Re: [AGA Contest] next year suggestions

["Roger Miller" <roger@spinn.net>]

On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 11:39:03 -0800 (PST), Erik Olson wrote
> >From the TAOPA list.  I agree about the "show the judges' tanks"  
> suggestion, but not about "only 3 judges".  In my experience, 3 
> judges can differ SO wildly that the awards seem almost random 
> sometimes.  For instance, when the first three judges reported in, 
> the 2nd place award for the Biotope tank would have been given to 
> the tank that wasn't a biotope at all.  At least with five, one 
> person with a different idea would be averaged out.

I agree with Erik on the size of the judging panel.  I was part of the
3-person panel that judged the 2002 contest and generally I think things would
have gone a little more smoothly with a larger panel.  Our personal
differences over style are very large and those differences can lead to
surprising results.

Personally, I would like to see a change in the way scores are tallied so that
a decision to place an entry first, second or third carries more weight than a
decision to place an entry eighth, ninth or tenth.

Now I think the ranks are totalled or averaged -- it's the same effect either
way.  If an entry is ranked 1st by one judge, 2nd by another judge and 10th by
a third judge then that entry may end up entirely out of the medals.  That
seems a tad arbitrary, particularly since a judge may not be very careful
about grading out an aquascape that he or she clearly doesn't like very much.

Combining the scores with an harmonic mean is one alternative.  The harmonic
mean gives weight to the entries that the judges spend the most time on -- the
ones they will give the best ranking -- and does so without discarding any
scores.  There may be others methods.


Roger Miller
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