Recently, there have been a few events held at Nottingham University Malaysian
Campus. These events would involve contestants to be in a competition. The major
criteria for winning would be to gain the approval and support of the audience
after they present their performance of skill and ability. The audience would
then translate their support into votes for their personal favoured contestant.
Sounds simple enough?
However votes are bought. This is a mere understatement. In fact, the votes are bought without limits. With this fact, the integrity of the competition is
jeopardized. Below is an example of how unlimited buyable votes would work
towards degrading a competition into an auction for victory. It is a bit
technical, so feel free to skip it, if you feel threatened by the words and
numbers.
Let's say A and B each has 10 supporters. As normal supporters of A they would
probably drop in 1-3 votes which are affordable yet show their appreciation of
A's performance. As a rough total, A would get 20 votes. B however, has a friend
as one of his/her/their supporters and perhaps due to an act of
"devotion/loyalty/camaraderie" drops a stack of 50 votes into the voting box. We
shall let B have a total of 69 votes (19+50).
The current situation is 20 VS 69. Where A and B supposedly have performances of
equivalent quality and supporters of equivalent quantity, A's votes is squashed
to 28% of B's total votes. This is only a simple example. Imagine if a
particular contestant has hundreds of dollars invested into his/her/their
"quality" performance, would it not, reduce the other financially-scarce
contestants’ votes into a minuscule 5% and below?
Would the contestant with highest votes get the full points under 'Voting score'? If so, then the judges would be not so significant. Imagine where the judges vote account for 50%, but a particular winning contestant is able to
squish his foes into a few percents just because the “vote winner’s” total vote is used as a maximum measure to compare to other votes. How saddening is that?
Such a flawed system can only benefit two parties. The winning party, since they
get what they paid for. And the event hosting-party, as they gleefully see
supporters tear each other apart only to channel more "dough" into their
coffers.
As a fellow human, I cannot just brood over the idiosyncrasy, so I offer some
obvious solutions. One vote per person. Votes are sold along with entrance
ticket. Either student numbers are required or voting tickets are given upon
entry, how simple is that?
I hope you have enjoyed this piece that I have written. Perhaps there are those
who think alike, and perhaps there are those who would agree after reading. I launch not an attack, but offer a word of opinion towards the things I see
around.
April 9, 2009 at 2:23 PM
Agreed.Totally agreed.
April 9, 2009 at 3:18 PM
hey there i so totally agree with this as i experienced first hand the effects of such an event...n yes it sounds very reasonable 1 vote per person like how elections are done.
April 9, 2009 at 5:37 PM
im agree too..
i person for 1 vote is better
April 9, 2009 at 5:48 PM
jeez.
under which rock have u guys been hiding??
NO SUCH THING AS FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS!! and as for the competition, the richer ur fans are, the better off u r at winning!
its sad *sigh* but true
April 9, 2009 at 5:52 PM
Yes, I totally agree with it!
I hope the future events held by UNMC and its society will change the way talent quests and other competition works. Glad that somebody brought this up.
April 9, 2009 at 9:54 PM
it used to be a student per vote for the ms notts semi finals.. but.... o well.. they need money this year.. *sad*
April 9, 2009 at 10:57 PM
if these things goes on, in later life
they will feel the consequences
better get the 1 person 1 vote up for every event fast
April 10, 2009 at 12:39 AM
i'm seriously very sick of what they've done =.=
April 10, 2009 at 10:27 AM
the system's totally unfair! there's no honor in it.
life's unfair and money wins in real life.
but, university students are supposed to be dreaming about the ideals so when we go out into the real world we make positive changes.
that kind voting system is setting a really bad example.
April 10, 2009 at 11:24 AM
look likes there are many students unsatisfied with the systems..
April 10, 2009 at 1:04 PM
Actually these events are meant for fun and all, just that the system leaves us with abit of a bad aftertaste.
April 10, 2009 at 2:56 PM
Well, you can look at this system in 2 ways. How do we expect the organizers to give away the prizes, invite the judges and bands, do the decorations if they do not have any income at all? The buying vote system is one way to raise fund from the people around. IF they do not do this, maybe the Nottingham Talent Quest or Mr and Miss Nottingham will have a very high participation fee, then we will still go into the same argument, where the rich candidate will be able to join and the ones which does not didn't... The buying vote system is not that bias I guess, looking at the Nottingham talent quest result recently. What do you guys think? just my opinion here...
April 10, 2009 at 3:50 PM
it's hard to say...
April 10, 2009 at 4:36 PM
good speech Dr. Moriarty
April 11, 2009 at 4:56 PM
or the university could provide enough fund to SA so that SA doesn't need to be desperate for money and pull such stunts.
April 12, 2009 at 2:52 AM
welcome to d real world... $$$$
April 17, 2009 at 12:05 PM
Greetings, i am the event manager of Music Talent Quest.
Thank you for your opinions, pretty well done. I used to think like that until i became a committee. There is this bigger picture that you guys did not see. I think the results of the Music Talent Quest was great. why did that happen if we had a flawed system? hmm.. maybe we did not use that flawed system to a 100%.. judges were involved to contribute a major influence to the results. they were there to make sure the winners are selected according to their talents. Votes did not have major influence, but it still played a role in determining the winner when scores are close. We went through alot of ideas and time to give you the best results. All this events are held for the sole purpose of entertaining the students and elevating the quality of the nottingham experience. All that you have paid, goes back to you. We have to have income to continue operation and create events for you. Everything we do is for you. we sacrificed and exhaust ourselves to make a change.
Join us next year Dr. Moriarty, i am sure you could be a good asset to the society. =)
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