Topical Issue: We need new judges for March!

This is your chance to step up and do your part to assuage your concerns about bias.

BE A JUDGE!

Looking for 5 mavericks who can shake things up and pick great poems.
The term starts March 1 and ends on 27 June.

Avoid the lines, volunteer early!

Most of you know the drill, for the rest DO NOT VOLUNTEER ON THIS THREAD!

PM a Mod or the Mod Account. IF you want to volunteer someone that you think would be good it is appreciated.

Don't be put off if you cannot judge the whole term. Volunteer for a couple of months of the term at least. We may be able to match you with someone who can judge when you cannot.

Bugger that......:(

In truth, I respect anyone who takes this on after recent events, so whoever they may be, they have my thanks in advance!

All the best

Nah, we go through this all the time. There's a lot of tough birds out there.

Yes I am being sarcastic, maybe I will volunteer and ask Hellon to advise me weekly as to the best poems to vote for. That way she gets involved in the voting.

Wrong thread, disregard.

I second Larry's post. This stuff happens all the time. Actually, everyone gets along better on PnQ than perhaps any other time in the last 10+ years. These "recent events" phase me not at all, and I hope everyone else is big enough to move forward... And volunteer. Please.

Lmao, can you expand on that as to why that may be......ironically that statement might have a lot to do with the participation level to.......one could look at the boards five years ago and compare them to today and be shocked at the decline of participation and the quality of discussions. Today you have 4 maybe 5 people carrying the brunt of the discussion 5+ years ago, you had maybe 30

Oh I wasn't suggesting one way or the other what the peacefulness has to do with, but you're probably right that it has to do a whole lot with dwindling members and less participation, which is sad :(
Wasn't pointing fingers if that's what you thought.

I think PnQ simply cannot match the flashiness of newer social networks (hence our alternate platform on Facebook...), and Janis is to blame for that. Screw you, Janis!
There are still enough loyal people here to keep the site going, and we get new, awesome members now and again.

I guess all I meant was this recent conflict is no match to the hundreds of conflicts PnQ has seen. We ancient ones know this to be true.

I'm glad to say that we've had one brave member volunteer to be a judge for next term!

Jane I wasn't suggesting that you were implying anything negative, just pointing out that the more personalities that deal with each other the more conflicts one will have. The "active" member base 5-10 years ago was 10 times or more than it is now, and yes we've had some crazy times back then, the site is definitely a lot more subtle now without a doubt.

Glad someone has stepped up, childcare prevents me from participating at the level I'd like to and I'm currently working on a novel called "sluvious" of all things, maybe I'll consider it one day Mel......

Sorry hijacking thread for moment.... seen Bob's post about his book "sluvious".... My daughter ran across the letter from sluvious the elf you sent to my kids. I wanted to thank you again all these years later, she has added it to her scrapbook. She was just amazed at that age some elf knew all about her... haha

As far as judging, Sorry I can't commit, my kids are so busy over next several months with band, winter guard, color guard, SAT tests, ACT tests, work and graduation. Not to mention I am a caregiver for a gentleman who keeps me extremely busy. Maybe after all this is over with if I am needed I would be glad to do it.

I would like to add a thank you to the brave volunteer, I don't envy you.

Haha, brave volunteer indeed. Wow, you sound sooooo busy! Good luck with everything.

There are actually 2.5 brave volunteers now.

One judge can go half way through April,so if anyone cannot do the first six weeks here is your opportunity to jump in from mid-April through June.

Also, folks, don't say you cannot do it either. Let everyone wonder. Unless you want to throw everyone off and then volunteer.

Still only 2.5 volunteers :D

Need someone to step up to cover from April until June.
Need 2+ judges to volunteer for full or part term.

Thank you!!

*bump*

So here's the deal, PnQ. If you want judges to be swapped out every 3-4 months, you need to volunteer. If you don't care how often judges are swapped out, fair enough, but this was a huge issue in the past that we addressed by having rotations. We currently have 3.5 judges signed up for next term. Two of these judges are simply staying on from last term because, again, we don't have enough volunteers.

If we can't find judges, something needs to change. We either need to allow for people to judge indefinitely (bless your generous hearts!), or we need to decrease the required # of judges from 5 down to 3. Maybe both.

I'm going to send out a mass PM for volunteers. Please ask your club members/friends to volunteer if they have time.

Or you can just scrap the contest altogether and let the mods select a featured poem once a month or something.....hmmmm, maybe then the members would appreciate the exposure they are getting now and step up to volunteer.......if you don't help out, then please shut up with how the system works......

I say we promote everyone to judges and let everyone do their own thing, battle it out through votes, no comments necessary. Just pure anarchy, it'd be fun, kinda like the hunger games. Jk.

Please, pleasee volunteer even if it's for a half-term!

^ Ah, may the odds be ever in your favor ;)

Please volunteer if you have any extra time! You just need to set aside a small amount of time to read poems and you can comment however you wish. Just leaving a few lines of your thoughts then voting is HUGELY appreciated.

I like Mark's idea. hahaha

You could have permanent judges...as Jane suggested and have the mods sub judge a few weekends in the year to give them a break. Just an idea.

The story of "The little red hen" comes to mind, and I feel that those who choose to complain should automatically be made to judge...

This site is made and works with volunteerism... Team work people!

I have volunteered in the past, why? Because I love this site and I love poetry.

PS. Fourcing people to judge is a bit harsh, I haven't had enough coffee but you get what I'm saying.

I think we could go back to public nominations on a thread by the members as to who they believe would be good. Then the mods go after the nominees privately.

Those who complain automatically get nominated.

I would genuinely volunteer for this happily and will do in the future, but I home school three children and work three nights a week so it's a little busy for me at the moment. The time I am on here I like to write, read and comment - often on poems that aren't on the nominations board or by newer members.
As above, I promise I will be available in the future. In fact, I daresay I would love to do it; it's an honour, in my opinion. Whether I could keep my silence always........
All the very best,
Ben

I'll do it but...with conditions. I doubt I could do it for the whole term as I travel back and forward to Korea as you know. I would like my votes and comments to be public knowledge ie Judge #1 (Hellon) voted/commented this way..if there are any questions about my votes then it can be addressed/dealt with that week...yeah...if the mods agree...you will all know who I am but..most of you already do...

Fairly certain we managed to round up enough judges for this term, so we'll have to take a rain-check on your offer (unless a judge backs out), though it's really appreciated. (:

I am absolutely opposed to make public that ANYONE is a judge during his or her term. The accusations of fixing votes then arises since people know who to contact. Just the appearance of conspiracy costs more than the seeming benefits are worth.

^^^

Yeah, well that's just your opinion Larry...what about the other mods? I doubt very much if anyone would even consider trying to persuade me to vote for them...anyway...I did offer my help.

I'd also like it to be noted that this is not the first time my offer to be a judge (in some form) has been declined.

I'm against it as well.

The pros of it:
- people can see how you vote
- people can call you out for bias

cons:
- people might mistakenly call you out for bias
- people might try to persuade you to vote for them

I think the cons outweigh the pro, if a person voted for person X's poem two weeks in a row (and the judge truly feels that person stopped it), and people know who the judge is, what's stopping a witchhunt to occur?

Hellon, I'm certainly not directing anything against you personally. The whole integrity of the contest is based on anonymity of the judges. Certainly I agree that you, of all people, would be difficult to influence. However, it sets a precedent - once you out yourself there might be pressure on other judges to do likewise. Not all of us have the rigid backbone you possess.

I'm also not speaking for the other mods. but we've had so many discussions about it that I'm certain they will agree with Mark and me here.

And yes, we appreciate that you have judged a few weeks in the past. As you say, your trips to Korea interfere. If you'd come forward earlier we could have worked out a match. But now, are you saying that you categorically will never judge unless you disclose it to the general site?

We're not saying you can't judge, we're saying we want it to be on the site terms that the site itself voted for years ago. I don't like the idea of anyone knowing who the judges are until the term is up. What's the point, truly?

I also wouldn't feel comfortable if people knew who the judges were... I just don't think it'd ever be a good idea. Just stick to site terms

We approved our last volunteer before you (Hellon) volunteered as a partial judge this term. We've been asking for members to sign up for weeks now. If you can volunteer earlier next time, you'll be approved. We'll also be more able to work around your schedule if given more time to plan.

Keeping judges anonymous is part of deterring judges from communicating with each other about the contest and part of deterring members from sucking up to judges. While you might not be susceptible to bias, it seems you're asking the mods to be biased toward you. That or maybe you think all judges should have the option of disclosing their identities, but we decided as a site to have judges remain anonymous until their term is up, at which point they can reveal themselves or not.
If we want to change that decision, fine, but it needs to be a discussion & vote held in its own thread.

Hellon, next time we call for judges please raise your hand again.

I'm not really on board with judges having identities, I think that we will end up with more issues overall. Having judges anonymous was all part of the plan to eliminate bias. I would think that making judges known would only bring more bias to the contest. If this were to change, it would need to be an all or none situation. Either all judges are anonymous or they're not.

I did judge on and off a couple of times but...I also put my name forward as someone who could be called upon to step in if there was a tie break situation...that duty was never asked of me although there have been times when the site has broken a tie and...I have been available.

I do respect the unanimous decision of the mods as to keeping the judges' identities anonymous so I will not pursue that suggestion any further.

Hellon, you were not being slighted. At the time we made the major changes to the contest we solicited input from the membership on various aspects. Some of them are described here:
http://www.poems-and-quotes.com/discussion/topic.html?topic_id=144914

In addition the members voted on how to deal with tied poems. The majority decided to let the site break ties rather than a mod or a sub-judge.

Larry....I never felt slighted by you or any of the mods..I'd like to make that clear. I do remember that a vote was made to have the site break a tie (I'm not THAT senile just yet :)) I was just making a point to comments from a previous thread saying those who criticize judges should be made to judge themselves....my life style at the moment does not allow me to commit to anything for three months straight but...I wanted to let it be known that I had offered what time I had to be a stand in judge if it was needed.

My contribution to this site over the years has had to be on a random pattern...when I'm here I can be pretty full on and...when I'm not, you probably all draw a huge sign of relief...

I never am relieved when you're gone.

The Irish in me misses arguing with the Scot in you.