Discussion: Blind Judging

[Seijin_Dinger]

This came up on the feedback forum, and I have been toying around with the idea for a while.

What are people's opinions on doing contest judging in a blind manner. This means for my contest all people would see on the title slate for each video would be only the Video ID, and the Video Name, but not the name of the editor who made and entered it.

The reason for this would to be to make it more fair for newer editors who end up in a category against known heavy hitters such as Vlad, Pwolf, Infinity Squared, etc.

I already do a blind screening for the pre-con panel that chooses the finalists and it seems to work well there as they have no idea who entered what, and thus they can leave any bias about editors at the door.

[BasharOfTheAges]

Do you honestly think that people vote by who makes a video? Or that the average con goer knows who even the biggest names in our community are? I find that a bit far-fetched. Laments of "I lost because I was against XYZ" are primarily a coping mechanism and "he only won because he's XYZ" is just bad blood. If you're doing it to silence bitching, realize that's why you want to do it and leave it at that. I doubt it's a real issue or is anywhere near prevalent enough to need blind judging done to an audience.

[Seijin_Dinger]

I do see the arguments from both sides, such as oh thats XYZ and thats why he won, but also I think its cool to see XYZ's name attached to their video in front of a large audience. Trying to find a good middle ground to keep as many happy as possible, as I already know I cant please everyone.

Also, since screening is blind I have to make 2 sets of title slates and it makes my job slightly easier, and I like being lazy LOL

[thundercatlord]

I personally DO NOT like the idea of blind judging. As Bashar said, I also find it a bit far fetched that the creator's username is an issue. I enter my vids to contests so that a large group of people can see them and enjoy them. And.. I in turn also enjoy watching the reactions of the audience when I am at a contest. I may have won a good amount of awards these past couple of years, but I really doubt that very many people know who I am. Heck I'd be willing to bet that only a good 25% of people here on the org know who I am. So I just can't see why someone would think (in my case anyway) that the creators username has anything to do with the outcome of the contest. I mean, who's every heard of the guy who won "best in show?" Audiences are fickle and vote for what they like regardless of who made the vid. So I say let people bitch about it. They're always going to have something to bitch about.

[Cyanna]

Blind pre-screenings are one thing. But an AMV contest is also a showcase in addition to a competition. I'm not really looking at this as a matter of fairness as I am a matter of respect. I do believe that audiences in general are not so vapid that they need to be "supervised" in this way just to make absolutely sure they are not voting for a name. Don't treat everyone with the kid gloves because of a few fragile egos.


Also...an editor should receive credit for their work.

[dwchang]

Also...an editor should receive credit for their work.

This.

I'm 100% behind blind judging for things such as pre-screening or if the judging is done purely by well, judges and not at the actual main showing. Basically if your only vote is an audience vote that takes place at the showing, then it's only fair to give people credit for their hard work.

[thundercatlord]

Also...an editor should receive credit for their work.

This is really the main point. If people aren't going to know it's my work, there's really no point in showcasing it.

[Seijin_Dinger]

Credit and finding your videos is why your names are on the slates
I use the real name opposed to username to help keep accounts on my submission secret

Im just mainly testing the waters. This year beyond a complaint that someone felt up against alot, there have been a few claims that the contest is rigged

I try and take every complaint seriously, but when people accused me of having a rigged contest, I took that personally. And I am looking at ways to better assure that it isnt rigged, and add more transparency to the process of the audience votes

[Ileia]

I agree with Bashar, the average con-goer isn't going to know the names of editors. Avid watchers or those who create AMVs themselves might know and there are likely to be a few among the crowd but probably not enough to sway the voting one way or another. Now in a contest like AWA Pro in which the entrants are judging each other, I think blind judging is a good idea. (Mind you, I take issue with editors sending in pre-released videos to Pro, but that's a whole different discussion entirely)

[Phantasmagoriat]

I think it depends who the judges are.

If the judges are people that know stuff about amv's [which they *should* be] then I think they really *would* recognize editors names [...good judges would even be editors themselves]. It's not like AMV editors are superstars or anything, so an Audience Vote with credits would be fine. But IMO Judges Vote make more sense to be blind because the people that make up the judges are probably familiar with the AMV scene, and are the most likely to be bias.

Now if the judges were clueless about the AMV scene, credits are not a problem;
But then you start to question how good your judges are.

so,
Judges Vote should be blind
Audience Vote should be open