There was a time when I had defended the somewhat.. umm.. 'controversial' results of SOTD on this forum (when that Dharmesh factory strike track was going on), by saying that everyone had a different opinion, and their opinions (which translated into votes) should be respected. That it was a democratic thread, that everyone perceived his 'star' in a different way, and everyone had the right to vote for anyone whom they found impressive in the episode, in terms of deeds most of the time, but also sometimes in terms of feeling for the characters, acting by the actors, and so on. And if you consider statistically, since the voting population was more of what we call a 'random population', it could be assumed that the bias gets balanced from all sides, there was no 'statistical bias'- persons of one trend were not 'favoured' and those of others were not 'screened out'. So that's okay.
About personal bias, everyone is biased to an extent, and that is not a crime. Many a times people analyse the show through the eyes of a particular character whom they have a leaning for. As such they are likely to feel for a particular character more than for others. Its perfectly okay by me. And everyone has a different criteria of evaluation and a different way of looking at things as well- what is 'right' to one, may not be 'right' to another. What is 'bias' to one, may not be 'bias' to another.
But today unfortunately, I can't defend it in the same way.
Cos I don't perceive it as a 'democratic' thread any more. I see it as one where a person who has contrary opinions and voices them strongly is forced to leave directly or indirectly. Precisely the reason I don't post there anymore- cos I don't want such backlash. And maybe many others too don't post or visit the thread on this count.
As such, my views on SOTD and SOTD results right now are these::::
My views on personal bias, objective-subjective remain the same as above, but I would say there is definitely a 'statistical bias'- 'the sample count' for a particular trend (Archana fans/supporters/those who sympathise with her/those who feel her actions are right/Ankita fans) is more in the sample population (voters of SOTD) , not by random, but cos of 'screening' (many other people who are non-fans/fans of others have stopped going due to reasons mentioned above- this leaves the Archana supporters as the majority in the voting population)- this was not there earlier to a large extent, EVERYONE voted on that thread earlier, and so earlier the sample population was a random population in some ways and so the statistical bias favouring Archana was less- results, even if controversial, could be accepted. Now its not so, so the results don't really hold significance for me now.
Plus, with the lack of all types of opinions on the thread, I believe the votes get swayed in favour of the strong convincing arguments from ONLY ONE SIDE, which defeats the whole purpose of discussion and polling. Its but natural.
There was a time when other people used to win SOTD if they did something good, like Ajit, Satish and so on. I still remember that Satish and Shravani won the poll on the day of ArMan reunion. Nowadays its not really like that- Archana wins every poll even if she had no concrete roll in the episode, and others had a much stronger and better part.
I wrote the other day that I respect everyone's opinions on the SOTD voting. I still do- I respect the opinions of all voting for Archana for any reason. Its just that the results have become insignificant for me personally now- cos when there is a statistical bias, we cannot accept it as a fair evaluation.
Here I would like to add it is nowhere Tanya Di's fault, she is one of the sweetest members I have ever met. In fact, its not just the thread, but the forum on the whole, which has changed nowadays. It isn't so mellow as it was previously, nor is it that friendly or tolerant. Is it any wonder then that so many people have stopped posting???
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