Tidefan has been doing some offseason technical tweaking to the site. I thought now would be a good time to discuss what needs to be done this year to make participation more successful.
I have to tell you that the drop in the number of voters last season was disheartening, to say the least, even if some of it could be explained (if not excused) by the Dawgs going in the tank. Disheartening enough that I briefly considered discontinuing the poll. I’ve decided to stick with it for another season because I enjoy doing it and because I think there’s some value in using approval voting as the basis for a college football poll.
But that’s another reason for concern I have. One of the underlying purposes of the Mumme Poll is to create an alternative approach which could be adopted to make the Coaches Poll better balanced. Part of that is making it easier for coaches to vote, instead of passing the ballot work off (as we suspect happens with some) to an assistant or SID. But if most of us aren’t interested in casting a MP ballot, who’s to say the coaches won’t display a similar lack of attention?
So I’d really like to hear from you about what you think we may be doing wrong – or at least could have done better – to keep you involved. Please let me know in the comments.
Get The Picture 
I think there’s a simple explanation: Brian Cook’s Blog Poll attracts more attention and has a bigger platform than your poll does, which has cost the MP voters & influence. I don’t know that there’s a way for you to fix that.
I like the idea of having an alternative methodology for creating a poll, but maybe the college football blogosphere cares more about their opinions getting due attention.
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Keep in mind we’re chasing different voters. Brian’s poll is for bloggers only, whereas the MP is a fan driven poll.
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The MP DOES make it easier. However, there is nothing you can do to fix laziness or inattention to detail of coahes/people in the world. I personally believe Matt Hinton’s poll is the best out there. That’s because he expends the most energy/effort to do, not because of the format or inner workings of the poll. The MP can make getting a “good” poll easier, but as in life, there is never a silver bullet that requires no effort at all…..Good luck.
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If I was frustrated by the lack of voting last season I can’t imagine the level of frustration for you all who work to put the Mumme Poll together. So first off, thanks for the hard work.
Solutions….I guess people outside the arena are just as lazy as some of those inside of it at times. It doesn’t take long to cast a ballot. The only thing I can think of is some kind of recognition for voters who take the time to cast the ballot. Or maybe a Denny’s coupon for one lucky voter at the end of the season who cast all ballots.
That is, unless you have any BCS tickets laying around.
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Sat, Sep 4 vs. Louisiana-Lafayette Athens, Ga. 55-7
SECN
Sat, Sep 11 at South Carolina * Columbia, S.C. 17-6 (L) ESPN2
Sat, Sep 18 vs. Arkansas * Athens, Ga. 31-24 (L) ESPN
Sat, Sep 25 at Mississippi State * Starkville, Miss. 24-12 (L) FSN
Sat, Oct 2 at Colorado Boulder, Colo. 29-27 (L)
“Registration. To cast a ballot, you’ll need to register at the Mumme Poll site. Registration each season is limited to the week leading up to and through the games of week five.”
Maybe it was a timing problem for Georgia fans. I know it was for me. When it came time to register for the MP, our lack of wins may have had the same “bringing teh crazy” effect on others insofar as registration or participation, or both.
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I will be with you again. I enjoy the MP and appreciate the work that goes into it behind the scenes. I missed casting a final ballot at the conclusion of the season because I was traveling in Asia and was a little disconnected.
I suppose the one thing that would improve the interest and credibility of the MP is to somehow attract more CFB fans from outside the deep south but how to do that is the $20 question. Perhaps reaching out to popular bloggers who could promote this poll to their readers who don’t have a vote in the Blog Poll.
Also, even though I completely agree with the premise of not voting until October, maybe you could have some other balloting to get people involved at the beginning of the season when everyone still has high hopes. For example, you could ask voters to cast a preseason ballot that they could then refer back to later in the year to see where they were prescient and where they were clueless. Maybe tie this preseason ballot into two awards: one for the ballot that was the most accurate compared to the final MP standings (if this is even determinable) and the ballot that was worst.
At any rate, I hope the numbers are up this year simply because many of us don’t want to see this poll retired.
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When you say, “drop in numbers” do you mean we started with much fewer voters from the onset or that we had a larger drop off in voters as the season progressed than the previous year? Or both?
I do not have any brilliant “awareness” or “retention” ideas. Hopefully we can get a big push using Twitter to address gaining new/more voters. I assume Facebook could be useful in that vain as well. We need to make it viral if possible to spread the word as much as possible.
As far as retention goes I think a few more reminders might help. I would sometimes forget until the last minute. Is it a royal pain to email each voter every week to remind them to vote on Sunday or Monday? If that can be automated I think it would go a long way towards reducing the number of voters who drop out after a few weeks of voting.
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+1
Promotion outside of a small, in-the-know group to the broader CFB fanbase seems like a good place to start.
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Both, unfortunately.
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I really withdrew from college football during that stretch of losses. It was just too depressing, I’m not one that can separate myself from my own team’s misfortunes, so that’s why I personally wasn’t involved.
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+1. I refuse to watch any sports or highlight shows when UGA, the Braves, the Falcons, etc lose. That said, I stayed away from college football for a whole month during our losing streak. I also stopped doing the MP during that time as well.
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Well, it’s pretty simple: get more voters, and/or retain more of the voters you already have. I’d say get a few more bloggers in on it. Get more voters. Get message board communities involved. The poll can only get better if you get more fans from outside the Georgia fan base and outside the SEC.
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I agree with you Senator, “approval voting” is a concept worth fighting for. Starting the poll after September is truly the way to go, but it does likely cost you voters. I am not knowledgable enough on how to promote on the internet but having someone shill for you on a few of the most passionate sites should move the needle. Some historical powers (FSU, OU, Nebraska, A&M, etc.) are expected to rebound this year so they might have an interest in getting involved. Add to that list the sites for Bama, Texas, Clemson, LSU, Oregon, etc., and your cup might overflow. Echoing the others, I love this poll concept and appreciate the effort.
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We are a depressed fan base, and I think that explains it. It grates my nerves actually. We want our teams to be hard chargers with swagger, but as fans our confidence is so easily shaken it is unnerving. Just cruised past SB Nation Atlanta and noticed the Fan Confidence Polls at the bottom. UGA sits at 53% while Tech has 76%. REALLY?!?! Does anybody right now truly believe Tech is in better shape than UGA? Unfortunately, some probably do. Just because Pawl and others call us delusional for thinking we should be in the top tier of the SEC doesn’t make it so. They are just afraid of us. They all know what UGA is capable of. Maybe the fanbase needs to lead by example instead of being depressed all the time. Let’s pick it up and do our jobs as fans and pick this team up.
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+1000
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i bailed last year when the auburn voters left oregon off of their ballots – completely. i protested to no avail. there was no reasonable argument to leave oregon off the ballot. if the protests don’t work and these shenanigans continue (even if its by uga voters) then the poll is a: waste. of. time.
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It’s the same old song for me — generally, my interest in college football in general is tied to my feelings about our team.
But another part of it was the research involved. I like the idea of approval voting, but there’s only so much research I’m willing to do. I understand that’s kind of what the MP is against, but splitting hairs between the two B10 teams with equal records who have never played each other who are competing over my final spot gets old after a couple weeks. If I had an intern to pass it off to, I would.
I think we should play up the “crowdsourcing” element and encourage more discussion. Give us an extra day or two to compose our ballots and in the meantime facilitate some dialogue here or on another blog. Sure, some of us (i.e. me) might just piggyback off the conventional wisdom, but doesn’t the whole format of the poll favors group solutions over wacky individual ballots?
My suggestions: 1) to echo other commenters on the our need to promote the MP on other blogs (which is our responsibility as much as yours) and 2) to push back the weekly deadline as far as possible. Because no one’s asking us for our rankings for TV broadcasts (yet), I think we could push it as far back as Friday. That would give us more time individually and as a group to debate the merits of the various teams and produce the kind of democratic consensus the MP is trying to attain.
Also, I know I skipped plenty of ballots over the last two years because I was still depressed after a loss. Giving us a few more days might help us recover. On the Friday before our next game I’m usually excited again and would have more energy to put into the poll than I would the Sunday or Monday after a loss.
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Agree. Understand not wanting to suppress honest differences of opinions but not voting Oregon in the Top 12 was similar to some of the coach’s who deliberately tried to influence the Coach’s Poll for their team, or their conference. Have to cut that nonsense out ASAP. Early in the year you might see some genuine lack of appreciation for teams based on lack of perceived quality opponents but by late in the year no one could argue Oregon wasn’t a Top 6, much less a Top 12 team.
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It seems the MP proves that no matter what group you solicit votes from, bias will be a reality. I tried it in 2009 and did not find the peer review process to be sufficient to stop the nonsense. Did not seem last year was perfect either, hence no system is perfect so why try…?
I guess the AP sportswriters poll has the most merit since there is some public peer review even though history shows some strong bias exists even within this group.
MP is fun and interesting, but demands dedication on the part of ALL participants if its to be valid. Just getting more voters does not solve that. Maybe borrow from TV “reality” shows and audition an initial panel of voters, then have the public vote off/eliminate one voter each week?
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i have an emotional preoccupation with dissing boise state and tcu, so i removed myself voluntarily.
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I participated in the Mumme year 2 and 3 years ago, but last year the self destruction by Georgia killed my interest in college football across the board.
At least around these parts, I don’t think that is something you can control.
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Change that to:
“I participated in the Mumme poll 2 and 3 years ago”
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Just make it easier to be reminded of it. I didnt fill it out several times b/c I honestly forgot
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I’ve not done the MP yet because I didn’t know it existed. I honestly never read CFB blogs until last season when I became distraught over the smoking crater of UGA football. I was just looking for something, anything to explain how such a promising season could go so wrong.
I plan to participate this year.
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Hell Senator, if you just esplain to me what to do I’ll do it. Just talk real slow and real loud.
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Click on der page linky at the top and you’ll get the background info on the Poll.
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I think pretty much everything has been covered in the comments. The main thing, of course, being the 2010 UGA campaign imploding right when voting started.
I also agree with some of the others that a better marketing approach is needed. I suggest a dedicated Facebook fan page. Also, I know at one time that it was hard to find the actual link for the poll on GTP but that has since been remedied. And finally, as several folks have mentioned, a couple of email reminders would go a long way.
Personally, I love it and really enjoy participating. In the last two years, I think I missed just one ballot. I know a lot of time and energy go into and please know that it is much appreciated!
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I will echo your sentiments here, Senator. I believe the dawgs discouraging performance cost you many voters. I know it certainly drove me away from the blogosphere for a while. In the midst of such a disappointing season, I just couldn’t hardly take the further punishment being doled out on radio and the Internet.
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