Personally, i think that the site has gotten extremely cultish laargely because of their absence. Of course, the people who vote in exchange for votes and give nothing but 5s will still probably dominate the charts, but at least authors who don't have time to comment all the time will have a little more of a chance for recognition.  It might also have to be made clear to quite a few people that a 5-3-4 for a serious parody is not something to be ashamed of. There will always be problems with people trying to cheat, but i think the positives outweigh the  negatives. Any thoughts?

p.s. obviously there wouldn'tt be any point to an all time top 100 considering the disappearing vote incident.

There's still the list of parody authors with the total parodies written and average score, right?

What other chart is there, and what purpose does it serve?

There's still the list of parody authors with the total parodies written and average score, right?

What other chart is there, and what purpose does it serve?


this one:

http://amiright.com/parody/votingresults.shtml

I still generate it... who knows why >grin<  I just don't link to it anywhere on the site.

It's a sampling of the top vote getters for the past week, month and all time.  Since fradulant votes can be generated by technically savy folks (not really that difficult), these type of charts tend to encourage folks to boost their vote counts in the hopes of getting into the "top 10." I've never cared for the top tens, I always felt people shouldn't be trying to "compete" against one another, but trying to gauge how their parodies are being perceived.

On the other hand, I wish there was a means to help highlight the best parodies submitted.  If you visit the site for the first time, and the first five parodies you check out are all lesser quality, you'd be less interested in reading more.  There's now over 30,000 parodies submitted.  Some are duplicates, some are not very good.  It's a lot for a first time visitor to filter through.

The contests board help in this regard, since you get to see what other parody authors like.  I've been thinking of adding the feed from that board to the site, so people know more about them (maybe get more involved).

All I know, is I don't want to arbitrate what is "good" and what isn't.  It's bad enough I try and filter out the sexual stuff (there are younger folks hitting the site, and it hurts site access if the site is deemed adult content by filtering companies). On the other hand, good work shouldn't go unrecognized.  Double edged sword really.

The Top Tens had their flaws from a critical standpoint and I never liked them from a personal standpoint. The critical aspect has already been described very well by JD and Chucky.

Personally, I was always annoyed by the fact that I never placed. I was around for 6 or 7 months before they were canned and not once during that time did I place. At times I felt that this was somehow an indication of the 'quality' of my parodies, and I found myself getting annoyed at guys like Guy DiRito and Johnny D who seemed to place every other day in my view. You can call me sour from taking them too seriously, you can call me bitter, you can call me Frank for all I care, but personally the Top Tens were always a thorn in my side and I was happy to see them go.

this one:

On the other hand, I wish there was a means to help highlight the best parodies submitted.  If you visit the site for the first time, and the first five parodies you check out are all lesser quality, you'd be less interested in reading more.  There's now over 30,000 parodies submitted.  Some are duplicates, some are not very good.  It's a lot for a first time visitor to filter through.

The contests board help in this regard, since you get to see what other parody authors like.  I've been thinking of adding the feed from that board to the site, so people know more about them (maybe get more involved).

All I know, is I don't want to arbitrate what is "good" and what isn't.  It's bad enough I try and filter out the sexual stuff (there are younger folks hitting the site, and it hurts site access if the site is deemed adult content by filtering companies). On the other hand, good work shouldn't go unrecognized.  Double edged sword really.

I agree with you 100%.  I remember when I first came here, it took me awhile to realize how good some of the stuff was, and I never felt the top ten lists--especially the all-time top ten list--gave a truly accurate account.  I've been hoping all along that you'd be willing to provide a link to the Song of the Month winners page but didn't want to ask since I know you have hesitation about encouraging people to cheat.  But after a year of competition, there's been no controversy that I'm aware of.  Not everyone can win, of course, so not everyone will be *happy happy* with the voting, but there's been no hint of foul play in any way.  Is something like this a possibility?  I'll certainly understand if you don't want to, but I do think there's some great stuff here and the SOTM seems as good a way as any to sort it out so the best stuff doesn't get buried immediately.  I thank you in advance for your consideration.

I agree with you 100%.  I remember when I first came here, it took me awhile to realize how good some of the stuff was, and I never felt the top ten lists--especially the all-time top ten list--gave a truly accurate account.  I've been hoping all along that you'd be willing to provide a link to the Song of the Month winners page but didn't want to ask since I know you have hesitation about encouraging people to cheat.  But after a year of competition, there's been no controversy that I'm aware of.  Not everyone can win, of course, so not everyone will be *happy happy* with the voting, but there's been no hint of foul play in any way.  Is something like this a possibility?  I'll certainly understand if you don't want to, but I do think there's some great stuff here and the SOTM seems as good a way as any to sort it out so the best stuff doesn't get buried immediately.  I thank you in advance for your consideration.


I tend to agree with this as well.  The benefit of having the Top 10 lists, or being on them, is exposure.  The longer your song is on a page that says "These are the top ten songs of the week/month/millenium", the more people will look at them.  And the more people will cheat to get on them...or even give songs 1s to knock other songs down so theirs can go up.   If you look at the all-time list, most of the songs in the top 10 have at least 50 1-1-1 votes!

As an idea, if we're talking about an SOTM Winners page, maybe have the winners of the past 12 months, and the top 5 from the most recent month.  Or, if there's room, all the songs from the current month, so the person at #6 doesn't get slighted, each person who enters gets one song per month that might get a little extra exposure, and there's a link on the site which shows the top song from each author, to theoretically display the best parodies that month had to offer.

i personally don't care about top ten lists as much as the top 100 lists

I agree with you 100%.  I remember when I first came here, it took me awhile to realize how good some of the stuff was, and I never felt the top ten lists--especially the all-time top ten list--gave a truly accurate account.  I've been hoping all along that you'd be willing to provide a link to the Song of the Month winners page but didn't want to ask since I know you have hesitation about encouraging people to cheat.  But after a year of competition, there's been no controversy that I'm aware of.  Not everyone can win, of course, so not everyone will be *happy happy* with the voting, but there's been no hint of foul play in any way.  Is something like this a possibility?  I'll certainly understand if you don't want to, but I do think there's some great stuff here and the SOTM seems as good a way as any to sort it out so the best stuff doesn't get buried immediately.  I thank you in advance for your consideration.


The song of the month was being posted as news on the front page for a while... so I don't see an issue with adding a link to the page of the winners, break downs, etc.  Are you talking about a left-hand link like the messageboard links, etc?  Or just a link on the front page of the site with something in it, like the lyrics quiz type section?

it's been awhile since I've changed up the front page, or really the design in general of amiright.  I haven't got the time at the moment, since I want to do inthe80s over for it's big 10 year anniversary, but I do plan on making changes on amiright later this year.  I can always make incremental changes now if it'll increase usefullness of the site, or generate additional traffic, better exposure for the quality stuff on the site.

The song of the month was being posted as news on the front page for a while... so I don't see an issue with adding a link to the page of the winners, break downs, etc.  Are you talking about a left-hand link like the messageboard links, etc?  Or just a link on the front page of the site with something in it, like the lyrics quiz type section?

it's been awhile since I've changed up the front page, or really the design in general of amiright.  I haven't got the time at the moment, since I want to do inthe80s over for it's big 10 year anniversary, but I do plan on making changes on amiright later this year.  I can always make incremental changes now if it'll increase usefullness of the site, or generate additional traffic, better exposure for the quality stuff on the site.

Yeah, I always submit a news item about it linking to the thread where all the winners from every month are posted.  All I was talking about was a permanent link to that thread, which would contain not just the winners but info about the contest, a link to the current contest thread, and down below anyone who hasn't placed in the top three has always been welcome to post all their own entries for posterity, though no one has yet.  I assume just linking to an existing page would be easiest for you but others may have different ideas.  I particularly like Jeff's idea about highlighting current songs more for awhile.  I know you're terribly busy but I just wanted to let you know I'm extremely enthusiastic about finding a way to keep the better parodies from getting buried so quickly.  Thank you.

Yeah, I always submit a news item about it linking to the thread where all the winners from every month are posted.  All I was talking about was a permanent link to that thread, which would contain not just the winners but info about the contest, a link to the current contest thread, and down below anyone who hasn't placed in the top three has always been welcome to post all their own entries for posterity, though no one has yet.  I assume just linking to an existing page would be easiest for you but others may have different ideas.  I particularly like Jeff's idea about highlighting current songs more for awhile.  I know you're terribly busy but I just wanted to let you know I'm extremely enthusiastic about finding a way to keep the better parodies from getting buried so quickly.  Thank you.


I can do that too.  Make the post you want linked, and I'll sticky it on the board and put a link to it on the site.

I can do that too.  Make the post you want linked, and I'll sticky it on the board and put a link to it on the site.

Really?  Wow, thanks.  No rush or anything, but here it is:

Song of the Month Contest

speaking as someone with 2 songs on the top 10 overall (AHEM AHEM!! lol) i say leave them off. speaking as someone who doesn't always have a lot of time to get into the site to find the best songs i say bring them back. I guess it was just easier then for me to read the good songs instead of surfing through every new listing.

I think the site is better that they're gone though. It wasn't an accurate depiction of the best songs. I think we're on the right track with contests (SOTM) and junk, but there needs to be a more accessable way to view results according to lazy me.

Here's another vote for linking to SOTM entries and/or winners from the front page of Amiright.

Much like Claude, on my first visit to the site, I clicked straight to the "charts" to find the supposed best stuff - and came away unimpressed. I didn't return for a while. Fortunately for me, I did return and spent more time digging around; I remember finding impressive stuff by Bob Gomez and others, so I decided to camp out for a while.

I both liked and disliked the charts; while a few of the positions were taken by the actual cream of the crap, others were obviously vote-fudgers. (Come on, you have to admit that a high percentage of the songs in the all-time top 100 are pretty lame.) (Not counting your songs, of course, dear reader.) (So why anyone would brag in their author bio about being on that chart is beyond me.) Anyhoo, while the charts were a good way to sift through the huge number of parodies being submitted, they also weren't. Dig?

Allah Bless Claude, therefore, for coming up with the SOTM contests. They are a great way for authors to push their best stuff forward for a second look, and the voting seems hard to cheat on. (For example, I had to fake an entirely new screen persona, "Claude Prez," in order to vote for my own stuff, but I doubt that normal people would go to such lengths.)

So. Link away, Chucky. Thank you for your consideration. And to those who aren't participating in the SOTM contests: What the heck is wrong with you? Get over here! The February round starts as soon as we complete this (not-quite-a-)month.

xoxox
Spaff

I both liked and disliked the charts; while a few of the positions were taken by the actual cream of the crap,

sic]

xoxox
Spaff

Is there a way that everyone could have a password to enter a voting thread?  At the end of the month, all songs would be listed on this thread.  Whether you wrote that month or not, you would enter the thread through the password (ensuring one vote) and vote for the top five, within two weeks.  Those top five would be listed and the last two weeks you would vote for the top three.  You could then generate a top ten list each month based on the outcome of the results of the first two weeks voting.

Another idea:

I joined this site about 4 days before the top ten lists were deleted, leaving me utterly confused at what button I had pressed to delete screw up the site. Anyway, without having a top ten list to look for, and I assume many other visitors would do the same,
I simply searched for parodies by the band name.

For example, when you go to http://www.amiright.com/artists/beatles.shtml and scroll down to the 'Song Parodies' section, you get the latest Beatles song parodies. Could this be changed to accomodate the top ten beatles parodies by vote?
This way people could find the better parodies of songs they actually know.
I can see how voter fraud could still be a problem, and is unavoidable at present, but there isn't as much glory as exposure to those who like similar music.