Thread for coordinating the order and timing of ILM ballot polls

I reiterate that it would be awesome if people posted here when the ballots are going out -- that way you won't miss a poll bc you were on vacation and didn't read through three days of stuff or whatever...

This is a good idea, I'll try to remember to bump this when things happen.

yeah he has problems remembering to do his jazz ballot ;)

shaddap kid

>> i would do a byrds one but i feel like that would have less interest than the beach boys and tbh i thought the bb one could've used at least 10 more ballots. when you start the countdown off with songs that only got 3-4 votes, i feel that there isn't enough interest to justify in a way.

― buzza, Sunday, August 21, 2011 2:17 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

> part of the reason this happened is that the bb votes were distributed in a manner that's likely to be different from your average poll. the top 9 songs each had at least 50% of people voting for them (#1 had 75% of people) and that trend only got stronger as more ballots came in. at the same time, there were about 170 total songs that received votes - tons of vote splitting at the bottom half.

when I included 3 more ballots in the numbers, not much changed - even with 10 more, I'm pretty sure the countdown would be starting off with things that got 3-4 votes.

― iatee, Sunday, August 21, 2011 11:26 AM (3 days ago)

Yeah there's not much mileage in being a Zep obscurist - a ballot filled with the chaff from Presence and Coda is not going to impress anyone or be fun to listen to.

it's interesting how the vote breakdown sometimes tells you more about the band than the placing

would there be enough enthusiasm for a 90's r'n'b singles poll? Stuff like Too Close, Pony and Return Of The Mack need a serious poll

Would be one of the only ones I'd be interested in (out of whats left on the list anyway) ^

Yes, make that one happen.

Definitely. It would need a full nominations process though. We ought to leave gaps in the artist poll rollout for bigger genre-type polls to happen, else it all gets too much.

where's the Timbaland poll?

Maybe we're pausing while the jazz poll happens? Otherwise, Kerr will whine.

make a change from you!

anyway some dude offered to wait a week so we do the jazz poll, which was very nice of him.

btw, I didn't offer myself to run that 90's r'n'b singles poll. just an idea.

What's a good way to start listening to Timbaland? I don't know anything about this guy.

Can someone start work on a spotify list for the Timbaland poll please? I'm going to need help for that one.

― Ismael Klata, Saturday, August 20, 2011 1:43 PM (1 week ago)

I was hoping someone might come up with the goods here. I'd be very grateful!

yeah Timbaland poll will get started this week.

btw i'm totally fine having ballots e-mailed to me and tabulating them by hand, but if anyone has any fancy spreadsheet things or a voting site they want to offer for use for the Timbaland poll that would be cool, too.

Finefinemusic posted a link upthread to a handy spreadsheet she made for these polls -- Thread for coordinating the order and timing of ILM ballot polls

I don't know .xls's from elbows and it took me a while to figure out, but it was useful for Zep. Then I transferred all the numbers to a Google Docs spreadsheet so everybody could study them after the poll was done.

cool! thanks finefinemusic and wmc, this might be really useful

Glad to help! Sorry, I'm such an Excel geek it's hard for me to make things easy for beginners - I did my best! I am here if you have questions; the thread is bookmarked so I should see it.

it's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you without a dope poll to vote to:

TIMBALAND TRACKS POLL (voting deadling Saturday, September 10th midnight EST)

looking forward to the Madonna poll!

.. er i haven't missed this have i??

You didn't miss it -- the poster who initially signed up for it withdrew. Feel free to volunteer!

(the list in progress)

I'm having second thoughts about Crimson.

glad i haven't missed it. i'm still too narked by the outcome of the only ilx poll i ever made (Girls Aloud's best album) to even consider another!

(the list in progress)

Dropping Crimson, adding Miles

hah, good luck with that one

you should have done a spiritual hat jazz poll

I'm adding years to my life expectancy by ignoring that crap and sticking with the results.

it's not an ilm poll without a clusterfuck on spiritual hats

o rly

How popular does an artist or band have to be to warrant a ballot poll? I mean, I'd so be up for a Tim Hardin poll, but I don't think there's a large enough fan base to get alot of ballots (which is tragic, incidentally). So I'm thinking who's left that I'd consider:

The Byrds (probably my first choice)
Parliament/Funkadelic/George Clinton
Frank Sinatra
The Velvet Underground
Fairport Convention
The Yardbirds
The Style Council

Which of those is everyone here most into for a ballot poll?

I'd love to see Sinatra, then Funkadelic, because they're two blindfolds that I think'd be worth investigating. But I wouldn't have much to contribute I guess.

blindfolds = blindspots, ffs, autocorrect going to town these days

Needs a combo of a. big enough discography and b. big enough ILX fan contingent, imo. I think Led Zeppelin (86 songs roughly) was close to the smallest discog that would be workable -- the poll was super successful because there were so many voters.

I think P-Funk would be very successful. VU has the voters but maybe not the discog. Sinatra has the discog but probably not the voters. Byrds would do ok, Fairport and Yardbirds seem iffy, Style Council would work if you expanded it to Jam/SC/Weller.

Why is P-Funk a blindspot?

Can I request to have my poll moved down a bit on the list? I see that it's coming up and right now I don't feel like I have the time to dedicate the appropriate energy to it.

vu would be a good one. i imagine a lot of great discussion in that one

obv id do a pfunk one if seandalai does the tallying up

How far down you want to drop, Mordy?

25?

clemenza loses his prime number OH NOES

I'd love to do Fairport but it could get complicated (and huge if I included side projects and solo albums).

Sinatra probably has lots of fans amongst ILXers but few that have heard anything approaching the entire discography (which is huge - we're talking half the 20th century here). Myself I'm very sketchy on the early Harry James/Tommy Dorsey era or anything after 1973.

I guess I'll leave P-Funk and VU to others since I'm sure there's plenty willing to take those on.

BTW does the Jacksons poll include MJ and others solo or just J5/Jacksons?

I believe Jamie's plan is to include Michael, Janet, J5, everything with the Jackson name on it.

Cool! That means I can vote for LaToya!

Oh, one other I'd consider doing: Van Morrison. Definitely meets the big discography/big ILX fan contingent criteria, as well as overall significance

There are some polls coming up that involve discographies smaller than Zep, so I may be proven wrong! I pull all my opinions hot and fresh from dark places best not pondered too deeply.

Would I vote on the following:

The Byrds (probably my first choice) - probably
Parliament/Funkadelic/George Clinton - probably
Frank Sinatra - no
The Velvet Underground - yes
Fairport Convention - probably not, a Richard Thompson/Fairports poll perhaps.
The Yardbirds - no
The Style Council - probably not, but would vote in a Jam/Style Council/Weller poll

What I'd like to see someone do, and if no one else does it I may swap with my Saint Etienne poll, is a poll of favourite vocalists. Primarily because I've no idea how to call it.

how about a Radiohead poll? I'm sure they have a discography that's large enough (about 100 tracks, not including solo recordings) and they're popular on ILM. but I guess such poll would gather more trolling than others, I don't know?

a paul weller career poll would be interesting