therealljidol | Green Room - Week 8

People ask me all the time, "Where do babies come from?"

and I tell them to ask their parents.

Because I don't want to be the one to break it to them that everyone other than me is completely imaginary.

But they also ask me "Where do votes come from?" and that is something I *can* answer.

It's different here at DW, and the ratio isn't always exact. There are fewer contestants here, and because of that there are fewer voters, and (so far) less "pop ins" from former contestants than on average. But I thought that I would take last week as a an example and maybe you will learn something in the process. Not about babies though. You're on your own there.

Last week had 58 voters.

Current contestants: 31
Eliminated contestants (this season): 7
Me: 1
Former contestants (previous season): 4
Friends/strangers: 15 (mostly from LJ)

What can we learn from this one random sample? First of all - not all contestants vote.

People who are eliminated don't always stick around every week. (You tend to see them vote for a couple weeks and then wander away. Traditionally, they come back later in the season and vote heavily in the last couple of weeks)

I always vote. :)

There's not much (this week) of people crossing over from our LJ ranks from contestants in previous seasons EXCEPT when it comes to readers. Most of those 15 are names I recognize from having voted in LJ polls. (Some are new - I assume they came from pimping elsewhere. Hope they stay!)

Which is why I keep stressing to tell people about what is happening here and also to mention anything you've seen to make sure others have as well.

The latter comes in with that shrinking 31 (shrinking if the "eliminated" stat continues to hold up, and it will). Because your fellow writers are some of your biggest potential supporters. If you don't sell them on your work/someone else's work that you enjoy - no one will.

The former comes in because when the rest current contestant votes start to shrink, the votes coming in from other supporters is what is going to keep you afloat. So please make sure to spread the word. (On average, the vast majority of voters who show up to vote for one person and stay for more than 2 weeks, will be voting for 3-4 by their 4th week. I think that says a lot. By bringing people over, even if you think it's for selfish reasons of "vote for me!", they aren't just going to do that. Which is why it's always important to tell them right out of the gate to read and vote for their favorites. (which may or may not end up including you)

***
The topic is up: https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1018259.html Just remember to only post your entry link/bye declaration there. If it's anything else, it will be deleted. The Green Room is where everything else goes. (including the Home Game)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

murielle

Good morning!

This is interesting. Very interesting.

From:

clauderainsrm

I got curious, so of those 15 friends/strangers:

Voted for 1 person: 7
Voted for 2-3 people: 1
Voted for more than 4 people: 7

From:

murielle

That's even more interesting.

From:

clauderainsrm

Decided to break down those 31 votes:

Voted for 1 person - 7
Voted for 2-4 people - 4
Voted for more than 4 people - 20

Of those voting for 1 person - 6 of them were early voters. Meaning they may have put a "preliminary" vote in during the first day of the poll, and intended to come back and add more, but didn't.

4 of the 7 were for themselves. But that also means that 3 of the 7 who voted for only one person - voted for someone other than themselves. To me, that's interesting.

All of the "more than 4 votes" people voted in the back half of the poll. (toward the end. Maybe the last day/day and a half)

2 of those eliminated from this mini season voted for 1 person. The other 5 voted for multiple.

3 of the 4 previous contestants (from other seasons) voted for more than one person.

1 voted for everyone.

Not going to say what group this person was in - but one person only voted for byes. :)

From:

murielle

Still interested, but utterly confused. ;-)

From:

clauderainsrm

Since this is apparently a private conversation today, what are you confused about? ;)

From:

murielle

Well, having read through the thread again...I think I was confused about whether you were talking about friends and strangers voting, or us voting for us...I had a short nap after posting, not quite as confused as before. Nightmare woke me up. (TMI--I know.) :-)

From:

clauderainsrm

I assume the nightmare was about me! All nightmares should be about me! :)

From:

murielle

Not this time, Gary. Whew! Caught a lucky break there, didn't I? ;-)

From:

swirlsofpurple

This is really intriguing.

From:

clauderainsrm

I'm glad someone else thinks so. *I* always think it's intriguing - especially when you get even deeper into it, which I'm the only one who ever does that. :D

"So and so is more likely to vote for (this kind of thing)"

From:

the_eternal_overthinker

Ah! The person voting only for byes is interesting information ;) The rest is too much maths which I hate :P

From:

murielle

Ditto! Ditto! :-)

From:

kehlen.livejournal.com

Thank you for breaking it up, it is really interesting, and I also see myself à lot in the general trends. :)

I seldom stick around for long after I am voted out, and only vote for common friends when they ask.

I'm also one of those who votes in the last half of the poll, and votes for much more than 4. I usually vote for more than 2/3,actually, because the question for me is "who do I ~not vote for".

I have another question.
Are closed polls / voting by email much different regarding last minute voting? And - if people see themselves/someone else losing, do they often retract votes to make someone else take the fall?

(I don't look at poll results anymore, ever. Not during the voting, not after the results are up. It is too much stress, and the only thing that matters is if I stay or leave.)

From:

clauderainsrm

"Are closed polls / voting by email much different regarding last minute voting?"

Last minute voting tends to be either *really* heavy or *really* light. There is no in-between. Usually it's heavy though.

" And - if people see themselves/someone else losing, do they often retract votes to make someone else take the fall? "

When you see someone change their votes in the poll, most of the time it seems (I'm not in their head so I can't say it IS the reason) but I can say it "seems to be" the reason. With LJ, there was also the "if you change your vote you lose previous selections" that ended up impacting that as well. I haven't tested it to see if it works that way on DW.

From:

kehlen.livejournal.com

Thank you!

Oh, yes, that disappearing vote thing is really annoying, which is why I put all of them off until I have read all I can.

From:

halfshellvenus

I feel this whole post needs

"Cool stories, bro. Needs more ~~dragons~~ voters."

Except not in a sarcastic way. We really do need more readers and voters!

I still have mad love for those who have never written for Idol, but have been reading/voting for entries for quite some time, because 1) Great stories! and 2) Why not promote talent?

<3 to

jocosa here, and for unnamed others. And for those other-round contestants who are coming here to read and vote and participate!

From:

clauderainsrm

Absolutely <3 to them.

The moral of this story is that people who say that Idol needs to be *more* cut off and isolated are basically saying Idol needs to die. (they don't mean it that way, they think it's more "pure" without outside votes. Even though that makes it *more* of a clique) Because what we have right now is 100% from the people in the past who have promoted their own work, and Idol as a whole, to their friends. That has really fallen off in recent years due to (1) LJ taking a dive (2) that purist attitude I mentioned before where people don't want to promote. I get it. I'm bad at putting myself out there. But the voters don't magically appear from nowhere. You have to go out and bring them in - and that's something I think a lot of people don't always remember/"get". Professional writers promote their work all the time. But a lot of people don't see that, they just think readers will find them if they are good enough.

From:

clauderainsrm

I should point out that there are definitely people who *have* promoted over the last few years and brought people in, also there are people who aren't able to do that (don't really have anyone who hasn't heard of Idol/don't really know people. Obviously I'm not talking about those situations. :)

From:

murielle

I have promoted. I believe I brought in two players, great writers, both!

With the move to DW, I haven't done as much as I've been a bit anxious about people finding us, and how the voting would work for them.

From:

the_eternal_overthinker

It was easier for me to get people in to read/vote for LJ because they could log in from any other open id(twitter/Fb)..here they have to create an account which they might not be keen on doing..because "what's the point of creating a journal when you aren't going to write anything?"

From:

kehlen.livejournal.com

Yes, the limited OpenID options on DW are irritating.

From:

clauderainsrm

I was opposed to FB option on LJ, to the point that when it was first introduced, I tried to see if there was a way to have the polls opt out. Having dealt with it though, I much prefer having *more* options for people, with different forms of OpenID and points of access, than fewer.

From:

kehlen.livejournal.com

I am annoyed with a lot of LJ new "options", including the "like" button I immediately opted out of seeing, but I completely agree that in case of Idol, the more voting possibilities, the better.

From:

kehlen.livejournal.com

I am very wary of promoting, because I have a colleague at work who is a 'published author' and who promotes himself all the time on the phone, with publishers, and his cover artist, and places where he goes to sell his books, etc, etc, etc, whenever work is slow.

And I don't read his writings because of it, because those conversations irk me something awful.

From:

clauderainsrm

Anyone else starting to feel the pull of December?

This month is always really strange. We are having our "Christmas Party" at work *tomorrow*.

From:

murielle

There is that whole December-thing, even for those of us who don't celebrate. We have had one "dinner" already, and a social after services this week, and then another invitation later in the month. Hence the resting for me. I mean it's wonderful, but just a little confusing. But that could be down to the needing to rest thing. ;-) Back in the day, I remember the month of December being kind of wonderful, especially when I worked at a newspaper. LOL! Exciting times!

From:

clauderainsrm

I celebrate the birth of Santa and the season of giving Gary presents. Everyone should celebrate that second one. It's a great holiday!

From:

murielle

The season of Giving Gary Presents! That's a good one. ;-)

From:

kehlen.livejournal.com

I do.

In an odd way, I love December and dislike January. They are both equally dark, which is difficult, but the December darkness is "honest", because the sun is going to turn in just a little while, just a few more days - there! while in January it feels like "where is the promised light?!"

From:

adoptedwriter

Well, It's the season of Gary getting a card, eventually...At least there's that...LOL

Hey, anyone out there in the GR today and any day...My hub is having an angiogram tomorrow AM. He's been experiencing weird feelings in his arm and in the pit for a while now and held off sharing much till the grandbaby was born. I had to get on his a$$ about going to the doc when he felt funky on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Seems exercise on the treadmill and sudden, fast movement trigger these "events". He went to the doc, they did an EKG and a stress test. He kinda flunked both in the sense that they found "something" but they don't know what, why or what to do about it unless he has the angiogram. So there we are...This could be anything from "You need an RX adjustment to Dude, you need a by-pass", and we have no idea what will happen. (angioplasty and a stent-job are other possibilities). The chemo in 2014 may also have done some cardio damage, and symptoms are just showing up now. We just don't know...Please send good vibes, ju-ju. prayers, etc. our way!