quoted 6 lines Not to put down Chris's hard work, but did anybody notice how many times>Not to put down Chris's hard work, but did anybody notice how many times
>"abstentions" actually 'won the category' and the high amount of total
>abstentions... nearly 200 making it almost 2 abstentions per valid vote.
>
>I'd put it down to the vote collecting method used. Why not dispense of the
> redundant second round and make it a much more representative poll!?
First-round balloting averaged about 16% abstentions across the board. (The
final round averaged 22%.) Many people simply aren't interested in all the
categories.
The second round is anything but redundant. Without it, a majority of votes
are wasted on records with no chance of winning. In first-round balloting in
the Drum & Bass Album of the Year category, 19 titles received one vote each.
I think it would be ludicrous to declare a winner based on that, especially
with the top vote-getter receiving only eight votes and the runner-up having
seven. It's impossible to have a clear winner without splitting up the
balloting, unless you go to a weighted-vote system (i.e. vote for your top
five or ten or whatever, and a first-place vote is worth more than a
second-place vote, etc.) I haven't been willing to run the poll this way,
because under the present arrangement it's hard enough for people to follow
the directions on the ballot.
I think the two-round format also makes for a more inclusive poll. More
people are likely to vote when given nominees to choose from, rather than
a blank ballot. The poll bears this out: 68 ballots in the first round
this year, 113 in the second.
If I do an all-time poll later this year, it will use a one-round,
weighted-vote system. Depending on how well or badly that goes, I might
change over to such a system for the 1999 year-end poll.
C.
--
Chris.Hilker (cspot@hyperreal.org)