OK, so our deadline for lists has always been January 15th. Some people prefer to wait until the very end to submit their lists, others post theirs rather quickly. Either way, here is a poll to allow everyone to vote and we can get a consensus.

This poll will be open between Sunday, Nov. 9-Wednesday, Nov. 12.

Question:
When do you feel the deadline should be for submitting lists?

Choices:
Sometime between December 15-20
Sometime between December 20-25
Sometime between December 25-31
Sometime between January 1-15
Leave it as is: January 15
Who cares! I love music!

 

I think you should not make it prior to the last Tuesday of the year, just so everything gets a fair shake.

I love the vote spread on this.

I like to ruminate on my list during the holidays and sometimes do some further listening to make final decisions. Work is also very busy for a lot of people before the holidays start. Moving the date to earlier than Dec. 31 would be very impractical.

January 2nd. Cause no one will wanna do anything on the first, they'll be too hungover .

Monday the 5th would give one final weekend to come up with a strong idea. It's not like a person hasn't had an entire year to think on this, but that last weekend makes a big difference a lot of times.

I live on a budget, and I like to save some of my favorite albums so I can put them on a wishlist so my wife can buy them for me on special occasions, such as Christmas. It's tough when all I really want is music, and she wants to buy me something special. Although I'm tempted, I can't bring myself to buy all my most anticipated albums on their release date, and then ask for a few hohum albums from her. So I often get a nice stack of really awesome music on the 25th that I need time to process, and place on a list. I think a similar situation might happen with other people. I think the extension into January is important. Too far into January becomes ridiculous.

I'm in pretty much the same situation as Shadrach.

January 5-15 would be nice.

quote:

Originally posted by ANinBC:
I'm in pretty much the same situation as Shadrach.

My wife buys you music!

That's it! I'm going to make my first angry face ever!

(coughs) downloading (coughs)

Fragile, I can't quite tell if this poll addresses this, but one major complaint of the past year-end lists were beginning them too early. I mean, people were posting lists in early December, WTF? That's 1 month of albums users are missing out on - making the final list ... how can I say this, "bogus". All in exchange for "getting their opinion out" earlier, so other late-bloomers simply look at the temporary list, unable to perfectly recall their favorite albums, and subconsciously let the albums that are already there invade their own. I'm sure I don't need to spell this out for you to understand the implications of this. I strongly advocate disallowing users from posting lists too early.

- great albums can be released in December
- users can still compile lists on their own, offline (as I do)
- the early list will facilitate bias
- delaying the start date will also allow users to "digest" music released late in the year. Often it is difficult to tell what music will stand the test of time.

I admit, one advantage to a temporary list is motivating users to get albums they would have otherwise ignored - and then putting it on their own list. For example, last year I didn't realize Of Montreal was such a big deal until it got so many votes; I listened to it, and it affected my final list. I hope you'll find some solution on your own, some type of middle ground for this predicament that allows this list to be the best it can be.

quote:

Originally posted by Cyrone:
Fragile, I can't quite tell if this poll addresses this, but one major complaint of the past year-end lists were beginning them too early. I mean, people were posting lists in early December, WTF? That's 1 month of albums users are missing out on - making the final list ... how can I say this, "bogus". All in exchange for "getting their opinion out" earlier, so other late-bloomers simply look at the temporary list, unable to perfectly recall their favorite albums, and subconsciously let the albums that are already there invade their own. I'm sure I don't need to spell this out for you to understand the implications of this. I strongly advocate disallowing users from posting lists too early.

- great albums can be released in December
- users can still compile lists on their own, offline (as I do)
- the early list will facilitate bias
- delaying the start date will also allow users to "digest" music released late in the year. Often it is difficult to tell what music will stand the test of time.

I admit, one advantage to a temporary list is motivating users to get albums they would have otherwise ignored - and then putting it on their own list. For example, last year I didn't realize Of Montreal was such a big deal until it got so many votes; I listened to it, and it affected my final list. I hope you'll find some solution on your own, some type of middle ground for this predicament that allows this list to be the best it can be.

Can't say it bothers me to have people post early. If they are satisfied that their list is complete, that's their choice.

Almost all of the new releases of any note are released by mid-November. I find December is just a bunch of greatest hits releases designed to cash in on the Christmas market.

And I don't think the bias concern is very great. The regular posters here are pretty confident about their taste.

December is usually a pretty slow month for releases. Usually the early spring and early fall are the big release times for albums. I've always managed to get my list in before January 1, and I don't think I ever missed anything in that last week or so of the year.

If, by chance, something really awesome was released in the last week of December, you could make a case for it being on your 2009 list.

quote:

Originally posted by Cyrone:
Fragile, I can't quite tell if this poll addresses this, but one major complaint of the past year-end lists were beginning them too early.

Hey Cyrone, thanks for your suggestion. I can see where you are coming from but I feel that waiting to open up the thread for people to post their lists would be too restricting. I can understand your logic but it wouldn't be right and I feel that you might be in the minority who feel that people post their lists too early.

It should be an advantage for people to see someone's list and think, "Hey, I was wondering about that album, I'll check it out now," rather than a hinder of any sort. I also don't feel that the list would be biased or skewed because people are pretty confident about their choices.

Great stuff does come out in December. Last year, I waited for Lupe Fiasco's album and it made my list. But a lot of the month is slowed down quite a bit. The last big releases I can see is Kanye West's album--that will be great huh?

If more people really want to, I could maybe open a poll to vote on this but at the moment, we will open up the final threads in mid to late November and then go from there.

quote:

- great albums can be released in December

Give me an example. A real example, not something from myspace.

quote:

quote:
- great albums can be released in December



Give me an example. A real example, not something from myspace.

mine

quote:

Originally posted by mymindsblank:

quote:

- great albums can be released in December

Give me an example. A real example, not something from myspace.

Good hip-hop often comes out very late in the year. Last year it was Lupe Fiasco, the year before it was Clipse. This year shows promise with Common in December and Kanye West in the last few days of November.

quote:

Can't say it bothers me to have people post early. If they are satisfied that their list is complete, that's their choice.

But how would they KNOW if their list is complete? For all they know an album they could potentially fall in love with can come out in December.

quote:

Hey Cyrone, thanks for your suggestion. I can see where you are coming from but I feel that waiting to open up the thread for people to post their lists would be too restricting. I can understand your logic but it wouldn't be right and I feel that you might be in the minority who feel that people post their lists too early.

Hey, don't get me wrong, the last thing I want to do is restrict users in any way. But you have to realize that we aren't "restricting" anyone by delaying the start of the official thread. What's to stop someone from beginning a preliminary list in a Word document? Are people gonna die if they can't shove their opinions down other peoples' throats? (and I only put it that harshly because, there is no other reason to post a 2008 list in the middle of November)

quote:

Give me an example. A real example, not something from myspace.

You can just use the search function

Lupe Fiasco's The Cool turned out to be one of the greatest rap albums of the year.
Wu-Tang 8 Diagrams was massively hyped and their first real album since 2001. Huge deal.
Ghostface released an official follow-up to "Fishscale", which was widely acclaimed in its year of release so that was a big deal.

- I know these forums aren't big on rap but that doesn't stop them from being potentially amazing releases.
- And that's just '07, I'm sure in other years had great albums too
- And it doesn't include the 2nd half of November, which is another portion of 2008 early-birds will ignore if they rush their lists out from the start.

*** Again, I'm not saying we should wait till Jan 1 to let people post lists, that would be a dick move. But a more modest shift to Dec. 1 at the very least should be favorable in everyone's eyes.

I can see you are pretty adamant about this Cyrone. A lot of it also has to do with when the actual compiler wants to open their thread. I don't think there will be an outcry of people shouting, "It's November 15! Let me post my list!" so they could probably wait.

Maybe we can compromise and I can open up my thread towards the end of the month, but we shall see.

quote:

Originally posted by FragileKidA:
I can see you are pretty adamant about this Cyrone. Maybe we can compromise and I can open up my thread towards the end of the month, but we shall see.

I don't want to be obnoxious about it, I'm just surprised I'm the only one that thinks this is a problem. Last year during "list season" IIRC there were definitely a few other voices on the issue - I thought they'd be heard by now. Putting up a poll about it would be helpful, unless you already had some sort of poll schedule going on..