Weekly Fan Polls

[Mike]

So, first of all, the week 2 fans polls are live!

Second, I wanted to let everyone know that, starting very soon, it will be a requirement for members to submit all 10 picks in order to participate. I noticed last week, and already this week, that there are some folks who chose as few as one team. While I expected this to happen some, I didn't think much of it and didn't expect it to change the outcome as drastically. However, when there are teams getting 8-10 points and no other teams receiving any, it does skew things quite a bit. It basically makes it impossible for those lower ranked top-10 teams to catch up, when they otherwise might even pass one of those higher teams.

You will not be required to vote on every division. It's just a 10-team requirement for the divisions you do want to participate in.

 

[Mike]

Just as a head's up, this will be a retroactive change, starting this week. What this means is that anyone who has already voted, but didn't vote for all 10 slots, will have their votes removed as soon as the update takes place. So if that's you, I encourage you to go in and fill out the rest of the slots with all 10 of your picks.

 

[Texas6Man]

Thanks for making that update and continuing to improve everything on this site!

 

[Mike]

So now that it's required that members vote on all 10 picks, the new trend is to pick your team at #1 then effectively throw your other picks away on teams that otherwise, most likely, wouldn't receive top 10 votes.

Please don't do this. This is supposed to be a fun, engaging way to figure out what our members think are the top 10 teams from each division. What isn't fun is when folks use it as a game to see how they can manipulate the numbers to get their team to the top, even when nobody else thinks that's where they belong.

If your team isn't getting picked where you think they should, use it as fuel for the boys to come out and prove it every week. Manipulating the voting here doesn't do a thing to strengthen your team, or weaken any other teams. These are just best guesses by the fans each week and it's fun to see what folks think as the season progresses.

Now I have to go in and spend hours coding something that will block members who vote this way from participating in the future.

Another thing is members who are creating multiple accounts just to vote multiple times for the same team(s). Again, please don't do this. We don't allow multiple accounts and, if caught, it could result in all of your accounts being banned.

Again, this is supposed to be for fun. Don't take this so seriously that you ruin the entire outcome because your team isn't where you think they should be. You're probably not alone. Chances are, only one team is where their fans think they should be.

 

[Texas6Man]

So now that it's required that members vote on all 10 picks, the new trend is to pick your team at #1 then effectively throw your other picks away on teams that otherwise, most likely, wouldn't receive top 10 votes.

Please don't do this. This is supposed to be a fun, engaging way to figure out what our members think are the top 10 teams from each division. What isn't fun is when folks use it as a game to see how they can manipulate the numbers to get their team to the top, even when nobody else thinks that's where they belong.

If your team isn't getting picked where you think they should, use it as fuel for the boys to come out and prove it every week. Manipulating the voting here doesn't do a thing to strengthen your team, or weaken any other teams. These are just best guesses by the fans each week and it's fun to see what folks think as the season progresses.

Now I have to go in and spend hours coding something that will block members who vote this way from participating in the future.

Another thing is members who are creating multiple accounts just to vote multiple times for the same team(s). Again, please don't do this. We don't allow multiple accounts and, if caught, it could result in all of your accounts being banned.

Again, this is supposed to be for fun. Don't take this so seriously that you ruin the entire outcome because your team isn't where you think they should be. You're probably not alone. Chances are, only one team is where their fans think they should be.

I was wondering if that was what was happening just by the vote counts and points that are shown. What’s the point of trying to manipulate they system just to make a team show up on a fan poll? Reality still exists every Friday night so putting an undeserving team at the top of the poll just ends up making the whole thing pointless. Thanks for all of your effort to keep this thing “between the lines”, Mike! Sucks you have to go through so much extra work just to do that!

 

[ACE OF DIAMONDS]

I was wondering if that was what was happening just by the vote counts and points that are shown. What’s the point of trying to manipulate they system just to make a team show up on a fan poll? Reality still exists every Friday night so putting an undeserving team at the top of the poll just ends up making the whole thing pointless. Thanks for all of your effort to keep this thing “between the lines”, Mike! Sucks you have to go through so much extra work just to do that!

it is laughable to see what community members will do to be number 1 in at least one persons book.

 

[Yotes2009]

I refuse to put my rival in the top 10. I don’t care what the toy says. It’s fan poll and as a fan I can’t do what you’re asking me to do. I’m joking, but I’m also serious. Sport hate doesn’t have to make sense.

 

[Mike]

I refuse to put my rival in the top 10. I don’t care what the toy says. It’s fan poll and as a fan I can’t do what you’re asking me to do. I’m joking, but I’m also serious. Sport hate doesn’t have to make sense.

This is what I'd expect to be a normal occurrence. Teams missing a few votes here and there won't affect it too terribly bad. The issue is if you only select your team (giving them 10 points), then don't select any other teams, or throwing votes away on teams that won't even be considered in the top 10. Combine that with folks who have multiple accounts, all doing that with the same team(s), and it turns into the entire thing being out of whack.

Sure, by all means, skip your rival team...but if you're going to do that, at least pick your next best into the top 10. It still won't be entirely accurate, but at least we're not giving 50+ extra points just to a single team while the rest of the top 10 get nothing.

 

[midcities 6-man fan]

How does the voting work. How are points determined

 

[Mike]

Voting rank	Points given
1	10
2	9
3	8
4	7
5	6
6	5
7	4
8	3
9	2
10	1

 

[Mike]

This week I'm making a few more changes to the way this works.

First, the fan polls will now open each week as soon as I switch the schedules over to the new week (usually mid-afternoon on Sunday) instead of everyone having to wait until Sunday at midnight.

Second, we're going to start displaying "Other teams receiving votes" below each division's listing. This is just so members can better visualize what's going on with some of these voters (for example, leaving off one team and replacing them with one of the lowest ranked teams in that division). Members will still not be able to see who voted for who, but at least we'll be able to see some of the silliness that's going on. Since this is something that's just now being added, I won't display this listing for past weeks but it will show up for all weeks going forward.

As always, if y'all have any ideas on how to make this, or anything else on the site, better please let me know. I'm always open to suggestions.

 

[Texas6Man]

So 5 votes in this week and Knox City and Whiteface were both already have gotten 1 less vote and yet 1-7 Meadow received a vote? Seriously?!! I get the 8-10 spots maybe being debated with 11-15 but both of those teams are obvious top 10 contenders at this point of the season!

 

[Mike]

So 5 votes in this week and Knox City and Whiteface were both already have gotten 1 less vote and yet 1-7 Meadow received a vote? Seriously?!! I get the 8-10 spots maybe being debated with 11-15 but both of those teams are obvious top 10 contenders at this point of the season!

Yeah, I don't get it. It's not like it matters. It's just a fun way to gauge how the members feel about who are the top teams in each division. I actually don't even have a problem with a few folks who refuse to list their rival team. That's fine...but at least list the rest of your top 11.

The good news is that I now have a tool available for myself so that I can easily see who votes who.

 

[Yotes2009]

It is a fan vote so… Absolutely no science or math involved! Most likely decided by love/hate and alcohol!

 

[wildcatfan4]

Ok so just so everyone is clear. The fan polls have to be done a certain way or people will cry about it.

Everyone…before you vote the way you want we need to check the forums to see who is being left out hahah.

Fan polls should be for fun and who
cares who votes for who. This makes me want to leave people off just to watch people grip.

 

[Texas6Man]

Ok so just so everyone is clear. The fan polls have to be done a certain way or people will cry about it.

Everyone…before you vote the way you want we need to check the forums to see who is being left out hahah.

Fan polls should be for fun and who
cares who votes for who. This makes me want to leave people off just to watch people grip.

Not crying about anything, I don’t have a dog in the fight at all, but to have votes that are being made to manipulate things defeats the purpose of voting for the top teams. I understand it’s for fun but foolishly thought most people would be realistic about their votes. For the most part I can understand arguments for every team that has received votes thus far, with the exception being the #162 1-7 team. That was my point. Even when I had boys playing I was realistic about expectations and where they stood when compared to other teams. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

 

[Tigerfan85]

That’s why I just sit back laugh. It if I was gonna vote I’d vote WB 1-10 No one else. Lol

 

[wildcatfan4]

That’s why I just sit back laugh. It if I was gonna vote I’d vote WB 1-10 No one else. Lol

Haha are you behind this? I notice WB has been number 1 all weeks but 1.

Texas6man
It’s comical. If you want realistic go to the weekly rankings and stay off fan poll rankings.

Notice no-one cares if Jonesboro didn’t get the same amount or oglesby in d2.

To me vote who you think is number 1 and leave the others off. I say do away with fan polls and have weekly pickems. Do top 10 games per week. That would be fun.

I’m changing mine to May 1-10 fencelineguy told me too.

 

[Mike]

None of these fan polls mean any more than the other rankings that various sites put out. It's just opinion based fun for the fans. The teams still need to go out and prove it each week.

The hope, however, was that this would be a true representation of what our fans thought were the top 10 teams in the state. It was never intended to be a show of who had the most fans on this site.

Like I've said several times before, though, I knew we'd have these kinds of issues when it started. No big deal.

 

[wildcatfan4]

None of these fan polls mean any more than the other rankings that various sites put out. It's just opinion based fun for the fans. The teams still need to go out and prove it each week.

The hope, however, was that this would be a true representation of what our fans thought were the top 10 teams in the state. It was never intended to be a show of who had the most fans on this site.

Like I've said several times before, though, I knew we'd have these kinds of issues when it started. No big deal.

Oh no someone decided to recruit some votes haha

Should the WB peeps start complaining they only 18 votes and Gordon and Abbott have 20.

People are so comical.