Thread of the Year 2021: Nominations

pachyderm pro said:
Okay, were about a week into things and here are the current totals. About another week to get your choices submitted. Still plenty of time for things to shake up. The underlined threads are the ones who are currently qualifying for the final vote.

A Guide to the Rarities of Europe by @amur leopard - 10 Nominations

Exploring What’s on my Doorstep: WhistlingKite24 does South-east Queensland by @WhistlingKite24 - 10 Nominations

Australasian Population List Index by @WhistlingKite24 - 9 Nominations

Master Plan of my absolute zoo by @Haliaeetus - 9 Nominations

Bovid Import Review by @Zoofan15 - 7 Nominations

Slender Lorises, Duct Tape, and Whataburger: A Fish on Dry Land" by @Coelacanth18 - 5 Nominations

ZooChat Big Year 2021 started by @Chlidonias - 4 Nominations

ZooChat Challenge North America 2021 started by @Coelacanth18 - 3 Nominations

Top 20 favorite birds you've seen & top 15 birds you want to see by @Benosaurus - 2 Nominations

Today's backyard wildlife by @Arizona Docent - 2 Nominations

Zoo/Aquarium Hot Takes by @pachyderm pro - 2 Nominations

COVID-19 Vaccination - Personal experiences by @TeaLovingDave - 1 Nomination

Desert houses in zoos by @Batto - 1 Nomination

Favorite Bull Elephants in Captivity by @Mr.Ivory - 1 Nomination

Make it Up as I Go: Pachy Pros Summer Travels by @pachyderm pro - 1 Nomination

Paleo Park: De-Extinction by @ChIkEn NuGrEt - 1 Nomination

Prague Zoo news 2021 by @Jana - 1 Nomination

World Association of Conservation Centers by @Mai Thai - 1 Nomination

Zoo Decisions 5 - Phase 1 (1921-1945) by @Zoofan15 - 1 Nomination

ZooChat. Challenge Europe 2021. Many thanks to @ShonenJake13 - 1 Nomination

ZooChat. Global Challenge 2021. @ZooBinh - 1 Nomination

@Akula and @Bengal Tiger I have not yet counted your submissions as they did not meet the criteria for what I asked in the beginning of the thread. I encourage you to fix these issues so your votes can be counted in.
Click to expand...

Been awhile but I nominate...

1. COVID-19 Vaccination - Personal experiences by @TeaLovingDave

2. ZooChat Challenge North America 2021 started by @Coelacanth18

3. Slender Lorises, Duct Tape, and Whataburger: A Fish on Dry Land by @Coelacanth18

~Thylo
 
Last edited:
I went back through the entire year's threads in the forums for Wildlife & Nature Conservation, General Zoo Discussion, and Zoo Cafe, to see what I could find. It has been a poor year for "best threads". The following three are my choices.


Exploring What’s on my Doorstep: WhistlingKite24 does South-east Queensland by @WhistlingKite24

Slender Lorises, Duct Tape, and Whataburger: A Fish on Dry Land" by @Coelacanth18

Top 20 favorite birds you've seen & top 15 birds you want to see by @Benosaurus
 
So I’ve been looking at a lot of the nominated threads lately, some I actively follow, and a couple I was curious on. I started noticing a particular trend that I found very interesting. The majority of people I’ve seen nominating two certain threads (Bovine Import Review and Australian Population Index) are actually not dropping so much as a like anywhere in the threads. Many of the nominators are not even Aussies or Kiwis. Several appear to not contribute to the Australian subforum at all! On the other hand, threads like “Exploring What’s on my Doorstep: WhistlingKite24 does South-east Queensland”, “A Guide to the Rarities of Europe”, and “Slender Lorises, Duct Tape, and Whataburger: A Fish on Dry Land”; these all have very high rates of nominator participation, the latter thread actually having likes or posts by nine out of its ten nominators!
Thus for me, a question has arisen: why are these two threads being voted up when many of the people voting for them have not shown any visible support or interest in the threads at all? I became very curious and looked deeper on several top-ranking threads, and found these observations to be quite interesting indeed. I looked into postings and likes, and discovered the peculiar trend to be true.

I present the following thread participation data, based on posts and likes.


****Participated = 1 post or 1 like minimum****


Nominated Bovine Import Review

Participated: 3 of 12 (25%)

Lanky Kong : participated - No
Steve Roberts : participated - Yes (Aussie)
Patrick Keegan : participated - Yes (Aussie)
MizzB : participated - No
Grevy's zebra : participated - No
Swanson02 : participated - No (Aussie)
AliceLoveTora : participated - No
AnimalsRAmazing : participated - No
Mr. Ivory : participated - Yes
Akula : participated - No
Chiken Nugret : participated - No
Tdierikx : participated - No (Aussie)


Australian Population Index Nominations

*Only looked at nominated thread and a couple linked threads, not all linked threads due to sanity. However results rather identical.*

Participated: 4 of 11 (36%)

Zoofan15 : participated - Yes (kiwi)
Lankey Kong : participated - No
Steve Roberts : participated - Yes (Aussie)
Akasha : participated - Yes (Aussie)
Patrick Keegan : participated - Yes (Aussie)
MizzB : participated - No
Swanson02 : participated - No (Aussie)
AliceLoveTora : participated - No
AnimalsRAmazing : participated - No
Chiken Nugret : participated - No
Tdierikx : participated - No


Exploring What’s on my Doorstep: WhistlingKite24 does South-east Queensland Nominations

Participated: 8 of 13 (61%)

Aardvark250 : participated - No
Racoon has Spoken : participated - Yes
TheGerenuk : participated - Yes
Zoofan15 : participated - Yes
Steve Roberts : participated - Yes
Akasha : participated - Yes
TeaLovingDave : participated - No
Platypusboy : participated - Yes
Patrick Keegan : participated - No
AliceLoveTora : participated - No
Great Argus : participated - Yes
Chlidonias : participated - Yes
Tdierikx : participated - No


Slender Lorises, Duct Tape, and Whataburger: A Fish on Dry Land Nominations

Participated: 9 of 10 (90%)

TeaLovingDave : participated - Yes
Strix : participated - Yes
Birdsandbats : participated - Yes
Cheesechameleon1945 : participated - Yes
Tinopup : participated - Yes
ThylacineAlive : participated - No
Great Argus : participated - Yes
Dhole Dude : participated - Yes
Mayki : participated - Yes
Chlidonias : participated - Yes


I did not break down “A Guide to the Rarities of Europe”, however I did scan through it and confirm its nominator participation trend is similar to the latter two threads.


**Of everyone who has nominated threads, 7 of them gave not so much as a single like to ANY of the threads they nominated; and for six of those, they all voted for both the Bovine Import Review and the Australian Population Index.**


Total member participation numbers, including likes (views as of 1:30 pm today PST)

Bovine Import Review - 27 members (3,843 views, Sep)
Aussie Population Index - 18 members (2,545 views, Feb)
Exploring What’s on my Doorstep - c. 25 members, photos loading made it hard (4,822 views, Jul)
Slender Lorises, Duct Tape, and Whataburger - 47 members (2,561 views, Nov)


Now before anyone picks a fight, there’s nothing wrong with just reading a thread. However when we’re voting for thread of the year, the hard data and involvement is telling a very different story of what threads are the popular ones rather than the votes. The week and a half old thread started by Coelacanth18 has already passed the total views of the Aussie Population Index, which was started back in February. The former thread also has just over 2.5 times the participated members of the latter.

So the long and short being, what’s going on?

Spoiler: Don’t forget any recent likes and all posts are publicly visible on one’s profile, just as a reminder. So no need to go around liking posts or posting.
 
Last edited:
Great Argus said:
Australian Population Index Nominations

*Only looked at nominated thread and a couple linked threads, not all linked threads due to sanity. However results rather identical.*

Participated: 4 of 11 (36%)

Zoofan15 : participated - Yes (kiwi)
Lankey Kong : participated - No
Steve Roberts : participated - Yes (Aussie)
Akasha : participated - Yes (Aussie)
Patrick Keegan : participated - Yes (Aussie)
MizzB : participated - No
Swanson02 : participated - No (Aussie)
AliceLoveTora : participated - No
AnimalsRAmazing : participated - No
Chiken Nugret : participated - No
Tdierikx : participated - No
Click to expand...
To be fair, I haven't posted anything in that particular thread but I am quite active in the actual population threads (especially elephant and rhino). I only nominated that thread as you can access all the Australasian population threads through it.
 
Great Argus said:
So I’ve been looking at a lot of the nominated threads lately, some I actively follow, and a couple I was curious on. I started noticing a particular trend that I found very interesting. The majority of people I’ve seen nominating two certain threads (Bovine Import Review and Australian Population Index) are actually not dropping so much as a like anywhere in the threads. Many of the nominators are not even Aussies or Kiwis. Several appear to not contribute to the Australian subforum at all! On the other hand, threads like “Exploring What’s on my Doorstep: WhistlingKite24 does South-east Queensland”, “A Guide to the Rarities of Europe”, and “Slender Lorises, Duct Tape, and Whataburger: A Fish on Dry Land”; these all have very high rates of nominator participation, the latter thread actually having likes or posts by nine out of its ten nominators!
Thus for me, a question has arisen: why are these two threads being voted up when many of the people voting for them have not shown any visible support or interest in the threads at all? I became very curious and looked deeper on several top-ranking threads, and found these observations to be quite interesting indeed. I looked into postings and likes, and discovered the peculiar trend to be true.

I present the following thread participation data, based on posts and likes.


****Participated = 1 post or 1 like minimum****


Nominated Bovine Import Review

Participated: 3 of 12 (25%)

Lanky Kong : participated - No
Steve Roberts : participated - Yes (Aussie)
Patrick Keegan : participated - Yes (Aussie)
MizzB : participated - No
Grevy's zebra : participated - No
Swanson02 : participated - No (Aussie)
AliceLoveTora : participated - No
AnimalsRAmazing : participated - No
Mr. Ivory : participated - Yes
Akula : participated - No
Chiken Nugret : participated - No
Tdierikx : participated - No (Aussie)


Australian Population Index Nominations

*Only looked at nominated thread and a couple linked threads, not all linked threads due to sanity. However results rather identical.*

Participated: 4 of 11 (36%)

Zoofan15 : participated - Yes (kiwi)
Lankey Kong : participated - No
Steve Roberts : participated - Yes (Aussie)
Akasha : participated - Yes (Aussie)
Patrick Keegan : participated - Yes (Aussie)
MizzB : participated - No
Swanson02 : participated - No (Aussie)
AliceLoveTora : participated - No
AnimalsRAmazing : participated - No
Chiken Nugret : participated - No
Tdierikx : participated - No


Exploring What’s on my Doorstep: WhistlingKite24 does South-east Queensland Nominations

Participated: 8 of 13 (61%)

Aardvark250 : participated - No
Racoon has Spoken : participated - Yes
TheGerenuk : participated - Yes
Zoofan15 : participated - Yes
Steve Roberts : participated - Yes
Akasha : participated - Yes
TeaLovingDave : participated - No
Platypusboy : participated - Yes
Patrick Keegan : participated - No
AliceLoveTora : participated - No
Great Argus : participated - Yes
Chlidonias : participated - Yes
Tdierikx : participated - No


Slender Lorises, Duct Tape, and Whataburger: A Fish on Dry Land Nominations

Participated: 9 of 10 (90%)

TeaLovingDave : participated - Yes
Strix : participated - Yes
Birdsandbats : participated - Yes
Cheesechameleon1945 : participated - Yes
Tinopup : participated - Yes
ThylacineAlive : participated - No
Great Argus : participated - Yes
Dhole Dude : participated - Yes
Mayki : participated - Yes
Chlidonias : participated - Yes


I did not break down “A Guide to the Rarities of Europe”, however I did scan through it and confirm its nominator participation trend is similar to the latter two threads.


**Of everyone who has nominated threads, 7 of them gave not so much as a single like to ANY of the threads they nominated; and for six of those, they all voted for both the Bovine Import Review and the Australian Population Index.**


Total member participation numbers, including likes (views as of 1:30 pm today PST)

Bovine Import Review - 27 members (3,843 views, Sep)
Aussie Population Index - 18 members (2,545 views, Feb)
Exploring What’s on my Doorstep - c. 25 members, photos loading made it hard (4,822 views, Jul)
Slender Lorises, Duct Tape, and Whataburger - 47 members (2,561 views, Nov)


Now before anyone picks a fight, there’s nothing wrong with just reading a thread. However when we’re voting for thread of the year, the hard data and involvement is telling a very different story of what threads are the popular ones rather than the votes. The week and a half old thread started by Coelacanth18 has already passed the total views of the Aussie Population Index, which was started back in February. The former thread also has just over 2.5 times the participated members of the latter.

So the long and short being, what’s going on?

Spoiler: Don’t forget any recent likes and all posts are publicly visible on one’s profile, just as a reminder. So no need to go around liking posts or posting.
Click to expand...
Hi. None of the first 3 threads I nominated and they have nothing to do with me, but for my specific nomination for one thread that I don't recall participating on that much or if at all, @TeaLovingDave 's Covid 19 personal experiences thread, I nominate strictly because of my fascination with reading it, as I don't feel like my vaccination really was that particularly interesting, I didn't contribute.
So yeah, that's all I wanted to clear up!

Again, I don't have anything to do with the first 3 threads but you got me interested so I gave my reasoning anyway.
 
Hi everyone.

It has been brought to my attention by several members that a certain someone has in fact been soliciting votes in order to guarantee their 100% attendance rate in the top five. This is not just speculation, as I have seen hard evidence of private messages that have been sent by members who have admitted to being coerced into nominating a certain thread. Usually I would keep matters like these private, but because of the public nature of this competition, I'm sorry but I have to call out @Zoofan15 for privately asking members to nominate his thread. Some may notice I've never stated that this is against the rules of this competition, and that's because this was already against general forum rules. As rule #16 clearly states...

"No Soliciting Likes or Recommendations - Soliciting of likes - requesting or suggesting that people like your content - or colluding with others to like each others content will result in likes being removed in bulk and potentially being banned from the site."

As a result of this, Bovine Import Review has been disqualified. The members who voted for this thread will not get the choice of nominating a replacement thread and only their other two submissions will be counted. Not that this changes much else, but no threads by @Zoofan15 are allowed to be nominated for the remainder of this years competition. To anyone who attempts to solicit votes in the future or do anything similar to privately influence the outcome, consider this your warning.

Come on now guys, this is just a fun little way to celebrate the community every year and all of the great ideas we've created and discussion we've accomplished. The only thing you win in this competition is digital bragging rights. If you're not confident your thread is good enough by itself to win, then it doesn't deserve to win. Hopefully this is the first and last time we will have to have a discussion like this. :(

Man, this would have been way funnier if this happened last year...
 
pachyderm pro said:
Hi everyone.

It has been brought to my attention by several members that a certain someone has in fact been soliciting votes in order to guarantee their 100% attendance rate in the top five. This is not just speculation, as I have seen hard evidence of private messages that have been sent by members who have admitted to being coerced into nominating a certain thread. Usually I would keep matters like these private, but because of the public nature of this competition, I'm sorry but I have to call out @Zoofan15 for privately asking members to nominate his thread. Some may notice I've never stated that this is against the rules of this competition, and that's because this was already against general forum rules. As rule #16 clearly states...

"No Soliciting Likes or Recommendations - Soliciting of likes - requesting or suggesting that people like your content - or colluding with others to like each others content will result in likes being removed in bulk and potentially being banned from the site."

As a result of this, Bovine Import Review has been disqualified. The members who voted for this thread will not get the choice of nominating a replacement thread and only their other two submissions will be counted. Not that this changes much else, but no threads by @Zoofan15 are allowed to be nominated for the remainder of this years competition. To anyone who attempts to solicit votes in the future or do anything similar to privately influence the outcome, consider this your warning.

Come on now guys, this is just a fun little way to celebrate the community every year and all of the great ideas we've created and discussion we've accomplished. The only thing you win in this competition is digital bragging rights. If you're not confident your thread is good enough by itself to win, then it doesn't deserve to win. Hopefully this is the first and last time we will have to have a :(

Man, this would have been way funnier if this happened last year...
Click to expand...

My apologies @pachyderm pro.

Good luck to the remaining participants and additional apologies to the people who nominated this thread. Personally I saw no harm in encouraging those to vote for a decent thread as it wasn’t against the rules outlined in this completion; but I wasn’t aware of the forum rule re. recommendations pertaining to this, so fair enough.

I fully accept and support this decision.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top