Here is our feedback regarding the contest voting...
It was a wonderful experience hosting this kolam contest and I would like to thank you for sharing your art with all of us.
For ikolam, each entry is a winner the moment it went up on the "display board". In a day or two, all of the entries should get settled in their respective folders in the gallery section.
We also feel that the voting has been a fair and an unfair one for the following reasons:
In our opinion, it was a fair voting because the public got a chance to vote - the participants as well as the members of ikolam. Members had sufficient time to vote, the voting poll was up for 3 days which should have been enough to cover all time zones.
It was not a 100% fair voting because not all voters voted for all the entries. As a result, the number of votes that each entry ended up with is different. Some received 60 votes or more, whereas, others received half of that or even less. There were few people who had voted for all the entries. We had 43 entries, and everyone's entries were displayed in the contest-voting page.
In the future, we might consider having a few judges or conducting this contest in two phases. We're open for members' suggestions and feedback to implement a better voting system. So, please "talk" to me 
Comments
jkmrao
Fri, 2009-01-23 17:23
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Lataji and other fellow members, namastE /\
Congratulations to all the actual winners. Congratulations also
go to all those who participated and to all those who judged. I
am a new entrant to this group and I have been active for only
the last three months. So I am a bit timid and still I am placing
my observations which incidenatally coincide with some
expressed by Srimati Lata.
Let me further add that I am not making these comments because I
did not win a place. In fact, Lataji was kind enough to allow
my entry. It does not qualify. I did NOT draw with kOlappoDi.
I drew on paper, scanned it and took its negative so that the
dark lines become white and give an appearance of kOlappoDi.
I also know how to make it look as if it is drawn with rice flour!
But the idea was mine and original, not based on any pattern
or motif. Participation itself, that too with gifted young
people is a joy for me.
(1) Most of the entries are in colour and among the winners only
one is "white". In the future, may be there must be one contest
only with poDi without any colour. Thus the field may be even
for all. Similarly there may be one for people who cannot use
kOlappODi and can use only paper or computer. Let us not forget
that new designs can be created only by trial and experiment on
paper.
(2) I don't know exactly how many members are there in this group.
While some of the entries are indeed
My guess is 100 to 200, out of which at least 64 have voted. The
voting distribution is VERY uneven. Why is the minimum number only
less than 20? Does that mean people did not look at all the other
entries and went only by the attractiveness of the thumbnails? Or
did they think the entries are so bad they passed them up? That
means several of the entries got ZERO votes. That IS quite unfair.
For the time and effort expended every entry deserves at least one
vote. In our days (in the 1950s), if we write the question paper
exactly in Hindi (without any answers) in Madras, they used to
give 35% (pass mark
attractive, it does not mean that the entries with least votes are
unattractive and they do not deserve at least a vote or two.
(3) I do not know the formula used for arriving at the score. My
feeling is the points got by each entry must be divided by the
number of voters. then this type of anomaly may not occur. Then
it does not matter what the number of votes is. This is like how
the averages are computed in cricket.
Once again wishing the winners and all others my hearty
congratulations,
with kind regards, sincerely, mOhana
Lata
Mon, 2009-01-26 16:54
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mOhanaji,
Thanks for your elaborate feedback. It really helps me to improve the
system in the future.
The voting system is based on a weighted score. The final score is a
product of the number of votes and number of stars that each vote got. It
would be ideal, if all the participants got the same no of votes. That
way, the no of stars would help differentiate. The reality is that
only very few members took the time to vote for all the entries. Often
times, any given member would have voted for only a handful of kolams.
I can only guess as to why it is so. May be it is lack of time,
interest or both. That is one of the reasons we shuffle the order of
display, to give all the entries a fair chance. Even the participants
did not vote for all the entries, that is a real pity (only 7 out of 43
participants had voted for all entries).
iKolam has an active member base that is reaching 15000. From the
numbers, you could easily infer that less than 1% of the member base
actually took part in the voting process. I hope the voting widget
that we had used was prominent enough. During the voting days, we did
see a large hike in traffic. That means that a lot of members *did*
see the entries. But did not vote.
That brings me to another point. The majority of the ikolam members
are silent visitors. I wish there was a way I could force all members
to comment/vote. But that would only turn them away. I have seen that
approach taken by others and it normally backfires. I do actively
promote the contest through emails and newsletters. This is the 3rd
contest that I have run so far. The amount of participation as well as
the number of members who have visited and voted for the entries has
been growing. So, this does give me some hope for the future.
I am thinking about different ways to improve the system. One way
might be to conduct the contest in two stages. The first stage could
be evaluated by a panel of judges and the second stage by open voting.
This would limit the no of entries that make it to the second stage
and hence might get more attention from the members.
Thank you for your feedback mOhanaji...it helps--a lot!!
rajamma_2
Wed, 2009-01-28 01:45
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Lata and mOhana, Thanks for openly sharing.yes participation is more important than winning a prize.It applies to all the field.
The judging was left to the members who have no time to see all the entries and vote. Moreover the rules Lataji put for this contest were "dotted kolam with lines drawn around the dots or connecting the dots and usage of color optional".Her intention was to revive dotted kolamswith minimum use of colors, which are fading away."But the entries received were mostly RANGOLIS.Anyday an elegant cotton saree cannot be compared infront of a colorful silk saree with zari work.Sothe judges were attracted only by the colors.So the prize winning rangolis are.... each and everyone of them....
excellent.But without color can they stay infront of the " white Ganesha"?
So Lata, either the judges should follow the rules or the participant. Or you should arrange special judges to select the entries. or keep sepeate contest for colored rangoli and dotted white kolams.
Open comments are welcome.
Lata
Wed, 2009-01-28 11:49
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Rajammma ma'am,I was looking forward to your comments. I agree with all of your observations. I'd thought about various possibilities before making the announcement for this Margazhi contest (our 1st one), and to be honest with you, got overwhelmed by all the different factors that need to be considered
Here's a little tidbit about me - I've never seen my mom and my grandma wear colorful silk sarees. But, both enjoy wearing the same cotton sarees with a brown border on Fridays...and that is only color these two women continue to use even today besides white. On the other hand, my sister and I like to wear silk sarees once in a while
And, my girls not only dress in silk pavadais, but they feel the need to accessorize in glittery-add ons just for attending the weekend sunday school, this is color overkill, don't you think?
I can assure you that we'll definitely consider your suggestions for the next contest.
Thank you so much!
jkmrao
Wed, 2009-01-28 13:03
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namastE /\ lataji and rAjammAji,
I thought about judging for sometime and how in this busy world,
except for a few interested people or for people who do not consider
time as money (:-), it is difficult for others to go through all
entries. Therefore we can get a panel of judges, say 50 or 100
or any suitable number. The job of each person is to judge just
ten entries. In this way, every entry will be judged by the same
number of people, say, ten. The total score is just divided by ten.
For example, for this context 43 judges would be necessary. But
we had more than that number, viz., 64. Is it not?
This is what is normally done in science fair and such other contests
(three to five judges for these affairs). It may not be difficult
to get volunteers who may be willing to judge just ten entries.
I request others to give their feedback on this proposal.
Regards! - mOhana
Lata
Wed, 2009-01-28 15:54
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mOhanaji,
Initially, we did give getting a panel of judges a thought, but then, we really felt like letting the public vote...and so went ahead. Maybe this is the best time to let you know that, I wouldn’t have hesitated to contact you or Rajamma ma’am (along with some of the other members who've been with us for the past 3 yrs) if we were leaning towards the option of looking for judges. But I wasn't going to trouble you with that question just yet. I would've waited for the next contest
And of course, we look forward to more suggestions as well.