h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The last couple of days I've been mulling whether to throw this into debate.... Having decided to speak out, I am surprised how strongly I feel about the issue. I'm questioning whether to continue my involvement...

Why are the organisers marking the contributions numerically?

As I understand it, the concept is that hootooers will vote whether they want a contributer to continue or not, so what value is a mark out of 10 from the three of you?

In my view, a number is meaningless and misleading. It can only convey an individual organiser's measure of like or dislike of a piece of writing (as I've expressed previously, it cannot be right or wrong because this is an artistic endeavour).

What is the purpose of a number? What benefit to either the voter or the contributor does it provide? I see it as the wrong way to measure what we're doing: and it perpetuates the view that their is right and wrong, good and bad in this sort of effort.

And going on from that, what is the purpose of a league table? It tells us that the three of you liked one contribution more than another. So what? Is that the purpose of this ... to please the organisers?

If you were the arbiters of who stays and who goes, then fair enough... give us a chance to write stuff that you like. But that's not the case, is it?

Surely your words convey your opinion of each piece of writing? the words you have offered are excellent and help to highlight things that you like. Should that not be sufficient to enable the voters to draw their own conclusion about what they like and don't like each time?

If I continue in the Stretcher I will certainly not be refering to the comments at all from hereonin, because it is inevitable that I will also see the numbered scores, which I consider an unjust measure of our efforts.

Fb

Skanky has some spreadsheet that combines votes from the public with the judges marks - I'll see if I can find where that was mentioned.

F12238019?thread=6228548&skip=60&show=20

Not sure if that answers your query though!

It was stated quite clearly in the original Post article on The Stretcher:

"Every issue, our team of judges will set our writers a writing challenge. They will score the resulting pieces out of ten and come up with a leaderboard of the work they consider to be the best (and, of course, the worst)."

Yes, it is entirely subjective on the part of the judges, but I signed up knowing full well that was the case. Part of the challenge for me is knowing that there's always the danger of reading "what a load of old cobblers - 1/10" in response to a piece I submit. The judges have their opinions but, the more people that vote, the less sway the judges' scoring has. Witness the recent John Sargeant debacle on 'Strictly Come Dancing', the show that was the inspiration for The Stretcher (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7737447.stm if you're not familiar with British Saturday night television!)

I missed that bit of the original Post article, Danny. Thanks for pointing it out to me.

It doesn't solve my dilemma, but it does make it purely my own...

Fb

Always read the small print before you sign

Mea culpa

Danny's right, Fb.
The judges contribute half the final score, so those numbers are 50% significant. The scoring system was borrowed from the Strictly Come Dancing one.
Did you see 'Strictly' in your Northern Hemisphere days? (Though ironically enough the 'Strictly' handle is itself borrowed off an Aussie film)
Anyway, please don't let the judges' contribution put you off. You've made a fine start (in fact everyone has). And the judges are all very reasonable types who wouldn't say cobblers to anyone, except possibly each other.

Strictly come dancing means nothing to me, but I assume there was some kind of a hooha over the voting. No need to explain: I take your words for it.

Fb

'The judges contribute half the final score, so those numbers are 50% significant.'

That's not quite true. Our scores are fairly insignificant, in fact, and in a good voting week would serve only to split places. One vote from a member of the public would cover our top-to-bottom spread with anything up to 16 voters. This means that one vote from any Researcher is worth more than all the judges' votes put together.

If you don't like the scores, or the judges' opinions, the best thing to do is just vote against us. Unless we get a huge vote, the public will overrule us. Sound familiar?

I must have started this thread, mustn't I?

I have only the haziest of memories of it though... Presumably the bugs which took over my body about 24 hours later were already coursing through my brain...

Anyhoo... I missed any chance of submitting anything this time thanks to said bugs.

Am I disqualified?


Fb

See F12361971?thread=6253613&skip=20&show=20#p75117674 and the messages of support that follow. If you want a few days to get something together, they're yours