Re: [AGA Contest] comments from Karen

["S. Hieber" <shieber@yahoo.com>]

We really shouldn't be fooled by the math. Judging isn't
just subjective in the old philosophical sense, it's
emotional, personal, and common objective "standards" all
mixed together.

It's not a lotery but it's not the number of beans in a
fishbowl either.

The math helps us sort things out a bit but it doesn't give
*the* answer. Because the question, "Which is best?", has
more than one good answer and even math can come up more
than one result -- infact, it darn well better if it has
any applicability to reality!

Complicating the math generally doesn't make the judging 
more precise, it just makes things more mathematcially
complicated and apparently more precise -- the false
precision of "quantitative analysis" overlaid on
qualitative judgements. 

I thought at first few folks, if any, gave two hoots about
the math, which matters -- but not nearly as much
categories, who judges, etc. Now, because of the questions
it might raise, Erik wonders if the method should be
described fully on the web page. I guess fokls do care
about the math when they think about the subjectivity
involved. I was too  cynical.

I say pick a method and state it and take your lumps with
having done that. "This is the contest we picked and this
is how we decided to do it." Don't hide it in the Bushes. I
don't think it will make a big change in the number of
entries either way. I just think it's the right thing to
do. And if it does generate a lot of discussion -- well,
the only thing worse than a contest that everyone is
"talking" about is a contest that . . . . . 
 
Apologies to Oscar ;-)

After all, it's not as if it's not one heck of good
contest.

sh

=====
-  -   -   -   -   -   -   -
She Wrote the book on low maintenance aquatic gardening!
Diana Walstad, author of _Ecology of the Planted Aquarium_
Meet her at  - The Fifth AGA Annual Convention
Details & Registration at www.aquatic-gardeners.org & www.gwapa.org


        
                
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Friends.  Fun.  Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger.
http://messenger.yahoo.com/ 
  ------------------
  To unsubscribe from this list, e-mail majordomo@thekrib.com
  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
  When asked, log in as username is "aga-contest", and password "second".