Hey Ray, gotta couple of questions for you about the poll.
First, is there a date that the poll will come to an end with final results, or will this keep going indefinitely?
And second, how high can DS realisitically get? In other words, where is the point where we are catching up on the higher shows and the point where the higher shows are pulling farther away from us with the average of around 400 votes for DS (give or take) a day? If that still does not make sense then what is the lowest ranked show, that is above us, that is averaging higher votes per day than DS?
Just curious.
And let me compliment you on your diligence in this effort. You've got me putting in a few votes a day, unless it simply slips my mind.
Excellent questions, KajunDC!
According to Rich Labonte, the administrator of the TV Vote Poll, the voting will end either this coming January, or, in January 2010. This depends on where the poll is, and, what this year's voting was like. One factor is the fact that it is becoming increasingly difficult for a show to break out of the Nominations Poll (as Dark Shadows did, last December, and, which vampire shows Moonlight and Blood Ties, by dint of a focused fan effort, are poised to do in a few months). Simple mathematics, and the weight of the accumulated vote totals of the shows already in the Top 40, conspire to make it nearly impossible for a show in the Nominations to reasonably expect to reach the top of the noms, let alone pass the lowest shows in the Top 40.
Once no more shows are able to enter the Top 40, the field will gradually stagnate, as shows already there shuffle to settle into their eventual equilibrium. Bo-ring! So, the Poll dynamic will be the deciding factor as to when the voting will end.
As for how high Dark Shadows can climb? Well, based on the daily votes, DS is currently the 9th highest vote-getting show, and, has occasionally peaked at 7th, on a good day. Bad days have seen DS as low as 10th, but, Top 10 is an excellent target! Keep in mind that DS may not have the time to reach its potential rank, depending on how long the poll runs. However, a projected #8 is still great, and, if we don't get to reach it, we know we could've.
There are some additional dynamics, here. Of the 8 shows above us in votes, 5 (Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica, Angel, and Babylon 5, which is the lowest you asked about) are our voting partners, some of whose voters also contribute votes to Dark Shadows. In return, some DS voters vote for (at least) some of those shows. This acknowledges the fact that, even absent our friendly voting cooperative (which also increases awareness between fandoms of each other's shows), none of the shows involved are likely to change in the order of daily votes, and, so, present no tactical threat to one another. The advantage is shared by the participants, and, more importantly, we all get to make some friends.
Then, when Johnny Depp finally gets to work on the new DS movie project (whatever you may think of it =^[.]~=), the stir that a new Johnny Depp project creates will also benefit the DS fandom. Voters within and without our cooperative will take another look at DS, and, we'll get more votes. However, DS is so far behind the shows with whom we've partnered that, even though our daily votes may begin to approach or exceed some of theirs, we still would take a long time to catch them.
So, we get to enjoy the fruits of our long efforts, when we struggled to get into the Top 40, with a steady succession of advances up the Poll. There are still 21 shows ahead of us which get fewer daily votes than we do, and, every pass is another reward for our efforts. Should we have time to get there, we stand to enter the Top 10. DS recently exceeded 100,000 votes, after only 17 months of concerted effort; there are 7 shows in the Top 40, which have been there far longer than we, which have yet to reach 100,000 votes. We get 5,000 vote advance banners more often than 75% of the Top 40 shows, though we still await the luck of the draw to give us an exclusive banner, on a day no other show besides DS passes a 5k vote mark.
So, we have our goals, large and small, and...
Who knows what the future holds? All it would take is for Johnny Depp to declare to his fans that he votes for DS on TV Vote, and, my own, home fandom, Firefly, could be swept away in the dust.
Thank you for your questions; I welcome inquiries and feedback, and, I also thank you for your support. TV Vote is a lot of fun, or most of us voting wouldn't do it. Thank you, too, for your kind and encouraging words. It's my pleasure to help out.
As for today's report...
Dark Shadows had another good voting day! At this rate, we'll pass Charmed in under three weeks!
View the details at:
http://tinyurl.com/5lt2rcYours in the cause,
-Raycheetah =^[.]^=
