AEnigma wrote:lessthanjake wrote:I’ve not perused other threads in this project, so maybe I’ve decided to look at a time when it happens to be particularly egregious, but it really does seem obvious to me what’s going on. And, to be clear, I don’t even really blame people for strategic voting—the incentives are just there to do so, so it’s an ever-present issue with these sorts of things. Your vote essentially provides more weight towards your preferred outcome if you do so. I guess in some sense one could argue that that makes strategic voting a reflection of exactly how strongly one feels about their choice, but it’s probably more just a reflection of how much one cares if people will criticize one’s picks.
Yes, and while for now all I will do is strongly discourage people from voting that way — at the moment, the one ballot excluding Magic entirely is functionally cancelled out by the one ballot putting Jordan at fifth (restraint noted) — if it continues to be a problem I will be taking firmer measures. This is not supposed to be a project where we throw darts at a board to pick names, or where we stop voting for players because we think they have been doing too well in the project, or where we lower a player’s placement because you are mad at their fans. And while contrarian votes can be and have been sincere, they look a lot more sincere when you take the time to fully present your reasoning rather than transparently pretend nothing is amiss. I may not be a mind-reader, but I have been recording everyone’s votes and watching how they change over the course of a thread for long enough that it is easy to tell when people start selectively applying the standards they have relied upon throughout the project. Those types of changes are a lot less subtle than a couple of you seem to assume they are, and serial line-stepping will have consequences if it continues in the fashion it has throughout this thread.
Therefore, everyone may consider this an informal warning. Because lenience has evidently hit its limit, from this point, ballots which threaten to derail project discussion via blatant vote manipulation are liable to be tossed. If it happens twice, the offending poster will be removed from the project.Again, I am not forbidding contrarian votes when they are properly justified and internally consistent. The goal is not homogeneity; if it were, the project would be pointless and would also have strict guidelines for what reasoning everyone is intended to use to vote (beyond “look at the year in question”). Those who have been voting sincerely to this point, even when their ballots break with consensus, are fine and encouraged to continue on as normal. But these little games where people artificially create 9-10 point gaps between ballot “rivals” or invent excuses to change a ballot when they see trends developing a certain way? Entirely opposed to the spirit of the project and quite evidently toxic to the overall discussion.
If anyone wishes to discuss this further, they can do so in the general discussion thread. This thread is for discussing 1988-89.
This sounds nice, but how exactly can such rules be enforced? From my point of view, about a 3rd of the votes in some recent threads appear to have not been serious. You mention excluding Magic, but to my mind putting Ewing over Jordan seems far more ridiculous and calculated. Was there any point in their overlapping primes when anyone seriously thought Ewing was better than Jordan?
Then we have had votes for the likes of Laimbeer, Stockton, Larry Nance, M.Adams, Eaton, M.Cooper, etc. There is one 'mail in' voter who we can't interact with, whose posts have 'reasons' like 'Baller vow' which seem hard to reconcile with the gravitas of the project.
I think it's going to be tough to do this in a way which isn't just confirmation bias. I feel there is not alot of consistency to some of the names I see pop up randomly in different years, but that person can just say 'well, I thought this year particularly they were good'. Mark Eaton won DPOY in 1989 for eg, but I have not heard a whisper of his candidacy for a while now. Not that I think he should be mentioned.
I am considered a Jordan hater on the general board, but I feel some votes seemed geared to make sure Magic finished ahead of him. Conversely, this has been prompted by your (justified) concern that Magic is being unfairly rated. The risk is that bad votes will only be called out when your personal views are in conflict with them (and when they are not someone senior on here, even though I think some of the most inconsistent and illogical votes you refer to can also come from senior posters).