FARK.com: Blog (Drew): Wrapping up Headline of the Year voting for 2010 and an idea on how to make the contests better for 2011, as well as Fark's favorite Headlines of the Week for 12/19

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Wrapping up Headline of the Year voting for 2010 and an idea on how to make the contests better for 2011, as well as Fark's favorite Headlines of the Week for 12/19 - 12/25
Posted by Drew at 2010-12-29 1:06:02 PM (57 comments) | Permalink

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Hey everybody, we're down to the end of the Headline of the Year contest. The Headline of the Year contest for Main went live last week, and all of the Headline of the Year contests for the subtabs are now live for the Sports, Geek, Showbiz, Politics, Music, and Business subtabs. We also are doing the first-ever contest for Context Headline of the Year, which is for headlines that are great in conjunction with the linked article.

We're also working on the usual end-of-year threads, and will be pushing those out today for weirdest linked story the year, biggest dumbass, parents of the year, and the puns/wordplay contest as well.

One thing that we discussed was taking this off the strict calendar-year basis that we have it on right now. We could make November 30 the cutoff date, and include this year's December in next year's consideration. It wouldn't be a purely calendar-year competition anymore, but it would let us get the contests out a little sooner for you, and it would also give December submitters a fair shake, since the headlines below didn't get included in Headline of the Year consideration. Tell us what you think.

Headlines Of The Week for Sun 2010-12-19 to Sat 2010-12-25:

Special victims unit detective accused of putting his special unit in victim

Man stabbed in Woolloongabba. I'm not familiar with these hoity-toity medical terms

Al Qaeda mulled the idea of poisoning US salad bars. Luckily for us, Americans don't eat salad

Man caught hiding in pharmacy ceiling charged with burglary, disturbing sanctuary of the Divine Feline Observer of Your Self-Stimulation

Moms who take iron supplements more likely to have kids who attend magnet schools

The average man experiences just under three hours of orgasms in his lifetime. That's shorter than "Titanic," but far less painful

Male/female shopping styles evolved from hunter/gatherers, can be seen at malls: females browse and forage, males want to kill someone

Honey is a good cure for hangovers, say scientists, but caution that her rates are high and she only accepts cash

Cops say that the factory worker who was trapped inside a canoe-making oven ignored the warning that you can't have your kayak and heat it too

Hog boss charged with hazards; will have to duke it out in court

Armed man at Mormon temple meets Saints sooner than Latter

Sports:

Pacquiao to fight Mosley May 7. It's the only way the Pac Man can get May weather in the ring

Drunk driver who killed pitcher sentenced to 51 years as catcher

Jamie Moyer plans to come back and pitch again. This is not a repeat from 1912

Geek:

China opens restaurant staffed by robots. Yes, the robots are designed to serve man

The next Mars rover will carry a laser. YOU HEAR THAT, MARTIANS?

Device creates fuel from sunlight. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that World of Warcraft players didn't invent this

Showbiz:

Papyrus font expected to get a full workout as James Cameron prepares an "Avatar Bible"

Model Charles DeVoe dead; exact cause of death not yet determined, but authorities haven't ruled out poiiisooooon

'LOTR' star divorces for a fourth time. One does not simply walk into marriage

Politics:

Sarah Palin has flaws. Also, Drew, there's a bug that won't let me use the newsflash tag with this headline

"If Arnold Schwarzenegger can be governor, why can't George Lopez be the mayor of Los Angeles?" Because Arnold Schwarzenegger was good for a laugh, that's why

Senate ratifies nuke pact, delivering win to Obama, people who don't want to be vaporized

Music:

Lady Gaga hates Christmas. She's free to deck the halls with STFU

Justin Bieber to collaborate with Rascal Flatts. Apparently, the apocalypse has a twangy, whiny sound

50 Cent's Connecticut mansion burglarized. Police arrived on the scene to find a man drinking wine in one of the closets; confirm it was not R. Kelly

Business:

The woman who made James Bond drink Smirnoff and drive a BMW is dead at 49. This headline was submitted on my Apple computer, perched on my Eames desk, while I'm sitting in my Herman Miller Aeron chair

Online ad spending overtakes newspapers. That may be so, but do online ads feature the Jumbles? Do they?

TransUnion says the eight people left with good credit will be driving the majority of auto sales next year

· · ·

(view entire blog)

57 Comments (+0 »)

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Bronzed War God		2010-12-29 01:15:01 PM

Why not just move it to January?

I hate end of year lists that come out in December. I always feel sorry for the famous people who die after Christmas. Nobody shows them any love in their "look at our annual list of dead people" feature.

Same for headlines.

Ken Tankerus		2010-12-29 01:15:09 PM

winnar

Hot Carl To Go		2010-12-29 01:17:33 PM

Bronzed War God:

I second the January thing. Insert football player pointing up picture here.

Talon		2010-12-29 01:20:24 PM

Totalfarkers get the ability to +1 a thread... why not implement a similar feature for everyone at the top of each thread?

Every green thread has a +1 you can click if you think it is headline of the week material. When you do HotW, you can mention the top X user favorites. Make sure however you store the numbers it is sortable so you can easily find the highest voted on threads.

At the end of the year when you do quarter finals you'll already have a tally of what threads in each week/quarter were user favorites so you know you're not missing any. You can either keep doing the vote-in-thread method you use, or you could switch to a form sorta like the fark weekly quiz, but with checkboxes for multiple selections instead of multiple choice.

Doing the thread of the year in January also is a good idea.

TheSwizz		2010-12-29 01:20:39 PM

CaptainWes		2010-12-29 01:21:57 PM

Oh, I think it's nice to even be considered in the first place, and a Nov. 30 cutoff makes a lot of sense too.

ZAZ		2010-12-29 01:23:09 PM

Have a human scan the top vote getters for nominees. "Queers over Steers" should have been in the sports list or context list.

Reward politics tab winners with one month of regular Fark.

CornFedIowan		2010-12-29 01:29:32 PM

I'd rather have HOTY moved to January than cut off at November. Too many other "end of year" things get published way too early in December.

someguy945		2010-12-29 01:32:27 PM

Do the contest in January.

A November cutoff makes about as much sense as changing our clocks twice a year. Both are hokey fixes that work if you want to make the minimal amount of effort to work around a problem.

ThisNameSux		2010-12-29 01:32:28 PM

The best way to improve it would be to give the winners of each category a few months of Total Fark and the overall winner a year. Stop being cheap Drew.

reillan		2010-12-29 01:32:43 PM

agreed on January.

I also would like to see an ability to vote DOWN headlines in the voting contest. Some of the big winnahs from the current contest are so unbelievably horrible... I think if we had the "down vote", we would have top headlines that were actually funny across the board, instead of funny to just a small but vocal portion of the Fark population.

ZAZ		2010-12-29 01:34:46 PM

Somebody else noticed in the sports thread that "17 year old toples Sharpova" was not listed. Was it in a wordplay thread I missed or forgot already?

Make the cutoff date Feburary 7.

ZAZ		2010-12-29 01:35:33 PM

Never mind, Sharpova was last year.

someguy945		2010-12-29 01:36:43 PM

reillan: agreed on January.

I also would like to see an ability to vote DOWN headlines in the voting contest. Some of the big winnahs from the current contest are so unbelievably horrible... I think if we had the "down vote", we would have top headlines that were actually funny across the board, instead of funny to just a small but vocal portion of the Fark population.

That group would, in turn, be able to vote down your choices. Doubling everyone's voting power doesn't swing the scales either way.

Show_The_O_Face		2010-12-29 01:38:53 PM

Another vote for moving it to january.

girljen		2010-12-29 01:39:24 PM

ZAZ: Reward politics tab winners with one month of regular Fark.

i139.photobucket.com

I_C_Weener		2010-12-29 01:39:59 PM

I, for one, refuse to submit in December for fear of not getting a HOTY nomination.

/not really...I've been busy.

I do like moving it to January.

queenalice		2010-12-29 01:49:18 PM

I don't have an opinion one way or the other, it's all Fark to me-- but I did want to take one more opportunity to thank Unfreakable for the amazing labor of love he put into gathering all this together. You da man, man.

Demetrius		2010-12-29 01:49:24 PM

Has anyone said 'move it to January' yet?

Because this is what makes most sense.

Move it to January. We'll get over it.

TripSixes		2010-12-29 02:02:14 PM

Considering the top prize for headline of the year, it doesn't really matter much does it....

orbitalfreak		2010-12-29 02:04:59 PM

I like the idea of a november cutoff (or moving the contests to January), because there are some great headlines that get missed. I would prefer the Nov cutoff date so that anyone who missed out this year can get included in next year's contest.

Sliding Carp		2010-12-29 02:10:01 PM

Drew, you do know that DST doesn't actually make the days longer don't you? And if you cut off the end of a blanket and sew it onto the other end, the blanket isn't actually any longer?

Run the contest in early January. We'll get over it.

/Time be time, mon.

NakedReporta		2010-12-29 02:20:23 PM

Sliding Carp: Run the contest in early January. We'll get over it.

This.

someguy945		2010-12-29 02:20:42 PM

Sliding Carp: Drew, you do know that DST doesn't actually make the days longer don't you? And if you cut off the end of a blanket and sew it onto the other end, the blanket isn't actually any longer?

Run the contest in early January. We'll get over it.

/Time be time, mon.

Glad I wasn't the only person to see the similarity to Daylight Savings.

Ken Tankerus		2010-12-29 02:33:15 PM

Bronzed War God: Why not just move it to January?

I hate end of year lists that come out in December. I always feel sorry for the famous people who die after Christmas. Nobody shows them any love in their "look at our annual list of dead people" feature.

Same for headlines.

Ya gotta have the lists out in time to make the New Years' lists of "best of" lists.

Here's my suggestion: Some Farkers seem to prefer seeing no more than 50 posts per page. So, in the first week of March, June, September and December, no more than the top 49 votegetters from each category in the previous three months (normalized weekly for seasonal ebb/surge) are posted for voting. (Quarterly voting might tend to keep the results timely.)

When voting is complete, announce the top 12 votegetters in each category as semifinalists.

In the second week of December the 48 semifinalists from each category, plus 1 wildcard selected by Dear Leader a/k/a Drew (hey, I know how to kiss ass), are posted for voting.

When voting is complete, announce the top votegetter in each category as finalist. Issue the press release naming the category winners.

In the third week of December the eight finalists are posted for voting, and the top votegetter becomes HOTY (but keep the vote counts secret).

On December 31, reveal the vote counts and issue the press release announcing the HOTY. Profit.

Adjust schedule as needed for holiday festivities?

Only TFers/TFettes vote in the quarterly selections.

All Farkers vote for the year-end finalists and for the HOTY.

/or just keep doin' what yer doin'

TypoFlyspray		2010-12-29 02:36:10 PM

January works, November works.

If you decide not to move it, everything after the cut off should get bumped to next year. There are a half dozen headlines listed that are as funny as all but the top two or three HOTY nominees in this week alone.

King Something		2010-12-29 02:36:15 PM

Count me in for "move it to January."

Owen Sixteen got screwed.

HaywoodJablonski		2010-12-29 02:36:41 PM

I, too, vote to re-enfranchize December submitters. Good call!

NicoFinn		2010-12-29 02:37:49 PM

Move it to January. Winnars get free Farks.

Ken Tankerus		2010-12-29 02:42:42 PM

Oh...and prizes. Something big for the HOTY (one year of TF? one internet?), something not as big (but still gracious) for the seven other finalists.

Note that the Foobies category was not included. Waaah.

And:
queenalice: I did want to take one more opportunity to thank Unfreakable for the amazing labor of love he put into gathering all this together. You da man, man.

THIS.

Fireproof		2010-12-29 02:48:13 PM

TypoFlyspray: January works, November works.

If you decide not to move it, everything after the cut off should get bumped to next year. There are a half dozen headlines listed that are as funny as all but the top two or three HOTY nominees in this week alone.

This.

reillan		2010-12-29 02:50:34 PM

someguy945: reillan: agreed on January.

I also would like to see an ability to vote DOWN headlines in the voting contest. Some of the big winnahs from the current contest are so unbelievably horrible... I think if we had the "down vote", we would have top headlines that were actually funny across the board, instead of funny to just a small but vocal portion of the Fark population.

That group would, in turn, be able to vote down your choices. Doubling everyone's voting power doesn't swing the scales either way.

Voting on Fark does not work that way.

You don't have a mob mentality, people working together to achieve a common goal. Instead, you have a bunch of people who happen to agree that a horrible headline is the most hilarious, but only a very small number of them agree to such an extent that they would be willing to waste more than a few seconds to do anything about it.

I would guess that people tend to only vote for a small number of headlines. They currently vote up those headlines they think are the most funny (or clever), and they skip the rest. If you add a down vote, they'll simply vote up the ones they find most funny and vote down those they find most divisive, annoying, or unfunny. They won't organize to vote down the number 2 contestant, for instance (a few might, but a relatively small percentage of the voting population).

reillan		2010-12-29 02:52:34 PM

and, btw, the one that won the Geek tab... that should be crowned the overall winner of all headlines for the year and should go in a commemorative "best headlines of all time" category. Absolutely epic win...

bugcrusher		2010-12-29 03:04:00 PM

January gets my vote. Maintains the calendar year. Besides, December is a busier month anyway for most farkers, so we can relax and down some wobbly pops while voting in the new year.

Contrabulous Flabtraption		2010-12-29 03:20:20 PM

How would you all feel about moving it to January? Surprised this hasn't come up yet.

Jetty Cat Army		2010-12-29 03:27:17 PM

If we moved the contest to January it seems like even more headlines would miss out. Surely something good gets posted between February and December, right?

id10ts		2010-12-29 04:17:12 PM

How to make it better:

MOAR B00BIES!!!111!!!!ELEVENTY!!!

Crackers Are a Family Food		2010-12-29 05:03:14 PM

Another one chiming in to move the contest to January. I always feel bad when I see an awesome headline in the last two weeks of December because it can't be nominated.

And I'd LOVE to see the voting button at the bottom of the page instead of having to scroll back up to the top to vote. That's always been an annoyance of mine.

You Die!		2010-12-29 05:40:55 PM

Crackers Are a Family Food: And I'd LOVE to see the voting button at the bottom of the page instead of having to scroll back up to the top to vote. That's always been an annoyance of mine.

This. Trying to vote on a mobile phone is craptastic.

Also, do the voting in January.

Jclark666		2010-12-29 06:21:06 PM

TripSixes: Considering the top prize for headline of the year, it doesn't really matter much does it....

ThisNameSux: The best way to improve it would be to give the winners of each category a few months of Total Fark and the overall winner a year. Stop being cheap Drew.

Hey, I got this unique and interesting profile and a better pickup line for Fark parties than, "I'll bet you a drink against BIE that I've got a lower account number than you." Why would I need TF?

Also, more than TF, I'd rather have gotten something like a shirt. The generic shirt would be cool, but a special HOTY shirt would be even better. (Tangent: Wish we could see stats on shirts, hoping for top 10) Maybe an icon or something that shows up in my posts like TF/UF/modmins get.

Seriously, though, I'm pretty sure the reason there are no prizes has more to do with lawyers and accountants than cheapness. For prizes, there have to be official rules, and they have to follow the law, and its a true PITA. So here's my suggestion:

Sell out. Get a sponsor willing to pony up for the lawyers to write the rules, and let the Fark.com Heineken Headline of the Year Contest commence!

queenalice		2010-12-29 06:57:56 PM

Contrabulous Flabtraption: How would you all feel about moving it to January? Surprised this hasn't come up yet.

this made me laugh. i know it was low hanging fruit, but still, it got me. :)

queenalice		2010-12-29 06:59:25 PM

Jetty Cat Army: If we moved the contest to January it seems like even more headlines would miss out. Surely something good gets posted between February and December, right?

this ALSO made me laugh. maybe i got high and forgot?

Barakku		2010-12-29 07:44:36 PM

I umpteeth the January idea. 2010 isn't over until it's 2011.

Toshiro Mifune's Letter Opener		2010-12-29 07:57:45 PM

The January move sounds like a plan to me, too.

Jclark666: I'd rather have gotten something like a shirt. The generic shirt would be cool, but a special HOTY shirt would be even better. (Tangent: Wish we could see stats on shirts, hoping for top 10) Maybe an icon or something that shows up in my posts like TF/UF/modmins get.

Good ideas, aye...

Unfreakable		2010-12-29 08:11:58 PM

Good ideas, all.

onearmedninja		2010-12-29 08:32:02 PM

I also like the move it to January idea. I also like the idea of adding a vote button to the bottom of the page. Yes, I am that lazy. I also like Ken Tankerus's idea, but push his timetable back to January. Just don't give Drew the extra pick give that one to our hero and work horse unfreakable. Kinda like a thanks for all of the hard work he puts into the HOTY contest.

evaned		2010-12-29 09:47:57 PM

Hide the current vote tally.

If you implement the downvote idea, you can even get around this problem:
reillan: If you add a down vote, they'll simply vote up the ones they find most funny and vote down those they find most divisive, annoying, or unfunny. They won't organize to vote down the number 2 contestant, for instance (a few might, but a relatively small percentage of the voting population).

because people won't be able to tell what the number two headline is. (They'd have to go in and downvote ALL the hedalines they weren't upvoting.)

CT Zeal		2010-12-29 10:20:39 PM

I agree with the January voting, and also want to express my dismay at how everybody's favorite headline from last week was not only ineligible for HOTY voting, but somehow didn't make the list for top headlines of last week.

In other words, let's not start sucking each other's dicks quite yet.

Dave and the Mission		2010-12-30 12:31:13 AM

I'm on the bandwagon for January as well

Also, it'd be nice to see the tags for the headlines as they were submitted. I remember a story about someone getting electrocuted and it was tagged 'plug'. That kind of stuff is lost without the tags.

timex_cow		2010-12-30 03:21:10 AM

Suggestion: randomize the headlines on the page during voting.
Does anybody know whether the headlines at the top of the page tend to get more votes?

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