Re: SP new changes (done)
Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2013 7:12 pm
Redwic wrote:I guess my concern is more along the lines of SP member favoritism over the quality of an actual contribution.
But perhaps that cannot be eliminated, no matter what the change is.
I don't see any way to avoid this as long as we have any sort of voting. In fact, part of this may be favoritism, another part is simply that someone consistently contributes good stuff, then, naturally, something new by that person gets more viewers - nothing wrong with that I believe. But provided that enough people simply vote honestly on whatever they happen to see, these effects shouldn't be overwhelming. And, for the record, with voting honestly I mean that anybody should use their own ideas about what to vote for, but consistently, regardless of who posted the contribution. Some may vote for pets, others for photoshopped sunsets, others for pictures with climbers in them and so on... Doesn't matter, as long as you do so consistently, and keep voting, honestly!
Redwic wrote:PERSON A makes a Mountain page. The mountain might not have an eye-catching name or be in a familiar region, but PERSON A spends many hours to make certain the page is full of useful information, including routes, driving directions gear, etc.
PERSON B makes a Mountain page, too. The mountain has an eye-catching name or is in a familiar region, but PERSON B spends a little time making the page with only basic information provided.
PERSON A's page gets little attention despite being a thorough and helpful page, and only musters two votes.
PERSON B's page gets more attention despite being a page with less usable content but with a lot of eye-catching photos, and musters 15 votes.
This is a different bias: not by popularity of the contributor, but on how well known a peak or area is. Obviously famous peaks and areas get more viewers and therefore more votes. And peaks in areas with which more SP-members are familiar get more votes. That doesn't say anything about the quality of the contribution, but it happens. So the system isn't perfect? So be it.
Generally speaking, it is a complicated matter how many votes a contribution gets, and many influencing factors could be seen as unfair or biased. These are just a two examples. I simply say, don't take it all too serious. The main thing is to have a way to distinguish good stuff on SP from bad. Sometimes I like to browse through the best new stuff, say from the last week, month or even longer - and I can do that, because there are enough people that do vote, despite all the limitations the system may have. So, thank you to all honest voters out there!