More from idiotvox's sense of "democracy"

"The Only True Media Democracy on Earth" has been kind enough to explain their view of "democracy" to one of our listeners. The below correspondence is reprinted with permission:

On Apr 26, 2006, at 5:00 PM, [name redacted] wrote:

How is it a "true democracy" if a podcast that has received nothing but five star ratings is given only three stars overall? I'm not sure if your staff/blurb writers/high school educators know what a democracy is. Let's find out:

True or False.

Stalin would be a great example of a Democratic leader.

Take your time. Breathe. Answer with whatever comes naturally to you.

Sincerely,
[name redacted]

(stop)

I think, based on the format of my question, their algorithm generated the following response:

Glad you asked -- the rankings and overall ratings are not based on reviews alone. Many factors are taken into consideration in order to protect the integrity of the ranking system. Since many people, to continue the metaphor, wish to stuff the ballot box, we have to protect our democracy. Nearly every other factor is in some way related to how people interact with the podcast.

Thanks for your question.

Cheers,

- j -

Jay Goldbach
Idiot In Chief
IdiotInChief@idiotvox.com
http://www.idiotvox.com

As this listener points out
"I particulary like the stance of, "we have to protect our democracy". It sounds so eerily familiar. "

Since many people wish to vote, they have to protect their democracy by not telling us how votes are actually counted!! Hilarious!! However, I guess in a world where a president can be elected by a minority vote, this is what we should come to expect as the common definition of Democracy.

I BEG you to write Mr. Diebold Goldbach at the above e-mail address, even if it is just to send him a quick definition of the word Democracy.

Idiotvox (idiots)

If you are not a mySpace friend of ours (well, you should be) you probably do not know that I have a bit of a beef with a podcast listing site called idiotvox. There are a lot of podcast listing sites, and this one is just one of them, and frankly, not a particularly good one. So why am I annoyed with them?

Well, it's their slogan "The Only True Media Democracy on Earth"

The way this site works is that you, the listener go on and rank podcasts from 1 to 5 stars. Then you make a little comment. Theoretically, the rankings get averaged out to determine the podcast's overall ranking. The thing about this idea that is kind of cool is that you HAVE to make a comment to vote. Get it? So you have to defend why you like or don't like the podcast and EVERYONE CAN SEE EVERY VOTE.

Now, Catalogue of Ships has four votes. All four of them give us 5 stars. Yet our overall ranking is 3 stars. If you poke around a little, you can see that it is pretty clear that the site wants to keep some of its buddies at the top of the list.

Not exactly a democracy.

So, I want folks to call these jerks out on this nonsense. First of all vote for us here. You will notice that your vote will not be counted for 48 hours (allegedly 48 hours that is. More likely, you will have to write them and whine until they post your vote).

If you want to go a step further for us (and for democracy), write them and let them know what democracy is all about. 'Cause it ain't this.

Thanks.

mk

Anthologized with Urine

Hey fans!

Be sure to check out Catalogue of Ships on this week's Love and Radio Episode 7: Elimination. A lovely compilation of stories about, uh, Elimination...

Catalogue of Ships update

Catalogue of Ships is nearing the 6 month mark. Our twenty third episode is available as of this week. Its one of our personal favorites so be sure to check it out.


Over the past half a year our podcast has been downloaded over 10,000 times and re-broadcast by the Third Coast International Audio Festival (presented live as part of a panel on podcasting at the Stepenwolf Theatre Garage), Re:sound (Chicago Public Radio), PRX (the Public Radio Exchange), and Love and and Radio (another very cool podcast). Needless to say we are thrilled by the response.


A lot of you probably had no idea what a podcast was six months ago when we started this. Since then, podcast has been declared the word of the year, and you have probably learned that they do NOT require ownership of an iPod

To those of you who have been listening, thank you. To those of you who haven't, it's never too late to start a good habit . To those of you who have no idea how you got on this list, apologies.


If you like the show, please tell your friends. If you have thoughts on any of the episodes, please send them our way. If they are thoughts of the positive variety, you could also write a review. Details on how/where to write reviews are on our newly re-designed website www.catalogueofships.com. While you are there, click our google adds. We make a tiny amount of money off of each click. When we add up all of those tiny amounts of money, we will take over the world.