gardeners.org > with "unsubscribe aga-contest" in the body of the message. > To subscribe to the digest version, add "subscribe aga-contest-digest" > in the same message. > Old messages are available at http://lists.thekrib.com/aga-contest > > ------------------------------ > > Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 18:02:29 -0700 (PDT) > From: Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com> > Subject: RE: Mock Judging Results - Ken's Points > > On Tue, 10 Aug 1999, James Purchase wrote: > > > Re: Point Scores and consistency between judges > ... > > > > I think we will have to tell them that the scale for each Criteria is 0 - > > 100. > > I've only been skimming much about judging to date, so I apologize if this > was brought up... > > Going back to the aquarium show scorecard approach, we could easily adapt > this to solve James' dilemna. Take a *total* score of 100 points possible > for all criteria combined, then split it up based on percentage for each > criteria (30 points this, 20 points that...). Then on the web forms, we > use radio buttons, drop-downs or sliders to select the score points (this > being the electronic equivalent of numbers circled on scorecards). I would > suggest *not* normalizing each criteria to the same max points, but rather > keep them appropriately weighted so the judges remember how important each > category is. > > [categories] > > > Underwater Gardens - only natural materials allowed > > Uh, we've been here before. I don't want to go here again. I think > everyone would be disqualified in this category. > > - Erik > > - -- > Erik Olson > erik at thekrib dot com > > ------------------ > To unsubscribe from this list, e-mail majordomo@aquatic-gardeners.org > with "unsubscribe aga-contest" in the body of the message. > To subscribe to the digest version, add "subscribe aga-contest-digest" > in the same message. > Old messages are available at http://lists.thekrib.com/aga-contest > > ------------------------------ > > Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 21:42:27 -0500 > From: "James Purchase" <jpurch@interlog.com> > Subject: Re: Mock Judging Results - Erik > > Erik wrote: > > "Going back to the aquarium show scorecard approach, we could easily adapt > this to solve James' dilemna. Take a *total* score of 100 points possible > for all criteria combined, then split it up based on percentage for each > criteria (30 points this, 20 points that...). Then on the web forms, we > use radio buttons, drop-downs or sliders to select the score points (this > being the electronic equivalent of numbers circled on scorecards). I would > suggest *not* normalizing each criteria to the same max points, but rather > keep them appropriately weighted so the judges remember how important each > category is." > > James responds - My biggest problem was not necessarily that different > people felt differently about the various entries, or that their scores > sometimes varied widely - this is in the realm of personal opinion and is to > be expected. But some judges (most, actually) gave me scores which indicated > that they had understood my possibly sketchy instructions, while others > seemed to have substituted other marking schemes and their numbers did not > correspond to anything I was expecting. In the actual Contest, if there were > say 200 entries and 10 Judges - if everyone followed their own whiles and > gave me numbers that I had to scratch my head over before they could be > plugged into a spreadsheet with everyone elses' results, I'd simply dump the > judge AND their scores. I'm doing enough work as it is, rather than inviting > more. > > Your suggestion of web forms with radio buttons or some other such scheme > would probably solve that, but it would require that the Judge had Internet > access (which I suppose they all would anyway). Could a Pearl script or > relational database be interfaced with this sort of thing to capture and > collate this information so that human interraction can be kept to a minumum > once Judging is actually underway (like me having to manually receive > e-mails and cut and paste scores and comments into a spreadsheet program)? > > >> Underwater Gardens - only natural materials allowed > > >Uh, we've been here before. I don't want to go here again. I think > >everyone would be disqualified in this category. > > Hahahahaha! As I recall, while we were "discussing" underwater gardening and > everyone here was telling me that they don't try to design aquascapes to > "themes" or "concepts", there was a thread on the APD about exactly that - > and there seemed to be a lot people who expressed an interest in being as > accurate as possible in their tanks. > > I'm not bringing up "underwater gardens" to re-open old wounds - I'm just > trying to find a way of lessening or simplifying the amount of work that is > going to have to be done once entries start coming in. We should have _some_ > idea of general categories tanks might fall into...... seems reasonable to > me. > > James Purchase > Toronto > > ------------------ > To unsubscribe from this list, e-mail majordomo@aquatic-gardeners.org > with "unsubscribe aga-contest" in the body of the message. > To subscribe to the digest version, add "subscribe aga-contest-digest" > in the same message. > Old messages are available at http://lists.thekrib.com/aga-contest > > ------------------------------ > > Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 19:16:56 -0700 (PDT) > From: Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com> > Subject: Re: Mock Judging Results - Erik > > On Tue, 10 Aug 1999, James Purchase wrote: > > > Your suggestion of web forms with radio buttons or some other such scheme > > would probably solve that, but it would require that the Judge had Internet > > access (which I suppose they all would anyway). Could a Pearl script or > > relational database be interfaced with this sort of thing to capture and > > collate this information so that human interraction can be kept to a minumum > > once Judging is actually underway (like me having to manually receive > > e-mails and cut and paste scores and comments into a spreadsheet program)? > > Yes, of course. My plan is for zero cutting and pasting. The judge pops > in the CD-ROM into their computer, fires up the internet connection, and > off they go. Alternatively, if we end up with judges with computers but > no internet connection, I'll have some backup. > > As things start to shape up here, I'll start programming the necessary > stuff (mock site II?). > > > > > >> Underwater Gardens - only natural materials allowed > > > > >Uh, we've been here before. I don't want to go here again. I think > > >everyone would be disqualified in this category. > > > > Hahahahaha! As I recall, while we were "discussing" underwater gardening and > > everyone here was telling me that they don't try to design aquascapes to > > "themes" or "concepts", there was a thread on the APD about exactly that - > > and there seemed to be a lot people who expressed an interest in being as > > accurate as possible in their tanks. > > Actually, I was referring to the "only natural materials" aspect, which I > believe to be an impossible condition. > > - Erik > > - -- > Erik Olson > erik at thekrib dot com > > ------------------ > To unsubscribe from this list, e-mail majordomo@aquatic-gardeners.org > with "unsubscribe aga-contest" in the body of the message. > To subscribe to the digest version, add "subscribe aga-contest-digest" > in the same message. > Old messages are available at http://lists.thekrib.com/aga-contest > > ------------------------------ > > Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 22:47:17 -0500 > From: "Jose Correa Lohmann" <jcl@pol.com.pe> > Subject: Re: Mock Judging results > > On Tue, 10 Aug 1999, James Purchase wrote: > > >- Explicit statement that altered/faked entries are NOT eligible for the > >Contest. (Do we allow them in the Showcase???) > We should make this clear. > > >- Should entries be pre-screened for altered/faked images BEFORE being > >passed to Judges? > This could be done by a group of the organizers. Someone (I think it was > Erik?) early in the discussion offered his knowledge on this to help > identify faked images. > > >- Should Criteria points be expanded upon so that ALL Judges know exactly > >what we expect to be consided under each main point? (Jose posted something > >regarding this last week (see message 00512, Aug. 4). > I think this is _very_ important not only for the judges but also for the > entrants to know what are the general ideas behind the judgment. My post was > based 99% on James' ideas posted early. Since then nobody has comment this > descriptions, I will like to hear something new about them. The descriptions > where useful to me during judgment test. > > >- Should we clarify how the Judges are to calculate their "point scores"? > >Two of the test judges used non-standard schemes - to be fair, ALL Judges > >should be working from the same base and using the SAME yardstick. It is > >_my_ view that in anything rated like this, the scoring range starts at 0 > >and ends at 100, not 0 to 10 or 50 to 100. > This should be clarified since the judges maybe are from different countries > and have different experiences. I based my judgment from 0 to 10 on the test > and wasn't sure how it would have to be done. > > >-The alternative might be to throw out "points" all together and just > >request the Judges to rate things as "Unacceptable", "Acceptable", "Good", > >"Very Good", "Excellent". However, this could present problems with > deciding > >a clear winner in any particular Category. > I like more the points. > > >- We have to decide what kind of Categories we want to set up, keeping in > >mind that this is NOT a typical fish show. > I could think of three categories General, Biotype/Theme and Paludarium. > This could be divided on subcategories by volume as suggested early. > > >- How many entries are required before a Category can be examined and a > >winner declared? > At least 5. > > >- Is only First Place to be awarded, or do we award 1st, 2nd and 3rd Place? > >What about Honourable Mentions for tanks which are nice but don't place? > Since the points and comments are going to be public it could be define the > exact place of each entry in the contest and put it behind the points and > comments for each one. > > Jose > > ------------------ > To unsubscribe from this list, e-mail majordomo@aquatic-gardeners.org > with "unsubscribe aga-contest" in the body of the message. > To subscribe to the digest version, add "subscribe aga-contest-digest" > in the same message. > Old messages are available at http://lists.thekrib.com/aga-contest > > ------------------------------ > > End of AGA CONTEST - Digest V1 #158 > *********************************** ------------------ To unsubscribe from this list, e-mail majordomo@aquatic-gardeners.org with "unsubscribe aga-contest" in the body of the message. To subscribe to the digest version, add "subscribe aga-contest-digest" in the same message. Old messages are available at http://lists.thekrib.com/aga-contest