Announcing Usenet Artist Polls
Erland Sommarskog
of polls on various artists' albums. I have decided to pick
up Alan's fallen mantle, and run a number of these polls.
What was particular interesting with Alan's polls was that
you ranked all albums you knew with the artist, not only
your top 5 or 10. Then his algorithm evened out the number
of appearances. Not only it gave a better impression on what
was considered as the #1 album, but also which album that was
regarded as the weakest.
I'm starting this series with Deep Purple, but this should
in no way be taken as an indication on what groups I will
include. I am open for all proposals, both artists I know
about, and those I don't. As I recall Alan made his polls
on the following groups: Alan Parsons Project, Joe Jackson,
Elvis Costello, Yes, Genesis, Richard & Linda Thompson and
Rush. The result of the Rush poll was never published, but
I took a top-5 poll on Rush in January 1990. Since these
polls are quite old by now, I see no reason to ban these
artists from the present series.
Below follows an attempt to explain the algorithm. You can
skip it if you like and move to the call for votes which
gives the exact ballot format.
I'm not sure that I ever really understood Alan's algorithm,
but I have invented one myself (which probably is the same
as Alan's). Assume an artist has made five albums, A, B, C, D
E and F. You have only heard A-E, and you rank them ABCDE.
Since A is first it receives 1 point and E which is last gets
zero. BCD are equally divided in this interval and B gets 0.75,
C 0.5 and D 0.25. If you list F as well, your winner still gets
1 and your loser a zero. The in-betweens now get 0.8, 0.6, 0.4
and 0.2. Then I put all ballots together and takes the average
point for each album. So the number of times an album is mentioned
doesn't matter except that it has to be on three ballots to be
included in the result. When I present the result I multiply
the number of points with 1000 to get a nice display. I also include
the number of ballots the albums was mentioned, and on how many it
was #1 or last. Because of ties, this number can be fractional.
Now, I have added two more features to make it more sophisticated,
ties and fillers.
Assume now that you really can't tell which is best of B and
C, so you vote ABCDE and say that B and C makes a tie. Both
will now get 0.67 points from your ballot. If you declare a
tie with A and B as top albums, they both get 0.83 points, and
thus no album gets 1. In the column for times #1 A and B will
get 0.5 each from your ballot.
Another situation may be that you find that A-C are all decent
works, yet they are in a distinct order. D and E on the other
hand is real crap, you think. So it doesn't feel really OK to
give D 0.25 while C gets 0.5. This is where you can use a filler.
A filler is one or more empty placeholder on the ballot. Assume
you add a filler of 6. This results in a ballot with 11 items
where of six empty. Result: A - 1, B - 0.9, C - 0.8, D - 0.1,
E - 0.
Note: bridge players recognizes the idea of dividing an interval
in a number of equal steps. The difference is just that the top
is normalized to 1 and not the usual 2*(n-1).
--
Erland Sommarskog - ENEA Data, Stockholm - som...@enea.se
Erland Sommarskog
I'm starting a series of polls on various artists' works. The
first group whose album to vote on is:
Deep Purple
How to vote: list all Deep Purple albums you know in your
order of preferencce, starting with your favourite. Enter
one album per line. Do not number them or anything else.
Precede the list with &BEGIN and close it with &END. (I'm
using a program to count the votes.) You have to know two
Deep Purple albums to participate, so don't be shy.
*MAIL* your vote ballot to me, som...@enea.se. Idiots who post
will be flamed to crisps. Deadline is June 8th.
If you can't tell two or more albums apart you can declare a
tie. You do this by preceding the albums with &TIE. The tie
lasts until the next &END.
If you feel that there is a big gap between two albums you
can mark this with a filler. A filler has the format &FILLERn
where n is a positive number, default is 1.
Ballot example: (For an imaginary group, not Deep Purple.)
&BEGIN
She Comes in the Morning
Next Day
&TIE
Looks Like Trouble
Futuralized
&END
On the Way Down
Cram it!
&FILLER20
Last Really Crappy Album
&END
See the introductory posting if you are curious on the algorithm
for summarizing the polls.
Erland Sommarskog
time.
I would also like to add some on which albums to vote on. Deep
Purple are a little tricky since there are plenty of compilations,
post-mortem live albums. Also I had one voter who thought that
the Concerto for Group of Orchestra did not belong. So: the Concerto
is definitely in; that an original Deep Purple album. In are also
live albums like "Live in London" and "Scandinavian Nights". They
include performances which do not appear elsewhere. Compilations
which mainly comprise material which appears elsewhere (e.g.
"24 Carat Purple" are less interesting to me, but do as you feel.
Bootlegs are out of course.
If you excluded some and want to change your mind, please do.
Just mention that it's a replacement vote.
This is what I said in the first posting:
)As I announced in an introductury article in rec.music.misc
)I'm starting a series of polls on various artists' works. The
)first group whose album to vote on is:
)
) Deep Purple
)
)How to vote: list all Deep Purple albums you know in your
)order of preferencce, starting with your favourite. Enter
)one album per line. Do not number them or anything else.
)Precede the list with &BEGIN and close it with &END. (I'm
)using a program to count the votes.) You have to know two
)Deep Purple albums to participate, so don't be shy.
)
)*MAIL* your vote ballot to me, som...@enea.se. Idiots who post
)will be flamed to crisps. Deadline is June 8th.
)
)If you can't tell two or more albums apart you can declare a
)tie. You do this by preceding the albums with &TIE. The tie
)lasts until the next &END.
)
)If you feel that there is a big gap between two albums you
)can mark this with a filler. A filler has the format &FILLERn
)where n is a positive number, default is 1.
)
)Ballot example: (For an imaginary group, not Deep Purple.)
)&BEGIN
)She Comes in the Morning
)Next Day
)&TIE
)Looks Like Trouble
)Futuralized
)&END
)On the Way Down
)Cram it!
)&FILLER20
)Last Really Crappy Album
)&END
)
)See the introductory posting if you are curious on the algorithm
)for summarizing the polls.