sTubbuLon5 checks out the iPad

iPads just went on retail release in the UK so sTubbuLon5, our resident rockstar dev and gadget fiend, went to check them out. And guess what, TheTop100.net looks fab!


In house opinion is divided on whether the iPad and its rapidly growing family of equivalent portable tablets are a must-have addition to one's hi-tech collection, but it didn't stop us starting a new iPad apps list. Give us your opinions, or click through to buy from the iTunes store!

The Top 100 iPad Apps

Rating

TheTop100.net is all about 'collaborative assessment': lots of people working together and giving their views and comparisons on anything and everything.

In a previous post we talked about simple, one-click voting. Here, we'll talk about going one step further in registering your opinion using the rating characteristics.

Ratings

While votes & stances express a view of an item's relative position, Ratings are a more fundamental, subjective assessment of an item's qualities.

Each list has a range of ratings criteria on which you can evaluate each individual item. Because no two Top 100 lists are the same, these criteria are different for every list, allowing a much more detailed and appropriate measure of inherent quality.

Hotels are just not the same as Historical Battles!

You'll find the ratings panel just below the Facts section on a list page, or on the right-hand side on an item page. Next to each rating characteristic you'll see the average score in 'stars' from everyone, as well as your own rating, and then a summary value for both.

(Dennis' tip: hover your mouse pointer over the stars to see exact values)

Submitting a Rating

If you haven't rated an item yet, the My Ratings section will appear blank. Click the 'Rate this' button to enter your ratings, and then click 'Submit'...

(Dennis' tip: the higher overall rating you give the more positive effect it will have on an item's ranking - and vice versa!)

>> View a quick video demo on rating!

Item Pages & Browsing

Most lists on TheTop100.net are made up of Items - e.g. an individual wine, film, artist, or song, etc. Two new features on the site introduce item pages, and quick browsing from one item to the next...

Item Pages

From any Top 100 list, click on an item's name in either the list or the item Facts panel to view the item page:


The item page shows all the available details for that item. As well as facts, you can view ratings, reviews, comments and item history at a glance. All of the normal item tools are fully functional.

Item Browsing

At the top of the item page are two browse buttons. Use these to move quickly from item to item (item #100 will loop back to item #1).

The browse buttons are also located in the Facts panel in the list view. Use the 'Back to List' button to return to the item's parent list.

Alpha becomes Beta!

First and foremost, a big thank you to all our alpha testers who have been giving terrific and invaluable feedback over the last few weeks. We clearly have a diverse wealth of talents in our fledgling community!

After two years in the making, it's a great thrill to have finally crossed the threshold from private alpha to public beta, and switched over to our main domain. There's still much to do, and we'll be adding and refining features over the coming weeks, so please drop by regularly. We hope that visitors have as much fun on the site as we have building it...

The Top 100 Team

Voting

TheTop100.net is all about 'collaborative assessment': lots of people working together and giving their views and comparisons on anything and everything.

The Top 100 ranking analyser gathers this collective opinion and uses it to order items in lists. There are three ways in which you can record your views and thereby influence an item's position: Votes, Ratings and Reviews. In this post, we're going to talk about Voting and associated 'Stances'...

Votes & Stances

The quickest and simplest way to register your view is to use the Voting Buttons that are displayed next to each item in a list. When you vote on an item, this establishes your 'Stance' - that is, your view on whether you think the item should move.

If you think an item is too low in the list, relative to its neighbours, click the Up arrow on the voting buttons to give it a positive influence.

If you think an item is too high in the list, click the Down arrow to give it a negative nudge.

Finally, if you think an item is fairly ranked as it is, you can click the 'Remain' button to indicate that it should hold its position.

(if you have voted accidentally you can clear your stance by clicking the small 'X' to the left of the buttons)

Your stance is saved automatically, so you'll be able to see instantly which items you have voted on in a list whenever you return.


While you can vote any number of times on an item, you only ever have one stance (even if you have a number of 'aliases'), and it is only your stance that influences an item's ranking. Clicking repeatedly will have no effect other than to refresh a stance.

>> View a quick video demo on voting!

Welcome!

TheTop100.net is a brand new web service where you can find The Top 100 list of anything… or if you can’t, you can start your own!

On this blog we’ll publish details of new features and updates, plus information on TheTop100.net and what makes it unique and special. There might be the odd promotion or two as well!

It’s also a useful channel for engaging with our user base, so please feel free to add comments or ask questions.

Posts will be brought to you by Dennis, the site administrator, and The Top 100 team. Dennis gets his name from Project Dennis, which was the early working title for The Top 100. You can find out what Dennis might stand for here: The Top 100 D.E.N.N.I.S. Acronyms.

TheTop100.net is now in Beta and available as a public service!