Making Lists Better By Remixing Them

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.

An example of this is the list of Best Basketball Players. The opinions of our visitors are pretty well reflected in the top 10. Most people who visit this site feel that Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, or LeBron James are the greatest of all time. But when you get outside the top ten, things get a bit off, such as J.J. Redick being listed at #20. Almost any basketball fan will agree that John Stockton is a better player than J.J. Redick. John is a Hall of Famer, holds the NBA record for most career assists and career steals, and is usually in the discussion for the greatest point guard of all time. Redick is a good college player who has turned into a solid contributer in the pros, but is nowhere near the same level as Stockton. But on the list, Redick is 10 spots higher than Stockton.

The reason we see results like this is because people vote for the player they think is the very best on the list. This results in a handful of players getting almost all the votes. Players like Stockton don't get very many votes so it only takes a relatively small number of votes for a player like Redick to move him up the list past perennial all-stars and hall of fame players.

Personal lists help resolve this problem because each time an item is added to a personal list, it receives a ranking boost in the primary list. So even if you don't think Stockton is the best player of all time, if you and enough other people include him in your top ten, he will move up the list.

This has been apparent in some of the most popular lists on the site where items frequently appearing in remixes are moving up lists and, in a sense, making the lists more accurate. Below are five of the music lists on TheTopTens that have been remixed the most. The items below each list are the songs or artists that have moved up in rankings because they have been included in members' personal lists.

Best Songs of All Time
November Rain - Guns N' Roses
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones
Let It Be - The Beatles
Hey Jude - The Beatles
Back in Black - AC/DC

Best Rock Bands of All Time
The Rolling Stones
Radiohead
Black Sabbath
Deep Purple
The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Best Rappers of All Time
Dr. Dre
Ice Cube
Rakim
DMX
OutKast

Best Singers of All Time
Rob Halford
Axl Rose
Paul McCartney
John Lennon
Steven Tyler

Best Guitarists Ever
David Gilmour
Jeff Beck
Keith Richards
B. B. King
Chuck Berry

We think most people can agree having these items move up their respective rankings is a good thing and helps improve the quality of the lists on TheTopTens.

Posted July 20, 2011 by admin .

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