sootyunicorn

I have a very tired mathematician here. He just said, "It's art! Of course people are gonna be snooty, backstabby and horrible." Which made me laugh. But he also pointed out that, according to Arrow's Impossibility Theorem, there is no perfect voting system with more than two candidates. He has a couple of ideas for a voting system, which differ depending on whether the goal is to catch the blitzers or to simply have as fair a system as possible with the assumption that blitzers will always exist.

I'd go with the latter. However, no one is going to like his idea, and he said that I might be banished from the site for even suggesting it. I'll give it a chance, though. It's actually a variation on one of anotheronism's ideas.

It's a vote/no vote system, and each drawing has 28 days (it doesn't have to be 28) to gather votes. A picture drawn on December 14, for example, collects votes for 18 days in December and 10 days in January. The last voting day for that picture is in January, so it's eligible for January's top 5. A picture drawn on January 1 collects votes through January 28, and is also eligible for January's top 5.

There it is. Banish me if you must!

Soda

If we don't have a rolling system... that would be more fair...(somewhat rolling... and somewhat not...)

Though I believe I would still want ratings as well...

candr

Thumbs up from me for sootyunicorn's idea.

Only difference -- don't get rid of rating system, just change what top-5 is based on. When you rate, have an additional box to check if you think it's top 5 material.

The best of both worlds and it takes the wind out of the sail of the blitzers.

Dragon

I think sootyunicorn's idea is the ideal and it can still be used with either a vote/no vote system or with a system which adds the votes up instead of averaging them. If the votes were added a 1 vote actually helps rather than hurts you. This is a great method!

sootyunicorn

I think candr's variation is perfect. The same rating system would apply, with the addition of a vote/no vote option. It could work!

Luna

I like Dragons idea of adding instead of averaging. (with apologies if some one else said it first.

Dragon

I'm not sure who thought of the adding ratings first. It seems like the best way to go though. Taking from sootyunicorn's idea, you would add all the ratings that your pic got its first 30 days. That way everyone has the same # of days to add up so it's fair.

yahoo

Sounds like they are going to use a weighted system for the next Top 5. I don't so much like the idea giving each picture 30 days because I reckon you would have to wait till the end of March before seeing the February Top 5.

matthew

...No, that would be March's top 5...

...It would include mostly pics made in February...

...But for God's sake it would be fair...

DMarla

I agree with what Matthew said; I am fine as long as we are being heard and something is being done. I am glad for all the people working on finding the right formula that will work. Thank you.

Diane

Eekie

I like Mug Shot's idea of points.

A rating of 4, 5, and 5 would score 14 instead of 4.67. It'll create alot more scoring space instead of packing everything into 5 stars. Someone voting down a profoundly high scoring picture will hardly phase it at all.

Dragon

Actually, with an add totals method of voting you couldn't 'Vote down' a picture. even a 1 vote to add to your total and help your score.

Eekie

I was relating to a measurement like distance, which was quite vague now that I think about it. A 1 can strain the final score. You could vote down, since 1 in this case doesn't elevate like 5.

MugDots2

I looked up: average, mean, median, mode ... and I'd like to share. First a little bit of humor on the difference between "average" and "mean." (I copied this from an online forum.)

If you take the last cookie because you know I've already had quite
enough of them today, that's average. If you take the last cookie when
you know I'm trying to go down to the break room, but I'm on the phone
troubleshooting a printer at the President's house, that's mean.

MugDots2

I took excerpts from mathforum.org for the info below.

<BEGIN EXCERPT>

The scores are: 100, 78, 93, 84, 91, 100, 82, 79.

The mean of the scores is another name for their average. Just add
them up and divide by the number of scores:

mean = (100+78+93+84+91+100+82+79)/8
= 88.375

The median of the scores is "the number in the middle" when the scores
are sorted in order. In your example:

100 100 93 91 84 82 79 78

If there is an even number of scores (as in your example) there is no
number in the middle so the two numbers in the middle are averaged:

median = (91 + 84)/2 = 87.5

The mode of a set of numbers is the number that occurs most often.
In your example:

mode = 100

<END EXCERPT>

It appears to me we need Top 5 to be determined by mode (Mode will usually be 5 on Think Draw on the best pics) and then by number of votes. Probably would achieve the same results if the averages (means) were rounded to the nearest whole number and then number of votes secondary.

I know it's been said that if you use # of votes as part of the ranking system, it isn't fair to the drawings that were turned in near the end of the qualifying time period, but if you wait a week or 2 before determining the Top 5, it should work out pretty fairly. I've noticed most votes a drawing is going to get are received pretty quickly, and then a few more trickle in over time.

I imagine all of this has been said before in all these posts on the topic, but I've been meaning to look up the methods for myself and I just got around to it.

matthew

...I think I have disproved the "Fairness to the pic done near the end of the month" claim...

...Here is a drawing I did February 27th @ 9:30pm... It had 28 Votes by midnight on the 28th... It now has 30 votes of 5... But if I submited on the 1st of the month, it probably wouldn't be in the running for top 5 due to it having an entire month to receive a 4 vote or less... One vote of 4 is now death to a picture...

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=27784

...So I ask you... How is most votes being unfair to a picture done at the end of the month?...

Qsilv

nodnod.... Mugdots and Matthew both make a good point. Most of the votes garnered are in the first two days. It's not a bell-curve at all.

For some reason, the VETO-votes tend to happen a bit later.

Probably kids who feeeeel the neeeeed for power --or, yes, could be some self-righteous sorts-- not really interested 'til it's clearly a strong winner.

Luna

Three of my four pictures in "Animals" that had "5" ratings (4 of the top 10)
just got dumped, including the Lion and Lamb. All at the same time. I don't know if this happened to other people in other catagories. I do know that the rest of "Animals" stayed the same.
Depressing.

matthew

...That should piss you off...

...Grahame's & Puzzler's were much further down... I think more than just yours were just voted down...

...Looks like the other catergories stayed the same...

...Been there...

...Welcome to Think Draw...

Luna

It did.
Actualy Grahame's and Puzzler's were right after mind, but I don't think they would do that.