This is the Third Annual Shmoo Poll! This is the first time I myself am calling it the shmoo poll. Why is that?

PLEASE READ THE RULES!

I’m trying something different this year. Head on over to http://obner.org/poll/ and check out the ballot. Despite the ballot being hosted on obner, you do not need to be a registered member of obner to participate.

Here's how it works:

Everybody ranks their top 20 (or less) albums of the year and submits them on the above website. I conduct the point scale as follows:

Ranked 1-5: 4 points
Ranked 6-10: 3 points
Ranked 11-15: 2 points
Ranked 16-20: 1 point

This way you don't have to decide an exact ranking and there isn't a huge spread of points separating albums at the top from the bottom. Feel free to leave blanks.

So then I rank them and we get an overall top 20 or so. I always end up posting the entire rankings though, because people want to see where their favorite album landed if it’s not in the top 20. And then I post the SAS code so Sketch can have a look.

Please only vote for albums released in 2004. I will count votes for everything, however, so don't screw up the poll. The drop-down lists only includes albums of new material released for the first time in 2004. So Elbow’s album, released in the UK in 2003, or the Les Savy Fav singles compilation, are not listed. That doesn’t mean you can’t vote for them though, as there are write-in slots.

Please use the drop-down list whenever possible. It makes things much easier for me. I know many of you are blind, but look again if you don’t see something. Artists named after a member of the band (i.e., “Matt Pond PA”, “Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds”) will be under the last name (“Pond, Matt PA”, “Cave, Nick & The Bad Seeds”). Also, a band whose name starts with the (“The M’s”, “The Walkmen”) will be under the second word in their name (“M’s, The”, “Walkmen, The”).

Also, please include your username. If I don't recognize your username, I will check your profile and look at your posts. If I decide you're a street-teamer, then your votes won't count. If you're not a street-teamer, but I don't recognize your username, you can still vote. Please don't be discouraged if you're a newer poster. Sorry, don't be a street-teamer. CMJ employees who post regularly are eligible.

The deadline for this poll is January 15th, 2005 and 11pm Eastern Time, so you should have plenty of time.

Only entries submitted via the http://obner.org/poll/ site will be accepted. Entries posted in this thread will not be counted (unless also submitted via the site).

Thanks to HaqDiesel for setting up the web-ballot and to z for helping compile the list of 2004 albums and finding some bugs on the ballot.

If you have any problems with the ballot, it’s probably because you’re computer illiterate. However, feel free to PM HaqDiesel or myself if you still can’t figure it out.

Any questions?

Haq, sticky me!

Done. Glad to have it over with. I was only cool enough to have 1 write in. Billzebub will be at it all day.

cool concept. i'll sort mine out later today.

Wicked awesome.

The time is now.

no ghostface in the ballot? did i miss it?

Holy amazing amount of work!
WOW!

Damn.

shmoo poll 2004= most technologically advanced shmoo poll yet

Great work, shmoo... now, I have to get serious and nail this down to 20.

I think my list is so shitty that the Shmoo poll won't accept it. Keep getting a message that my #1 and 2 choice are the same. They aren't

Steve

Everybody, make sure you get the confirmation page when you submit. A pop-up message generally indicates some sort of probem, not the acceptance of your submission.

Steve - PM me your #1 and #2 and I'll have Haq look into it.

thanks for putting the work into making this happen, shmoo & haq.

now i'm having a really f'ing hard time with placing stuff in or out of the top 20.

HOLY MOLY!!! This is awesome. I'm working on mine, but I'm not going to turn it in until after I get back from vacation. I anticipate on picking up a few more albums on my trip.

how do we know if it sent - I just keep getting a funny pop up message

This is really cool. Although I sort of wish that the point system was different, like usual. So that like #1 = 20 pont, #2 = 19, #3 = 18, etc.

But oh well. I'll be filling one out in the coming days.

You should get taken to a confirmation page. I'm not sure why everyone keeps getting these messages, I've had no problems. What does your message say?

"Man, that album in #s 1 and 2 is SO good. Why don't you just put it in EVERY spot?"

i guess the write-ins just go in the Artist and Title boxes to the right?

I got the error message, too.

Grrrr....

Probably the only vote for Hop On Pop, too!

Yeah, there is some kind of problem, Shmoo. Thought it was just me being my usual moronic self.

Steve

i'm getting the same error.

Ditto.

Were I a betting man (which I am) I would say there is something wrong with the function isDupEntry. But that's as far as I can go with my debugging skills.

Shmoo,

suggestion: to alleviate any doubt as to whether you got someone's
submission, maybe you could post the usernames of those lists' you have received?

Again, thanks to Haq, Shmoo and z for their work on this.

I have received:

chase
monty