The Renaissance Man
__CERTIFIED DIVER__ (Open Water & Open Dumpster)
Staff member
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OK, that was a tabloid title just to get your attention.
But now that your here, let's talk build off voting. With the outcome being what it is, I'm in a unique position to point out my thoughts on the subject without it sounding like sour grapes. Why would I complain, right? Well I'm not complaining.
Every year that I have participated in these competitions it seems that the subject usually comes up in some form or fashion about the pros and cons of what ever the voting rules are. There have been several adjustments over the past few years but it never has and never will satisfy everyone. Every year there are also plenty of suggestions about how to improve the voting one way or another. I'm certain that there will be more suggestions thrown out there even in this thread! But I'm not sure that there can ever be a right way to do this.
Here are my thoughts.
Any competition that is scored by opinion is debatable, period. It doesn't matter if there are unlimited votes, ten votes, three votes or one vote, it's still a matter of opinion. I have several friends that compete in BBQ competitions. I have literally seen them go from winning one year to placing last the next year with the same recipe! How can that be? It can be because it is the opinion of the judges. It would be a safe bet to say that even if it were the same judges they might not choose the same way a year later. There are endless variables that could change there opinion on any given day.
Using the Olympics as an example. If you've watched any of the judged events, there are plenty real stand out performances, but what if the events were judged by and voted on by everyone in the audience? It's possible that someone could win the gold metal just because the majority of the people in the audience where from the same country or maybe the most talented athlete could actually finish last because that athlete has a bad attitude and people don't want to vote for them because they don't like them. The point is that it's subjective when it's based on opinion.
For what ever the reasons were, I'm thrilled that the majority of people who voted chose my bike. But does that mean that I had the best bike? The short answer is no. Does that mean that my bike would win in front of any audience? Again, no. If you go to RatRodBikes Instagram page and use the 'likes' as a metric for voting, out of the few bikes that have been posted from the build off so far, the bike that finished in seventh place in this forum would be the run away victor at this time. And that could change again as more bikes are posted. It's the opinion of that particular group of people that view the bikes on that platform.
So, is there a better way to do this? Probably not. Unless you cross a finish line first, jump the highest, or score the most goals, judging bikes (or anything else for that matter) can never be an exact science.
But now that your here, let's talk build off voting. With the outcome being what it is, I'm in a unique position to point out my thoughts on the subject without it sounding like sour grapes. Why would I complain, right? Well I'm not complaining.
Every year that I have participated in these competitions it seems that the subject usually comes up in some form or fashion about the pros and cons of what ever the voting rules are. There have been several adjustments over the past few years but it never has and never will satisfy everyone. Every year there are also plenty of suggestions about how to improve the voting one way or another. I'm certain that there will be more suggestions thrown out there even in this thread! But I'm not sure that there can ever be a right way to do this.
Here are my thoughts.
Any competition that is scored by opinion is debatable, period. It doesn't matter if there are unlimited votes, ten votes, three votes or one vote, it's still a matter of opinion. I have several friends that compete in BBQ competitions. I have literally seen them go from winning one year to placing last the next year with the same recipe! How can that be? It can be because it is the opinion of the judges. It would be a safe bet to say that even if it were the same judges they might not choose the same way a year later. There are endless variables that could change there opinion on any given day.
Using the Olympics as an example. If you've watched any of the judged events, there are plenty real stand out performances, but what if the events were judged by and voted on by everyone in the audience? It's possible that someone could win the gold metal just because the majority of the people in the audience where from the same country or maybe the most talented athlete could actually finish last because that athlete has a bad attitude and people don't want to vote for them because they don't like them. The point is that it's subjective when it's based on opinion.
For what ever the reasons were, I'm thrilled that the majority of people who voted chose my bike. But does that mean that I had the best bike? The short answer is no. Does that mean that my bike would win in front of any audience? Again, no. If you go to RatRodBikes Instagram page and use the 'likes' as a metric for voting, out of the few bikes that have been posted from the build off so far, the bike that finished in seventh place in this forum would be the run away victor at this time. And that could change again as more bikes are posted. It's the opinion of that particular group of people that view the bikes on that platform.
So, is there a better way to do this? Probably not. Unless you cross a finish line first, jump the highest, or score the most goals, judging bikes (or anything else for that matter) can never be an exact science.
)
Oh wait thats me...
