Popularity Experiment
Thursday · May 29 · 2008 | 3:08 PM PDTThe word "popularity" has been getting tossed around in the comments a lot lately. Every poll I post is an opinion poll. I want a consensus of opinions on various topics like logos and goalie masks. So the idea that folks are saying you should vote based on aesthetics or any other specific element is, well, wrong in my mind.
In every poll I ask "which is better?" If there were set guidelines to make this determination by, a poll would be irrelevant. We'd simply gather data per the guidelines and come to a logical conclusion. But this is art, for lack of a better term. There is no good and bad, there's only the opinion of the person looking at it. The line about beauty being in the eye of the beholder comes to mind.
That being said, I want to try out an experiment. I want to do a series of "popularity contests" to prove a point as the Tournament of Goalie Masks winds down. I'm starting with the obvious question for a hockey blog. What's your favorite team?
About halfway down the sidebar is a ginormous poll with 30 possible responses. You're to simply select your favorite team and cast your vote. That's it. I'm curious to see who has more fans visiting the blog. So go VOTE NOW!
Reader Comments (33)
definitively a popularity test. especially considering [at the time of this comment] the 'nucks are the only team with a percentage of the fans in double digits [16%, i think the pens are closest at 9%]
canucks fans are like a canadian minority government. there are more of us against them, but in little packs and droves...
16% of over 2000 votes is a lot of canuck fans. Accept it, this is a popularity contest. I'm not debating I'm just stating. No big deal.
canucks fans are like a canadian minority government. there are more of us against them, but in little packs and droves...
The problem with these arguments is that Luongo has won his brackets by wide margins of around 20 percentage points and even more. So even if the 15% of Canucks fans were not allowed to vote, and assuming that we all only voted for Luongo, he would still win when only polling non-fans. The only exception being Luongo vs Fleury, in which case, if you remove Canucks' fans you could say that Fleury would only win due to penguins' fans.
Face it, people like Luongo's mask and they should be allowed to. Not everybody has to like the same thing that you do. I personally think that Miller's, Dipietro's and Turco's masks are horrid; but I understand that people have different tastes and I'm fine with that.
i don't know about you, canucklehead, but i'm certain i've had the oppurtunity to vote for things twice...
but seriously, what's the point in getting worked up over it? it's a random blog with pictures of masks for people to look at to take 5 minutes out of their work day.
I haven't been able to vote twice on anything as far as I know cvj.
And I don't think I'm getting worked up about it; besides, I'm not the one calling on people to form a voting block against Vancouver. I'm justing pointing out that people can't blame everything on Canucks fans. Basically, I've noticed that this blog has devolved into a vancouver bashing session.
i wasn't calling on people to vote form a 'voting block'.
i was simply making people aware of the oppurtunity that they had to simply vote against the canucks if they had such a problem with it. i could seriously care less about the results of these polls [particularly the goalie mask one].
i'm a fan of all 6 canadian teams, man. i have nothing against vancouver, i'm simply noting that there is indeed atleast a SLIGHT advantange in these polls for vancouver given that they ALMOST double the fandom of any other SINGLE team... and that i feel this slight advantage is particularly helpful to mr.luongo in relation to this contest.
were you to poll the viewers of this blog as to who their favourite goaltender was, i'm sure roberto would be in the top 3 [top 5 at worst] in this category... consider that if marty brodeur holds another spot in the top 3 favourites, that his mask sucks.
these two facts combined make for a bit of an advantage for luongo. you act as though i'm trying to insult the vancouver canucks, their fans, or the city of vancouver itself.
this is far from the case.
i've never been any further west than edmonton, but the only problem i've heard about BC is inflation.
now, i did some research and you claimed earlier that luongo had one most things by a margin of over 20 percent.. here's how it actually broke down.
current round: beating miller by 16%
3rd round beat fleury by 4%
2nd most beat toskala by 22%
1st round, beat joseph by 16%
now take a look at that nice and well... canucks fans account for 16% of the viewership of this blog. luongo won one round by that margin and is winning the current round by the same margin... he beat fleury by 4%, [a slim margin that could be accounted for by the canucks fans high turnout]
the only round he won by more than 16% was toskala, who has either the best mask in the tournament, or the worst, depending on the comments you read in the two rounds he was involved in.
either way, man. i'm not trying to be a jerk, and if i have, i apologize. i'm simply trying to note that even the web has this fancy thing called 'demographics' and they tend to dictate how opinion based information is collected. this is a case of that happening. case closed.
I’m sorry; but I said that he won most of his brackets by “around” 20 and more. It was an approximation. And when the poll result is 58% to 42%, I don’t think rounding to 60/40 is unreasonable. I also was including Luongo’s first round bracket vs Cloutier, which he won 89/11. At any rate, the numbers just prove my point that you have to take the extreme measure of barring Vancouver fans from voting to even make it close, and again, that’s assuming that we’re all voting only for Lou, which we don’t. So while I agree that Luongo MAY have a slight advantage, that’s still not enough to blame us for his wide margins of victories. Otherwise, as I’ve mentioned before, we should have won every logo tournament previous.
And while Luongo’s popularity may also give him an advantage, that’s still not enough otherwise Brodeur should also still be in it. But he’s not; because people don’t like his mask. But they appear to like Luongo’s. At any rate, this argument could be made of DiPietro or Miller, yet I don’t see people calling to vote against them because they’re DiPietro or Miller. And I apologize if you feel that I’m singling you out as that is certainly not my intention. But when you call on people to vote against Luongo even if they like his mask, you have to understand how people can look at it as “let’s-get-back-at-Luo/Van”. I understand that wasn’t your intention, though, and am sorry for implying that.
In the end, as you've said, it's just supposed to be a fun poll and should be taken as such.
and as such, i will discontinue this line of discussion, as the points i make are falling on nothing but dead ears.
wow canucklehead you are getting worked up over nothing. I don't care if it is a popularity vote. I could care less. The fact remains the amount of canuck fans is helping bobby lu win. No big deal. Just like the amount of Oiler fans helped them win the 3rd logo contest. Oh well case closed. sheesh.