Weighted Ranking Methodology for Putvote

Well, this is only a suggestion and is left to the creators to implement it if it pleases them.

Disadvantages of the current ranking system:
1. There is no real algorithm involved. It is sorting only on basis of votes received.
2. Those who do not receive votes but put a lot of votes suffer in the system.
3. There are higher ranked voters who have not submitted as many articles.
4. The ranking sometimes does not differentiate between a more prolific user and a less prolific user of the portal.

Putvote essentially is a portal that is enriched by participation or collaboration. A community uses this portal to share bookmarks and people who feel like promoting a link can vote for it. In such a participative model, it is sometimes essential to ensure that ranking of participants is based on a weighted model rather than a simple sorting of one parameter.

I have come up with a weighted methodology for putvote. This method has the same basis as that is prevalent in the ranking of colleges/schools. With this method, the ranking is more rational. A participant should engage in higher participation by putting votes and submitting more articles. The better articles they post, higher the votes that they receive. So, a participant that only receives a lot of votes but does not put as many articles will drop in ranking. A participant who submits a lot of articles and puts a lot of votes will increase their ranking.

For the purpose of calculation, the weightages assigned as as follows:
For putting vote: 0.35 or 35%
For receiving vote: 0.35 or 35%
For submitting article: 0.30 or 30%
Totally, it adds up to 1.00 or 100%. The idea behind assigning 0.35 to putting and receiving votes is that both are equally important in the foundation idea of the portal. The idea of assigning slightly less value to submitting an article was to ensure some participants just do not spam the portal with articles.

So, the formula that I have used is:
Weighted score = weight for votes received x votes received + weight for votes cast x votes cast + weight for articles x articles submitted.

Proof of the pudding lies in the eating, eh? Here's some for you. Only first 40 ranks are illustrated minus "guest" as I have not considered "guest" as a rankable user. It is too wide a population in comparison to dedicated users.

Here it goes...


(click above pic for a better view in a new window)

Some places, the ranking assigned is joint. Not shown here, but shoefiend and krish share the 38th place and there is no 39th place. And for some users the ranking jump is huge, the biggest being ang with 26 places. The biggest slide is for munnacircuit with a drop of 15 places. And if you observe, the top 10 rankings remain the top ten. :-)

So, what do you think?

Actors & Great Actors

How many Bollywood actors of today with the exception of Naseeruddin Shah, Shreyas Talpade and the likes of these that do not bother about their on-screen image will do a role like what Mammootty does in Karutha Pakshikal?

My guess is none.

I know The Pirates of the Caribbean is being remade in Hindi. The actor who might play Capt. Jack Sparrow would wear trousers that appear to have been steam ironed minutes before the shot and shirts that are starched so white that even the sails of the ship would pale. That's the state of affairs in Bollywood. And just see what Johnny Depp managed. Hmmmm!

Tamil or Thamizh? Does it matter...??

Curious heading, you think? Nope. It was a result of a small debate that I participated involuntarily at office yesterday. Our team has several Tamil speaking people from different parts of the country. I hail from Mumbai, one of them was from Chennai, one from Chennai (but speaks better Malayalam!) and one from Coimbatore. The resultant discussion was quite amusing to say the least.

Till '99, I was exposed only to the Tamil spoken in Brahminical households in Mumbai. I never knew there was a Palghat flavor to it until later in '00-'01 when many people told me about it. Probably, it was because the significant number of TamBrams (Tamil Brahmin) community that settled in Mumbai were from Palghat side. After '99, I moved down south from Mumbai to Bangalore. It was here that I got new friends who were from the inner cities and towns of TN. Tirunelveli, Madurai, Trichy, Kumbakonam, Thanjavur, Coimbatore, Erode and the like. Even here, I have mentioned only the big cities/towns of TN. The influence of Tamil dialects that I have gained since '99 has changed my own Tamil dialect to an extent that the Palghat effect has gone down significantly, but not completely removed. At the same time, I have a better appreciation of different dialects from different regions. And that has increased my respect for the language.

To recount a funny experience, I was once travelling in Madurai with a dear friend, Mani. We were travelling in a bus and there was a caution note painted at the top. It read "Karam Siram Puram Neetatheer". Mani asked me to interpret it for him. 15 minutes of painful deductions later, Mani told me that I was nowhere close to the correct meaning of it. Imagine me guessing somethings related to "complete karma"! "Puram" made me think of the word "Complete", Hindi influence. "Karam" made me think of "Karma", again a Hindi influence. None of my interpretations came close to mean - Do not put your hands, heads, legs outside. A safety warning. Quite simple in comparison to the lofty philosophical references that I was arriving at. :-)

The word "macha" is probably one of the most popular exports. Especially in Bangalore, you get to hear this so much amongst the college going crowd. In any college in TN, this is a essential part of the lingo. It is a word that would instantly bond just plain friends into a gang. Similarly there are other exports as well. Tamil also has imported a lot of words into its spoken language. For instance, using "naina" to refer to your father. I believe it is a Telugu influence, atleast someone told me so. Many Hindi words have made it in as well. There is a little pain point with the Hindi spoken by Tamils - distortion of spellings and pronunciation. Classic line used in this context is "Ek Gaon Mein Ek Kisan Raghu Thatha". But there is little that can be done. If Marwadis could damage pronouncing Tamil words, so could Tamils with Hindi. You have Northies pronouncing bahut as bohot and then the same guys chide a Tamil for saying it correctly. How is that? So, Case rested!

It is only after you start understanding and appreciating flavors of the language that you start loving the language used in the movies or by people. For instance, the language used by Kovai Sarala or Vadivelu. :-) Nothing more needs to be added. Unless you really get the feel of the language, how can you love that comedy? Puritans would squirm in their seats looking at how the languages get defiled. I would not call it defiling. But it is reaching the language to the masses.

Similarly with lyrics of songs. Some exceptionally beautiful poetry is sung in the form of songs. And unless someone helps you out to interpret the beauty, those songs are only half enjoyed. Take the case of the song "Vellai Pookal" from Kannathil Muthamitaal. Until I got the real meaning of the song, I only enjoying the music orchestration, guitaring etc. Once I got the meaning of the song, I loved the song in a much deeper sense. There are many more such examples, the last being the "New York Nagaram" song from "Sillunnu Oru Kadhal".

At the end of the day, it is also amazing that those who are used to all the dialects can switch seamlessly and appreciate all the flavors at the same time. No one complains, and mostly everyone enjoys. Regardless of what you say, ottukka or sernthu, it still means joint.

I will leave you with this experience with Chennai Tamil. Chennai has its own version of Tamil, quite distinct from the rest of TN. And Chennaities will defend it with everything that they have. Anyways, to cite an example, I once heard this line somewhere - "bajaarla ushaaraa ilangaatikka nijaar gayaps maamey!". I had absolutely no clue what this line meant. It was something to do with smartness in the market and something disappearing. That is what I could get. Nothing more. Mani came to the rescue again and told me it meant - if you are not smart in the market, you stand to lose everything including the UG". Imagine my look when I realised that I had memorized that line out of everything that Chennai Tamil had to offer! Tell me, this is still better, and I would believe you.

Disclaimer: If this post has hurt anybody, it was purely unintentional. You can send me an email at bgajanan[at]gmail[dot]com.

Putvote's pitfalls

Oflate, putvote.com has gained popularity. The site is modelled on Digg, only at a concept level. The flavor of the public bookmarking portal is essentially desi. The site allows registered and guest users to cast their votes to an article submitted. They call it "putvoted". The English used on the site is typical of the ill-educated Indians who do not pay attention to grammar or constructs. That is a taste, an accepted taste. And its most unique offering is in it being a platform where Indians can share links to good blogs, good articles and the like.

However, with all its unique offerings, there are pitfalls. I have been analysing it steadily over a long period of time. There have been times when I have frantically "putvoted" on the site. I have seen my ranking go up. And then, I decided to test the flavor of the people that visit the site.

One of the biggest pitfalls is that the site allows too much democracy. While it is good in one way, we Indians are known to make such a mess of a good thing that this site also has become one such example. For one, I found "puke" the most insensitive thing on the site. And it is like, people are waiting to pounce on one blogger who has been "puked" upon at the site. People are taking out their prejudices on a blogger that should rather have been personal and discrete. Join the melee seems to be the buzz then. Virtual wars start with one section favoring one blogger, then others dedicated to tearing that blogger down. These are absolutely unnecessary. Waste of time, effort, bytespace, broadband time and everything thereof.

Another pitfall is recursive promotion. It is like this. The user group consists of some close knit friends all of whom blog (not necessarily). These friends invite their friends and therefore it is one huge network of friends looking at the putvoted articles from their own blogs. It is not considered wise for one blogger to self-promote. So some of his friend who frequents the first blogger's blog will putvote one of his posts. Comments are the most recognizable way to check on a blog's popularity. When a post is putvoted, inevitably traffic flows and comments happen. Likewise, probably to return the favor, our putvoted blogger will putvote his friend's blog post. So, there you see... recursive promotion circle happening. It is not the absolute thing that happens. There are other blog posts also shared. But a lot of it is this.

Next comes the desi tag. How desi are we talking? Do we have gujjus participating? Do we have bongs participating? Take a look at the top putvoters list and you should not be surprised that most of them originate from the same linguistic background. And it reflects in some of the putvoted posts too. If I were a inquisitive reader from Kashmir, that would really put me off. Why do you have to make it desi then? Make it Tamizh only!

Now, for the observation about people's taste. Now, putvote readers are not in for some serious bookmarking. Let that be known. It is only some fun collaboration site. Articles that mean fun are well received. The fun could be dry wit, sarcasm, a pitiful take on something, a ridiculous jab at someone etc. Try some of the more serious putvoted articles. Barely any readership at all. They remain consigned to nothingness and disappear into the underground when the nonsense keeps bubbling on the top. There are lots of categories created for putvoting. But how much does it help?

It is for the creators of this site, whom I know personally, to do something about these. They can, if they wish and have the bandwidth to, really change the allure of the site to something great. I sincerely wish they do. For putvote's own good!

The Project Manager's Poem

Today, Nov 2nd, is International Project Management Day. It is a day when Project Managers celebrate their achievements and take a moment to pat themselves on their backs. Mostly the unsung heroes of any monumental achievement, project managers are those that are responsible for the make or break of any undertaking, big or small. For more, refer internationalpmday.com website.

So, in the morning, when I saw some emails about PM Day, I thought of sharing something nice with the PM community. I searched some nice trivia, pictures etc and could not find anything that appealed to me. I searched for poems, and I did find one, but I could not identify with it. And so, I decided to write one of my own. And so here goes...

Akin to a driver for a vehicle
To steer it past every obstacle
Akin to the teacher for a subject
To train the student in every aspect
Akin to the captain of a team
To ensure you win, with steam!
So you are to your projects
Like a King for his subjects
In your practice, be wise and diligent
Doing so, set an example, excellent
You are important, You are the Reason
Success depends on you as a person
Around you, may the above reverberate
So, go ahead and celebrate!

Happy International PM Day!!

Telecons

If you are working in India on an outsourcing contract where your clients are from North America or farther side of Europe, then the following should be true.

You have to sit on calls...
1. That make absolutely no sense to you.
2. That you have to attend for attendance sakes!
3. where, for the first 10 minutes of the call, there would be howling and loud laughing amongst the other team members. The jokes? If there were any, would be interpretable only by them. And yet they want everyone on the call to laugh.
4. which, @ Rs.7.20 per minute, these are a drain on the funding that you get for your account/department. Spare a little of these precious pennies, and you can give a better hike to someone who otherwise would get the same amount as a rise for the whole month.
5. where you have to listen to your name being shred into nothing by people who cannot pronounce Indian names. And bearing it.
6. Which you have to wait till 1AM or even later to attend... to do all the above. (body bio-clock? what's that?)
7. Even through festivals/holidays! For example, attending calls during Diwali weekend or Dandia Raas week!
8. (Oh yes.. how did I miss it?) Where you end up wishing "Good Morning, Folks!" at 8PM in the evening... lol

Any more that you can add to the list above? Please share!

New!

Changed the name, changed the link, changed the template... just about everything. Hell.. I even lost my customizations that linked me to ranking sites etc. You know what? Great! I do not want to be linked anymore.

The cumbersome selfish race to see the numbers going north, to belong to a community... why? You blog because you want an outlet to publish your thoughts. If someone checks and comments, it is a bonus. You can have a discussion, hopefully an intelligent one that refines the argument.

I have not blogged in such a long time that I do not remember what customizations I had. I remember the daily quote, blogroll, moblog, indiblogger, metblog and flickr I think.

Of these, I would only bring back the blogroll and metblog. Rest remain lost!

Have you ever felt glad after having lost something? Feels light, a'int it?

PS: For those who linked rubic_cube's blog as thoughtdistillery.blogspot.com, please relink at gajjub.blogspot.com. Much Thanks! (CC style!)

Is there an end? Or is there a beginning?

After ages and several contemplation on whether to blog or not... I am choosing to blog again. I know not if this matters to anyone. Not that it bothers me. :-)

Probably, I will be more prolific in my posts from now on. I cannot say that for sure. But I am planning to be.

For those that believed that this blog slipped into silent oblivion, please return again to check daily/few times a week. I trust you find something interesting to read here.

Ah.. one more thing. I did plan to migrate to wordpress. I am deciding against it. I will be deleting that blog. I did have a Blogger Beta account as well. Not sure if I want to go ahead with that. So... I will let it be. For now, this would be the only place where I will publish any posts. Including poems, pics whatever.

See ya all around sometime...