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[2023] Poll 2 Results
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Awww. I am sad (but not shocked) that non-fiction nature ended up in the bottom.
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Nadine in NY wrote: "Awww. I am sad (but not shocked) that non-fiction nature ended up in the bottom."Me too. Waterstones bookshops always have a table of it, and there are so many interesting titles.
I'm glad to see the location prompt make the top. I didn't vote for b/b/b as I would have liked the plain ole rabbit to make it by itself but clearly this one makes it more doable and appealing to others which is fine by me.I hope the genetics prompt is resubmitted later on. I didn't vote for it then wished I did after I just used an Audible credit on Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family which would fit perfectly.
Also hoping the 'ism' prompt is submitted again as I really liked that one.
Since this is my first time doing this, what is the “polarizing” category mean?
Michelle wrote: "Since this is my first time doing this, what is the “polarizing” category mean?"The prompt had around the same number of upvotes as downvotes.
Nadine in NY wrote: "Awww. I am sad (but not shocked) that non-fiction nature ended up in the bottom."Me too. But I am hoping that we will have a similar prompt that would incorporate nature writing but may be isn't just limited to non-fiction.
Other than that I am extremely happy with the top 2. I hope that genes prompt and ism prompt are re-submitted a bit later as both those prompts are super interesting.
I have so many books with birds on the cover (including one about a chicken heist) and nothing with rabbits. Must keep my eyes open. I love the location one. There's a few A and T countries I haven't read yet so I'll probably be doing that. For a super easy route there's Africa, Americas, and Asia. Of course, Ankh-morpork is also an excellent option...
Love these results! A little disappointed that the Goodreads one is in the bottom, though not totally surprised.
Suggestion - if you are adding books to the ATY prompt put the location in the notes field.
This past year we had 2 prompts for fauna/flora, earth and women in STEM. I’m not too keen on more science prompts this year (fiction or non-fiction). That is just me.
Very happy with the winners. I too hope to see the genetics suggestion make another appearance a few weeks.
Finally! Bunnies is in ( albeit with extras but it will definitely mean bunnies for me)
Rabbits. Rabbits, at last.Here's part of a post from one of the many previous times the rabbit prompt came up:
And then there's Fibonacci. The original problem that Fibonacci investigated was about how fast rabbits could breed in ideal circumstances. The solution to this problem is the famous Fibonacci sequence so you could go sideways and do something related to Fibonacci.
The design of a lot of nature things is based on the Fibonacci Sequence - trees, flowers, fruits, goat horns, spider webs, shells. A book about music would work. Piano keys in an octave are made up of Fibonacci Numbers; eight white, five black, and thirteen in all. The cochlea of the inner ear is a spiral that follows the Fibonacci Sequence, so a book with a character that has a hearing impairment or something like that.
Spiral galaxies follow the sequence, so any space sci-fi. And there’s the golden ratio. I don’t understand it but it has something to do with Fibonacci. So, gold in the title or set during the Gold Rush or something.
I'm very happy about the two that made it. For non-fiction nature - There are many non-fiction books about bees and birds, and all three can be found in broader nature and ecology books.
If anyone has suggestions on how to tweak the genetics prompt, please mention them in the wild discussion. (Which of the words are essential to you?)
Since the goodreads recommendation didn't make it, I hope someone will submit "A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2022 or 2023"
I'd been trying to think of a Fibonacci related prompt since 2 and 3 are in the sequence. I didn't realise he was trying to work out how fast rabbits breed!
Dubhease wrote: "Suggestion - if you are adding books to the ATY prompt put the location in the notes field."How do you do this?
@Joy D - if you are on the desktop version of the site you can add comments on the right where you see what books you voted for. I'm not sure if you'll be able to do it on the app or mobile versions.
Joy, Congrats on getting your first prompt on the list!
I find it handy to put all the books I want to add to a listopia in one shelf. Then when I click on "add books to this list" I can pull up that shelf and click on the books that come up.
I recommended adding the books you want to the list first, refreshing periodically. Then go back and add notes to the little boxes below the titles you voted for. Sometimes the notes get separated from the books when you move them around.
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Polarizing is specifically a book that has a lot of upvotes and a lot of downvotes. So it may net close to zero, but it had a high number of votes either way, as opposed to one that had a net close to zero but only a handful either way.
Mod
I think 2 or 3 winners each week is the norm. Last year there was one poll where many of us stated that we used mostly upvotes, and we got 4 prompts in (including 3 author prompts). It felt like there was an understanding that if we each voted only for our favorite author prompt (and downvoted the others), then maybe none of them would get in. I think we get more good prompts if we all upvote the ones we like. We get the ones that the majority like.
So I've only participated in the voting process the last couple of years, I think I found ATY towards the end of 2019, came in to the voting process about halfway through in 2020, and participated fully last year. I'm curious as to why we do the whole upvote and downvote thing, instead of just voting for the prompts we like. Has it always been that way? Was there an evolution where it started as only votes (i.e. upvotes) and then the mods decided to add downvotes too?
I personally try to only downvote prompts I truly don't want. If I don't care either way I just leave it. I almost always have way more up than down because there are rarely a lot of prompts I just don't want. This time there were 5 title prompts and I didn't love any of them, but I didn't downvote them either.
Only downvoting will not make more prompts get in, it doesn't work that way.
Nancy wrote: "So I've only participated in the voting process the last couple of years, I think I found ATY towards the end of 2019, came in to the voting process about halfway through in 2020, and participated ..."I'm pretty sure that the only change to the voting was when we went from having 4 upvotes and 4 downvotes to having 8 votes to use however we wanted. I happen to like having bottoms and polarizing prompts; it helps us know better what prompts have potential and what suggestions the group really isn't vibing with at all. Without downvotes, we wouldn't get that very valuable info.
I'm glad bunnies finally made the list
Nancy wrote: "So I've only participated in the voting process the last couple of years, I think I found ATY towards the end of 2019, came in to the voting process about halfway through in 2020, and participated ..."I try to use all (or almost all) upvotes too. I think it will lead to better results for the group as a whole. (I'll probably get fussier at the end. )
I think the downvotes are needed for the mods to see which prompts people really dislike. If a lot of the polarizing topics got in, many people would feel alienated and might decide to stop participating.
I tend to mostly upvote as well.I only downvote if I really can't think of a single book I would enjoy reading for the prompt.
Yeah I understand why we have downvotes, and why we designate bottom, polarizing, etc. I was just curious if it's always been that way, or a change made because we ended up with prompts that many people didn't want.
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I was hoping to see my dream prompt show up somewhere, but for the first time ever suggesting a prompt, it was nice to be included in a round!
I can't remember ever having only upvotes - maybe someone who's been here longer can remember. The logic is essentially that if the group really dislikes a prompt, it won't keep getting resubmitted in the suggestion rounds. I like that our process is rigorous (even if a little byzantine) because it really feels like we end up with a list that truly reflects the group"I also like that it stops time wasting. A prompt that's a close call or even polarising can be reworked into something most people are happy with (and will subsequently vote for), but reworking a prompt that people simply don't seem to like is frustrating when we could spend that time coming up with fun new ones.
Very exciting. I'm happy with the results. I had 7 upvotes and 1 downvote this round - and my downvote was non-fiction nature, as I've mentioned I just don't enjoy non-fiction and adding nature just made it too narrow for me. I didn't vote for book set in location that begins with A,T,Y. I was going to as I thought I could read a book set in Australia (as I live in Australia), but then I thought maybe that was too broad. For example I want to read All Our Shimmering Skies which is set in Darwin which is the capital of Northern Territory in Australia...so does it count for broader Australia - or no as Darwin starts with D??? I think I'm overthinking it.
I've been taking part in the voting since 2016 (the creation of the 2017 list), and it was 4 up, 4 down then. I don't remember any mention of it bring done differently before that. I always do a mix of up and down votes, maybe because that's how I started, but I also think being able to oppose things you dislike is just as beneficial as supporting what you do like. I also don't mind when only one or two prompts get in, I enjoy the process and am in no rush for it to be finished.
I'm not unhappy with the results. I found books for the prompts. I've been wanting to read Bunny so next year is my excuse.
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Bec wrote: "I didn't vote for book set in location that begins with A,T,Y. I was going to as I thought I could read a book set in Australia (as I live in Australia), but then I thought maybe that was too broad. For example I want to read All Our Shimmering Skies which is set in Darwin which is the capital of Northern Territory in Australia...so does it count for broader Australia - or no as Darwin starts with D??? I think I'm overthinking it."Some people are suggesting books set in "Africa" as a continent, so I think you should be safe with Australia as a country. Besides everyone gets to interpret the prompt as they see fit.
Ellie wrote: "@Joy D - if you are on the desktop version of the site you can add comments on the right where you see what books you voted for. I'm not sure if you'll be able to do it on the app or mobile versions."Thank you. I can see it now. I am on my laptop.
NancyJ wrote: "Joy, Congrats on getting your first prompt on the list!
I find it handy to put all the books I want to add to a listopia in one shelf. Then when I click on "add books to this list" I can pull u..."
Thanks, NancyJ. I am having fun finding books for the listopias. I had never really used it before.
I use my down votes for the prompts I really don’t want and prompts that I think will be popular that I’m not interested in. It gives the prompts I like a better chance.I know it would be way to complicated but I wish there was a way to rate prompts like this is my very top pick and this is my 4th top pick.
I started back when we could only up vote 4 prompts and down vote 4 prompts so it seems natural to have both up and down votes.
Jillian wrote: "I use my down votes for the prompts I really don’t want and prompts that I think will be popular that I’m not interested in. It gives the prompts I like a better chance.I know it would be way to ..."
Yeah I would like to be able to give say 2 votes to one prompt or 2 downvotes rather than having to use my votes over 8 different prompts. That way ones I really loved I can give extra weight to (or really dislike).
I'm more likely to use my spare votes (after picking what I love and would like to avoid) to downvote ones I just feel a bit meh about.
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So happy that a variation of the rabbit prompt finally got in! @Jillian, I've done that kind of poll in the past, where we rank all the options rather than voting for just some of them. It's usually more helpful when attempting to make a ranking of popularity since only having one vote often gives misleading results. For example: say there's a favorite Disney character poll and the results show Mickey Mouse at #1 with 100 votes and Minnie Mouse at #20 with 2 votes because only 2 people voted Minnie as their #1 favorite. That style of poll could make it seem like Minnie is a lot less popular than she is because it's entirely possible that Minnie was a lot of people's second favorite character. A ranking system would then more correctly show that Mickey is #1 and Minnie is #2 in popularity. But the problem with a ranking style list is that we don't know how big of a gap there is between 1 and 2, or 1 and 20.
All that to say, I think our current system of up votes and down votes works great for our purposes. A ranking style poll would fail to reflect if #1-3 should all make it to the list or if only #1 should (if, say, there's a huge gap between #1 and #2). Bec mentioned wanting to be able to vote more than once for a certain prompt which I would love as well, but the way we have it is essentially doing that for the whole group (we know which prompts were REALLY popular or REALLY unpopular across the whole pool of voters).
For anyone uncertain what they might want to read about birds, bees or bunnies:I just heard an article on NPR about rabbit overpopulation in Spain (apparently they have 20X the acceptable number on farm land). ANYWAY, they mentioned that rabbits have always been on the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and that the ancient Carthaginians (aka Canaanites) named the region 'Land of Rabbits' or 'Ispania' in their language, which is where 'España' comes from.
So, would it be a stretch to say that you could, if you were really stuck, read a book set in Spain or about Spain?
Here is another article that talks about the naming of Spain: https://www.internationalcuisine.com/...
Tracy wrote: "For anyone uncertain what they might want to read about birds, bees or bunnies:I just heard an article on NPR about rabbit overpopulation in Spain (apparently they have 20X the acceptable number ..."
I love interpreting prompts in this way! Great idea Tracy.
Around the Year in 52 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Bunny (other topics)All Our Shimmering Skies (other topics)
Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family (other topics)
Top:
A book set in a location that begins with A, T, or Y
A book connected to birds, bees, or bunnies
Bottom:
A book recommended on Goodreads
A nonfiction nature book
Close Call:
A book with a color in the title or author’s name
A science fiction or fantasy novel written by a woman
Polarizing:
A book involving genetics, genealogy, traits, heredity, heritage
Listopias:
A book set in a location that begins with A, T, or Y
A book connected to birds, bees, or bunnies
Suggestions for Poll 3 will open Wednesday, July 13 around 2 PM CST.