LJ Idol Meta -- Voting Trends

[emo_snal]

Comments

[bewize]

This was really interesting to read. I don't think I'm any of the Idolaters you mentioned, but I have noticed a similar trend in my votes and my link to the polls timing

[emo_snal]

Thanks. Yeah I think friends-lists are simulteniously under AND overrated. People assume their friends lists are voting for them but even posting asking for votes gets a relatively small percentage of ones friends list to come to the polls. It looked like of three people I tracked last poll who posted links in their lj, they each got a ten vote boost during the subsequent hour. This is both a small fraction of their friends list (I know at least one has a 400 person friends list), but ten votes is still enough to make a big jump in the polls. I mean with only about 50 votes separating the top from the bottom this time that would be moving you 20% of the way up the polls (if everyone was evenly spaced, which is not at all the case).

Thanks again for your interest. (=

[thenodrin]

I've noticed much the same thing. My numbers jump when I post my recommended reading / voting reminder. But, where I end up at the end is usually around the same ranking as where I am at midnight on Friday. This tells me that most everyone else gets the same jump, just at different times.

For example, in my last week I was dead last Friday night. I received over 30 votes after I posted my voting reminder. I jumped to 7th from last. But, by Monday night I was 3rd from last again.

Theno

[emo_snal]

Yeah thats a good way of looking at it -- everyone gets the same boost, just at different times. Despite all the hollerin about it, you can't fool the reaper.

[kenakeri]

Do we have drama again this season because of votes?

I do last minute voting these days because I don't like being on the internet over the weekend if I don't have to be.

Earlier in the competition, I'd wait until the polls were up a while to vote so I could give the entries I was iffy about another chance to gel with me before I went through the list.

I don't vote for friends unless I like their entries. Hell, 3/4 of the people I vote for don't even know I'm around.

[emo_snal]

Of the two people that just withdrew, I don't know anything about one's reasons but the other one posted about how she was quitting because she though the vote numbers were odd. Specifically she seemed to think something was shady because she "was in fourth sunday morning, and by the close of polls was in 23rd" or something -- which was a completely erroneous statement because she was my Idolist D -- she hadn't been in fourth since the first few hours! So thinking about how wildly she had mistaken the polls is pretty much directly what caused me to write this.

[brightflashes]

Just wanted to let you know that 1, this was a great read because it brought up things I didn't know or hadn't thought of. 2, I have an amazing affinity for bees and Gary mentioned I should tell you. 3, I've told you this, but in case you don't remember, I've never been stung by a bee before and I'd like to because I'd like to know what it feels like and 4, I'm interested in exactly how you collected your data. Did you just keep track of it every X minutes you were awake? or...? I guess that's what I'm confused about is how the data was collected.

I thought the statement about the XXX people who were just voting for 1 person was interesting. I wish somewhere between 2K and 2 million people voted. Then it would be so much more fair I think (fair representation of a large array of tastes and such).

[alycewilson]

This was an interesting post, and the follow-up comments were, as well. I honestly thought that I didn't have a chance to make it as far as I did, simply because I didn't have the friends list to compete with many others. I had resigned myself with making it about halfway and then bidding a graceful good-bye. Now, my F-list has grown over the course of the competition, but it's primarily been through fellow contestants (so I don't know how much more likely they are to vote for me just because I put up a link).

I guess my experience so far has shown that, while friends list can be a huge factor, they are clearly not the only factor. Otherwise, I would have been playing the home game since sometime in November or December, I think!

[spydielives]

Well, **I** am not surprised you are still here.

I believe, if I am not mistaken, you were on one of my first rec lists. I know that you were one of the very first new-to-competing-writers that I added to my regular reading list.

[alycewilson]

::blush:: Thank you. I know how much that recommendation means, and I'm certain that you turned new readers onto me. It's definitely appreciated.