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January 2008 Software Drawing Winners

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iphigenie:
That's a lot of very happy people  :Thmbsup:

I would suspect that the only reason some people won more than one is that there were not that many entrants for all the categories, and hey, in the end that is only fair.

I only picked I think 5 that I wanted to win, I could have picked more but I know I am a software addict so I watch myself... I made sure to only list things that I actually knew I would use (partly because I dont want to regret it when i see the giveaways for the next few months...) so I am super happy I won one of them   :-*

Jibz:
Just for the record, I was in no way complaining about the selection process -- I know mouser has put a lot of effort into making the program doing it as fair as humanly possible :Thmbsup:.

I just sat there looking at the winner list and pondered how many had actually won multiple times, which was of course more than enough of an excuse for me to write a perl script to sort through the data :lol:.

mouser:
Jibz, i certainly didn't get that idea I just wanted to give some background for anyone new to the site.

In case people don't know, Jibz is member #3 on this forum.  Members 1+2 are the default admin account and me.
One of the nicest people i know and he and i have worked together on some fun projects (e.g. Octane).

ps. any effort looking at stats of the site and stuff like this i support 100%, i think it just makes things more interesting and fun :)

jgpaiva:
app: wise comments, as always. I also think that linking the probabilities of winning with the number of posts would be VERY unfair.

Right now, i think the prize optimizer works very well...
Winners of 'Help & Manual 4 Professional' (3):
jgpaiva
--- End quote ---
:D :D :D

Thanks a lot!!  :greenclp: :greenclp: :greenclp:

Now... I just need to get some courage to start working on GridMove's new help file ;)

cranioscopical:
It's always nice to win something - thank you!

Thanks, in fact, to everyone here at DonationCoder. As I see it, everyone here contributes to the success of the site and so -- directly or indirectly -- helps to make every aspect work well, including the giveaways and discounts.

Extra thanks to mouser and CThorpe and to others who worked directly on arranging (and donating) the current, very impressive list of items to win!

mouser: The fact that the optimizer does not keep track of how many times you've won, only that you've won in the recent past.  If I modified that those who have won many times would not be winning so often, even if they have been entering a lot and for a long time.
and
Should we more actively try to bump the weights of people who are actively contributing on the site?

--- End quote ---

It seems that the more you try to weight things, the more subjective the system becomes. My vote would be for the closest approximation to a truly random system that can be accomplished. That way, everybody has exactly the same chance to win, every time. When one tries to impose 'fairness' on a system the higher becomes the chance of introducing inadvertent inequities.

mouser: It might be nicer to put in some term which looks at how many times a person has entered and lost and boost their chances of winning if so.
Should the optimizer keep track somehow of whether you won the most prized prize or the least?
--- End quote ---

Again, my 2¢ goes onto the pile for random selection, same argument.

There are so many variables and imponderables to try to control -- entered and lost often, entered and lost seldom, didn't enter at all because no desired software in some drawings, entered every drawing no matter what...and on, and on...

To be 'fair' requires some subjective assessment of, and assumptions about, behaviour and you don't have access to the required motivational data. Seems to me that every attempt to 'deskew' the system will only skew it in another direction.

And, mouser, it's no small tribute to you that whatever you decide after taking the collective pulse will likely be just fine with almost everybody here!

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