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Reflections on Online Poll Ethics (Wika2007)

August 21, 2007

(Please bear in mind that I will be brutally honest)

Filipinayzd wrote:

The winners of the contest shall be the entries with the highest scores. Fifty percent of an entry’s score shall come from votes from PBS, and the other fifty percent shall be from the panel of judges.

Ang daling makuha ang 50% sa Wika 2007. Kailangan lang gumawa ng maraming accounts sa Pintig Blogosphere at iboto ang sariling entry.

I also had my reservations in joining Wika2007 because I felt that quality (judges’ decision) has the same weight as quantity (online votes). This reminded me of last year’s Metro Manila Film Fest Controversy where Enteng Kabisote surprisingly bagged the Best Picture award, beating the multi-awarded Kasal Kasali Kasalo, partly because 40% depended on box office receipts at the time of the awards. (No offense to Vic Sotto fans! I’m just questioning the MMFF)

But I joined anyway because it’s a great way of spreading good ideas. I suppose all Wika2007 entries contain good ideas.

I’m not saying that the online voters are dumb, I’m just saying that the voting system is not perfect.

Yesterday noon I checked the voting site to see how the voting is going and to read entries with HIGHER VOTES – this is simply because I don’t have time to read everything so I might as well read what many people think are the better ones!

Then I read this comment from one of the entries with the higher votes:

I don’t think this is as good as what those supposedly “25 votes” imply. Sorry, you don’t get mine.

So I was a bit disappointed because online voting’s very tricky. And I was quite saddened that I only have a few votes. (Pasensya na, tao lang!) I regret this now, but I even voted for myself. (I voted for several entries anyway)

My resolution: I will not look at the number of votes at the voting site anymore to avoid frustrations, I will just read the contest entries from the links at the pinoyblogosphere site.

Back to the topic: Malay ba natin kung nag-invent lang sila ng user names, as Filipinayzd said. Malay ba natin kung madami lang silang friends? Friends na matiyagang mag-online registration! But they deserve the benefit of a doubt: what if those friends sincerely believed in their friend’s blog entry?

And so I told my family about the contest I just joined, and my siblings hurried to the computer to register and vote for me. Sweet, eh?

Then came midnight when I read the interesting exchange of comments. dYu wrote:

“our numerator will be the number of votes (or users who voted) for a particular entry… minus the DUPLICATE IP addresses (if any).”

So naisip ko lang, “Patay!” Even if we’re 8 in the family with 3 computers, we all have the same IP Address because we’re all on the same wi-fi connection.

Paano yun? Eh kanina lang din sa country club mentioned this to my friends, and 2 or 3 them voted right then and there using the Club’s computer. Same IP Address na naman yan.

Okay, I’m laying my cards on the table: At around 11pm, my younger sister (who really loves me) said, “Ate, 50 ka na.” I was surprised and wanted to faint because I thought she created fake usernames! But no, she didn’t. Whew!
This is what she did: She told her classmates about it and asked them if they wanted to vote for me. Clever eh?  Actually, I didn’t get to check if there are really 50 votes there because I resolved nga not to look at my number of votes.
But then again, I wonder, was that ethical?

I do appreciate this effort but I doubt if those kids ever got to read my post. For one, my entry isn’t exactly for them, it’s for a mature audience because I didn’t just write a feel-good love your Pambansang Wika type of entry for Grade 7 students.

Sayang naman. I wrote my entry primarily so that it could be read, not so that I could win a contest. (But, yeah, I voted myself earlier out of impulse – hindi kasi nag-iisip) My secondary intention was to win (Diba nga I’ll be brutally honest? So inaamin ko I’m also here for the bonuses.)

Besides, I think my entry is actually a bit far out because I delve into sociolinguistics so it might not be so appealing. Despite the negatives, I gave it a shot because it’s a post that’s designed to make the readers think. So if there’s only one reader, then that means there’s one reader whom I hopefully got to think—what a loser, pero yehey!

Of course, I wrote a satirical post later in my multiply site telling my contacts to vote for me before reading my post! Hahaha. But that’s satire.

So what happens now? Will I be disqualified? Will the duplicate IP Addresses disregard the votes of my family, my friends, and my sister’s friends?

I’m just saying that there might be cheaters and there might be non-cheaters. Organizers better think twice before disregarding duplicate IP Addresses. It might not be family-friendly.

I posted this here instead of sending a private email because I felt that the comments in Filipinayzd’s post made this a public concern.

I bet it’s difficult to be in the shoes of the organizers.

What to do, what to do?
I thought that maybe you guys could send a confirmation email, but that would be unfair naman to the people who voted at that time simply because they have no other time to check access their email later on. They might not be as addicted to email like me.

My suggestion in the computation of online votes: Since there’s going to be a wide range of votes, kawawa naman yung nasa bottom. What if they’re really great posts with high judges’ scores yet low popularity rates? Pwede bang total number of contestants nalang yung denominator? Tapos based on ranking nalang yung numerator? If there are 50 contestants, the one with the highest number of votes gets 50, the 2nd highest gets 49, and so on.

This is the current computation according to dYu:

we will get the total number of users who voted for all the wika2007 entries. yes just those who voted for the wika2007 entries ;) and that would be our denominator.

our numerator will be the number of votes (or users who voted) for a particular entry… minus the DUPLICATE IP addresses (if any).

so if there are 1000 registered voters (without duplicate IPs of course) and let’s say participant Juan dela Cruz (JDC) gets 750 votes, JDC’s rating will be 750/1000 * 100 = 75%

and so 75% will be JDC’s rating for the Poll.

next we would combine the poll results with the result from the panel of judges and get the average.

if JDC gets 60% rating from the judges then we’ll compute JDC’s total rating as follows:

(PollRating + Judges’Rating) / 2 = FinalRating
(75% + 60%) / 2 = 67.5%

or

(50% of PollRating) + (50% of Judges’Rating) = FinalRating
75%/2 + 60%/2 = 67.5%

Kasi kung total number of votes:
Kunwari there are 1000 votes nga and you get 9 votes lang, so 9/1000 = 0.009 * 100 = 0.9%.

But if you have the number of contestants as the denominator for poll rating:
if there are 50 contestants and you get the lowest number of votes, your score is 1/50 = 0.02 * 100 = 2%. That’s a big difference din diba?

Anyway, I’m just thinking out loud. Perhaps the voting scheme is definite and irreplaceable already.

Judge me as you want, but I’m just coming out in the open. I’m scrutinizing and problematizing myself as an example of how complicated the voting system could be.*

It’s only day 2 and we still don’t know how this will end. I hope and pray that the deserving blog entries win.

(*In Clark and Ivanic’s Politics of Writing, they assert that there’s no such thing as unbiased writing. So I have no problem in admitting that I’m biased.)

Written by Frances · Filed Under Blogging, Wika2007 

Comments


13 Responses to “Reflections on Online Poll Ethics (Wika2007)”

  1. dYu on August 21st, 2007 8:33 am

    thanks so much for reflecting about this :) we (the wika2007 organizers) will be discussing about it and will keep you guys posted ASAP ;)

  2. dYu on August 23rd, 2007 3:44 am

    baka gusto nyo din mabasa yung iba pang posts about this. may listahan sa post na to: http://www.pinoyblogosphere.com/2007/08/22/maraming-reklamo-matatag-na-patimpalak

  3. dYu on August 23rd, 2007 1:37 pm

    - From dYu
    “we will get the total number of users who voted for all the wika2007 entries. yes just those who voted for the wika2007 entries and that would be our denominator.”

    - From Frances
    “Kasi kung total number of votes:
    Kunwari there are 1000 votes nga and you get 9 votes lang, so 9/1000 = 0.009 * 100 = 0.9%.”

    Gusto ko lang po ireiterate na ang denominator natin ay Total Number of Registered Users/Voters. Hindi po Total Number of Votes for all entries.

    Ang isang voter (registered user) ay pwedeng makaboto ng isang beses sa isang entry pero pwede siyang bumoto sa lahat ng entries (tig-isang boto sa bawat entry). Kaya mas marami ang total number of votes kumpara sa total number of registered users/voters.

    Kung idedefine natin ang Rating ng Poll dito sa Wika2007, ito ay ang percentage ng boto na nakuha ng isang entry with respect to the Total Number of Registered Voters. Halimbawa, kung may 1000 registered voters at si Juan dela Cruz ay may 750 votes, masasabi natin na si Juan dela Cruz ay nakakuha ng 75% na boto mula sa total na 1000 na registered voters. Kaya ang Poll Rating nya ay 75% :D

    Kung may questions kayo o may gusto kayong linawin, i-email nyo lang kami sa wika2007[at]pinoyblogospere.com o kaya mag-komento lang dito ;) Maraming salamat!

  4. Filipinayzd on August 23rd, 2007 3:36 pm

    Yung same IP address, counted (pa) ba?

  5. Filipinayzd on August 23rd, 2007 5:50 pm

    Oo (pa) pala.

  6. dYu on August 24th, 2007 12:10 am

    Yes counted pa rin ang duplicate IPs. May mga maraming users din kse ang gumagamit ng same IPs tulad ng schools, companies, families at iba pang mga groups etc. :)

  7. dYu on August 24th, 2007 12:21 am

    “our numerator will be the number of votes (or users who voted) for a particular entry…”

    Kung numerator naman ang pag-uusapan, ang number of votes na nakuha ng isang partikular na entry ay pareho lang sa number of users who voted for that particular entry. Bakit? Kase ang isang registered user ay minsan lang makakaboto sa isang partikular na entry. Kaya kung ilan ang number of votes nya ay yung din ang number ng users na bumoto sa kanya. “may TAMA” ba o “MAY tama” ba?

  8. Frances on August 24th, 2007 12:21 am

    X: Oo nga noh. Yan ang nagagawa ng blogging at 4 in the morning. Thanks for clarifying. :)

    Anyway, I’m not so familiar with pintigg voting site. Did all registered users register solely for voting in the contest?

  9. Frances on August 24th, 2007 12:43 am

    Ayan, public display of ignorance na naman, Frances. The last question I posted in the comment above is irrelevant.

  10. Dark Knight on August 24th, 2007 5:43 am

    Pakilinaw lang po.

    When you say registered user, do you mean, all the registered users of pintig? How sure are you that all registered users of pintig have or will vote for any entries? If there are at least 5 or 10 users who didn’t vote, that will be a big decrease to the votes that was garnered by that said entry!

    About your formula

    # of votes / total # of reg user = X * 100

    This formula is based on the presumption that a person may vote multiply times. But how about those people that voted only once? a person who voted once should have more weight that the person who voted twice. For example, I voted once, but you guys are assuming I voted more than once and spread my vote to all entries by means of adding me to the denominator. This is unfair to the person I voted for. Also please clarify this:

    750/1000 * 100 = 75%

    75% of what? Total votes? Total registered users?

    Maraming salamat po sa paglilinaw. Nagtatanong lang :)

  11. ynon on August 25th, 2007 10:57 am

    whoah!! Is that a valid question?! ;)

  12. Filipinayzd on August 25th, 2007 11:28 am

    Virtually impossible ang example.

    Based on the current Statistics here http://pintig.pinoyblogosphere.net/index.php?category=Wika2007 (upper right side)

    Statistics
    Members: 1262
    Total Links: 232
    Published: 232
    Queued: 0
    Votes: 2827
    Comments: 219

    Assuming all members voted.

    #1 Wika at Musika by Garry Victor Urbi (201 votes)
    201 (votes)/1262 (members who voted) = 15.9% (7.95% of 50%)

    #2 Naykupu! by Ynon (177 votes)
    177 (votes)/1262 (members who voted) = 14% (7% of 50%)

    #3 Language and the Heaven-sent story by Timlight (173 votes)
    173 (votes)/1262 (members who voted) = 13.7% (6.85% of 50%)

    #4 Hindi Ito Entry Sa Wika 2007 Blog Writing Contest by Mamang Sorbetero (102 votes)
    102 (votes)/1262 (members who voted) = 8.1% (4.05% of 50%)

    #5 May Himig ang Abakada by Aaron James R. San Pedro (69 votes)
    102 (votes)/1262 (members who voted) = 5% (2.5% of 50%)

    .
    .
    .

    #54, 55, 56, 57
    Maraming Wika, Matatag na Bansa by Conrad Miguel E. Gozalo (11 votes)
    Imperyalistang Maynila: A Wika 2007 Entry by Ariel James A. Matela (11 votes)
    YAPAK NI RIZAL by Kc Victoria (11 votes)
    Maraming Wika, Matatag na Bansa by Paul Vincent (11 votes)
    11 (votes)/1262 (members who voted) = 0.08% (0.04% of 50%)

  13. dYu on August 25th, 2007 1:47 pm

    @DarkKnight, paki-basa po ulit yung comment #3. nandon po ang sagot sa mga tanong mo ;) sabihan mo ako kung alin don ang hindi mo maintindihan ;)

    http://www.pinoyblogosphere.com/2007/08/21/reflections-on-online-poll-ethics-wika2007/#comment-17260

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