Week 3 / Topic 2 Voting!

[aggienaut]

Tribal Inequalities

   At the close of this poll, the bottem 4% of Tribe 1 will be knocked off, 2.4% of Tribe 2, 2% of Tribe 3, 5.6% of Tribe 4, and 3% of Tribe 5. This is because the last person is being knocked off of each bracket and they consist of 25, 41, 51, 18, and 33 writers, respectively.
   Now I'm sitting very pretty since all I have to do is be better than at least one of the 50 other writers in Tribe 3, but I sure am glad I'm not vying with only 24 others, or a mere 17 in the unenviable position of Tribe 4.
   What did these writers do to put themselves in such danger? Merely have smaller friends lists!!

   I submit to you that THIS MAKES NO SENSE, and that the people with smaller friends lists should NOT be penalized. If anything, the people with the bigger friends lists (which again would include myself) should be the ones things are stacked against.

   I think the contestants should be divided into brackets of 33 or 34 each, based solely on friends-of size (no moving people around just because they got a lot of votes for their friends-of size, if they're good for their size they're good for their size).

/rocking the boat


   Having read through the writers in my bracket, I would like to recommend to the commentariat that the following entries are highly worth reading:
On the Topic of Things They Don't Care About:
lifeinamarble - Apathy Alert Table
boxsofrain - E. coli and S. pyogenes
hexkitten - Donkey Noises and How to Avoid Them
ka_crow - "My Apathy, Let Me Show You It"
sabbysteg - Things Sarah Palin Didn't Care About, But Should've
mshades - Some Observations Gleaned From Time Travel
darkprism - [Some Fictive Prose]
and of course...
emo_snal - The ITS/IT'S Rule (well that wasn't my official entry but I think I liked it better)
   So go forth and read these excellent entries and then vote for them.


Note to LJ-Idolators: While I've read all of Bracket 3 I've read very few of the other brackets. I hope to get around to it but in the mean time please advise me of entries I should be aware of! And again feel free to promote yourself in the comments!
   

Completely Unrelated Picture of the Day

Fun with sepiatone at the Irvine train station

Comments

[superhappytime.livejournal.com]

you should only be aware of my entry, which is awesome.

rocking the boat is DANGEROUS!

personally, in the past, I've never minded being in the smaller groups...even though, statistically, I guess there is more of a chance of being eliminated. but I just feel like I can score better than those drawing on a small friend list, even when I had a small friend list.

that said, if it works as in the past, the people will get more votes will be continuously bumped up until all the people end up in one big, happy tribe...of course, in the past, the new people weren't separated...so we'll see how that unfolds.

[caersidi.livejournal.com]

I'm still trying to get my head around the tribe situation. It is interesting that Tribe #3 is so large.

I would think that splitting the newbies from the vets is because the vets have built up a following no matter how large or small their friends list with the LJIdol members and readership in general.

[superhappytime.livejournal.com]

you could be correct...I just assumed it was to try something different...or an homage to Survivor.

the tribe thing makes sense to me, though...if everyone were thrown into the pool together on day 1, the one's with the little friend lists would get picked off pretty quickly when you're eliminating 5 a week...this gives them more of a chance to establish a readership...but once they prove they can hold their own, they're moved up.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah actually I don't mind the vets being in a seperate category. I don't know if they actually have an advantage or not but whatever. What really concerned me was that the situation made it harder for the people with the most disadvantage -- those with smaller friends lists. I just feel like everyone should have an equal chance of getting eliminated, statistically speaking, every week.

[spydielives.livejournal.com]

There is, at least at this stage of the game, a distinct ADvantage to being in a small tribe, at least if you start out a strong writer.

If the goal is to be read, this is far more likely in a smaller group. With so many entries to read, people are going to focus on their own tribes, and then the small ones, and then the large ones last (if they read).

Don't you think?

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Hmm I know I, as mentioned, have concentrated on reading my own bracket. Do most people do that?

And even if they ARE getting read more, they're getting picked off at twice the rate of some other tribes ... so whats the point of being read if you and the people reading you are all going to get kicked before things even really start rolling?

[spydielives.livejournal.com]

Because if you **are** a strong writer, you won't be picked off. You will get the votes from members of other tribes. Eventually you might even get moved up. Strong writers don't fail - that part of the system works.

In theory, a pre-existing fan base [i.e. large pool of friends] will only take someone so far in the game, regardless of their talent. Eventually, it is about their ability to keep everyone voting for them, especially during special votes.

[caersidi.livejournal.com]

I hadn't considered that because I'm reading everyone from the topic post and not so conscious of the tribes.

However, you are right about the focus thing especially if someone has limited time for reading.

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

I must admit, it was only when I realised just how much smaller my tribe was than almost all the others that I was concerned. Right now, I'm doing really, really well, so I'm confident of getting through this week, but who knows how that'll pan out for me in future? It has been said to me that doing really well early on isn't necessarily a good thing because it marks you out as a target once things get political. My friends list is predominantly other competitors anyway, so I don't know how much I can count on their votes, but having said that, at the moment I have about 3x the number of votes than size of my FL, so that heartens me that a lot of people do read stuff that's not their tribe/FL and vote for it if they like it.

I do think the tribes should be roughly the same size - it doesn't make sense to have some more than twice the size of others. But then, before I entered this season I was prepared for things to happen that wouldn't necessarily be how I would do things or might appear unfair (I thoroughly disagreed with knocking two people out just before the finals last season), which is why I made the decision to try not to become too emotionally engaged. There WILL be something that I won't like. It might even be the thing that sees me out of the competition. Them's the breaks.

Getting Political

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Haha reminds me another post I almost posted here somewhere: Life's Not Fair - Or Why You Shouldn't Care if the Bailout Is.

But in spite of what I say in the entry linked to, I think things should be as fair as possible when possible. And in this case, it seems to me the desirability of giving the "tribes" fair odds outweighs the counterarguments I've heard against it.

Also being a first timer here, I'm intrigued and alarmed by the intimations I've heard a few times about how things "get political" and vicious later! O=

Re: Getting Political

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

You're a first timer too? I did not know that.

Yes, things did seem to get quite nasty as the competition progressed last season. I was only watching from the sidelines, but some people did take things very, very personally and some of the twists were a little controversial, to say the least. Quite a few alternative competitions sprang up as a result, but I don't know that they necessarily solved the problems people had with the real LJ Idol, just created new and different ones. People also had voting alliances to try and get rid of their biggest competition and there was a lot of plotting and stewing, which, IMVHO, was really over the top for what is basically a banner you can stick on your LJ. I mean, it's not like you're going to get a publishing deal out of this or people will ask for your autograph in the street.

Yes, I agree that things should be as fair as possible. But at the same time, this is Gary's sandpit, not mine and he gets to fix the rules. He makes no bones about how heavily influenced he is by reality shows when it comes to how the season pans out and I've watched enough of them to know that fairness rarely comes into it - it's all about the entertainment. So I'm just going to write to the best of my ability (which, in all honesty, I don't think is that great right now) and enjoy the ride as much as I can. Even if I get knocked out next week, the votes I'm getting right now will keep my ego fueled for quite some time...

Re: Getting Political

[spydielives.livejournal.com]

It is another one of those cases where people bring to the game their own personalities. If they are laid back, their approach to the game is too. If they like to play cut-throat monopoly, they will try to use every possible ability to win here.

And so on.

It is really up to each individual player to define winning (their goals) and to know what their own limits are as far as behavior.

[at least, that is my perspective... YMMV]

Shameless promotion.

[http://users.livejournal.com/____hejira/]

A happ medium between Bible thumper and wretched sinner... (http://users.livejournal.com/____hejira/64922.html)

Read and vote please!
And you're right about the tribal weirdness...what's up with that.

Re: Shameless promotion.

[http://users.livejournal.com/____hejira/]

I meant "happy" medium. Ugh...I should know beter than to try and create clever links while exhausted.

[darkprism.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the shout-out! :D

I'm all stressing this week 'cause the tribe is so large...I took some time yesterday to look at all the tribes and do some simple math, and I was marveling at the sheer size of Tribe 3, myself.

Eh...I just hope to keep the creativity going, enjoy the topics, and, as the rules say, "write my ass off."

It would also probably be helpful if I'd ever actually seen an episode of "Survivor" or...any other reality show, for that matter. :-/

~*~

Having Not Seen Survivor

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Hahaha yeah I mentioned that in my intro - that I have never seen a single episode of "American Idol," not a minute of it. Same goes with survivor.

I still think the big bracket is advantagous. In addition to having a smaller chance of getting knocked off (as I mention, all we have to do right now is be better than at least ONE of fifty other writers, as opposed to one of 17), if people actually read through everyone in the bracket one will be read by more people than if we were in a smaller bracket.

Re: Having Not Seen Survivor

[jenandbronze.livejournal.com]

yah every time I tried to watch Americna Idol, I get the looks, you are deaf, how you know they sang good?

[baxaphobia.livejournal.com]

Now don't you know you need to read my entry? hahahaahahahah. Or did you? smile!

[boxsofrain.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for shouting me out. :)

[mermaidkween.livejournal.com]

I really didn't like putting people together by sizes of flists -- if I'd known that was going to happen, I would make my filter list the size of my friends list. Because there are so many people on there who never post or that I just don't read. :\

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I would have liked them to do it by friends-of, not by friends, since what matters is how many people read YOU, not how many people you read. Cause quite frankly, the difference between my friends and friends-of is kind of huge. But I probably still have enough friends-of that I'd have been in the biggest category. Just sayin. (=

[sabbysteg.livejournal.com]

Gracias for the link!

I think I agree with you about the friends-of, not the friends list. Though I am not sure even that is a good measure, since I know about 2/3 of my list of friends-of are inactive.

To solve that, randomly assign groups of equal or near-equal numbers. Mix it up every week. Or use a scientific sampling method to mix the groups up.

It amuses me how people get so worked up about this thing. I have some thoughts about strategy that I won't share right now...but the alliance thing, I know I haven't been approached and don't know what I'd do if I were. I am halfway between thinking it's silly and seeing the possibly necessity in the end game if you care about winning.

I've seen a few posts that hinted at someone not liking another contestant. That is always interesting to watch. It should be even more interesting to see how much worse it gets. I just hope I don't get swept away, even if that means I get eliminated early.

The voting off part is always so anticlimactic IMO.

Alliances

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah this alliance thing sounds silly. I think it should always just be about the quality of entries, and anything that subverts that should be avoided (though I like the moderator ("Gary"?)'s laissez faire nonintervention stance on things).

Also apparently last year fairly early on the brackets were completely rearranged so this current arrangement might be highly temporary.

Really I don't care what its based on just for different people to have such wildly different odds of being knocked off as it is now, and particularly for it seem to make it harder for the people who are already most disadvantaged, just seems really undesirable to me.

[thepheenixeyri.livejournal.com]

I know I'm late. But technophile.
> I'm not sure whether he's in four or five....

Phoenix

Technophile

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah at first I was like "I don't get it its just a bunch of songs!! Why is everyone voting for him!?!?!" then I looked at comments to figure out what the hell was going on and realized they were strung along to make a poem of sorts. I wonder how he did that.