Winners and losers!
The winner in the imehndi contest deserves congratulations for following all the rules
strictly and legally.
The results of this contest will certainly raise a red flag for any statistician. I heard terms like voter drive only in the political arena. I never thought I will see that in a contest like this. Last year itself, in the ikOlam contest, I observed it, but then ikOlam has a larger number of contestants and so it is a bit difficult to observe it and still more difficult to prove it. But in this imehndi contest it seems obvious. I always wonder what goes through the minds of people who have time only to vote for their friend and to no one else. Like the Roman emperor Nero, I have tears of joy in one eye and tears of sorrow in another.
As one of the members remarked there is a danger of discouraged people shunning this forum in the future unless urgent steps are taken to revamp the rules. But there is good news for the contestants. As past winners are not permitted to enter, the playing field will be level and even the next time.
Regards! - mOhana
sudhabalakrishnan
Mon, 2010-11-29 06:15
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JKM Sir, Thanks for your wishes. For a contestant participation is important than to be a winner. We are really fortunate to have such a artistic site which Lata, has brought us all together. As you said i agree with your comments given for the rangoli contest. We are sharing all our views with legends like yourself, rajamma maam, jaya maam, and many others which gives us strong base to improve in our kolams . Everyone should take it in a positive approach even though he or she is a loser.
brijeshmihika
Mon, 2010-11-29 06:50
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It is not a matter of being the winner and loser.I was not even a participant for the imehendi contest.The results should not matter to me by any means.Still i feel strongly for some people whose entries were better than the rest.We do not need an expert to say something is wrong somewhere in the result.A lay man like me can see the huge difference.
Lata is right when she says that she has been running these sites successfully and she cannot please everybody.Perhaps as an administrator she has a lot to do.
I suggested both of these sites to a lot of friends but the results now will make me think twice before suggesting it to more in the future.It is alright though.The sites will grow through the coming years and my all the best wishes to them.It perhaps doesn't need people like me who will speak if they feel there has been injustice.
All the best and good wishes for the future.
Mihika
jkmrao
Mon, 2010-11-29 07:31
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Let us be clear about one thing. latAjI is beyond reproach here. Out of their shared love for rangOlis and henna patterns, they created these sites. Certainly, as seen in the growth of members, people have responded. They formulated certain rules for the contests. The contestants must abide by the same when they enter the contest. They really don't care whether Ms X or Ms Y wins the contest. Ms X and Ms Y are only names to them and they have no interest in them. They will award the prizes to the eventual winner. Our duty, as members, is not only to applaud the winners, but also to point out flaws in the system so as to improve. I am one of those who am giving
suggestions in this regard, though unsuccessful in convincing. As for the IM site, I very rarely visit it as my acquaintance with henna is very little. I made the above observations as statistically these results are skewed. My thesis was, and is, that the number of votes must not be a criterion as it is beyond the contestants' ability to attract visitors and voters. It is always possible that person A has a large circle of friends who vote for her and person B, a loner or a person settled abroad, may not have many. In this case, other things being equal we are penalising B. I am also not happy with people voting only for their friends and relatives. Unfortunately, there is nothing in the rules preventing this. It is legal, but is it ethical, GOK. It is like searching loopholes for taking tax deductions legally
Regards! - mOhana
Lata
Mon, 2010-11-29 08:21
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Oh my! Look at the party! Let me get my drink, and I'll join you all soon. :0
jaanu
Mon, 2010-11-29 18:20
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OMG , atleast some pleople got me. I have a huge set of mehndi designs of my art, i know am good at mehndi designing than the kolams. I felt happy when lata brought this IM .. I thought of uploading them in IM.
You people really do a great designs of kolams which i cant
so i thought i can overcome this with my mehndi designing. But the contest has depressed me.
Ofcourse still my Ik gallery has some good mehndi pics too. So i thought i would get some encouragement from you people. All of you are elder to me.. you people know the things better than me, so i just asked admin to redesign the voting system. Where in that process, my designs were removed
[some misuderstandings]
You must have seen me in IK , i used to comment on others kolams and even my kolams were commented . By seeing this. i thought we get appreciations for the art, but this contest has disapproved this.
Anyways am happy when my friends and family members appreciate my designs. Thought of sharing that happiness with you. Thats it !!
You elders should decide. Am just a kid. As i have right to speak , i have expressed my feelings. Hope nothing wrong in this.
Lata
Mon, 2010-11-29 18:46
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Mohanaji,
We don't get discouraged by just one person's remark about people shunning this forum in the future (and that too from a new member who has not seen this site grow from its first couple of years). If that were the case, we wouldn't have had participants for the subsequent contests after our first one, and also, we would've seen a decrease in the number of new users as well.
And I would like to remind that our first winner and the runner up in our second contest were both NOT from India (Australia and Africa respectively). What's more interesting is the fact that these two members didn't even vote for themselves, and yet the general populace chose their entries as winning entries. This proves that the entries speak for themselves, no matter where it came from, and no matter how many friends and members vote on the entries. As far as iKolam is concerned, what's more surprising is also the fact that no one thought of our winning entries as undeserving in ANY of the contests that we have run so far. This again proves that the current voting system does work and does a decent job of pin-pointing the best one out.
The weighted score method tends to even out the score and hence give the appearance of fairness, but we are not sure whether it would provide better results than the current ones. The weighted scores that we posted for the recently concluded contests further proves this point.
jayamohan
Mon, 2010-11-29 21:32
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Only when the voting system is criticized it is a perfect democracy!
Dr.Rekha Shetty
Mon, 2010-11-29 23:33
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Though I have also commented on voting system, I agree with the statement of sudhabalakrishnan mam" for a contestant participation is important than to be a winner”. I thank you lataji for giving a platform to us to showcase our creativity .Once again thank you ikolam.com
Dr.Rekha Shetty
Tue, 2010-11-30 00:39
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CiaoLata,
I wanted to know what is this golu and marapachi?
admin
Tue, 2010-11-30 10:50
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Information about Golu (arrangement of dolls on steps during Navrathri), can be found here:
http://www.ikolam.com/node/16124
Information regarding Marapachi (antique wooden dolls displayed in Golu) can be found here:
http://www.ikolam.com/node/16129