TheTopTens Blog

TheTopTens Blog is our way of shedding some light on some of the "behind the scenes" of the top ten lists. It gives us a chance to explain some of the particulars of the site and to share some of the hidden aspects of TheTopTens.

New Feature for Remixes: Vote Down Items with Dishonorable Mentions

April 25, 2012

Over the weekend we added a first for TheTopTens, the ability to push an item down the rankings. Previously, visitors only had the option to vote items up lists either by voting on a list or including them in a list remix. This meant that if an item showed up in the top ten that you didn't feel belonged there, the only way for it to get pushed down was for the items behind it to receive enough votes to move above it.

» View Comments [0]

Making Lists Better By Remixing Them

July 20, 2011

It has almost been three months since we added the ability to create your own version of the lists on TheTopTens and there have been almost 3,000 personal lists created.

As we have mentioned before, one of the reasons we wanted to give you the ability to create your own lists is so we can use them to help determine the rankings of our primary lists. We recognize that one of the shortcomings of the voting system on TheTopTens is that, while it does well at representing visitors opinions at the top of lists, when you start to dig down, the lists become skewed.

» Continue reading "Making Lists Better By Remixing Them"
» View Comments [3]

Don't Agree With a List? Remix It!

April 29, 2011

You asked for it and now it's here. As of today, logged in visitors to TheTopTens can "remix" any of the lists on the site to create their own top ten lists.

To create a personal top ten list, make sure you are logged in and browse to the list you would like to remix. Then click the "Your List" tab above the first list item and then the "Click here" link to start the list creation process.

» Continue reading "Don't Agree With a List? Remix It!"
» View Comments [4]

Announcing TheTopTens Forum

April 23, 2011

On the lists of things TheTopTens should have and improvements that should be made to the site, there are a number of good ideas. We are happy to say that we have implemented a few of these ideas including a new site design, instant list approvals, additional notifications, member comment moderation, and more. Today we can cross off another item from the to do list - the addition of a forum.

» Continue reading "Announcing TheTopTens Forum"
» View Comments [1]

Adding Blog Posts to TheTopTens

March 29, 2011

For a few years now, we have allowed members of TheTopTens to add blog posts to the site so they can add more commentary or voice their opinion beyond what is available through list comments. Instead of simply stating why they voted for a particular item in a list, blog posts gave visitors the ability to expand on their comments, explain why they did not vote for certain items, or voice their opinion on the list as a whole. It also gave visitors an avenue for sharing their expertise on the list topic by providing information that could be helpful to future voters. » Continue reading "Adding Blog Posts to TheTopTens"
» View Comments [20]

New Tool for Flagging Comments

March 9, 2011

Over the past month, the goal of TheTopTens has been to improve the overall quality of the site. We implemented a new design and moved the site to a more robust server. We also made a ton of behind the scenes improvements designed to make the site easier to use, make moderation move more swiftly, and overall improve the experience for our visitors.

The latest thing we have started to turn our attention toward is the quality of the content on the site starting with item comments. Over the years we have amassed over 100,000 comments and admittedly, many of them were not worth the effort for visitors to read. So to start with, we began removing what we considered to be low quality comments. We went back through our entire archive of comments and removed those that were under 25 characters, were under 50 characters and contained the words "should be higher", were under 35 characters and included "of all time", etc. By taking out these short and formulaic comments, we were able to purge nearly 10% of all approved comments on the site. And judging by the reaction we have received, you haven't missed them.

» Continue reading "New Tool for Flagging Comments"
» View Comments [1]

Top 100 Search Terms of 2010

February 8, 2011

Last year's collection of the most popular search terms was one of teh most commented on posts so it makes sense to do it again. Below are the top 100 most commonly searched terms on TheTopTens from January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010. The numbers in parenthesis are last year's rankings for each keyword so you can see how terms have changed in popularity.

1) Metallica ⁽¹⁾
2) Eminem ⁽¹³⁾
3) Linkin Park ⁽⁴⁾
4) Iron Maiden ⁽²⁾
5) Pink Floyd ⁽⁵⁾
6) Nirvana ⁽⁸⁾
7) Green Day ⁽¹⁰⁾
8) Songs ⁽³⁾
9) Movies ⁽⁷⁾
10) Avenged Sevenfold ⁽¹⁴⁾             » Continue reading "Top 100 Search Terms of 2010"
» View Comments [19]

Tips for Improving the Chances Your Comments Will be Approved

October 13, 2010

There are now over 110,000 approved comments on TheTopTens with hundreds more rolling in every day. But in truth there have probably been at least that many comments submitted over the years that do not show up in the stats because they were deleted for one reason or another.

As much as we don't want to waste time deleting comments, we don't want you to spend time composing comments that won't make their way onto the site. For that reason, here is a list of tips for adding comments that will get approved.

» Continue reading "Tips for Improving the Chances Your Comments Will be Approved"
» View Comments [0]

We Don't Need to "Phish" For Your Username and Password

September 6, 2010

Recently, one of the members of this site (who has since had their accounts removed) abused their privileges and sent out the following message to a number of you:

"Note from the Owner of this Website (Randy turner) we are asking every user on this site for their password so please reply the operator your password, and thank u for your time. Note: We are having some difficulties with our program, Note: Nothing will harm your Account, Username, and Password"

» Continue reading "We Don't Need to "Phish" For Your Username and Password"
» View Comments [12]

Where Did the List of Rarest Silly Bandz Go?

June 1, 2010

Over the past couple of weeks, TheTopTens list of Rarest Silly Bandz was one of the most visited lists on the site. In fact, last week when Yahoo! featured an article on Sully Bandz on their homepage, TheTopTens received an extra 6,000 visitors in a single hour.

But here is the problem; the list of Rarest Silly Bandz doesn't really work on TheTopTens. As has been pointed out, the list does not fit the criteria of a subjective top ten list because "rarest" is a quantifiable, factual value. It may be the case that nobody actually knows what the rarest Silly Bandz are, but if someone were to take counts of all the different types of Silly Bandz in existence today, it would be possible to correctly order a list or rare Silly Bandz starting with the Silly Band with the smallest population. It is not a matter of opinion.

» Continue reading "Where Did the List of Rarest Silly Bandz Go?"
» View Comments [6]

Featured Lists

Most Popular

New Lists