The Method

SCORING

After debating using various scoring techniques to determine the top 10 (weighting number of appearances more, using darts, penalizing music I hate, etc.), I realized that none would cause the overall top 10 to mirror my own, so I stopped caring and decided on a relatively straightforward each person gets a total of 55 points, with their favorite album getting 10, second 9, etc. That had the added benefit of taking Miike Snow out of the top 10.

However, there are several exceptions. People who gave less than ten albums get a proportionate reduction in total points. So if you gave three albums, your favorite album would be worth 3 points, second 2, third 1. Songs were worth one point no matter where you ranked them. Albums were worth one point less for every year (but no less than one, otherwise Flower Travelin' Band's Satori would have been worth -28 points, which it probably is). All votes for Miike Snow count as one point for Wild Beasts and .5 points for Cass McCombs.

SIMILARITY

After throwing around several methods for determining how similar one person's list was to another and to the overall top 10, I settled on a method that A) adds weight to any person who had an album also on your list , b) adds more weight if that person has the album in a similar position to you, and c) intensifies the relationship if you ranked that album highly. Because of that last item, you might not be reciprocally similar to someone else. Think about it this way. Take someone who inexplicably ranked Miike Snow at #1 (Cydney). Then take another person who liked that album indifferently and ranked it a much more reasonable #10 (David). Cydney feels strongly about Miike Snow so her list is deemed more similar to David's than David's is to hers. I'm sure this formula will offer help to all zero people who will read it through:

=Sum(A*B + C) / Total Possible Points

=Sum( Person1Rank * (11-Abs(Person1Rank-Person2Rank)) + 5 ) / 600

You don't like that method? Come up with a different method, calculate all the results, write a five paragraph essay on why it better expresses rank similarity (don't forget your thesis statement and specific examples), and send an email straight to hell.

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