Scott -- I may have jumped the gun this morning when I typed this, but I do take the poll pretty seriously. And your joke, by mentioning Outkast, bascially pressed a button for me. (Bill Mastro's post re: lawyers, was also pretty spot on -- Bill, you know me too well!) Again, as I stated at the beginning of my prior post, a 2004 release database is a great idea. I certainly didn't doubt your sincerity. Mike Bennett Record reviews and more at http://fufkin.com >From: "Scott Pazur" >Reply-To: audities@smoe.org >To: >Subject: Re: Results (and 2004 planning) >Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2004 09:21:11 -0500 > >Geez Mike, it was only a joke, and an offer to save you a little trouble. >I >certainly have plenty of other things I can do with my little spare time. >I >already did the web/database page to accumulate the 2003 releases when you >started this years poll, so you should have known my offer was sincere. >I'll go back to lurking mode, not worth piping up sometimes. > >Scott > > >-----Original Message----- >From: audities-owner@smoe.org [mailto:audities-owner@smoe.org] On Behalf Of >Michael Bennett >Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2004 9:06 AM >To: audities@smoe.org >Subject: Re: Results (and 2004 planning) > >The idea of a 2004 new release database is a good one. Anything that helps >remind people what came out during the year is a useful tool. > >However, this second paragraph of your post, spotlighted below, is >troubling >for a few reasons. > >First, your comment regarding Outkast is, probably inadvertently, extremely >condescending to those of us who voted for and really enjoyed THE LOVE >BELOW/SPEAKERBOXXX. It can be inferred from your statement that those of >us >who voted for the disc (and that's a substantial number of voters) would >not >have done so if we had been more aware of what came out in 2004. What were >we thinking. > >Second, you explicitly note that the database you propose could be used so >someone could strategically vote to keep a release out of the Top 20. >Putting aside the question of whether enough people would vote in this >manner to achieve such a result, I would say that if this is a major >purpose >behind having a database, we're much better off without it. Quite frankly, >anyone who would submit a Top 20 list that is solely to influence the final >results (especially to keep something out) is a damned fool. I presume >that >everyone here who submits their list is submitting a list that reflects >their favorite releases of the year, nothing more, nothing less. For >example, I hope nobody did this: 'I can't stand Rooney. Even though I >don't own the New Pornographers record and haven't heard it, I'm going to >vote for them at # 3, so they overtake those accursed teeny popsters!'). > >Finally, I'm not quite clear on this, but I think you indicate that perhaps >some sort of running vote tally could be kept. I would not be in favor of >this. In fact, this year I tried to scale back on the updated standings. >Ideally, I'd never post the updates. However, I started doing that because >it always seemed to promote voting. So it's a tradition. I've always been >concerned it could influence voters (in the negative way I described >before), but I do believe that generally, no one votes that way. > >So those are my thoughts -- > >Mike Bennett > >Record reviews and more at http://fufkin.com > > >From: "Scott Pazur" > > > >If we get all the releases into the database, I can save Mike a lot of > >hassle by making the poll results dynamic, where changes are possible > >up to the final bell, and you can see the current standings at any time > >during the polling process. (That way I know what CDs to vote for to > >get Outkast out of the list. Not that I would do that, but I still > >can't believe how anyone on this list likes that crap) > >_________________________________________________________________ >Check out the new MSN 9 Dial-up - fast & reliable Internet access with >prime >features! http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-us&page=dialup/home&ST=1 > > > _________________________________________________________________ High-speed users—be more efficient online with the new MSN Premium Internet Software. http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-us&page=byoa/prem&ST=1