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POTM voting

  • Thread starter mass
  • Start date
I know this month's "hostilities" are going in a few different directions, but this is the only thing we can change.
Just out of my own curiosity, wondering what everyone thinks.. now.
Yes, we've already voted on this, but amuse me.
Rather than having 20 questions for you to answer, here's just 1.

Would you rather have a fair public TF poll, or a private POTM voting site that people can screw with?

Accept the things we cannot change, and have the courage to change the things that we can.
I'm not scared to ask the obvious. How else is anything going to change around here?
 
Why don't we do a TF poll to choose if we should do a TF poll for POTM :p. I agree though, I think we should use the TF poll.
 
It then begs the question: If people are gonna get uppity, complain, get upset over such things, why have them to begin with if people are not going to be mature and take it with a grain of salt?
 
are you referring to me needing to grow up and take this with a grain of salt?
 
Everyone just needs to calm down. mass your truncata veitchii is gorgeous btw.
Anyway, it seems like many of the veteran members at least they are veteran from my standpoint, prefer the way it is now? Correct me if i'm wrong. And the newbies and younger members want to use TF polls? My personal vote is just use the TF poll. As far as all the bickering I say calm down and act like adults (if you are one) and if not try and at least see both sides of the argument before rushing in with your comment (helps keep out the drama). As for the pitcher of the month, I have seen comments by other members like its seems like this is more 'Hamata of the Month', 'Jamba of the Month', 'Villosa of the month', 'Super Rare Expensive Nep of the month', etc. and I tend to agree. Now whether this is because the voting results were skewed or not doesn't really matter to me. I just think that the TF poll will help with the alleged problems. As for the plants like villosa, hamata, and jamban, and the other rare nepenthes that seem to always win over the more common nepenthes I think that is fair. Not all of us can afford the setups to grow such expensive plants and even if we can afford the setups you might not want to risk buying such expensive plants. That is what deters me the most from trying to grow ultrahighlanders, if I kill it there goes $2-500 :p Anyway, for those that are able to grow them I feel that they have the right to show them off and be proud of growing such hard to grow plants. I just think that it would be nice if they gave the rest of us poor folk a chance to win every now and again :D However, they have every right to be proud of their plant and every right to enter it into the competition.
Long story short, I think we should change the voting system to a TF poll and hopefully people will vote for something aside from the amazing super rare neps that only a few of us are priveleged enough to have.
 
Yeah.. I know Warren. As I stated in my first post..
But it's obvious that nothing is changing for the better around here.
Hell, I've got an "anonymous" TF member sending me hate mail gloating about how he get's away with tampering with the votes just to screw me.

If everyone is okay with random people tampering with the voting system, then by all means.. proceed without me.
 
In my long history with horticulture pursuits, I have seen it happen again and again: no matter what group of people is showing off their favorite plants of whatever genus, the very second it is turned into a "contest", people become aggressive, goal-oriented, prize hungry and just plain rude to one another. Any time you have "winners", that means there have to be "losers" too, and that is a shame because lets face it, everyone who submits a photo of their beloved plant does so because they love the plant and are taking pride in having grown it with skill and care. Nobody wants to find out they've been voted into the bottom 3 on a list of fifteen or twenty entries.

IMO making it a "contest" is a poor choice. Simply presenting our plants as a monthly "gallery of skill and beauty" means nobody gets their feelings trampled, nobody feels they have to reach for a coveted prize of popular appreciation. But having been involved in plant societies numerous times, I know for a fact that such an option will be rejected flatly and without serious consideration; people like to win, period.
 
i like the idea of the monthly gallery of everyones favorite plant. (NICE Thought Whimgrinder). no more voting people out so to speak.
Since this would not be a contest, maybe we all could just enjoy each others pictures, each of us would put up just one or two pictures at most, of any plant you like, in any given month, and no gallery or hall of winners thread, it would keep all of us nice, i do enjoy looking at all cp's not just neps. and i do like showing mine too.
i like this debate , it makes me think of things i havent thought of in the past, it would be hard to loose all the time, and i want to see how the newer growers are doing too, as I am one of the newer growers of cp's
 
  • #10
I've never been involved with the voting and have no idea how it works. But is there a way to show only the top three, or number of votes, oe whatever so folks know who won the contest but no one is singles out as a loser?
 
  • #11
What it all comes down to, for me, is a legit voting system.
I don't care about losing.. as long as it's a legitimate loss.
But when someone gloats about tampering with the voting system to ensure I lose, I mean.. come on.
Why even keep it?
It affects everyone that's entered, because THEY AREN'T LEGIT VOTES!! Why is that so hard to understand?
Because you aren't directly affected, got it.

I already started that thread Paul.. Pic of the Day.
You enter your killer pics quite often.
And you can't tell me that's not the most laid back public pic thread ever.
 
  • #12
What about removing usernames from voting? Pictures could be emailed or sent through a pm. The person receiving the pics could put them in a thread for voting. Each picture would be labeled with only a plant name. After voting, the usernames of the top three pictures could be announced (or not).
 
  • #13
@dueoka: in theory, i would totally agree. great idea...problem is, i think the older members would easily be able to connect each user to their photos because of a distinct style each member has. for example, it would be very easy for me to figure out photos belonging to brie, whimgrinder, mass, brokken, pygo, kulamaui, and jharris.
 
  • #14
Well, I sure have missed a lot. My opinion: I think we should do the poll on TF. Mass: If true, then that must explain why your beautiful truncata X veitchii (I believe... was certainly a veitchii cross) got dead last several months ago. Seems pretty fishy to me. The only thing that should be judged here is the beauty of the specimen and the opinions on it by that certain voting individual, not the opinions of the person who entered it, which seems to me why this "anonymous" person is gloating about messing with the voting system. Still, it seems too risky to vote for it not on TF.

@ dueoka great idea, but I think people will still recognize the plants/growing habitats of the owners.

Edit: Paul, I really like your idea with the gallery where everyone could enter to show their pitchers of the month. One possible addition could be making a gallery hall of fame where everyone's pictures would be put, so everyone would be a winner :). Still, I think both ideas will be flat out rejected because like you said, people do like to win.
 
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  • #15
Just thought of that after I posted. Things like the hue of the photo, style and background could easily discern the different members. Also, some people post their entry in their own pic thread.
 
  • #16
I only see 2 possible solutions to this problem.

1. We switch to a TF poll voting system. Gravy..
2. I quit participating all together. Thus eliminating a reason for this punk "Anonymous" to sway the votes.

Or does it? ???
Even if I no longer enter, who's to say the votes aren't still being tampered with?

Why am I the only person that sees tampered voting as a big deal?
Why would anyone even want to participate in that kind of contest?
Doesn't matter what the top 3 are, if it wasn't really earned.
 
  • #17
Couldn't agree with you more, Mass. I agree with the whole TF poll system as well, that would be fair and get rid of the tampering within the voting system, which completely takes away from the entire idea of having a contest worth winning in the first place if certain members will always be put down and others will be voted multiple times, no matter who has the better plant. And as far as the Anonymous person goes, that's seriously pretty immature and stupid of him/her to say that and change the votes. It takes away from the entire community as well as the contest to purposely alter the standings. What's the point of anyone entering the contest if one person can singlehandedly decide which plants finish in the top 3?
 
  • #18
"Why am I the only person that sees tampered voting as a big deal? "

You're not. I'm guessing folks have avoided the subject because its a touchy issue and once we open it up for discussion, its likely to get nasty. I suspect a lot of people don't want to admit its a corrupted process. I've already expressed my opinion on the entire "contest" approach and I think it tends to bring out the worst in people, not the best. If winning a prize, even an imaginary one, is what it takes to get people to take a decent picture of a treasured plant and display it here, then I think that is immediately the wrong reason, and the wrong motivation. But that's just my opinion. It really doesn't matter to me what happens, because I generally don't even LOOK at the voting results. I enjoy seeing what people grow and the nice photos they take, and that's all I want out of it.
 
  • #19
i've suspected that i've been a victim of one of these voting schemes or whatever you chose to call them, though I never really went out of my way to figure out who was doing it. i recall losing twice in the voting statistics: my falconeri vs a light deprived capensis. i thought it only happened to me, so i thought nothing else of it, had i known it happened to others, i would have probably mentioned it way earlier.

sure it's easy to cry foul, but it's also good to remember that there really is nothing at stake in these competitions. we arent competing for a prize, and having a fun, carefree perspective on the whole thing helps deal with the trolls a lot. if we were to make this a serious competition with things like money and plant prizes involved, it would definitely be worth trying to find ways to ensure accurate counting of votes, but when it's just brownie points...what's the big deal of making much out of nothing?
 
  • #20
I say if making the voting system tamperproof is possible, why not just do it and stop debating? I find it rediculous that such an easy fix hasn't been made.....logic dictates that if there is a problem with something...you fix it. :scratch:
 
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