From Chris.Hilker Sent Tue, Dec 23rd 1997, 18:36
> A lot of great stuff came out this year too, I don't mean to >overlook it. As an idm subscriber it is particularly frustrating that >the choices on the idm ballot lack definition. I can't see why a forum >such as idm, which is so diverse, would host a vote which limited the >categories to specific choices. As the person doing the thankless job of running the damn poll, it's very frustrating to see all these dim bulbs who didn't bother to vote in the first round complaining about the quality and variety of the nominees. Last year, people bitched about the final results. This year, they're whining about the nominees. I wonder what it'll be like next year? Listen: the annual poll is a popularity contest. Did you go home and cry when you didn't get picked for homecoming queen in high school? Props to all the people who are keeping this in perspective. >It should be left wide open who one >wants to pick for top album of the year or whatever fields are on it. >Then the largest number of entries "wins." ...and three quarters of the votes are wasted on titles that get one or two votes and have no chance of winning. Splitting the vote into nominations and final balloting is the only way to get any kind of a meaningful result; even the most popular nominees only get twenty votes or so in the first round, out of ninety or so voters, even in the single and album of the year fields, where people get three votes each. (The exception happened last year, when Blech got like three times as many votes in the first round than any other comp - interesting that ColdKrushCuts, a very similar comp that I for one think is a better record, didn't get more than one or two votes this year.) The only other way to do it, of course, would be to use a weighted top-ten or top-five or whatever system, but if you could see how fucked up a lot of the ballots I get in the current system are, you wouldn't even think of it. If someone else wants to take over the poll next year using this kind of a system, you have my blessing and my pity. >Feel free to send any idm >votes for your favorite stuff not listed on the idm ballot to this >address and I will keep track and putup a website with the listings. Great, you'll end up with a comprehensive list of every record discussed here since January. Except the Prodigy album. C. -- Chris.Hilker (xxxxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx) "Sex is the darndest nougat murder, something something e-mail something something la la la la beable beable trousers and dingaling nougat..."