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Welcome to the archived messages from In The 00s. This archive stretches back to 1998 in some instances, and contains a nearly complete record of all the messages posted to inthe00s.com. You will also find an archive of the messages from inthe70s.com, inthe80s.com, inthe90s.com and amiright.com before they were combined to form the inthe00s.com messageboard.

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Subject: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: ChuckyG on 03/26/04 at 10:42 a.m.

I haven't reviewed too many voting results in the past few months, but it's pretty clear from my review of most of the current top ten, that there is MORE THAN ONE parody that is there due to cheating on the voting totals. I have reason to believe it has been going on for a while since I haven't bothered to look too closely at it recently.

Since the top tens seem to only encourage people to try and inflate their totals, I'm ending them this week. I tried to downplay them on the site (not listed on the main pages) and yet people seem to still think it's cool to double the legitimate vote count by voting repeatedly.  I'm not even certain if it's the authors doing it, or just some over zealous visitor to the site, but it's clear that it's just not worth the hassle anymore.  Voting will remain, but there won't be any comparision between parodies noted anywhere on the site.


Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: meow78223 on 03/26/04 at 10:53 a.m.

That's a good point, because it isn't fair to those of us who realize this isn't Chicago. I wish there were a way to limit the votes to one per IP address per month, or something like that. Some message boards have polls set up so that one account gets one vote, but requiring people to register for amiright would reduce our audience.

MM

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: Johnny_D on 03/26/04 at 11:05 a.m.

You're the boss, Chucky.  If that's your final decision, then we all must accept it and remind ourselves that you do all the work to make Amiright possible - so none of us has a right to complain.

Now I'd like to offer an alternative...

The Messageboard has a "Poll" option.  It is possible to start a thread that allows people to cast votes on selections from a list of items...

If people still want to maintain some kind of "Voting Top Ten List", people are always free to start-up threads with polls structured to take the place - at least in a rough and approximate way - of the Top Ten Lists that Chucky G has decided to discontinue.

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: adagio on 03/26/04 at 11:16 a.m.


Quoting:
You're the boss, Chucky.  If that's your final decision, then we all must accept it and remind ourselves that you do all the work to make Amiright possible - so none of us has a right to complain.

Now I'd like to offer an alternative...

The Messageboard has a "Poll" option.  It is possible to start a thread that allows people to cast votes on selections from a list of items...

If people still want to maintain some kind of "Voting Top Ten List", people are always free to start-up threads with polls structured to take the place - at least in a rough and approximate way - of the Top Ten Lists that Chucky G has decided to discontinue.
End Quote



 I agree...you are the boss here, CG.  It does disturb me when cheaters get to the top 10.  I use it some to verify how well my stuff is doing, but a long time ago you said to me to pay more attention to the comments...and they do teach me a lot.
 I think that a thread or poll would have the possibility of just continuing the same problem.  Were you thinking that it might be less of a problem on the messageboard, Johnny, because people would actually have to register?  That would help.  :)
 

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: Johnny_D on 03/26/04 at 11:24 a.m.


Quoting:

Were you thinking that it might be less of a problem on the messageboard, Johnny, because people would actually have to register?  That would help.  :)
 
End Quote



Adagio.... and ChuckyG if you're reading this....

That's a GREAT idea, Adagio.   If any such polls could be limited ONLY to people who are registered users, that might mitigate the cheating somewhat...if anyone has any other ideas, let's here them!

Perhaps another option would be to have some kind of "Invitational Poll" - some kind of polling-function where the voting-option would admit only a certain specified list of registered user-ID's.

That kind of "Invitational Poll", restricted to a pre-selected group of registered user-ID's, would greatly discourage cheating, for obvious reasons.....

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: Ethan Mawyer on 03/26/04 at 11:26 a.m.

expanding on Johnny's idea... maybe there can be a new board on inthe00s for parody polls... song of the day with every song submitted in a certain day... song of the week using the top 2 or three in each of the daily polls... song of the month using the top finishers in the weekly polls and possibly an eventual parody of the year. Although corruption is still possible it is much less likely and probably much easier to track down (if there are several new penguins who do nothing on the board except vote for the parodies of a particular author that's a pretty good sign that something isn't right)

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: neminem on 03/26/04 at 11:37 a.m.

At that point, doesn't it become rather similar to, say, the song of the month contest? Just noting ;-).

EDIT: Ok, so that was already noted and agreed with on the actual song of the month contest page... never mind.

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: Ethan Mawyer on 03/26/04 at 11:44 a.m.

i like the the idea of a selective poll if it can technically be done... i'd say about 50 total with everyone who entered the march madness parody brackets along with a bunch of other people - my suggestions: billy florio, syncronos, wolveroses, indy gent, chuckyG, hairspray, royce miller, leibew15, junior, my name is kenny, merry, pippin, jim A, william tong... and i'm sure there are more

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: Johnny_D on 03/26/04 at 12:05 a.m.


Quoting:
i like the the idea of a selective poll if it can technically be done... i'd say about 50 total with everyone who entered the march madness parody brackets along with a bunch of other people - my suggestions: billy florio, syncronos, wolveroses, indy gent, chuckyG, hairspray, royce miller, leibew15, junior, my name is kenny, merry, pippin, jim A, william tong... and i'm sure there are more
End Quote



Precisely, Ethan, precisely ... a selective "invitational" poll allowing only known registered users to participate would be highly resistant to cheating - especially if the polling software could detect a voter's registered-user-ID and prevent more than one vote from being cast by a given registered user in any given poll.

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: agrimorfee on 03/26/04 at 12:16 a.m.

Call me a killjoy, but I think a "top 10" concept here is all rather pointless, a lot of work for very little relevence to our lives.  I am kind of glad ChuckyG eliminated this feature. In the time I have submitted here, I never hit the Top 10, and i never could understand why.  Just the fact there was a Top 10 made me care about something I would never had missed if it wasn't there in the first place--knowwhatimean?

I would prefer to just leave the voting as a mark of quality from whomever happens to drop by and read our work.

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: Johnny_D on 03/26/04 at 12:29 a.m.

Quoting:
Call me a killjoy, but I think a "top 10" concept here is all rather pointless, a lot of work for very little relevence to our lives.  I am kind of glad ChuckyG eliminated this feature. In the time I have submitted here, I never hit the Top 10, and i never could understand why.  Just the fact there was a Top 10 made me care about something I would never had missed if it wasn't there in the first place--knowwhatimean?

I would prefer to just leave the voting as a mark of quality from whomever happens to drop by and read our work.
End Quote



Agri, you're not a killjoy at all.

Your point is perfectly valid and true.

The whole "Top Ten" thing was always a joke, since - as ChuckyG has pointed out - there's basically no way to prevent cheating.....but it was a fun joke!

Anyway, the only reason I am offering the suggestion of a top-ten-like "poll" thread is for anyone who still wants to enjoy playing the top-ten game...that's all.

Comments are where all of us as readers and writers can really help each other and interact in a positive and constructive way.  Taking the time to write and post a comment on someone's parody can be a truly meaningful gesture of thoughtfulness...

...and sometimes it's just a friendly gesture of good humor and wisecracking good fun, too!

Johnny D :)

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: 2nz on 03/26/04 at 12:38 a.m.

I'm behind Chucky 100% on this one. Voting and commenting I am fully in support of, but any device that mandates 'ranking' and there-by forces comparisons to be made I'm not a big fan of. Songs are compared, not on the merits of the song, but on what the 'audience' thought of the song, which is the wrong way to look at and there-by compare songs.

Oh, yeah... and I wasn't ever on no top ten list. So all you regulars on the top ten list who use it to judge your songs can just suck on that  :P ;D

::) (Hmm... no sour grapes here...)  ::)

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: Rice Cube on 03/26/04 at 12:53 a.m.

Just because there's no top ten doesn't mean we're gonna stop submitting ;)

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: ChuckyG on 03/26/04 at 02:32 p.m.

While voting on the boards might seem to be a way to cut down on cheaters, it's too easy to create a dozen free hotmail email accounts, and register ten times here, and then log in to each account to vote.

If you make it a requirement to have written X amount of parodies, people will begin writting junk to create several aliases by which to vote.

Short of requiring people to show up in my living room, present an ID and giving them a punch card, it's always going to be possible to game the system.  My years of running websites and programming, have taught me to think like a deviant criminal when it comes to security, and I can usually think of how to get around almost anything people think of.

I think the recent games have worked out ok for the parodies, but I'm sure there's a means to influence them as well. I don't want to discourage people from running or participating in them, but I also realize that as long as their isn't alot of attention placed on them, people won't be tempted to influence them.

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: philbo baggins on 03/26/04 at 05:18 p.m.

Ah, well... just as I'd submitted the killer trio of parodies sure to take the top ten by storm ;-)

Thinking about it, the top ten system went some way towards causing the trend towards using (and reusing) older, classic songs rather than current "top ten" hits: after all, the wider your audience, the more people likely to vote.  And the top ten lists were much more a mark of popularity than quality.  Will this make Ethan happy, do you think?

Having said that, I'm sure that I checked the lists more frequently when I was in with a chance of getting up there, even though a lot of my choice of songs is probably way too obscure.

And just as "IHBS" was heading towards the all-time top ten, too...

Phil

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: meow78223 on 03/26/04 at 05:23 p.m.

Don't feel bad, philbo. My spoof about the Amiright One-ster is #13 even as we speak, and there's been one 5-5-5 vote since then.

MM

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: philbo baggins on 03/26/04 at 05:42 p.m.


Quoting:
Don't feel bad, philbo. My spoof about the Amiright One-ster is #13 even as we speak, and there's been one 5-5-5 vote since then.
End Quote


It was kind of a stage sigh... more for effect than any real sadness.  I was submitting parodies here before the top ten lists, and I'll carry on afterwards, too.

Phil
BTW, went and had a look at your Beverley Hillbillies parody - reckon it's gotta be close enough to the pacing (given that I don't know the original, but WTF), so I voted anyway :-)

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: Rick D on 03/26/04 at 07:07 p.m.

I won't miss it. My first 180 parodies didn't make the top ten. The way to get on is develop friends through comments and develop a "Fan" base. I noticed Mari and I started making it when we did our "Amiright Tribute." So it's always been a popularity contest.

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: Melhi on 03/26/04 at 09:49 p.m.


Quoting:
So it's always been a popularity contest.
End Quote



Well, I rarely made the weekly top tens, never had a number one, never made the monthly top tens or the all-time 100s... so thank you Mr. Popularity for bursting my little bubble of denial that it wasn't a popularity contest.

;D



Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: Claude_Prez on 03/26/04 at 10:54 p.m.

One of the reasons I wanted to start the tournament stuff was a growing dissatisfaction with the top ten list.  You can tell people not to take it seriously, but the fact is if you made the list your song got more exposure, whereas if you didn't make the list it was pretty much forgotten in a couple days.  I never really considered the notion that any regular was "cheating" in any major way, though I have gone on record as saying it was clear and even openly stated that some people bring in outside voters which would obviously give them an advantage.  It always bugged me a little, not because they were doing it but because I didn't have anyone I could bring in to vote for my stuff.  I'll admit I've sometimes been baffled not so much by what makes the top ten but by what doesn't.  I agree with Phil; there really are some good songs that have gone unrecognized, which I think the tournament proved.  Chuck is probably right that any contest we set up will encourage cheating which is impossible to stop but I have to believe it will be much more difficult on the messageboard.   I hope it's still okay to find out.

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: Rick D on 03/27/04 at 00:07 a.m.

Mehli, I just meant that being on the list is no real indication of how good or bad your parody is, as Phil has said. I said that Mari and I started getting on the lists when we made friends and put recordings on. Some people may have more "outside" friends that give them a bump, and that's what Claude said. We like you and vote, but you're not rooting around in here every day like some of us are.

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: PRobinson on 03/27/04 at 00:19 a.m.

I made a couple or so top 10's but I think the games and contests are a healthier way to satisfy whatever competitive urges we may possess.  There are a few people I used to work with that enjoy my parodies (3 or 4 maybe) and I know that they occasionally vote on them and did watch the Top Rankings for mine. Sometimes I let them know what I'm posting so they can look at it but other times I just directly send them an attachment with the parody in it. That way I'm pretty sure they actually take a minute to look at it and it feels less like pandering.   I tried to encourage them to look at other stuff on the site; mentioned some author names and even sent a few links to other author's stuff, but I don't really think they checked anybody's else work for the most part (could be wrong, though).  I've only seen a couple comments in total from my ex-colleagues on the site.  But I do get remarks back from them when I send them parody attachments from my personal word docs, so that's what I'll do with those folks from now on.  Believe me, they've all got much more on their minds than fluffing up my numbers; jobs going elsewhere very soon...

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: Melhi on 03/27/04 at 08:57 a.m.


Quoting:
Mehli, I just meant that being on the list is no real indication of how good or bad your parody is, as Phil has said. I said that Mari and I started getting on the lists when we made friends and put recordings on. Some people may have more "outside" friends that give them a bump, and that's what Claude said. We like you and vote, but you're not rooting around in here every day like some of us are.
End Quote



Rick, I was joking!   But, since you brought it up, I did indeed "root around" every day for months on end and I probably will again, when I get the chance... not to drum up future votes, but because I enjoy it.   I've been quite pleased with the numbers I've had on my own parodies,  INCLUDING the 3s and 4s I've  earned fair and square, along the way.  

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: loosekanen on 03/27/04 at 11:22 a.m.

A Few thoughts...

first of all I want to announce that my butt is back from basic training so mike armstrong will once again be able to post...

second of all... as far as the top ten lists go, agreed... there has always been a large contingent of those willing to vote all the time from whatever means they see fit. does it really matter THAT much? People that complain about it aren't here for the right reason anyway. There are ways to get votes, and most of them have to do with submitting parodies people want to read. I know that when I come to the site I immediately check the voting so I don't have to waste my time with crap. How will a new artist get noticed if he has no forum to show his blockbuster?

another thought, new readers to the site will be deprived of reading napster pie and other parodies that have stood the test of time and made it to the top.

I don't know how a compromise could exist, but I just want to say off the bat that I don't particularly like the idea. It seems that it will close the door on the site to only include the people that have established reputations and relationships.

Just my two cents.

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: adagio on 03/27/04 at 11:59 a.m.

Welcome back, loosekanen!!   ;D

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: neminem on 04/01/04 at 01:35 a.m.

Hey, Chucky... I just noticed that, although the lists are long gone, there's still the text under the voting space that says "The Five Most Popular Parodies" - you might want to change that at some point.

Perhaps the same point at which you uncapitalize that parody of mine?

Subject: Re: NO MORE VOTING TOP TEN LISTS

Written By: ruff on 04/01/04 at 02:26 p.m.

why the hell do we waste out time with polls anyway?  i think they are so stupid!!  what ever floats your boat though!

URL
git 'er done!!