judging ethics

[James Crouchet]

On Fri, 28 Apr 1995 C11Hartel at aol.com wrote:

> My lord put his two cents in on the judging ethics, now I'll add mine for
[...]

> The shire I play in (Tempio) breaks its A&S into two catagorties, OPEN and
> FIRST ATTEMPT.  The "judging" is done by populace vote.  Each person receives
> a bead for each catagory and as they look at all the items they are to place
> a bead in a cup next to the item of their choice.  Some people base their
> decisions soley on "If I could take anything home this would be it," others
> take the time to read the documentation (which we do not make mandatory but
> do encourage) and judge from their own existing knowledg of medieval arts and
> sciences.  In this manner the winners are chosen by their "peers".  Also , we
> have a form for the entrants to have the populace place constructive criticism
>  on if they so choose.  These comments can range from the "It was really
> pretty" to "Here's another good source for you to look into if you so
> choose".
>
[...]
> 
> Moriel***
> 
> 

I know this is a bit off the subject, but I have a comment concerning 
judging by the entire populace. I think there are times when this is 
approprate, but there should also be competitions that are judged by a 
select group of knowledgelable people.

In practice it often occurs that in a popularly judged contest a good pan 
of brownies will outscore a magnificent research paper. It's just what 
most folks can relate to best.

Savian